savetheearth | Entry #A-4: "Ante" [February 21, Text]

Entry #A-4: "Ante" [February 21, Text]

Though the police and the Blood Keys obviously represent a threat to many numbered individuals, I have a question about organized religion, and what pulses might mean when framed within certain philosophical contexts. No matter how natural it might feel, if there really is another being nudging its way into an existing consciousness, changing a person's aptitudes, physical attributes and even their personality... there have to be at least a few churches that would consider that demonic possession, right? Has anyone tried to reconcile what's happening with influential religious practices, and do we have any resources for assisting anyone who might wind up the subject of an attempted exorcism? Those still happen today, they can be extremely dangerous, and I'm concerned about the possibility of frightened numbered people seeking out such assistance, or being subjected to it by their families and communities. Thinking you're crazy is one thing, but sincerely believing that the devil is wielding you as an instrument is another entirely. Probably not something that the FAQ page can successfully assuage, for the most tenaciously convinced.

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Many aren't, in fact, and for these types it's obviously not an issue. However, for those who do practice seriously, or children who still implicitly trust their parents, my firm stance is that this should at least be considered.

If it gets to that point when religious idiots appear to brain wash us, we better make sure they can't find us.

The worst problem is, inevitably, the one that wasn't considered or adequately prepared for. I don't pretend to know how much of a threat this would be... just that it's a possibility that many haven't thought of.

Some of us might actually become worshiped by cults too, if you're thinking on religious things on a whole. But yeah, it's just like everything else - we'll have a better idea on how to plan for it once we get a starting point.

That's a definite possibility, and perhaps even a dangerous one. I can't help but wonder what kind of effect worship would have on a person's psyche. You wouldn't happen to speak from experience at all, mentioning such a thing, would you?

No, I wouldn't. I come from a Buddhist background and we also keep our elders in high regard even when they have left this world.

Not quite what I meant... I suppose I thought that since you're a musician, you might have enthusiastic fans. But I don't even know your name, so I don't know if you're famous or not.

Oh, fangirls, people calling me their god and stuff like that? Nah, I don't have that sort of thing going on. I just play with my mother and sometimes write stuff for friends, nothing huge like you might think.

Your mother? So she's a musician too?

She is. She met father at some kind of benefit that she played for and it was a kind of storybook romance the way they talk about it.

I like storybook romances, even if I can't write them to save my life.

Eyes meeting across the room, whirlwind romance, marrying while the parents were still arguing over who is doing what to their futures.

In Locke City?

Nah, they were both in Japan at the time.

Is that where you were born?

Yes. Mother decided to stay with father there instead of travel between the two countries all the time, but she felt that us kids should at least know our family in this country. We used to visit when we were kids; spend the summer and that sort of thing.

I've never been to Japan, but I heard my grandfather was from that country. Don't you visit anymore?

Actually ever since this stuff started, this is the longest I've been in America since school. I usually end up back in Japan for one reason or another, but now... I don't want to leave people in a lurch by being gone.

There's no record at all of anyone retaining their memories of pulses outside of Locke City, at all?

You leave the city, you lose the pulses. No one has said otherwise.

I still don't know your name. Or any kind of stand-in you'd prefer to use by proxy on the network.

I've been called Sundance.

Your choice, or someone else's?

Someone else. The last nickname I've had wasn't a nice one during my school days and it's in Japanese so don't think it'll work too well for English speakers.

Isn't that the way of it, though? Nicknames are seldom intended to be kind. What was the nickname?

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