”I think… I think if you really want to, you should get a chance to be a better person. Of course, my Mom taught me that, but it doesn’t matter. Do you think even the worst people can change, if they just try?”
welcome to hell you can’t ESCAPE ME avalon ( with love from ren💋 )
pen stills halfway across the page. the halovian doesn't look up — though his jaw works as though wracked by tension, chewing on the words he deems unsuitable to speak. ❝ that would depend. ❞ ink shines wetly on the paper. most often his journal entries comprise summaries of that day's events; things he's learned, observations he's made. anecdotes sunday deems worth preserving. ( perhaps this very conversation will also find itself recorded amid the pages. ) ❝ what exactly is a good person by your definition? ❞
he raises his head, gaze settling upon his companion. his eyes are expectant, yet not unkindly so — twin pools of molten gold tainted by a tiredness that goes beyond the flesh. ❝ is one's morality an immutable fact, or is it decided by matters of circumstance? furthermore, is it ethical to condemn someone for choices made in pursuit of their own survival when their only other option is death? at what point does maintaining hands unsullied by sin supplant the sanctity of life itself? ❞ the questions are as much rhetorical as they aren't; sunday isn't necessarily anticipating an answer — rather, he poses them more as food for thought. something to ponder. he's certainly spent his fair share of time mulling over the very same. ❝ personally speaking, i believe good and evil are too inflexible to categorically sort every single human into one side or the other. real people exist in a wide spectrum of grays — although i'm well aware that opinion on its own isn't particularly groundbreaking. ❞
a soft sigh. the halovian peers down at his own hands, as though taking stock of the innumerable failures that stain them. ❝ we castigate the sinner and exalt the righteous ... while all too easily forgetting the distribution of compassion and consequence is unequal. a reality where humans can be objectively deemed good or evil is something we should strive for — if nothing else, then because it means their evils are wholly their own doing. ❞ that doesn't necessarily mean people are incapable of cruelty, of course. he's witnessed no shortage of indefensible acts with his own eyes — heard tales woven of tragedies that would make even the strongest stomachs turn during his time served as bronze melodia. ( knowing that countless more go unspoken, unheard, unresolved. ) it's painful to think they exist in a cosmos that permits such atrocities to exist.
even now, the weight of so much incalculable suffering weighs on his conscience. a suffocating burden the halovian must bear.
❝ i think everyone should try to be a better person. ❞ sunday finally says, circling back to his companion's original question after what feels like an eternity. ❝ ... even if they fail. ❞