Mmm. I suppose that yes, I do, but...its also sort of personal. I don't actually carry a grudge or anything. But I've seen what creatures like vampires can do to a place.
[He rolls his shoulders back.]
My village was destroyed by completely by one of those things, in a single night. I was the only one left from that massacre.
I don't like thinking about those creatures doing whatever they want and hurting others. However, if one of them decided to live a quiet life, I would look over them. Its only the ones that desire to do evil that I have my sights on.
[it's not dismissive like it might normally be, though, just- slightly quiet.
he has to wonder what would change, if hansa knew what emet-selch truly was. if he knew the things that he had done. whether he would accept the situation, be able to view it in the way that emet-selch has always seen it... or if hansa would look at him the way he does those creatures.
and if it turned out to be the latter-- would it be kinder to allow him an easy exit from whatever feelings he might harbor, rather than having that attachment to him?
there's a stretch of silence, there, where he seems to just be thinking.]
[He notices Emet fall silent. He really is a thinker, isn't he? The type to sit down, and plan, and work through things. Even with Kaiza's studies, he was always logical, methodical, patient.]
[Hansa also sits for a while in silence, honestly exhausted from the last few days. Two murders, a trial, an execution gone the opposite way. Its funny, how the last few days have also felt like ten years, of a kind.]
[After a long moment, Hansa just looks over at Emet-Selch, smiling.]
[he's tired as well, almost tempted to let his eyes slide shut for a few moments-- but then hansa speaks, and he glances back to him.]
Only considering.
[he debates, a moment, before he says all too casually:]
Were we from the same world, you may well have considered me one of your targets... though the situation in mine is quite different. Nevertheless, I am aware enough we are more often than not seen as villains.
...some of the details of our earlier conversations have grown a bit hazy, but I do not believe I have ever told you what became of the world I showed you, once. It was broken, shattered into one primary fragment and ten and three more reflections of it-- and while I know not precisely how we survived, I am one of two whose souls remained whole.
To make a long explanation very short, however, in answer to your question: these fragmented worlds do not recognize themselves as broken. They view our efforts to return them to the whole quite differently than we do, as they do not have any understanding of their true state.
[But not to oblivion, no, just...cut into pieces? Reflections? Its hard to visualize, and he frowns. It isn't like cutting a cake in half.]
So...the souls were cut, too? How strange. [He furrows his eyebrows.] And I guess its you and this other whole person who are trying to return things to the way they were?
So we are, yes. It is akin to a division-- were you struck by the same blow that split our world, the result would be a fragmentation; individual existences, yes, but all weakened, all reduced in every aspect. Each separate one cannot truly be called alive any more than one would call a broken shard of ceramic a bowl.
...but they cling to such an existence regardless, unaware that they have lost both the world as it was and their own immortality. To them, we are not trying to restore something to them, but trying to take away what they know-- never realizing what they know is false.
To us, yes. To you, they would likely seem much like yourself. Yet they remain naught but fragments without full souls of their own, believing themselves truly alive and their worlds whole.
[a slight pause, there.]
In order to be absorbed back into the whole, they must cease existing in their current state.
'Tis only that there are few opportunities to determine what a soul knows, for it may not be consciously aware. But as for its state... I am able to see any individual's soul, and with each rejoining, they become brighter. Still pale shadows of what they were, but more whole.
Just before I was brought here, I was killed, yes.
[a slight shake of his head.]
I said nothing of it, wishing to gain more knowledge of the situation first, and then quickly forgot I had died at all. But if you would say the things you have admitted to me--
[a slight quirk of his mouth, humorless.]
Before I remembered, I would still tell you what I have done, but also that your life is but a moment in time compared to my own. That I did not know how much of myself I had left to spare for anyone but my people.
...Now, I would have you know there is nothing waiting for me, when our time here reaches its conclusion.
...I see. That's why you wanted to know what I would do, once we left here.
[Because Hansa would have a life outside of this place. Emet-Selch wouldn't. He would just be...over.]
[He feels stunned, honestly. Their efforts to keep him from death here, and...for what? Just prolonging the inevitable? His dubious feelings about the other's plan are put aside, momentarily, and he is filled with a suddenly deep sadness, his heat plummeting to the bottom of his chest.]
So I'll have to remember you and him both? [He lets out a breathless laugh.] How terrible. How unfair. There...really is no way to escape that fate?
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[He rolls his shoulders back.]
My village was destroyed by completely by one of those things, in a single night. I was the only one left from that massacre.
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[he's a little quieter, there. hansa knows, on at least some level, that he understands loss well enough.]
So you would prevent the same happening to others, after such an experience.
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[It was what it was. He nods.]
I don't like thinking about those creatures doing whatever they want and hurting others. However, if one of them decided to live a quiet life, I would look over them. Its only the ones that desire to do evil that I have my sights on.
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[it's not dismissive like it might normally be, though, just- slightly quiet.
he has to wonder what would change, if hansa knew what emet-selch truly was. if he knew the things that he had done. whether he would accept the situation, be able to view it in the way that emet-selch has always seen it... or if hansa would look at him the way he does those creatures.
and if it turned out to be the latter-- would it be kinder to allow him an easy exit from whatever feelings he might harbor, rather than having that attachment to him?
there's a stretch of silence, there, where he seems to just be thinking.]
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[Hansa also sits for a while in silence, honestly exhausted from the last few days. Two murders, a trial, an execution gone the opposite way. Its funny, how the last few days have also felt like ten years, of a kind.]
[After a long moment, Hansa just looks over at Emet-Selch, smiling.]
...Hm. Penny for your thoughts, there?
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Only considering.
[he debates, a moment, before he says all too casually:]
Were we from the same world, you may well have considered me one of your targets... though the situation in mine is quite different. Nevertheless, I am aware enough we are more often than not seen as villains.
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[He says, with a light laugh, but the last part gets him to give the other a questioning look.]
Villains? How so?
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[don't lump him in with vampires, wow...
but he considers just where to start, first.]
...some of the details of our earlier conversations have grown a bit hazy, but I do not believe I have ever told you what became of the world I showed you, once. It was broken, shattered into one primary fragment and ten and three more reflections of it-- and while I know not precisely how we survived, I am one of two whose souls remained whole.
To make a long explanation very short, however, in answer to your question: these fragmented worlds do not recognize themselves as broken. They view our efforts to return them to the whole quite differently than we do, as they do not have any understanding of their true state.
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[But not to oblivion, no, just...cut into pieces? Reflections? Its hard to visualize, and he frowns. It isn't like cutting a cake in half.]
So...the souls were cut, too? How strange. [He furrows his eyebrows.] And I guess its you and this other whole person who are trying to return things to the way they were?
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...but they cling to such an existence regardless, unaware that they have lost both the world as it was and their own immortality. To them, we are not trying to restore something to them, but trying to take away what they know-- never realizing what they know is false.
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[He lets out a hum, trying to sort this through.]
So essentially they're...just like shades, in a way. Like they're not all there, since they're only pieces.
[i, crystal, personally hate how emet describes this and it sounds legitimate for someone who has never been through his world]
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[a slight pause, there.]
In order to be absorbed back into the whole, they must cease existing in their current state.
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[Believing themselves truly alive?]
[He frowns, suddenly. Kaiza...]
Do they at least...remember their previous lives, when they join back into the whole?
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[He just shakes his head, staring at the other man.]
Do you even know if your rejoining works in the first place?
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[he sounds certain of that.]
'Tis only that there are few opportunities to determine what a soul knows, for it may not be consciously aware. But as for its state... I am able to see any individual's soul, and with each rejoining, they become brighter. Still pale shadows of what they were, but more whole.
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What if you rejoin everyone, and they just fracture again? Or they remain whole, but they don't remember who they were?
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[...he shakes his head.]
We have simply had to have faith in that. The soul must remember, else there would be none who dream of the end of a world they no longer know.
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[Sure is bad he isn't a priest, to talk about that.]
Dream...? So they have memories of...before the world ended?
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[it really is a shame i'm dying over it... hansa your RELIGION.]
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[he's quieter for a longer stretch, here, before he just breathes out slowly.]
I have never known what the first memory I lost was, but I now realize it is because it was the last thing I remembered.
...My efforts ended along with my life.
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[His eye widens in alarm, his attention completely on Emet-Selch.]
You're...you're dead?
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[a slight shake of his head.]
I said nothing of it, wishing to gain more knowledge of the situation first, and then quickly forgot I had died at all. But if you would say the things you have admitted to me--
[a slight quirk of his mouth, humorless.]
Before I remembered, I would still tell you what I have done, but also that your life is but a moment in time compared to my own. That I did not know how much of myself I had left to spare for anyone but my people.
...Now, I would have you know there is nothing waiting for me, when our time here reaches its conclusion.
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[Because Hansa would have a life outside of this place. Emet-Selch wouldn't. He would just be...over.]
[He feels stunned, honestly. Their efforts to keep him from death here, and...for what? Just prolonging the inevitable? His dubious feelings about the other's plan are put aside, momentarily, and he is filled with a suddenly deep sadness, his heat plummeting to the bottom of his chest.]
So I'll have to remember you and him both? [He lets out a breathless laugh.] How terrible. How unfair. There...really is no way to escape that fate?
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