seventh fusion - audio

[beholdmydemons]

[Walter starts talking almost immediately after turning on the recording, sounding tired but as though his message was prepared ahead of time.]

You're the king of a country, and you hold a great contest - or a game. One man who comes to participate is very tall, and strong. Would you let him compete as any other, or bar him from the game to even those others' chances?

A man comes to a remote village, one that's remained as it is for a thousand years. He brings with him technology that would change life as the people know it, bringing them comfort and luxury. Should the village send that man away, or accept his gifts?

The person you love is gravely ill, doomed to sleep and never wake...you've tried every remedy you can imagine, and there's nothing left at your disposal. Would you tend to them for the rest of your life, or let them die naturally?

[He goes quiet, not sure what to follow that up with. The radio, playing tinnily in the background, switches to a holiday song that's been on at least five times already today.

...Yeah, that bears asking about. In just as tired a voice, but a much less rehearsed one:]

What the hell is Christmas?

[[ooc: canon update to end of first route split, complete!]]

Comments

[beholdmydemons]

As long as it's not...that, do as you wish!

[no he's

he's just talking about the fish]

[bertall]

...Is this about the nets you mentioned before?

_{[walter pls.]}

[beholdmydemons]

[bertall]

<sub>S-Sorry.

[lets try and steer the subject away from the fish that sounds like a good plan right?]</sub>

What would you do? For all of them, I mean.

[beholdmydemons]

[ >8| good]

The first hardly bears asking - he can't help how he was born. I'd let him compete.

For the second - tradition pales beside a chance at a better life. I'd take the gifts, and change the village.

...I'm not certain, as to the third, though. It seems to me the answer should be to let them go, but...if it came to it, I can't say what I'd choose to do.

[bertall]

_{[#ReasonsWhyHeLetsReinerDoTheTalking]}

...You're a good person, Walter. I wish I could be like that, I really do.

[beholdmydemons]

[Ah.

Walter's grin is a little half-hearted; there's a startled pause that could be chalked down to sheepishness.]

If you think a few words make someone a "good person", I suppose.

[bertall]

You haven't said anything that made me think otherwise so far.

_{[That, and his definition of 'nice person' is a little... weird.]}

[beholdmydemons]

You assume everyone's a good person until they prove otherwise?

[bertall]

I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Considering where I'm from, it's not really a bad thing in my eyes.

[beholdmydemons]

...You could stand to look after yourself a little more. [No, seriously, there are legitimately awful people in the world.]

[bertall]

Huh? But that's what I've been doing since I got here... _{[He just has to look in the mirror to find those people :c]}

[beholdmydemons]

I just mean that...a "good person" may not be so common as that. [Then again, the circumstances do make the person - it's easier to be "good" when the situation isn't dire. Here, in Johto (and Kanto), where people live with barely a care in the world...]

...There's just "people", I think. People and their choices.

[WELL THAT GOT DEEP]

[bertall]

...So what would you think of someone who made really bad choices, but they didn't have any other options? Would you still think they're just "people"?

_{[Let's dig this hole a little deeper then!]}

[beholdmydemons]

[...morality is hard.] I suppose so. I don't...really believe in rules that say what's good or evil, anymore. It all comes down to choices.

[...]

It sounds alarming, I know. [with a little laugh. DON'T WORRY he's not gonna go all serial killer on Johto or something crazy, he's just philosophizing.]

[bertall]

But what kind of choices?

_{[too many choices, too many morality options.]}

[beholdmydemons]

All...of them. [His moral code up until this point has been built on "fuck God", "I wanna know can you show me", and "Tayama's a piece of shit". Working through it further than that is proving not as simple as he imagined.] Who to trust, what to desire...what to fight against, or for.

[bertall]

So what kind of person am I based on what I answered? To you, I mean. If it's all based on choices... I'm a little curious.

[beholdmydemons]

[Hmm. He didn't come up with the questions originally, so...give him a moment to think about that.]

...You seem a kindly sort. Concerned for others...but perhaps you shy from hard choices? If you'd thought the gifts would do harm, it would stand to reason to refuse them, but...

[...but you gave kind of a wishy-washy answer.]

I can't be certain. After all, they're only questions. You can't know what a man will do until it comes to't.

[bertall]

_{[He lets that all sink in for a bit before he laughs to himself.]}

That sounds like me. Or how people talk about me. _{It's a little embarrassing to hear things like that but it's nice.}