Week 14.

[azumods]

WEEK 14 Sunday is a rough day all around; it's for the best that you remain where you are for the day, for the sake of regrouping and recovering, and perhaps getting some sleep - assuming that any will come. However, as difficult though it may be (and as futile though it may seem) Monday is likely best seen as a day to depart - a day to start to take whatever actions can still be taken, and to assess where to go from here. A good place to start is Canalave City; it's where you were going to meet with Cynthia, and where you were planning on looking into the legends of Sinnoh. The city itself is beautiful, a massive port town split down the center by a large canal system filled with boats and clear water leading out to sea; however, the recent changes to the world have affected this place as well, perhaps making it a bit difficult to enjoy the city in its entirety. However, the library is here, as are several other points of interest; as difficult though it may be to see the world like this, the trip here will hopefully be worth your while in the end... CURRENT LOCATION: CANALAVE CITY POKEMON AVAILABLE: WITHIN CITIES SURROUNDING ROUTES: PLAINS/FOREST / NEAR WATER MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY [OOC: Welcome to week fourteen 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 this weekend!]

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

From the Lake deities, or...?

[azumods]

Not quite.

[...]

I was told you had a bit of an experience in the inn. Might I ask what happened?

[eudaimonikos]

[.....]

I see you avoiding the subject, and I don't like that at all. But I did also want to talk about the inn thing, so fine.

[He flops down into a chair across from her, glancing at her blank companion for a second before electing to just keep going.]

I saw a shadow thing when I was looking around in there, and then I passed out and had...apparently a nightmare. Same thing happened to Ignis. What's up with that?

[azumods]

[Oh, that's interesting - ]

It sounds like you met Darkrai.

[She sounds a little excited about this? She sounds excited about this.]

It's rare for Legendaries to come to you - usually they have to be sought out. I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant experience, so I won't say you were lucky, but it was an incredibly exceptional thing to have it notice you like that.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael puts on a smile that's just really, obviously, so very fake.]

Great! Wow, what an honor. How do you make it not do the thing it did?

[azumods]

[She'll glance over to check on her friend there - he's completely disinterested in the conversation, paging idly through the last book Cynthia was trying to show him - before trying to find a way to respond.]

That's just what it does, sweetheart. I don't know if there's a way to make it not do that... It doesn't mean to harm you, I'm sure. You wouldn't be awake right now if it did.

[eudaimonikos]

That's not the most comforting thing I've ever heard.

[But it's an interesting piece of information, he supposes.]

Are you saying that it can't not do that? Because if it didn't mean to harm us at all, it sorta missed the mark. By a lot.

[azumods]

[She tips her head a little, considering.]

It's possible that it was taken off-guard by you; after all, you're one of the few people left completely intact after the incident with Cyrus. It's also possible that it considers the inn its...territory, I suppose is the best way to phrase it, and it wasn't expecting visitors.

Some sort of defensive action, in other words, as opposed to malicious. Pokémon aren't evil, after all.

[eudaimonikos]

Not ever? I mean - they're sapient beings. They could choose to do evil things.

[iiiiiiit's DERAIL TIME]

[azumods]

[She doesn't seem to mind, for what it's worth; her friend seems to be listening at this point, though he doesn't seem too invested, just kind of observing what's going on.]

They certainly can choose to act in a way we don't agree with, but they aren't seen as inherently evil. Some are seen as worse or more unpleasant than others, but we don't consider them evil for acting within their nature.

[eudaimonikos]

Woah, no one said anything about inherent evil. There's a lot of space between a species being inherently evil and not possessing the capacity at all.

[He glances at the man, but only for a second; it just feels weird talking exclusively to Cynthia when he's like, right there.]

How far can nature really carry them? I understand it for the more animalistic ones, but ones like the deities - that seems like saying an evil human is only acting on their nature. Might be true, but they're still considered accountable.

[azumods]

Does it make more sense if I say we're accounting for difference in species? Priorities and morality as a whole are going to differ between them, and so the standards are different - or do you not figure for that where you're from?

[eudaimonikos]

[.....]

Well, that's complicated.

But to put it simply, my species - and our counterparts - consider morality to be a matter of objective fact, and it really only applies to humans. For ourselves, my people are basically the evil species, if you're gonna have one. The angels follow all the rules, so they're supposed to be good, but...

[He makes an ehhhhhhhhhh hand motion.]

There's arguments you could make.

[azumods]

[...what is an angel]

...That's fascinating, actually. Are humans considered able to choose their own morality, where you're from, or is it inherent and already decided when they're...

[...]

I don't know if they're born, or created, or if there's something else...? From the time they start existing, however that happens.

[eudaimonikos]

They get born. Why wouldn't they get born...?

[He'd say that they work the same there as here, but that question is making him wonder what the fuck happens in Sinnoh.]

They can choose what they do. We just judge them based on secret arbitrary criteria after they die. It's really only barely a system of morality, but it's the closest thing my species would acknowledge.

[azumods]

Perhaps they come from eggs.

[...she says, with a totally straight face.]

That doesn't sound very fair, though. If they don't know the criteria, how are they supposed to actually make a choice?

[eudaimonikos]

,small>[He's just gonna ignore that.]

Nobody said it was fair, it's just what happens. Also, the system does condemn people for being from Florida, so I wouldn't overestimate the amount that choices matter.

let's pretend i'm not several hours late with starmiebucks

[discutio]

It was perhaps the second worst encounter here to date, immediately after the sudden apocalypse. I'll admit perhaps I could have announced myself more clearly, but if that's how it greets people I would hate to see it upset.

I don't understand what you mean by 'not evil'--what I encountered actively felt malevolent, for any lack of a better way to articulate it.

[azumods]

Not inherently evil, at least. They can choose to act in a way that we...certainly don't agree with, but that doesn't make them evil beings.

[discutio]

In other words, not created as pure evil by nature alone.

...So it's just like that. By choice.

[THIS IS NOT BETTER.]

[azumods]

...Something like that.

[dear god we are debating pokémon morality

my day has more or less been made tbh]

[discutio]

Then how are we even supposed to speak with it?

[azumods]

It's possible an opportunity will present itself, if you seek it out. Or it may be curious enough about you to offer you one.

[discutio]

I'm still concerned it might try to contact the others as it did myself and Michael, if and when we seek it out.

[azumods]

It might. It's entirely possible that this isn't going to be easy on anyone.

It's something you're going to try to seek out anyway, though, isn't it?