Heaven's BBS | Text | This is Probably a Bad Idea

[justclaws]

From: Chiyou
Date: June 14

I do not think this is the time for beach parties. Half of us cannot remember who we are. Those of us who know a shinki's past could kill them with a single word, without ever meaning for them to come to harm. This should not be accepted as normal without so much as an explanation as to why it is necessary.

What reason could there possibly be to strip someone of all memory?

Why does nobody seem to know what is going on?

Comments

Text

[maidhem]

Dear Curious Person,

I admit that I don't know much about everything yet, but I think there's a very good reason for all of this. We just don't know what it is-- but that doesn't mean that we won't be able to find out someday.

It might be smart to remember that having faith is about trusting that things will work out for the best, even if we don't understand how.

And, for those of us who lost our memories...I want to think that this is another chance for us to do something to help everyone. Not remembering the things that would give us pain or make us have regrets can only be helpful, right?

Sincerely your's,

Felicia

[justclaws]

I do not think that is enough though. If there is a good reason for this, the least whoever brought us all here could do is share it. They were the ones who took us from our homes and our friends. They should at least have the courtesy to explain why.

Losing all your memories seems too high a price to pay for living without regrets. And I do not understand why speaking of the past should have to be so dangerous.

[Ask me about the time I accidentally blighted one of my closest friends by saying his name.]

anon;

[toremainbehind]

You're treading on dangerous waters by asking this openly.

[justclaws]

Why should it be dangerous to ask for answers?

Nobody should be forced into a position such as this without knowing why.

Text - From: Kairi

[pure_radiantics]

Oh Kija, that's sweet of you to worry about us... I know there are other gods with good hearts like you here, so maybe it's just that they need help from you and others who feel the same way?

[justclaws]

I hope that it is so.

But if that is the case, why do they not simply say so? I have heard precious little more about what I am doing here since the day we both arrived. That hardly seems worth the trouble of bringing me here, and it is certainly not worth all your memories. If it is so important, why do they not explain?

[ Voice ]

[sonofson]

How do some people know some shinki's past?

[ Voice ]

[justclaws]

Well... Some of us are from the same - the same worlds, I suppose. If two people from the same world were brought here, and one had the good fortune to retain their memories, that person would know far more about the other than they could safely say...

[Kija sighs. The knowledge of what he so nearly forced upon Yoon is not getting any easier to live with.]

It is not a positive thing. Actually, it is very dangerous.

anon text

[kokuyoyo]

We're dead and the old gods are inept.

[Well that's a simple answer...]

[justclaws]

Do you know much of the old Gods?

Their behavior is highly unsatisfactory. An explanation should not be too much to ask.

text | from: Cho Hakkai

[reformedsinner]

But you see, it is normal. We're shinki. It's a natural part of what we are that we have forgotten what we were.

The way we've come to be shinki is unnatural, of course.

What part of what's going on do you want to know, exactly?

[justclaws]

But why should that be natural? I cannot feel that it is enough to say this is the way things should be, without so much as an explanation as to why. Why should this place deem it impossible to serve any master without sacrificing all you have ever been to them?

I do not understand why we have been brought here, and why some of us must lose so much. I certainly cannot understand why so much as speaking a shinki's name out of place could be all it takes to kill them. How does that aid anybody?

Text : Fuujin

[fuuthewind]

I get that your new and confused but that doesn't excuse you from not knowing better.

I suggest you filter your concerns to the proper channels. Your little stir up can become a storm real fast. You're going to get someone hurt with your carelessness..

[justclaws]

Very well, and thank you for clarifying. Where can these channels be found? I have no objection to raising such matters formally.

I simply want information. It is of no concern to me if I get hurt.

From: Athena

[adventurology]

It is not normal, no.

However, I do not doubt that the memory was removed to prevent shinki from becoming Ayakashi.

Have you seen one of those things yet?

[justclaws]

Almost.

I understand the risk to shinki that memory poses. What I cannot understand is why memories should pose such a risk. I do not understand what justification there is to strip a person of something so vital, and leave them afraid to so much as contemplate what they might be missing.

[handle]

It's true that there's a lot of unexplained answers here, but... there's no harm in taking a break in between figuring things out, is there? At least, it really brings everyone's spirits up this way.

[justclaws]

That assumes that everyone has the same information, when clearly they do not.

It is during such breaks that we endanger one another. It is easy to forget at such times that things are not normal, but it appears that simply greeting a friend is to say too much. How are we to guard against something as simple as that?

text;

[hackberrydragon]

It's probably not a good idea to be talking about this right on the bbs

[justclaws]

Where do you recommend instead? I was not sure how else to get others to see it.

Text

[hontobakabaka]

In my time, there are a lot of illegal experiments to make the perfect soldier, or a better pilot, or some other nonsense like that. There are two schools of thought with this, one is to buy abandoned genetic material and engineer what is needed from that. The other is to take a viable physical specimen and lobotomize them, then program in what is needed.

I condone neither of these methods, yet I am intimately familiar with them, and while this isn't an excuse it is what I suspect may be one of the reasons this is happening.

Also since I do not believe this is a perfected process, it may be best not to inquire in the open about it. Though that may be my own paranoia speaking.

[justclaws]

[Not included: the amount of time Kija spent looking up half the words in this comment; or the amount of time he spent looking up half the words in the definitions. He still isn't really sure what genetics are, but the substance of it is clear enough: bad news, and bad times.]

I am not familiar with any of the techniques you are talking about, but if that is what is going on here surely we have a responsibility to find out further? The secrecy around the creation of shinki is concerning me, and if they are not permitted to inquire into what may lie behind it then we as gods should be doing so instead. It is wrong to take so much from anyone without so much as an explanation.

If there is nothing to fear, those in charge here have nothing to lose by being open about it. If they refuse, then at least we have a clearer idea of what we are dealing with.

[Text] From: Anon

[cryptaesthesia]

To answer all obvious questions: Power.

[justclaws]

Power to do what?

Surely a wise servant is better than an ignorant one.

Text; From: Yoon

[handsome_genius]

If you're doing this for my sake, just stop.

[It makes him uncomfortable to see so many responses from other people and if Kija gets in trouble because of him... it just doesn't feel good at all.]

[justclaws]

[It isn't just about Yoon.

[He had been a large part of it, though, and his response is - troubling.]

I am sorry. I did not wish to cause you more trouble.

text;

[moonfang]

cause the system in this world is dumb as shit. the god want tools that don't have any memories so that we can't question them, can't properly form our own opinions. gods are just ~*soooo superior*~ to mere mortal souls, after all.


that said

you need to be careful saying things like that. if any shinki end up in a bad way cause of this post, I will find you

[justclaws]

But the Gods too are mortal souls. Men should not have been given such power over others. Nothing about the way this place is run makes sense. Why can they not explain themselves better?

Why would questioning the system harm a shinki? Surely they have been informed of the limitations of their condition.

[neitherdevilnordeath]

Did it ever occur to you that perhaps the reason nobody has an explanation is that there isn't one to be had besides "that's just the way this world's system works"? None of us owe you an explanation, and whether you like it or not, people will do what people have always done and find enjoyment in the things that take them, however briefly, from the harsh reality of their lives.

Perhaps instead, those of us who know a shinki's past and could kill them with a word ought to practice a little restraint.

[justclaws]

This is not about owing me an explanation. It is about us all, it is about why whoever is behind this feels they had the right to rob fully half of us of our pasts without having the common courtesy to explain why that should be needed. Were you doing nothing before you arrived that you, at the very least, understood a lot better than this? I am prepared to accept this is how the world works, but I am not prepared to believe that absolutely nobody knows why.

You can blight a shinki by telling them how you know their forename. Restraint cannot keep you from recognizing someone.

From: Ixtab

[onerous]

[Oh jesus]

You're young, aren't you.

[justclaws]

I am twenty. That is not that young.

[As Granny keeps on mentioning, Kija could be married by now. In fact he absolutely should be, two or three times over...

[It is better not to think too hard about that.]

Why do you ask?

text.

[tuishou]

['Dangerous' indeed, but Neji's not about to question this not if]

What does the reason matter if the deed is done? Unless there is a way to reverse the happening there will nothing changed by knowing.

[justclaws]

Because knowing can stop that thing from being repeated. What is done is done, but if understanding can keep even one more person from being harmed by someone they care for, over a few thoughtless words, that will be good enough.

I do not understand why putting people in such danger is necessary. It cannot be right.

action

[eternalshield]

[Teleport + dragon blood is a fairly potent combination and Zeno uses it immediately upon reading Kija's post. He can sense some level of distress from him and wants to have this out, whatever it is, face to face. Letters are all well and good, but Kija is such an... expressive little person.]

Hakuryuu?

Are things still bothering you?

action forever~

[justclaws]

Zeno!

[And, just like that, Zeno is there too. It startles him--

[He cannot claim it is unwelcome. Kija is honestly regretting pretty much all of it - he cannot understand, he simply can not, and yet it seems so... so self-evident to almost everyone else - and he's sick of staring at that screen thing, it makes his eyes ache and he thinks he is getting another headache. He had been angry when he wrote that post, with himself and with whoever was behind all this and with the whole horrible, sickening situation, angry and frustrated and utterly sick at heart; he wishes he was angry still. All he has is dissatisfaction and exasperation and utter exhaustion, and the nagging doubt that any of the things he's been writing are things he actually wanted to say.

[So he doesn't really know how to answer Zeno's question. Everything he thought he was feeling just seems so - so completely addled by trying to explain it all in text only to a mixed bag of concerned friends, of strangers, opinionated and occasionally entirely unsympathetic, and small children. He cannot remember for the life of him how he was feeling when all this began, except that he'd been angry.]

I... oh, I don't know. I cannot really remember what I thought. Do people actually enjoy communicating like this?

[If this counts as basic technology, count him out.]

[private] from: Yato

[5yenwish]

[Yato is... a little displeased with this post, to be honest, so he's decided to message Kija privately.]

hey
you know you really can't talk about that stuff
like seriously even mentioning it could cause problems
i understand your frustration
but the shinki are dead
there's nothing we can do about that
humans die and that's ok
you just have to learn to deal with it like the rest of us

[justclaws]

Everyone says it was obvious, but it was not to me.

If I had known that before, I would not have said anything. I would not have troubled anybody for answers I already possessed.

Text

[fadingsunshine]

Kija, I... I don't know much about this place and I haven't met the main gods, but...

I think we might get sadder if we remembered? We'd be missing people and thinking about how we died, and all that stuff. Maybe that's one of the reasons, so we suffer a little less? Whenever I think about life, I feel this weird anxious feeling and I stop.

I know it's extreme and upsetting for you, though. [And Zeno, probably, but she doesn't want to ask him.] And I'm sorry. Maybe things should be fair or unfair for everyone, but it's scary to think about it.

[justclaws]

[That is entirely the problem. That weird, anxious feeling he's heard so much of-- why do that? For protection, or for something quite other?]

That may be so. I hope it is to keep you all from sorrow. But if it is, why do they not just tell us? I would see no shame in telling anybody a thing like that.

You do not have to apologize, Kaya, and certainly not to me. It seems, to me, that you and people like you have been placed in the less favorable station by far. As Gods - and, as mortals, how right is it that we should be called such a thing? - we remember everything; we retain any abilities we may have had in life, and are even granted more besides. We are called upon to do nothing but keep silence. I do not feel that we are the ones who are treated unfairly.

Text from Njord

[plight_of_the_navigator]

Right?! There's nothing at all normal about half the population having complete amnesia! I want an explanation for this too. It's an outrage!

[justclaws]

[And then--

[Then, after all, someone understands.]

You think so, too?

It concerns me more than I can say that not only can half the people here remember nothing and no one - not even the faces of their own family, or friends - but when they try to think of it, they are made to feel afraid. Do you think that this can be to keep them safe? I hope so, but why then will nobody confirm it?

private text

[oneblackcat]

It's as frustrating as it is heartbreaking, isn't it?

[justclaws]

It is, both those things.

It is harder than I could ever have dreamed to meet an old friend, and say nothing.

[So hard, it is quite impossible.

[I cannot do it at all.]

from: carl adler

[smilingbullet]

Maybe the trauma of dying? I'm not sure how everyone would take it and it might depend on the way they died, though. Maybe it's meant to raise the usefulness of the shinki.

[justclaws]

And yet it shares the manner of a shinki's death with those of us it calls gods. For what purpose I cannot imagine, as we are then told not to breathe a word of it. I am not sure I am comfortable with having such knowledge, and not knowing why I possess it.

[anon]

[shiitan]

who knows

but I can tell there are too many gods acting like they know best even though they've been kept in the dark as much as the rest of us

[justclaws]

I can certainly assure you of that.

And yet this place would appear to be encouraging that, by giving those of us it names as gods so much more than it offers to those of us it brands shinki. Though why it would want to is another matter. It seems to do nothing so much as breed arrogance.