[CALL | Video | un: monokuma ]

[disjunct]

[ A stuffed animal sits center of the screen.

The room he's in harbors just a chair, and looks isolated enough to be an interrogation room, if not for the dusty slats above him pouring in some light. It's a basement somewhere remote, but nonetheless, he seems to wave at the camera. However, his motor functions seem limited. ]

Hello! Good evening! Good morning! Whichever one you're feeling right now.

[ A slight, curious cock of the head. Once again, the mechanics seem off... and the voice doesn't seem to be coming from the stuffed animal. Someone is speaking for him behind the camera. ]

I think the best way to get to know everybody is to toss out a fun little icebreaker! Lesser-known facts! No one likes being the shut-in at a party. So...

[ "He" clears his throat. ]

Do you know what they did in Paris in the 19th century?
Oh, they definitely painted a lot of paintings and baked a lot of bread. But I mean... for fun?
Back in those days, 'fun' would count a lot on how much money you had. But resourceful Parisians could find it in other ways. For free. There was a once-of-a-lifetime opportunity that anyone in the city could get a ticket punched into! To be the star, or the audience. That's right! I'm talking about...

[ A brief pause. ]


... The morgue!

You see, life was so boring back then that people would line up to walk through the morgue just to see who croaked last night! The more grisly the victim, the more people came to visit!
People were excited to try and recognize the victims! Of course, this was originally just so people had access to claim the deceased, but it was a theater attraction of its own!
Upupupu...! Can you imagine if you didn't have the things you had today, what you'd resort to for fun?
The gawking joy that it brought people... but still, we slow down for car crashes today, don't we?

Hmm...


Do you think humans are really different from back then? From the public executions, to the public display of bodies, to the now?

I wonder about it a lot. I can't say I know for sure, because I am a bear. Would anyone like to try and guess?

Comments

un: attar

[digiorno]

[This is a delightful thing to wake up to. All things considered, though, he's heard worse. At least there's an implicit thesis statement here and not just pointless rambling.]

[Oh, well. He sighs and leans back a little. Better this than talking about Pretty Woman for the seventy-first time.]

Humanity is consistent through time, as is human society. Curiosity leads to great scientific and artistic accomplishments, but also to the exploration of the morbid and horrifying.

Still, you're only discussing half of the issue, don't you think? Like walking around with one eye closed. Certainly people did horrible things back then, and still do, and some of them did those things because they wanted to — because nothing made them happier than other people's misery. But plenty of others did horrible things because they had no choice. Economic unrest and instability have a tendency to choke the lower classes, squeezing the joy and the life out of them until they seek excitement in the only ways they know how. Sometimes those ways are simple schadenfreude.

And yet even from the most basic functions of humanity come great discoveries. For example: I'm sure you've heard of Étienne-Jules Marey? A Frenchman. He perfected — some say invented — the technique of chronophotography, the predecessor of film technology. Which you're using right now to describe how human nature is inherently vulgar and base, and yet in 1882 Marey was hard at work inventing a tool you surely use every day.

I hope you're not comparing yourself to a car crash.

[audio; un: ghostprince]

[shootaro]

No, thanks. I'll take a theater of the macabre instead. [Either one's fine, Parisian (or Kalosian, technically, in his world) or Japanese.
—that was a joke (he sounds entirely too young for that sort of thing) and you can hear the smirk in his voice, there— but the rest of his speech is very gruff.]

If it's just for the thrills, we can get those without hurting anyone for real or disrespecting the dead. That's what fantasy is for, isn't it? That's basic. Humans are resourceful. Even if it's for things like finding a way to enjoy something evil without hurting anybody.

[If you can train a Ghost Type that feeds off human souls to feed just off the dead, indulge its nature within boundaries, without fully rejecting it, then you can certainly do the same for human beings!

... besides, he's had to see a dead human body this past week and honestly? Just one is more than enough to last him a lifetime, that was disgusting and terrifying and he's in zero percent hurry to see anything like that again for as long as he lives, thanks.

(He gets the feeling that's a bit of a naive hope in a place that draws in this many people, but he can't help being a little naive right now.)]

un: amicus

[malignans]

[Anyone with eyes can see that this is not just a bear. Dio might normally gloss over something like this, but it seems there's a point amid the rambling. There's some form of commentary being made on the state of humanity despite its presentation as a question. He doesn't respond, however, for a long time because he's watchful of the conversation between Giorno and this . . . "bear."]

If you would like a simple answer, no. They may dress themselves differently and behave according to societal rules they rewrite every other generation, but their evolution is not so rapid that they've abandoned their desire to live their short, meager little lives.

So long as mortality persists within them as a species, so too will their enjoyment of the macabre, and particularly the suffering of others. But it's of others that remains the most important to them. The moment it intersects with their own lives, it loses its entertainment value because it no longer stands as a testament to their continued existence.

un: galeas

[fivenareff]

I'd be more interested in hearing your thoughts. I can guess, but maybe I'm wrong. Do you think all humans are so petty and eager for violence, or just a portion of them?

video; un: wardenka

[boundinblood]

[Katherine doesn't have any deep philosophical insight to offer yet. No speeches about morbid fascination and its reflection on people. For someone whose biggest dangers boil down to beings imitating humanity's worst, there's something that leaps to mind first:]

...And what are you supposed to be?