azume | Week 4.

Week 4.

WEEK 4

Backtracking may not seem like an ideal situation, especially not given the situation on Sunday morning, but it isn't without reason or merit; after all, Lake Valor is within a reasonable distance, and perhaps more importantly, there's reason to believe that something may be there. Whether it's one of the Guardians you seek or something else entirely has yet to be seen; there's only one way to know for sure, however.

So back onto Route 213 it is; you should reach Route 214 by Tuesday afternoon, and the entrance to Lake Valor by Thursday night; you may want to wait to explore the lakefront proper during the morning, however. Who knows what you may run into...

You've seen at least some reasons to not give up hope as you left Pastoria; for the time being, let that hope give you strength.

CURRENT LOCATION: ROUTE 214
POKEMON AVAILABLE: PLAINS/FOREST / MOUNTAINS/ELEVATED AREAS

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week four of Azume; feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget that a write-up is due next weekend!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shoot.

Is there a reason you're being all decent to everyone?

[Jake, that's kind of.]

I mean, you're kind of insane and do not give a single fuck about ethics, which is great. But you're okay to us and you do stuff like telling Cynthia to be careful, and even Saturn got a pep talk on being a good person. There a reason for all that, or what?

[Michael narrows his eyes, tilting his head for a moment. He doesn't give a single fuck...is that how he comes off? But Jake said he was decent too, so he can't be doing all that badly. Right? It's harder to gauge here, alone with entirely different types of questions.]

Do you really think I don't give a single fuck about ethics? I was talking to Saturn about moral autonomy, that was all just right out of Kant.

[He considers, then adds:]

Now, I can admit it's not my best subject. Or my favorite one. It actually sucks a lot of the time. But I am trying to not be evil. [So he gives maybe half a fuck? And he also didn't actually answer the question.]

You don't have to be evil to not give much of a fuck on the ethics front. I'm also trying to not be an evil jackass, but that doesn't mean I'm not doing it on my own terms and the ethics of the whole thing aren't questionable as fuck. Right now I'm just working on the principle of only putting the bullets in the people who deserve it most.

[So, you know, there's that.]

See, that one doesn't really come up in the afterlife. Would've made things a lot easier if I could actually kill other demons.

[He and Chidi would fight a lot more, though, because that's not what somebody super invested in ethics would say. Or maybe none of it would have ever happened to begin with, if he could've just killed his way out. But that's a hypothetical, so not important.]

I have some friends back home. I told you about Janet - [He gestures towards the cat version] - but there's also these four humans. Everything you asked, it's all because of them. If this had happened before we became friends...I don't even know what I would've done exactly, but I very much doubt you could call it decent.

[Jake will just...consider that for a moment. Turn it over in his head, see if he likes it. He seems to find it good after a moment.]

Maybe I couldn't have, if it were like that. But that doesn't matter too much to me right now; you're treating all of us okay, and that's all I really give a fuck about. Shit, you're probably better at the whole good-person thing than I am; at least you know what to say a lot of the time. I couldn't have made half those arguments if I tried.

I've got someone who's helping me get my shit together, too, though. Right now I'm just trying to not do too much that would disappoint her.

Man, isn't that the worst? Disappointing people? I used to think I was scared of disappointing my boss, but that's nothing compared to disappointing my friends. The worst part is, I think they'd forgive me a lot of mistakes. Short of just killing you all in your sleep one night or something.

[They'd just be so, so disappointed.]

For the record, I don't think you're doing so terribly yourself. The only reason I have all that stuff to say is because it's hard for me. If I don't stop to think about what humans would think, then all I've got is...demon morality. Basically not a thing.

Yeah, fair point. I guess I'm just not used to the whole...talking-it-out-with-people thing. Most of my issues are just that I'm generally fucked in the head as humans go, sort of a hereditary thing. As opposed to, you know. Demon stuff.

Ah. I'm not completely unfamiliar with the idea.

[You get plenty of fucked-in-the-head people downstairs!]

Aristotle believed that virtue was something one could learn and practice, like an instrument. Any rational being - [He gestures between the two of them.] - should logically be able to do so to the same degree. But I don't really think it's that easy for everybody. Some people are maybe just...naturally un-gifted. But you humans, you're persistent. One of your best qualities, now that I'm not on the other end of it.

[I mean, he's pretty sure he's going to end up there eventually, so.]

So you're saying maybe I won't be bad at it eventually. Makes sense. Doubt it's going to do much for my afterlife potential, but I'm working on it anyway, at least.

Oh, I hope your world's afterlife isn't run on the same rules as mine. You wouldn't stand a chance.

That's nothing against you, I doubt that anybody here would. Literally the entire population of Sinnoh would be doomed right now, under our system.

I'm a mercenary, Michael, I murder people for money and kicks.

[Just saying, no offense taken?]

What's the worst kind of person you've dealt with, anyway? If you had to guess.

Hmmm. Still, being sent to us doesn’t mean much on its own. You know we have Florence Nightingale? Just didn’t make the cut.

[He leans forward, chin resting on his hand thoughtfully.]

Back in my last hands-on job - before I was an architect - there was one guy who’d killed his family, and a coworker, and dissolved the bodies in acid? No one you’d have heard of.

[jesus.]

Everyone from my world would be fucked too, then, especially if you're still working with serial-killer levels of fuckawful. We've kind of moved on to the world-ending stage of things? We've got people who are out to kill almost everyone on the planet. Usually for the same sort of "good reasons" Team Galactic won't shut up about - peace and love, saving humanity, all that bullshit.

Oof. Yep, straight into the fire for all of you. Doesn’t matter what the world’s like, there’s no sense of cultural relativism. Basically, anything that sounds remotely reasonable, probably toss it out.

What the hell is the criteria, exactly? Is it like that thing you were talking about with Saturn - producing good as opposed to just leaving it at the absence of bad, or...?

Mmmm, something along those lines. It’s actually a fairly straightforward points system. So, say you hold a door open for someone, that’s plus-three points. And if you...steal a loaf of bread, that’s negative seven. Unless it’s a baguette. Negative ten for a baguette, because it’s French.

[He doesn’t seem to be joking about that.]

But if you stole the bread to feed a starving child, doesn’t matter. Negative seven. Now, these people here, they don’t do anything throughout the day that would lose them significant points, but they’re not earning any either. They barely interact with each other, they can’t. If anything, all the Galactic recruits are probably being docked like crazy for furthering that bullshit agenda, even if it wasn’t quite their choice.

[He tilts his head a bit.]

So if the reason why doesn't matter, Florence Nightingale participated in war so she's fucked.

[Huh.]

There is not a single person I know that wouldn't be totally boned under that sort of system. Even that girl I'm trying really hard not to disappoint. She helped her dad create bioweapons without having a choice in the matter and then was tricked into helping some guy try to end the world. She kills people, but she's putting 'em out of their misery. But if none of that matters...

[Christ.]

There’s literally no room for nuance. The people who make the cut generally do it by racking up some really big-ticket wins, and then dying before they can screw it up. Lincoln gets credit for helping push the Thirteenth Amendment through, gains a massive amount of points, and gets his brains blown out. Off he goes.

Oh, here, how about this? There was one case, oh, thirty years ago. Mindy St. Clare. She was a corporate lawyer so, obviously bad, but one day while coked out of her mind, she came up with a grand plan for a charitable foundation that could fight world hunger. The next day, she saw the plan and actually went and withdrew her life savings to put towards it. On her way home from the bank, bam - falls on the subway tracks and dies.

Afterwards, her sister finds the plans and actually uses the money to create the foundation. Had Mindy lived, chances are she’d have spent it all on more coke, but as it stands, the results of that momentary impulse have saved millions of lives. So - does Mindy get the credit?

...I'd guess not, because she died before she could act on it. She didn't do anything to actually help the plan along other than die before she could do something stupid.

[...?]

See, that’s what our side argued. Whatever angel they sent was talking about her good intentions, how the foundation was in her name and all that...

[Series of vaguely dismissive gestures]

Case got argued for a couple decades, kept Mindy in stasis that whole time. They ended up reaching a compromise. Well. It’s supposed to be one - Mindy lives in a pocket reality entirely by herself where everything is calculated to be painfully bland. She gets her favorite soda but it’s all warm and flat, she can listen to music but only the same live concert recording of the Eagles over and over, stuff like that. It comes off as a compromise because she’s not being forced to snort fire ants for eternity, but it’s really just a form of slow, isolated torment. Actually a big source of inspiration for me at one point...

[Cough. Anyway.]

So, shocker, angels make bad advocates for humanity even when they’re actually trying.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Week 4.

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