Scene #8497: Storm and Stress

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	-------------------- 'Is that why she seems so empty? Because she's not a real person?'"Chevalier Cobalt." Lilian says, on a working delay, focused on checking her binds and seals. "What exactly does that mean." She glances over her shoulder only for a moment. "You must have put a tremendous amount of thought into the nature of interiority and personhood to have opinions like that at your age. I might even ask to see your notes; you do take notes, don't you?" she says. Satisfied, Lilian steps up and away from Viviane, making the ramrod tension in her back more obvious. "'Empty'. I've been hearing that word and its synonyms a great, lately. I'd find it very useful to know your personal definition of it."'If you want to live, then stop acting in a way that makes that hard.' "Chevalier-- Sometimes it's not that simple. You're used to fighting Temptations, aren't you? Not people. So--" An attempt to sound patient and ameloriating cracks, turns unsteady, and vanishes. A weak stab at smiling parentally doesn't hide her tightly grit Lilian's teeth are. 'If she is a person then that's fine. I don't hate her, I just want to understand why she acts this way. Things that look like people aren't ways really people, like the Temptations, or the evil agents of the Nihil Kingdom that Love was talking about, or conspirators with the Devil. If you let yourself trust them completely then you can't save real people from them.' "What are you talking about?" Lilian sighs, hot and rough and bubbling up emotion from the previously dry spring. Her hair tosses over her shoulder as she sharply twists back in exasperation to stare at Kayoko. "What is this? If she's not a person to you, then she's just like those monsters, but you're willing to speak to her? Thank her? You won't hate her like you hate them? What in god's name is a conspirator with the Devil? What do these words even mean? Do you actually know, or are you just blindly copying bits and pieces of sentiments you've heard?" Against her better judgement, Lilian turns all the way around, advancing on Kayoko a short distance. "What does this have to do with her body? It's 'too perfect' so she's like a Temptation? Is that what defines the Devil? Evil? That's why she's potentially a 'thing'? You can't possibly be serious. You cannot be about to tell me that only people with a certain type of body are 'people' and not 'things'. That's not in the Bible is it? Tell me I'm mistaken."
Kayoko Kirenai	"I might even ask to see your notes; you do take notes, don't you?" Chevalier Cobalt, still armored and talking to Viviane, doesn't respond directly. She would, of course, and the acknowledgement from the Dame Commander is definitely noted even despite Lilian's growing tension, in the way that Kayoko's spine straightens up slightly-- the only reason she doesn't turn towards Lilian to excitedly convey that yes, she does have notes, is to finish her last thoughts to Viviane. Thoughts that are, visibly so to anyone who's both paying attention and very familiar with a certain kind of praise-based fervor, spurred on by Lilian's displayed interest. "What are you talking about?" And then it all disintegrates immediately. Being shouted at by the Demon King was one thing, but being shouted by him and then by Lilian causes Kayoko to silently freeze in place, rain drumming on her armor. The very slight widening of her eyes and tiny slip of air past her lips are the only outwards signs that she feels like she's been stabbed in the chest, and even those flickers of alarm are wiped away. "M-miss Dame Commander. I'm sorry, I just meant..." Chevalier Cobalt very carefully meets Lilian's stare, with her gauntleted hands politely laced together in front of her stomach, the tiny gesture subtlely drawing her shoulders smaller without entirely giving up the posture of her armor. The stiff, back-of-her-throat tension in her voice fades as she catches on to the thread of her explanation, talking a little faster as she does. "I wasn't making a claim on whether she was a person or not. Just that, with her vacant expressions and style of speaking, along with what Mister Ishirou said about her being constructed, it might be possible that she isn't as intellectually or morally capable as people are." "I don't know for certain either way, and I'm sorry if I made it seem like I did. And I don't know the details of what a homunculus is, so my questions might be off-track, but my-- what I was trying to say was, if her being created by a person meant she lacked the Spirit of Christ within her, so she-- isn't a person." "You cannot be about to tell me that only people with a certain type of birth-body are 'people' and not 'things'." Kayoko's voice falters as Lilian approaches her, that clenched tension momentarily choking her ability to speak. "A-apologies, Dame Commander, I don't-- understand what you mean. Her body isn't important to me, that was just what Mister Ishirou said was evidence that she wasn't born like a person is. If she was made to look like a person, rather than being born as one, then that's, something I had thought was relevant for how we treated her. I-I don't know exactly what you're referring to being in the Bible or not, but humans can't be perfect, only God can. Th-that's Ecclesiastes 7:20. Is that what you meant?"

Owner

Pose

    --------------------
    'Is that why she seems so empty? Because she's not a real person?'"Chevalier Cobalt." Lilian says, on a working delay, focused on checking her binds and seals. "What exactly does that mean." She glances over her shoulder only for a moment. "You must have put a tremendous amount of thought into the nature of interiority and personhood to have opinions like that at your age. I might even ask to see your notes; you do take notes, don't you?" she says. Satisfied, Lilian steps up and away from Viviane, making the ramrod tension in her back more obvious. "'Empty'. I've been hearing that word and its synonyms a great, lately. I'd find it very useful to know your personal definition of it."'If you want to live, then stop *acting* in a way that makes that *hard*.'

    "Chevalier-- Sometimes it's not that simple. You're used to fighting Temptations, aren't you? Not people. So--" An attempt to sound patient and ameloriating cracks, turns unsteady, and vanishes. A weak stab at smiling parentally doesn't hide her tightly grit Lilian's teeth are.

    'If she *is* a person then that's fine. I don't hate her, I just want to understand why she acts this way. Things that look like people aren't ways really people, like the Temptations, or the evil agents of the Nihil Kingdom that Love was talking about, or conspirators with the Devil. If you let yourself trust them completely then you can't save real people from them.'

    "What are you talking about?" Lilian sighs, hot and rough and bubbling up emotion from the previously dry spring. Her hair tosses over her shoulder as she sharply twists back in exasperation to stare at Kayoko. "What is this? If she's not a person to you, then she's just like those monsters, but you're willing to speak to her? Thank her? You won't hate her like you hate them? What in god's name is a conspirator with the Devil? What do these words even mean? Do you actually know, or are you just blindly copying bits and pieces of sentiments you've heard?" Against her better judgement, Lilian turns all the way around, advancing on Kayoko a short distance.

    "What does this have to do with her body? It's 'too perfect' so she's like a Temptation? Is that what defines the Devil? Evil? That's why she's potentially a 'thing'? You can't possibly be serious. You cannot be about to tell me that only people with a certain type of body are 'people' and not 'things'. That's not in the Bible is it? Tell me I'm mistaken."

Kayoko Kirenai

"I might even ask to see your notes; you do take notes, don't you?"

    Chevalier Cobalt, still armored and talking to Viviane, doesn't respond directly. She would, of course, and the acknowledgement from the Dame Commander is definitely noted even despite Lilian's growing tension, in the way that Kayoko's spine straightens up slightly-- the only reason she doesn't turn towards Lilian to excitedly convey that yes, she does have notes, is to finish her last thoughts to Viviane.

    Thoughts that are, visibly so to anyone who's both paying attention and very familiar with a certain kind of praise-based fervor, spurred on by Lilian's displayed interest.

"What are you talking about?"

    And then it all disintegrates immediately. Being shouted at by the Demon King was one thing, but being shouted by him and *then* by Lilian causes Kayoko to silently freeze in place, rain drumming on her armor. The very slight widening of her eyes and tiny slip of air past her lips are the only outwards signs that she feels like she's been stabbed in the chest, and even those flickers of alarm are wiped away.

    "M-miss Dame Commander. I'm sorry, I just meant..." Chevalier Cobalt very carefully meets Lilian's stare, with her gauntleted hands politely laced together in front of her stomach, the tiny gesture subtlely drawing her shoulders smaller without entirely giving up the posture of her armor. The stiff, back-of-her-throat tension in her voice fades as she catches on to the thread of her explanation, talking a little faster as she does.

    "I wasn't making a claim on whether she was a person or not. Just that, with her vacant expressions and style of speaking, along with what Mister Ishirou said about her being constructed, it might be possible that she isn't as intellectually or morally capable as people are."

    "I don't know for certain either way, and I'm sorry if I made it seem like I did. And I don't know the details of what a homunculus is, so my questions might be off-track, but my-- what I was trying to say was, if her being created by a person meant she lacked the Spirit of Christ within her, so she-- isn't a person."

"You cannot be about to tell me that only people with a certain type of birth-body are 'people' and not 'things'."

    Kayoko's voice falters as Lilian approaches her, that clenched tension momentarily choking her ability to speak. "A-apologies, Dame Commander, I don't-- understand what you mean. Her body isn't important to me, that was just what Mister Ishirou said was evidence that she wasn't born like a person is. If she was made to look like a person, rather than being born as one, then that's, something I had thought was relevant for how we treated her. I-I don't know exactly what you're referring to being in the Bible or not, but humans can't be perfect, only God can. Th-that's Ecclesiastes 7:20. Is that what you meant?"