Raise The Stakes

“Liberation day, where we celebrate Thetis rising up from the ocean floor to save her first clutch of daughters from Saint Peter’s Island.” Miranda waved her arms in big arcs as she led us through the fair grounds. This was my first time seeing children since I arrived in Skyros. Apparently they kept them in their own dome, since the reeducation process didn’t work on minors. They just had to be educated I guess.

Which was really one of the scarier things about Skyros. As hateful and awful as all these people were, they were raising children to carry on their legacy. Why must hate spread?

“Are those ladies still around?”

“Oh yes, it was only a few years ago, remember. We, every one of us, is a pioneer and founder of her new world. Even you.”

“Even me.” I **** some sparkle into my voice. This fair was big, and I was on my best behavior. All of these women were just looking for an excuse to zap me.

“Oh goddess.” Miranda groaned and buried her head into my shoulder.

“What is it?” I looked around for danger.

“Rae, just saw me. She’s coming this way.”

That was great news. I was just five points from getting a trait with her, and then all my bases would be covered. “That sucks.”

She put her hand on my chest. “I know you can’t help it, but if they try to seduce you try to remember what it was like last night. Okay? The love we felt? The passion? They can’t do that for you, they just want to use you.” She chewed on her nail a bit as they got closer. “I shouldn’t have brought you here, they’re going to try to sleep with you. They probably heard how good it was last night, and have been plotting this ever since.” She straightened up. “Hey guys, it’s been a minute.”

“Sure has.” Rae spoke with an equally fake voice. “We’ve been so busy.”

“Yeah I bet.”

I admired Daisy’s choice of clothing for the day. A baby T, with suspenders, and a skirt. She looked very… young. We’ll say. “Pretty outfit Daisy.” I said sweetly.

She blushed, tucked her head, and started at her shoes. Then for extra points she grabbed Rae’s hand as she and Miranda chatted.

Rae’s head snapped to me, scowl fresh and searing. I guess time hadn’t healed that wound just yet. “Don’t even think about talking to her, you animal.”

God damn, it took me by surprise every time. Weren’t they embarrassed by how ugly their hatred made them? How does a person get so shameless?

Miranda got between the two of us. “How can he not, with her walking around in that outfit? It’s obviously meant to appeal to a male gaze.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a sister dressing in a way that makes her feel good.”

“It’s infantile.” Miranda shot back.

Meanwhile behind their backs Daisy stuck her tongue out at me. I returned the favor, and she looked at me as if he’d just flipped her the bird. Before our conflict could escalate, Rae grabbed her wrist and pulled her away. I thought she looked delighted at being man-handled by her wife.

“Aren’t they peachy?” Miranda’s voice was annoyed and hurt. I guess her and Rae had truly been friends before I cam along. Sad.

“It was pretty sexy to see you stand up for me like that.”

She kissed me, and together we explored the fair grounds. There we games, and a horrifying array of deep-friend snacks, half of which I sampled with gusto. Live music serenaded us, as we walked hand and hand towards a stage at the center of everything. “Found it.” Miranda let go of my hand, and ran over to a booth with a BB gun game inside.

I then got treated to the terrifying sight of her acing five targets like she was Jason Bourne. It was sick shit, and I couldn’t help but wonder what she’d been up to in Skyros before she went to Serenity Island. “Holy fuck.” I tried not to think that I might be sleeping with a killer, especially when she won be the big bear.

“Told you I’d take care of you.” She waved the bear’s paw at me. “What should her name be?”

I took the bear, with a smile and cold swear. So soft. “I dunno. We’re in Skyros, what’s the name of the bear that raised Paris of Troy?”

She shrugged, apparently not a big fan of the epics. “I dunno.”

“If only I had wi-fi on my watch, I could look it up.”

She rolled her eyes, and mother-hened the fuzz at the top of the bear’s head. “I really don’t know the password, it’s only for the higher ups.”

“But aren’t you like… a hero or something?”

“Heroine.” She corrected with a bright and flattered grin. “But it’s really only for communication among a few of the leaders. When we’re not on the surface they encourage personal communications to develop relationships and people skills.” It also made it a hell of a lot harder for unapproved communications to spread.

“Then I’ll just have to brainstorm a name up for her.”

She wiggled the beasts’s feet. “Keep me updated.”

Who was higher up than Miranda? Rae? If she was a member of the reeducation team that had to mean she was pretty trusted, right? I hoped it was Rae, she was my next target anyway, my key to getting Jasmine and me out, and maybe Miranda now that she was a fellow outcast.

So Rae’s next on the list, with twice the urgency as before.

We finished our sojourn to the center of the fair grounds. This seemed to be the ultimate destination of the entire fair, because we were amongst an immense crowd that only grew more dense as we waited. How many people were in Skyros? I could feel a crowd of thousands pressing against each other.

Just what we were waiting for was a mystery to me, but I thought the band was pretty good. I wouldn’t be surprised if this many people were gathered for them. Then their set ended, and they started playing the Skyros national anthem. It sounded a little bit like Just A Girl, by No Doubt if I’m being honest.

Then on to the stage came the goddess herself, and you could feel the entire city shudder with pleasure. Even Miranda, disturbingly enough. “My daughters, and Brett.” The entire crowed laughed, and booed at my shout out. I shrunk in my shirt. I’d really prefer it if Thetis forgot I existed at all. A direct mention at the start of her speech. “Is Brett here today?”

“Oh no.” I started slipping my way through the crowed. I wasn’t confident in my abilities as a black man to survive a big racist rally. Gotta get out of here.

But of course, there where hands on my chest that tried to keep me from escaping. “Right here! Over here!” They jeered.

Thetis squinted at me from across the vast crowd, and I’m pretty sure we actually made eye contact when I looked back at her. “Brett, why are you standing, as if you’re an equal to my daughters?”

“Fuck.”

“Sit boy!”

“Aaaaaaaaah fuuuuuck!” I fell to my knees, clasping my collar. I couldn't control anything, I just flopped to the ground and seized. Gotta get out. Once my body was under my control. I started crawling away towards the closest alley I could find.

Meanwhile the crowd cheered at Thetis’s cruel act. My convulsing body popped up on screen above the stage.

“Wwwoooooooooooo!” The crowd moaned like a massive ghost at my suffering image. “Sit boy!” Some people shouted, and then the whole mob picked it up. “Sit boy! Sit boy! Sit Boy!”

And I was down for the count. Electricity arched around my body, and singed my hair. My head rocked against the ground, as I lost all control. Miranda came running for me, crouching next to me. But she was too afraid to touch me, less she get shocked too.

“Sit boy, sit boy, sit boy!”

Ba bum……...ba bum …. Ba bum… ba bum...ba bum..ba bum.ba bumbabumbabumbabumbabumbabumbabumbabumbabum

I couldn’t hear their chanting anymore, just my jack rabbit heart hopping down the bunny trail, fast and panicked. “I can’t breath.” I clutched my chest, and held on to the fabric of Miranda’s shirt. “Can’t breath.” I feel to my knees. My didn't weight anything, but everything else was filled with lead! I gasped out, and fainted.

Things went black for a while. All i could sense while i was floating around in that abyss was anxiety, and when I finally woke up Thetis had moved on with her speech. Apparently no one cared about my near ****, except for Miranda who was petting my head, while listening to Thetis speak, quite entranced.

“...it is then that caring Thetis hid her child away on Skyros so that they would not meet their deadly destiny in Troy. Yet that destiny was too strong and Achilles sought glory and immortality in war, and burned their name into the stars.” The crowd all nodded in appreciation of the love Thetis felt for her child. “So too my children do I hide you away in our own Skyros, but your destiny is as great at mighty Achilles. We know with great despair that we will not liberate the world in our life times, so we must turn our eyes to the future generations, and towards the true nature of Skyros. As in the epics of old, so it is now, Skyros is the hiding place of the children of the gods.” There was mumbling about the crowd at what she meant by that. “Children untouched by the seed of man, perfect in mind and body, superwomen, to coin a phrase, and allow me to introduce to you their mother.”

And the fascist circle had been complete. I was sweating, pale, and nearly dead, but I wasn’t so out of it that I couldn’t appreciate the fastidiousness with which they stuck to the script. They now had their caste of ubermensch to hold up above everyone else. Beings who were not bound by the laws or morality of we lowly animals. It was such an awful step, and yet the pure inhuman hatred of the idea was met with cheers and applause.

Then my hatred shifted to a more personal place when I saw Jasmine walk up on stage.

What?

“My lovely Jasmine has been with us only a month, but I have already seen her dedication to the cause, to you my daughters. She has been chosen to carry the first of these blessed daughters. Beings who will arise from the sea like amazons, and lead the world into a bright new future. Praise her my daughters, give thanks.”

The great ranks of lesbians got on their knees, held up their hands to the stage, and wailed in joyous anguish as if the Virgin Mary had just been selected from among them to hold the child of god.

I’d thought they’d been speaking metaphorical when they were talking about their race of supermen, but they were serious. They were going to but a fascist super baby in my wife's womb…

A sob escaped me, as the idea dawned on me.

After they’d cleared it out of my own child.

Can a man die of heartbreak? I think so. My chest was getting tight again. Whatever damage the collar had done to my heart, was just prepping me for this moment. I could not live in this world anymore.

I would have closed by eyes, but I could not turn away from the horror. The joy on Jasmine’s face, happier than I’d ever made her. It was all so wrong. So awful.

Miranda put her hand on my chest, It didn’t take a empath to know what I was feeling, but I appreciated her kindness none the less. “Let’s get you out of here.” I couldn’t rip myself out of the scene, but I did allow Miranda to escort me away from the scene.

She took me back to the apartment, tucked me into bed, and held me close as I cried.

I'd that we're officially past the half-way point of the story. Time to start ramping things up!

Also (Jasmine Fischer +3) (-76SP)Any ideas for what her next Trait should be if she's hasn't gained a single point from Brett Directly? I'm thinking going further down the Soul Mate route, but I'm open to anything. Maybe she's open to some hot mommy traits now, lol.