85th moon [video]

[paladinlost]

[Cecil sits at a table, smiling pleasantly while holding a cup of coffee. His team is nowhere to be seen.]

Have you ever regretted teaching an attack to a Pokémon?

[For a few seconds, the feed suddenly shakes wildly, before stopping just as quickly. Outwardly, Cecil does not react to this incident.]

...Any attack.

Comments

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

You do? Would you not run out of fuel for the propellers sooner or later?

[He might be taking that a bit too literally.]

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

...

We do land to refuel... It can just stay in flight a lot longer.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

Long as in days, or weeks?

[Both would be impressive, but one more than the other.]

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

Days, usually. But since I live up there, I guess weeks works out, too.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

...Do you ever get sick of the view?

[He'd normally find that impossible, but after weeks in the air...]

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

Can't really look outside unless I go to the pilot seat, so I guess I can't really complain about the view.

I got restless a lot when I first started living there, but now not so much. Could be worse.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

Only from the pilot's seat? Could you not walk around the deck, both to enjoy the view and ward off restlessness?

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

There aren't any windows. [ Shakes his head. ] There's not much to see above the clouds.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

...They can be helpful if you need to gauge the weather along the way, but otherwise I imagine I'd get sick of them quickly.

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

I don't really think about what goes on up in the sky.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

Because what goes down on the ground is more important?

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

Exactly.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

That's too often the case. You'd think worlds could take care of themselves for more than a few years.

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

Not as long as there's war, and people vying for power.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

Even if neither of those happen naturally, outside factors will often try to force them.

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

There's nothing natural about the wars happening back home... Proxy wars. The soldiers have no stake in it, they're just hired guns... Mercenaries fighting mercenaries.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

...What's the point, then? Those mercenaries must be handsomely paid, but money is worthless if you die for a cause you never believed in.

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

War has changed. The world's economy depends on it, there's no breaking free. People can just pick up a gun and become an expert soldier all because of the nanomachines running through their bodies.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

A world where the economy would collapse without war, and anyone can take part in it? Wouldn't that mean a world where a life stops being important, where humanity knowingly walks to its doom?

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

I'd say so.

To them, it's just a game.

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

Games that kill people are not games worth playing.

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

When the lines between fiction and reality start getting blurry, it's hard for people to keep hold of their morals compasses. Instead they get caught up in the killing...

[ And this was coming from Snake, who'd killed hundreds of people. ]

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

...Until they're killed themselves, and can never find their way again.

[ video ]

[imthe_shit]

[ He nods in response. There's not much more he can say on that. ]

[ video ]

[paladinlost]

...It could be that they only need to have some sense knocked into their heads.