[ Look it's hard to be a mysterious anime character with tragic plot-relevant backstory if you're consistently making eye contact with people. It's part of the contract. ]
There's nothing I could have done. Not me, anyway. It was a long time ago. [ She doesn't spell it out, but maybe he can do the math. She's missed a couple of years in this world, but the other's destruction is still years in her past, and the path of ruin that led there years in the making before that. What could she have done? She was a child. In a world of heroes, and adults, and people smarter and more capable and stronger than her, in every way, what could she have possibly done?
(In a world of heroes, and adults, and people smarter and more capable and stronger than she, why is it that she's still here? Why keep her? Why bring her back?) ]
... The City was a harder place to live than this world has ever been. There was a darkness to it. The world was smaller, and we knew so little, and... the evil hearts among us, they were much bolder then. [ She glances as Quatre from the corner of her eye, expression somber. ] Some days, you couldn't check that network at all, because that kind of cruelty loved to brag, and reveled in the shock, and grief, and pain.
[ Her lips purse, and her attention goes back out. ]
I don't know what your friend suffered, but that's the shape that surrounded all of us at the start. Things changed, the longer we were there. We were able to make things better. The sun shined a little brighter, for a time. I mean, sure, awful things still happened, but we weren't... devouring each other, running terrified of shadows anymore. Things were okay. It was hard to get to okay.
But... our existence is damaging, to the world we inhabit. Even if it's only a few of us who bring ruin, we bring enough. The people who belong to the world live in fear, and from there resentment grows. Why wouldn't it be the same, here?
no subject
There's nothing I could have done. Not me, anyway. It was a long time ago. [ She doesn't spell it out, but maybe he can do the math. She's missed a couple of years in this world, but the other's destruction is still years in her past, and the path of ruin that led there years in the making before that. What could she have done? She was a child. In a world of heroes, and adults, and people smarter and more capable and stronger than her, in every way, what could she have possibly done?
(In a world of heroes, and adults, and people smarter and more capable and stronger than she, why is it that she's still here? Why keep her? Why bring her back?) ]
... The City was a harder place to live than this world has ever been. There was a darkness to it. The world was smaller, and we knew so little, and... the evil hearts among us, they were much bolder then. [ She glances as Quatre from the corner of her eye, expression somber. ] Some days, you couldn't check that network at all, because that kind of cruelty loved to brag, and reveled in the shock, and grief, and pain.
[ Her lips purse, and her attention goes back out. ]
I don't know what your friend suffered, but that's the shape that surrounded all of us at the start. Things changed, the longer we were there. We were able to make things better. The sun shined a little brighter, for a time. I mean, sure, awful things still happened, but we weren't... devouring each other, running terrified of shadows anymore. Things were okay. It was hard to get to okay.
But... our existence is damaging, to the world we inhabit. Even if it's only a few of us who bring ruin, we bring enough. The people who belong to the world live in fear, and from there resentment grows. Why wouldn't it be the same, here?