[Console] (Video) ❅ The Fourth

[stonebird]

(Despite using the console in the Hotel's lobby, Alayne has made herself as comfortable as she would be in her room. She is sitting at a table with pieces of paper placed around her. Three drawings are easily visible: one is a large wolf, another is an equally large hound with a deformed (or injured) face and the last is a bird in a cage. She moves her pencil over the sketch of the bird, adding shadows.)

Choose an animal for yourself. Then think of the animal others would choose for you.

Are they the same?

(She switches to the sketch of the wolf, adding shading there - particularly around its neck.)

If not, why?

(Also, thanks to her lacking her hair dye, the whole of Tu Shanshu can now see that her hair is auburn.)

Comments

[solo_patria]

[They spoke once before, Enjolras thinks, recognizing Alayne's face, though the hair is now different, and suits her all the better, he decides, though he is much more interested in the question, really.]

I am not so sure anymore. I suspect my animal may have changed after some time, and new perspectives, here.

[stonebird]

(Tu Shanshu is a much safer environment than the one she left behind. She panicked when she knew her hair was changing back, but now... It's almost like Sansa and Alayne have fused. She's no longer running and hiding, though she doubts she will ever lose her wariness.)

Even your core self has changed? (There are parts that don't - can't - change.)

[solo_patria]

A little, I think. There are parts of me that have...

[What HAVE they done, exactly? Enjolras is pausing to consider.]

They've been re-shaped, perhaps. Changed. I hope for the better, now

[stonebird]

So it is a good shift? (There is some relief in that.) Do you believe someone can be changed for the worse? Without hope for redemption?

[solo_patria]

A good shift, yes. [A less...severe one, anyway. As for the second question, Enjolras is caused to ponder. Surely he's seen it happen but...]

Changed for the worse, yes, but redemption is a strange thing. Beyond what I think humans are capable of knowing sometimes.

[Grantaire, he thinks, smiling a little. Even if Grantaire's reasons for redemption seemed...strange to him, it was an unexpected, and largely unexplained thing.]

I've seen a man who grew worse, over the years, suddenly redeemed at the last seconds of his life. Something other than mortal knowledge brought it about, I'm fairly certain.

[stonebird]

In your eyes, redemption isn't something you can obtain for yourself? Rather it is given by a greater power? For what reason?

(Is it given on a whim? Then why seek it at all?)

Why do people keep searching for it?

[solo_patria]

In the cases I've seen, some greater power seemed to be in use. Perhaps not everyone has known things in that way. I think that we can EARN redemption but we get it from...

[He's becoming rather serious, his brow furrowing.]

The universe, perhaps. I won't say any potential gods. I am not so sure of those now, but there IS something at work to grant it. I suppose too, the deeds to set it apart need not always be big ones. Enough to show that man cares for another, maybe?

...Because we all of us feel flawed, somewhere, deep down. Redemption takes that away.