----------------------------------------
<04/15/149,540 {Avion 148} - 14:00 | Corral Position, Genosis, Altiri Sector Space>
In every corner of the world we search, we find souls who live human lives on unequal footing. Man's many potent quotes and beliefs encapsulate the idea of: 'Everyone is born equal,' but when faced with the challenge in mass, humanity proves it can never uphold this singular promise, even under the guidance of God.
No matter where on Earth, almost every human lives in a perpetual state of individualism, rarely if ever unified by a powerful front sharing the same ideal. Being independent from others is only one small element of freedom, but the hands of control reach for all, far and wide, through money or through political authority, and so, independence does not guarantee anyone their freedom or their equality. Do the laws of society protect the people, or do the people protect the laws of society? The longer I sit here watching the Earth from afar, the more questions I have to crux the human race with.
We Altiri have seen and documented so much in our countless hours of clairvoyance, some lives easier to track than others. What we've learned in all this time, are that some humans are truly evil beyond measure, and some are kind-hearted all to the end of their deathbed. Group psychology has a mind of its own too however; the evidence laying within predisposed hatred or preprogrammed designations of unequal classes or castes. The United States of America, while not an exclusive center of attention for our kind, has become the most interesting place of our observations, for two reasons.
The first reason is America's constant claim of upholding the title of the freest continent on the planet, through social promise and propaganda, or through religious Dogma, the only nation under God as some claim, ever since their independence from Great Britain in 1776. For a very long time at least, the truth of this claim seemed to depend widely on individual perception and based point of view. It was an easy statement to agree with, for those who had the chance to make comparisons of different economic and government-level social classes of other nations, keeping China and North Korea in mind for example. The statement falls apart without this comparison, and even with it, won't always hold significance. Claiming one nation is the freest in the world does not guarantee it is anywhere near a paradise. If all the world were merely districts of prisons, and one particular prison had more leniency than the rest, is it still a prison, or a free nation?
The other interest we have in the USA is the primary spoken language, the most similar variant of our own tongue, slowly and luckily spread throughout humanity from a wide variety of our many purge experiments. With our advanced clairvoyance, we can see and hear the people we zoom in on, carefully watching them grow up, day by day. Therefore, it is very easy for us Altiri to collect a grasp on any situation within their borders.
Going back to an earlier point, equality and freedom is only granted by what others in the same society will tolerate, exception to those who live alone and off the grid. A well-known example can be stated very recently from this time period, where a civil-rights movement spread across the globe, but especially within the walls of the United States. While perfection to such progress has never been realized, more freedom and equality has been given to the dark-skinned humans than what was previously seen in that country, as a result of many late activists and societal shifts.
Inequality, slavery, torture, even brutal murder was tolerated of this minority class for so long a time, equality still struggling to catch up. During the worst of the fires and ashes of America's darkest history, plenty still claimed it was the freest nation in the world, a place of expression, safe from any persecution, unless the law, created by the same imposers of false justice claimed otherwise.
The point of this cluster of thought I have is merely a realization made many times in our recollection, one which proves that all humans are not born equal in their own planetary world, a declaration not made by myself of philosophy, rather by other hostile members of a larger collection of society, split between the feeling in their hearts from the programming of their mind. The racial segregation and inequity between blacks and whites was only one example. And so, as I recall a horrific chain of events on another amazing soul I kept track of, I refute one claim to our collective minds; I refute the claim that true freedom exists within America, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, and I have the feeling certain humans on their world would certainly agree.
----------------------------------------
"I knew you'd show up to return it," Hannah exclaimed in front of the two, her eyes full of life and her body pulsing with excitement.
"I'm only here for a short time." Ramie, Hannah's friend who returned a mysterious cassette tape turned to Hannah's father, who stood in the doorway looking bored. Her nod was enough to signal her dad to give them some space, as the older man went down the stairs of Hannah's house, for chit chat or minor refreshments.
Twelve silent seconds after the two girls were finally alone, Ramie gently slid her way to the door, closing and locking the handle while her back was faced against the wooden barrier. With the soft sound of the click in the lock, Hannah's eyes went wide, and Ramie's heart began beating even faster knowing what she was about to do.
With a blushing giggle, Hannah held onto ramie's hips, excited by the woman before her. "We both have school tomorrow, and you just couldn't wait to see me anyway. I'm touched."
"You know as well as I do that trying this at our boarding school is very risky." Ramie elaborated what she meant, needing no reason or invitation to hold Hannah close in her arms, eyes mostly shut while sucking her friend's face.
Sharing Ramie's breath in her lungs, Hannah held her friend closer, her body heating up in this sacred embrace through their passionate kiss; their rapid pulse synchronized, and their desire melted into each other. In the safety of privacy, shielded away from the eyes of Hannah's parents, she revealed every repressed sensation to Ramie, for as long as they could possibly get away with.
"Those two again huh?" The front-row seat I had been watching was mildly interrupted by the voice of Fionne, speaking only to me with her telepathy. While there was good enough reason for my interest in this odd couple I've been monitoring on Earth, I suspect most of my sisters wanted more clarification.
"Yes Fionne. I have high hopes that Ramie and Hannah can be happy together, but there are lots of invisible barriers around them that could destroy what relationship they do have."
"Ramie and Hannah are both girls, so I presume those barriers you speak of have more to do any attempt made to separate them?" Though Rose asked a legitimate question, I was a bit shocked she would ask at all, the answer obvious.
"Same-sex couples on Earth are not well-liked. Ramie and Hannah, they're both such nice people. They shouldn't be under the threat of punishment just because they refuse to fall in love with other heathens."
As for myself, I have seen this many times before. Long ago, The Unity learned about the sexual natures of human beings, and the certainty where intercourse between a male and female human are required for female pregnancy, without exception. With this rule also comes a natural, hormonal kind of attraction between men and woman of ACS414, attraction which exists in several complex layers of consciousness. One might say this behavior is preferential or normal - merely because it is within that species biological programming.
That said, there have always been exceptions to these influences of biological programming, exceptions known to humans with diverse nomenclature are with assumed rarity. Around Ramie's area of residence, people currently refer to a couple in her homosexual situation as, Lesbians, two females attracted only to each other or to other females, with zero attraction whatsoever to males, physically, psychologically, and perhaps spiritually too. Over a longer span of time, such behavior has only become more common than it has less, but in this current ACS year of 1984, such practices are forbidden.
Their erotic display doesn't surprise me at all. All of us Cy-Stars and I included are like most other Altiri of our world, romantically disinterested in any and all sides of other people. Even after all this time of observing human behavior, I've yet to feel a micron of love or attraction to a single man of the universe. It's something I can be proud of to date; never would I allow myself to fall for a filthy heathen, an enemy of our world.
That said, I also don't really understand love in this format, because I've never felt that kind of spark with anyone else. I know it isn't the same feeling I used to have for my mother, nor is it anywhere close to how I feel for my sisters. The topic in our world has been debated to death already, and rumor has it that while rare, there are a small amount of Altiri couples who are attracted to each other in this strange unknown manner. Since all of us are female, any Altiri who falls for another would automatically be considered a homosexual, though I reckon nobody at all would complain.
Here in our world, even among a queen who controls us, we have far more personal freedom than what most humans may ever see in their entire lifetime. As for my personal thoughts on homosexual couples in general, through all the flak of hate I have heard about, I don't really see the harm and damage from those who wish to counter it. All of this is the reason why, right now, while observing these two young ladies defy so much of the invisible restriction placed upon them unfairly, a bigger part of me is hoping for their shared happiness. Ramie and Hannah, both of which live private lives, have fallen madly in love with each other. Both of these women are white and come from a moderate-economic family, so most would expect Ramie and Hannah to have an ultimate level of freedom...
But I knew, I could feel in my gut long before the worst could come, that regardless of justice and law, any who fall too far from an established societal norm will face intolerance on levels that would make me cry, no matter how many times I see it.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Following in my own interests, my sisters focused on the same two people as I did, and we tracked these two for a short while, only two months later to be precise, when everything started to fall apart for both of these fated lovers. Two months was all it took for everything to capsize.
----------------------------------------
"The headmaster is right! You should be ashamed of yourself! Have you forgotten your vows to God?!" Ramie's father wouldn't let up after several minutes of this vocal bombardment to his daughter, red-faced and in tears. Everything fell apart so quickly, when Ramie and Hannah eventually dared to risk their display of affections on school grounds, as they were caught kissing by the school's own headmaster.
Through all her sniffling, Ramie put on a brave defiance against her parents, only following the path she knew in her heart. "I love Hannah! Why would God ever have a problem with us, Dad?" With no support from her mother, Ramie was only digging herself a larger hole. She also knew that somewhere far off from here, Hannah was being scolded in much the same way by her own folks, paying a price for love nobody should ever have to.
Her father only became more invigorated by Ramie's words, and so he finally made a judgment call on what punishment his daughter must face. "I've heard enough Ramie. Tomorrow, we have an emergency meeting at the church. I'm notifying the pastor and clergymen of this incident now. You know better than to defy the natural order of ourselves through such sin. And it goes without saying, that you and Hannah will never be seeing each other again."
"But you can't just do that! She'll be heartbroken, more than I am now!" No matter what Ramie tried, her dad wasn't having any of it, and so she shot a desperate glance with plea to her mother, who was already glaring with a menacing look of betrayal. "Tell him that's going too far mom!"
"Do you want to go to heaven Ramie, or to hell where all sinners burn for eternity?"
Strapped with the unfair question, Ramie gave up her attempts of persuasion, instead returning her gaze to the floor with tears and pain worse than before, worse, because her despair was now combined with the worry of how Hannah was doing in all this chaos and flak.
----------------------------------------
Chapter Theme Shift: Valley of the Ravens ~ VPG (Wind of Spring)
----------------------------------------
"Do they really care about their worship more than their own daughter?" Even though Derria was as upset as I, watching the chaos unfold before us in real time, I understood a small aspect of another hypocritical behavior.
No matter what any may say about a book of scripture, it is ultimately up to the people who read and interpret that scripture to determine which virtue to uphold and in what manner. Such holy text forbids any and all sexual acts, lust, or desired attraction, that does not lead to any procreation post-marriage. The implications are many, but for anyone who has an attraction to the same sexual orientation, they are, according to the scriptures, sinners of God. Strangely enough, this would include other areas of effect on every creature of the Earth, including self-gratification, which both parents on both sides of Hannah's and Ramie's have conducted themselves in, before marriage of their own time.
Does that really matter though? Whether armed with more knowledge of some holy text or not, not everybody is going to believe or accept such ideals. Ramie and Hannah only attend the church because they are forced to, slaves to their parent's by means of biological age, as many kids and teenagers are. I've seen too many humans question the meaning of their very own existence, and most times they find who they believe to be their match and soul mate, this question fades away from their mind. Therefore, falling in love is clearly more important than anything else, more important than personal beliefs, be it political or religious. "You have a good point Derria. I don't like this at all."
I can't ask the question to myself, because I've never felt what these two souls have before; I've yet to fall in love with anybody. I must still ask another who may know the answer one day; is this right? Is it right to separate people from who they love, for any reason at all? Those who would answer yes, can you imagine it happening in your own relationship? If your spouse who was previously the opposite sex as you were suddenly to be transformed into the same sex as you, personality and spirit kept the same, would that love disappear?
For now, I only cared about the current situation and the current moment, of what was going to happen to Ramie and Hannah, easy as it was to guess. I wasn't always able to keep my eye on the targets and watch over them with some of the daily chores to keep up with, but after what we saw, all of my entire aggressor group maintained a most constant watch over these humans to stay updated, hoping for the best.
From what my sisters told me at the end of our daily gatherings, Hannah indeed suffered similar punishment, though it went far beyond anything vocal. Hannah was beaten, threatened, bullied, and partly brainwashed into changing her public view on liking other girls. She too was attempted to be "saved" at the local church by the holy grace of God and Jesus Christ, to be baptized again. It amazed us all what Hannah put herself through; her young age and lack of parental independence was all ignored by the unbreakable love in her heart, while Ramie merely endured quieter measures of torment.
Weeks turned into months, until the story of these two we monitored came to a horrible end. As much as she tried to hold out, Hannah eventually gave up in an unexpected manner. Hannah never submitted to letting go of her own ideas, but then this only lengthened the wrath of her punishment, each beating removing a chunk of what gave her any spirit at all.
What happened with Ramie broke her heart more than anything in life ever could, but what Ramie observed after getting to see Hannah for one final time, before her family was set to move to another state, created an uproar among all of us.
I could only sit here and watch something for so long before losing my ever loving mind about what was going on. It was nearly impossible to control my own outrage against the injustice that only got worse, and my sisters all struggled with the same problem, our feelings in such peril that a few other aggressor groups wanted to learn from this moment as well.
When Ramie got to see what remained of Hannah for the final time, it was more than she could bear. Hannah was in perfect health in every physical manner, but her mind and spirit were lost, disintegrated by the wrongful conversion her family put her through; all of her entire soul had been silenced by the eternal Dogma of the Baptist Church. Hannah fought for so long and so well, too brave for her own good, and instead of allowing her mind to be changed by the savages trying to control her, all which gave life and meaning to Hannah was destroyed, like a shield that could hold out no longer. Even having Ramie in her sights again did nothing at all to wake Hannah from the soft death she had endured, her current existence but a zombification of life.
Ramie was supposed to hold back, to behave herself as much as possible. It was a miracle she was being granted the chance to see Hannah off one last time before the family moves far elsewhere for business purposes, far away from Ramie. After seeing what had become of Hannah however, Ramie threw away all the chains of resistance she let her family build around her. Arguing with anybody else was useless, this much Ramie knew. It was a war that could never be won in this lifetime, a war lost long ago for the both of them, so all Ramie could do was cry in silence while holding her best-friend, one last time.
To Ramie and Hannah both, this hug was stronger than anything they had ever felt before, stronger than the fear of Hell, stronger than the wrath of their own creator, stronger than the eraser of time, and stronger than either of them would ever be on their own. Even though love comes in so many forms, it was this particular form right here that anyone would fight for, under any unconditional circumstance. "I'm going to miss you Hannah. I'm sorry it has to end this way." Ramie knew she was passively being watched, mostly by Hannah's folks, who were giving their own farewells to Ramie's folks nearby the adjacent room. There was little she could get away with, and nothing she could do to reawaken Hannah's broken self, so it seemed.
Days after Hannah moved away, Ramie tried one more to reason with her parents, trying to convince them why they were wrong to be too set in their ways, words which all fell on deaf ears. Not long after, Ramie removed herself from everybody's control the only other way she knew how to, after overdosing on her mother's medication, while submerging herself under the large tub of bath water.
My sisters once warned me that in my own quest to find something interesting to watch and monitor in clairvoyance, I would sometimes stumble into the darkest days of somebody's life, growing a level of empathy for them which strikes both ways yet never helps anybody in the end. This would have been one such moment, only this time, everybody helplessly tuning into Ramie's demise became the target of this new emotional onslaught. It wasn't our fault we became wrapped up in such horrific circumstances of Ramie's life, nor was it fair what cards she was served in trying to make herself and someone else happy in an otherwise unforgiving world.
Before we could ever adapt our minds to the weight of what happened, Junko and some others revealed to me that Hannah suffered a similar fate. She never knew what happened to Ramie, but seeing her beloved for the final time revived just enough of who she was to remember just how painful it was to be apart. With no hope of ever seeing Ramie ever again, Hannah also took her own life, several weeks after Ramie took hers, even though her death was a more violent and painful incursion...
----------------------------------------
The Royal Scryers took us into the temple soon after we watched what transpired, several of us requiring emergency therapy. After what happened, I refused to reach my third eye into that world for two and a half years, fearful that I may ever come across another soul as loving and caring as those two, only to become too attached to their success prior to their futures crumbling to dust around them.
After so long a time this tragedy was to pass, I had to convince myself that everything would be okay, in part because this happens more often than I hope to believe, but also in part because fairness in any world does not exist, no matter how humans want to spin it. We all require balance in many aspects of our lives, but life itself lacks a constant pull or push to these balances, of what some believe to be fairness, karma, or luck.
However, having my mind linger on how unfair the world was only lasted for days. Instead, a more horrific question lingered on my mind much longer, still alive to this day. There are many ways to wonder and many ways to ask. Whether it happens right at the heart of a so called free country or in the depths of raw tyranny, people suffer from inequality or intolerance often, randomly and without exact pattern or karmic justice to balance it out even a little. We already know that any nation pushing for more and more freedom will never achieve it perfectly, because perfection is a statistical impossibility for any corner of humanity, individual or collective.
So, I ask the humans of Earth this question, from any time plane, from any era, and from any corner of that world:
Is Earth a Prison Planet, one giant globe of life where all who stand are chained and bound to one or more captors? Perhaps in some areas, the slavery becomes literal, where people rely on their superiors for basic living requirements, and that a single cry of defiance is met with lethal force. Perhaps in other corners of the world, people are held prisoner to their societal economic system, made to work tiring long hours of each day, only to never ascend far from that lifestyle, where only the rich prosper, or as some call it, the rat race. Perhaps the chains that bind people are more figurative in some sense, such as how blind faith in policy setters is taken advantage of, or how in what we've seen in the church time and time again, people being made to surrender their entire individuality, their entire personality, and everything thing else that makes a person human – to some figure whose existence has never even been empirically proven by anybody, through force or through willing acceptance of ever evolving deceptions.
No matter what anybody believes, all of us seem to be prisoners to something or to someone, no matter the severity of scale or the implications this scale has - when abused. People may be born equal, but they don't maintain an equity level of freedom to their brothers and sisters, to their friends and family, to their allies or their rivals. Ramie and Hannah met such horrible ends, all because their wardens refused to accept in a harmless variation of love which they've never seen before, either by reason of personal preference, or by the unforgiving, unloving virtues preached from pastors who have a false sense of purity.
It was never the church, the book, the economy, or any other intangible source I was angry with. I was upset with the people who brought such pain and misery to others, the very same wardens who could clearly see what their action wrought to their daughters. People made this all happen, and the people of ACS414 are where my anger belongs to, to the wardens who strip happiness and freedom from those who deserve better, individually or collectively, simplistic or complex. The answer to my own question has no singular form, because both the question and the answer are too complex to completely quantify.
I could even ask the question in a different manner and end up in the same space:
Can humans live the life that they want to?
We already know that some can, while others cannot. Some people never get the chance to experience love, or even most of life itself. There never appears to be a naturally occurring balance or order brought to such a wild and random world, so I cannot rely on unnatural or impossible forces to grow or cultivate a colony into better versions of itself. Instead, I'd have to rely on the people within that colony to make it better for themselves, if they ever improve at all.
The placement of humanity when faced with my last question is a manner to which they might self-reflect where they currently stand in an effort to make true progress. Can the people of the world, including every single individual - live life the way they want to? The more humans who can answer the question at least for themselves, who also claim that their prison planet prevents their ascension of happiness, the clearer the answer shall become, that Earth really is one giant prison planet.
At the present moment, it's times like these where I'm glad I don't live on that hell hole.