nevertheless the people still sketch the flame of their undying lives;

[liberazoth]

[ insert cat noises here ]

Comments

[moonblades]

... I don't know if I can answer that. Hm... [She rests her hand against a shelf, reaching for an item but not actually taking it.] Or maybe if even if I can?

[Choices...dealing with them...accepting when you can help others find a way to make a different one and when you have to accept what they've chosen...Those complex strands of thought are all still wound around each other.]

I think what I'd like to say is that I'd like to make a world where everyone has the chance to choose differently and ask them if they would.

[liberazoth]

Is that how it is... I think that sounds reasonable.

[ it's a pity this world ... not just this world. other worlds too, just not in the same way as this one— doesn't grant people those choices. ]

I guess, in that sense, not everyone ... might choose to come back, either. If they were given the choice.

[ there's something in beelzebub's grim resignation that sits uncomfortably in vayne's core. wanting to die— that, too, is a choice, no matter much one might want to try to help that person, or convince them to believe in their own worth.

perhaps if whatever beelzebub was afraid of wasn't an issue ... but, no, that would be a requisite part of the world where everyone has the chance to choose that mio wants, isn't it? but then you start getting so deep into the various details and errata involved in making sure people have the choice... ]

xenoblade 3 spoilers

[moonblades]

I think some of them might say they were satisfied.

[Not everyone would take the choice if they were given it... Mio remembers Beelzebub's words.

She thinks of Ethel and Cammuravi, given only one way to live and one way to die. They chose how they wanted their lives to end, too. Had they ever learned what drove that desire? It's strange, thinking of it now, to know they spent so much time in Colony 4, while her memory of that time is so short. How they decided to do what they did in the end and call it freedom... she knows they shouldn't have had to. She knows she's one of the people now stewarding their hopes for the future.

Can it be the same for the people she's met here, even not knowing what all of those hopes and dreams were? Who'll do it for her?

Vayne has been silent for a while, which even Mio notices despite her pensive silence.]

You've been thinking about this before today, too, haven't you?

[liberazoth]

Kind of. ... Sort of. I guess.

[ what people want, the choices they make, what their hearts desire, given the circumstances they're in... ]

Mainly I guess I've been wondering ... what the right thing to do in this situation is. Should we just say, 'they did it because they were wrong, and deserved to die because they were dangerous'? ... Or is it just because we're all scared of each other here, and because this place is terrible ...

That sort of thing. If ... if somehow we got the chance to bring them back, should we just leave some of them? Is that fair?

[ who gets to decide that? their victims? some of the culprits set out to hurt people, and who knows about whether they feel remorse for it. is it fair to bring them back, for their victims to have to face them later? ]

... But it's just wishful thinking, I guess. Since none of us seem to be able to reach our powers here, so...