022. [Text]

[explosivecombat]

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.

Comments

[explosivecombat]

Am I to suppose that scenario is counted as an instance of a "GM" not playing fair, or are you permitted to tilt the odds using probability like that?

And since your statement seems to be begging the question in and of itself - what happened this last time?

[yoctogram]

No, that part is normal. Players play to win, so do Reapers and GMs.

I fought for the Composer's place. I lost.

[explosivecombat]

I imagine that would complicate things, yes.

As a Reaper, then - are you still in possession of your own soul, or are you considered to have given it to this Game of yours? I haven't any idea how this works and I'm taking shots in the dark; my apologies in advance for being blatantly wrong about half of this.

[yoctogram]

Everyone owns their soul, hectopascal. If you lose, you're Erased...not enslaved.

It's not your world. You have no reason to know.

[explosivecombat]

Fair enough. Though..."hectopascal?"

[yoctogram]

Maths term. I like maths.

He was actually doing pretty well all things considered. Coherence wasn't Sho's best skill.

[explosivecombat]

[...it could be worse...]

It's never been my strong suit, personally. From what I understand, what I do in my own world is probably most closely related to physics, but it's more a matter of intuition and approximation than exact calculation.

[yoctogram]

E² = m²c⁴ + p²c²! The space between physics and metaphysics, still in the process of being discovered! Φ(t,x) = e^-iEt + ipx! Where's your beauty?!

[Yes, well. For those following along at home: the equations are from Tachyon theory which is a theoretical theory still being developed with a lot of guesstimation.]

[explosivecombat]

[...oh my god

you must be fun at parties, man]

Now are you going to put your sanity back on and translate, or shall I wait?

[yoctogram]

That was perfectly understandable! You were talking about pseudo-physics using art instead of calculations!

[It depends on the party?]

[explosivecombat]

[That...

...actually, you know what, he'll grant that, put you in the right crowd and you'd be hilarious - ]

Well...yes, so I was...

[yoctogram]

[And when he's drunk or nervous, he'll add building giant trash sculptures to his incoherent screaming! ...Which he is, in fact doing, at the Pokegear. While his travelling partner and their 'mon stare at him.]

Coming from ταχύς the tachyon is still a hypothetical, if it exists it always moves FTL, possibly as quanta from a quantum field with - mass. While inconsistent with the known laws of physics there are still some theories involving breaking the Lorentz invariance dealing with dealing with the symmetry underlying special relativity.

Art and physics together on the brink of a new chapter in maths!

[He may have lost track of the original conversation.]

[explosivecombat]

[.................

he's legitimately not sure if you need some sort of assistance over there right now or what but this is certainly interesting, he'll grant you that

sho

u ok]

I'm certain it is.

[...okay, let's just...take this like he would with Gluttony. Admittedly, this is a lot more intelligent than Gluttony, but the basic principles are the same. Try to drag the conversation back into sane territory when it gets weird like this; get him overexcited and you will get nowhere outside of a lot of nonsense syllables.

Leto take the wheel.]

Where did you learn all that? Is it a skill you've always had, or is it something you picked up along the way as one of these GM things?

[yoctogram]

Maths are the basis of the universe! Everything depends on the calculations! GIVE ME THE PROPER VARIABLES AND I WILL SPIT IN THE FACE OF GOD! 1.6180339887498948482045868343656381177203091798057628621354486227052604628189024497072072041893911374 AND THEN TAKE HIS PLACE!

[Oh, yeah. There was a question. Ri-ight.]

Learned it before I died.

[explosivecombat]

[There are approximately a million comments to be made here; making any of them would involve him unburying his face from his hands. Good lord, some things never change. Leave one world where someone just ate God, get dragged to another and find someone else who wants to replace God.

Kimblee's life is wonderful, jfc.]

I assume your death had to do with this failed challenge against the Composer.

[yoctogram]

[Sho is less an acquaintance than he is an experience. An amazing experience, unique in all the worlds.]

Only the most recent two. The first one was when I was a Player.

[explosivecombat]

[That's...probably the nicest possible way that one could put that...]

So you've died multiple times, then? Do I want to know how...?

[yoctogram]

Don't remember the first one. Then my Level i Flare. Then the Composer dropped a car a vending machine, and several other things on me.

[explosivecombat]

[...well, at least it's a forward-moving conversation. Morbid, but he can handle morbid.]

So does death hold next to no meaning for you, or is some sort of toll taken each time?

[yoctogram]

That's a very personal question.

[AKA: canon doesn't tell us. Sho's rather unique as far as we know.]

[explosivecombat]

Ah, is it? My apologies, then.

[Hey, if he says it's personal, then...well, Kimblee's going to be morbidly curious, but at the same time, he wasn't exactly too thrilled about anyone prying into his own death, either.]

[yoctogram]

Tell me more about your pseudo-physics.?

[Belated realisation that he should make it a question, not a demand.]

[explosivecombat]

[He's going to assume that was either a typo or the most weirdly polite interrobang variant that he's ever seen, lawd.]

I'm skilled with a practice called alchemy - and in the event that you've heard of something like that already: no, I can't turn lead into gold. Yes, I'm certain I could if I tried. No, I'm not interested in trying, because it will do nothing but upset the economy, there are better materials to use than lead in the first place if one really wants gold that badly, and it's a hideous waste of potential besides.

What I do is based in energy manipulation - bending potential and kinetic energy in various materials to my will, creating and conducting irregularities and imbalances in said energy and redistributing their flows as I see fit, and utilizing all of that in combat situations.

To put it in the most oversimplifying terms possible, I use the energy present in all things to make those things explode.

[yoctogram]

[There's a pause long enough that it's clear that he's either thinking about this in general, or has wandered off. Eventually, though.]

Does it still work here? I miss being able to make people things explode.

[explosivecombat]

[he wouldn't be surprised either way tbh]

It doesn't, no; most abilities of that nature seem to have been removed from all of us, unfortunately.

You're capable of something along those lines, then?