explosivecombat | 022. [Text]

022. [Text]

With matters of one's heart and soul so close in mind, due to the recent holiday and all the romantic connotations therein, I ask that you forgive the possibly morbid nature of the question I have for you tonight:

The state or condition of one's soul is often brought into question when their deeds are brought to light or held up for scrutiny; the concept of the damned and those destined for salvation aren't new concepts by far. However, I have to ask what that means for all of you - do you accept your soul as existing only as a metaphysical concept, a matter of faith, something unproven and intangible? Or is it something undeniable where you come from, not a matter of faith but rather proven to exist? Does it fail to exist for you at all?

Or, perhaps, is it something else entirely - something that was rendered from one of the above options into another?

I suppose I should apologize for such heavy subject matter; I imagine some will find it rude to attempt to quantify such a thing. However, it's been something I've had reason to consider lately, so no apology is forthcoming.

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Just that it's not sticky. I gotta admit I haven't really had the chance to throw it out there and see just what the consequences are if I get mortally wounded, but hey, it's made training the pokemon simpler. You got details?

For the most part, it's simple curiosity; people's beliefs on things like this often allow some interesting insight to their world, as well as the way they think. I suppose you could say it's relevant to my interests and situation otherwise, but that's secondary; consider it a matter of psychological interest, primarily.

If that seems too sterile for you, it's also late and I'm without something to do; I enjoy striking up conversation and I never really get bored with the idea of talking to people from different dimensions.

Edited (...typos everywhere goddamn) 2013-02-16 10:34 (UTC)

From what I've heard, we won't die if someone else murders us. Suicides don't work, regardless of how successful the attempt actually was. I'm fairly sure accidental death won't be permanent, either, though I'd need to get that verified.

In the event that we die here, or sustain fatal injuries, apparently we awaken in a Pokémon Center some hours later. Whatever killed us will be healed. However, if you received secondary, non-fatal injuries - broken bones, for example - those won't be healed and will take the usual amount of time to recover.

I haven't died here myself, but I've spoken to those who have - people that have no reason to lie about such things, no less. I can attest to non-fatal injuries taking a while to heal, however; I took some damage to my spine a while back, and it still gives me trouble from time to time.

This is going to be terrible. I have no idea how civilian healing rates work you see. Where I'm from a shinobi like me can expect a broken bone to mend in a couple weeks if no medics get to it. I've heard that civilians can get laid up for months like that?

What the hell would you do that for? Now you have a chunk of somebody you have to figure out what to do with, and they're going around as a zombie or something. Or if it kills them like anything else, now you've got to get rid of the body and the soul chunk. Tough crime to cover up.

You'd think, huh? Nobody ever thinks those things all the way through. Like if somebody in the sky made it happen on purpose, that makes it better and not a hell of a lot worse.

No, I see what you mean - we have alchemy-assisted healing, where I'm from, and I've recovered from injuries that should be fatal in a matter of hours as a result. But yes, such injuries can take weeks or months to heal; I didn't have the time to wait, hence my physical condition isn't quite what it should be. It's not a hindrance most of the time for me, but you are right in that it takes quite some time for things to mend up properly.

So basically, and correct me if I'm wrong; morbid curiosity with a side order of boredom.

Well, it's possible to use the...ah, "chunk of somebody", as you put it, to provide power for something I'm rather sure you won't believe in, or will otherwise quickly dismiss as the mutterings of one having a fit of psychosis. I will verify that it does kill them, however. The zombies only happen if you try to put their soul back into a body of some sort; that never ends well.

Where I'm from, however, the gods are used in a similar manner - I suppose you could say that the individuals in my country that believe in such things are polytheistic. I haven't heard of your particular God - I'm assuming that's this "Jesus" individual - just as I'm fairly sure you haven't heard of Leto and Ishvala. People tend to use them as a way to feel better about their lives, from what I understand, to feel that someone is watching over them, and to give them someone to ask for mercy when things aren't right in their lives. Again, I see such beings as sadistic more than anything.

Admittedly, there is another entity that I do believe in, but I don't have the hubris to assume that it cares about me personally, nor do I really think that I'll have any sort of afterlife or divine intervention.

Well, I just have to hope that I'm not suddenly fragile then because no way am I going to reel in and be super cautious or anything. That's just not how I do things and my cousin seems to be the reckless kind.

The guy is one of the types from my family who is more heart than head. I mean, people think I'm like that too but... If you never think, your heart is gonna end up in some bad places, yeah?

That would be more or less what I said, yes; no corrections necessary.

I wouldn't know; I'm not in the practice of allowing my heart to wander.

However, I suppose it depends on what abilities were stripped from you before. It sounds as though some sort of accelerated healing was present, however, and you certainly won't have that; anything this place considers above that of your average civilian is nullified, as I'm sure you've noticed.

Fair enough, I can accept that.

Anyway, this is hardly something I spend much time thinking about, but if I had to guess I'd say one of three things happens when you die. Number 1: Judgement, with either your punishment or your reward waiting for you on the other side. Number 2: Reincarnation until you actually get your life together. Number 3: Nothing. In other words, you cease to exist.

Personally, I think the second option is my favorite, but the third clearly has its ups.

Yeaaah, can't breathe fire, can't walk up walls, can't cast people into a jutsu where they think they're a pretty pretty princess. Hell, I can't even run from tree properly anymore and I learned to do that when I was like, nine.

My speed is about the same, thankfully, I guess being so in shape worked in my favor, and my strength too. I was on the low end of the shinobi strength scale see and reflexes... I lost a Lot but... not everything. I think I'd just curl up and cry if I couldn't catch things people were flinging at me anymore you know?

I take it, from the sound of it, that you don't think the option for judgement will work out in your favor?

Impressive skills, I must admit, and I find myself in a similar situation.

Although I am somewhat curious about this..."pretty, pretty princess" whatnot, as that isn't something I've heard of before.

I have my reasons for why I prefer what I prefer, but that isn't one of them.

Edited 2013-02-16 11:18 (UTC)

That's perfectly fair, actually. And personally, I'm in agreement with you with regards to reincarnation, though I don't think it happens in quite that way.

Eh heh heh. So. That. See, that's me abusing something we have called genjutsu. Basically you impose yourself over someone else's perceptions and make them believe that something is going on that isn't actually happening. Someone did one on me once when I was a kid that made me think everything was a couple inches closer than it actually was. Ended up falling down two flights of stairs.

After that I really studied up on it and experimented until I could get the most vicious of my cousins to painfully embarrass themselves before figuring out how to get out of the jutsu. I had to be really careful and layer the shit out of it so the basic breaks wouldn't work though. It was pretty much the only one I could do though.

I was still trying to learn to be able to do it without a hell of a lot of time being wasted while I did when I died though. Most people would say I was crap at it since it wasn't combat viable yet.

Honestly? It wouldn't surprise me at all if you were right. Life rarely meets our expectations, maybe death's the same way.

So it's more or less power over illusions, then. Attacking the mind rather than the body.

Yep! I had to be super careful not to use visual based genjutsu for most of it cause my family, most of the really strong ones? They have the family bloodline which would have let then see through those and it'd just fall apart in that case.

I've experienced some form of it already. Unfortunately, I was brought here before any verifications could be made regarding any sort of afterlife, or lack thereof.

The entire topic is something of a moot point for me otherwise, due to the circumstances surrounding it; I suppose you could say this is that secondary reason I was talking about.

So what would it be, then, if not visual? How, exactly, would you be affecting the person involved?

guess it's just faith for most

So it would seem.

Am I to assume it's the same for you, however? You aren't exactly specifying.

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