InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "the cake is a lie"

Antigone (thehighestlaw) wrote in nevermore_logs,
@ 2020-07-29 23:06:00

Entry tags:

antigone, asterion

WHO: Antigone, Asterion
WHEN: Wednesday afternoon
WHERE: A department store
WHAT: Don't ask the universe to be chill, Tiggers, it doesn't listen.
WARNINGS: Enclosed spaces

Antigone frowned as she looked at the label on this plain black shirt. The fabric felt fine enough between her fingers but the Made in India on the label make her stomach turn, thinking of kids fingers and rows of sewing machines, appalling conditions, no escape. She’d expected that, from a big department store like this one, but sometimes even when you know something bad is coming you still reach out to check. Fast fashion was a shitty, powerful, brutal organisation, harder, Antigone thought, harder to fight than Ares.

Although at least there were people - lots of people, fighting for children’s rights around the world. At least that was a fight that was... fighting.

Antigone gave up looking at the stupid clothes and wandered back toward the windows, but outside it was still bucketing down so hard the sidewalk looked like an actual river. There were still people out there struggling through the weather but Antigone knew that if she tried to get home right now she’d just get home in the foulest of moods and honestly, no one needed that.

Lightning cracked open the sky, reflecting her mood perfectly, and Antigone felt cruelly mocked by the heavens.

Maybe she should head up to the cafe on the top floor and get in touch with the local Unicef branch and see what she could do while she drank a coffee. At least she could tip the people working in the cafe, and maybe not think too hard about where the beans came from.

A woman and twins, all three of them dripping, stepped out of the elevator when it opened and just for a second, she thought it was Ismene. Her stomach clenched, and remain clenched, even after it became really obvious that it wasn’t.

If you could chill today Antigone asked the universe, the fates, or whatever Antigone-upsetting god was out to get her today. That would be great. She remained terrified of running into her sister before she worked out what to say to her.

Distant thunder rumbled through the city in answer and Antigone lay her head back on the wall of the elevator with a resigned sigh. At least, for the moment, she had the elevator to herself.

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thehighestlaw
2020-08-09 12:34 pm UTC (link)

Antigone gave him another thin smile - she could feel how puffy her eyes were, like they were touching her cheeks when she smiled, almost. They were going to look like this for hours too, which might bother her later but right now she was past caring what she looked like. “'We’re each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?'" she said, quoting. "I've been reading a lot of Ursula le Guin recently, that line in particular stuck with me."

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	asterius 2020-08-10 11:01 am UTC (link)
	Asterion wasn't so sure holding your hand out in the dark was a good idea. Any time he tried that, it always led to more pain. But he wasn't going to say that, since he didn't think this day needed to get any more dreary. "Who is Lady Ursula?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	thehighestlaw 2020-08-10 11:32 am UTC (link)
	"She was a writer," Antigone said, finding a little more solid ground on this topic. "Science fiction and fantasy, but feminist and anti-capitalist too," she could carry on. For hours, probably, but he was still too new for Antigone to feel comfortable letting herself go like that, and besides, long rants like that were exhausting. "Do you read much?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	asterius 2020-08-10 11:42 am UTC (link)
	"Not much," he admitted, his cheeks immediately flushing red. "No one ever taught me-" Spending his life in a labyrinth hadn't really been conducive to learning. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	thehighestlaw 2020-08-10 11:45 am UTC (link)
	"Are you-" Antigone stopped dead in the street, causing a woman behind her to swear at her. Antigone ignored her, staring at him. "You're serious, aren't you? Oh shit, Asterion." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

asterius
2020-08-10 11:50 am UTC (link)

Asterion wrapped his free arm around himself, staring hard at the ground. He hated this. He hated people looking at him. Judging. It wasn't his fault no one had ever taught him! "I know some words!" he said, slightly defensively. He could read enough to order food at a restaurant by finding the things he needed to avoid - namely anything beef - and ruing them out. Books though? So many words all together? He had no chance.

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	thehighestlaw 2020-08-10 11:55 am UTC (link)
	"I'm not having a go," Antigone said, with a small shake of her head. "Seriously. Inequality in education, in opportunity for education, is a real thing, through this whole world. It's not your fault." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	asterius 2020-08-10 12:27 pm UTC (link)
	"No," he agreed. He knew it wasn't his fault. "Spent my whole life in a prison. No one cared if I read. No one cared anything. Then I wake up again. Everyone's too afraid." Asterion didn't think he was stupid, but he'd never been given the opportunity to prove otherwise. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	thehighestlaw 2020-08-10 12:35 pm UTC (link)
	"Your king was a jerk," Antigone stated, angrily. His legend was not one she'd thought about in any great depth, not when there were so many other problems with the world demanding her attention, but she was giving it her attention now. "You were a child, weren't you?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	asterius 2020-08-10 12:41 pm UTC (link)
	Asterion hadn't expected that. Yes, he agreed Minos was a jerk, but so many people just saw Asterion as a monster, so of course he deserved to be tossed into a dungeon, right? "I was," he admitted, so quietly. "Not even ten. Spent the first week crying for my mother." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-08-10 01:21 pm UTC (link)

"Fucking bastard," Antigone flared her nostrils, furious. "At least I knew what I was walking into, when they entombed me. Ugh, fucking kings, so desperate to hold onto their power they'll bury anyone who challenges that. Even children."

By today's standards, Antigone had been a child when Creon had sentenced her to death. For a long time she had refused to think of herself as one, but these days, as more and more young people stepped onto the words stage to fight for justice, to fight for their own futures, she had started to see if differently. She had been a child, as Malala and Greta and Emma Gonzalez were, and she had been powerful, as they were.

And people tried to rip them down for it.

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	asterius 2020-08-10 01:26 pm UTC (link)
	"Your king was a bastard too," he said, just in case it wasn't clear enough he thought so. "This place has cake?" he said, pointing to a cafe they were passing. "Smells good." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-08-10 01:34 pm UTC (link)

Antigone forced herself to take a deep breath. It wasn't easy, shaking off this ancient yet still very relevant rage at kings - at all men in power who'd do anything to keep it, including locking up children. It wasn't easy at all and she didn't feel as though she should. "I do not think I am going to be very calm company while we eat this," she warned him, but she did take a step in through the cafe door. "I'm not a very calm person."

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	asterius 2020-08-10 01:38 pm UTC (link)
	Asterion stepped into the cafe, searching out a place for them to sit. He didn't mind her not being calm, not at all. "I have to be," he explained, as he headed towards a booth in the back. "Unless someone pushes. You don't have to be. You can say anything you want, I'll listen." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-08-11 01:08 am UTC (link)

Antigone looked at him trying to figure him out: those were not words that men just said, or said and meant, at any rate. But she rather got the feeling that Asterion did mean it.

She spotted a bathroom and pointed her intentions toward the door, then dried up the worst of her dripping hair with a handful of paper towels, and washed her face. Her suspicions were correct; her face bore all the signs of someone who'd spent their recent past sobbing heavily and now was feeling stripped back, and raw, and angry, and clingy, and a little shaken apart trying to fit so many feelings in one small frame.

She sat down heavily in the booth across from him, elbows on the table to keep herself upright. "I literally do not remember the last time a man told me I could say anything I wanted to and he'd listen," she said, returning to her previous thought. "Or that I didn't have to be calm."

Not that he deserved a badge or anything for doing something a woman would have done without thinking twice about it, she was just too worn thin to hide her surprise.

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	asterius 2020-08-11 08:52 am UTC (link)
	Asterion had gotten them both water while she was gone, and he was busy glancing over the menu, looking for things he recognised. When she returned and opened up to him, he made a face at the very idea that people wouldn't listen to her; would insist she be calm even after such a harrowing experience. "Shitty men," Asterion summed up. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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