theweakhavepurpose | Hadriel Inbox

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.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

[He sounds like he means it too, the traitor thing hits a little close to home. ]

Maybe when we get out of this hellhole you'll find the rest of your unit and sort things out.

[she hears it in his voice and smiles a little sadly]

So am I. What's the point in being in a team made up of aliens, like the Legion, if you hate aliens?

I sure hope so. I've been--trying to not worry myself sick over them, but it's hard.

Yeah. Nothing we can do about it from here. But.. that doesn't make those thoughts go away. Now we have all this time to reflect on everything that went wrong.

Atone for it in a way. Well... regret it I guess. Close enough.

And so much went wrong, so fast. We should've been keeping a closer eye on the White Triangle and other racists from the start. Our job was to not only serve as a symbol of unity, we were supposed to be righting wrongs. And there's nothing more wrong than believing yourself superior to someone based on the planet of their birth.

I don't know what I could do to atone for it. I already regret it.

Yeah that's the hard part isn't it? Regretting things doesn't fix them. Man I wish it did though.

[He'd regret his whole life so hard he'd fix himself out of existence.]

I feel the same. If we had dealt with these religious freaks from the start instead of leaving well enough alone they wouldn't be killing everyone in the county now. We could have ended this so quick, but they weren't technically breaking any laws so we did nothing.

And now we're paying for it.

So do I.

[she'd undo that moment. that one moment where she let her guard down and assumed their enemy had been defeated]

...is it okay if I ask what they were doing?

They started buying up everything from under us. Eventually they owned half the county and you can do whatever you want on your own land. Close up shops that have been there for generations, bring in people from all over the country who follow your beliefs and call them a family.

It wasn't until they started forcibly converting people that we could charge them with kidnapping.

Not that it worked. By the time we acted it was far too late.

[she looks disturbed]

That sounds creepy. Really creepy. I'm sorry that you had to deal with that. You deserve better.

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