Indignation

"The power of reality" by Triton Marmoon

How come?

How can it?

Who could?

Who would?

Such is the feisty

drift of murderess deeds.

Such is the reaction

of the breaking life lesson.

Would you hold my hand

remind me to watch my steps?

Or let me fall, learning all?

Who would do such a thing?

Who would I be in that scene,

In the barbarian world I fit in?

The kitchen door was opened, with the string of light starting to peek the window I could distinguish my father sitting at the table. In front of him was an open envelope, rather a ravaged envelope, and on top a long paper bared the marks of its previous delicate folding. His head hanged over his hands, strands of gray hair popping from between his knuckles and his breath was uneasy. - ``Do you know what this is all about? Do you know anything about it?''

-``I don't! What does it say?''

-``Here!'' - One hand freed from his barely existing hair and signaled me to the chair on the other side of the table. When I got closer I saw under the shadow of the wall that severed the table between night and aurora a closed untouched envelope awaiting. Still, quiet and unharmed this peace of paper was addressed to me with a relinquishing font.

-``I...'' - My hands moved as I sat on the chair, reaching for the suspicious papyrus galloping my breath under my tight chest.

-``I was told I would have received a letter'' - My hands trembled while I released the folded band of paper that closed the envelope. The silent was long and the suspense was pressured by the growing fear. Inside a paper sheet was folded in three, and in this these words took form in a matching old font:

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Dear,

The therianthrope community here by summons you to a meeting in order to address the eminent subject of adaptation to the new government policies.

The gathering will take place in the Tacyturnos Noctis College, at 20h00 of the 13th June, Saturday.

You are cordially requested to make an appearance and participate of this matter of most importance to our community.

Greetings

(A signature)

TCC spokesman therianthrope community council - organization for the therianthrope interface with society

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-``I don't understand'' - My head was spinning without anchor to reality, ideas flooded by from many thoughts I had and some I dreamed. I couldn't make sense of it, though I had an extremely bad feeling about it.

-``A new government is always something difficult, but the council typically solves their problems within their walls, before they induce public panic.''

-``You mean the therianthrope community council? What do you mean with difficult, should we expect extra taxes?'' - I heard about them in civil rights class, they regulate our taxes, our laws and negotiate with the government concerning all things particular to our community.

He laughed loud, but with the increasing light invading the kitchen windows, his drown out expression and worried eyes bared no sign of amusement. - ``Yes, the TCC. We already have almost autonomy on our taxes, as you should know by now. No, it is way worst, otherwise the usual channels would be used, like television and radio.

My mind drifted to a memory that became coherent:

-``You know, it wouldn't hurt you to shut the codifier down once in a while and turn on mono-shapers news channels. You could learn a lot about stock market if you weren't only interested in their movies and our comedies.'' - The economy teacher was always concerned with our ignorance, but it seems mine was beyond average.

-``What does he mean by codifiers'' - Akita was incredulously measuring my eyes.

-``You really don't know?'' - I shook my head patiently with his ridiculous smile growing wide defying my ignorance. I made his day once more due to my naïve knowledge of our world. I could, however, argue and complain about his condescension, but I knew it was useless. He was convinced that I knew nothing and needed a guide through the big bad world.

He took a deep breath, looking forward to the infinite with his chin high and a slow deep voice he summarized reality for me.

- ``We can't have mono-shapers listening to our radio and tv channels, because we would be limited endlessly to the world they know. So there is a decoder in each shape-shifters home that allows the tv and radios to catch our particular channels. Most shape-shifters don't really feel like mingling with humans, so our channels have less and less to do with what goes on in their world in a serious way and information about humans is transmitted in the form of comedy. Because whether we like it or not, we live amongst them and could use such information on a regular basis. Of course most wise shape-shifters would listen or watch the news and absorb better the events. There are even a few channels that merge the therianthrope and mono-shapers news.''

Turns out it was a small device that was setup between the tv and the normal channel receptor. There was a button on the remote that could easily disable it and this way we could watch mono-shapers' tv and it would be easy to hide our contents from mono-shaper visitors. In any case there is so much fiction in the world it is pretty easy to pretend that it is all just that.

...