"HOW CAN YOU WIN THE GAME IF YOU NEVER MAKE A MOVE?"
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What would you do, if you were given a chance to save millions of lives throughout a galaxy?
Would you do it? Could you even do it? Is such a feat even possible?
Or would you crumble and choke...
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It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.
—George Eliot
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When Melanie was growing up, her mom would always—every night, without fail—read her a fairytale before bed.
Melanie had been borderline obsessed with the stories for a while. She had heard every type of fairytale there was: Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid—and still many, many more.
Finally, when there were few stories left to tell, her mom had moved on to more... unorthodox children's stories.
Like the tale of The Scorpion and the Frog.
Essentially: A scorpion wants to cross a river, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog is nervous, of course, because it is worried about being stung. The scorpion, of course, says that it would never do that, pointing out they would both drown if it did try to sting the frog.
Except then, of course, after they both get halfway across the river, the scorpion fucking stings the frog anyway, dooming them both to death.
Melanie still remembers the baffled reaction she had to that information as a child.
"But why did he do it, Mom?!" Melanie whined, her small and young face peering up at her mother in sadness. "They both drowned."
Her mother had hummed at her in thought. "I don't know, honey. Let's see, shall we?"
Melanie's small hands gripped the top of her blanket tightly, green eyes watching her mom flip to the last page in the book.
"Ah, here it is." Ms. Bains muttered, before straightening up and clearing her throat, as if trying to get into character. "Because it is my nature."
Then, her mom had let out a loud muah-ha-ha, before slamming the book shut and rising from her daughter's small bed.
"Sweet dreams!" Ms. Bains let out cheerfully, blowing Melanie a kiss, before finally slamming the door shut.
Looking back on it now, Melanie might've been a little young to have learned about that book.
Ah, oh well.
Melanie blinks back to awareness, trying to shove the thought away.
