[video - itp: repliku's sense of self-preservation is as high as ever]

[acceptedoblivion]

So, "rescuees".
We've known what we really look like for the last few months. So I ask, have any of you even wondered what our so-called "administrators" look like without the glamour?

Well, now that the monthly distractions are over, I have one thing to show you. Say hello to your favorite scientist.

[Ira smirks, holding up a picture to the camera of a certain drawing that his friend drew from his sister's memories.]


Some of you may remember another person sharing this sketch, and it's true - even the admins aren't what they seem.

Now Jason, I ask you directly: How do you call yourself human?

[Can't even say that it's the way he claims to be human, either.]

[[ooc: The visible sketch is a WIP because Jason literally crashed photoshop four times when I tried to load it. Will update it later when it lets me finish.]]

Comments

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[warriorscribe]

*The way Enoch sees it, he's the one who just implied humans who do terrible things aren't human.*

Actions don't define the self either.

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[acceptedoblivion]

[To him, they're sometimes both.]

Oh yeah? Then what does?!

[He's no longer able to hold his anger back as red creeps up into his vision, despite his attempts to shake it off - quite literally - and his hand clench all the tighter.]

You keep trying to say he's human... but he acts just like...! [The words die on his lips as he clutches his head, almost like a little kid throwing a temper tantrum.] Like them!

[Yeah sorry, you're likely not going to get out who "they" are.]

thread-jacking with permission; text;

[earthshards]

[Well, this is... getting interesting.] Humans are more than capable of being monsters. That doesn't make them any less human. It only makes them more terrifying monsters.

[He pauses a little, wondering what to say. He knows full well who 'they' are, given that he was once their boss. But how to go about this...]

They might not be fully human anymore, but there's a big difference between them and someone like Jason - Jason still has a heart. He's still capable of enjoying the crap he does to us. Those you are referring to... don't.

They might act like it, but without a heart, they were going through the motions. There is no true enjoyment, or satisfaction. Jason seems to enjoy what he does, and does it for the sake of that enjoyment.

Even if there's still something left in him that can be called 'human', he's by far the bigger monster.

[Ugh. Debates on humanity are tricky when dealing with Replicas and former Nobodies.]

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[alae]

What's so great about humans anyway?

video (sob I'm so late...)

[warriorscribe]

Precisely what this young man said, but...less so. Humans are capable of many wonderful things, yes. But you can't dismiss the terrible things we can do as inhuman, either. In part because in a place like this there are so many beings who aren't human, but match us in intelligence and potential, who would be considered human "in spirit" on any world only humans lived on. Doesn't it seem unfair to them, to hold us up as virtuous paragons like this? We humans are capable of good and evil both, and if we think of those who do evil deeds as something less than compared to those who do good, we open our hearts to do evil to them in return.

Besides, what defines the self for those who live here is the soul, and that is something they can measure definitively. If Jason calls himself human, I'd take him at his word that he has a human soul, and so is as human as he claims. Even if we don't like what he does, and if those of us who are also human wish he wouldn't for its reflection on us.

*He lets out a slow breath as he waits for replies. Letting out all his thoughts like this, at least, helps. With a few things.*

[alae]

... Right yeah you totally missed most of my point.

Some of us aren't human and don't want to be. Some of us don't think being considered human "in spirit" is such a compliment. Yeah, the wars in my world were manipulated by Hades, but they were still wars and a lot of people died. I haven't met a single human in my world who I would really consider to be a good person.

[Then again he hasn't really met any humans in his world. That's besides the point.]

So yeah. If Jason claims he's human and claims he has a human soul, whatever. But stop thinking that "human" is codeword for "capable of good or evil things" because it's not.

The point is that some of us don't see being compared to humans as an upgrade. I'm an angel, and while I don't serve anyone and I'm capable of good or evil on my own, I'm also not a human. Don't call me one, don't mistake me for one, don't compare me to one.

If you've gotta use a word, use 'person'. Because I'm my own person and so is everyone here, human or not.

[That last part came out a little more desperate-sounding than he meant...]

[warriorscribe]

Ah...that's not what I was saying. I never meant to say "human" somehow was...the same as being capable of both good and evil, only that humans are capable of them both.

*It was sad that an angel had never encountered a good human. But he couldn't bring himself to respond to anything else, not without time to deliberate and that, in his current state, was next to impossible.*

[alae]

I don't know what to call him, but he's closer to one of the monsters from the Underworld than anything else. Then again, some humans can be like that too, form what I hear.

[Not like he's got a whole lot of experience with that.]

But if he's human - even a weird kind of human - he can die like one.

[warriorscribe]

No one was ever contesting that much. *Enoch sighs and runs his hands through his hair.*

I'd rather not kill anyone, but we'd best learn how their...processing works if he must die.