[ venus tries to listen. he really, really does. but he's finally starting to catch what it is anna's saying, and it makes him feel...
well. he doesn't really know what it makes him feel. all he knows is that he feels irritated, and frustrated, and like he's being condescended to. does she think he doesn't understand? does she think he's drunk the kool-aid, just like everyone else?
there's a sudden spike of static, loud enough to be audible from venus's pack. if he notices, he doesn't say anything. ]
I mean. With all due respect, I think maybe someone who doesn't get religion isn't the best person to be teaching theology?
[ it's delivered carefully, neutrally - which almost makes it less clear just how unexpectedly bitchy of a move that was. ]
Look. Did you ever run into any real a-holes when you were in high school? You had to have, right? The kinds of people who take your lunch money, and flush your notebooks, and play keep away? Because those... jerks, are some of god's favorite people. They're teaching you a lesson about life, and what god wants from you, or something like that. You think they've ever had to worry about the devil? They're living the exact lives God wants from them.
[ the static goes uninterrupted. venus's eyes seem almost alight - bright with light, bright like the midwestern sun. a cloudless sky of cyan with rays of heat passing through. ]
I feel like I haven't been clear here. Maybe I was miswording it? Or maybe I just wasn't saying it right. I do that a lot. [ even the self-effacing seems less apologetic and more sharp, like this. it's a knife, plain and simple - and just because it's not pointing directly at anna doesn't mean it's not making itself known. ] I don't care whether we're sinners or not. Maybe I should. I probably should. But I don't, because it's a stupid unfair system to begin with. Some of the most awful people on the planet are God's little favorites, and because they're so effortlessly upright and good it doesn't matter how hard you try, or how much you work to live right, they will always, always be the ones who go to Heaven while the people who actually deserve something suffer.
[ for a single, awesome moment - full of awe, full of terror - it seems like venus's eyes might crack open at the edges. like he could just be a statue, holding back some great and terrifying secret within. the welcome sack with his radio shifts, whines; a light radiates through the fabric.
and then venus sighs, irritated and frustrated, and shakes his head, and the illusion dies. ]
Sorry. For being rude, and for the noise. I just... forgot to turn my radio off, is all.
[ he kneels down, fiddling with the bag and bringing out... a radio, apparently. it doesn't look like any radio from earth, though. it's glowing slightly - right up until he detaches a wire, and flips it over a different loop, and it just dies away. ]
no subject
well. he doesn't really know what it makes him feel. all he knows is that he feels irritated, and frustrated, and like he's being condescended to. does she think he doesn't understand? does she think he's drunk the kool-aid, just like everyone else?
there's a sudden spike of static, loud enough to be audible from venus's pack. if he notices, he doesn't say anything. ]
I mean. With all due respect, I think maybe someone who doesn't get religion isn't the best person to be teaching theology?
[ it's delivered carefully, neutrally - which almost makes it less clear just how unexpectedly bitchy of a move that was. ]
Look. Did you ever run into any real a-holes when you were in high school? You had to have, right? The kinds of people who take your lunch money, and flush your notebooks, and play keep away? Because those... jerks, are some of god's favorite people. They're teaching you a lesson about life, and what god wants from you, or something like that. You think they've ever had to worry about the devil? They're living the exact lives God wants from them.
[ the static goes uninterrupted. venus's eyes seem almost alight - bright with light, bright like the midwestern sun. a cloudless sky of cyan with rays of heat passing through. ]
I feel like I haven't been clear here. Maybe I was miswording it? Or maybe I just wasn't saying it right. I do that a lot. [ even the self-effacing seems less apologetic and more sharp, like this. it's a knife, plain and simple - and just because it's not pointing directly at anna doesn't mean it's not making itself known. ] I don't care whether we're sinners or not. Maybe I should. I probably should. But I don't, because it's a stupid unfair system to begin with. Some of the most awful people on the planet are God's little favorites, and because they're so effortlessly upright and good it doesn't matter how hard you try, or how much you work to live right, they will always, always be the ones who go to Heaven while the people who actually deserve something suffer.
[ for a single, awesome moment - full of awe, full of terror - it seems like venus's eyes might crack open at the edges. like he could just be a statue, holding back some great and terrifying secret within. the welcome sack with his radio shifts, whines; a light radiates through the fabric.
and then venus sighs, irritated and frustrated, and shakes his head, and the illusion dies. ]
Sorry. For being rude, and for the noise. I just... forgot to turn my radio off, is all.
[ he kneels down, fiddling with the bag and bringing out... a radio, apparently. it doesn't look like any radio from earth, though. it's glowing slightly - right up until he detaches a wire, and flips it over a different loop, and it just dies away. ]