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]

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.

[tohko_amano]

So am I..but you know, I'm sure anyone could have done that if they read the books and understood them! You see? Reading can help, if you use it properly.

[alephbet]

I'll remember that.

[tohko_amano]

Good! I'm glad to hear that. However, remembering something doesn't usually help unless you act as well. You had better read up on the books I gave you so that you can understand other people!

[While Tohko was serious about reading, she was trying to joke with Aleph a little bit here.]

[alephbet]

I think I'm pretty good about acting...

[tohko_amano]

[Well, so much for that. Tohko sighed and tried to pat Aleph on the shoulder again.]

I think you are too..I'm sorry. I was trying to joke a little bit about how you should start reading quickly.

[alephbet]

Oh, all right. I will.

[tohko_amano]

Good! I'm glad to hear that! As usual, if you have any problems with the words or references or anything at all, come to the library! I'll help you out as best I can!

[alephbet]

I will, don't worry.