in which the jaunt was failed because sera spent the wholetime stealing an entire populations pants

[unagreeable]

Ugh, I hate using this head talking magic!

Hey, so, acording to that guy in all of our heads-there's a bunch of people over in the Caliphate that think they can tell people what to do. Think they can tell people what to wear, and stop girls from kissing girls, and I think that's fucked up.

So I'm going to go steal their pants. As many as I can. Who else is in?

Comments

[timelessinventor]

Society is what it is. It is many times wrong, but change comes slowly. Minds and hearts are not changed by violent revolution, only time and hopefully logic. When belief enters the picture, everything gets turned on its head.

One cannot change an entire society when one has literally no power to do so. One can only show that society that one is not as offensive as they believe one to be.

Oscar dug his own grave, and he himself admitted that. I offered my assistance, but he had a point to prove. Unfortunately, it went unheard.

[oftoomuchfaith]

I'm with the trouser thief - some fuckin friend you are. Respectability politics at its finest.

Oh, just be well behaved and colour in the lines and you'll be treated better! Just get good grades and don't get into trouble and nobody'll have a reason to shout racist shit at you because your mum's white and your dad's black! In the 21st century, by the way, well after your Victorian bullshit.

I say bullshit, and I say I don't give a damn, and I say if I feel like stealing trousers and kissing girls in public and blowing up parliament or whatever, I'm sure as fucking hell going to do all those things, and they can be as offended as they fucking please.

[timelessinventor]

Did I ever once say things would be easy? No. I know the modern era, and in many ways, it is worse than my original time. What people whispered behind closed doors is now out in the open for all to hear, and frankly, it's disgusting.

There is always some reason for anyone to hate anyone else. I was a single mother, a bisexual, and an atheist in an era that despised all three. I do not wish to be in a contest to see who's life was the worst.

If you do these immature things because you cannot control yourself, you will reap the consequences of them, and I most sincerely hope you do not doom the rest of us as well with those actions.

[ofinspiration]

Yes, you go on and keep quiet and behave like a good girl and hope that will keep you safe. Tried playing by those rules. It got me machine guns and a jail cell and a very early death, because sometimes all you have to do is exist.

Fuck them. Fuck that. I hope when the torches and pitchforks come, they catch you first.

[ Coward. ]

[timelessinventor]

Ah, pitchforks. Had one of those. Unfortunately, it was broken. Would have ended the world myself if it wasn't.

[oftoomuchfaith]

Good for you. No one cares.

[oftoomuchfaith]

Oh goodie goodie gumdrops for you. Despite progress, there's still plenty of hate leveled at bisexuals and single mothers and shit in my time too. People still get killed for being gay, there's still hate crimes based on race and religion all 'cross the country.

Being well-behaved and unoffensive never changed the fuckin world, and stealing trousers isn't going to either, but that's not really what it's about. It's about saying fuck you to the people in charge.

Anyway, I'm not here to change this world. I'm here to find the Trumps, get them out of the way, and back to the world I actually give a damn about, which I'm glad isn't yours, because I think I'd find a way to travel back in time and curse you nine ways from Sunday.

[ she's probably grinning, and not in a nice way, judging by her tone ]

Might do that anyway, before we go home. I'm still trying to decide.

[timelessinventor]

[There is an utter mental cackle at her words.]

I wish you all the luck with time travel that I had. I am already cursed. There is literally nothing you can take from me that I have not already lost. Be my guest.

[oftoomuchfaith]

[so sweetly - Persephone's winning out over Laura at this point.]

Why thank you ever so much for the invitation. I'll make sure to give you my absolute best material.

A goddess of my calibre can always find something more to take from a person.

[timelessinventor]

Be my guest. As I said, there is nothing I care about left.

[loyalrebel]

I officially regret giving any of you advice on how to survive a culture that has different viewpoints than yours.

I will not be offering as freely again after this Jaunt.

[unagreeable]

Good, keep out of our brains!

[loyalrebel]

When you get whipped and beaten while watching someone you love be treated the same because you ignored someone who knows what he's talking about I will have no pity for you.

I told you all because I have seen it happen and actually care enough about you to not wish to see you suffer it.

[unagreeable]

Nobody should be getting beaten. That's the whole point of this.

[loyalrebel]

Two wrongs do not make a right.

[oftoomuchfaith]

If it's any consolation, I would've been like this anyway.

I would've recognized them for Muslim pretty quick. Plenty of 'em round where I grew up.

[loyalrebel]

It isn't.

It just shows how little I fit in amongst the rest of you that you think acting like... this will do anything other than cause more backlash and difficulty for those who only want to live in peace despite their differences in belief.

[oftoomuchfaith]

I have no reason to think any of this is real, so I guess that's part of my issue.

I have issues with a lot of religious beliefs I've run into but... Real world? I'm not gonna go around stealing hijabs or anything. That's bullshit. But this?

I have yet to find a reason to believe any of this is any more than the Trumps fucking with us. I personally don't give a damn about probably-fictional people. Maybe that makes me a bad person.

[unagreeable]

What else should I do? You're telling me they throw rocks at people, until they die, just for, just for

just for being different. For being like me! You want me to just ignore that, after you've told me that?

[private]

[bypartisan]

Malik, I'm so very sorry about their... well, everything, I suppose. I had no idea we had such idiots among us.

[private]

[loyalrebel]

As I said, I will not be so quick to offer advice again even if I know things.

Re: [private]

[bypartisan]

I know. I... don't think I blame you.

[because I don't feel like starting a new post, after she's had a chance to calm down overnight]

[oftoomuchfaith]

Malik, you there?

I didn't...

[ a pause ]

I'd still like that mapmaking lesson one of these days. If you still want to give it.

[ She's not going to apologize for losing her temper, but it wasn't really about him, or even the Caliphate, and she does feel a little bad that she might've... fucked something up.

He seemed nice. ]

[loyalrebel]

[He's a bit cold, and disappointed sounding.]

If liminal space permits it when we are done, I will likely be working in Leonardo's workshop.

[oftoomuchfaith]

[ ah. ]

...You don't have to. I just--

[a pause, and she's clearly making an effort to be calm] I grew up getting told if I was good enough, and respectable enough and didn't make a fuss, that I'd be okay. That nobody would... throw racial slurs at me. That I wouldn't get told I was too white to be black or too black to be white. That I'd be accepted.

But I wasn't. All it did was make me stay quiet when people did that. So when she said-- when she said that, I just... It doesn't work. Being unoffensive and laying low. It doesn't change anything. And I don't think I'm going to change anything either, probably, but I'm not going to pretend that being "respectable" will do fuck all.

[ she is pure Laura right now. She's the Laura that was gracious enough to comfort the person she thought had gotten the divinity she'd desperately wanted, because they were friends. She really needs to learn to bring more of that into Persephone. Well. Time will help - after all, it's only been about a month that she's been herself since she became Persephone, and she hasn't had even Ananke's dubious guidance to help her deal with it, and without Lucifer's immediate meshing of her divinity and mortality. ]

That's why I got angry. You gave good advice, and I... made light of that, and that wasn't fair or right of me. That's your religion, right? Islam?