[ as gently pushily and persuasive as he's being, it kind of makes her want to throw it on the ground out of spite. it's probably poisoned or has truth ketchup serum in it or something. ]
[ okay, no, maybe not. he'd probably kill her directly if he was going to, so, slowly, she takes a bite. ]
[ it's convenient because it stops her from instantly retorting at his speech. so she chews. and she chews. and eventually, she speaks up. ]
Of course you think existence is pain if you're a businessman. Just change your career to something else... and I don't mean gobbling up worlds.
[ it's almost worse, though? that he's not doing it out of malice. just because he wants to expand, to make the rules. sure, she can sympathize a little. the world is cruel sometimes (all the time), and it feels more and more like they're all powerless, and at the mercy of things so much bigger than them. she feels that now, and she's felt it before. but.... ]
That's not how you grow, though. You'll never make peace like this. You don't grow by consuming everyone and everything else, it doesn't fix anything, it won't even make you feel better in the end. If you really want to grow, if you really want to overcome life's cruelty..... you have to do what we're doing right now, but with everyone else. Without hurting them.
[ there's some irony here because so far all he's been trying to learn is information to destroy lucretia (and friends), but she's trying to make a point. an.. anime point. he says there's nothing she can do to stop him, but she's going to try anyway like the shounen that she is. ]
Learn from other worlds and people instead of hurting them, instead of destroying them. There is more to existence than just pain and cruelty, and other people can help you see that, if you let them.
Changing his career? She can't be serious. Of course she is. That's too funny. The sound of The Hunger's voice wavering in delight at a joke might be extremely unnerving, but in a way, it's wholesome and true. Not filled with disdain or anger, not mocking, or condescending.]
I love what we do, Maya. Or, well, I guess I loved what I did when I was a human. I still am, I suppose, somewhere in here. I'm a public speaker. I was one, a successful one, too, if memory serves. And people from around the world would come to hear my speeches and my message and I would delight in their adulation and I would preach understanding and the pursuit of enlightenment and the broadening of personal horizons. I'm kind of a big picture guy, Maya.
And I suppose when I say we, I'm talking about everyone in here. Everyone-- it's weird, Maya. I've never talked to anybody about this outside. Usually my transactions with other people are, um, you know, adding them to my being.
[John pulls up the sterling silver cover over the dish that he was planning on eating while Maya had started to chip away at her burger.
It's unsettling, what's underneath it. No, unsettling is the wrong word. It's completely, irrevocably, and in whole, awful. Before Maya sits a small light, and it's just. It's filled with this holiness to it, this soft and beautiful compassion that glistens and she knows, without a single doubt in her mind that this.
This has to be the Celestial plane. He cuts into it, and like a steak, puts it in his mouth and chews.]
I am. Sorry. You feel that way. You're the only person in the world I've ever talked to that didn't agree. There were-- Everyone listened Maya, I'm not being hyperbolic, every person in the world was swayed by what I had found out. I don't know why you're different, but everyone else listened. Everything, everyone across our whole plane of existence, our shared vexation with life covered the world like a blanket and soon every bird in the sky and every tree in every forest and every blade of grass and every grain of sand shared our fury and it wasn't long before it changed us.
[ she's used to people not taking her seriously, but it still burns. it makes her resentful. the more he talks, the more he has to bite her tongue. almost literally, because she hides her irritation by focusing on the burger and eating it with gusto.... ]
Sitting and chatting is much better than... adding people to your being, [ if that's the way he's going to put it!! ] for the record. You even seem to be enjoying yourself, soooooo....... Try things my way, for a change of pace.
[ she's ready to continue like this.... until he lifts his cover and she just stops to stare. it takes her a second to realize what she's even looking at, and the horror on her face is pretty plain to see as it dawns on her. then, in a swift motion, she's shoving the burger plate away from her. it takes all of her willpower not to run across the table and throw his plate on the ground. if she didn't think he'd probably kill her on the spot, she probably would have. ]
[ she has no sassy comment on any of this, just that look of pure horror. she says this more to herself than him: ]
So.... you... "We"..... That's the "us" you're talking about...
[ it's like legion, but worse? a whole world? and these were just regular people, not even bodyless souls? just from them all being unhappy? is that even possible? ]
[He's extremely up to speed on formal etiquette, so it's said after he finishes off his palate, even going as far as to wipe up his mouth with a napkin- not there's any residue of god-like beings there, of course. Everything's a metaphor, after all.]
We're breaking the rules of existence, Maya. No two beings can occupy the same place at the same time, no two atoms, comprising of quarks dancing together in polarity can ever be in the same vacuum at the same time. And yet, here we are. We're taking what sad existence that's been handed to us, either by some god who created us or the science that brings us here, and we're evolving. We seek to defy the barriers, to tell the answer to all of existence that there's more.
[He places the napkin down, feeling the look of sheer terror on Maya's face.]
We must look beautiful to you. Our ribbons of endless light, our impossibility of being.
[ even if it's a metaphor she still wants to slap the plate off the table. but she's missed her chance. the horror still hasn't left her expression, either. ]
[ she's so not qualified for this. any of it. ]
But you're not..... you're not defying anything. I don't know you convinced everyone else [ brainwashing??? ] to follow you, but all you're doing is killing people. There's nothing occupying the space you've taken over, because they're all dead.
[ beautiful? she almost laughs at that, but instead her expression hardens. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
You think they're tied together in their souls or something? Well, your guess is as good as mine, John.
[ eight, though. that's an interesting number. she'll remember that. ]
[ as gently pushily and persuasive as he's being, it kind of makes her want to throw it on the ground out of spite. it's probably poisoned or has truth ketchup serum in it or something. ]
[ okay, no, maybe not. he'd probably kill her directly if he was going to, so, slowly, she takes a bite. ]
[ it's convenient because it stops her from instantly retorting at his speech. so she chews. and she chews. and eventually, she speaks up. ]
Of course you think existence is pain if you're a businessman. Just change your career to something else... and I don't mean gobbling up worlds.
[ it's almost worse, though? that he's not doing it out of malice. just because he wants to expand, to make the rules. sure, she can sympathize a little. the world is cruel sometimes (all the time), and it feels more and more like they're all powerless, and at the mercy of things so much bigger than them. she feels that now, and she's felt it before. but.... ]
That's not how you grow, though. You'll never make peace like this. You don't grow by consuming everyone and everything else, it doesn't fix anything, it won't even make you feel better in the end. If you really want to grow, if you really want to overcome life's cruelty..... you have to do what we're doing right now, but with everyone else. Without hurting them.
[ there's some irony here because so far all he's been trying to learn is information to destroy lucretia (and friends), but she's trying to make a point. an.. anime point. he says there's nothing she can do to stop him, but she's going to try anyway like the shounen that she is. ]
Learn from other worlds and people instead of hurting them, instead of destroying them. There is more to existence than just pain and cruelty, and other people can help you see that, if you let them.
i am so sorry that this is so late
Changing his career? She can't be serious. Of course she is. That's too funny. The sound of The Hunger's voice wavering in delight at a joke might be extremely unnerving, but in a way, it's wholesome and true. Not filled with disdain or anger, not mocking, or condescending.]
I love what we do, Maya. Or, well, I guess I loved what I did when I was a human. I still am, I suppose, somewhere in here. I'm a public speaker. I was one, a successful one, too, if memory serves. And people from around the world would come to hear my speeches and my message and I would delight in their adulation and I would preach understanding and the pursuit of enlightenment and the broadening of personal horizons. I'm kind of a big picture guy, Maya.
And I suppose when I say we, I'm talking about everyone in here. Everyone-- it's weird, Maya. I've never talked to anybody about this outside. Usually my transactions with other people are, um, you know, adding them to my being.
[John pulls up the sterling silver cover over the dish that he was planning on eating while Maya had started to chip away at her burger.
It's unsettling, what's underneath it. No, unsettling is the wrong word. It's completely, irrevocably, and in whole, awful. Before Maya sits a small light, and it's just. It's filled with this holiness to it, this soft and beautiful compassion that glistens and she knows, without a single doubt in her mind that this.
This has to be the Celestial plane. He cuts into it, and like a steak, puts it in his mouth and chews.]
I am. Sorry. You feel that way. You're the only person in the world I've ever talked to that didn't agree. There were-- Everyone listened Maya, I'm not being hyperbolic, every person in the world was swayed by what I had found out. I don't know why you're different, but everyone else listened. Everything, everyone across our whole plane of existence, our shared vexation with life covered the world like a blanket and soon every bird in the sky and every tree in every forest and every blade of grass and every grain of sand shared our fury and it wasn't long before it changed us.
no worries!!
Sitting and chatting is much better than... adding people to your being, [ if that's the way he's going to put it!! ] for the record. You even seem to be enjoying yourself, soooooo....... Try things my way, for a change of pace.
[ she's ready to continue like this.... until he lifts his cover and she just stops to stare. it takes her a second to realize what she's even looking at, and the horror on her face is pretty plain to see as it dawns on her. then, in a swift motion, she's shoving the burger plate away from her. it takes all of her willpower not to run across the table and throw his plate on the ground. if she didn't think he'd probably kill her on the spot, she probably would have. ]
[ she has no sassy comment on any of this, just that look of pure horror. she says this more to herself than him: ]
So.... you... "We"..... That's the "us" you're talking about...
[ it's like legion, but worse? a whole world? and these were just regular people, not even bodyless souls? just from them all being unhappy? is that even possible? ]
no subject
[He's extremely up to speed on formal etiquette, so it's said after he finishes off his palate, even going as far as to wipe up his mouth with a napkin- not there's any residue of god-like beings there, of course. Everything's a metaphor, after all.]
We're breaking the rules of existence, Maya. No two beings can occupy the same place at the same time, no two atoms, comprising of quarks dancing together in polarity can ever be in the same vacuum at the same time. And yet, here we are. We're taking what sad existence that's been handed to us, either by some god who created us or the science that brings us here, and we're evolving. We seek to defy the barriers, to tell the answer to all of existence that there's more.
[He places the napkin down, feeling the look of sheer terror on Maya's face.]
We must look beautiful to you. Our ribbons of endless light, our impossibility of being.
no subject
[ she's so not qualified for this. any of it. ]
But you're not..... you're not defying anything. I don't know you convinced everyone else [ brainwashing??? ] to follow you, but all you're doing is killing people. There's nothing occupying the space you've taken over, because they're all dead.
[ beautiful? she almost laughs at that, but instead her expression hardens. ]
It's not beautiful. It's horrible. It's ugly.
[ rude, maya!!! ]
no subject
Nobody is dead, Maya. We're all here, together. All of us, without pain or suffering.
[He almost looks like he's not as interested in his meal anymore, as he pushes the plate forward and away from him for a moment.]
I'm truly sorry you feel that way. But seeing as our negotiations are beginning to break down, I don't think I can risk being here any longer.
[John genuinely does look perturbed. Maybe distraught, it's impossible to tell. But just as before, the black fire swirls in his hand.
And he kills her, again.]
I think... I'm sad.