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

[passio]

Some people prefer to live that way, but I don't know that animals have the same sentience. It's probably just painful, to be trapped in such a body.

[ ...and now he's sad? ]

[underworldpianist]

It's a shame we can't do much for them right now.

[ Tanizaki or Hirahara might use a 'brute force' approach of putting them out of their misery, but Saeki's more conscientious. It does make him want to investigate the forest more, at least. ]

Was there any kind of pattern to their talking? Anything more than one might have mentioned?

[passio]

[ they certainly could always just kill them but that would be a bummer ]

Nothing. Animals don't really have much to say, even the strange ones.

However, the jorogumo, from the quests... she seemed to be fixated on the people of the town. I didn't take the potion to learn that, but it feels important.

[underworldpianist]

Ah, well, I guess that's about what we can expect.

A jorogumo? Ah... I guess she's probably hungry. I wonder if I can still talk to one like her in a place like this.

[passio]

She is very hungry. Please be careful.

I can't stop you from speaking with her, but I don't know that she's feeling conversational.

[underworldpianist]

I'll be careful. I don't plan to approach her carelessly... I don't think my kind are very appetizing to her, luckily, but if I'm wrong I can get away.

[ It might mean sacrificing an arm but... so be it. ]

[passio]

"My kind"?

[ dextera doesn't know much about such a demon, but he's under the impression that she wants to eat humans. is this person he's talking to... not a people... ]

[underworldpianist]

We may look human, but me and the people I work with are much closer to her than humans, probably...

I'm a hell escort. We work for Enma to capture troublesome spirits to bring them to be judged and punished in hell. Otherwise, the living end up suffering them and the deceased one can't return to the cycle of reincarnation. You see?

[passio]

[ it takes some time for dextera to respond, after that. he does see, too well—the idea of judgment and the subsequent punishment is something he knows much more about than he wants to, and a hell escort doesn't sound as if it would be out of place at all in the world he knows. ]

Are the punished spirits able to find absolution?

[underworldpianist]

... I don't know. I suppose most of the time, but not always. I don't really understand things like sin and what caused them to become 'angry' or 'sad'. I think we might feel something like they do, but never to the same severity I've seen some spirits express.

I don't really get to see what happens after we've captured them. That's pretty much the end of my job. I'd have to ask my bosses about that to know more.

[passio]

It sounds like a really regimented system.

How long have you lived? If it’s okay to ask.

[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.