audience: shess

[cyclists]

Comments

[nonbelligerent]

I have.

[cyclists]

Figures. He seems to be very fond of you, but I guess we both have favorites. [Oh so casually.] You're both also pretty misleading when it comes to how you look and how old you are.

[nonbelligerent]

[do you really have to put it like that, sol... it's weird to think of himself as one of lune's favourites?]

How exactly does one look over a hundred years old?

[cyclists]

...bald and wrinkly? Or sometimes with a really big, long beard. [He has Opinions.] Never of you have those.

[nonbelligerent]

Haha. Yes, I suppose that would throw some people off.

[cyclists]

But Lune thinks that's why we have the hoods in the first place. That way people aren't caught off-guard or anything. [Just...thinking.]

...not that I'm not happy to see you, but I am a little surprised. [Usually it's Lune.]

[nonbelligerent]

You handled an entire trial on your own. Why would I check up on Lune instead?

[cyclists]

When you put it like that I guess that's true. [He seems pleased because he's actually a child and likes attention.] Lune says he trusts me and that I've grown, so...he wanted me to try. And maybe next week, too, if we have another trial.

Most of his ideas are good anyway.

[nonbelligerent]

He seems like a good mentor figure to have.

Do you think we might not have another one?

[cyclists]

He's a little wiser than my last one. [It's a joke..but...ah.]

Call it wishful thinking. No one was corrupted this week besides Julius, who had the corruption resting in him from before. If we can have another week like that, nobody will have a reason to kill anyone else and we can buy some more time.

Do I really think that's possible? [...] The most important thing I've learned is that the universe doesn't care about anybody but the universe. So we have to prepare for both scenarios.

[nonbelligerent]

You're not wrong. Reach a certain level of omniscience or universal awareness, and a piece becomes an acceptable price to pay for the whole.

[shess is all too acquainted with higher powers—it's why he suspected from the beginning this was going to be their fate.]

[cyclists]

It wasn't supposed to go like this is the thing. Lune and I wouldn't have agreed, so...trying to go backwards and fix it has been our goal. But if the ending can only be obtained in the way that we think it can, what's our next step to make this easier on everybody?

That's what I have to figure out. It shouldn't just be on Lune.

[nonbelligerent]

Hm... out of curiosity, Sol, are you human? Since Lune isn't...

[cyclists]

[...well. That's complicated.]

No. But I don't think most people would know that right away.

[nonbelligerent]

It's easy to hide what you are if you play your cards right.

Do you feel like you think similarly to a human, at least? Or do you find them difficult to understand?

[cyclists]

It was difficult to understand a lot of things at first. When I was born, I didn't have any memories about where I came from unlike most people like me. So I didn't know about a lot of things. I asked a lot of questions, but some of those couldn't be answered either.

But when I went back to where I came from and got those memories mixed in with my own, it was easier. Even now there're some things I don't always get but I'm still learning as I go. [There's a pause.] We were always told we weren't the same as humans, and we weren't capable of understanding how humans feel. For a long time, we thought that was true, but it's not.

I think I understand humanity better than Lune sometimes, but somehow he's still better at handling people.

[nonbelligerent]

I would say it's your desire to understand that gets you into conflicts. You embrace what you feel, while he stays detached, to an extent. It's easy to get along with people if you retain some emotional distance from certain matters.

Between the two of you, you do come across as more human—for better or for worse, depending on your perspective.

[cyclists]

[...there's an embarrassed laugh.] Yeah, I'm not great at that...but I kind of have a personal investment in all of this beyond what most people think. It's hard not to get involved and to keep my distance when a lot of people I care about are involved in this mess.

But thanks, I think. [It's sort of funny.] Lune's been learning a lot but his memories are also way different than mine. I'm just glad people are teaching him stuff. I think he likes it a lot. [Everyone should dote on grandpa, basically.] A lot of people used to think that I was similar to the person I came from, but that's just not true. So...being human on my own is pretty important to me.

[nonbelligerent]

Haha, Lune is rather sheltered in his own way.

A desire to be "human" isn't a sentiment I can empathize with, but I hope you find what you're seeking.

[cyclists]

Thanks, Shess. [A pause.] I had everything I was looking for but lost something important. The universe was supposed to give me a hint on how to find it again, but...maybe it's more important now to hope that the right person at the end of all of this will make a choice to allow that.

[He tilts his head.] What is it that you do desire anyway? I get that you've been alive forever, but there has to be stuff you want, too.

[nonbelligerent]

Well... the thing about living a long life means you don't really expect things to last as long as you do.

Lune did wish for a vacation for me, but that's probably not going to happen soon...

[cyclists]

That's really depressing. [Maybe he doesn't want to get old...] Why wouldn't you get a vacation? They don't even have to last that long.

[nonbelligerent]

Well, even putting aside the corruption, my world's not doing too well. Not much time to rest.

[cyclists]

...it still exists though, right? It's not one of those situations where it and all of your people are gone. [Y'know, like Emma.]

[nonbelligerent]

Yes, it's still standing.