[homophonic] catchall for jonas

[dendroculi]

JONAS

code

Comments

[dendroculi]

[nahida thinks about it and nods, because that tracks with what she's seen of alex so far.]

I would have expected everyone here to be willing to do something to find a way out, but...

[...]

Some people didn't seem too motivated to take action on their own... that surprised me.

[westedge]

You would think. [ it's muttered, because he would love if people would cooperate but he's not confident everyone will. ]

Surprised me a little, too. You'd think being dead would be a pretty good motivator but I guess its not enough for some people. Which is kind of annoying since at least three people are going to have to inevitably rely on them.

[dendroculi]

Perhaps anyone who doesn't wish to do something about it should form a team with each other, though that would be a problem if there were more or less than four of them... or some increment of four.

[she frowns.]

[westedge]

I'm not sure how you'd find all those people either. You can't really put up a poll and say "hey if you don't care about living, join a team with these people" without it looking pretty bad.

[dendroculi]

Yes... on the one hand, it would be respecting their wishes to a degree, but on the other... it would be giving up on them.

[westedge]

[ ...interesting way of putting it. ]

You don't believe in the latter then?

[dendroculi]

...there was a time when I gave up on myself, once.

[...]

But... there were people who didn't give up on me. And because of them, I'm still here, and I'm grateful for it every day. So... I don't want to give up on other people.

[westedge]

[ oh. hm. this is a little sad and personal, and he can sort of understand where she's coming from. ]

...it's an admirable sort of thing. Not everybody would take an approach like that. [ it's questionable if jonas himself would at all times. ] But how do you not give up on someone who wants to be given up on?

[dendroculi]

I don't know. I think you just have to take it one step at a time.

And... if it gets to a point where you have to respect their wishes, then... [she looks down, her brows furrowing a little.] ...when you get to that point... you'll know. But until then, just continue to be there for that person. Sometimes when someone says "I've given up," what they really mean is "I need help."

[westedge]

[ he goes extremely quiet for probably longer than he should. he doesn't say anything, and he's kind of staring at her cake instead of her before there's a low sigh after. ]

That makes sense. It's figuring out the balance between helping them and hurting them by trying to help, even if they don't know which it is themselves.

[dendroculi]

Yes. It's one of those things that there isn't any instruction someone can give that will work for every situation.

[...]

I'm sorry. Talking that way was a bit much, wasn't it?

[westedge]

[ he starts a little, jolting out of whatever thoughts he has and shaking his head. ]

No, it's fine. What you're saying makes plenty of sense and is probably something we should keep in mind for some people here.

[dendroculi]

It's just a shame... usually, people would have more time to figure these things out, but with a deadline to form a team...

[her brow furrows.]

Rushing it may not help much.

[westedge]

I think the rush is tripping people up more than it's helping them. A lot of people are pointing out how hard it is to get to know someone in such a short amount of time.

[dendroculi]

[she nods]

It's an important decision to make, too, since our lives will be linked to our teammates'...

[westedge]

I still don't really get how that works either. How you can link a person to another person.

[dendroculi]

[(thinks about her elemental skill and laughs)]

That isn't so difficult, but it's usually temporary, not permanent.

[westedge]

[ ...........staring. ]

Why do you sound so sure of that...?

[dendroculi]

Umm... I was able to do something similar back in Sumeru.

It's not quite linking one life to another, but it did form connections between people.

[westedge]

[ he's not sure how to feel about that yet. ]

How'd it work? Did it help those people?

[dendroculi]

[she thinks about it...]

Well... one way of doing it formed connections between their minds so they could share knowledge with each other and everyone could benefit from it. The Akasha system isn't functioning on as wide a scale anymore, but a modified version of it helped a lot in a very difficult situation.

The other way has to do with forming elemental connections between creatures. It only ever lasted for a minute or so, though. So... it definitely wasn't the same thing we're talking about here.

But the concept doesn't seem so strange to me, I guess.

[westedge]

Oh. Yeah, Shenhe mentioned something about wielding elements so I guess that makes some sense. There's nothing really like that where I'm from. And we don't have an Akasha thing either unless you count the internet? It...sort of sounds like that without it being a mindmeld or something.

[dendroculi]

[damn. nahida actually learned about the internet in another pc set on sunday... alas, she can't be like "i understand that now!" here]

It's an informational tool, then...?

[westedge]

[ i'm glad she's learning. ]

Yeah. You can access a whole network either on a computer or even on a phone like the kind we woke up with. Makes it a lot easier to get answers to things you aren't expecting to need to know.

[dendroculi]

Oh... how interesting!

[so even in worlds without the akasha - without the gnoses, even - humans are capable of creating something like that all on their own. it's fascinating to think about.]

I wonder how it works... the Akasha system in Sumeru was powered by elemental energy, but you don't have that in your world, do you?