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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Makes a guy wonder if maybe this place isn't trying to be a deliberate waystation of sorts, what with the whole 'you can't die anymore' thing it seems to have going on. I have no idea what kind of limits that has though, I admit, the guy who told me was pretty uncomfortable about it.

Is that so? I've heard a fair amount about that myself; what have you heard?

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?

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?

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

Sounds, physical sensations, scents, tastes, the way they're taking in the world. Fool the mind to fool the body, and the body will convince the mind what's going on. Usually took me a while to layer on the really elaborate ones so I'd ambush a sleeping cousin if they harassed me enough first. Favorite thing was to make them think they weren't awake. Sooo much scandalized everything if someone would say things they thought wouldn't be remembered.

...you really don't play fair, do you?

Neither do they, so I had to do it better. Whole world is filled with jerks you know, and my family was way high up the percentage.

Ah, fair enough! Of course, I suppose now is when I should tell you that surely they can't all be that bad, but I'd think you would know better than I.

Well, after I died one of them killed all the others. I don't know why, but that would attest to their overall Jerkness I think.

It might; it's not my place to pass judgement on that, for a few reasons.

Yeah, that makes sense. Just... personal bitters I guess. I wasn't really appreciated back home by many people and I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about everyone I knew being dear or different.

It's a bit jarring to deal with, perhaps, but at the same time this world tends to give others a second chance, at least with regards to not being appreciated by many. It's done me a few favors in that way, actually.

I traded one baby cousin for another myself. Older for younger. I can't talk about the older without really hurting the younger but...

It's obvious that he values me a great deal.

I suppose you have my congratulations, then.

I have one person from my own world that seems to value me in that way; we have a bit of an unpleasant history together, but we seem to have moved past that at least somewhat by now. The others I've come to be reasonably close to have all been those I met here.

It's a rare experience that we've been given, being able to meet those from different dimensions; I don't intend to squander that.

Exactly. I've been going out of my way to try to talk to everyone who might possibly share an interest with me... and so far I've met people I want to talk to again. Like you for instance.

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