Breaking with all the conventionalisms I’d ever been taught, I couldn’t stop myself from breaking into a hearty laugh. That was a good one! But Mara wasn’t laughing?

He, he looked… concerned. “But, my liege, that’s not possible.” Hades’ expression was still soft and troubled. I didn’t understand. “But I’m a desire demon. My purpose is to gain the love of others, not to feel it myself.” His expression only grew more chary.

Starting to feel a bit of panic at the mere suggestion that what he had said was true, my voice grew louder and higher in pitch. “I can’t love anyone!”

He reached out and patted me on the arm! Pits! What the deuce was going on?!? “Let me put it to you this way, Andy. You know that I am the first among devils in our realm, right?”

I sputtered. “Of course! You are the Dark Savior, the most wicked among the foul, the potentate of all evil! I revel in your shadow!”

Satan chuckled lightly at that. “Uh, thanks. But if you believe that, what would you say if I told you that I am in love? Right now?”

I felt like I’d taken a heavy blow to the face. The Dark Lord, in love? I accidentally hit an end table with my tail as I unconsciously swung it wildly, and it throbbed. I was silent for a spell, as I simply couldn’t think of anything to say.

My entire existence had been shaken. My voice came out unevenly. “Are you certain?”

The Devil nodded. “Yes. And I love others, as well; I have since before you were born.”

The Big Man, moonstruck by Cupid’s arrow?!? Born? Born! I blinked heavily, my whole mind in revolt.

The Fallen Angel of Darkness looked apologetic. “Andy… You are my son, my trueborn son. And I love both you and your mother.”

Lies! I struggled in vain to keep my temper in check. “Why would you say such a thing? Demons have no nuclear families! Everyone knows that! My brethren are my family, but only in our resolve-“

Hades held up a hand, and I fell silent, gritting my teeth so hard my jaw hurt. “Andy, any being is capable of love, even me. And I can prove I’m telling the truth.”

My pulse beat madly in my throat and my mouth went dry. I had never thought the day would come when my Creator would expect me to believe such transparent lies! Did he think me a fool? “Forgive me, but any reasonable verification would have to be ironclad for me to-“

Belial leaned forward. “-I told you I could prove it, son. I will return to you the memories that have been hidden.”

With that, his large hand shot out and grabbed my forehead so securely, it was as though his claws were made of tungsten! I was petrified for an instant, before the flood came.

Notes

Thoughts?

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On a serious note:

In Nazi Germany, there were many people who did nothing to support Hitler and the Nazis, but who did nothing to stop them, either. Inaction at a time of crisis is unacceptable. Learn from history and stand up for what is right every moment of every day. The time is NOW.

The FBI determined some months ago that hacking, originating from Russia, was having an influence on our electoral process. These hackers interfered with our presidential election through attempted and successful penetration of email and voter registration databases, among other systems. This created fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the safety of our electoral processes.

Computers tabulated the vast majority of the 129 million votes cast in the presidential election, and polls were wildly off. Did hackers manipulate the results by compromising voting equipment? Did other problems, glitches, or errors affect the outcome?

There's a simple, relatively inexpensive way to find out: audit the electronic results against the paper ballots used by about 75% of U.S. voters.

American democracy depends on public trust of our electoral process, and public trust requires a trustworthy process.

Please sign to demand that election officials double-check the electronic results by conducting a "risk-limiting" audit of the presidential election in every state that uses paper ballots.

Demand An Audit Of The 2016 Presidential Election

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Along similar lines:

As my arch-nemesis has also mentioned in her notes recently, there is a petition online to ask the electoral college to change their votes to reflect the will of the majority/popular vote. They certainly are allowed to do this, and even in states where they are not supposed to, they only need pay a fine. Additionally, in several key states ('won' by trump, including Pennsylvania), the validity of the electronic voting has recently been called into question.

Thus, it is the only just course of action to sign the following petition. It already has the support of well over 1% of the USA's population, which is record-breaking:

Electoral College: Make Hillary Clinton President on December 19, 2016