15strangers | SING, O GODDESS

SING, O GODDESS

[The place that Zagreus brings them to is an abandoned house. Like the rest of Greece, at first the grass and plants are dead, withered. But only at first.

As everyone files into the garden, it starts to slowly come to life. flowers begin to bloom. Fruits and vegetables start to sprout from the soil. The trees begin to grow once more. Wheat stalks slowly pop up out of the ground. Wherever this is, it's clear that life is returning-and the gods are awakening.

It's probably best that they don't return to the underworld, to the House of Hades-but, if anyone wishes to, Charon has arrived with the dead from the previous rounds-now alive-and little baby Ayame. If anyone wishes to go there-though, why would anyone ever willingly go back to the House, knowing you-know-who is probably awake by now?-they can.

But for those who stay here, there is food and drink, wine and bread, fresh meat and ripe crudités. Talk. Plot. Say your goodbyes before you are SHIFTed back to your homeworlds.

Who knows? Maybe there are still some surprises left to be had. But, either way...it is a good day. The new moon will pass. The sun will rise.

The Game-or at least, this variation of it-is over.]

((OoC: And with this, Round 7 is complete! Thank you everyone who participated-we hope you enjoy the aftermath, and stay tuned for the SHIFT Meme and HMD!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Brain blinks--and shakes his head, though there's a frown appearing between his brows]

I wouldn't include pleased in that-- [he shakes his head]--as I've often had to explain, I cannot feel positive emotion, so, I couldn't define it as happiness.

Oh? But you're not displeased about it, right? So in this case, isn't pride a positive emotion?

[okay well now he looks absolutely befuddled]

--what? Pride is a negative emotion; it's always been thought of that way. It's even gone so far as to be listed as a sin.

In its context as one of the seven deadly sins, pride can probably best be summed up as a feeling of superiority, or perhaps we can call it "pride without accomplishment." That tendency could be seen as negative, but only inasmuch as because it leads one person to consider themselves as better than anyone else, more worthy, more deserving.

What you're talking about, though, is the feeling of "pride with accomplishment." To take pride in ones own role in a thing, in the contributions that were leveled, and so to find satisfaction in a job well done.... Well, that's different.

[...that's really very succinctly and logically put, and, honestly, he really has no idea what to do with that.]

...huh.

[and he just kinda...turns to the side and just sits down, abruptly, on the grass, frowning deeply]

I need to think about this.

[Well, she'd been trying and completely failing so far to figure out how to use the woodburning stove and oven, so after a few moments and very nearly burning herself she gives up, cuts up a nice little selection of some of the fruit here, which all seems to be somehow perfectly ripe, and then takes it and moves just outside to sit down next to him neatly before offering a strawberry.]

I don't think that's a bad thing.

[Brain blinks as she sits down next to him, glancing over...before accepting the strawberry]

...no?

It's...different from what I've been told, about how we function. [he frowns, turning that strawberry over a couple times] I was under the impression that most of us can only feel and copy negative emotions--save for Heart and Medic.

[....]

Could envy be a positive emotion?

[Brain is clearly Having A Moment, and she is content to sit quiet as he processes whatever he needs to process. That leads, eventually, to a question, and she frowns, considering it. That's a harder one. Luckily she's up to the challenge.]

It depends on context again, right?

Usually, when people discuss envy as an emotion it is in a negative context, but even that isn't always. A person might sincerely congratulate someone else on their position in something by saying that they envy them, and it's very common to describe a good situation or good luck that someone else has as enviable.

Really, at the end of the day, what is envy other than another word for desire? There's nothing wrong with that, either. It only is a problem when you want something because someone else has it, or you want to have it instead of them because you think you deserve it more.

[Brain listens, quietly. It's...a lot to deal with. It's also some very clever wording. No wonder Moriarty is so fond of her; they're very similar in some ways.

There's a frown creasing his brow, though, as she finishes. "It is only a problem when you want something because someone else has it, or you want to have it instead of them because you think you deserve it more."

It would have been easier to continue to assume his jealousy had always come from a place of negativity, but now he's going to have to ask himself: why? Why was he so jealous of Medic specifically? It wasn't that way when Volt took Heart's attention, or any of the other Roidmude. Just her. So did he want Heart's attention only because Medic had it, or did he think he deserved it more?

The answer is fairly uncomplex, really: no. No, he'd always wanted Heart's attention, his praise, his acknowledgement. But when Volt or any other Roidmude had received it, it hadn't bothered him, because he always knew he was more useful to Heart than them. It wasn't until Medic showed up and proved that she was far more useful to Heart, with her ability to heal and to permanently alter Roidmude code in ways that he couldn't, that his envy of her really reared its head. It hurt to see Heart praise her, listen to her, especially after she told Heart that Brain's efforts had failed and why. It hurt enough that he couldn't be around them; that he'd left. And by the time he'd returned, his place at Heart's side had been wholly overtaken, no matter how hard he deniedit to himself and schemed and fought for it with everything he had.

"I suppose I sympathized with your devotion," he'd told Medic, when she asked him why, why would he do what he did? Sympathized, because he couldn't feel it himself. At least she would make Heart smile again.

So...did he want Heart because Medic had him? Did he think he deserved Heart more than Medic?

Well...no.

So what does that mean for him now; for his jealousy, his envy, that core emotion he's always regarded as negative?]

...desire. [he repeats it, quietly] I did desire to be useful to Heart. The most useful, out of anyone. [he's still frowning] When I wasn't, I tried to undermine the person who was. Is desire negative, then?

Emotions are a little more complicated than anything that might allow such strict delineation. There's not really a divide between them that seperate them like that. Desire can be negative, especially if it causes pain, but it can also be positive. But that's the case with all of them. Sorrow is often seen as a negative, but without sorrow it would be much harder to understand, let alone feel, things like empathy, compassion, mercy. Sorrow, for the pain of another, is part of it. Grief provides catharsis.

Happiness is usually seen as positive, but what about the concept of schadenfreude--of happiness derived from watching another's pain or misfortune. Even love.... Most people would probably call love the most positive of all emotions, but even in it is the chance for it to become obsession. Think about, oh, yanderes, for example, who perhaps kill the person they love specifically because they love them. You can't really call it positive at that point.

So while desire can be a negative thing, yes, it can also be positive, or even just neutral. And in the end, that's the case with all of them. Every emotion.

[Brain listens, quietly. Some of it rings similar to what Moriarty and he discussed (yelled) back at the meeting, but the way Akane couches it is...different, somehow. The focus is on the emotion, not him, and Brain frowns, turning that over in his mind.]

...then it is less about the emotion itself than it is the action one takes because of it?

That is part of that, but also, for example....

Mmmm. Would you call water a negative thing or a positive thing?

SING, O GODDESS

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