[image description: An Art Nouveau depiction of a barefoot woman standing in a crenelated courtyard. She wears medieval dress of purple and green holds a flower to her chest. It, like all the flowers and red-capped mushrooms around her, are poisonous. Text reads, â78, RAPPACCINI ~ THE SMALL GOD OF TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS"]
As a rule, she doesnât mean it.
Sheâs only following her nature; she canât help the things she does. And if that werenât enough, her name is a clue as to that natureâshe was taught the wrong ways of loving by the people who raised her, who never knew how to love in a healthy fashion, and passed that ignorance on to their daughter before she was divine, when she was just a human girl desperate to be loved.
But her lovers tell themselves she doesnât mean it; she just has a temper, she just doesnât understand that words can hurt, that lies can be a poison that seeps into the skin and builds up in the bones, until it never leaves the body again. Until the choice is burn or die, and sometimes it isnât a choice at all.
She doesnât mean it. She doesnât want to do it. She isnât trying to hurt them; she loves them so much, she would never try to hurt them. Not on purpose. She just gets so mad sometimes, and she wouldnât know what to do without them, wouldnât know how to take care of herself, wouldnât be able to keep her head above water. She needs them as much as they need her, and they forget that the word for a pretty poison that doesnât quite kill you but wonât let you go is âdrugâ and the word for a relationship with that poison is âproblem.â
She doesnât mean it. Not a single bruise or cut, not a single blow or harsh word.
She doesnât mean any of it.
She does it all the same.
Her faithful are too many, her forsworn too few, but when you see her reflection in your mirrorâŚrun. Run while you still can.
Because she doesnât mean it. But sheâll put you in the ground.
Join Lee Moyer (Icon) and Seanan McGuire (Story) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a guide to the many small deities who manage our modern world: Â Tumblr:
https://smallgodseries.tumblr.com
https://twitter.com/smallgodseries
https://instagram.com/smallgodseries/
http://smallgodseries.com