audience: shess

[cyclists]

Comments

[nonbelligerent]

Of course. At this rate, it's feeling more like we were brought here to be live sacrifices than anything else.

[cyclists]

Live sacrifices...

{there is a pause and a frown in their voice]

I had not thought of it that way. I suppose one might wonder what it is that the universe had intended by bringing you all here.

Even so, I do not believe that you have been fated to lose either.

[nonbelligerent]

Us, or the universe as a whole?

[after all, a victory for the latter doesn't mean a victory for individuals.]

[cyclists]

Each of you.

What purpose would there be to bring you all here, if it may only cause further instability? Is it a test of wills? Of the ability of not only each human, but each different race and spirit?

And yet it has been proven that there are some tasks that can be completed only by each of you - as the young one and I are bound to positions of overseers only.

Perhaps it is a question of whether each of you will be able to work faster than the darkness.

[thoughtfully, followed by a sip of tea]

Would you care for a cup?

[nonbelligerent]

You said it yourself, didn't you? Once the corrupted is no longer alive, they have been purified. Therefore, if purification is the ultimate goal, then what difference does it make to the universe if we become corrupted—so long as we all kill each other by the end?

[...]

All right.

[cyclists]

I suppose that would depend on if purification is the ultimate goal - there are others in your number who may not find it so easily agreeable.

[but they'll pour that cup for shess, offering it over to him]

[nonbelligerent]

I don't mean our goals. We're not the ones who set up this system.

[cyclists]

And yet the system is meant to express the importance of choice and individual action - else the young one and I would be able to impose far more with the powers at our disposal.

[nonbelligerent]

With all due respect, that's taking your word for it.

[cyclists]

[there is a nod]

So it is, so it is.

I find myself often limited to only words lately.

[nonbelligerent]

In any case, the two don't necessarily contradict. The universe can value individuality while still be willing to have us all die if we're unable to "outrace" the darkness.

Thirty or so lives? A pitifully small number to ensure stability.

[cyclists]

[there is a pause at that]

Do you still believe so?

After all, one of those lives is your own.

[nonbelligerent]

I'm not saying I would sacrifice those lives. Certainly not my own, so easily.

But I have no responsibility to oversee the universe either.

[and he's seen from experience, again and again, that those who are? yes. that is a sacrifice they're entirely willing to make.]

[cyclists]

You are correct. I wonder what it must be like, to hold such a responsibility.

[lune will thoughtfully sip their tea]

Even though I have been given some vague sense of instruction to look over you all here, I fail to sit entirely at ease with the idea of allowing things to remain as they are.

[nonbelligerent]

And yet, you can't interfere.

[cyclists]

Not directly or plainly.

Though it is also not without attempt.

[lune may or may not be dropping hints both publicly and privately]

[nonbelligerent]

[SHUT UP DANA]

Are you at least able to confirm the deceased's respective alignments now?

[cyclists]

[ . . . .

there's some muffled noises followed by a contemplative pause]

... I may be able to offer it to you in an exchange.

[nonbelligerent]

[goddamnit]

Depends on what the price would be.

[cyclists]

What if...

[hmmmm]

You share with me what you exchanged with your partner.

[that is the smallest price that lune could possibly think of at the moment that shess might even hesitate on a little bit]

[nonbelligerent]

[what the fuck is this price

a beat.]

Really?

[cyclists]

[there is a laugh]

I was allowed to say it, so I presume it should be fine.

[THEY JUST SOUND PLEASANTLY SURPRISED]

Or perhaps you might - [muFFLE MUFFLE]

... hmmm. My proposal that you penguin walk for me again in exchange has been rejected.

[nonbelligerent]

[why do you even want to know this, lune!!]

Then, the memory?

[cyclists]

I do not believe I can provide a lower price, my friend.

[and it's pretty much because they're friends]

[nonbelligerent]

I understand.

[but he doesn't have to like it.

...

well, the one advantage of being effectively mute is that it's easier to be neutral. he has to write it all out in a tablet that he controls the settings on, after all.]

I was fairly young in the memory. Third stage, so I wouldn't have been more than a couple of hundred years old. I was by the side of a nastika of my clan.

My mother approached us and criticized the nastika for mobilizing clanmates without her permission. Believing that her power was leaking through me, hence why she had weakened, she told me to return to her side. I refused.

[he pauses.]

The nastika tried to defend me, to which my mother accused her of stealing her power through me. It is the law for suras that the king must be the strongest. Therefore, that this nastika was now stronger than her was an error of the universe, and one that the Primeval Gods were now "correcting".

So my mother decided to kill her and take her name—her power. I advanced to fourth stage then.

[half of this probably makes no sense to lune but he didn't ask shess to explain context, so.]