DIRECTED TO MERIDIAN, OPEN TO ALL.

[twohand]

[ In the midst of the Advocate's beginnings, perhaps a few world adventures in ( ignore pax's belated posting in that case ), there is a quiet presence that coalesces within the minds of all. An Advocate, dusk-skinned and thoughtful as he addresses all present. Even his voice is morose, a little saddened by what he has taken notice of — though that is mostly on behalf of Meridian. He cannot imagine what it must feel like, to look upon something familiar and have it not be exactly what they want. ]

They're dying. These worlds — they're already lost, they're torn up and left in pieces, they're dreams of what was; please don't make them suffer when you can bring them a gentle end. Even if you fight to restore them in the long run, choosing to save them now is torturous. It is asking someone with a terminal illness to fight on, when they ought to be given the ability to rest.

[ He sounds like he is pleading with the Meri, a call not to stand so firmly with their impossible desire to restore all that they make such a glaring mistake. ]

All things have a right to live, I agree. But, all those same things also should have a dignified end. I am only asking that you understand this, and choose to help us give what is left of these worlds the ending that I wish our worlds could have had.

This time, please... just this time. I am asking on their behalf, for all to choose a difficult thing — but, the thing that only we now have the power to do for them.

Comments

[a_noble_flame]

Have these worlds told you they don't wish to fight then? Or has someone else told you all of this?

[twohand]

No more than these worlds have told you that they wish to be fought for.

[ Sorrowful, but gently resolute. ]

I am looking at these worlds with my own eyes, Alice. They're beautiful, and nostalgic... but they're in shambles. They're fragments of what they were. Like shattered bone, and there's nothing there to put back together.

[a_noble_flame]

Yet as battered at they are they still fight to live. You would have us execute them then in the name of mercy? While they strive to try to exist?

[He is sorrowful and gently resolute. She is a stalwart flame in this moment.]

If they wish to fight then I will fight for them. Until I hear from the worlds themselves in whatever way they wish to tell me that they want to end then I won't be the one who ends them.

[She pauses a moment, her flames dimming some. Her tone is soft for now.]

You may mean well, Drizzt, but you do not speak for them. Concentrate on helping where you can.

[hauntedking]

They deserve a chance to fight for their lives.

[ Dimitri is a wall of conviction; that pleading will find no grip here. ]

They deserve a chance to live, for however long they have. It isn't our place to tell them to die. Nor is it yours.

[twohand]

What they deserve is to not die in terror, because they are going to die.

[ That is a fact. ]

Did you not listen to the Advocate's request? It is not "save them" or "do they deserve to have a chance", it is "will you show compassion in the face of adversity".

[hauntedking]

No; it's you who hasn't listened. "Do they deserve a chance" is precisely the question that was asked. Does this world have value.

More than that, it is not up to me to choose their fate. That is up to them. You would make yourself the executioner of a dozen worlds - for what? Because you think it a kindness? You stain your hands with their blood and deny them even the slightest chance. That is not mercy.

[narsinssist]

[ Sorry Drizzt, you are like catnip for devils. ]

A kinder eradication, perhaps, than simply winking out of existence to feed whatever it is that lurks in the dark?

[ Raphael has already selected them to mostly die out, but the more he sees those worlds being nearly swallowed, the more he thinks it might be torture for them.

What fun it is, to have such a choice be presented to him! ]

It does sound simply torturous, doesn't it?

[twohand]

[ why the hell do you have to be so sensible you freaking devil ]

I don't want to give them to Oblivion, the way our worlds went. We're being asked to show dying things compassion, not force them to carry on until their very, very bitter end. It's not like any of us are staying with them to accompany them.

[narsinssist]

[ Raphael is aware that Drizzt is not really speaking to him in this — asking a Devil to show Compassion is akin to asking a fish to breathe air. ]

Correct! Even moreso, have they been told of their fates?

[ He considers it. It's obvious in communion. Raphael thinks to give them this tidbit of knowledge, and then... simply let them languish with it? If Devils could not stand to it, or even the gods of their world... What hope was there for these worlds? ]

Perhaps I will tell them. See what they do with such knowledge, hm?

[ And then let them live? It's almost funny. (To him and only him) ]

[wolfish]

Bit of a sweeping claim to make without having seeing them all, isn't it? Hasty, for that matter, to decide the lot of them can do no better than to be snuffed out.

[ There's nothing combative about it — an intellectual question. A discussion of differing interpretations of a whole book based on its first few chapters isn't worthy of heat. ]

So what's led you to conclude they must all deserve such an end?

[twohand]

They are being snuffed out though, that is what we were told. This isn't a matter of saving them, or not. It is a matter of choosing to ask them to carry on until they die, or allowing them peace that they may not have at the hands of whatever is devouring them.

[ He's not combative either, welcoming Yuri's mistaken interpretation and the opportunity to point out a correction. ]

If I must pick a reason to choose a deliberate end... it is for two reasons: because we are with these worlds no more than twelve hours, by my count. Were I able to live every hour of the rest of their time, fighting with them, I would choose to allow each one to fight until the end.

And the second reason is because — how many of them know what is coming? Are they prepared? Are they ready to stand against what is going to happen to them? I don't see any of them existing that way. They're just living, like nothing is going to happen, and they're already nearly gone.

[wolfish]

If you think the conclusion's inevitable, is dying by another's hand any more dignified than reaching that "natural" end? Especially if you view it as fleeting, if we're to assume that we know all there is to know about this, I'm not sure I'm seeing where we'd be helping here.

[ Yuri, for his part, has never trusted what they're given. Never will, for all that ignorance is purposefully maintained among them. Not to mention that disturbing little tidbit D turned up.

What if, in destroying these realms, they feed into that? ]

Were it me, I'd want every moment I was due. But I can't say what they want. Can either of us?

[ex_fend346]

How many worlds have you seen in your lifetime? Have you seen a struggling world recover?

[ His presence over communion is older than his face would suggest. Soft as his tone is, gentle as his presence is, the weight of experience resides behind these qualities. ]

I have seen many, and I have observed this. How can we deem them incapable of the same?

[ Tokyo had been a dwindling world, yet its people did not wish to quietly die out. They fought fiercely for every moment. And in the end, they had their path to recovery. To survival.

Can they rob any world of their choice? ]

[twohand]

I know of many. My world was part of a rich multiverse of planes, demiplanes, alternate realms, planetary bodies, life-and-afterlife... I watched my own world grow sick and die, once. It changed everything as we knew it, and even after it recovered it was never the same world that I knew.

[ The Spellplague was a horrific period of time; gods died, the world struggled and shifted on a castastrophic, apocalyptic level. ]

But, it was a whole world. These are not. It's not about whether this world is capable, not to the Advocate. It's about whether we ask it to suffer for a chance that won't come, or whether we can stomach giving them a gentler passing than what we experienced at the hands of Oblivion. I don't want to give them to Oblivion's hunger.

[kaientai]

Sorry, not gonna happen.

[ This goes much deeper than Meridian for Ryouma, so Drizzt will find him an immovable object. ]

Not everything that's dying has a terminal illness, you know?

In any case, if these — or any — worlds want anything, it's to survive. That's true of my world, which isn't unique, so I know that must be true of all the others.

My duty is to fight for all the people in every world that can't fight for themselves, so that's what I'll do.

[twohand]

Were we given the fullness of their last days and staying with them, I would agree that we are fighting for them, and I would be fighting there with you.

[ Like Ryouma, this is beyond Meridian and Zenith — and it is painful to hear that life has more value than death, as if being dead terminates the beauty and importance of someone and they have no more worth once dead. ]

But, we are not. We are choosing how they die.

[punkisntdead]

[Chloe's listening to all these arguments go on for a bit before rolling her eyes here.]

You all [derisively: Meridians] are really getting your panties in a twist over a whole lot of nothing. You dudes do know that these worlds are fake as hell, right?

[dreamflowers]

If they're "fake as hell" then what is even the point in arguing about this? There was no way this discourse was gonna lead anywhere productive.

[kaientai]

Yup, I've considered that these worlds might all be fake from the start.

[ So, he would say his panties are just fine. ]

It doesn't really change my decision, though.

[baltimores]

[ For as big of a disagreement as they've recently had, as shaky as the ground they may stand on together now feels, Amos is silent as Drizzt's message filters in. A faint, and maybe even touch solemn presence, before: ]

You're a good person.

[ Or, when he takes the time to think about what the Advocate is asking of them as opposed to acting on thoughtless instinct: Drizzt is undeniably correct. ]

[twohand]

[ Amos's words cause him to flinch a little, the validation ripping through his heart with great difficulty. ]

I don't feel like one.

[ He's asking people to consider ( and commit ) to, yes, mercy-killing the remnants of worlds. To not force them to limp on. To euthanize them, for pity's sake. It's hideous to have to ask that of anyone, but he doesn't want the vote to weigh in favor of preserving them for more pain, no matter if they deserve to fight now or later. ]

Besides, this isn't a question of "good" or "evil", I don't think. The Advocate is asking us to find enough value in these worlds to be able to let them go before they're ripped from us.

[bakedapple]

[ Link listens attentively to Drizzt's message, and to the conversations that follow, almost without any interjection at all. Eventually, he feels like he's heard enough — these conversations between the two sides always hit an impasse, and Link understands the Meris' take on the situation too well to want to argue with them.

But there is one thing. Something Drizzt should hear. ]

You'll never convince them by saying we should let our worlds die. That we should focus on letting them have a "good death"...

They're just going to accuse us of "killing" people.

[twohand]

What I am asking for is — I know it is monstrous.

[ I have spoken a thought that is evil, his mind cries; a deep pain to have voiced this, to have asked of anyone the presence of thought to even consider this route. He has said something unforgivable, not only to these people, but to himself and his own belief in the beauty and sacredness of life.

But, someone had to. It cannot be a deviation from his overarching morality, to look at this moment and say what needed to be said. To ask for mercy, for people who might choose to struggle before they die — but, who will not know enough to understand what is happening. None of the Shard-Bearers did, and is it so evil to want to spare others agony? ]

I know this choice is as good as murder, but. I just can't bear the idea that right now, we can protect them from pain. Meridian might even prevail and restore them — so, why not do this now?

[ It's so horrible! To demand people experience a bitter end, unknowing and unprepared; to demand they experience it, alone, because the ones choosing for them will not be there to feel every inch of their terror and pain. ]

I may be killing them, but at least my choice will be made because I cannot abide the thought of making them suffer without having the ability to suffer at their side.

[semicharmed]

[ Matt's been listening for awhile.

As has been the case since he landed in Kenos, everyone seems to be making good points. If he had to have this debate in earnest, he's honestly not sure where he'd come down. As things are, everyone seems so activated that he doesn't know how to say what he wants, which is, We can't trust the Advocate. They mean well but they're not who they were anymore.

How can he be so sure, after all? He believes Set, who believes the Tree. Whisper from a whisper.

His Communion, when it comes, is narrowed to only Drizzt. He "appears" much more readily and completely than the first time they met this way: Messy hair, button-up shirt and slim trousers. His expression is full of pained sympathy. But warmth, too. ]

Where are you?

[twohand]

[ dang it merc i have to pick a world now uhhhh ]

I can see the white dragon to the north of me. I'm as far south in this city as I could get.

[ He's somewhere atop another high building in Asakusa, getting the lay of the land before he decides to go for the Dreamer or World Shard. Every one counts towards Zenith's end, and much as he hates fighting for a factional goal — he does so, to protect them all. ]

I can come to you, though.