I tried to get through to you

[archboxer]

[You know what that was? A fiasco. That was an utter fiasco. Three more people gone on a chance that may not happen! This is horrible. Even if some people dislike her, Rhea... is up to the challenge once more. This time she does it nearly herself: writing out the invitations, ordering the food and telling everyone to meet at the bar. In Ema's honor, of course.

She hands out the invitations herself and if she can't find you, she'll slide yours under your door.]

Comments

[blackmass]

...This is idiotic, and she was insane.

[nothingcanstop]

Yeah. Yeah, well. Spoilers, it's not gonna explode and kill you, at least. It's a book.

[blackmass]

[SIGH.]

Very well. I see no reason not to accept it.

[nothingcanstop]

[ Here you go!!! When you open it, it's- well. It's regain #4. The pages on lavalantulas are apparently marked. ]

[blackmass]

...hm. And here I thought she was making half of that up.

[nothingcanstop]

What I've learned is the truth is definitely stranger than fiction...

[blackmass]

I feel that's been something of a given since we arrived here.

[nothingcanstop]

It takes all types...

[ There's...a moment, and- ]

...What you said before about changing the past. You really meant that, right?

[blackmass]

...

[Kirei frowned slightly, looking back to the flowers and focusing on a plant with small purple blossoms.]

There are several things I regret, and I will not make attempts to claim otherwise. But to turn back and change them would be something unthinkable.

There are many things in this world that can be called 'worthless', whether those should be events, actions, or anything else. But the fact that they are without worth does not render them 'meaningless'. Using any such power to overwrite things would be to betray the meaning inherent within them.

[nothingcanstop]

Even if it'd make people happier? Even if they think they'd be happier?

[blackmass]

One's happiness is always another's misery. It is not for any individual to decide that one takes priority over another and rewrite such events once they have transpired, particularly lacking in understanding of the wider consequences of the act.

Events happen as they will, people act as they decide to, and to turn back time in any regard is something which simply should not be done.

[nothingcanstop]

Even things that are...a net-gain? Saving a bunch of lives? That could make other people miserable?

[blackmass]

Can you say with certainty all those lives were worth saving? It's fully possible someone so reprehensible as to have their loss be a benefit to others would be among such a hypothetical number. So what is beneficial to that person is terrible to those they might harm.

[nothingcanstop]

But what about the lives you could save? Not just the people directly impacted...but if someone becomes a world-renowned doctor. Or a counselor who enriches their patients' lives. When does the bad outweigh the good? If you can say it could lead to harm, you can't say it wouldn't also lead to good things.

[ Della's usually the type to be passionate about all this. But, she's discussing it rather calmly. ]

[blackmass]

And the inverse? If as many people became criminals, serial killers, and whatever else?

[nothingcanstop]

But you'll never know if you don't try.

[blackmass]

And if you fail, would you regret it so badly as to go back and try again?

[nothingcanstop]

Is it inherently wrong, to want to get it right?

[blackmass]

I can not decide what is or is not inherently wrong.

[nothingcanstop]

But what do you think?

[blackmass]

That is what I think. I know what is deemed 'good' and 'evil' respectively, but I can not claim to know that saving or not saving people in this hypothetical would be either.

[nothingcanstop]

...Does that bother you? To not know, to just ask questions?

[blackmass]

[oh jesus literal christ della you had to say it like that, here he goes]

Does it bother me...? Would it not bother you, to ask questions of the world and be left to seek answers yourself?

[nothingcanstop]

[ HERE HE FUCKIN GOES, STRAP IN DELLA, ALL YOU WANTED TO DO WAS DELIVER A STUPID BIRTHDAY PRESENT ]

...Maybe. I...seek answers with everything, though. That's what comes with being an explorer. Sometimes, I never find the answers, but...I think life's about the journey, too.

[blackmass]

If one possesses a question, then one should ask it, and ask again and again until an answer is found. That much should go without saying. The journey taken to find an answer, too, has meaning in itself.

But what happens if that answer can not be found?