Solar Power ༄ Druig

13 • the trolley dilemma

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A verse in the Bible, John 8:32 to be exact, reads as the following: The truth will set you free.

But for it [truth] to allow freedom, one needs to go through a process much like the five stages of grief. At least according to 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.

Schopenhauer's first stage is ridicule. When a new idea or concept is brought up, it's so strange, so otherworldly that it's completely absurd.

"So you're saying we're basically fancy robots?" Kingo asked in disbelief.

"And our past memories are stored somewhere in. . .space."

How can they not be real? Flesh and blood real. Born in a real home kind of real.

In a declining spiral of thoughts, Oriana laughed breathlessly at Kingos recounts of what Sersi's told them. What their superior had told her. A secret that had been kept and erased time and time again from their minds for who knows how long. Since the dawn of time maybe.

People cannot fathom these ideas and how it fits into their lives, so they simply laugh at how impossible it seems.

"We're magical androids," Oriana laughed breathlessly. She knows it's not funny. Sersi had no reason to lie. But what she's suggesting–alleging is spout of the blue.

The second stage is violent opposition.

To recap what Sersi had told them, Kingo asked if their past memories were just stories.

After a new concept hasn't made it past the first stage, people begin to worry that it's here to stay. A few might support the concept, but most will resist because they see it as a threat to everything they're familiar with.

"What about home? Our home. We came from Olympia. We-we-I remember. . ." Does she truly? Oriana doesn't remember a time before Earth, at least not a clear picture. Those memories were hazy and old almost like time itself. Did she have a mother or father? The time before awakening in the Domo is just the knowledge that they were a race called Eternals and came from Olympia. She knows what Olympia looks like, green and gold and deep in space. Neofuturistic.

"It doesn't exist," Sersi told Oriana.

Oriana let out a confused laugh. Her head began to shake and her  finger tangled in her hair, feet up on the chair. "It doesn't exist-doesn't exist."

There is no home to return to. There never was.

It doesn't exist. The only other place that could offer respite and end her turmoil—is not real.

They are not real.

It was all fabricated.

"And Arishem made the Deviants?" Lost in his own shock, Kingo stared at Sersi.

"Yes."

"Then he made us."

"Yes."

This is what Thena had been mumbling about all these years. Their past lives, past fights, past doings. Mahd Wy'ry is the psychological affliction they can suffer from as a result of the vast amount of memories they acquire due to their immortality. Thena was crumbling under the remembrance.