tushanshu | [Console/Video]

[Genis is feeling all out of sorts. Yes, he'd been told that this massive headache and otherwise feeling completely lethargic and terrible would be gone by tomorrow, and so he would have considered putting this out there until then, but someone had told him that he looked somewhat familiar, that there was some older girl with the same hair colour. And while there were possibly a zillion people in all the infinite worlds out there that he didn't yet know about that had elder girls with a silver-white hair, the description sounded like a shoe-in for Raine. He had to make the post.

[But Genis looks just... terrible. He's tired and just feels just empty, not to mention hungry. You'll see a 12 year old's face just looking like he could use a really really nice sleep. And as a result, he's not afraid to be cranky. Granted, he's always unafraid to be cranky, but that's his excuse at the moment.]

I really hate to gripe about this first thing, but come on. I come straight from one world where I'm hated just for being a half-elf, and now I'm in a world where I'm hated just because I'm not from around here? Greeeeeat. You know, I'm beginning to wonder if there even is a world out there where people don't discriminate against other people for completely stupid reasons.

I mean, what'd you guys even do to the kedan anyway? Did you go out and kidnap everyone's kids or something? Because if it wasn't as big as something like that, I don't know what you could have possibly done to get them to hate you so badly.

[He says this with the most deadpan delivery ever. He then just shakes his head as if just in disbelief that he's already stuck in a world worse than the one he'd just left.]

Okay, at any rate, I don't know who exactly is out there listening to this, but... hey. I'm Genis Sage. I don't suppose any of you know someone named Raine, would you? Anyway, as for me, I guess I'm just a student at the moment, though I really haven't been attending school for a while since I've been travelling around my world for the past while with my sister and my friends. Despite that, I could probably still graduate at the top of my class even without having been diligent on all my homework last year. [He says this with a remarkable amount of pride despite his general malaise of feeling empty and tired.]

Anyway, I'd say that I'm looking forward to meeting all of you soon, but right now I'm much more interested in waiting for this massive headache to go away first. Though I'm told that's supposed to go away tomorrow, so that's one thing going my way.

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Well, it's not like different races—or even species—need to have their own individual sovereignty just to live life.

[Genis is pretty convinced on this point.]

I mean, my world pretty much wanted each race to live by themselves and keep to themselves, and it just made things absolutely terrible. People should be able to live together in harmony without being looked at terribly.

[Genis just frowns at the last bit.]

Well, it was more a trap to bait us into coming after her, you know, to try to get rid of us. I think we'd proven ourselves to be quite a thorn in Cruxis' side by that point.

[That gets a skeptical eyebrow raised in Genis's direction. Especially as he mentions the idea of living in harmony. That, to Enjolras, is what is ensured by sovereignty. ]

Do they not? I would contend that it begins with sovereignty, with the recognition that everyone has it over himself, and it is with that, that one can start to forge a social knot, a sort of social contract, if you will, that acknowledges the equality of everyone. There is a bit of compromise needed to start, of course, but one gives up the smaller concerns for the good of the whole. Ideally at least, in the sorts of worlds that I have known.

[Go on, Rousseau... Or not. preferably not.]

To live apart from each other completely? That is quite an example of where an acknowledgement of it is needed. Not the sort of sovereignty that means one rules over another, but that he rules over himself, and is equal to all the rest. Living nearly apart...that does sound terrible. Harmony for all is a noble goal. One that I hope may be found somewhere, someday. I saw a world like that, before my death, the world reborn, my own country having completed what was started long ago, to create such a place.

[There's a far away look in his eyes for a moment, rather reverent, almost, as though he's seeing that other world rising up in front of him from here, instead of from a barricade. And then he's pausing, flushing as he realizes what he's doing midway through.]

Ah, sorry. I did not mean to...that. But I agree that harmony of all must come along for the world to change. That does not seem to have changed between the universes as I've come to understand a few so far.

[It's almost better to slip into another topic after...That. ]

Ah, bait. I was once pressed to do the same, to keep a hostage as either bait or as a bargaining tool. And have had the tactic turned on myself and my men. It certainly is most effective, I would say.

But then, you were experienced already? What else had you done so far?

[Yeah, forgive the little guy if he pretty much gets bored of French Revolutionary sociology. Or at least tired of things that sound nice that don't really get put into action.]

That sounds nice and all, but when humans occupy pretty much the whole land, and elves occupy just about everything else, there's not exactly room for a half-elf nation. And since neither the humans or the elves really want half-elves around, what else are we supposed to do? You can't make a new nation. And you can't live in the existing ones. The whole system is messed up. And in Tethe'alla, that sort of discrimination was actively promoted by the sovereign king. The only answer is to do away with all of that stuff.

[Sigh. He doesn't even realise that he's probably more on point with Enjolras than he realises.]

Well, we'd blown up a couple of the Desians' human ranches, and we'd managed to cross over into the other world and irritate the Papal Knights of the Church of Martel, all of which were really the same organisation under the covers.

[Fair enough. Enjolras can't blame him for that, and instead listens to what Genis mentions about his home, nodding seriously as he speaks.]

I spoke too soon and made assumptions based on what I know. I do apologize for that. Your home seems, well, unfair to say the least of it. A ruler such as yours...no I agree, doing away with it, trying to make something better only sounds right. A messed up system indeed. No one ought to live like that.

[Rather more than it initially sounded, yes.]

Crossing over into another world though? [This gets him a raised eyebrow.] The only time I knew that it was possible was here. But you are well accustomed to that sort of thing?

To say I'm "well accustomed" to that is a bit of an overstatement, really. Let's just say I didn't even know there was another world until a few months ago.

I guess you could say that my world got split into two halves a long time ago. And each half forgot that the other half existed. And so yeah, once we discovered the Rheiards, we could travel between those two pretty easily.

Ah, so something a bit more like...'having vague experience with it', shall we say?

[And there's a wry smile on his face at that.]

That is remarkable, truly. To forget completely... well, it must be quite the world.

Well, we travelled between the two worlds enough times. But it's not like we're interstellar travellers or anything.

[He'd prefer it if you cast that in a slightly better light, Enjolras.]

Well, it happened something like four millennia ago. It's not like it's trying to remember what you had for breakfast yesterday. I mean, do you know what happened in your world 4,000 years ago?

Fair enough, when you put it that way, and well outside the scope of our human lifetimes, certainly. Why, that must be the age of the ancients, at least. Certainly before France was France, if the world was even turning, then. It does make so much more sense from that other perspective.

Exactly. Even some of the oldest ruins we found didn't exactly hint to us that there was another world, that's how old it was. Well, maybe there were hints looking back, but nothing that was extremely obvious.

[There's a pause as Enjolras takes this in, as a concept, really takes it in. It's fascinating and it's strange. He's often viewed the past as another metaphorical world, but this is far from that and he knows it. Suddenly, he's pausing, laughing a bit as something comes to him, a quote, English though it is, that he's associated with a few of his friends in particular.]

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy...

[The words are quiet, reverent for a moment, really, as he shuts his eyes to take them in, then opens them, looking to Genis again.]

I apologize, I had a bit of a moment. But I can see, now, where it might occur, or at least, I can a little.

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