https://tinyurl.com/ufdk43p

[magnetite_plz]

A trail of strange, unidentifiable red petals winds through the plaza this cold day in the Nexus. Not a heap of them, but enough small bits of brilliant red to pop out amid the snow and dreary ground to leave a distinct marking of something or someone passing through.

The trail leads anyone following it to Nike, currently brushing more of those petals out of her impossibly long golden tresses, her brow furrowed in concentration. It's more of an emotion than her countenance normally belies. She startles to see anyone approaching her and drops her hands from her hair quickly. Scrambles for a long piece of red and white cloth she's got folded into her pack.

"Apologies. I did have queries for the populace today." Her fingers grip and cinch the fabric between them, slowly working their ways down the length of the cloth. She fidgets with it while she addresses anyone who will listen.

"Why do people choose partners based on mere attraction? Out of dozens of qualifying attributes, why should something so unimportant have a disproportionate weight to the equation? The choice could be made based on compatibility of skills, or a mutually sought after goal or..." Nike trails off and with a sudden forceful flick of her wrist bunches up the fabric in her hands to flop against her thighs in clear frustration. The demon clearly does not understand and it's eating at her.

"Why do you do this?"

Comments

[magnetite_plz]

"For one with the privilege to know any other life, perhaps it is an indignity. I didn't flee my world because I was bound. I fled it to survive." Forced slavery? That would imply a malicious or at least self serving master. "Or one with enough power to kill your would be oppressors. For most of us, it simply Is."

Nike wonders if she Should feel a sense of camaraderie with this powerful being. But she does not share his anger nor his disgust for what had been all of her life until coming to the Nexus.

"I will not deny that I have been given an opportunity beyond what any of my caste could imagine. But I will not debase my sisters for that which is out of their control."

[hesperussword]

"It is privilege we have fought and been tortured for longer than.. longer than most things can imagine." Beelzebub didn't think she could understand because she seemed to like or need to be bound. It reminded him of some of the angels after the fall who desperately wanted God to take them back, even knowing He would kill them on sight. "We didn't flee here to survive, we can't. There are too many, and the enemy at our door would destroy this place if He found it."

"Don't assume we can. There are those we've had to rescue from bonds and torture."

He shook his head. "There is no shame for the bound, nothing debasing because it can't be escaped. Even our King once stood in chains." He's thinking this through because he'd never run into anyone outside of the celestial angels, and the humans they kept under heel, who would choose servitude over freedom. He had once been there though, without knowledge of anything but blind, demanded loyalty. "I do understand. All of us once stood as you do, knowing nothing but blind service to a master."

"The one holding the leash, hypocrisy at least, to hold someone else in position you wouldn't want without say in life, worse if their deeds are questionable."