Marionette

Oceans, Chapter One - Kuro [黒]

[Book #1 - Oceans Arc]

At what point do you call a Dream a Nightmare?

It's not often that anybody would wonder about that, huh?

At what point do you call a Creature a Monster?

There is just one crucial connection between those two questions.

One crucial thing that answers the questions in exactly the same way.

The answer?

A Dream becomes a Nightmare the moment it's unpleasant for the Dreamer.

A Creature becomes a Monster the moment it's presence is unpleasant for those around it.

You can also look at it another way; A Creature becomes a Monster the moment it's become too unpleasant for those around it to remain interested in finding mutual understanding. It's easy to call something a monster, because it means you don't have to try and understand it anymore.

You can just elect to misunderstand it.

Nobody wants to understand a monster, do they?

It's easy to shy away from an ugly truth by calling it a monster.

Just like it's easy to call a Dream a Nightmare when you don't want to face it.

It's based on convenience versus practicality. It's always convenient to disregard something and stop trying to understand it when it's no longer practical. And it's practical to disregard an unpleasantry when it's no longer feasible to deal with.

So when do you stop seeing a person as a human, and start to refer to them as a monster?

Usually, it's when their views and morals are so greatly out of whack with your own that you cease bothering in seeing them at all. A human becomes a monster when you refuse their equal position to yourself.It's unpleasant to be faced with the possibility that your very views and associations might be wrong after all.

So that's when you start associating them as a Monster, because it's easier to misunderstand than to try and understand, after all.

The shrill cry of an alarm clock echoed through the darkness, its metal mallet swinging back and forth between two bells in break-less chorus that to the sleeping, sounded like it could wake the dead.

Katsuragi Amaya groaned as she awoke, her right hand lifting from beneath the covers to paw blindly through the dark towards the source of the shrill cry.

It had just gone 4.30am by the moment the alarm had started ringing, the world still a pitch black around her as Amaya succeeded in closing her hand over the bells of the alarm clock to muffle it's chorus. The rubbing of the mallet beneath the palm of her hand did nothing but elict a yawn from her as she groggily rose from slumber.

Even though it was pitch black, Amaya still ran her gaze across her surroundings in a habitual manner as she turned the clock off, and pawed for the base of her bedside lamp.

As Amaya successfully found the base of the lamp, her nimble fingers slid along the base and flicked the switch, illuminating her surroundings.

She was inside a rather small room, with very little in the way of furnishings or decorations, yet it was evidently her bedroom never the less. Upon a white carpet stood the bed she was still lying in, complete with black covers, a white featureless closet, and a desk situated right next to the bed, which stood her lamp, analogue belled alarm clock and a few study books atop it's white painted surface. The walls of the room were a soft, dusty red, with a white ceiling, and the curtains of the window were a matching black.