No, because he's more likely to insist he's fine even when he's very clearly not. [and she sounds annoyed by this.] But I think it's because he doesn't know anything else.
[there's a little look at the mention of strays, but she won't point out she's thinking anything about it. rather, she's just frowning because she's getting so tired of hearing about people being manipulated into shit.]
Have you been able to start helping them to unlearn them? It sounds like it'd be difficult for them, too.
[this is the second time famine has mentioned therapy, and this time aerith gives them a little look that says she kind of gets the concept but isn't sure what that actually means. she can guess, but by all means, explain the therapy. everyone in the 7 party needs therapy.]
If he's still improving, sounds like token complaints to me. I think when people really don't want to follow suggestions, they would complain and then still not follow through. [...] It's...nice that you cared about them enough to give them what they needed to start getting better.
They wouldn't be as useful to me if they were still running around committing murders thinking that it was what they had to do to find fulfillment in life.
[ is it nice? is it? to pardon and save a serial killer, aerith? is it?
anyway, ]
Therapy is when a licensed professional engages in regularly schedule talk sessions with someone to unpack their trauma and face fallacies in their own thinking. It takes time, but it is effective.
[well you could have led with that part, man. also listen sometimes...people do things...are they no longer killing...
whatever it's fine.]
Oh, so that's the motivation. Sounds a little like someone else was misguiding them to begin with. And if the murders have stopped and they're coming to terms with what's happened...[well. people still die when they are killed and there are some evils you can't forgive, but intention means a lot.]
We don't have anything like that, I think. At least nothing I've heard of. [...] Are they helping you in your mission to fix your country then?
[there's a little pout because, like, she wouldn't call it a worry but also she's currently finding how many people are in godawful situations to begin with.]
So you're satisfied with the progress of everything so far. [she means back where they're from, but she figures they'll interpret that however they want because famine does not budge on their opinions much, it seems. unfortunate that she respects that.]
Right, right, looking to see if they can really successfully summon a god and if something like a god even exists. I remember. [she isn't entirely sure what to think about that, whether to be impressed or a little concerned. it's why she stares at them for a long moment before turning back and picking up a package of gummy bears.]
...people must think you're impressive where you're from.
Sorrowful wails trail after you.. They are in despair in the way that only people working their daily 9 to 5s can be. Even still, they are not enough to stop your long strides that take you further and further away from the center of the city.
“After him!!” one aide screams. “Lord Scien escaped from the meeting again!”
“Someone, call his bodyguard, Lucas!” Another cries out. “He's the only one who can detain Scien...!”
(Well. That one does get you to walk a bit faster. You’re not intimidated.)
The first aid whines again. “We need him to look through and approve the backlog of papers, and... ugh... My head...”
Their head? Please. All they do is bring the papers to you. You’re the one who actually has to think about the fate of the wretched country.
Well, less wretched these days.
“Unbelievable...” You complain, even as your path takes you towards the outskirts of the island. You meander through the commoner streets of Coene without concern. Even all these years later, people don’t know what their god walking among them even looks like. You pass through the streets, unknown, even though you’re in all their history books. “They’re not even giving me time to pay my respects. I already told them I had plans, and still they were brazen enough to schedule yet another meeting...”
You, the genius scientist, Scien Brofiise, who freed the country from the curse, breezed through the streets of your domain with a bottle of wine in hand.
“As soon as I opened the country, they buried me in politics and legislation... I miss my days at the Institute.”
Peace and quiet, uninterrupted for years at a time. Only you, your research, and the occasional basket of food left by your assistant. Where you are now, forcibly elected to the highest position of power by a Parliament you structured but never intended to run—you can only call it a necessary evil. One you’d like to escape from soon.
Still, that fades into the background now as you approach a small grave by a familiar orphanage.
You think to yourself: ‘I know it’s too late for regret, but I lost a promising successor and the only person who I would call my equal... Maybe I could have avoided their demise if I had focused my research on retaining personalities... Then again, they’re both together now as mother and son in the same grave...’
“You two have as many quarrels as you want in Hades like any normal family. You may not have noticed, but you two are just like each other in your extreme, two-sided personalities.”
You pour the wine you randomly chose over the grave where the two of them slept. Immediately after, you take out a letter from your pocket. You know what it is, based purely on its return address. Another research facility across the sea.
A letter requesting your presence in another country to collaborate in research on time travel. You know certainly that if you participate it would be very likely that the technology could be realized within a few years, but...
You don’t read the letter. You tear up their plea for help, sent under the guise of collaboration. It is but one of many invitations that you’ve received since opening the country, as the globe has become aware of the scope of what you’ve accomplished. Without the guidance of the genius beloved by God, time travel would likely fade into mere fantasy. But that was fine.
You frown, thinking of the words of a botched time traveler who came to you from a different timeline. The version of you that stopped aging at 18 was far more out of control. You used an innocent man as a test subject, and killed another that you swore to protect in your desperation. And still, that Scien Brofiise could not find a way to get rid of the curse with those sacrifices.
You cannot accept another existence of yourself foolish enough to accomplish nothing. You could never tread that same path.
The torn letter gets carried with the wind, and you regard the grave once more.
The resting place of the only two friends you’ve had in your near hundred years of living. Irreplaceable people who you failed to save. A foreign feeling makes a home in your chest, and you wonder if this is what people call loneliness. Remorse.
“Now then, I should be going.” You shake off the feeling, and declare your next steps. “I’m off to see your son and daughter start a new beginning... It’s out of character for me, but it’s my duty as the oldest.”
Fortunately, you’ve decided to pursue a new research topic—genetic disorders—which had no shortage of cases to explore. If you are indeed a god, you could be selfish and arrogant. As long as your work saves those who suffered in despair, who would judge you?
Following the new emotions in your modified heart, you—the man who became god—set out on a path that would lead you to even greater heights. ]
[i would like to reiterate that i can't fucking stand you.
anyway, this is happening a lot. there is a memory, and she's actually sort of surprised this is happening at all but it means she's paying attention. so much of this puts a lot of what famine has said into context.
it doesn't take much for her to realize that famine is somehow who chose to spend so much of his time working tirelessly, and there's a flutter of sadness when she notices the approach to a grave.
she notices a lot of things that make her sad, actually, because even the most aloof of men are bound to have some attachments and some regrets even though she also recalls what famine's said about both. it's the "hundred years of living" that has her going "???", but age doesn't exactly matter for feelings like remorse or loneliness.
she doesn't comment about the different timelines, because it's something she herself is experiencing and isn't entirely sure what it is, or how it is, or if it's best to let things run its course. all in all, in the end, when the memory fades she's left staring at famine and pauses for a long moment to study their face still hidden behind the mask.]
An atheist man of science who became a god. [just. the way she says it indicates she does not believe he's actually a god, but more of an idol. a savior. someone still learning what it means to process a range of emotions.] I guess being a genius would allow you to obtain anything you could ever want.
[why rely on a god-given wish when you're a god who can create miracles? although there's something...bothering her...a little. a curse? she wants to ask, but she will wait a moment.]
but. famine nods—that is an accurate assessment of exactly who and what he is. a genius rooted in science, but so successful that it that he is the closest thing to a deity that his world has ever seen. being here has been exciting in the way that it opens up new perspectives and realities—
however in his world, he's accomplished everything he's set out to ]
So I see. [she gathered as much from the memory, and it's clear she's equally curious now.] And in being here, how many new topics have you found that have managed to catch it?
[besides if the cult can summon a god (that may be a baby god?? unclear.)]
A few. Magic is interesting, in the sense that some of it also needs to follow clear rules in order to be done. That is also its own system, in the way that technology is. If I could harness that to make things more efficient, it can help in addressing some rare strains of disease.
The concept of different worlds is also interesting, if only because it can open more doors to more unknowns.
[ they tilt their head, curious ]
So it hasn't been all bad. Even so, your lives getting caught in the matter was not in my expectations.
More doors to more unknowns and more potentials for what you're planning to study next. [makes sense to her. there are a lot of concepts she herself has started to learn from people here. but...]
Does it irritate you at all? That us being here is a problem you didn't anticipate and don't have a solid answer for. [she's not so much asking if he cares he can't help them, but more out of curiosity how he views the situation itself.]
[ they answer so fast, frowning as they cross their arms ]
I left my country so that the only one who would have to pay for my choices and curiosity would be myself. And then I have to sit here, watching the lot of you get summoned, and if I ignore it then that's forty lives that I did nothing for when I'm one of the best people equipped to save you.
[ in the end, nothing has dulled the arrogance. not even this setback. even though magic entering the equation has left him less effective than he usually is
he does care that he can't help them. he cares very much. ]
I would've welcomed this challenge if it didn't mean so much unnecessary sacrifice.
[the arrogance should bother her given there're fucks like hojo running around but the difference between him and people like famine is how they approach their research and the people used for it. so it's fine, she thinks.]
...I'm sorry you have to watch this then. [it's been something she's sort of thought about when it comes to the overseers, how frustrating it must be for all three of the ones remaining to have to sit back and just watch this happen because it's a problem they can't fix, even if 2/3 of them try to evade any sort of attachments or showing outwardly they care about it so easily.]
I want to believe we'll still be able to figure things out and stop it before all of us are gone, but...I don't know what to do for the people we've lost and will continue to lose until then. And if some of the best minds aren't sure either...[she's not giving up hope, but she's really kind of being hit with "okay literal wizards and technological life-saving geniuses and whatever the hell is going on with pestilence still aren't enough, so what can we do?"]
It almost feels that the problem we should tackle first is stopping their weekly ritual that's affecting people's monster alignments, but without knowing how the ritual goes it's harder to derail it. Even if it wouldn't stop the bigger ritual right away, it'd buy us time.
[ famine thinks about this—but ultimately decides it's a conversation he'd rather have face to face. he slips off the mask so that once again you witness this wretched bastard. bright blue eyes meet aerith's ]
I have learned the folly of putting one's entire focus on one thing. I understand the temptation to stop the weekly deaths first and foremost, but if we become so railroaded upon that thought and still find nothing, then we won't have any progress to save whoever is remaining come the time of the god summoning ritual. Then all your lives will be forfeit.
[ there's just too many problems in the world! horrible! ]
That is not to say that we should give up on either. Rather, strategic moves should be made to make progress in both.
[ his gaze flicks off elsewhere in thought before landing on her again ]
And though I cannot speak on the details, I do believe steps forward have been taken. It is not enough to ease minds, nor will it make the deaths that happen any more acceptable. However, we are not standing still.
[there he is, the bitch. for a moment she's staring into his eyes because sometimes you're from a place where some of the boys you know have pretty, glowing eyes from special surgeries. she doesn't think that's this, but what does she know yet?
instead, she gives him her undivided attention and listens. there sure are too many problems! and it sucks! how do you deal with so many problems and not enough solutions to fix them all.]
...I suppose that's true. It becomes narrowing it down instead of focusing on the bigger picture while telling ourselves it's for the bigger picture. [she would still like to stop the weekly murders, but she understands his point and why he's bringing it up. when phrased that way, she doesn't disagree.]
Progress is progress, even if it's slow. And maybe it needs to be slow to draw less attention in order to succeed. [it still means lives lost.] I...am not a genius like you are. I don't know if what I'm doing will be enough while things continue the way they have been. I believe the three of you are doing everything you can to help us move forward. And I'm grateful for that. But I guess the thing I'm worried about is how much paranoia and distrust will continue to grow when we're all in a situation where we've been told we can't always trust our friends to be innocent. Makes it harder for people to think we're getting anywhere at all.
[she waves a hand.] Not that the morale is your responsibility. I'm sure the three of you have enough on your plate. Maybe I'm just thinking out loud. [and she's come to respect the fact that famine is, in a word, pragmatic.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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... Yes. I understand that well.
Though they do tend to end up happier on the other side, once they start to let go of their preconceived, false understandings.
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Something you have experience with then?
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A few strays that I've picked up have been abused into certain thinking patterns, to say the least.
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Have you been able to start helping them to unlearn them? It sounds like it'd be difficult for them, too.
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[ we love therapy ]
I gave another a little test that is also a leash, and he seems to be doing better for it, even though he still complains.
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If he's still improving, sounds like token complaints to me. I think when people really don't want to follow suggestions, they would complain and then still not follow through. [...] It's...nice that you cared about them enough to give them what they needed to start getting better.
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[ is it nice? is it? to pardon and save a serial killer, aerith? is it?
anyway, ]
Therapy is when a licensed professional engages in regularly schedule talk sessions with someone to unpack their trauma and face fallacies in their own thinking. It takes time, but it is effective.
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whatever it's fine.]
Oh, so that's the motivation. Sounds a little like someone else was misguiding them to begin with. And if the murders have stopped and they're coming to terms with what's happened...[well. people still die when they are killed and there are some evils you can't forgive, but intention means a lot.]
We don't have anything like that, I think. At least nothing I've heard of. [...] Are they helping you in your mission to fix your country then?
[give them a new way to find fulfillment, maybe.]
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[ but famine is concerned only about their own arrogant judgment. ]
They're useful in their own ways. The country is fixed, though. I've left them to continue on in their lives.
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So you're satisfied with the progress of everything so far. [she means back where they're from, but she figures they'll interpret that however they want because famine does not budge on their opinions much, it seems. unfortunate that she respects that.]
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[ tilts head ]
I do not have the imagination to ask for more.
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mirrors the headtilt though.]
Let's say the cult's successful and you do actually get a wish. Is there nothing you could think to use it for?
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[ they answer so fast it's stupid ]
I came looking for something new. That's all. Anything I desire, I can accomplish by my own power. That's always been true.
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...people must think you're impressive where you're from.
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Sorrowful wails trail after you.. They are in despair in the way that only people working their daily 9 to 5s can be. Even still, they are not enough to stop your long strides that take you further and further away from the center of the city.
“After him!!” one aide screams. “Lord Scien escaped from the meeting again!”
“Someone, call his bodyguard, Lucas!” Another cries out. “He's the only one who can detain Scien...!”
(Well. That one does get you to walk a bit faster. You’re not intimidated.)
The first aid whines again. “We need him to look through and approve the backlog of papers, and... ugh... My head...”
Their head? Please. All they do is bring the papers to you. You’re the one who actually has to think about the fate of the wretched country.
Well, less wretched these days.
“Unbelievable...” You complain, even as your path takes you towards the outskirts of the island. You meander through the commoner streets of Coene without concern. Even all these years later, people don’t know what their god walking among them even looks like. You pass through the streets, unknown, even though you’re in all their history books. “They’re not even giving me time to pay my respects. I already told them I had plans, and still they were brazen enough to schedule yet another meeting...”
You, the genius scientist, Scien Brofiise, who freed the country from the curse, breezed through the streets of your domain with a bottle of wine in hand.
“As soon as I opened the country, they buried me in politics and legislation... I miss my days at the Institute.”
Peace and quiet, uninterrupted for years at a time. Only you, your research, and the occasional basket of food left by your assistant. Where you are now, forcibly elected to the highest position of power by a Parliament you structured but never intended to run—you can only call it a necessary evil. One you’d like to escape from soon.
Still, that fades into the background now as you approach a small grave by a familiar orphanage.
You think to yourself: ‘I know it’s too late for regret, but I lost a promising successor and the only person who I would call my equal... Maybe I could have avoided their demise if I had focused my research on retaining personalities... Then again, they’re both together now as mother and son in the same grave...’
“You two have as many quarrels as you want in Hades like any normal family. You may not have noticed, but you two are just like each other in your extreme, two-sided personalities.”
You pour the wine you randomly chose over the grave where the two of them slept. Immediately after, you take out a letter from your pocket. You know what it is, based purely on its return address. Another research facility across the sea.
A letter requesting your presence in another country to collaborate in research on time travel. You know certainly that if you participate it would be very likely that the technology could be realized within a few years, but...
You don’t read the letter. You tear up their plea for help, sent under the guise of collaboration. It is but one of many invitations that you’ve received since opening the country, as the globe has become aware of the scope of what you’ve accomplished. Without the guidance of the genius beloved by God, time travel would likely fade into mere fantasy. But that was fine.
You frown, thinking of the words of a botched time traveler who came to you from a different timeline. The version of you that stopped aging at 18 was far more out of control. You used an innocent man as a test subject, and killed another that you swore to protect in your desperation. And still, that Scien Brofiise could not find a way to get rid of the curse with those sacrifices.
You cannot accept another existence of yourself foolish enough to accomplish nothing. You could never tread that same path.
The torn letter gets carried with the wind, and you regard the grave once more.
The resting place of the only two friends you’ve had in your near hundred years of living. Irreplaceable people who you failed to save. A foreign feeling makes a home in your chest, and you wonder if this is what people call loneliness. Remorse.
“Now then, I should be going.” You shake off the feeling, and declare your next steps. “I’m off to see your son and daughter start a new beginning... It’s out of character for me, but it’s my duty as the oldest.”
Fortunately, you’ve decided to pursue a new research topic—genetic disorders—which had no shortage of cases to explore. If you are indeed a god, you could be selfish and arrogant. As long as your work saves those who suffered in despair, who would judge you?
Following the new emotions in your modified heart, you—the man who became god—set out on a path that would lead you to even greater heights. ]
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anyway, this is happening a lot. there is a memory, and she's actually sort of surprised this is happening at all but it means she's paying attention. so much of this puts a lot of what famine has said into context.
it doesn't take much for her to realize that famine is somehow who chose to spend so much of his time working tirelessly, and there's a flutter of sadness when she notices the approach to a grave.
she notices a lot of things that make her sad, actually, because even the most aloof of men are bound to have some attachments and some regrets even though she also recalls what famine's said about both. it's the "hundred years of living" that has her going "???", but age doesn't exactly matter for feelings like remorse or loneliness.
she doesn't comment about the different timelines, because it's something she herself is experiencing and isn't entirely sure what it is, or how it is, or if it's best to let things run its course. all in all, in the end, when the memory fades she's left staring at famine and pauses for a long moment to study their face still hidden behind the mask.]
An atheist man of science who became a god. [just. the way she says it indicates she does not believe he's actually a god, but more of an idol. a savior. someone still learning what it means to process a range of emotions.] I guess being a genius would allow you to obtain anything you could ever want.
[why rely on a god-given wish when you're a god who can create miracles? although there's something...bothering her...a little. a curse? she wants to ask, but she will wait a moment.]
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but. famine nods—that is an accurate assessment of exactly who and what he is. a genius rooted in science, but so successful that it that he is the closest thing to a deity that his world has ever seen. being here has been exciting in the way that it opens up new perspectives and realities—
however in his world, he's accomplished everything he's set out to ]
I do not want for much.
Simply the next topic that captures my curiosity.
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[besides if the cult can summon a god (that may be a baby god?? unclear.)]
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The concept of different worlds is also interesting, if only because it can open more doors to more unknowns.
[ they tilt their head, curious ]
So it hasn't been all bad. Even so, your lives getting caught in the matter was not in my expectations.
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Does it irritate you at all? That us being here is a problem you didn't anticipate and don't have a solid answer for. [she's not so much asking if he cares he can't help them, but more out of curiosity how he views the situation itself.]
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[ they answer so fast, frowning as they cross their arms ]
I left my country so that the only one who would have to pay for my choices and curiosity would be myself. And then I have to sit here, watching the lot of you get summoned, and if I ignore it then that's forty lives that I did nothing for when I'm one of the best people equipped to save you.
[ in the end, nothing has dulled the arrogance. not even this setback. even though magic entering the equation has left him less effective than he usually is
he does care that he can't help them. he cares very much. ]
I would've welcomed this challenge if it didn't mean so much unnecessary sacrifice.
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...I'm sorry you have to watch this then. [it's been something she's sort of thought about when it comes to the overseers, how frustrating it must be for all three of the ones remaining to have to sit back and just watch this happen because it's a problem they can't fix, even if 2/3 of them try to evade any sort of attachments or showing outwardly they care about it so easily.]
I want to believe we'll still be able to figure things out and stop it before all of us are gone, but...I don't know what to do for the people we've lost and will continue to lose until then. And if some of the best minds aren't sure either...[she's not giving up hope, but she's really kind of being hit with "okay literal wizards and technological life-saving geniuses and whatever the hell is going on with pestilence still aren't enough, so what can we do?"]
It almost feels that the problem we should tackle first is stopping their weekly ritual that's affecting people's monster alignments, but without knowing how the ritual goes it's harder to derail it. Even if it wouldn't stop the bigger ritual right away, it'd buy us time.
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I have learned the folly of putting one's entire focus on one thing. I understand the temptation to stop the weekly deaths first and foremost, but if we become so railroaded upon that thought and still find nothing, then we won't have any progress to save whoever is remaining come the time of the god summoning ritual. Then all your lives will be forfeit.
[ there's just too many problems in the world! horrible! ]
That is not to say that we should give up on either. Rather, strategic moves should be made to make progress in both.
[ his gaze flicks off elsewhere in thought before landing on her again ]
And though I cannot speak on the details, I do believe steps forward have been taken. It is not enough to ease minds, nor will it make the deaths that happen any more acceptable. However, we are not standing still.
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instead, she gives him her undivided attention and listens. there sure are too many problems! and it sucks! how do you deal with so many problems and not enough solutions to fix them all.]
...I suppose that's true. It becomes narrowing it down instead of focusing on the bigger picture while telling ourselves it's for the bigger picture. [she would still like to stop the weekly murders, but she understands his point and why he's bringing it up. when phrased that way, she doesn't disagree.]
Progress is progress, even if it's slow. And maybe it needs to be slow to draw less attention in order to succeed. [it still means lives lost.] I...am not a genius like you are. I don't know if what I'm doing will be enough while things continue the way they have been. I believe the three of you are doing everything you can to help us move forward. And I'm grateful for that. But I guess the thing I'm worried about is how much paranoia and distrust will continue to grow when we're all in a situation where we've been told we can't always trust our friends to be innocent. Makes it harder for people to think we're getting anywhere at all.
[she waves a hand.] Not that the morale is your responsibility. I'm sure the three of you have enough on your plate. Maybe I'm just thinking out loud. [and she's come to respect the fact that famine is, in a word, pragmatic.]
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