Day 88:: Can you hear me, I know I'm just a whisper...

[bastionpc]

Who: Everyone!
Status: Open
When: Day 88
Where: The Bastion
What: NPC and PC mingling
Format: Action
Warnings: None

[The excitement of the day before moves in to the quiet of the day after in the Bastion. It's fairly calm after all that, and the two new arrivals have been mostly healed. Current residents will find the once-armored woman bandaged still but in surprisingly good spirits, and the male with the guitar skittish and likely to jump at the smallest thing.

This would be a good point to talk to them, other NPCs or even your fellow NPCs.]

Comments

[bastionpc]

Is she? Why do you say that?

[blackblooded]

[Again, that deep gray blush colors Crona's cheeks.]

Y-you're a... a nice person.

[bastionpc]

Oh. Well. Thank you. I think you're very nice, too.

[blackblooded]

I....


I'm not, not really.

[bastionpc]

No? Why do you say that?

[blackblooded]

[Crona sort of curls up more, not making eye contact.]

When... a person... hurts other people, just to be stronger, that's not good. That's not a good person.

[bastionpc]

Well... no, I suppose not. But is it something you still do? Do you still want to hurt people to be stronger?

[blackblooded]

No. No, I never want to hurt anyone again. No one should be hurt because of me.

[bastionpc]

Then you're a better person than you give yourself credit for.

[blackblooded]

... I... I'm trying. That's all I can do.

[bastionpc]

That is all you can do, but trying is proof enough that you don't want to be that person.

[blackblooded]

[A nod, looking down at the water.]

Did you... [No, no, Crona can't ask that. But the words have started, and it would be rude not to ask. Wouldn't it?] ever kill people?

[bastionpc]

[Ahime let out a sigh at that, and it's a good minute before she answers finally.]

I've had to, yes. It's unavoidable in my position.

[blackblooded]

I killed people. A lot of them. Hundreds, maybe. I can't remember how many.

J-just because someone told me I needed to be stronger.

[bastionpc]

I'm sorry that happened to you, Crona. All you can do is take some comforting in knowing that you've decided to not be like that any longer.

[blackblooded]

It's just... a... a good person? They wouldn't have done that.

[bastionpc]

I disagree.

[Ahime shakes her head to that, clearly emphatic in her rejection of such an idea.]

It's never that black and white. Good people can do bad things, be it by accident, out of a mistaken notion that they're some how doing good anyway or simply because they don't know any better. And bad people can do good things either by accident or because their conscious grips them at the right moment.

It would be impossible to paint people with such broad strokes and be 100% correct.

[blackblooded]

I... I knew it was wrong.

I just wanted to be stronger. I didn't want anyone to be stronger than me.

[bastionpc]

You wouldn't be the first person to think that, Crona. Good or bad, wanting to be stronger is a natural state of being. It's how you decide to do it, and even how you decide to reconcile your actions later that matter most.

[blackblooded]

[A shake of the head.]

Maybe.

I don't know. Maybe.

[bastionpc]

Well... perhaps it's something you need to figure out on your own. Give it time.

[blackblooded]

It's difficult, you know? I don't know how to deal with figuring things out.

[bastionpc]

I'd say if you've already decided you don't want to hurt people anymore, you're on a good track. Even if it is a difficult one.

[blackblooded]

D-do you think so?

[bastionpc]

I do, yes.