#248BF2

[teradaya]

[Color!]

So this post goes up at a very late hour. Such as 4:17am. People are usually asleep around that time, aren't they? Whoops. Needless to say, Ryouma has had a rough night unbeknownst to anyone but himself and now can't quite fall asleep. So. To the laptop he goes!]

Let us think on some things, my fellow insomniacs.

Though I guess I should also say if you've woken up just to read this, then don't be silly like me. Get yourself comfy again and shut those eyes. There we go, that's better, hm? You can always come back in the morning.

But, I was saying. I find myself being kind of contemplative tonight and I figured we can all (well, those of us still foolish or unfortunate enough to be awake at this hour) bounce our thoughts around. So tell me, what do you think it means to be "alive"? Is it purely a physical thing? If you're breathing and your heart beats, then you're good to go? Or do you qualify it with gained experiences, such as enjoying certain foods or falling in love for the first time?

Is there something else I haven't thought about?

Personally, I fall more into the second camp. I could argue that life isn't worth living if you have never sailed on the ocean at least once and experienced all that it entails. But then I wouldn't begrudge anyone who is simply happy being physically alive. And that's important, too, for sure. You can't rightly live through things if you're actually dead.

Let me know. It feels like it could be a long night.

Comments

#FFFFE0

[regrede]

( color! )

[ sierra keeps strange hours, so she’s awake when the post first goes up—it sounds like the kind of thing someone might mull over for any number of reasons, but to post it online? it’s practically a cry for help. ]

What happens when your happy experiences run dry? Is it better to die, or do you continue your un-life?

[teradaya]

[...Boy howdy, that color might kill him if nothing else does.]

Why not make more happy experiences if you're able? Or at least try to do something instead of lying down and taking it.

[regrede]

[ it’s a bad color and she can’t help it. ]

Well, don’t you make it sound so easy?

#FFFF66

[averagemedium]

[this is also around the time it goes up-- somebody's kind of a night owl.]

I mean, you can definitely still do pretty much all of those things if you're dead but still sapient, let's not count anyone undead completely out of this.

... so I guess I'd say that 'being alive' and 'living' are two separate states of being, then. You can be alive without really living your life, but you can still have new experiences like that (and connections with people) even if you're not breathing anymore.

[teradaya]

[Hm. Okay. This is new.]

You'll have to forgive me for not leaving room for that sort of situation. Where I come from, if you're dead, then you're dead and that's that.

I can get the rest of what you're saying, though. But okay I'm curious about this undead thing. How does that work? If someone's undead does that mean that they died once and then just kind of backtracked a bit?

[averagemedium]

It's fine, I know not everyone's familiar with that sort of thing. (:

But it's something like that? The methods sort of vary, but the gist of it is that in one way or another they were kept from passing on properly. It's intentional, sometimes.

Sometimes it just means they still have enough tying them to the living world though. Regrets, attachments, so on.

#9b5148

[tosa]

( #9b5148 )

( A full night of rest later, Mutsu is going to check out this message and... hmmm. )

Did you ever sleep?

[teradaya]

[Don't look at him in that tone of text.]

Eventually, yes.

#6363F9

[noholdsbard]

[ Well, he can take a break from his morning jam session to make philosophical arguments on what passes for the Internet here, sure. Who needs sleep tbh ]

[ color ]

I find that having a purpose is what it means to live.
We all have our destinies to fulfill.

[teradaya]

Interesting, interesting. I can understand that school of thought.

Destiny is a big fancy idea, though. For the sake of friendly debate, would you say lowly people like peasants and farmers who are probably only ever going to know that life
have a destiny, too? Or would you agree in thinking that for some people, their purpose is to make a big splash in the world while for others it's simply to live their life to their best potential, even if it simply means working day to day and keeping food in their bellies?

#99FFFF

[usedlick]

(color)

[Connor is awake, because technically he doesn't sleep. But he is a little concerned about this person's lack of sleep in turn.]

If you're having difficulty sleeping, there are a number of methods you can try. Immersing your face in cold water for thirty seconds, for example, or getting up and doing something that engages your hands and mind for a few minutes.

[teradaya]

[Shh no it's fine he's fine.]

Aww, are you saying that subjecting other people to my charming personality doesn't count? I'm hurt.

[He's not, don't listen to him!]

#FFDF00

[inheritance]

Before, I would've said it's the second one, but now I think it's both.

[Between some of the things that's happened here and back home, Izuku's had a lot of time to think about this in the privacy of his own mind.

Then, because he can't help himself, he wonders what might've caused him to post this to the forum in the first place.]

Why do you ask?

[teradaya]

That's fair enough. This doesn't have a "right" answer, so it really is a matter of perspective, isn't it?

I'm just a curious man, that's all.

[Mostly true.]

And it helps build my perspective on different matters if I can learn how others view something instead of seeing it through my narrower scope.

#FDCC00

[organfarm]

[ Not immediately when the post goes up, but only a little while later; he's not used to having this much time to sleep, so he keeps waking up and wandering around at weird hours. ]

[ color. ]

The first one. People who're really badly injured or ill or traumatized might not be able to do stuff you listed in the second category but that doesn't make them any less alive, they're just hurt. I think it'd be kinda mean to say you have to be doing those dramatic things just to be alive.

[teradaya]

No, that's fair. Being sick definitely gets in the way of that whole enjoying life thing, doesn't it? Especially if it's really serious. Though I do think they can still find things to enjoy even if they are hindered. Obviously they wouldn't be able to overly physical things, but that shouldn't stop them from getting a taste in other ways.

#A5001B

[retrobeats]

[ colour! ]

oh boy. it's not the fake internet if people aren't awake posting at weird hours
sure tho i'll bite
you're talking more about the difference between living and surviving right?

[teradaya]

[What the frick is the internet]

You could define it like that, yes.

#E0FFFF

[purrsuasively]

[Can you believe this shit.]

What a silly question. What one has experienced does not matter in the slightest, for one is alive so long as one's soul does not slip into Death.

Unless, of course, you are talking about beings other than humans, but I rather doubt that you are.

[teradaya]

[What did Ryouma do to deserve this. He's a sometimes good boy.]

I get where you're coming from, for sure, because once you go poof, there's really no having this conversation. But what kind of importance would you give to a person's experiences, then, if they mean nothing in the scope of being alive?

And I tried to keep this open-ended enough to include anything that may not be human, but I welcome your thoughts on that, too.

#FFBFF00

[youwillbeunequaled]

[colour]

[Later in the morning...]

I hope it wasn't as long a night as you thought it might be.

Your question is a very difficult one, which has received some interesting answers.
I enjoyed your story about the ocean.

If I may say, I believe that having a body, heart and spirit with which to experience things is life. I mean this in the very broadest sense. To take in everything, the good and the ill, with your senses, and with your feelings, and to remember it, and to wish for more experiences
--

Forgive me. Putting words to the meaning of being alive is extremely difficult after all, isn't it.

[teradaya]

I've had longer, so it was bearable.

If we ever tame the ocean enough here, then I'll take you out and you can tell your own stories.

[Because appreciating his own words is great and all, but they don't compare to the real thing.]

It's hard because there's no set answer and so there's nothing to forgive. But that's probably the simplest way to explain it and I agree with you. But like I said, I lean toward the experience-having as being significant, though there's nothing bad to be said about just existing if that's all you can do.

#000033

[whereabout]

I suppose that if you're breathing, you're technically alive, but I don't think only being technically alive is really worth much. Emotion, choice, a sense of yourself - you need something to attach that to, to make the difference between living your life or spending it in a coma.

[ Or spending your life brainwashed and unable to think of yourself as a person, as the case may be. Whatever. ]

[teradaya]

Choice is an interesting thing to think about in this context. Anyone can choose to be miserable or try for something greater, and while I don't necessarily agree with one of those decisions, at least it's an active role, right? So, at the risk of sounding heartless, is something who has no choice in any matter really alive? You'd like to think they still are, but then you wonder what kind of worth is there and...well. That's a toughie, isn't it?

#DA4718 - a couple of days later

[heirofembers]

i dont think theres necessarily anything physical required
fire is alive but it doesnt have a heart or a mind that most people can communicate with
makes sense it would count with other things too right?