When both Adverity and Lithia attended the new classes weeks ago, they realized many women were outspoken about the new situation in Restitude. At night, the women met in Adverity’s tunnel to discuss their plan, and all were sworn to secrecy under punishment of death…of reputation.

“Have our seeds of doubt harvested any fruit yet?” Adverity asked the group one night.

“I was only allowed to attend the class a few times,” one member said. “But I have stationed myself outside the reeducation center while I knit. I don’t have a hard count, but I wouldn’t be surprised if more than half the women are on our side.”

“Interesting. Not often a majority can’t speak for itself.”

“They just want us to feel powerless,” Lithia said. “Just like the men before them.”

“How many changers are there now?” Adverity asked. Changers, was the term coined by Sam to describe themselves.

“We have a population of Seven hundred and ninety-eight, the number of changers is one hundred and sixteen,” another member said. “We estimate this number will keep moving up until it is half or more than half of our village. More add themselves to their ranks each day.”

The group whispered among itself.

Adverity’s eyes rolled with great intensity.

“Well, we will put an end to this swiftly. The question is: what do we do with the male empathizers?”

“I suppose the solution is more a repetition of history,” Lithia said. “Remember after the war? All those women who spoke out against the feminine cause? A simple reminder of history ought to be enough.”

“Did any of those masc empathizers from that time survive exile?” a woman asked.

“We don’t know, they were also given the silent treatment.” Lithia said. The group grimaced.

“And if it’s not enough?” Adverity asked, her tone hinting at what needed to be said.

“Then those rebels will have to…go away,” Lithia said with a smile.

The rest of the room smirked along.

“Ladies…I believe this meeting is adjourned,” Adverity said, “and we may begin the healing process.”

The woman cheered, wrapping their hands in cloths and punching at the dirt. While it was a good stress relief, Adverity was happy to have help with the excavation of her lair.

**********

The next day, after a morning of removing some loose dirt from the tunnel, Adverity got cleaned up and headed to the village center. The hair dye color had changed to green to her dismay; however the changers all had orange dye and wore pants with a blouse instead of the green dress the women wore. In the square, they sat in a group doing push-ups and talking in tenor voices. Often about politics and occasionally about sports. But not passball, of course. Other sports played in towns far away. They sent out for leaflets from neighboring areas and either complained or cheered as they read along.

“Hey, darling. Looking good,” one of the changers said.

Adverity smiled at the flaccid advance and waved him over to talk.

“Good morning. Have you seen Sam? I would like to speak with him.”

The changer looked her up and down.

“I guess. I’ll go get him.”

A few minutes later, Sam walked out of the crowd.

“What up, darling?” he said. “Looking good.”

She pictured herself kicking him square in the stomach and found her smile.

“Hello, Sam. I’ve come to discuss something with you.”

Sam walked over to a nearby fence, sat on it, and spread out his legs, showing off his fabricated bulge that all the changers had sewn into their pants.

“All right. Shoot.”

She approached, being mindful to not stare at the display, which was deemed offensive behavior only a week ago.

“I was just thinking, this is a historic time in our society, and we have a lot of wounds to amend for if we are to move forward.”

“You can say that again. Restitude’s treatment of men has been downright atrocious if you ask us. But I’m not sure it’s possible to apologize for past grievances with any small gesture. What did you have in mind?” He attempted to spit on the ground but got it caught on his chin and wiped it off with his sleeve.

“I thought a public apology would be in order. However, you’re right. It wouldn’t be enough. Still, perhaps we could begin to build the bridge with something formal.”

Sam's eyes betrayed his eagerness to be made the center of attention, even for a moment. But he quickly recovered and tried to play it cool.

“Yeah. It would be a good start I guess. I’ll run it by the other dudes and see if they’re down.” He stretched his legs further and scratched his crotch area.

“Fantastic! Let’s get something solid on the books now, and we can change it if need be. How about tomorrow at sundown? We’ll all meet at the Floor of Governance. Please bring your most fervent female supporters as well, so they can be by your side to bear witness to the occasion.”

Sam stood up, this time carefully spitting on the ground. He then looked Adverity in the eye and extended the same hand he had just scratched his crotch with.

“I’ll make it happen.” He stepped back toward the group of men but turned around. “Oh, real quick. Us men could use some more space. We wanted access to materials to build our homes larger. Nothing crazy. Three times the size should be enough.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

She smiled through gritted teeth.

“Probably will need higher ceilings too. Don’t wanna be bumping our heads on it all the time. Know what I mean?”

“I believe I do. I’ll get right on that!”

“Cool. Also, considering the larger home sizes…We may need to consider the possibility of expanding our town.”

“You mean…start another war?” Butterflies filled her stomach. “You can’t be serious.”

“If you’re not growing, you're dying, Adverity. You of all people should know that.”

A few other men snickered at that comment.

She nodded, knowing that arguing here was pointless.

**********

The next day all the changers and their supporters gathered in the Floor of Governance. Hundreds of people met inside, awaiting their event. They toasted with a special drink that had been left out for them.

Adverity found her way into the hall and met with Sam.

“I hope the drink finds you well?”

He gulped down the rest of his glass and poured another.

“This ale is fantastic. I love the taste of hops.”

“Yes…excuse me a moment. I have an announcement to make.” As she turned toward the stage, a slap hit her rear. She turned back to see Sam make a kissy face at her. Narrowing her eyes, she continued, getting the attention of everyone in the room. “Thank you all for coming tonight.”

The voices in the room continued, preventing her from being heard.

She picked up a loud-talker and screamed into it. “Excuse me!”

The whole room halted their conversations, covering their ears.

“What the fuck, lady?” A man called out.

She smiled and spoke at a normal level through the device.

“It really warms my heart to bring us all together tonight. I just want to say: welcome to the second ever Androcidian!”

The crowd erupted in outrage. People shrieked and yelled at the stage. She held a hand up to silence them, and when that didn’t work she yelled into the device. “Shut up!”

“You were supposed to apologize for the last Androcidian!” Sam said. “That’s the whole reason we agreed to be here tonight.”

All the men nodded.

“Yes,” Adverity said. “I am sorry that it is necessary. It’s not a feminine ideal to destroy, to conquer or to subjugate. We created this society to show the world how prosperous an equitable society can be. And we knew men could never be a part of that vision. We knew it then and ladies…we know it now.”

“I’ll take over this whole place and throw you out of here!” Sam yelled.

The women on the floor gasped at the declaration.

He looked around at the terrified faces of his supporters.

“Is this our future?” Adverity said, pointing at him. “Do we give these beasts a chance to conquer us again?”

“We won’t agree to it this time,” he said. “You can all go fuck yourselves.” He smashed the glass of ale on the ground. Then, a warm feeling flowed through him. His entire body tingled, and his rage slipped away.

Adverity smirked.

“What did you put in the ale?” he asked. “I…I don’t feel…normal.”

“Empathy.” she said. She waved for the woman to join her side, as the men gathered together and rubbed each other’s faces. She turned to the woman beside her. “Praise the Androcidian.”

“Adverity…” Sam said. “What’s…happening?” Five snaps from the women drew their eyes forward.

“The Great War nearly killed us all.” Adverity said. “It was the ideals of conquest and bravado that led us into the darkest of ages. Our silent protest was met with disdain and ignorance. With our economy in shambles, we couldn’t even afford food or make-up. The emotional turmoil caused, still lingers to this day. We’re reminded—”

Adverity recited the speech from the first Androcidian. All seven hours of it.

“Stop lying to yourself. You know what your problem is, you’re selfish. You don’t think about anyone except yourselves. You don’t care that we haven’t had a new romance literature in years. You don’t care that we don’t have any window coverings. You don’t care that—-”

“All right!” Sam screamed. Exhaustion fell upon all of the men. “If we do this, will you shut…the…fuck…up! Would that make you happy?!”

The women nodded and frowned.

“Fine! How do you want to do it?”

A keg was rolled out to them, previously hidden beneath a cloth.

“Toxic ale to end toxic masculinity. As is custom,” she said.

The men all received a pint of ale, waiting until everyone had one. Sam stood in front of them and raised his mug. “Gentlemen! May there be no nagging in the world after, cheers!”

“Cheers!” the men yelled.

They chugged their drinks and threw the mugs behind them. Sam turned to the women and held up both middle fingers to them. The men behind him hummed a melody, and he sang.

Prepare for the final day

With honor and grace I say

You can’t begin to know, this rapture

Prepare for the final words

What man, would deem, absurd

You’ll never understand, this capture

Then, the men sang with him.

Would you sing of beauty

Would you write of pain

Would you paint tragedy

Why would you ever refrain

The world calls to us, the beating of its heart

The spoils of life, just a heartache away

The world calls to us, it needs a father now

The toils you’ll invite, will you rue this day?

Men collapsed, succumbing to the toxic ale. Now, Sam sang alone.

The world will call to you

And you must answer her plight

And all you can do

Is trust the Goddess…of…Light…

Sam stumbled, catching himself on a table.

Adverity ran over and caught him before he fell to the ground. She held him close. Tears filled her eyes. “Fear not brother. You’ll be a part of us soon.”

His distant eyes watered.

“I was…I found myself. I really did, didn’t I?”

“Yes. You did.” The gleam in his eyes left. She gently placed him down onto the ground.

“It’s over…” Lithia proclaimed.

The other women stood around speechless. Some vomited onto the ground, realizing what they had just done. Adverity stood tall and proud, nodding to the other women and hugging Lithia.

It wasn’t long before a large group of women came to see what was happening. They screamed in terror, when they saw the bodies lying on the floor.

“Sisters!” Adverity called out. “The masculine age has ended once more, at the hands of the Goddess. She smote their treachery to guide the rest of us on the path of equity.” Adverity wasn’t sure if “smote” was a word, but she went with it.

“Liar!” Ospera shouted, her make-up running. “I know you did this!”

The other women in the newly formed crowd pointed and hissed at her.

Adverity did not break, however. Her face grew more confident with their jeers.

“I did not lie. The Goddess smote them…through me. And if you try to give our society to the control of men ever again, well, perhaps you’ll find yourself next in line to meet her and can offer your complaints.”

The hissing quieted, and fingers found their way to their sides.

Adverity whispered to one of her allies, who nodded and ran off into the darkness.

“How is this not a masculine trait?” Ospera asked, still trying to get any victory of words she could.

“This?” Adverity held her hands out to the men's bodies. “This felt like balancing.”

Every woman there knew that how one felt about their actions far outweighed their actual actions.

The mens’ bodies glowed a brilliant pink with a deep black center. In the early dawn, they saw small orbs of the same light lifting from the fallen men and flowing into each woman in the town. Power emanated from their bodies. Euphoria flushed them as divine energy was redistributed among the survivors.

“What was that?” one of the women with Ospera said.

The ally Adverity sent away returned with a jar and handed it to her.

Adverity held it up for all the women to see. She brought it down to her body, grabbed onto the glass with her arm, and tried to twist the top off. The crowd had a mix of gasps and light laughter as she struggled to free the pickles within. Her face turned red, but with a primal scream, she freed the jar of its lid. She held the lid up for all to see, reached inside the jar to grab a pickle, and took a bite of it. The women surrounding her fell to one knee as she tasted her victory.

“For all above us!” Adverity shouted.

“We topple!” the women shouted back.

She stared at the group, knowing damn well she was going to eat every pickle in that jar.