Day 28 | Video

[myblueskies]

[It's late at night. Not quite the early morning but certainly later than you would normally see Romeo around.

The video turns on into the kitchen, Romeo is a little bit away from the ICP, stirring something in a bowl but he glances over, as if to check that the ICP is recording.]

Um hello everyone. I hope I don't wake anyone up with talking so late but I was in bed and thinking really really hard about some things and my mind wouldn't go to sleep so I came to bake cookies but I'm still thinking and sometimes when you got lots of big questions in your head it's a good idea to talk about it.

[He gets closer, bowl in hand as he keeps mixing.]

I was thinking about Osiga and all the people we saved but also how we left all their bodies and I guess that's okay because we brought the bit that was properly them into the void.

But then I was thinking about what made a person a person because it's really confusing. Because some of the people didn't want to come into the void at all. Because without a world or a body then... that's bad for them I guess but I know lots of people without bodies or worlds and they are all people.

So I read a book that said a person was a person because of all their memories and experiences, that it's what we do and see and know that make us... us. But I knew I was Romeo even when I didn't have any memories at all. When everything was nothing I was still Romeo.

But then I wondered if I was. Because there's people here who look the same as each other and they are different people because they... had different lives I guess so am I the same Romeo as I was when I was alive? Because I don't remember any of that and all the things I did and my friends I made since then have made me me. But did that mean I wasn't really a person when I had no body and no memories?

It's really tricky to think about and I'm worried about all the people we rescued and if they are sad or scared about it because I guess it's different. If you have to live in the void 'cause your world was eaten then if you got snatched in the void but maybe can go home.

And that's different again then not knowing where you come from at all because I guess you can't really miss or be sad about somewhere that you don't even know about.

[Big Questions indeed. He sighed.] It's just really big. So I'm making cookies. If anyone is still awake they can come and get them, they'll be ready once they've been in the oven.

Comments

[healerscorned]

Well, near everyone dies at least once. Jokes aside, Alrest is bloody dangerous, so yeah. I know a Blade that's been with the royal family of Mor Ardain for five hundred years, and they hang on to her diary for her so she can know what the previous hers were like.

[myblueskies]

Five hundred years! That's a really long time. Are lots of people blades? Do other people in your world... is it called Alrest? Do they die just as normal?

[He has so many questions.]

[healerscorned]

Most people are plain human and die like normal. Blades can't actually exist without human partners called Drivers, whenever a Blade loses their Driver they return to their Core Crystal and reset.

[myblueskies]

Oh. [He frowned.] When they reset do they lose all their memories again? What does a driver do? Are blades actual blades, are they people who can turn into weapons?

[It's given him something else to think about.]

[healerscorned]

Yeah, for a Blade, dying and losing their Driver are the same thing. There are exceptions there, but they're rare. Drivers partner with Blades, pulling them out of their Core Crystals. Every Blade has a weapon that's tied to them, as much a part of them as anything else. Used to be that it could be near any item, but Alrest is a dangerous place so those ones kinda got weeded out over time.

[myblueskies]

That sounds a lot like shinki. We can be any item and not just weapons but we are all called weapons. I was a weasel for my first god and now I'm a motorbike... But some shinki are swords or guns or stuff too.

[It was dangerous, so those blades got weeded out?] So those ones just got to live in their crystals forever?

[healerscorned]

[...Okay, that's something to unpack later.]

Not quite. More like... A Blade that used to have a smithing hammer gets awakened, and now they have a warhammer. That sort of thing. 'Course, all that was long before my time, so I never actually saw it happen.

[myblueskies]

Oh! So their weapon just changed! That's good. It would be really sad for them to be stuck in a crystal forever.

Does it change even if they got the same driver?

[healerscorned]

Hell if I know. Like I said, those shifts were well before my time. Blades hardly ever have the same Driver twice though, so there's probably no evidence one way or the other.

[myblueskies]

Oh okay. Are you a blade or a driver miss?

[Because she knows a lot about all of this!]

[healerscorned]

[Yes.]

I'm a Driver. I've got a bunch of partner Blades back home, too. Ursula's great at singing, and Vess makes the best dumplings I've ever had.

[myblueskies]

Oh! I bet you are all a really great team! [It really does sound a lot like a god and shinki pairing and Nia seems like she would make a really good boss.]

Do you miss them lots?

[healerscorned]

Every day, even the annoying ones.

[She doesn't doubt for a single second that Zenobia would have tried to fight the World Eater.]

[myblueskies]

I hope you get to see them again soon. It will be good if we can find all our friends again.