{Is it all some game, where everything stays the same? ¤ 004 ¤ Voice

[itchtokill]

[Kol hasn't been on the network in awhile. He's been a bit preoccupied in recent history, and then... well, things come up. He won't go into all the sordid details, but he's got some thoughts kicking around after having some news of home dropped on him. Granted, he'd asked for it to be laid out for him, but still. As is typical with his family, the news was more like warfare he had to look forward to.

Which is still an odd thing to wrap his mind around. Death not sticking isn't a Wonderland-new sort of ideal to him. He's died and not stayed that way before, and his parents had hated every ounce of what their children became for their own paranoid actions. And he'd done it again, at the hands of the Gilbert children, and in flames, before he'd appeared here.

He can't quite make heads or tails of how he feels about everything his sister has told him, and he doesn't particularly look to talk about much of it at all, but he does still have a topic to address the Wonderland populace at large about.]

Is there anything you've had taken from you that you'd do nearly anything to get back? Are there lines you wouldn't cross, even for something truly important to you, into the core of who you always thought you were, would be, should've been? What are you limits? Why do you have them?

Comments

[angewiesen]

What do you mean "get back"? Like something that's been stolen from you?

[itchtokill]

That's the general idea, yeah.

[angewiesen]

Huh. Well, I've got lines. But it depends on the situation. What was stolen, who the thief is...

[itchtokill]

Well, yeah, that's the point. It's all very personal. And it's fine if you aren't up to actually discussing it, but it sort of defeats the purpose of the topic.

[angewiesen]

Nah, I can. I'd say I don't like hurting humans-- or human-like living things, y'know, talking ponies or whatever-- and I really don't like killing humans. I still think the only thing I'd do it for is the Corps. Or if someone was really trying to kill me.

[itchtokill]

[Kol certainly can't say anything like that. He doesn't even have an accurate guestimate of the number of people he may have murdered through the last ten centuries. Human or otherwise, he really hasn't been too picky, personally.] How noble. [He gives a facial shrug at the idea.] Not much of a 'means to an end' sorta bloke, then?

[angewiesen]

Not really noble. I'm just from a world where human life is more precious than it is in others, so I'm biased. If I were from a place where survival wasn't so hard, I'd probably think differently.

[thereporter]

I've been asking that question a lot lately myself. I still don't have much of an answer.

° private voice

[beautifullies]

[ This strikes a chord for Claire and before she can truly think about it, she responds. ]

Once you've crossed the line to murder, what others are there?

[bibliocorn]

From what I've seen, having those lines and not crossing them is the divide between what makes a hero and what makes a villain. It's just that sometimes that line is a lot harder to see, and some don't realise they've crossed it until it's too late.

But no, not for me personally. But then, I don't have anything worth taking in the first place. Nothing material anyway.

[itchtokill]

I'm rather well-aware of my part as villain in plenty of people's stories through the centuries. I'm not so much worried about those sorts of labels. What about things that are less material?

° private voice

[itchtokill]

It is a bit of a top-tier of line-crossing, I s'pose. [He doesn't sound concerned about it at all.]

[itchtokill]

Perhaps you don't have lines you won't cross. [How unusual that is to find in humans. Perhaps she isn't? Or she's one of those rare outliers, somehow. They happen in every group, no matter the subject at hand, after all.]

[itchtokill]

[What a curious qualification to make. In Kol's experience, humans are always assuming they're the top of the chain. He quints a little.] What makes you say that? I mean, I understand that killing for sport ins't generally acceptable behavior in most any world, but... what makes it more precious in yours above others? [There's no judgement in his voice, only pure curiosity.]

[angewiesen]

Titans. We've got Titans.

[Jean takes a deep sigh of a breath before he switches into World Explanation Mode.]

In my world, we all live inside giant walls, because outside, there's Titans. Giant humanoid monsters that exclusively kill and eat humans. 3 to 15 meters tall. They can only be killed if you properly sever their brain stem from their spinal cord. If you don't, they just regenerate.

I'm in the risky business of killing the bastards, and the life expectancy isn't very generous.

[thereporter]

I'd like to think I do. I'd like to think everyone does.

[ But she's in a unique position back home. Not everyone potentially has the lives of everyone in a town on their shoulders, and she's already made a decision to sacrifice one life what she thinks is right. ]

[itchtokill]

Why's it so important for you to believe that?

[thereporter]

Because I like to believe that people are inherently good. And to do that there have to be lines we won't cross no matter what happens.

[itchtokill]

My experiences argue that's an incredibly naive thought, and that most people are selfish. [Let's not even get into the fact that a lot of what he's even basing that on is family.]

[thereporter]

It probably is. I'm a reporter, so I know the kinds of things people are capable of. I've seen first hand what people will do when they want something. But I don't think most people are that way.

[itchtokill]

Perhaps I just always choose the wrong playmates. [Sorry, he's bad at being very serious for long.] I'm not sure I remember what that kind of optimism or hope for the world and other people even feels like. [There's a pause and he tilts his head a little. He's fairly certain to most people that statement is probably kind of depressing, but to Kol it's just a fact.]

[thereporter]

[ It is kind of depressing, but Julia is also in a position to understand it. ]

You must come from a pretty tough background if that's the case.

voice.

[poppycock]

( these questions hit a little too close to home for klaus, no pun intended. he doesn't see the point of answering such queries, all things considered — they've both been the perpetrator and the victim, on both sides of those stories, often enough. their limits are nigh existent.

no matter the feeling that precludes them nor the remorse and regret that follows. he's not thinking particularly about his treatment of kol at all what )

Polling Wonderland for answers to life's biggest questions?

[bibliocorn]

Well, that's fortunate for you. Some don't carry that burden so well.

[Like Starlight.]

I don't know. I have ponies in my life that matter a lot to me...people here, too. [He hesitates because ultimately, he's a coward.] B-but I doubt I'd be in a position where I'd have to make that choice. There are usually others around a lot more adventurous than me.

[itchtokill]

That is an understatement, to say the least. But...yes. Quite true.