Post by Aegle Vitus on Feb 1, 2019 3:05:55 GMT
Staring up at the Commander with a smile on her face, Aegle waited for his answer. He seemed to puzzle over it for far longer than she thought someone like him would need. Exactly what he was 'like', and what that sort of person might require to think up responses to her inane bantering, Aegle did not know, but it seemed to her that he at least had some idea what he was talking about. Not like her.
Her anticipation continued to mount as she waited on his reply, as more and more, she realized she wanted him to agree with her. Not about there being more than one answer, or that she could have lived in a world missing something and not known it, but that she didn't know what she was talking about. She wanted, she realized, to be told how clueless, ill informed, and ignorant she was on the subject. She was far from unused to it and, furthermore, there were things she thought that she'd sooner not be right about, things she was even entirely sure how to put into words. It would just have been easier to be told she was wrong, to have her stupidity confirmed, that she might go on not thinking about these things which had, to her mind, such troublesome conclusions.
"I think you are wiser than you give yourself credit for."
Dangit.
"It's not foolish to think that there can be more than one answer. It happens more than you might think, and at the end of the day, when two ideas can't coexist, they have to fight. I gave up on right and wrong a long time ago, the only thing that matters is the winners and the losers."
For a moment, Aegle allowed the constant buzz of her thoughts to abate, that she might allow those final words to sink in. It was a simple enough idea, though one that had implications which, little by little, she was able to recognize. If he was right, then the fight between Atlas and Vale had been inevitable, a collision course predetermined by two cultures with vastly different opinions of the world.
As an Atlesian herself, Aegle wasn't sure she could appreciate just what the Valenese must have felt in the build up the the Great War. It was like the Commander had said, they couldn't see one another's perspective.
The more she thought about it, the more bleak and pointless his idea seemed. Not pointless in that he was wrong, but pointless on a grander, all encompassing scale. If all that mattered was who won, then it made everything that was not winning trivial. A waste of time. Like Aegle had said of the art, it was something life was too short for. Had the Mantlians who'd fought to defend Solitas thought the same thing? Had they looked at a world with paintings and music, and everything else people more clever than Aegle did, and seen a waste of time? She'd always taken it for granted that Mantle was doing what it thought best by outlawing art and self expression, but she'd never stopped to consider the ideas which might inform such a decision. Could it really have been so simple as them protecting themselves from the Grimm, or had it been something deeper, and more emblematic of who they were? Had they, like Aegle, seen such pursuits as a waste of time in a life already too short?
Aegle did not like this new feeling that came with exploring ideas she'd never before given much thought. It was the way she always felt, when trying to tackle subjects she knew to be well above her head. A sense of knowing just enough to know just how little she knew. It was a feeling she'd grown very familiar with in the last few years, ever since she'd first fallen down and been too weak to stand back up.
"Though it makes one wonder," The Commander said, like he had been reading her mind. Then he continued on, and Aegle realized he had not, "If you could have grown up not knowing what art is without ever knowing the difference... What else might we be going without day after day without knowing any better?"
Again, she allowed a moment for his words to sink in. She wished almost immediately that she had not. Her eyes narrowed and her skin tingled, as she attempted the impossible task of trying to imagine something missing in her life, whose absence she'd never had cause to notice. It was the mental equivalent of tying herself in a knot, and Aegle's mind was only slightly more malleable than her body.
"I mean, I'm wonderin' it now, I guess." She said, squinting past the Commander with a look near to pained on her open and expressive face. Then she blinked, and sudden realization flashed in her eyes.
"I guess I was wrong." She concluded, grinning with apparent satisfaction. Allowing that cryptic rejoinder to hang in the air, she shone her smile up at the Commander, a hint of triumph showing through.
"I know the world aint fair, after all."
Her anticipation continued to mount as she waited on his reply, as more and more, she realized she wanted him to agree with her. Not about there being more than one answer, or that she could have lived in a world missing something and not known it, but that she didn't know what she was talking about. She wanted, she realized, to be told how clueless, ill informed, and ignorant she was on the subject. She was far from unused to it and, furthermore, there were things she thought that she'd sooner not be right about, things she was even entirely sure how to put into words. It would just have been easier to be told she was wrong, to have her stupidity confirmed, that she might go on not thinking about these things which had, to her mind, such troublesome conclusions.
"I think you are wiser than you give yourself credit for."
Dangit.
"It's not foolish to think that there can be more than one answer. It happens more than you might think, and at the end of the day, when two ideas can't coexist, they have to fight. I gave up on right and wrong a long time ago, the only thing that matters is the winners and the losers."
For a moment, Aegle allowed the constant buzz of her thoughts to abate, that she might allow those final words to sink in. It was a simple enough idea, though one that had implications which, little by little, she was able to recognize. If he was right, then the fight between Atlas and Vale had been inevitable, a collision course predetermined by two cultures with vastly different opinions of the world.
As an Atlesian herself, Aegle wasn't sure she could appreciate just what the Valenese must have felt in the build up the the Great War. It was like the Commander had said, they couldn't see one another's perspective.
The more she thought about it, the more bleak and pointless his idea seemed. Not pointless in that he was wrong, but pointless on a grander, all encompassing scale. If all that mattered was who won, then it made everything that was not winning trivial. A waste of time. Like Aegle had said of the art, it was something life was too short for. Had the Mantlians who'd fought to defend Solitas thought the same thing? Had they looked at a world with paintings and music, and everything else people more clever than Aegle did, and seen a waste of time? She'd always taken it for granted that Mantle was doing what it thought best by outlawing art and self expression, but she'd never stopped to consider the ideas which might inform such a decision. Could it really have been so simple as them protecting themselves from the Grimm, or had it been something deeper, and more emblematic of who they were? Had they, like Aegle, seen such pursuits as a waste of time in a life already too short?
Aegle did not like this new feeling that came with exploring ideas she'd never before given much thought. It was the way she always felt, when trying to tackle subjects she knew to be well above her head. A sense of knowing just enough to know just how little she knew. It was a feeling she'd grown very familiar with in the last few years, ever since she'd first fallen down and been too weak to stand back up.
"Though it makes one wonder," The Commander said, like he had been reading her mind. Then he continued on, and Aegle realized he had not, "If you could have grown up not knowing what art is without ever knowing the difference... What else might we be going without day after day without knowing any better?"
Again, she allowed a moment for his words to sink in. She wished almost immediately that she had not. Her eyes narrowed and her skin tingled, as she attempted the impossible task of trying to imagine something missing in her life, whose absence she'd never had cause to notice. It was the mental equivalent of tying herself in a knot, and Aegle's mind was only slightly more malleable than her body.
"I mean, I'm wonderin' it now, I guess." She said, squinting past the Commander with a look near to pained on her open and expressive face. Then she blinked, and sudden realization flashed in her eyes.
"I guess I was wrong." She concluded, grinning with apparent satisfaction. Allowing that cryptic rejoinder to hang in the air, she shone her smile up at the Commander, a hint of triumph showing through.
"I know the world aint fair, after all."