USER #030066

[passio]

Hello, everyone. It's Dextera.

I've recently come into the possession of a potion that allows me to speak with animals. It's limited in both quantity and effective time, but with everyone coming in recently, I've noticed that there are a lot of new animals running around the town. If anyone has very strong feelings about learning the emotions of their animal companions, please let me know. I'm willing to use the last of the potion to ask.

Additionally, it seems that the thoughts of the creatures in the forest are as distorted as their bodies. I could understand them, but I couldn't "understand" them. I did learn that the geese are very angry. For those of us who have been investigating the forest, I thought this would be of interest.

Thank you for your time.

Comments

[underworldpianist]

I suppose it can be, and it probably sounds a little scary to someone outside of it but it's a lot fairer than you think. It's a trial and it takes into consideration a person's circumstances before death. There's a difference between a needlessly cruel act and someone pushed to the brink by other people being cruel.

How long? Mmm... that's actually a good question, but I don't really have an answer. I just know it's been a long time but not as long as my bosses have. Mr. Rokkaku and Mr. Saitou have definitely been around longer than us.

[passio]

[ just as before, when the first explanation of his job description unsettled dextera's lurking guilt, this seems to assuage it. nothing can make him unburden himself from his sin, but the idea that there's a world out there that's fair about the things people have done... maybe his world is like that, too. maybe there really is forgiveness waiting for him at the end of all this. ]

Leaving it to a trial does sound better than leaving it to some unknowable force. At least a trial has a guaranteed outcome.

[underworldpianist]

That's right. It's not left to fate. It's a matter of looking at a lifespan and deciding what's fair punishment for that soul so they can repent. That's how I've come to understand it.

It might help that we don't understand those things, those sins, on a personal level. It probably makes it easier for those that pass judgment to be impartial... it does make our job as escorts difficult sometimes, though.

[passio]

"Escorts" makes it sound so pleasant. What is the difficulty in it?

[ aside from the obvious trouble of anyone having any job, and chasing down rogue spirits... dextera sometimes wishes that "sin" were a foreign concept to him, too. ]

[underworldpianist]

Spirits don't come along easily. Usually capturing them involves fighting them.

[passio]

Aha.

I guess there's no negotiating with someone that far gone.

[underworldpianist]

It's not easy to... but learning a little more about how to relate to them so you can calm them down gives you a better chance.

[passio]

You sound like a kind person, even if your job is difficult.

Do you have a name?

[underworldpianist]

Kind? Really?

Yes, my name is Saeki. What's yours?

[passio]

Yes, kind. Some people with a job like that - escorting others to their judgment - could easily become callous or even cruel towards those they must herd. I don't think you're like that.

Please call me Dextera.

[underworldpianist]

I didn't expect to hear that from a another being but I'm glad I can put you at ease.

Dextera, then. It's nice to meet you.