09 | the virtuous among us

[alephbet]

Characters: Aleph and you!
Setting: Floor 3, Floor 13, Floor 19, Floor 25 (afterwards)
Format: Starting with actionspam, but will match you.
Summary: Aleph is in search of something in particular: a Bible. He has no success and eventually retires to the meadow.
Warnings: Will edit if anything comes up.

[Floor 3]
[The first place to look would of course be the library.

But, it seems that religion and history are intertwined, and the histories of the worlds aren't covered in this library. No matter how hard he searches, Aleph can't find a single religious tract or book of divine scripture.

He's basically going to check every section of the whole library before he gives up, though. It'll take him awhile and make him obviously noticeable.]

[Floor 13]
[Churches generally have religious books in them, don't they? To read from and all.

This one doesn't seem to. It's not a clearly Mesian or Christian church, and he doesn't know well enough to determine if it's anything else, but he thinks its pastors must be hard on their luck if they have to recite everything from memory.

Aleph will turn this floor inside out trying to search, including looking under pews.]

[Floor 19]
[Now, he's pretty sure that this research library doesn't have anything either, but just in case...

He'll go over this entire library section looking, though with less enthusiasm than the other floor's library.]

[Floor 25: afternoon]
[Well that was a waste. Still, it was something to do. And...

Aleph knew vaguely that other worlds had kinder Gods than his had. Different Gods. But he failed completely to understand why they got so upset about the prospect of a different god than theirs being killed. He only sort of knew why Lucifer got such a bad reputation, in the barest possible sense.

He'd been reading books for a year to improve his ability to read, and to not be bereft of all knowledge but how to fight. It seemed time to get around to some of these, if he could find any of them.

Failing that, picking daisies and making them into a flower chain was never a bad use of time.]

Comments

[tohko_amano]

Well, that's always good..but doesn't it help to think about your next two goals as you're coming up on your goal?

[alephbet]

I usually don't have that liberty - something always comes up.

[tohko_amano]

I guess your battles must have gotten pretty crazy then. Who were you fighting against? God?

[alephbet]

That was just the most recent battle. I've had many before that.

[tohko_amano]

I imagine so..after all, people don't usually pick up a weapon and have their first battle with god. You'd probably have to fight a lot of angels first.

[alephbet]

Even before that, there were a lot of demons and humans to fight.

[tohko_amano]

I see..I can see why you would fight against humans, but it's a little weird that you would fight demons before fighting god. Or are you against both parties?

[Have an example of how Tohko can make wrong deductions sometimes.]

[alephbet]

I'm not. But when I was younger I was a gladiator, and when I was starting out as the Messiah, I was sent to fight demons a lot.

[tohko_amano]

[Well, that was interesting.]

I see..what made you want to become a Messiah?

[alephbet]

I didn't. I was made for the role.

[tohko_amano]

[And..that made Tohko try to pat Aleph on the head. She meant nothing bad by it, she just knew that living as a creation for a horrible god and then rejecting that god must have taken some courage..and left some pretty serious consequences.]

I see..I'm sorry to hear that, but it's good that you went against your role and chose your own path!

[alephbet]

[She'd have to reach up a little to pat him on the head, but Aleph allowed it.]

Thank you. That's one thing I don't regret.

[tohko_amano]

[Tohko, thankfully, was used to patting tall people on the head sometimes, so she stood up as tall as she could to do so before standing at her normal height again.]

I don't imagine you would! After all..even if it has a lot of pain, if you can walk down your own path and keep living, it's usually something to take pride in.

[alephbet]

Exactly how I feel.

[Tohko are you secretly a protagonist.]

[tohko_amano]

[And that earns Aleph a shoulder pat and a good smile.]

I'm glad to hear that! You can usually accomplish a lot of great things if you're able to do that and think you can. It's hard to make other people understand that sometimes though.

[It was never a secret that Tohko was a semi-reckless protag.]

[alephbet]

It's not that hard. It depends on who yo're talking to.

[tohko_amano]

[At that, Tohko sighed a little, but she kept on smiling.]

Well, it's not that hard for us..but it is hard for other kinds of people. I've met a few who would rather not walk down a semi-painful path, even if it got better eventually.

[alephbet]

That's... really kind of dumb.

[Chaos.]

[tohko_amano]

I suppose. They would usually try to choose a different path or just stop walking entirely, but it's usually because they can't see that there is some hope at the end, despite everything. We're all fools, but they've gotten to the point where they don't want to hold strong ideals or emotions in their hearts if they think it'll hurt.

[alephbet]

I could never be like that, taking the safe route if it meant not being free and true to myself.

[tohko_amano]

I wouldn't go down that route either..but I can see why some people would be pained enough to try and walk down it, or stop walking at all.

[alephbet]

I know people who are like that.

[tohko_amano]

Oh, you do too? How were you at dealing with them, if you don't mind my asking?

[alephbet]

...I don't think what happened went well.

[tohko_amano]

[At that, Tohko sighed and looked a little crestfallen.]

I see..and what did happen, if you don't mind my asking?