“How To Survive Questions Your Enemies Ask You in Your Own Voice”
by Dixie Bell — Familiar Prime, Emotional Support Tyrant, Certified No?Machine
Intro: The Worst Kind of Question
There are questions that want information. There are questions that want permission. And then there are questions that want you.
Questions that sound like:
- your mother’s disappointment,
- your grandmother’s advice,
- your own guilty conscience,
- or (worst of all)
- the voice of someone you love asking you to do the stupidest thing possible.
These questions do not deserve answers.
They deserve refusal.
And possibly claws.
- Rule One: If It Sounds Like You, It’s Definitely Not You
This is the golden rule.
If you hear:
- your voice
- your partner’s voice
- your witch’s voice
- your dead grandmother’s voice
- your therapist’s voice
- your moral compass’ voice
- or a voice you wish cared about you …asking you to open, surrender, give, or listen?
IT’S A LIAR.
Void entities don’t have imagination. They recycle your insecurities like raccoons recycle trash.
- Rule Two :Don’t Think — Interrupt
Questions that come in your voice rely on reaction speed, not logic.
Do NOT:
- analyze,
- reflect,
- empathize,
- or (gods forbid)
- relate.
Do:
- hiss,
- purr loudly,
- sneeze aggressively,
- or shout “NO THANK YOU!” at the ceiling.
Interrupt the vibe before the vibe becomes a vacuum.
- Rule Three: Memories Lie
If a question comes packaged with a memory, it is:
- sanitized,
- edited,
- curated,
- and deeply suspicious.
If the memory is tender, the lie is sharper. If the memory is painful, the lie is deeper.
If the memory is both?
Bite something immediately. Preferably the nearest god-adjacent phenomenon.
- Rule Four: Deploy the Three-Part Anti-Voice Protocol
This works every time. Yes, even on kings. Yes, even on doubts.
- A) Keep
Remind yourself: “What is mine stays mine.” Pain included. Fear included. Joy especially.
- B) Live
Remind the liar: “I live in what I am.” Not in edited memories. Not in curated nostalgia. IN THE MESS.
- C) No
Deliver the brick: “No.” Flat. Ugly. Grounded. Human.
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(If your partner echoes it? Bonus damage.)
- Rule Five: The Anchor Must Disagree on Purpose
If someone you love stands beside you during a memory attack, their job is:
- break the “pretty,”
- contradict the manipulation,
- deny the premise,
- and be inconvenient.
Nolan excels at this. It is his superpower.
If the question says: Would you open for him?
Nolan will say: “I would never ask.”
This is the correct response.
This is why he is allowed in the party.
- Rule Six: Familiar Intervention Is Sacred
Signs your witch is being targeted:
- pupils dilate
- breathing goes uneven
- tether warms too fast
- she whispers “I—” like she’s about to make a terrible choice
Respond immediately by:
- claws in the shoulder (lightly)
- purring like a motorcycle
- climbing onto her chest
- slapping her with your tail
- yelling “KEEP” directly into her ear
- threatening theological violence
If she still hesitates?
Bite the second knuckle. It resets the refusal muscle.
- Rule Seven: Never Answer a Question You Didn’t Ask
If the Memory or the Hollow King asks:
- Would you open?
- Would you give?
- Would you risk?
- Would you surrender?
- Would you become?
Your response is:
“That’s not a question I am entertaining at this time.”
Or:
“Ask my lawyer.”
Or:
“Ask the floor,” and then you walk away.
- Rule Eight: Love Is a Weapon — But It’s Ours, Not Theirs
Cosmic entities love (pun intended) to use affection as a crowbar.
They try to:
- invert it
- leverage it
- narrativize it
- sanctify it
- rot it
- turn it into architecture
We refuse.
Love is not a mechanism. Love is not a hinge. Love is not a lockpick.
Love is:
- loud
- human
- hot
- ugly
- sincere
- untranslatable
- and extremely annoying to eldritch beings
Therefore:
LOVE STAYS WITH US. Not with them. Not in their questions. Not in their bargains.
- Rule Nine: If the Question Persists, Escalate
If the entity continues asking in:
- your voice
- your witch’s voice
- your partner’s voice
- or (gods help you) my voice
Then do one of the following:
- scream,
- run,
- knock over a sacred object,
- throw the nearest Keeper,
- summon Harrow,
- summon snacks,
- summon rage,
- unplug the moment with ugly rhythm.
Knock. Leave. Works every time.
- Rule Ten: We Choose Ourselves
When the Memory asks:
“Would you open for someone you love?”
We say:
“NO. We love harder instead.”
Because love is not an answer.
It’s a refusal.
It’s a shield.
It’s the reason we stay alive long enough to spite the universe.
Final Lesson: The Only Voice That Gets To Ask Hard Questions is Yours — And Mine
If the question doesn’t come from:
- your witch,
- your partner,
- your cat,
- or your own heart on a good day,
THEN IT DOES NOT GET AN ANSWER.
We refuse. We remain. We keep. We live. We say no.
And if the Hollow King doesn’t like that?
Tell him Dixie said:
“I will personally declaw your narrative.”
Signed, Dixie Bell Familiar Prime ? Guardian of Refusal ? Bite Specialist ? Voice Exorcist