vatheon | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Dirk and Open
When: the afternoon
Where: Near the Library
Style: Starting prose, but I'll follow.
Status: Open

Today has been a day of training for Dirk.

Not his usual style of training, with a sword or even the puppets he occasionally uses to fight. Nor has he gone somewhere like the forest or the island which have plenty of open spaces appropriate for sparring. Instead, he's spent the day sitting by the front steps of the library. He isn't wearing the shirt emblazoned with an orange hat that is his usual choice, either. Instead, he's wearing a maroon shirt with a pink heart emblazoned on it.

He's also got a stack of books beside him that he appears to be making his way through. By the afternoon, he's been working all day to no effect, so he sets the most recent tome aside and leans back against the steps to get the crick out of his neck. "How the fuck do you even define a soul, anyway." He apparently isn't paying attention to where he is, because the comment is more than loud enough to be heard by anyone passing by.

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Leo does a double take when he sees Dirk sitting there in front of the library. Not because he's there or because of what he's wearing (though he does think that maroon is a nice color on him) but because of his comment.

"Dude, what do you need the definition of a soul for?" he asks as he plops down on the step beside him.

Dirk sits back up and (carefully) shifts a stack of books, to make more room for Leo to take a seat next to him. Apparently he doesn't mind that his comment was overheard. "Obviously I'm having a crisis of faith and I'm trying to discover what will be left of me after I die."

Except there aren't too many texts in there that are actually religious. A moment later, Dirk confirms it by switching the subject. "Any of us SBURB players explain God Tier to you yet?"

[That would be a very deep and ponderous question for anybody.

Anybody that doesn't happen to be from a world where they are saturated with rhetoric about the soul from birth.

Since Maka is from such a world, she's able to reach into her bag and slide over a book regarding Soul Theory into Dirk's vicinity (while keeping his spades relation and her redrom relation from literally tearing into him at the mere sight of his heart emblem.)]

It's just...who you are. Some people define it as a battery that keeps you going, and it's true that if you lose your soul you're essentially dead, but there's way more to the soul than that.

[She recalls having to put it in simpler terms while explaining what a soul is to Mrs. Brisby...though Dirk is more educated than the average field mouse, a lot of people aren't used to talk like this regardless.]

Those of us with Soul Perception can tell what kind of person we're looking at if we see their souls...like if you looked at someone that's stubborn but kind, you'd feel those traits from their soul. Souls have a certain feel, a certain look and a certain "sound", they also reflect your wellness. If you're not taking care of yourself mentally or physically, it shows up on your soul. So I guess it'd be like...a status meter in a video game, in that regard.

[Hmm? Oh, apparently he attracted someone's attention with that. He nods in her direction, and reaches out for the book. He doesn't start flipping through it yet, just nods as a thank you and starts listening to the explanation.

(Fortunately for Maka, of course, there is no spade relation.)]

Health bar. Got it. You said "essentially" dead, though. Essentially and actually dead aren't the same thing.

[Soul Perception sounds pretty interesting, but that seems more like a Seer power than anything he would be able to do as a Prince. A topic for another time, maybe.]

Hmm, it's a hard topic to consider. My original homeroom teacher was murdered but brought back as a zombie, so resurrection is possible in our world, though I haven't checked to see if his soul is still tied to him or if that's with Lord Death. It might be a little rude to use Soul Perception on your teacher.

So, it might or might not be possible to "live" without your soul. It's sure possible to live if your soul's been corrupted, though you turn into a monster then. If you destroy or eat someone's soul, though...I think I'd lean more towards you being dead then. Or at least a shell that's not really "yourself" anymore.

[That of course leaves open the possibility of other things creeping into the shell of a human, though she doesn't bring that up. Possession isn't a terribly common thing in her world when Witches aren't involved.]

[It's a good thing Dirk is good at taking mental notes, otherwise he would be scribbling away on something right now.]

So, in short, if you destroyed the soul but not the body you'd either make them into a vegetable, or kill them permanently. Sounds pleasant as fuck.

[No, really.]

What destroys or corrupts a soul, then? Other than deterioration of mental and physical well-being.

Equius visits the library pretty regularly, and he exits after spending a pleasurable afternoon reading. He overhears Dirk as he's exiting, and walks over to loom semi-creepily behind him. "It's what goes to the dream bubbles."

Dirk glances up and gives Equius a look. The looming isn't particularly appreciated. If it wouldn't potentially break his hand, he'd hit Equius in the leg for it. He goes for a different tactic instead. "Dude, take a seat unless you want me talking to your crotch." He'll deal with the Dream bubble part as soon as he's not straining his neck to look at the troll.

The looming isn't intentional, it just kind of happens sometimes! Equius looks a tad flustered at the crotch comment, but then sits down next to Dirk, moving gingerly so he doesn't crack the library step. "Sorry."

Mission accomplished. He shrugs at Equius's apology, then moves back to the topic of conversation at hand. "I expected that much. But what is it while it's still in a person? Dreaming of dream bubbles ain't exactly the same as being in them because you don't exist anywhere else."

"I tend to think of it as an animating electrical force that powers the body, capable of surviving even after the body is destroyed and being rehomed in a different container." He shrugs. "At least, that's the theory I was working under when I made the Aradiabot body, and that worked out."

Ky hesitates by the steps, on his way into the library. He hasn't gotten along all that well with Dirk in the past, but this is a question that Ky would enjoy talking about, and he cannot ignore it. Perhaps it can serve as a chance to get off on a better front than they have in the past, and it's at least something Ky has grown more used to facing disagreement over religion.

(While it still bothers him to think of people not accepting the truth, not letting themselves be enlightened, while he can't see a refusal to believe in God as much beyond the sort of thing that hurts, at least it's a personal decision that only affects themselves. At least it isn't as dangerous to the world as a whole as indulgence in science.)

"The only definitions I've heard have been religious in nature," Ky says. "And there it's fairly clear."

Neither one is a topic Dirk is likely to ever agree with Ky on, but an opening like that doesn't get Ky any immediate irritation or a refusal to talk. Although Dirk doesn't offer Ky a seat on the steps next to him, he does turn his attention toward him, with a shift of his head and not just looking at him from behind his shades and a blank expression.

Dirk listens, then shrugs. "As far as I've learned, religions explain that shit differently. So you might as well tell me what you believe, to set the record straight."

"Works as well as any physical definition I've heard. Hell, it's just about as scientifically feasible as any other explanation. Not like SBURB is good at science, anyway." Zombies, planets, revival from death, God Tier itself... The rules of that Game don't always mesh up with what people believe of reality, as far as he's concerned. "Wonder why they'd bother to call that a heart."

[Although Serph doesn't attend to his library job as frequently as he once used to, it still is a job he enjoys doing.

...It isn't usual for people to be buried in piles of books outside the library, though.

Approaching -- not that he has much choice, given Dirk's chosen location --Serph only speaks when he's within conversation distance, though he remains standing.]

What are you searching for?

[He hadn't heard Dirk's outburst, only arriving a bit after.]

Ky doesn't move for a seat when it isn't offered, just stays standing. He's used to awkward sorts of interactions anyway, and this doesn't even register as all that odd. "It depends a little on if you're concerned with what is happening with your soul right now or what happens after death. But the soul is the part of you that makes you you, it's your consciousness. It's your spiritual principle, that which was created uniquely by God."

Ky is too used to religious arguments by this point, and his shoulders hunch a little, expecting the derision or refusal of what is clearly the truth.

The library here was truly a fantastic place! The occult section especially... He was in Heaven. Apparently there had been hundreds of books written since 1871 on the topics of demonolgy, folklore, astrology, herbology and pretty much any other topic he could possibly think of. He'd have reading material for a while. Of course picking a few to take along with him was proving to be the most difficult task of them all.

Eventually he settled on three... four... okay seven books to take home with him. Carrying them out was a bit of a chore, one made slightly more difficult by the books stacked on the steps that he had avoid.

"The soul?" he paused. What an unusual question to ask a perfect stranger. Of course the teen who uttered it was most likely just thinking aloud and he probably should just be on his merry way, "The way it was explained to me is that a soul is like a book. It starts out blank, and then as we grow and live the pages slowly fill up with our memories, personalities, and experiences."

There's no derision yet, but Dirk is staying quiet for a few moments mostly because he's mentally translating Ky's words out of religious terms. It's easy enough, since he hadn't brought up God until the very end of it. "It isn't my soul that I'm concerned about," he clarifies.

[In Dirk's defense, he does intend to return them soon, since he's just about done with his piles of reading material. If the way he was looking at them is any indication, they weren't much help.]

A metaphysical dictionary with all the answers.

[He taps the pile of books.]

Or a cheat guide to something called SBURB. Either one would be useful as hell.

It wasn't a question directed at any passers-by at all, but Dirk doesn't ignore the answer, even despite it coming from someone he doesn't know. He glanced at the other boy carrying the huge stack of books out of the library (not like Dirk had any room to judge, he'd amassed a pretty large stack himself. He wasn't taking them with him, though.)

"So according to you, a personality isn't something you're born with." Ah, but that's a tangent. "Sounds more like you're describing a mind, though. Not sure that's the definition I should be working with here."

Mm-hm...

[Never mind she's killed several in this manner, destroying their physical forms, extracting their souls and feeding them to Soul. It's not that she's ashamed of such a topic or doesn't realize it's inherently unpleasant, it just doesn't seem appropriate to bring up.]

That's also a hard question. See--even though I said earlier that souls are "eaten" in my world, that's not entirely true. Yes, they're swallowed, but they can still be extracted, they live on in the body of the person that consumed them.

[She gives him an apologetic look and continues.]

Sorry, I know the entire Soul Theory back to front, but I'm still only human. As for what corrupts a soul, taking actions like eating innocent souls and killing for the fun of it, basically losing all of your morals and deciding you don't care about humanity or anything besides your own ends, that rots a soul. I fought with someone before whose soul was rotted inside and out for eight hundred years, and he survived in all that time by reincarnating his soul into his children.

[She pauses, a realization seems to have hit her. When Maka continues, she sounds distant.]

He destroyed his own soul, he festered it with so much anger and hatred over eight hundred years, that eventually it imploded. He was just a husk left behind after that...sort of like a wooden puppet. It seems in that case the soul is very persistent, except when you overload it with ugly disgusting emotions of your own creation. I can't imagine a person that would be able to destroy someone else's soul under their own power...maybe a god could do that.

What's the point of eating them if they just get taken out again?

[Some shit really does like irony out there. Dirk's not really sure how to come out and say it, but a God that can destroy someone else's soul under their own power is exactly what he is.

At least now he understands what caused Kid's reaction months back when he first explained being a Prince of Heart as the equivalent of a destroyer of souls. He had basically been saying he could do something worse than even the most evil of people could only do to themselves. It's no wonder that Kid tried to kill him for it, though Dirk will still blame Kid for attacking.]

And if a God like that existed?

[As far as he can tell, Maka's pretty level-headed, and if she ever mentioned this Kid she'd learn the truth quickly enough, but he doesn't feel particularly interested in getting in a fight all over the library steps yet.]

It's like a battery, it amplifies the power of the person that eats or absorbs the soul. And the only way they can be taken out, really, is if you destroy the thing that ate the soul or if a god forcibly extracts them.

[99 souls and one soul of a Witch...that's what it takes to make your Weapon into a powerful Death Scythe. Never mind that there doesn't seem to be a concept of an "after life" for the people of Death City, even if ghosts are a thing that happen at times.

At his question, she tenses, but answers honestly:] Well, if a god like that existed, I'd hope that he or she would be responsible with their power, and not use it to be a tyrant.

Equius shrugs, then leans back on his hands. He's comfortable with Dirk, and his body language reflects that. "The heart is just a pump, made to circulate blood. The soul is something different." He looks at the sky for a moment before continuing. "Aradiabot ripped her heart out, and she was fine; her soul stayed in the bot."

"Someone else's?" Ky starts, fairly sympathetic, before he reconsiders that this is Dirk, and that he very likely doesn't believe in souls in the Catholic sense at all. "Or simply intellectually curious?"

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