Alignments on the darker side have become more accepted over the years. In the 16th century, people suspected of not having a neutral or “light” standing would be publicly executed, and their accusers were praised as heroes despite the fact that there is no skill to detect someone’s alignment.

Even modern day technology hadn’t figured out to detect that some progress had been made with polygraph testing but it wasn’t fool-proof.

Anyone “witnessed” committing a crime over the age of eighteen would be assumed to have a darker alignment and murdered legally or met with unfortunate accidents leading to their demise.

This trend did have an effect the active “hunt” for villainy had made acts of petty crimes plummet, and only the truly desperate would risk their lives for such small gains. These successes further fueled the self-righteousness of the government officials and the citizens beneath them.

Support did begin to wane when the number of violent crimes met with a ramp-up. People desperate enough to commit petty crimes such as stealing bread were much more willing to kill the owner of the bread.

First of all, they could easily take more, secondly, fewer witnesses met less chance of getting caught and last but certainly not least the punishment was death either way. Light can not be conceived without darkness a balance needs to be mediated.

Eventually when all the extreme hate died down society figured out how to walk the tightrope of goodness and evil some societies were more successful than others.

Nowadays even if darker sides were heavily advised against they had a place: at least the Anti-heroes did and even Villains couldn’t officially be convicted unless proven without reasonable doubt that they had committed a crime. Anti-heroes appealed to the younger generations, especially with their love for justice and attraction to rebellion, morally grey characters are always a popular “book crush”. What’s more attractive someone willing to lose you save the world or someone willing to lose the world to save you?

Anti-heroes were still heavily stigmatized against admitting to that alignment would alienate them from most if not all of their social group including family. Suicide in those cases was alarmingly high. Because of this no one knew how many people were actually in each alignment, often anti-heroes and Villains would disguise themselves as neutrals or even Vigilantes.

Ria had never felt the call to be an Anti-hero the thought felt constricting. Rather than feel she was right and pursue that path at the expense of rules and regulations she found great joy in breaking them for her own benefit.

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Anti-heroes had some sort of “right” reason to be the way they were, once upon a time they were innocent they wished for the good in the world only to have it crushed out of them by tragedy and the steady hammer of society made for the wealthy and elite.

Ria simply never cared enough for those things to take root. She wanted freedom and there was plenty of lines she was willing to slither across to get there. Despite her lack of restrictions, she did have self-imposed regulations especially right now at the beginning of her villainy journey where she didn’t have the power for the spontaneity she craved.

Rarely would Ria lie or backstab the people around her, she would only do so to reciprocate the “kind” intentions of others. She was nothing if not a generous host.

Many would describe her as polite and honest and she was, but only for the anonymity and goodwill it afforded. Social graces and charisma would afford you a lot of leniency when you had a penchant for bending the rules.

…

Fear was an emotion I felt often as a child, everything scared me. A shadow on my wall, the creaking of the floorboards and thunder would send me into a corner to shiver in fear. Teachers told me I would grow out of them with time, I wasn’t content to wait for this crushing weight on my heart to someday melt away I wanted a solution, a cure. So I studied I did my research checked out tough books wrestled with the dictionary mounted on a pedestal in the library until I understood what I was reading.

That is when I discovered the more I knew the less I feared. A shadow was something blocking light the shapes it formed were endless people could use this to create puppets, beautiful patterns, and tell stories.

Floorboards creaked because they were warped from years of wear and tear. Thunder is caused by lightning heating the air around it until it expands causing a loud sound.

So at six I decided I needed to know everything. Then I would fear nothing. I was always smart supposedly I got it from my parents, but my stubborn need to know all there is to know took it to a whole new level. I was lauded as genius by the teachers that had tried to bring my comfort by endorsing complacency, so I didn’t take their praise seriously I just kept studying.

Over time I learned how to organize the information I learned, making my mind palace. Except it wasn’t a palace having that much space as regal as it would be served no purpose and brought me no comfort. It was more of cottage cozy with vegetation surrounding it the perfect combination of nature's chaos and order.

I strewed my information across rolling hills and crowded woods. But my favorite memories, the treasured pieces of “me” I kept within the cottage. I found so much peace there within my mind and maybe that’s what spoiled me for the company of other people. Why would I need the companionship of another when I was happier in my own company when I didn’t have to be on guard for unprompted attack?

Or maybe it was people who ruined people for me. Maybe I had experienced too much betrayal. Maybe one person too many had earned my trust only to shatter it into little ittty-bitty pieces.

Not that it mattered I am happy where I am content with who I am.