Propaganda

1789115552

Miguel gets the star and ankh badges on his shoulders.

"This... will be your symbols," said Sabbath, placing the badges there.

"Hm," said Miguel.

Meanwhile...

Musang silently speaks with the foot in her breast pocket. "Yeah, I know right? Terrible... Absolutely fucking terrible..." She removes the foot and places it in a vacuum-sealed plastic and places it in a fridge among thousands of fridges underneath an unknown area, which lies beneath a massive Splooge Factory, found on the asteroid, Ceres.

Musang smiles and proceeds to grab a bag of remains of the man she killed earlier, preparing him with fine salts and peppers, specifically the butts and thighs of the man, proceeding to cook him, and later devouring him.

Musang is classified as one of the former Reapers turned Seedsowers. In fact, she is one of the Seedsower's most prestigious assassins, known as a Prowl.

Musang sighs, finishing her meal only for a soldier to point a gun at her head.

She sighs before transforming into a Nekomata.

He shoots, but she catches the bullet.

"For the Saint King-..." he said, before his head explodes.

Musang sighs and calls for Janitors who clean the body. Instead of eating the enemy, she ignores him completely.

Later...

Miguel sighs as he walks into a meeting in Maharlica-152, meeting a group of versions of himself, each with a different insignia on their chests.

This is the Council of Lakans.

The Lakans include four Miguels, a female one with a diamond on her chest, a female one with a heart, a male one with a club, and a male one with a spade.

"Uh, hey," said Miguel.

"If it isn't the Prince," said Spade. "What brings you here to the Council?"

"Look. The four of you are, as I have observed, Daimyos who have established yourselves as semi-legal rulers in my Empire."

"Yes," said Heart, flirtatiously. "And for years we have been keeping your empire rather... behaved..."

"Yeah, I know. That's the thing, guys. Um... I'm here to establish good relations between your families and mine."

"Speak, Prince. Now," asked the caveman-like Club.

"Heheh..." smiled the nerdy Diamond. "Weird... I always wondered when I'd meet another guy version of us."

"Everyone shut down. He wishes to speak," said the ever terrifying Spade.

"Uh. Hi. I'm Miguel," said Miguel.

"We all are," said Spade.

"Yes, but actually, no." said Miguel. "Um... What do you guys, want...?"

Beatle, who is in the background, facepalms.

"What?" asked Spade. "Are you serious?"

"No... I mean... I want you guys to um... join forces with me! And... stuff..."

"Okay... Uh... Right... What would you give us in return?"

"Thus-... What do you guys want?"

"We want protection under your Empire and protection from the other members of the Major Arcana."

Beatle sighs. "Excuse you. But I represent the Star-..."

"You are a former member. We're cool with you. We speak about the other 21 members. I believe you've met some of them. The cat version of us you fought is not an Aswang. She was a Seedsower. A member of the Major Arcana assassins known as the Prowls. There only non-Reaper member was Beatle, and they eventually joined Prime's empire as Seedsower Generals."

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"Okay... You want me to kill all of them?" asked Miguel.

"Sure. If... you want out armies... Which is a significant portion to the Multiverse. One of them included the one known as the Empress, or Musang. She-..."

"Wore a tiara on her cat mask," said Miguel.

"Yes. Each of these symbols they wear. We want you to kill all of them."

"Great! They work for Prime!" smiled Miguel. "This works perfectly!"

"Indeed," said Spade. "However, they are... rather powerful... And we quite fear them ourselves."

"Then I'll kill them with my training," said Miguel.

"So eager to kill... I'm not surprised... knowing our... nature..."

Miguel sighs, saddened. "Yeah... 'Nature...'"

Later...

Beatle and Arachne silently walk around the streets of Dallas.

"Are you tired of living under the tyranny of the Philippines!?" asked the American man. "Join Doomer!"

"For fuck's sake... these guys..." sighed Arachne.

"Ignore 'im," said Beatle.

"Sorry, what was that, Pipino?" asked the American man.

"Shit..." sighed Arachne. "Sorry."

"It's aight, kid. Uh. Hey."

"You're Beatle, aren't you?" smiled the American man. "You're the one who shut down all Nationalist questions, RIGHT!??!"

"No offense, but either political ideology is very much questionable for a meeting regarding people literally fucking dying. It is out responsibility to protect idiots like you," said Arachne.

Beatle sighs and nods.

"Who's this lady? What's your gender?"

"Don't answer that-..."

Arachne answers. "Straight."

"FUCKIN' UNIONEER!!!" roared the American man.

"What...?" asked Arachne.

Beatle sighs. "We do not identify. As your ruler and emperor, it is best for us to be objective and avoid listening to either ideology. We identify with neither."

"Fuckin' SEXIST!!! You're a homophobe, aren'tcha?"

Beatle shakes his head. "I cannot answer that."

"WHY NOT!?!?"

"Let's say I say I'm straight. People will start talking. Let's say I'm gay. People will start talking. Best thing to do is just watch you idiots burn each other while at the same time stopping you from doing so."

"Fuck... you..." said the man. "What? You gonna kill me for that?"

"Bitch, please," said Arachne. "You ain't worth his time. Right, Great-Grandpa? GG?"

Beatle squint his eyes. "Y'know, if only you knew... what desires I have to keep on a leash..."

"Mysoginy," said the American woman next to him.

"What did we Americans do to any Filipinos like you!?"

This struck a chord in Beatle. "What? You colonized our people. My ancestors were slaughtered by your armies."

"PROPAGANDA!!!"

Beatle's eye twitches. "Your people's central intelligence created my worst enemy by working with Narciso to have her family killed."

"PROPAGANDA!!!"

Beatle clenches his fist, wanting to punch him.

"Gramps..." she grabs his shoulder. "Choose your battles."

Beatle gives a deep sigh. "I don't care if you believe me. I spent my whole life living in a world that doesn't understand me."

"Boo fucking hoo. I hope men like you would kill yourselves for being a fascist."

Beatle sighs. "Interesting. So, what if a woman is suicidal for being lonely."

"Then that sucks."

"And when a man would die for being lonely, it won't matter?"

"Exactly."

"That's fascism."

"No, it isn't."

"Yes, it is. It's a totalitarian world view. A coward's way of making the world make sense to them-..."

"SHUT UP!!! THE EMPEROR IS HARASSING ME!!!"

Everyone rallies against him and Beatle and Arachne just walk away.

Beatle and Arachne enter the limo, and it drives away.

Beatle sighs.

"What IS your gender?" asked Arachne.

"Bi. You?"

"I'm a Lesbian," said Arachne.

"Next time, just don't answer it."

"Got it," said Arachne. "Why is it fascist?"

"Hm?"

"You called her worldview fascist. You didn't get to... answer her question."

Beatle sighs. "Because it was social inequality... She had a caste-based worldview. My Usog allows me to sense what others think as well, not just situations to happen. Her belief is extreme, and sometimes when you make a hard enough left, you make a right. She believes that one sex should be above all else. One gender. And that isn't right. That's an insult to everyone else's autonomy."

"What are we fighting for?"

"What do you fucking think?"

"Freedom. Equity. Equality. Autonomy."

"Ex... fucking... sactly... Morningstar wants suffering. And as long as we stay on the correct path, we're good. Don't be what she wants you to be... which is another her..."

"What... Why are foreigners... like this...?"

"There was this one American show... An actress... said a line... Thought she was being clever... She compared the Philippines to a common garbage dump which was a line they wrote down into the script. The next day after airing, swarms of Pinoys in social media essentially bashed her and boycotted her. You really think Cancel Culture was invented by the Americans? We did that. We MADE that. Years of us being labeled as a developing country... They don't respect us. They dismiss us as these... typhoon-centered brothers who aren't very smart or have grammatical errors all the time. They remind us that we're stupid. They expect us to smile and take it. No. I'm living proof of that. These western foreigners, even many eastern ones, are nothing but an after thought in my empire. Now that it affects their lives, they blame us. The hypocrisy of it all. The ignorance. The disgusting humorous attempt to think that we're a punchline while we're out here trying to fucking survive all this bullshit, we're an after tought."

"I never realized how... sad our background was."

"Well, now you know."

"Question, Beatle. What makes us... Filipino?"

"333 years of slavery, a dash of American manifest destiny victimization, a spicing of Japanese Occupation, LOTS of discrimination from the fucking world, mockery from dumbass western journalists, and fuckmothering grit."

"Is there more?"

Beatle shakes his head. "No."

"Huh... Grit..."

"If any westerner should learn one thing, you don't fuck with the Vietnamese, and you don't fuck with the Filipino."

"Earthquakes and Typhoons."

"Fuck yeah."