002

[forceofnature]

[voice, public]
[Viridi has learned her lesson.

...Well no she hasn't she never does, but she can at least recognize the fact that the people here were too stupid to be expected to understand why gods needed to communicate the way they did.  Or how, exactly, this sort of communication worked. 

The telepathic broadcast is once again aimed to everyone within the city.  Instead of ringing directly in the ears of the unwashed masses, though, it seems to be reverberating from their communications devices instead.  There's an oddly echoing quality to it, and they'll find that her voice is impossible to shut off through the COMP, but hey.  She tried.]

So.

You've all been busy.  Paying visits to the mysterious 'Velvet Room', huh?

I couldn't help but notice that you're all practically lining up out the door to do favors for some strangers you don't know from Adam.  I'd call it altruistic, but we all know you're just hoping to get some shiny trinkets out of it.  A new weapon here, a better Persona there...  Call me crazy, but it's almost like you're making offerings in the hopes of receiving a blessing from some higher power you're pretty sure is benevolent.  Isn't it weird how familiar that sounds?  And you know, come to think of it, I could use a spare hand for some fetch quests, too.  Since you're all just so eager to be helpful, I'm sure you have time to spare.

Of course, I don't need anyone's faith, but a few favors here and there might just mean some handy-dandy divine intervention in your future.  I'm a goddess of my word.

You can even ask Pit!  My Treasure Hunt board had the ideal balance of difficulty to reward.  Palutena's was the lamest thing ever and Hades basically made his for sadists.  So act fast!  Once I've got what I want, you're just plain old out of luck.

Comments

[forceofnature]

I'm the Goddess of Nature, but that might not encompass what you think it does. The earth and all living things fall under my domain, but we've got other deities responsible for lightning and the sea and other miscellanea.

I concern myself with Life.

[bondsofsuffering]

So if you concern yourself with life... Would that make you opposed to any kind of death at all, or what? Nature has a lot of both.

[forceofnature]

Obviously not. The whole world would go down the drain if nothing ever died.

I concern myself with the cycle of life and the balance of life and death. When those are disrupted, bad things happen. Something you humans never seem to get.

[bondsofsuffering]

...So I take it humans did something to that effect in your world?

[forceofnature]

In every world. You're all the same wherever you go!

[bondsofsuffering]

Well, we haven't figured out immortality at least?

[Killing on the other hand...]

[forceofnature]

That's not something you can 'figure out'; you already reincarnate, anyway.

[bondsofsuffering]

[Oho.]

Is that how it works?

[forceofnature]

Well.

Not always, but souls in the City of the Dead can be used to make something else if the gods have a mind for it.

[bondsofsuffering]

So, let me get this straight... there's both an afterlife and reincarnation?

[forceofnature]

What, do you need me to draw out a diagram or something?

When something with a soul dies - and that's not only humans - it's taken to the underworld to the City of Souls. It's not associated with any of its past lives, but the stuff it's made of can be used to form new life.

...Or sometimes it gets eaten, which is something most souls try to avoid on a general principle.

[bondsofsuffering]

A diagram would be good, if you don't mind!

Wow. If the people in my world knew all this, people would really have to reevaluate their beliefs.

[forceofnature]

That was a joke.

And your world has different gods; things probably work differently there.

[bondsofsuffering]

I was joking too, you know.

I guess it would be too convenient if all the worlds were that similar, huh?

[forceofnature]

The sad thing is how you're all still exactly the same regardless of which world you come from. It's actually kinda depressing.

[bondsofsuffering]

In which way, exactly? Across so many worlds, there must be different cultures and beliefs that change things up at least a little.

[forceofnature]

The way in which you stick your fingers in your ears and start whining about how wonderful you are whenever anyone tries to warn you about your destructive lifestyles.

The way in which you insist on polluting every part of nature you can lay your grubby little fingers on.

The way in which your defining character traits are selfishness and a lack of consideration for the possibility that maybe the world would appreciate it if you didn't chop down every tree in sight and drill holes everywhere for worthless rocks.

Do you want me to go on? I have a list that's about 953 bullet points long.

[bondsofsuffering]

That's a pretty dedicated list! Then again, you've probably had a lot of time to build it...

I'm not exactly a good person to speak for all of humanity, but believe it or not, there are some of us who realize we can be harmful to not only each other, but the world around us.

[forceofnature]

Also the way you always have the same response as if that somehow means your species isn't completely destroying the world and everything in it.

For being so good, you're sure not doing anything to stop it.

[bondsofsuffering]

I never meant to imply we weren't. I just wanted to point out that we aren't all exactly the same as you seem to think.

And, well, there's only so much a single sixteen year old can do about that kind of thing. It doesn't matter if the topic is genocide or nature conservation; there will always be multiple sides disagreeing on whether or not it's a good idea, and to what extent. And of course, each side will have at least one person who, as you pointed out, will stubbornly defend their opinion on it regardless of what the rest of us do.

[forceofnature]

So every single sixteen-year-old says that, and no sixteen-year-old ever does anything.

Everyone goes 'I'm just one person!' so no one ever does anything! The truth is that you're all just complacent and you don't care. You know on some level that it's wrong; you just don't care enough to do anything about it. Someone else will do it! No one does!

That's almost worse.

[bondsofsuffering]

So you actually believe entire world nations will listen to the pleas of one of their young? For someone who's made a point of watching humans to the point of listing out each of their faults, you're pretty uninformed.

[Though with Yaiba's "blessing", he probably could have talks with all the right people... But the environment is hardly one of his major worries.]

[forceofnature]

I'm using that as an example of an excuse, you oaf. Everyone in the world has an excuse, so nothing ever gets done. It's not a hard concept to understand.

[bondsofsuffering]

Still, some of those excuses are legitimate ones, I'd say.

[forceofnature]

Yeah, I'm just gonna be over here listening to each of your individual excuses about why your whole society is hell-bent on destroying the world and everything in it and mark off the ones that are good and give you a pat on the head. That's a productive use of my time instead of, you know. Making you all stop.