theweakhavepurpose | Hadriel Inbox

[she nods] Going on a boat during that would be foolish. I had to rescue two boys to tried. [listen to her calling them boys when they were probably older than she is.

and she bites her lip briefly. she knows she's likely one of those dead or dying in her world, but she can't bring herself to say it out loud yet] But what if they stayed here or went to another world?

Have you ever seen someone who's insane? Truly insane?

They wouldn't notice where they went.

[she thinks back to the White Triangle racists that the Legion was trying to hold off when Tinya was pulled here. there was no reasoning with them, no room for discussion. they were intent on their goal of destroying Earth with no mercy]

Yes, I have.

Even if they were given the chance to go somewhere else? Where they wouldn't be dead?

Maybe if they had some hope of being alive again. But then you have to believe that these so called gods actually have the power to do that.

And I don't believe that at all.

But who knows, maybe it'll work without driving people insane? I guess we'll see if someone tries it.

But I've been told that they can bring people back from the dead. Even those who were dead back home, they bring back to life here.

[she's not ready yet to admit that she was likely among them]

I don't want to stay here forever just to be alive. If they open the door and send everyone home, dead people will go back to being dead unless they choose to stay behind.

Though maybe some people would want to stay here. I don't know. I don't understand people anymore. I don't even understand myself most of the time.

...were you dead before you came here?

I thought I understood myself, but since coming here I'm not so sure. This place is so unlike home.

No, but I'm only a few hours away at the most. Maybe less.

[It all depends on when his organs finish shutting down.]

Even so, I don't want to stay here forever. There's nothing for me here, no purpose.

Oh. I'm sorry.

[that sounds like an awful way to die]

How long have you been here? Maybe you can find a purpose?

A few months now. There's things to do, but it all seems meaningless. Nothing here is long term. People come and go.

I dunno.

[It's hard for him to care too much about a place he doesn't want to be.]

What about you? What's happening for you back home?

They do. But some people have been here a really long time. Maybe you could stick to them?

[Tinya doesn't want to be here, either, but she's not sure she has a here to go back to]

I'm--when I came here, the Legion was in the middle of a battle to save Earth from being destroyed.

Yeah, I feel bad for them.

[ He assumes they all want to go home, and those that don't have just been here long enough to be conditioned into liking it. He knows all about that. ]

I thought you said it was some sort of paradise in your time? Are people mad that it's too nice?

So do I.

[she assumes that everyone else has a home to go back to. she's not sure that's the case for her, though]

There are a lot of different races living on Earth. Most of them came for jobs. Some people. . . don't like that.

Why are people still racist, xenophobic assholes in the future? Can't we be better than that?

I guess I'm not surprised, it's pretty much human nature to be horrible.

I don't know. I wish I did.

It didn't used to be so bad. It's just in the past few months since the formation of the United Planets. Which was meant to stop wars and racism.

Sounds like it didn't do a very good job. What went wrong?

I don't know. Maybe it all got too big all at once. Nobody had the chance to get to know each other before they were all thrown in together.

Oh. That makes sense.

When I was still in the Academy we had to do this big event where officers from a bunch of states met up in New York and we had to do exercises together. It was terrible. No one understood each other, there were fights and huge arguments.

It's hard to relate to someone who's patrolling Los Angeles when I see more cows than I do people. And the people from the cities called the people from the country backwards hicks, and then the people from the coasts thought they were better than the people from the middle of the country.

And that's just statewide differences, not big world differences.

It's--yeah. That's something close to what happened. The Braalians and the Titanese had been at war for decades, the Winathians felt like they were being taken advantage of since that's where most of the UP's food came from, the Imskites wanted to prove that they were a big deal [and her lips twist in a private little joke], and everyone thought that the Carggites were backwards. And that's not even beginning to factor in the Daxamites.

Almost everyone had good intentions going in, but everyone also had something to prove.

Hard to broker peace when you don't understand each other.

I'm beginning to think we'll never understand each other. Even just humans.

Yeah, seems that way. I think. . . mother tried. But she had her own blinders on.

You may be right. Every human is so different. It can be hard to find common ground.

Did they manage to sort it out? Or is the fighting still happening?

It's still going on. We were in the middle of an attack by Daxamites when I came here.

Oh.

I hope everything works out for you guys.

[But he doesn't sound hopeful.]

They probably just need a bunch more people like you to sort it out.

So do I. I'd--lost communication with most of the other pairs trying to fight. I don't know if that means that they're knocked out or--or dead or what.

[she doesn't sound very hopeful, either]

They do. We call ourselves a "Legion," but there's just over a dozen of us. And one of us was a traitor.

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