Quest 120

[primrosella]

[Private//Hackable by Friends]

They didn't come for me.

I killed a witch in her sleep and they didn't come for me. I stole from an ogre, I blinded a set of three hags, I robbed graves...and they didn't come for me. They left me alone. They took the others, they took my friends, but they never came for me.

Am I any less guilty for it?

Maybe I am. Maybe I am different. It'd fit, wouldn't it?

Don't go trying to rescue anyone. Don't come to the prison. Don't look. Don't become one more thing for your friends to worry about. Don't end up like the rest of them.

Is that it? Am I really so different after all?

I think I understand now, Megumi.

[/Private]

I see, now. How very clever. First make the animals attack us, then set the stuffed ones on us, and now treat us all like animals. That's terribly clever, isn't it? Three bad things, all in a row, just as we'd all been expecting, and all to do with animals.

But it begs questions, doesn't it? Why this? Why now? Why are some people taken and others left alone? And who could possibly deserve the things being done to the people in there? Prison, punishment, seeking repentance for sins--that's all well and good, but if you have to resort to torture to seek it, how are you any better than the ones you intend to punish? What does it solve? Where does it stop?

This isn't justice. It makes me sick-- This is suffering for the sake of suffering. Fuel for the clock again, is it?

And now it's said that the island is sinking. The deities have as good as confirmed it, in their roundabout ways--"rats drown with the ship", "tick-tock, get out quick", "time is not on your side". Is it so hard to guess what the "exciting conclusion" might be? And what does that mean for the people that haven't or won't or can't accept the parole that's been offered, I wonder? Or perhaps I don't have to wonder at all.

But perhaps the question that's most important of all is this: do the ends always justify the means? Is it worth it to become a monster to defeat a monster? To punish people with the same methods that they themselves are being punished for? Or does answering evil with evil only result in twice as much evil at the end of it all? When is it poetic justice, and when is it just plain cruelty?

Perhaps it's the reasons behind it, in the end, that make all the difference. And no matter what anyone might say, I have a difficult time believing that any of this is truly being done for our sakes.

Comments

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

Then will you at least let me come sit with you? Since I'm not allowed to do anything else.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Yes, all right. Though I'm not sure I'm much for company-- I can't seem to do much beyond lie here in bed.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

You'd better not be doing much besides lying in bed and resting.

I just don't want to be by myself right now.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I seem to collapse every time I stand up--I'm doing best lying down today-- Believe me, I'm not.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

Good. Because so help me, I will--I'll sit on you if I have to. You're staying in bed.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

We've had this conversation before--or one very like it--though this time it's in reverse.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

We have. And I seem to recall you ended up bribing me to make me stay put, too. Shall I do the same for you?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

It may come to that, I'm afraid.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

And what would you like as a bribe, then?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet decided. If, after you've come to pay me a visit, you think I'm not going to stay in bed, I'll think of something you can use to bribe me.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

I already know you're not going to stay in bed. I wouldn't, and you're just as stubborn as I am. Perhaps moreso, even.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I'm staying here well enough today, thank you. Staying here tomorrow may require some bribery.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

Then you'll have it. If nothing else, I can at least look after you-- Though I don't know of any ballets coming up that I can offer to escort you to, unfortunately.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll just demand your company.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

That's a waste of a bribe. You can have that anytime you feel like asking for it.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Then I'll have to think of something else to demand.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

You will. And I'm sure you'll have no trouble with it, clever as you are. ...Though if I catch you thinking on your feet, you're in deep trouble.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Oh, very well.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

And here I thought you enjoyed my puns.

I'll be there soon, so don't go anywhere.

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I do enjoy them, you know that.

I'm not going anywhere, I assure you.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

You'll be sick of them by the time I let you out of bed again, I'm sure.

[OOC: Just so you know, if she's still there at midnight when the island blows, she's going to freak.]

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I may very well be. We shall have to see.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

There's only one way of finding out, really.

[OOC: Sam got blown up, apparently. :( Crying will probably ensue.]

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I'm not going anywhere. We'll know soon enough.

[primrosella.livejournal.com]

We certainly will.

[OOC: But at least he was already dead anyway! But she won't consider that, so. Wheeee, hysteria.]