week 1

[airlockedmods]

Week 1

[After the initial introduction of the Overseers on Sunday, the Champions were left to their own devices in investigating the part of the ship they have access to to their hearts' content. However, the doors that Jamie and Bolton came through are locked tight and cannot be unlocked via PIP.

On Monday morning, the same voice that awakened them the previous morning chirps at them again from their PIPs at 7 am on the dot. There's also a pop-up message waiting for them: a notice announcing "office hours" for Bolton in the library and Jamie in the art room every day from here on out.

Enjoy your week, Champions.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Comments

cafeteria

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika glances over, gasps, and covers her mouth.]

Is that your...?

[misplacedxsheath]

Hmm?

[He follows her eyes, then scoffs when he sees what she's looking at.]

Yes, that's the wound that became the scar on my face. Pathetic that the Overseers think I would be so desperate to change the outcome of a duel that happened fourteen years ago as to bow to their whims now.

[ratherdoweddings]

I guess both you and Jane-chan got simple regrets. [She sighs.] I wish we all did. But we've all had to make hard decisions. Maybe that's just life.

[misplacedxsheath]

I've made my share of complicated and difficult decisions. However, regret is not measured by the results of paths not taken, but by the results of the choices you did take and the conviction with which you made them. I live my life in certainty, serving God in pursuit of the revival of the creative will and ambition that allowed humanity to reach the stars in the first place...only to idle and stagnate as mankind became too reliant on what they already have.

With that in mind, what is there to regret? There most certainly are some events that didn't go entirely according to plan, but they've all been part of a grander scheme, each turn of events leading up to the moments we now live. To change any one would be to set forth a ripple, a chain of altered events leading to uncertain consequence. The past is valuable as a reminder of what we're capable of, and what me must avoid, but what good does it do to wallow in what might have happened? The strong find their path ahead of them, take setbacks and turn them into future victories. Only the weak of heart and mind demand the past change to suit their desires.

[ratherdoweddings]

...Do you think so? Even if you know it'd be better?

[misplacedxsheath]

What pride is there in victory through erasing defeat? What lessons in simply re-writing your mistakes? Life is more than a mere sequence of events. In the end, the things that happen around us are trivial, what truly matters is how we respond to them, as human beings with our own independent wills. It's those responses, taken together, that make up who we are. To remove those catalysts, to take shame in events of our pasts, that is to reject the people we are now, the people who defined ourselves through those events. That sort of cowardice is the essence of human weakness and uncertainty. To be truly strong, a person must accept the entirety of their pasts and their choices, and in doing so move forward to make of the future what they wish it to be.

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika bites her lip. Her eyes go to the floor, and after a moment, back at Margulis.]

I want to believe you're right. I don't want anyone here to die, but people have already died because of me. People I came to save, and a lot more than the ones on this space station. There's no way I'll kill for this, I promise. But-- but do you really think that's how it is?

[misplacedxsheath]

And you think they haven't because of me? People die, that's the reality. Sometimes they die for idiotic reasons, sometimes for noble sacrifice and still other times as a consequence of other goals. Trying to avoid deaths altogether is a pointless exercise that leads only to chasing your tail in pitiful circles. In order to progress...one must weigh the risks against the results. For example, if an outside force was trying to erase your planet's entire way of life and impose their rule upon your people and to fight back cost millions of lives, would it be better to simply roll over and accept the destruction of all that you hold sacred and dear? Or would those deaths be worth preventing the permanent destruction of your entire culture? These are the questions we must ask when we seek to make a difference beyond the course of our own fleeting lives.

[ratherdoweddings]

["I suppose because of that, I don't really care if people live or die."

Well, Yurika does.]

...That's how it is in this kind of situation. But at the same time, don't we have a responsibility to ensure the best result? Just like in your hypothetical, it's horrible to let anyone die, but they'll die anyway if the enemy gets their way.

[misplacedxsheath]

In an ideal world, everyone would have the capacity to preserve their own lives should they have the motivation to do more than sit and wait for someone else to rescue them. The only ones who would die, would be the ones who never truly lived in the first place. But the thing about ideals is that they're unobtainable. They're things we strive for, eternally, in an effort to better ourselves and the world around us. There is no perfect world, merely the world we make. And in that imperfect world, there are situations where even the best result has its consequences. A war against an enemy so self-absorbed as to seek to subsume or crush anything that defies its power, unwilling to reason with those who value their independence. Experiments that may result in numerous casualties whether they succeed or fail, but pave the way for the eradication of a force hostile to all living creatures should they succeed. A plot to overthrow a madman that allows him a brief moment of power in order to lure him to a position of false security allowing him to be disposed of.

None of these are hypotheticals, they're all situations that have either arisen or are in the works back home. Each of them carries risks, and yet, each also opens a path of potential far greater than any other possibility.

[ratherdoweddings]

It sounds like this is something you thought a lot about. So even if the fewest people die, it might not be the right decision? Like sacrificing someone here to save a thousand people somewhere else. I couldn't live with it if I tried.

[misplacedxsheath]

I'll concede it's a decision not everyone is cut out for. In a way, I envy the idealism you've been able to live with.

[ratherdoweddings]

I'm still in a war, Margulis-san. I have things I regret and decisions I've had to make, just like the rest of us.

[misplacedxsheath]

And yet, your optimism remains intact. I'd say I hope you never face a situation that causes it to crumble, but to expect as much for someone embroiled in war would be naive.

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika looks down again, her face hidden. She shakes her head and brings it back up.]

I guess this is just the only way I know how to fight!

[misplacedxsheath]

[He scowls for a moment, then nods his head.]

Keep your determination strong. Regardless of the situation, mankind needs those willing to stand up for what it is they believe in.

[ratherdoweddings]

Especially in a place like this, right? Don't worry! You can count on me, even if it starts to look bad!

[misplacedxsheath]

Yes. They'll attempt to break us, to extinguish the light of our will so that we see following their rules as our only recourse. The moment we compromise on that, lose faith in our ability to defy them and find our own means of escape, is the moment they stand triumphant.

I just hope the others realize this as well.

[ratherdoweddings]

I promise, Margulis-san. I won't act on this! We have to follow our own will, and then everything will turn out eventually!

[misplacedxsheath]

That's what we must hope, and pray that God won't allow our resistance to be in vain.