D: The relentless pursuit of a goal or just weakness and escapism?
[2186 Words]
This chapter is written, Proof read and edited by me, Your only god and savior
{Lustful_Death}
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
❞𝕂𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕠𝕗 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕨𝕚𝕤𝕕𝕠𝕞.❞
-Aristotle.
After GLaDOS left I put up a different barrier around the crater, This barrier would serve as camouflage, Now instead of seeing a large crater with snow coming down on it, One could only see a grassy plain completely conforming with the rest of the environment.
The cold temperature from the snow could still be felt but that wasn't of any concern. The aim was to hide from anyone far away in order to avoid the intrusion of large organized groups.
As for solitary visitors, A single snowflake is all that's needed to kill anyone.
This wasn't just any snow, It is snow inspired by the tree's flames, But instead of using people's vitality as fuel to burn this snow used their own MA energy to freeze them.
This snow which is formed out of my MA energy which when in contact with any being that has MA energy would turn their MA energy against them, Forcefully turning it to mine and freezing them with ice made of their own MA energy turned to mine.
It is however harmless to me and anything that doesn't have MA energy in it. Infact even if someone had MA energy as long as they were fully wrapped under let's say, A thick armor with no gaps then they would be unharmed unharmed.
Of course moving with an armour with no gaps is impossible as those are needed for the joints, So if you want the escape death in an icy prison you must live in a prison of your own making.
The snow was set to evaporate and move back up to the dark clouds above every so often ensuring an endless snow fall without any more MA energy expenditure.
This move allows me to not only not lose any MA energy as all of it could be absorbed back with ease but I could even use it to gather the MA energy of other creatures resulting in gaining more MA energy.
This is a move that I came up with in a few seconds, My genius is sometimes almost frightening.
'Right, Time to get to work', I thought as two almost exact copies of myself formed, They both looked identical to me other then their eye colors, One had orange eyes while the other had yellow eyes.
"Right, It's time to decide what I'll have to cut away and what I'll keep-", I said before the me with orange eyes raised his hand and interrupted me.
"Why are we in physical form though? We could have this debate in our head why the physical representation?", Said orange D.
[A/N: From here on out it'll be written in 3rd person pov since my brain will short circuit if I try to write it in first person. I'll be referring to them as simply Yellow D, Orange D and red D.]
"I think giving a body to each voice is a wonderful idea.", Yellow D expressed.
"Exactly, And spoken language is not the only language, In a debate body language can be instrumental to getting your point across.", Red D said.
"Ok then but we should also use a barrier so that our conversation doesn't leak out.", Orange D suggested.
"That feature is already incorporated in the large barrier covering the entire crater.", Yellow D said while pointing at the barrier.
"I know, But I think we should add another smaller one covering us just in case. We can't be too cautious.", Orange D reminded.
"I agree. Any objections?", Red D said while looking at yellow D.
"None.", Yellow D said.
An orange dome like barrier with many complex patterns and symbols appeared briefly before fading into invisibility.
"That should be enough warm up now, Should we start?", Red D proposed.
The small argument they had before was mainly done as a warm up to see how their debates would go.
One side would propose something and all three sides would debate over the proposition. Only when the the proposition is approved or denied by all three sides would they move onto the next.
"Our First subject of discussion is Eva, I propose we keep our current attitude of her.", Orange D proposed.
"I agree", Red D agreed.
"Well I also mostly agree but I think we should consider all angles before moving on with a decision. Changing our decision will be impossible after it has been made.", Yellow D pointed out.
"I understand what you mean and I completely agree, However Eva's case is a complete no brainer. As the statistics have shown there has been a general improvement in our rate of focus after we killed her. She was a distraction, And that is only further proven after our spike in empathy after we absorbed Maxine. The statistics have shown that there is a correlation between our care for Eva and the amount of focus we have towards moving towards our goal. The more we care about her and spend time thinking about her the less time we are using on improving ourselves.", Orange D said.
"Right, But what if cutting away such an important piece of Danielle has unforseen consequences in the future. The more human emotions we lose, The less we understand humans and the harder it would be for us to make use of humans.", Yellow D said.
"Oh please. Even if we did lose the ability to understand humans which is a preposterous claim, Even if we couldn't understand humans it would only be in the sense of not being able to put ourselves in their shoes which might I remind you is only something we've managed to do in the last five years of our 56 year long life. We already understand souls like the back of our palms, What use would we have for understanding humans any further anyway. Keeping our old feelings for Eva will only do more harm then good, Just a 1% drop in our efficiency over a period of one decade would result in a massive loss of potential gains in power.", Orange D argued.
"Hmm, Well you certainly bring up a good point.", Yellow D admitted.
"All in favor of keeping our current attitude of Eva". Red D asked.
"Ay", Orange D.
"Ay", Yellow D.
"Ay", Red D.
"Proposal approved. For our next subject I propose we cut down on Danielle's impulsive and reckless behavior when not pursuing our goal.", Red D proposed.
"I don't know what you are referring to, Danielle has never done anything that he hasn't judged to be necessary to further his interests.", Yellow D said.
"What about what happened in Detroit become human?", Orange D pointed out.
"He did many things in that world, Which one are you referring to exactly?", Yellow D asked.
"The almost complete extinction event at the end.", Red D.
"That allowed Danielle to discover that he didn't enjoy mass genocide on the scale of tens of trillions. Like lord Stalin said: The death of ten people is a party, The death of ten billion is a statistic. Although killing so many people to understand that basis admittedly caused us a bit of an issue, Gaining a more thorough understanding of himself is very important.", Yellow D rationalized.
"A bit of an issue? Because he killed so many everytime we go into a new world it and it's inhabitance try to rip us to shreds because we are carrying around the equivalent of a giant neon sign on our heads that says: Evil crazy world ender. You do realize that in our current condition if we tried to cross over to a new world and it just so happened to be a low MA energy world our spirit body would be instantly ripped to shreds and our soul sent into a coma and deconstructed by the hostile environment. You call that a bit of an issue?" Orange D asked.
"But he has learned from his mistake, He has matured and become more grounded, Cutting away more of his "recklessness" will just be defanging him.", Yellow D claimed.
"Even idiots learn from their mistakes, The wise learn from history.", Orange D said.
"I agree, Danielle's lack of foresight has already proven to be detrimental to us, Because of his actions we will always be hated and considered enemies anywhere we go in the future. If we didn't reek of the grudges and hatred of trillions of life-forms formed upon their death beds and if you have forgotten then let me refresh you on the fact that a worlds consciousness is formed of the amalgamation of all consciousnesses that had ever lived on the world, Sure killing a few doesn't cause any trouble nor does it even draw the world consciousnesses attention, But exterminating trillions and crippling the habitability of the world for years is definitely worthy of the strong hatred of the world consciousness and guess what, Other world consciousnesses can sense that hatred and seek to exterminate the hated, Because anyone who managed to get a world itself to hate them is dangerous.", Red D.
"...Oh....I see what's going on here.", Yellow D said with a smirk. The first facial expression since D woke up.
"Care to enlighten us?", Orange D said with a raised eye brow, His facial expression seeming like a taunt and a provocation.
"What you're essentially trying to do is systematically eliminate all aspects of Danielle that aren't D. Slowly snipping off parts of him bit by bit until all that's left is the pursuit of power.", Yellow D.
"What we are trying to do is remove the apples that poison the batch and just weigh down the crate.", Orange D.
"D is part of Danielle, Whenever Danielle is in a state of pursuing power then he is D. That's what D is, The endless and relentless pursuit of a goal. Be it power, Happiness, Misery, Death, Life or anything. Anyone who never gives up on what they are pursuing is D.", Red D said.
"Aww~ how romantic. I'm impressed, You're so good at double speech you even almost managed to fool yourself, 𝘈𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵. Because you can't fool me, And I am you. Why don't you just say it how it really is. You don't call cannibalism protein relocation so why use double speak when it comes to this.", Yellow D said with a predatory smirk.
"Just get to the point.", Orange D drawled.
"My point is that D isn't some symbol of perseverance and dedication. D is a symbol of human weakness, Of the need for a goal and meaning to life because giving yourself a goal makes life bearable. It's a distraction from the suffering that is a byproduct of life's inherent nature and meaninglessness. Humans make their suffering bearable through what they believe is meaningful struggle. It is the greatest and most basic form of escapism, One that is rooted at the very core of every human. Danielle wanted a goal that he could pursue forever and convinced himself to do anything for it in order to give meaning to his life, It was escapism, And you by trying to reduce Danielle into nothing but his goal are engaging in the greatest form of escapism, Abandoning one's self completely for an ideal. You're 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬 not brave, Admirable or persevering. Danielle is weak and D is a product of weakness.", Yellow D said.
"So, What are you suggesting? That we remove our need for purpose and meaning.", Red D.
"No. At least not now. The current us that evolved through the influence of other people's natures and personalities and through the endless repetitive watching of our very short life until all that remained was "cold logic" is unqualified to decide, Once we reach this age naturally and through our own new experiences I'm sure we'll arrive at the answer then, We already did it once, We can do it again. I suggest we do what we set out to do, Trim out the fat. We'll delete all feelings, Emotions and preconceptions that aren't ours. That we gained through absorbing others. Maxine, La and the spider, We'll turn their memories into simple and raw information, All of it.", Yellow D.
Everyone was silent for a few minutes.
"All in favor of the suggestion."
"Ay", Yellow D affirmed with a stern face.
"Ay", Red D affirmed with a neutral face.
"....hahh Ay", Orange D affirmed after a sigh at the 700,000 years of wasted time.
"Then it's decided, All sentiments, Feelings and emotions about memories not experienced by Danielle personally will be removed including the ones amassed by us through watching our memories. Any objections?", Red D.
"Nay", Yellow D.
"Nay", Orange D.
"Nay", Red D.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Welp that's the end of this chapter. Before you start bitching about the loss of opportunity for character development just wait until future chapters, In the future we will be seeing what's in my opinion a pure and unfiltered D, One more fully accepting of his weaknesses and humanity.