eternallywithoutfear | 2nd Suitor ❦ Video/Action for Rocket Goldenrod Base, then Anonymous Text ❦

[Justine still is pretty disoriented by the video function, so she tends to stick to audio when making public posts, like right now.]

As predicted, my transition into this new time is rocky at best. Is there anyone in Goldenrod kind enough to escort me through the shops and explain the various novelties invented within the last century and a half or so? I would be most grateful for the gesture.

Ah, and if possible, does anyone know where I might find books that are not dedicated to the animals here? I would quite like to catch up on literature. [And also designs for modern technology, but she's not saying that.

For someone else from the 1800's, this is pretty clearly a flirt, and simply expected of a woman. She's showing off vulnerability that she's actually capable of handling herself in order to play into the role she is used to being in.

Although the act isn't quite perfect. She doesn't sound like she's completely in over her head, and she forgot to throw something in there implying that she's just not smart enough to deal with all the books on animals, but that's just because the people of her time fill in those blanks themselves.]

[Anonymous Public Text, a few hours after the previous message]

But whether on the scaffold high,
Or in the battle's van,
The fittest place where man can die
Is where he dies for man.

Or so said a man long ago in 1844. I can't help but think he's optimistic if he thinks people will even try to die in their 'fittest place'. Of course you hear stories of brave men taking a bullet for a comrade in battle, but they become stories because of how rare it is. I don't think I've met anyone who would sacrifice themselves for another.

Would you?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A perfect stranger? Don't be ridiculous. That's an entirely different circumstance.

Then let's make the circumstances less certain. What if you were just risking your life for theirs instead?

But still for our perfect stranger?

In that case, it would depend on who was watching.

No one.

No one at all.

Then I would say that's quite the unfortunate predicament, for our hypothetical perfect stranger.

You're quite honest. I suppose our deceased poet wouldn't like you very much.

But I do.

Your poet is quite the idealist. However, his views are rather unfortunately simplistic. There's no inherent duty to die for the sake of another, or even to risk personal harm in an attempt to rescue. On the contrary, assuming one puts stock in the nobility and glory of dying for another, as the poet seems to, doesn't it also cheapen the act itself to suggest that it's something that ought to be done for anyone, rather than out of true strength of conviction in the name of someone who deserves it?

Simply put, there are three people I would die for, unhesitatingly. There are others I would risk it for. But the common denominator is that they're all people worthy of my allegiance, and the same can't be said for my hypothetical fellow man.

It comes down to how much life itself is worth. The poet seems to be under the impression that life is worth fighting for regardless of who it belongs to, but I am not convinced.

You sound very convinced of yourself, though. Have you ever been forced into a situation where you demonstrated what you are telling me now?

Oddities of this world aside, you must admit I'm fairly lively for a hypothetically dead person.

Have you ever been forced into a situation where you wished you could die in someone's place and couldn't? I'd argue futility can often be a fate worse than death.

I can't say I have. I have never cared about anyone so much to wish that I could take their place.

On the contrary, I am usually neutral or amused by their deaths. The dead and dying I know tend to deserve their fates.

Then I suppose I feel sorry for you. Speaking from a position of some personal experience, I can appreciate how a sense of comfortable apathy can have its advantages. However, having likewise discovered a person capable of inspiring such loyalty in those who surround him, I can also say that such all-encompassing apathy is neither comparable nor preferable.

On the contrary, whoever said I was apathetic?

I don't care about the life of others, but that doesn't mean I don't care when they die. It's amusing.

And having seen the effect loyalty has on others, I am perfectly happy with my lot.

Would misanthropy be a better word, then?

And I'd argue that there is a certain exhilaration to devotion, assuming the subject of it is worthy of receiving it. Perhaps you simply haven't found that person for yourself yet.

2nd Suitor ❦ Video/Action for Rocket Goldenrod Base, then Anonymous Text ❦

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