On a foreign world, long ago, at the middle of night. The suns shined despite the hour, two on either horizon, one red, one yellow. On this planet, they had a myth of a god who could derive power in one sun, and die in the other. The stories of that myth were hard to come by in their original form. Still, under both suns you could find them, moving for the delight and consumption of its people.
    The suns rarely sunk beneath the horizon, and no matter what, for the charred dark surface, you could see one of them, jealously watching the other to make sure it made no move it could not imitate and try its own corona at. The people of this world thought that the suns hated one another, while getting their entire lives from them. Some worked in worship of them, against the other sun. At the point their society was at, the yellow sun was winning, although neither flourished.
    Beneath each sun was a church. Majestic to many of the denizens, these buildings housed the gifts the sun had for them, a simple tithe all it required to give to them. Converts were fairly regular, depending on which church stated a greater salvation at the time. Both too often grew complacent in their parishioners. Their papacies, though often younger then their deacons, and far younger than the lay people who witnessed for them, had grown fat in the supposed blessing of their faith.
    Many of the people gave their entire wages as tithe, in hopes of a greater blessing, even if they may divide it between the two. Few people were happy, their existences quotidian, their minds dulled and without inspiration, they knew but few pleasures, though they kept them hidden under a veiled secrecy. They seemed happy. They all managed to pretend well enough that they were elated to see one another, and that every bond they had was never tested or strained.
    Appearances were important on this planet. Beyond the facades of happiness, appearance was still greatly important. Most of the beings on this world were never kissed by the light of their sky. They were pale; with the exceptions of those who tried to steal the sky's light without truly letting it stain their skin. Most hated those naturally effected by the light. Those who were born into the light were scorned; looked at as outsiders, as if the planet was not for them. Most of those touched by the light, with their culture held to the corners of the land, were held to poverty and to the other side of the partitioned lands. They were seen as alien. A few managed to integrate into the culture of the sickly looking beings who controlled the lands. Many of the younger members of those who avoided the changing light tried to emulate the culture of those whom the ever glow effected more.
    They lived away from the temples. Each domicile looked more bland than the one next to it. Off-white buildings, with massive metal tortoises in front of them. Though families were rarely allowed to be above four members before they would be scorned by their neighbors, they still claimed to need the largest tortoises, which needed the most food. It was chore in itself to feed these lumbering creatures, which had feces that polluted their world. Still, with monochrome painted shells, they were lusted after commodity.
    None of these beings appreciated walking, even across the massive black plains between the temples. They were more content not to labor themselves with such trivialities as movement. They had their tortoises, and the youngest had chariots in the temples even. Many of the people waddled instead of walked, barely moving aside from a simple lift of their side to force themselves forward. They were poor movers, after a quick, steady, devolution. It took them less than one hundred revolutions around their suns, to lose their movement, and their ability to think beyond themselves; they let their religion think for them.
    Any mistake this society made would be covered up, though not destroyed. They would import vegetation from worlds foreign to them, for the appearances of a more natural world. A world of pure metal, alloys made within its core, had more life in it than this one. All vegetation would whither, unable to feed upon the dead land around it. They devised ways to keep it alive; they never let it into the ground. They built special enclosures for the plants, so they could add what they described as "character" to their mistakes, while also being able to survive in dirt mined from as far away from them as anything other than their temples.
    The youngest and the least of them hated it. They escaped from it as much as they could. For some, when they came of age they were able to leave this land, and try to get a better life, even if many would eventually return to a world like this one, if not back to the one from whence they were spawned. Others just tried to escape it as best they could. For many, to escape was illegal.
    In the middle of the blackened earth, with the two suns oppressively shining on the horizons at midnight, in the darkness of the dimly lit sky, some the younger members of this society often congregated. They would all try to escape. It was the night before someone would leave for other worlds, to try to learn more. Well-wishes were the theme of the night, which would mean a trip to one of the temples that many maligned. The temples encouraged these visits, they made some easy money giving them food for tithe.
    They talked while inhaling from a foreign herb from a land they may never know, nor see. The herb relieved their stress when burnt, though, and they would never harm anyone while it effected them. They would just talk, watching the world go by, hoping that it would go away from them. Slowly, though, they would all leave. Most knew they would be escaping and others were willing to entertain the notion they were not trapped here. The others who left merely did not care, and were only there to get some of the herb for a cheap as they could; the rest of their money would go to their tithing.
    After an hour one was left, a female of the species, she believed she would never get to leave. Her parents told her to get a life mate instead of learn all that she wanted to. She was trapped in this world, unwilling to submit to either temple, and afraid to go out on her own with an unsure future. The female looked into the sky, took in a deep breath of fresh aid and leaned back. Then she took a long drag off of the burning herb. She looked to the world as clearly as she could. The yellow sun smiled to her, and the red sun tried to guide her to it. She wanted neither of them. She let herself be jaded, she let herself be calm.
    She ran a hand through dark brown fur that grew exclusively from the top of her head, it was shorter than her gender tended, and she liked it that way. She liked to be as foreign to them as possible. She wished she could be different, she wished that she could leave. She conspired to leave as often as she could. She hated this world, and both of the suns that she felt were more oppressive then anything else could ever be. She saw her people as slaves to their religion, and slaves to this land. She closed her eyes and drifted into sleep in the middle of the black plain. This was all that managed to make her happy at all. She happily slept there, a bag of the herb in her pocket, and the burning herb itself stamped out on the black ground.
    She wasted away there, like her parents had, though. She never was able to escape the suns, even though she would never believe they could bless her. She would, until her final day, still be found in the parking lot on late, lonely nights, trying to make herself forget everything she had come to despise. Her hair grew pale, her body sagged, her mind aged dramatically, and she never was able to go outside of her realm without the indoctrinated fear of the unknown holding her back.
    The suns would long shine over this land, they provided their supposed blessing onto the people. Few even wanted them to leave. She was their only vocal critic, yet still, she needed them with nothing else to provide for her. She killed herself for the sole escape.