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]

I don't have to draw the circles myself; I have them already transcribed somewhere. But yes, that is the gist of it. Though I wouldn't call it "arson" - last I checked, that was fire-setting, which is someone else's specialty.

[lieutenantantichrist]

How you draw it is not the part I'm fucking concerned about. If you're going to make something explode, it's supposed to at least mean pouring chemicals into each other. You can't just be napalm.

What are you, terrorists or the magic mafia?

[explosivecombat]

A highly specialized unit of the military, actually. Army. I was a Major, back in Amestris; served on the front lines of the Ishvalan Civil War.

[lieutenantantichrist]

An army full of people who can make shit explode all on their own, no weapons required, so you're effectively armed 24/7.

How is anybody where you're from not dead?

[explosivecombat]

...do they have some sort of universal weapons ban, where you come from? Or are you this paranoid constantly?

[lieutenantantichrist]

A few people with concealed carry permits is a hell of a lot different from guys who can blow people up if they feel like it.

If everybody can lob magic grenades around whenever they're having a bad day, sooner or later somebody will.

[explosivecombat]

And allow people access to guns, and sooner or later someone will start shooting. I fail to see your point, and if anything you're being deliberately obtuse with regards to my statements that those who can, as you put it, "lob magic grenades around", are a unit of the military.

Not everyone is capable of using alchemy in the first place; a large amount of those that can use it to heal. I don't think you realize that we're constantly at war, in my country; we haven't known true peace in my lifetime, nor did we know it in the previous generation's lifetime. As it stands, alchemists have a principle we're supposed to adhere to, the basic tenet of Be Thou For The People - some just feel that defending their country is the best way to serve its people. Surely you can at least comprehend that much.

Unless, of course, you're a bleeding-heart pacifist whose thoughts on war are that all armies need to be disbanded immediately so that we can all just hug each other, at which point I don't know what to say to you.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[It takes a while for a reply, since Blake is staring at his screen.]

I've been called a lot of things, but that?

That's a first.

[explosivecombat]

It's closer to speculation than an accusation, don't worry.

I admit that I'm not sure how else I'm supposed to interpret your anxiety over people being armed, however; it's honestly no more dangerous than owning a gun. Of course you're going to have people who misuse it, but that's true of any weapon that mankind has created thus far.

[lieutenantantichrist]

It'd be a change of pace from all the ones about police brutality.

Armed is normal, magic's something else. But I guess it's different if it's just Fire Magic Special Ops.

[explosivecombat]

Ah, so you're in law enforcement? I suppose that does explain a lot; most of those I've met in that sort of profession tend to be a bit...jumpy, for lack of a better term.

[...Kimblee, if you didn't make their watches into fake bombs just to watch them scream like little girls because of your reputation, they might be a bit less jumpy, just saying.]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Yeah. Philadelphia police, though I'm gonna take a wild guess and figure that doesn't mean anything to you.

[Weird how people freak out when they think they're gonna die.]

It's easy to imagine the worst that could happen when you see it on a daily fucking basis.

[explosivecombat]

[It is! Funny thing, that, really.]

Honestly, it might be a cause for concern if you weren't always figuring for the worst-case scenario, as to do otherwise would mean that you've become jaded. Jadedness tends to breed complacency and all that - ah, but I suspect I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know.

And no, "Philadelphia" isn't anything that I'm familiar with. Not near either London, Bowerstone or Fuyuki City, by any chance?

[lieutenantantichrist]

[It's like people have a thing for keeping their organs on the inside.]

Yeah, that sounds pretty standard. It's like you were saying before with all that religious crap - hoping things won't be as bad as they are just wastes time and gets in the way of dealing with it.

London's real, at least. Not anywhere close by, but one out of three isn't bad for around here.

[explosivecombat]

Am I to assume that you're going to continue trying to "deal with" things here? Goodness knows the local law enforcement could use the assistance.

[lieutenantantichrist]

Damn right. It'd take more than a deportation out of the real world to make me stop being a cop.

[explosivecombat]

You'll have your work cut out for you; good luck with it, I suppose.

By the way, you never did give me your name - to whom do I owe the pleasure?

[lieutenantantichrist]

Nice vote of confidence. They say there's not much crime here, so there's got to be a lot of nasty shit getting covered up.

Lieutenant Carter Blake. You?

[explosivecombat]

Solf J Kimblee. Again, it's a pleasure, Lieutenant.

And I wouldn't be surprised; there seem to be attacks every once in a while by some sort of criminal organization. But at the same time, the police here haven't been terribly efficient in dealing with them and most of the other authority figures here seem to not take them too seriously as a threat, so take that as you will.