The biggest problem is that Facebook and Google are these giant feedback loops that give people what they want to hear. And when you use them in a world where your biases are being constantly confirmed, you become susceptible to fake news, propaganda, demagoguery.
Franklin Foer:
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"Show-off," Yuno muttered, crossing her arms as she watched Amel casually brush stray sparks of electricity from his arm.
"Nah," he replied, his grin widening into something infuriatingly smug. "I just got bored fighting them the old-fashioned way."
Snow began to fall again, its gentle descent starkly contrasting the smoldering ground beneath their feet.
Ash and charred remains hissed softly as the fresh white blanket slowly covered them.
The air was eerily still now, broken only by the faint crackle of lingering energy in the atmosphere.
"So," Yuno said, breaking the silence, "what now? Because, honestly, I'm running out of ways to entertain myself, and you're not exactly helping."
Amel's grin didn't waver. "The lizards weren't what I wanted to show you."
Her eyebrows shot up. "Oh, so we just turned a horde of oversized geckos into ashes for no reason?"
"There's something else here," he said cryptically, his gaze shifting toward the horizon.
She groaned, throwing her hands up. "Great. You're doing that mysterious thing again. Can't you just tell me instead of pulling the whole 'you'll know when you see it' act?"
"You'll know when you see it," he repeated with a smirk, entirely ignoring her glare.
Without another word, he trudged ahead, his boots crunching over the brittle remains of frozen leaves and shattered bark.
The sharp bite of the air grew more pronounced as the snowfall thickened, veiling the ruined forest in a ghostly white.
Snowflakes clung to his dark hair, and every so often, he flicked them away with a faintly annoyed gesture.
Yuno followed, hopping over a frostbitten, fallen log with ease.
Her pink hair caught the dim light filtering through the overcast sky, and the icy wind tugged at her loose shirt. But if she felt the cold, she didn't show it—or care.
"You know," she called out, her voice tinged with a teasing lilt, "if I didn't know any better, I'd think you actually enjoyed blasting an entire forest into oblivion."
Amel glanced back at her, his smirk creeping back. "And you're just mad you didn't get to do it first. Admit it."
Yuno narrowed her eyes, but the small smile tugging at her lips betrayed her. "You're insufferable, you know that?"
"Yeah," he replied, turning his attention back to the snowy path ahead. "But you'd be bored without me."
She rolled her eyes, though she didn't argue.
Because, truth be told, she had been bored—until he showed up.
As they walked, the snowflakes fell with an unusual deliberateness, almost as if the forest itself was trying to heal—covering its charred and broken scars with a pristine, white blanket.
Amel tilted his head back, his dark eyes narrowing slightly as he stared up at the sky.
"You notice that? The snow feels... weird. Like it's alive," he muttered, his tone more curious than concerned.
"Everything feels weird since someone decided to blow up the whole damn forest," Yuno shot back, folding her arms tightly across her chest.
He glanced at her with a shrug, his expression nonchalant, as if to say, What are you going to do about it?
Before she could retort, their banter faded as the ruined forest began to thin. The brittle, frost-covered wasteland gave way to something entirely unexpected.
Before them stretched a vibrant, untouched forest, so lush and verdant it seemed almost unreal.
The greenery shimmered faintly, pulsing as though it were alive, breathing in rhythm with the earth itself.
But it wasn't the vibrant forest that held their attention.
At the boundary between the two worlds lay the colossal corpse of a twelve-story lizard.
Its massive body sprawled across the dividing line, its scales marred by deep burns and gouges that exposed sinewy, pale flesh beneath.
Its lifeless eyes, each the size of a boulder, stared blankly at the overcast sky, their glassy sheen a testament to the force that had felled it.
Steam rose faintly from its wounds, mingling with the cold air to form a ghostly haze around the fallen beast.
Amel let out a low whistle, his hands sliding into his pockets. "Guess I overdid it, huh?"
Yuno stepped closer, her eyes narrowing as she inspected the creature. "No kidding," she murmured.
Her voice, usually dripping with sarcasm or irritation, was oddly subdued. "This one... it feels different."
She hesitated, then reached out, her fingers brushing against the lizard's frigid scales.
A sharp shiver ran through her—not from the cold, but from something deeper.
A residual energy clung to the beast, faint yet unmistakable.
Amel frowned, watching her. "Fucking pain in the arse," he muttered under his breath.
Without warning, he stepped forward and kicked the massive corpse.
The force of his strike was absurd, almost ridiculous—except it wasn't.
The twelve-story lizard, all hundred tons of it, launched into the air like a ragdoll, tumbling end over end until it vanished into the distant sky.
Yuno blinked, her hand still half-raised from where she'd touched the beast.
Slowly, she turned to face Amel, her expression caught between disbelief and exasperation.
"Was that necessary?" she asked flatly.
He shrugged again, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. "What? It was in the way."
"...You're impossible," she muttered, dragging a hand down her face.
The vibrant forest loomed ahead, silent and waiting, its unnatural stillness heavy with foreboding.
Whatever lay beyond, Yuno had the sinking feeling that things were about to get much, much worse.
Snow continued to fall behind them, blanketing the desolate, charred wasteland they had left behind.
In stark contrast, the green forest ahead seemed to radiate warmth, its vibrant hues growing more vivid with every step they took.
The contrast was jarring—one world frozen in despair, the other teeming with unsettling life.
Yuno cast a sideways glance at Amel, her expression uncertain, her voice uncharacteristically soft. "Do you think it'll ever stop snowing back there?"
He shrugged, the faintest hint of a smirk tugging at his lips. "Don't know, don't care. Ask that idiot god if you're so curious."
"Calling this mess 'not your problem' won't save our skin," Yuno muttered, pulling her loose shirt tighter around her torso, though it wasn't the cold that had her on edge.
She wouldn't admit it—not out loud—but fear coiled tightly in her chest, making it hard to breathe.
Amel caught her glance and, for a moment, his grin widened in that maddeningly confident way he had.
"Relax. If things get worse, I'll just slap that stupid god into next week. Problem solved. You can thank me later."
Something in his tone—lighthearted yet somehow unwavering—eased her tension, if only slightly.
Yuno groaned, rolling her eyes. "You're an idiot," she muttered. But the sharpness in her voice had softened, her words more reflex than reproach.
She followed him as he strode toward the edge of the frozen wasteland, the vivid green of the forest ahead both beckoning and foreboding.
The air grew warmer with each step, the brittle crunch of snow and ice beneath their boots fading into the softer sound of earth and foliage.
The transition was almost dreamlike—unnatural. The lush greenery seemed to pulse faintly, as if alive in ways neither of them could fully grasp.
Because really, there was no going back now.
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As they continued on, Amel's unease deepened with each step. Something wasn't adding up.
The clearing ahead looked painfully familiar—the same open field, the same crooked trees casting shadows across the ground, the same unsettling stillness in the air.
"Remember how I told you I wanted to show you something?" Amel announced, stopping abruptly, his voice heavy with drama.
Yuno glanced up, her expression as unreadable as ever. "Yes?" she replied, her tone questioning but flat, as though she could already tell he was gearing up for something over-the-top.
Amel straightened, brushing his hands against his pants for added effect. Then, with an exaggerated flourish, he gestured to the clearing.
"We're trapped in a loop! This place—the clearing—it's the same. The same damn air, the same stupid crooked tree over there, the same—"
"Amel," Yuno interrupted, her sigh cutting through his rant like a knife.
"What?" He froze mid-gesture, his momentum halted by the weight of her tone.
"I know we're in a loop," she said simply, as though commenting on the weather.
Amel blinked, the dramatic energy draining from his posture as her words sank in. "You… you knew?"
"Of course I knew," Yuno said casually, leaning back against a nearby rock. She stretched her legs out in front of her, her demeanor so nonchalant it bordered on infuriating.
"It was the first thing I noticed when I realized I was stuck here. I even started experimenting on those animals to confirm it."
The silence that followed hit like a slap.
Amel blinked, his triumphant expression crumbling as disbelief gave way to frustration. "Wait. You're telling me… you already knew we were in a loop, and you didn't say anything?!"
Yuno shrugged, the corners of her lips tugging into a sly smirk. "Well…" She paused just long enough to twist the knife. "You never asked."
Amel groaned, running a hand through his hair. "Are you fucking kidding me?" he snapped, throwing his hands in the air in utter exasperation. "You're impossible!"
Amel groaned, dragging his hands through his hair in frustration. "Unbelievable. Here I was, thinking I was being all clever—connecting the dots and everything. Turns out, I was just…"
"…showing me you didn't know about the loop," Yuno finished for him, her voice laced with teasing amusement.
Despite her playful tone, there was a softness in her eyes, as though she genuinely appreciated the effort he had put in—even if it had been entirely unnecessary.
Amel crossed his arms and scowled, his sulk written all over his face. "Well, now I feel stupid."
Yuno pushed off the rock, dusting her pants as she walked over to him. With a smirk, she gave his arm a light punch. "Don't. You saved me. That's got to count for something, right?"
He glanced at her, the corner of his mouth twitching as he fought back a grin. "Yeah, I should definitely feel proud about saving an old granny like you."
And just like that, any goodwill he had managed to earn evaporated on the spot.
Yuno's eyebrow twitched dangerously. "You really know how to ruin a moment, don't you?"
"So," she said sharply, ignoring his jab as she fixed him with a glare, "what are you going to do now?"
Amel's smirk faded, replaced by an expression of calm determination. "I'm going to end this."
He raised his hand toward the sky, his fingers outstretched, his gaze fixed on the horizon. "I choose you, Ritha."
The air around them began to ripple and distort, as though reality itself was buckling under an unseen force. Space twisted and writhed around his hand, the energy coiling and crackling like a living entity.
Whatever was coming, it gave her a foreboding feeling.
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