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

[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?

[alephbet]

Are you sure you want to hear?

[tohko_amano]

Of course. That is why I asked. No matter what exactly happened when things went wrong in your universe, I'll listen. After all, you can't be a proper book girl if you only e-um, read the sweet parts of a story.

[alephbet]

...There once was a man named Gimmel. He was hailed as the Messiah of Arcadia, which was a peaceful place without demons, with a lush landscape full of trees and lakes and beauty.

[tohko_amano]

[At that, Tohko nodded, burning the words onto her brain and thinking about what might have happened next.]

I see. I assume that this paradise didn't last for long though, right?

[alephbet]

It had never existed. All the residents were hooked into a virtual reality without their knowledge - the peace had come at the price of never being able to know the truth or to change anything.

[tohko_amano]

[While that was a surprising turn of events, Tohko had read of similar scenarios before. Not that it stopped her from looking a bit surprised and sad. She had a feeling of what was coming here..]

And once people managed to break out of that illusion, the reality they avoided was too great for them to bear.

[alephbet]

Well...

[Aleph shakes his head.]

Gimmel attacked me once I found out and I had to kill him in self-defense. When the battle was done, I destroyed the machine that controlled Arcadia, but with everyone's brains hooked up to it...

[It didn't leave them in a good state.]

[tohko_amano]

It probably left them a little off-kilter, at best.

[At that, Tohko sighed.]

I'm really sorry to hear that, Aleph. That must have been terrible..but I wonder what would have happened if you destroyed the machine after everyone was unhooked from it.

[alephbet]

I don't really know how to unhook things from people's brains without hurting them.

[tohko_amano]

I didn't see the machine, so I wouldn't have a clue either..I guess the only way they could come out of that illusion was the way you set them free then.

[After all, the only one who would know how to safely destroy the machine would be Gimmel, and there was no way he was going to tell Aleph how to do it..and there was no reason to make him feel any more guilty about the whole situation.]

[alephbet]

I have regrets, but what I did then isn't one of them. ...It was just hard.

[tohko_amano]

Right, I understand. It was best for everyone to get out of that illusion, but dealing with it afterwards probably wasn't easy.

[alephbet]

[Aleph just falls silent.]

[tohko_amano]

[..This reminded her of Enoch and how he behaved with his pain sometimes. Tohko would just..sigh and, still smiling, try to pat Aleph on the shoulder again.]

It's alright. You did what you could at the time to help those people, and you can keep helping people and understanding them by moving forward and reading.

[alephbet]

Most people wouldn't say reading is helping.

[tohko_amano]

And most people might not be familiar with how powerful words can be. After all, reading something can help you learn and understand others, which can help out other people in the future. After all, I've managed to save people with books before.

[alephbet]

How did you do that?

[tohko_amano]

A girl back home with poor empathy and almost no emotions thought that she should die because it was too shameful to keep living, and because a person similar to her in the past had been inspired to kill himself and find peace thanks to No Longer Human.

I told her that Dazai wrote more than No Longer Human, and that not all of his stories were depressing and that she should live long enough to read them all and write a ten thousand page report on them. In short..there was still hope for her, if she kept on running like Melos.

[alephbet]

That's very impressive. I'm glad she was saved.