What is the single trait that makes a badge and a wedding ring so similar?

Is it the title they lend to their wearers?

Is it the mineral components they share?

Is it the responsibility bestowed upon the recipient?

All good guesses but no, it’s the fact that despite what they’re supposed to mean, a lifelong bond or a responsibility to society, they’re easy to slip on and off to fit a person’s whims.

Before I let the world know I was Hera, this ring was simply an accessory. No one knew I was married to the most powerful man in Arcadia. I was simply a hot woman with expensive tastes to most of the miscreants in society. The ring made me forbidden fruit. Taking it off meant I could be devoured.

Before the world knew you as Sheriff, the badge you wore was simply part of the uniform. No one knew you were an officer when you wore your street clothes. You were simply a man with walls up to the would be criminals who roam these streets. Without the badge, you just had to stew in anger when someone wronged you. Putting it on meant you could devour.

When I first met you, I actually thought you were a good man, a man who wanted to be a hero. I saw the potential you had then I met your family. Your brother who I handpicked because of his rebellious nature. Your father who makes me look like a saint. Your mother who can count on her fingers the reasons she puts up with all of you.

You’re just like your old man, wear the badge because it allows you brutality, take it off when you don’t want accountability. That’s what I put you to trial for and in your heart of hearts, you know it’s true. It’s why you didn’t say anything in the courtroom. You had no evidence I was wrong. Asking for a trial by combat was the biggest admission of guilt I had ever seen.

This sham of a trial isn’t whether you’re guilty or innocent, it’s whether we’re arresting a criminal or letting one walk free. You can’t deny the brutality so when you step on the ring with me, will you wear the badge and accept culpability or will you put it away and pretend you’re not the tyrant sheriff, just a misunderstood man?

I hope you understand that the only way you get to live your life and act like you’re not the criminal we all know you are is take off the badge for good after our match. Yes, you can slide off and on the badge like I can this ring. The difference is I’m judged when I take this off, I’m seen as a bad wife.

Why can’t the world see what you are when you take your badge off?

A bad cop and a worse human being.