pc catchall for shess (nonbelligerent)

[foodbin]

Comments

[nonbelligerent]

[...]

I wasn't particularly close to Mary, so that's a mercy for me. I'm concerned about the others, however.

[foodbin]

Maybe, but... I think even people who didn't know her very well are probably pretty broken up about it.

[nonbelligerent]

Which is all the more reason some of us need to be steady forces.

[foodbin]

Because you're used to watching over people, right?

[nonbelligerent]

[...]

No. Because as callous as it may sound, I am used to death. Holding onto grief is a privilege more for those with short lives.

[foodbin]

[When she speaks, she sounds a little bit angry.]

Right. A privilege.

[nonbelligerent]

Don't take my choice of words too literally.

[foodbin]

Or you could not say something like that if you don't want me to react to it.

[It seems like that hit some kind of chord with her, at least, before she moves on.]

You'd think if you were used to things like this, you wouldn't be as concerned about the people who are hurt by it anymore. [...] Not that that's a bad thing.

[nonbelligerent]

Not really. Witnessing constant death doesn't mean I've witnessed constant grief as well.

[foodbin]

[She pauses for a moment.]

So... Most people where you're from just aren't sad any time somebody dies, then?

[nonbelligerent]

It is more complicated than that, but you could consider that the very simplified version of it.

Out of the races I've seen, humans are easily the most empathetic.

[foodbin]

Well, I've got nothing but time if you want to explain it.

[nonbelligerent]

Somehow, I doubt you approached me to hear an explanation of my world, Emma.

[foodbin]

No, I approached you to see if you were alright, but you already said you were. Or that you were more concerned about whether everyone else was alright, at least.

[nonbelligerent]

And what about you? You said nothing about your own feelings about what happened.

[foodbin]

You know, if you didn't want to talk about it, you could have just said so.

[nonbelligerent]

I don't really mind, but it's not exactly something that would make you happier to hear, I think.

[foodbin]

I feel like on principle I should tell you that I could handle it.

[nonbelligerent]

If you insist.

[...]

It's obvious by now that I'm not human, right?

[like, he's kind of skirted around the topic since it's not something he likes to announce from the rooftops, but.]

[foodbin]

I'd kind of guessed, yeah.

[She tilts her head slightly, curious.]

[nonbelligerent]

[how to word all this in a way that doesn't horrify emma and cause her to run screaming, worried that he's some kind of psychopath? (because tbh, not an unfair interpretation of his race, if again grossly oversimplified.)]

There are many differences between humans and my kind. We'd be here all day if I tried to list them all, truthfully. But if I had to name key points in this context...

[sighs, he has to write all this out. not for the first time, shess wishes humans could hear sura speech??]

One being that our society focuses far more on survival than human's. We may cry over our loved ones, and I wouldn't say we feel any less strongly than humans do in that regard. But whereas a human would be seen as callous for not grieving, it would be seen as acceptable, if preferable for us. After all, the dead are dead, but to dwell on that could mean disaster in the future.

Because our lives know no natural end, we—perhaps ironically—are less inclined to live life in the present than humans are.

And when your time is limited, it becomes easy to quantify. How much time you should spend on grief, etc. But for a race for whom the concept of time doesn't exist, then when is it enough? To us, a single moment, a year, ten years—they are hardly any different.

[...]

Don't take all this as firm rules, any more than you could say that all humans act the same way, in every situation. But I suppose that's the gist of it.

[sorry for the tl;dr, emma.]

[foodbin]

[She listens to all of that, and while she doesn't look too pleased about much of it, she follows up with a question first.]

If your people don't die naturally, why did you mention that you've witnessed constant death?

[nonbelligerent]

Do humans only die from illness or aging?

[not a genuine question; he knows very well the answer is no. which is the point.]

[foodbin]

No, but most of us wouldn't say we saw people die that often, either. At least not the people around us.

[nonbelligerent]

Yes.

[he smiles, just a tad.]

That's one of humans' strengths. Though you may not be above killing, you can still acknowledge it as something to be avoided. You hold that value for each other's lives.