After I finished eliminating a few Daimons last night, Sim and I were in a hotel room and DL started playing. Simi was fascinated by it and I ended up spending much of this morning trying to explain the plot to her.
That's why I cherish Simi so much. The idea of people manipulating others for their own, not even personal gain, but amusement is beyond her. I wish I could be so innocent. Honestly, I've never understood it either. Those people who come into your life, pretending to be friends, only to wreak as much damage to you as they can. People who set you up just so they can watch you fall. They coax you in and tell you that they will be there for you and then they go behind your back, lying to others about you. Telling everyone things that are usually completely untrue and yet because it is the nature of these people, they're good at making the lies sound plausible.
I think it's human nature to want to believe the worst of others. They don't want to think that someone could actually be in this world and not mean harm to another soul. After all, why would a friend lie? I find it fascinating that this duplicitous tendency is unknown to demons who, according to mankind, are evil.
It's how I was roped by Artemis. I needed a friend. I'd been abandoned by others and had just had a so-called friend turn on me. She reached out to me when I was vulnerable. And as long as I did what she wanted me to do and she felt like she had control of me, everything was fine.
But the moment I exercised my own will, it angered her. She wanted to control who I spoke to and spent time with. It was okay for her to have friends and to vanish for days on end without telling me. But should I so much as speak to another, I was pushing her away.
But she's not the worst. The Artemises of the world are easy enough to deal with. She's at least honest with her jealousy and anger. It's the ones who play people against each other. Those who will tell one person one thing and then run to that person's closest friends to tell them a completely different story. To prod one party just to get dirt to take to the other. If they can't get the dirt, they make it up. Their only purpose, to hurt and to destroy.
I've often wondered if it's because their own lives are vacant. Maybe they're born that way. Maybe there's just something destructive within them that they can't stand the thought of someone else being happy. Because they are incapable of having a true friendship where loyalty exists above all, they are out to prove that loyalty and friendship don't really exist. All it takes is a few well placed lies to destroy years of trust.
Kyrian and I had this discussion not long ago. How you can twist someone's mind and make them doubt another. "I saw your husband at lunch with his secretary yesterday. I thought he was at a meeting then?" or "I overheard X talking about you. If I were you, I'd be careful what I tell them in the future." Even though there could be a hundred plausible excuses that are legitimate, that kind of statement will weigh on a person's mind and make them doubt someone they shouldn't. It's why I loved that series of commercials for an insurance company where they showed how often things are not what they seem. How the right set of circumstances could be misconstrued for malicious intent.
That's why I've learned to trust no one. Why I guard everything about myself even when it seems trivial-- it's those "trivial" things that a master manipulator can use to make other people think they are "in the know" about you even when they're not. The Dark-Hunters think I'm hiding something from them and I guess they're right. I am. I'm hiding myself because I don't want to be hurt again. I don't want anyone to have anymore fodder about me so that they can turn on me and wound me when I don't give them what they want. When they no longer feel that they control me.
It's a frightening world we live in. The fact that anyone can trust another amazes me. But then I still trust Simi. I wish everyone could have a Simi in their life. Someone who would always be there, who only saw the good in you. Who didn't look for dirt to justify their own shortcomings. Who didn't talk about you except to tell people how wonderful you are. But rather, someone who could just live in peace and find true happiness from something as simple as a new pair of cut glass earrings and barbecue sauce. This world definitely needs more Simis in it.
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Simi was right. A ride in the convertible helped the mindset immensely. Nothing like cruising to make every problem seem insignificant. Will probably go skydiving later today. A good free fall always amuses me. Then I have to get back to work tonight. Stryker is on the loose and having a good time himself. Not to mention I need to go check on the Las Vegas situation. There were some rumblings out there earlier.
