Old Man Shows His Age

[lonelysmiles]

Sender: Alastor
To: Everyone
Subject: Sin Celebration Months?

Apologies in advance for my ignorance, but these large ears of mine overheard discussion of a month-long celebration of the sin of Pride. Flipping through previous journal messages, I saw someone's question regarding whether or not Reverein celebrates it.

Well, that got me curious because we haven't had any variant of King Lucifer appear in quite some time. If this were the Pride Ring in Hell, I'd understand it, but I'd no idea that other worlds filled with the living celebrated the Deadly Sins!

What months are for the other six? We used to have avatars of Greed and Wrath, so they might be flattered to have their month-long celebrations should they ever return. It never hurts to get on the good side of a Deadly Sin's avatar!

Comments

[refantasma]

[Written in a panicked hand]

ITS NOT GOING TO BE AN ORGY!!!

[A beat, in still shaky handwriting]

Its just going to be a picnic. no sex. just celebrating our identity. being proud of who we are. - maybe thats why its called 'pride month' I didnt name it. I just know its not an orgy. I dont want it to be one.

why dont you come? the worst therell be will be shirtless guys wearing paint on them. therell be food and people playing games to get to know each other better.

[lonelysmiles]

That's reassuring. I'd hate to walk in on such a thing. Again.

[Hell is such an awful place. His intended victim got away that day but only because Alastor had felt the need to go to extremes to try and unsee the whole thing.]

I'll pass. Again, I've no interest in sex or sexuality. Therefore, such festivities hold no interest for me.

[refantasma]

you keep missing the point. but fine. have a nice day.

[lonelysmiles]

Then what, pray tell, is the point? All you've told me is it's about sex and sexuality.

[refantasma]

that a sexuality is something we use part of identity now. you might not get it and thats fine but that doesnt mean you get to tell us were wrong when youre not even trying. I didnt get it all either. I still dont get it all. theres gender identity. people who dont feel attraction at all. theyre part of us too.

after people getting killed over it I think we deserve to celebrate being being alive and celebrate it while theres lots of people who still wanna kill us for something we cant control. and do it with other people like us.

[lonelysmiles]

[It's probably for the best that this isn't a conversation taking place in person because the eyeroll Alastor makes would've infuriated you. What you wrote sounds quite close to some of the latest generation of sinners who Fall and wail that they shouldn't be in Hell, that society made them do the things they did. They were innocent victims forced into such things.]

[As if being killed over prejudice is a new invention.]

First of all, being singled out and killed for something one cannot help isn't unique to those with sexual preferences outside the biological standard. Being mixed race during a time period where sections of the South and the North -- loathe as the latter is to admit it -- where I'd be lynched for having darker skin wasn't the safest either. The darker half of my heritage didn't care much for me either, pockets of them beating those they deemed light-skinned encroaching on "their territory". Sometimes to death. There will always be those who despise those different from them and will seek to do them harm. It's humanity and every other sapient species' worst trait.

Second, I don't understand why one would have pride in something they had no choice in. I could understand celebrating one's accomplishments in spite of factors they couldn't control that others condemn them for -- rubbing their accomplishments in their detractors' faces -- but why celebrate something you specifically had no choice in? It'd be like me holding a special celebration in honor of my skin color when I'd had no choice in the matter.

[refantasma]

[Oh, it would have.]

I cant claim to understand most of what you went through because racism. but my sister Hazel is black. or half-white? (Father's a god so he can be whatever he wants but he usually appears as white so its messy)

but i do understand some. she came the 30s just a decade after you. and weve talked about living in a different time period then when we were born and how different it is.

I grew up in fascist Italy. I know its not unique to anyone group of people.

as for celebrating that? I think its because its the thing we all have in common. we do celebrate achivments like out actors and leaders in activisms and arts and stuff. it was what was used to group us together in the first place.

and they kinda do now. celebrate skin color. like i remember mentions of there being a black history month but i kinda dropped off the grid after coming into 2007 and dont much about it. time travels a headache.

again. you dont have to understand. thats fine. just dont act like you know better because you dont like the answer you got.

[lonelysmiles]

The answer I got made it sound like the month was misnamed due to the subject matter it was about. That is what I was "upset" about because I didn't want to go to various festivities under false pretenses.

Now that I know what they are, I will be avoiding those same festivities. I don't understand it all, but then again it's none of my business until someone forces me to make it my business.

Will that do?

[refantasma]

sure. have a nice day.