driftfleet | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Everyone
Broadcast: N/A
Action: Iskaulit
When:

[So we've been stuck on the poison moon for a couple months now, so a lot of people probably want to get away from that.

Unfortunately, the only place you really can get away from it besides your own ship is the Iskaulit. So, here's a June Iskaulit mingle!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... "Infected"? By malevolence?

It's like... an affliction of especially negative or contradictory feelings that overwhelm and alter the one affected by it. If it's especially bad, it can sweep through an entire city and kill like a plague.

... E- Eh? How strange... That's such a weird thing!

Is it? I thought your moon computer was strange, too.

They're completely different levels of strangeness!

This isn't a competition!

Well, perhaps not, but anyway... What happens if there is no Shepherd?

Usually, the land will decay, and people will suffer. Records state that it's been hundreds of years since a Shepherd appeared, and now that I've explored more of the world, I can tell you with certainty that it's in bad shape.

What of the person who has been infected?

Many of them become hellions- monsters. They might attack and kill others without even realizing they're doing it. Unfortunately, some just die. Shepherds can save the living or those who've changed into hellions, but...

[He shrugs. Sadly, even they can't bring back the dead.]

... And what of when one who is already dead becomes damned in that way?

[She doesn't ask if that's possible- She doesn't have to.]

....Even the dead can become hellions. They can be purified, so their souls can be saved, in a sense, but they're still dead.

I see. That's the best happy ending the damned can hope for.

At the very least, it's better than wandering the world as a ghost hellion. All they can do is cause suffering to others.

Through purification, maybe they'll at least be at peace.

For a time, at least.

[She never wandered, and the release of her soul allowed her to find peace... and then she was summoned by the Moon Cell to fight in a war.

Peace is only ever temporary.]

I can't comment on that. I've never given much thought to the afterlife, if it even exists.

It exists. For some, at least. Those who were not worshiped, those who did not become heroes... They remain in Samsara.

Samsara?

[Never heard that one before.]

Well... To vastly oversimplify, the cycle of death and rebirth.

Does everyone come back from the dead in some way in your world?

Well... It's a bit strange for me to be espousing Buddhist teachings as a Shinto goddess, but whatever. I think... Well, I could talk about the Eightfold Path, or the Four Noble Truths, or Nirvana, but I don't think any of those would mean anything to someone not of Earth. Hm...

Well, transmigration and reincarnation aren't truly 'coming back from the dead'. You become a new person, and what kind of life you are born into depends upon your karma. We Heroic Spirits have been removed from that cycle to reside in the Throne of Heroes, and the Moon Cell records us as well.

Does your world not have any who have attained enlightenment and become a Buddha?

I don't even know what a "Buddha" is, but I'm going to assume that no, we don't.

[He's never heard of anything like that, and he's not sure he'd call any of the humans-turned-seraphim he's met could be called "enlightened". That's the only sort of rebirth he's familiar with.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only