text | un: ectoplasmer

[hauhra]

Need a costume for that Halloween party you'll be going to at the end of the month, but can't come up with any ideas? Got too many ideas and not enough time to review them all? Then have I got the post for you! Tell this genuine ghoul your costume woes, and get expert advice in all things spooky back.

Of course, my expertise comes with a small fee of 100 Chroma for each costume recommendation. [ suspicious? maybe. ] But you can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket, right? So come on! Give it a try. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Comments

[hauhra]

[ That last question gives Bakura pause. It's clearly something that's never crossed his mind before, and he's grateful that this is a text conversation. No tone will come through either way, right? ]

Not all of the people I was trying to protect were good, no. But not all of them were evil, either.

However, just because some of them weren't evil doesn't necessarily mean that I should trust the rest of humanity... you learn a lot more about human beings than you ever wanted to when you've lived as long as I have.

[ He's making excuses, but he doesn't know it. ]

[wearingguess]

Of course. I do not mean to imply that you cared about them only because they were all "good people." I am sure you were not concerned with their individual saintliness when you determined that they deserved better than what was being done to them.
But that is why I think it is strange.
You could see, in those people, something that made them worth protecting. An intrinsic value, or dignity, or simply their rights as human beings

In the years you have lived since, and in the humans you have met
Do you no longer see it?

[hauhra]

No, because while some humans may be good, most continually repeat these mistakes even over thousands upon thousands of years.

[ "It would be better if they were simply eradicated." It's something he has to force himself to not send. His hypocrisy also goes amiss. ]

[wearingguess]

Then why don't you regret standing up for them in the past?

[hauhra]

Because the people I was standing up for in the past were my family.

[wearingguess]

I see...
I am truly sorry for your loss.

Are all other human beings the same to you now?

[hauhra]

Yes.

They've taken everything from me.

[wearingguess]

What, then, of the Prismals? Or those who come from worlds unconnected to your own?

[hauhra]

From what I've heard, things similar to what happened to me while I was alive happen in other worlds, too.

Human habits seem to transcend time and space.

[wearingguess]

I suppose they do.
Over and over, in so many different worlds, those who gain power inflict suffering and injustice on others...
But think about what you've just said. If what happened to you is also happening in all those other worlds, it means that in every single world, there are people like you. There are those who stand up for the powerless—who fight back, and who would give everything they have to protect the ones they love. So that, too, must be a human habit.

[hauhra]

And what do you think it will take to end the cycle?

[wearingguess]

I wish I knew.
But perhaps it would help to have someone like you on their side.