etraya | voice | un: vsmith

Me neither.

[Hmmmm.]

It's not an especially common sentiment, though, I find.

[It may or may not be a little bit of a fishing expedition, but he's taking his shot nonetheless.]

What do you mean?

Hmmm? Do the mortals where you're from not typically fear death?

[What a strange world that must be. Dazai can scarcely imagine it.]

[ Oh. That.

He thought he meant something else. ]

Oh, yes.

Death is something feared by most people. [ But those that he knows? No. ]

As someone who has already died, I suppose there seems little reason to fear it.

[ Yes, let's go with that. ]

Really?

[He sounds entirely too enthusiastic about that.]

What was it like? How did you die?

[ He ticks something in his head; he's gauging how people respond to him being dead. ]

It was painful. I was stabbed in the back and then in the chest.

[He can absolutely tell his reaction is being gauged, and so Vincent is rewarded with a slightly exaggerated pulling of a face. There's no trace of the sort of shock or horror an average person might exhibit to the notion of death, though. If anything, the expression is more akin to someone who's looking at a squished bug that got on their shoe.

Death by exsanguination is too painful and tedious to be worthwhile; he's tried and failed before. It's a disappointment.]

How do you know you actually died, though? I've been stabbed before, and didn't die.

Good for you.

[ Vincent can't help but be snide. ]

Because that person put all their weight into both stabs. Still, you're right! I didn't die immediately. The first one didn't do me in. I was bleeding out comfortably listening to what was going on. I could still crawl across the ground and maybe with some tenacity, I might have been able to find help.

But sadly, the second one did me in.

Not at all! Surviving meant I had to suffer the pain for a long time. It was terrible!

[More incredibly normal and typical reactions from Osamu Dazai.]

Anyway, you're missing the point of what I'm asking. I know that death is inevitable after losing 0.53 gallons of blood or after the destruction of a vital organ. The question isn't whether you would've died from your wounds, which any reasonable person can be certain of depending on the circumstances, but how you know you actually died. Even recorded accounts of patients resuscitated after clinical death vary in terms of the subjective experience of the individual, after all. Yet, there's an inevitable process of loss of consciousness that occurs between the cessation of your heart and reaching a state of irreversible brain death, the length of which is debated by neuroscientists.

[This is the man you need to work with for a whole mission, I'm so sorry Vincent.]

Can you guarantee you were disrupted from your universe after the latter point? Or did you simply pass out from the second blow, in a situation where no resuscitation could've realistically occurred?

[He does have a genuine reason for being pedantic about this, at least. Not that he's going to be upfront about it.]

Edited 2024-11-18 07:09 (UTC)

Ah, well, better luck next time, I guess.

[ His shoulders bounce in an idle shrug. ]

I'm glad that you're a reasonable person to understand that much. Don't worry. That lunatic destroyed the heart in the second attack. [ If he's upset about the questions, he doesn't show it. If anything, he's confirming himself that he's dead. Why? Well -- that'd be telling. ] Anyway, a person died here and was resurrected. I'm under the impression that's -- while not common place because we're not psychopaths -- is something that happens to the dead here.

Isn't that enough confirmation that I died and was brought here?

This is Echo-san's domain. It's all but certain we are being watched at every moment. In that case, it's not so difficult to believe such a powerful entity might be able to revive a person from their instant of death.

[Though the implications are a bit alarming when he considers that Sam's corpse was supposedly literally eaten, which either means 1) Hannibal was lying 2) Echo has the power to recreate an identical copy of a dead body from scratch and replace a consciousness within it. Occam's razor would suggest the former explanation, but he'll reserve judgment for now. More important is the following:]

But it's considerably different if Echo is able to reverse death outside of those parameters, from various worlds with different metaphysics, which presumably aren't as readily monitored in real time.

[ Vincent supposes he could mention Heather at this time. He could say she could confirm he was well and truly dead. However, he would rather not. Too unpredictable and anyway, he told her not to talk too much about home.

He pauses to mull over what he's said versus what is being said. Because he is nothing if not a hypocrite.

What do people know? He died and was stabbed twice by a lunatic. Fine.

But, if people compare notes, he is of a religious background of the Holy Woman... 'ch. He shouldn't have said that -- anyone close to Silent Hill might recognize Her name. But he thinks he only said that to one person. Saying his God is a woman isn't too damning and if he remains vague about where he came from ... he could be from anywhere. Okay.

Evaluation of what is known about him carried through. He nods then realizes right he should answer what is being prompted. ]

Aren't you being a little too logical about this? No, rather aren't you asking the wrong question?

If Echo can't reverse death, then how can she save universes?

None of our universes have been destroyed yet. Aurora-chan confirmed that they will not be as long as we continue to participate in missions.

[Which in its own right is concerning, honestly. What happens when you don't comply? How immediately does it happen? Or was that answer its own sort of test?]

To my understanding, what Echo-san intends to do is not save universes directly, but preserve the integrity of the multiverse by culling some of the individual universes within it. What we're here to do is convince Echo-san to spare ours from destruction.

Edited 2024-11-19 06:49 (UTC)

Fair enough.

So, that said, with the power she is said to wield, why do you believe she suddenly is fallible in this one thing?

Edited (Then I went... that's not the right word.) 2024-11-19 06:56 (UTC)

That's a false equivalence. Destructive power, regardless of the scale, isn't equivalent to the ability to restore what's already been lost.

But someone has already been restored.

At this point, what are you arguing? We were chosen at random and she decided to choose a corpse. What of it?

I was just an average person with no "powers." [ He tries to use the word as someone who has never experienced such before. ] It is far odder that I was chosen out of anyone else, honestly.

I already explained the difference in revivals here and the possibility of reviving someone from a different universe entirely. There's at least one universe out there with its own afterlife, so there is considerable room for ambiguity to what extent your corpse was a corpse when it was brought here.

[He's definitely not about to give away his reasons for wanting to know quite specifically what state Vincent's corpse was in. The hollow cheer that was briefly absent in his tone as he'd gotten serious returns, just as abruptly.]

If you don't know, that's fine! I was just curious~

Imagine the potential value of our experiences to science!

[ A thought pause. ]

You aren't just curious.

You're looking for something in my revival here.

[ His words shift to vitrolic snarling. ]

Do you think I enjoyed dying? That it was fun? And now having some pedant tell me how much of a corpse I was might have been the issue?

So, what is it? As the person who had to suffer through your curiosity, I think I deserve an answer.

You know, it's interesting. For someone who didn't enjoy his death, you're awfully defensive of it. An average person might jump at the opportunity to believe there could be hope for their survival, that their existence here might have implications for their continued existence once this is all over.

[There goes all that cheer again, instead sharpened down to a blade to hold at Vincent's throat.]

Don't pretend to be so devastated. You want to be dead. I'd go as far as to wager you're frustrated you're alive now.

Not anymore devastated than you are, I'm sure.

[ Since the man's earlier comment on suicide attempt. ]

Did I ever claim to be? Your deflections are embarrassingly transparent.

You know... I do feel sorry for you.

Just think of it... a suicidal person in a place where he can never die. Tragic.

Almost as tragic as an insecure man who tries to hurt others to hide his own weakness and fear, but has too little imagination to even accomplish that much!

Edited 2024-11-19 09:19 (UTC)

I know but you shouldn't insult yourself so much to strangers.

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cw suicidal ideation, past attempts

cw: death talk

death talk continues/likely throughout

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