video / action

[stillsmiling]

 [video]

Good afternoon, everyone. It's me, um... Shi. I hope I'm not interrupting anyone..?

I've been working at the Genessia shrine lately, and it's had me wondering... What kinds of things do you expect from shrines in your worlds? I realize I've been doing my best to maintain the shrine like I would back home, but that's kind of ignorant... The shrine is empty and sad a lot, so I want to bring more people here. The poor spirits will get lonely...

What kinds of spirits does everyone have back home, too? Is there anything I should do for them here? I want to do the best job I can, so... 

[action: Genessia Shrine]

[During the day, Shi is cleaning up the shrine. It's cold work in the winter, but he doesn't want the shrine to get wet and soggy when the snow melts. Anyone who visits will find this chipper teen spinning around to face them, work paused so he can smile in greeting.]

Welcome to the shrine! Can I help you?

Comments

[youfool]

They're...mm. Very faint; their duties seem to weigh heavily on them, to the point where all the other niceties of personality, if there are any, are muted. They're...honorable, perhaps. Conscientious. Interested in our development and character, I suppose.

Heh, go on, finish the thought. Wonder what?

[stillsmiling]

Oh...? OH.

Just that, uh! It's awful of me to say, but if I'm taking care of the spirits and they're trapping us here... Am I doing a bad thing?

[youfool]

Well, I don't know that you are taking care of them, directly. As I said they're very scarce. For another, while "kidnapping" is the popular assumption, it remains an assumption. Perhaps a flippant one. We don't really know how they brought us here; goodness, if it comes to that, it's not entirely certain what we are!

[He sounds more cheerily exclamatory than nervous about their questionable existence.]

So we don't quite know what they've done or why.

[Well Ted kinda knows but it's not the most actionable knowledge.]

But even if kidnapping is a perfect description, well, it's hasty to assume that treating one's kidnapper well is necessarily an immoral act. I doubt abusing them would be any better.