5th Social Link ▫ Video + Action

[jivitadana]

[Winter was now over and spring had just started. Minato kind of missed the snow, but at least the weather was cool and comfortable instead of being too cold. For a change of pace as he wandered outside, now that the space event was over, he decided to head to the Checkerboard Hills. He hadn't been there often. It was time to check it out again.

That is, if checking it out meant doing a once-over on the checkered patterns from dark to light, then ending up laying in one of the darker square patches, his comm device off to the side as he looked up at the sky.

It's spring here and spring at home. School would be starting again, if he were there and time progressed.

Were these questions even fair? Did he have too much time on his hands, playing around with or thinking about 'what if' in a place that may make him forget his existence here at all?]

..... Would you rather be dead at home or alive here?

Comments

video;

[jivitadana]

Doing over? Like rewinding and starting events over again?

[He asked just to clarify although it sounded something like that. Determination though, in this case, he wondered what the true definition was to them or how many facets it really had.]

video;

[determinedest]

If I died, I came back. LOADed my SAVE.

[It's difficult to explain, especially when the explanation is coming from a laconic preteen who doesn't quite understand the metaphysical logistics of their powers themself. Alphys would probably be better at the explanation.]

video;

[jivitadana]

Did someone else load it when you died?

[Or did he do it himself somehow? It sounded like it was straight out of a video game, but their world was their own and could be framed in any way they wanted.]

video;

[determinedest]

No.

[Death was simply impermanent. An obstacle. An unpleasant one, but they adjusted to it quickly. It was never slow, and it hurt, and the memory of the hurt lingered far longer than the pain itself did, but it was no worse than the flare of agony that shot up from the base of their skull and ignited their spine when they first impacted the ground, snapping their vision into blackness.

Until they would wake again.]

I would.

I would just...Continue.

video;

[jivitadana]

If you can restart things, isn't that more incentive to give yourself the chance?

[If he understood how this worked. It wasn't clear if they remembered anything past a SAVE point if it was reset to that point.]

video;

[determinedest]

I'm the one who can do whatever they want. No consequences.

[No one ever remembers - or only a select few people do.]

Read every book. Burn every book. Start all over again.

video;

[jivitadana]

If you can do things over, can't you change this lifetime, then start something new in the next life?

[If they could keep LOADing from their SAVE? They seemed like they had several chances to try again.]

video;

[determinedest]

Just start over.

[The specifics are more complicated. A SAVE isn't the same as a RESET. But Wonderland took the later of those powers for its own use.]

That's how it works.

video;

[jivitadana]

Starting over is why you think things don't matter?

[He supposed it could be discouraging then, at that rate.]

video;

[determinedest]

They don't. [Well...] Didn't.

Not unless I wanted them to.

video;

[jivitadana]

So there are times when you don't want it to?

[Was that like dying? Game over? Minato wondered if he was taking the video game analogy a little too far.]

video;

[determinedest]

Doesn't matter if I didn't want to.

You RESET, or you Continue.

[No knowing how to QUIT.]

video;

[jivitadana]

What would make you happy then, if you could have it?

[Things mattered, things didn't matter, that was fine. This was wishing thinking, having hope, and of course, they might not like that either. But what if he wanted to hear it anyway?]

video;

[determinedest]

[A delicate shrug of their shoulders. They could want something as badly as they like. It won't make it true. They've learned that lesson too harshly, months back, adjusting to their inability to simply - rearrange the course of reality when things didn't go their way.]

I don't know.

video;

[jivitadana]

Do you actually know, but don't want to tell anyone?

[They could keep it locked and secured away. There was a difference though between not knowing at all and then knowing and not acknowledging it.]

video;

[determinedest]

I'm the type of person who won't ever be happy.

[They have that on good authority, actually.]

video;

[jivitadana]

[It didn't quite answer the question, but Minato could always follow up with more.]

Even if other people try to help you to be?

video;

[determinedest]

It's not up to them.

It's up to me.

[And they're never going to be satisfied. That's just the sort of thing they are.]

video;

[jivitadana]

[Minato thought about then, then gave another nod.]

Just because you're not happy doesn't mean you're unhappy.

video;

[determinedest]

Guess I'm just not very good at that either.

video;

[jivitadana]

Not very good at what?

[Did they even know what they were responding to? Everything just so happened to never be in their favor. There had to be a way to at least make it not so dark or down. It's probably exhausting to have to be so pessimistic and negative all the time.]

video;

[determinedest]

[It's not something that sprang out of the ether.]

Doing what people want.

video;

[jivitadana]

What about what you want?

[Did that matter?]

video;

[determinedest]

[No. It doesn't.]

People who do whatever they want are dangerous.

video;

[jivitadana]

[Then that meant a lot of people were dangerous. Not that he really minded. He was quiet for a minute though before asking something else:]

... Are we friends?