004 ☓ anon text

[envy_the_sinners]

[Scar's been lying low in Olivine ever since the hurricane, and he's starting to go a little stir-crazy. Being left bored with his thoughts can only end in one thing. Anon questions.]

In my time here, I have come to find that there are a great many "worlds" that are home to people who wouldn't be considered human, but experience the same depth of thought and range of emotion.

[Even he can make that conclusion, now.]

In that case, what is humanity? A measure of physical traits? A state of mind? Something into which one must be born?

Comments

[ossifragant]

If you want to be literal, I'd say the only way to be human is if you're born one.

This place doesn't cause a dramatic personality shift for those not human.

I lost a lot of people before coming here. People who died protecting me. It's been months and I still feel guilty. I'll probably never stop. It keeps me awake at night.

If humanity is anything perhaps it's compassion for another living being.

[a_sin_for_him]

Biological humanity is obviously something achievable to those born other. This place proves that.

The capacity for empathy...I don't know. I'm inclined to believe that's something one either has from the start or doesn't at all.

[envy_the_sinners]

Others have come to a similar conclusion.

But then why would we call it humanity, if it is something to be felt by those who aren't human?

[Because he is totally convinced that you aren't human, bro.]

[ossifragant]

[He's... not being very subtle about it.

He's pretty bad at pretending to be something he's not even if he is technically human now.]

I don't know.

[envy_the_sinners]

This place is also capable of bringing life to the dead. I don't know if that makes it a bad point of comparison, or calls every universal rule into question.

There do seem to be those who are completely incapable of it.

[envy_the_sinners]

Something to consider, then.

[ossifragant]

What would you call it?

[bookslap]

If we did not carry out this duty, then more innocent souls would be damaged and eaten. As I see it, it is simply a case of the greater good being more important than the life of the one.

It may not be a just system, but it is - in my eyes - a just cause.

[envy_the_sinners]

I am starting to wonder if the state of empathy truly needs a name. We call it what it is.

[envy_the_sinners]

Your cause is just, there is no arguing that.

But the burdens of the sinful always have a way of falling onto the shoulders of the righteous.

[ossifragant]

Maybe the best thing would be to call it "being alive."

[bookslap]

I would not consider my duty a burden. I have lived far longer as a Shinigami than I would as a human, and I have seen the world change in ways I would not have even contemplated when I was but flesh and blood.

But I would not consider myself righteous.

[envy_the_sinners]

No. I have seen men who are very much alive who completely lack any sense of compassion or empathy.

[envy_the_sinners]

And why is that?

[ossifragant]

[Would one of those men happen to be Greed's close friend because um]

Then it's the wrong term for it. What then? It's one of those things so engrained I'm not sure one term could encompass it.

[bookslap]

There are things I have done, things I have participated in which would render me unworthy of such a status.

[envy_the_sinners]

[Why yes, of course.]

The wrong term for what? What are you trying to describe at this point?

[envy_the_sinners]

I see.

And yet you continue this mission of cleansing these lost souls.

[ossifragant]

What else?

Another word for humanity.

[envy_the_sinners]

Yet humanity is beginning to look more and more like a physical state rather than an emotional one, due to the fact that the existence of non-humans with emotions refutes the idea.

[Yeah, even he can admit that, now.]

[ossifragant]

There is no other word for the emotional side of it, is there? Maybe you're right. Maybe there is no need for there to be a term for it in the end.

[Anon Text]

[foolishwren]

Honestly at this point, in this place, 'humanity's kind of a flawed word.

There's things out there that are just as sentient as humans, but aren't humans. But at the same time, talking about 'humanity' and excluding those people feels wrong.

[bookslap]

It's my job to do so. It would be treason for me to not perform this duty.

[rarestcandy]

boooo

who cares? why's everyone gotta focus so much on what people ARE or AREN'T instead of just getting to know who they're talking to?

[exeggutorhead]

Both, probably. Not that it really helps either way if you're one of those non humans.

You used to think like that?

[Just...a guess.]