Descent.

[shimmermods]

CHAMBERS.

rules

faq

hiatus/drop

application

taken

profiles

You've been down here for such a long time.

It's difficult to tell, perhaps, exactly how long it's been; the lack of need to sleep or eat has become more and more prevalent as time goes by, and it's made it difficult to keep to any sort of schedule - and while the darkness remains unyielding and unchanging, the same can't be said for yourself, now, can it? The further you go, the more it feels like maybe you could belong here; the longer you're within this place, the less it seems to want to let go of you.

It begs the question, really: Is it the mine that's making you feel that way, or is it the Shimmer itself?

Something is different today.

There's a sudden feeling that you've found a chamber, that the shaft you've been wandering down has opened up in a way that's more noticeable than the occasional offshoot leading to an eventual dead end - this feels massive, open in a way that clears the air and spreads out far enough in front of you that it's difficult to tell how far out it actually goes. There are a few promising signs here, however, even if you can't see them very well - the sudden clearing of the air's stagnation is one, but the sound of running water trickling through here somewhere is also promising.

There's also a feeling that should be familiar by now; namely, it's the general sensation that you aren't alone, wherever you are.

You've found something, but perhaps more importantly, you get the feeling that you're coming far closer to your goal than you were on the outside; don't get too excited, though, as you still want to be careful - after all, this chamber opens downward as well as outward.

You can get down to the lower level if you pick your way down; it shouldn't be too challenging, and you'll probably have an easier time seeing once you're down there. Just don't fall.

code by vuvuzela

Comments

[shimmermods]

It's nothing anyone asked for. That includes them; it's clear that they didn't.

[So she does get it, in at least some capacity.]

This is the way of things. Prey doesn't ask to be hunted, either, but no one tells the predators to stop. Such a thing is a meaningless gesture. So is this.

[notjustawriter]

[Wow does he feel like he's listening to von Glower philosophize about how nature isn't evil right now.]

[me_underfire]

Do you see yourself as the predator in this situation?

[shimmermods]

I see myself as neither.

[skelkro]

[Emma actually speaks up upon hearing that, tilting her head a little with a slight frown.]

... That's kind of a wishy-washy way of looking at it though, isn't it? Like, it makes it seem like you don't want to be thought of as prey because you don't want to be potentially blamed as "too weak to stop harm to yourself or others", and not being called a predator either because you don't want to be blamed for being the one doing something that harms themselves or others. It just comes across like you're trying to avoid any responsibility no matter what you do or don't do.

[notjustawriter]

[Oh, Emma, he likes you.]

[shimmermods]

It's more that you've already ascribed one role or another to me, and I see no reason to argue the point. If you consider me to be either of those things, then so be it. I don't consider myself either.

[skelkro]

[For some reason, this has gotten Emma a bit more insistent here, as she spreads her arms wide here in gesture, still smiling~!]

No no, you don't get it. What I'm trying to say is that you seem to have a misunderstanding about something; you see, there's no such thing as being neither. You're a victim, a wrong-doer... or both at once, and it all depends on what exactly you are doing in the moment. And it's never a permanent thing: a victim can easily became a criminal and a criminal can easily become a victim in any given moment depending on what's happening.

For example... right now, you say that you're neither, but are we correct that the people within this tree [gestures to said flesh tree] became this way because of your influence, right? So in perhaps their eyes and some of my friends here, you're the wrong-doer, while maybe to you, you're the victim if it was unintentional that it happened. And I'm willing to believe in that being true, since you don't want to be destroyed or yelled at for something you didn't want happening just by existing! But that still involves taking responsibility for your role as both victim and wrong-doer here rather than trying to absolve yourself completely and averting your gaze from seeing any viewpoint other than your own.

[And then she pauses, waiting to see if the Shimmer understands now what she's getting at here.]

[shimmermods]

[...Emma, that was a lot of words. But she does seem to be following, at least.]

Taking either role depends on how you relate to the others in the situation. Does it not? Your role as victim, as criminal, depends on how others see it. There is no middle ground in the eyes of others. Even absolution has nothing to do with your own stance and everything to do with others'. It's a construct, in that way. And something those like you have agreed to.

I am not one of yours; I am not anything that requires your understanding or your absolution. I have not absolved myself of anything, any more than you need to absolve yourself for existing in the first place.

[skelkro]

I never said that you needed to absolve yourself for existing, or even that you need my understanding or absolution in that matter. It just seems that you don't understand yourself here any more so than we understand you. You might even understand yourself less than we can understand you, really.

[She drops her hands back down.]

For example... why did you even come here just to tell us that what we're doing is pointless? You didn't stop us from coming in, and you don't seem interested in stopping us from destroying this tree--which, is a shame really because it's a fascinating subject for study, but I can still understand that it's the better decision to be done here to end the suffering of the people within it.

[thank god emma's priorities are apparently still intact as far as that goes, it seems]

It just makes you being here at all seem even more pointless than whatever we're doing... unless it was an attempt to try to understand our way of seeing it better, or checking to make sure we weren't secretly doing something to destroy you? But if you don't care why we're doing it or even want to understand us, and since I thought you've already been watching us on our journey enough that you'd know if we were planning something destructive that hurts you, then... again, why are you even here then?

[shimmermods]

I wanted to watch. What you were doing here - I wanted to see it for myself. There's a difference in knowing things and seeing them.

[skelkro]

Ohh, I see!

[And just like that, Emma claps her hands together and nods, as if we've finally reached a mutual understanding here.]

In that case, you should have opened with that instead of "what you're doing is pointless" when we saw each other! Then you could have saved yourself from having people trying to explain empathy to you or a lot of this other pointless arguing we've all been doing, and we'd have gone on with removing the tree sooner!

[shimmermods]

[...That is probably the closest thing to a smile anyone has gotten out of this thing. It still isn't there, but it's. Either a really bad attempt or just kind of a solid indication that it's got no idea how anything resembling feelings work.]

They like to argue about things like that anyway.

[skelkro]

They sure do, don't they?

[emma no don't fucking agree with the shimmer on this of all things]