Hell No

At the time I resisted the temptation to activate the app. It was still a disgusting piece of software, and I didn't want to sully my good name with it. Instead I chose to have faith in my god given abilities and find escape that way.

The rest of the week was a cram course in the history of sexism. And I gotta say, men suck. From foot binding, and kidnapped brides, to the bed cure, and female circumcision the gambit of horrors stretched far across the globe, and even into the modern day. As a person already predisposed to feel empathy for the plight of my female fellows, it was pretty convincing. As convincing as any argument can be before they present genocide as the only solution. Once you throw that out, it kind of taints the rest of the argument.

Oh well, at least now I knew what I was dealing with. Which meant my chances of getting out of here had increased, now that I could formulate a plan. These women had fallen in with a hate group. No matter how heavily armed a hate group might be, people could be convinced with love and compassion that peace on earth was still a worthy pursuit.

If I couldn’t get them that far, then surely I could convince someone to give me that god damn wi-fi password.

After my last lesson of the week I went back to checking the weird app on my phone. It was either that or reflect on the images Eleanor had shown me of female circumcisions.

I probably would have just spent the rest of my night jamming out on Garageband, like I usually did, but The Submission Accelerator had actually sent me a notification, warning me that some of my submission scores had lowered.

So when I opened up the app it had a pop up informing me that Miranda had dropped to -40, and most concerning my beautiful wife Jasmine fell to a neutral score of 0.

Dear User

The Following Subjects’ submission scores have dropped

Jasmine Fischer = Submission: 0

Miranda Hari= Submission: -40

To prevent further loss of submission from these subjects please activate your account.

Gross. Now it was trying to use FOMO to get me to sign up with it. It was a manipulative little thing.

Once again I closed the app, and laid back on my bed.

I’m stubborn what can I say?

The next week was remarkable because I finally got let out of my cell. Well… ‘let’ is a strong word. I was escorted out of my cell by two armed guards, and Eleanor. They took me for a tour around the underwater city. I’d been expecting Skyros the underwater see kingdom of wet suit wearing lesbians to be something like an under water lab like in The Abyss. What a fool I was, thinking I hadn’t entered into a world of science fantasy. The place was god damn Rapture. They had restaurants and theaters, and game rooms, and art galleries, and the rooms went on and on. There were different apartment buildings, and general stores, and neighborhoods. Some in the domed building I was in, and some in the several other facilities dotted around the nearby sea bed, all connected by monorail.

Alright, I was convinced. Women were the superior gender if they could get something like that done. Bravo.

What?

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that an underwater city isn’t impressive.

What wasn’t impressive was their fresh new approach to racism. Instead of standing in line at the cafeteria I was supposed to go straight to the kitchen, to receive mine and Miranda’s meals. If we went to the movies I was supposed to sit in a corner up front. On the monorails I’d have to sit at the back so no one could see me. They weren’t exactly reinventing the wheel on that were they?

Everywhere I went I was met with looks of disdain and hate. Changing hearts and minds around this place was going to take some serious work. Don't worry about changing society Brett. Just change one person's mind, that's all it takes.

I was nearing the end of my term of imprisonment with Eleanor, she's taught be just about everything there was to know about man's inhumanity towards women, and all the rules of their society. Which basically just boiled down to, everything I do is illegal and can be punished at any time by anybody. Very cool.

The day before my release, the front door opened up, and three wetsuit clad women came into the room, two of them holding guns. I got to my feet, feeling a bit of ill intent enter the room along with the women.

The lady not slinging a gun, walked slowly up to the bars, and I could scarcely recognize her in that getup until she was very close. “Jasmine!” I cheered and ran for the bars, so I could be close to her, but I was struck numb when she recoiled at my sudden advance. She withdrew and the two guards trained their guns on me. “Jasmine.” I tried to say soothingly, though it was hard to keep the hurt out of my voice. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”

She nodded at the two guards, and walked a little closer like there was a lion in here with me. “Hello Bret.”

I sighed at the sound of her voice, and rested my head against the bars. “Baby it’s so good to see you again. I’ve been so worried. Are you alright? How have they been treating you.”

She scowled at me. “Don’t try to infantalize me, with that condescending nickname. I am a woman, and they’ve been treating me very well around here. Better than you ever have.”

“Yeah? They’ve been giving you foot rubs?”

She hissed through her teeth. “They’ve freed me from slavery to you, and have shown me that I no longer have to submit to the rapes you call love making.”

“Oh fuck.” I groaned, and started banging my head against the bars. “Miranda was right. What did they do to you?”

“Lessons, so many lessons. They were unpleasant at first, but they showed me the truth. You can cry all you want, I know you’re just sad that you’ve lost control over me, and my body.”

In through the nose, out through the mouth, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Breath. It’s alright. She’s been brainwashed by an evil cult. She’s still the woman you love. Treat her with patience, understanding, and care. She’s just as much of a victim to these people as me. “No Jasmine. I’m upset that a cult is trying to get my life partner to think all the years we’ve spent together have been abusive. I love you Jasmine. I’m not going to let them do this to us.” I reached through the bars for her hand, but she slapped my hand away.

“You can’t gaslight me anymore! I hate you. When I think of all the time I’ve wasted with you it makes me sick. You make me sick. I make myself sick for having ever let myself be under the control of a thing like you.”

Ouch. “Please don’t say things like that.”

“I’m not here for you, so don’t tell me what to do. I’m here for myself, to prove I can finally be rid of you. I never want to see you again. So once I leave here feel free to commit yourself fully to being that degenerate Miranda’s pet.”

Wow this was painful. I closed by eyes for a moment to try and gain a grip on my raging emotions. “If that’s how you feel, then I’d be happy to give you space. However since this situation affects both of us, and the possible life of our child I think eventually we should try to talk our way through this situation.”

“You don’t have to worry about any children.” She said with full intent to wound me.

I felt my stomach sink. “Why?”

“When they first brought us to Skyros they gave us Plan B, just to make sure we weren’t carrying any impure children into the society.” She chuckled ruefully. “Can you believe I cried and begged them not to make me do it? Why in the world would I want to carry some half-man mud baby into Thetis’ world.”

“Okay!” I shouted, rage fully exploding out of me now. After two weeks of pure fascist hatred, I was starting to lose my patience with these women and their society. “I draw the line at calling my child a mud baby!”

Jasmine recoiled at the intensity of my outburst. She’d never seen me like this. Never, ever, ever. All she could do was gawked at me open mouthed for a few moments, before she finally smirked my direction. “Well there’s really no child to call your own is there?” She smirks again. “It’s good to see you like this Brett. So angry. Thanks to Thetis I can finally see you as you truly are.”

If there was further pleasure for her to milk out of this awful experience she didn’t stick around to savor it. She left with her guards, back to Skyros to enjoy to wonders of underwater lesbianism.

My watch pinged with a notification as she left.

Jasmine Fischer = Submission: -100.