Second 👻 Story [Anonymous Text]

[hashtagafreakingghost]

[For the past few days, all Ashley's done is try to figure out how to get the PokéConnect anonymous. It'd been an idea in the back of her mind for a week or so and then- well, it became an urge and now here she is.]

I need to ask for some advice.
This might also turn out to be a moral question, maybe? I'm playing by ear.

The scenario:
You take part in something careless and thoughtlessly cruel. A tragedy occurs. One that costs lives. You've accidentally hurt a dear, close friend.
That friend then methodically and maliciously plans and carries out revenge that inadvertently puts your life, the lives of your friends, and their own life in danger.
What the hell do you do?
Is it right to be pissed when it's your fault it all happened?
IS it really your fault?
What's worse, a horrible accident or a plot purposely designed to hurt others?
How would you try to move forward?
How would you try to forgive yourself?
Do you deserve to?

Consider this a moral quandary if you will. I'd just really like some advice. Some opinions.

Comments

[crouching_sin]

[Just... sighing on his end.]

Of course not.

Well, in my opinion, you didn't intend to take lives. And am I safe in my assumption that you didn't push someone else to take lives intentionally?

In that case... while you may not be entirely blameless, if it was that one, single incident... you seem to be regretting what happened and don't wish for it to happen in the future. It's not as if you're making a habit of doing that kind of thing. And unless you're something other than a normal human, I don't think that you have the power to go back and erase the past.

[Never mind his own situation, that's different.]

[hashtagafreakingghost]

Of course I didn't! I never wanted anyone to die. It was a horrible accident.

But I've made more mistakes, ones that haven't taken lives but that came close. It's more than a single incident. Does that mean I'm destined to repeat the mistakes I've made?

[crouching_sin]

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone hurts people thoughtlessly, even if they don't mean to. What matters is moving on from that and not making the exact same mistakes that you made in the past.

[hashtagafreakingghost]

I
I suppose
I need to think about this.

[crouching_sin]

You have time, here. We pretty much have nothing but time, save for when people randomly disappear.

[hashtagafreakingghost]

And then I'd have to think about it all over again, right?
Because we don't remember things we learn here.

[crouching_sin]

Well, yes. But it's not like it makes any difference, worrying about the maybe-future you. You have to deal with the you that you have here, now, for the foreseeable future.

[hashtagafreakingghost]

Aren't you worried about that? Why does no one seem to be worried about that? We could learn entirely different things and become entirely different people, and yet the moment we're gone, it's like it never happened.
All the bad will have to happen again.
And all the good from here might as well never have happened.
Everyone who's told me about that uses it as a positive, a plus.
Why?

[crouching_sin]

Because many-worlds theory and the idea of being a different person and also being the same person gives everyone a headache, frankly.

[hashtagafreakingghost]

What does the many-worlds theory have to do with our memories??

[crouching_sin]

Because we're here. Obviously there exists a version of our worlds in which we're here, but if people who come from the same worlds at different times are to be believed, we're also there. So there has to be a version in which we're gone and a version in which we're not, and I wouldn't think that memories would cross between the two.

Alternatively, magic. Which is its own headache.

[hashtagafreakingghost]

I thought it's because everything goes on pause? Like, I assumed, magic.
Because time works differently.
That's what everyone told me. Is that not true?

[crouching_sin]

Maybe? Atsuro was from a world where things went differently than what I remember.

[hashtagafreakingghost]

Someone you knew?
I don't know. Maybe that is how it works. But others have told me otherwise, and that's how I'm going to continue believing it, because it makes more sense to me.
Though I continue to take issue with the fact that we will supposedly forget everything. I guess that's a worry for another day, though I'll doubtlessly think about it sooner than I'd like.

[crouching_sin]

Yes. he was my student.

That's possible. Honestly, we have little way of knowing at this point, so it's something that I don't spend a great deal of time worrying about.

[hashtagafreakingghost]

That sounds like a quaint idea, to just not worry.

[crouching_sin]

I have bigger things to worry about. But that's a personal matter.