Catch-All for Milla

[specialdog]

Comments

[tothemaxwell]

[...]

What would you have me do?

[specialdog]

Nothing. It's fine for you to carry on how you are.

[tothemaxwell]

[...]

Akane.

I do wish I was able to do more to support you, even through our incompatibility.

[specialdog]

Too bad. I'm not stupid enough to expect you to go against your own morals for someone like me.

You can't always get what you want.

[tothemaxwell]

[Milla blinks, before giving Akane a long, indecipherable look—and nods, slowly.]

Yes.

That is definitely so.

[Akane took the words right out of her mouth.]

[specialdog]

[ . . . ]

Milla, have you gotten any messages from the dead?

[tothemaxwell]

Of a kind.

Were you interested in speaking about this core's apparent goal?

[specialdog]

Yeah, I suppose so. What have you heard?

[tothemaxwell]

That, excepting a case where we are able to find another pathway, then only one of us will be able to make it through this experience.

And that person alone will have the power to rebuild, or change the universe, to their own specifications.

[specialdog]

And what do you think the best thing to do is, knowing that?

[tothemaxwell]

Find another pathway.

[naturally.]

[specialdog]

And how is that going? Do you have even one single lead on how to do that?

[tothemaxwell]

You asked me what I thought was best, Akane.

[specialdog]

And now I'm asking you the next question. How are you planning to actually do it?

You won't change anything without a real plan.

[tothemaxwell]

Correct. But you cannot forge a new path by ignoring the possibility out-of-hand.

What do you think is best?

[specialdog]

I think it's better to actually do something instead of just letting time pass by in the hopes of some miracle third-option coming out of nowhere.

[tothemaxwell]

I am not hoping for an option out of nowhere.

Both possibilities require work, one more than the other, if indeed it exists at all. But I am not dismissing either. Rather, I am working towards effective solutions for both.

What are your plans, Akane?

[specialdog]

My only plans are to keep trying to survive.

And that's going to get harder when everyone's made up their mind about me no matter what I do.

[tothemaxwell]

[hm]

Do you believe that the onus rests solely on the people considering you, and not on yourself?

[specialdog]

I didn't do anything wrong. I told the truth about everything I knew and everyone was mad.

[ Again. ]

[tothemaxwell]

And you don't understand why they were angry.

[It's a statement, not a question.]

[specialdog]

[ She understands, she just hates it. ]

No one wanted to bother treating my delicately like they would anyone else who just lost a friend or a boyfriend. Or both.

People I barely know wanted me to strip for them, and to not complain when I got grabbed by someone who's always mean to me. And, just like I said, I had nothing to show.

Then when I tell the truth about everything I know, I still get yelled at as if I've got some amazing secret I'm keeping. What am I supposed to do, confess to something I didn't do? I've been telling the truth every single stupid trial and I still get treated like a liar.

[tothemaxwell]

[She rolls over several thoughts in her mind, considering Akane's feelings. Nothing she said was... bizarre, per say. Brazen, perhaps, considering. But not out of line. Not even necessarily wrong. But there was something about it.]

Things are not proceeding the way you would prefer them to, and you are powerless to affect them otherwise.

[...

"rewrite you to like me", wasn't it?]

Akane, in your own world—how much power did you hold?

[specialdog]

Didn't I already tell you? I'm a Goddess. I can do anything I want.

[tothemaxwell]

I do not think I quite understood the width and breadth of your abilities before.

Were you born a goddess? Or did you come into your abilities later in life?