Audience - Viktor

[holyspirits]

Comments

[hextech]

Yes. [His mood perks a bit.] Connecting with all of them. Knowing their thoughts, taking care of them. They were all here, every one of them. [Sorry that you are in the husk of a hivemind, Lailah.]

[sprayandpray]

[ luckily she is stupid so this is like. fifty degrees less unsettling than it should be. (but, like, still a little...) ]

And is that not a matter of an emotional connection?

[hextech]

[Girl......] It's a mental one. But I understand what you're trying to do here. I never had a problem with the emotions, but the commune became collateral because of them. Because of others.

[sprayandpray]

But that's always going to be a risk.

It has to be. Should be.

[hextech]

A group of happy pacifists should be collateral?

[sprayandpray]

That's not what I mean.

Individuality is the important part. There's meaning in taking the risk to trust others because it's a risk.

[hextech]

[His mood plunges in the relieved and understanding sort of way.] You think this despite how often people hurt others? The risk of being... harmed, killed, hurt is... worth it?

[sprayandpray]

As much as I would like for it not to hold any risk... That isn't realistic. Violence happens every day.

[ in her deranged world there is gun violence every 5 seconds. ]

But to open your heart knowing you might get hurt means all the more because the risk is there. It's a leap of faith.

[hextech]

[Can't believe his well-planned, delightful, altruistic higher evolution hivemind dreamscape is being shot down left and right.] I do not want pain and suffering to happen to anyone.

[sprayandpray]

[ maybe he should have been chopping up people's bodies and turning them into metal instead of becoming one with THE VOID. >:(!!!!!!!!!!! ]

That's kind of you. Neither do I.

And we can work to reduce it as much as possible. To provide people with better outlets, better opportunities, better resources.

But you can't eliminate pain.

[hextech]

[:'(] There has to be a way. [The emotions are stubbornly resistant, but, like, in a kinder way than the neutrality of him outside of this place. Great intentions! Terrible execution.] There is always a way. I just have to find it.

[sprayandpray]

[ hrmmm. unfortunately emotion bleed means she's feeling stubborn too. ]

... Have you ever mourned for someone that you lost?

[hextech]

[Oh my god, two of them. You know the sensation of crunching up aluminum foil? That's what happens to the emotions bleeding out of him. A big ol' uncomfortable crunchy of understanding and recollection of hurt.] ...Yes.

[sprayandpray]

[ persevering... through crunchy feelings... ]

I don't think it's good to enjoy anyone's suffering. But I imagine that if I wasn't mourned, I would be a little bit hurt by that.

It would be reassuring to know I was missed.

[hextech]

I understand what you're saying. [(unsure)] But what if you wouldn't need to worry about mourning at all? About being missed. People wouldn't die. Those feelings would become obsolete.

[sprayandpray]

A life too long would be a heavy burden.

[ the afterlife doesn't count. she's just a hypocrite about this. ]

[hextech]

Why do you believe that? [He doesn't sound or feel judgmental, or offended, but curious.]

[sprayandpray]

Think of it like school.

[ because everything in life is school, actually. ]

You have to graduate someday. To make room for your underclassmen to make the school their own. If you enrolled in a school that no one had ever graduated from, what could you hope to accomplish? To change? How would you ever find your place there?

And for those graduated, how would they find their place in the wider world?

[ the metaphorical afterlife, perhaps! ]

[hextech]

[Damn, everyone here is school adjacent, and he is now old and not a schoolboy. His emotions dip again, not anger or resentment, but confliction maybe.] I understand what you're saying. The change isn't the problem. Progress, evolution - it's needed. The problem is... choice. The conflicting parameters of the humanity to which everyone clings. It is here, too. We see it every time we watch the others. Their love, their hate, their greed, their wrath, their joy. They love and help others only to turn around and hurt them or themselves. Is this not an entire movement by God based on a judgment of choice? When do we evolve beyond those sorts of limitations and become something perfected? Wouldn't a god understand that?

[sprayandpray]

I'm sure God understands that we never evolve beyond free will. Beyond making mistakes, and needing to grow for ourselves.

A world without choice is a world without meaning.

[hextech]

[He isn't sure how to feel, so it's a big mixed bag. Stubborn, more than anything. Frustrated. Not at Lailah, of course.] I believe there can be meaning in a world without the choices to hurt other people.

[sprayandpray]

[ she can accept stubborn. she'll try to change his mind slowly, but not impatiently. maybe a little more stubborn than she would usually be, though, since his feelings bleed over. ]

But what is that meaning?

[hextech]

True peace. [Despite the deluded and poor execution, his feelings are profoundly earnest. He really does want a paradise of peace and prosperity, free of disease and violence and hardship.] Without the struggle of society-imposed inequalities, a person is allowed to become their richer selves.

[sprayandpray]

[ this is why she can't bring herself to be too afraid of him. he means so well. ]

It sounds like they're becoming someone else. Not themselves.

[hextech]

[His expression pinches, and he looks away. The frustration gives to a kind of crippling doubt. He turns from her and peers out over the empty expanse. Frowns.] Is it so wrong to become someone else as you grow into something better? That's evolution. Changing and adapting. Are you the same person you were years ago, Lailah? [He unfortunately could not see the Theseus's ship thought experiment at the time, but he has much experience with it.] I'm not. Does this make me not Viktor? You only know me as this one.