47th Transformation [ANONYMOUS text | action for Mahogany]

[exeggutorhead]

[There's an anonymous message popping up on the network this afternoon. And I do mean anonymous; Envy has made as sure as he possibly can that nobody would be able to trace this question back to his Gear ID.]

What does it mean for someone to have a soul? In your world or in your religion or whatever you think. What does having one give you, or not having one keep you from doing?

how can you even tell if you have one?

[It'll be a little while before Envy actually responds to any answers, because two seconds after he hits 'send' and realizes what he's done, he chucks the 'Gear clear across his hotel room. Miraculously, it doesn't break the machine entirely, even if the screen gets cracked all to hell. He can't believe he even thought to ask something like that, much less actually went through with it. Since when did he start turning into Lust and asking ridiculous philosophical questions about the nature of existence? That's something he's always just rolled his eyes at and halfway tolerated, why does he feel the need to ask things like this now?]

[But this is a question that's bothered him for more than a year now, ever since he took that brief trip back to Amestris. Does he have a soul after all? And what the hell is he supposed to do with the thing if he does? Mostly he ignores it, leaves it alone as a doubt in the very back of his mind. But then during the last crazy weekend, Heather had been sure he had one, had brought that question back to the forefront. It's been months since then, and he still can't shake it off. And if he has to ask stupid questions to the network in his weakness, then...maybe the answers will let him push this back down into something he can manage.]

Comments

[Counter-anon! Text, filtered.]

[firstnothing]

A soul is the body's motivating force. What keeps it alive, what drives it to keep living. If a thing has a wish to live and actively pursues that goal, then chances are astronomically high it has a soul.

[permanon text, filtered]

[exeggutorhead]

Interesting, so nothing to do with emotions or any of that? Just the will to live?

[islandshore]

I guess that all depends on what you mean by a soul. I'm not exactly an expert on that kind of thing, but I always figured souls were like... spirits, I guess. The essence of who you are. Or maybe just life force.

When I think of something soulless, I picture something that just acts without reason. Something cold and apathetic. But again, that really depends on the definition you're going with.

[text | permanon]

[exeggutorhead]

If I was sure of my definition, I wouldn't have had to ask everyone, would I?

The essence of who you are...that sound closest, though. What do you mean by acting without reason? That sounds more to do with the mind than the soul.

Text!

[itsjustdust]

A soul is the part that makes a person that person. Their mind holds their memories, and their body is a vessel, but when you die, your soul moves on, or doesn't, depending on what you've done or if you've dipped into forbidden jutsu.

[Text | permanon]

[exeggutorhead]

[...sparkle...text...he hasn't talked to Obito through text in long enough that he'd somehow forgotten the sparkles.]

You're going to have to tell me what the hell a forbidden jutsu is. Something that damages someone's soul?

[text]

[explosivecombat]

Dealing with the soul itself has never really been my area of expertise, unfortunately, but I have a fair amount of experience with them. As far as I'm aware, the soul is tantamount to one's consciousness as well as their life force - that which one cannot exist without, because without it there would be no "one" to exist.

Where I'm from, there are technically soulless beings, but they aren't alive in any sense of the word; they remain "dead" or suspended until there's some sort of soul put into them. However, the soul that's put into them wouldn't technically be theirs, I think - I may be wrong on this so don't quote me, but I think that it would just be shoving someone else's consciousness into a different body or container. The container, then, couldn't really be said to have a soul of its own; the soul would still belong to...well, whomever it belonged to before they were put into this new container of theirs.

I think that the best way to judge whether you have one or not would probably be determining whether you have both 1) your own consciousness and sense of self-awareness, and 2) your own personality, distinct from those around you.

[text | anon]

[exeggutorhead]

So souls in your world are tangible enough to take hold of and move to other bodies?

[Yeah, he knows that already, but he'd really rather not hold up a neon sign saying HELLO I AM ALSO FROM AMESTRIS by acting unsurprised about it.]

And would the soul transplanted into the soulless body take over that body with its own individual personality, leaving the original body in that kind of suspended animation? Or dead, I guess is more likely.

Pull that off right, and someone could live forever.

[text that is the opposite of anon because she fails at such things]

[easy_as_cake]

A soul is just energy. The animating force, I think they used to call it. If you're alive, you have one. I've met all kinds of different races of aliens on all kinds of planets, even machines, and I'd say every one of them had a soul.

Think of it this way. The universe had the big bang, right? A spark that started everything and without which nothing would exist. For living things, that's your soul. The moment you came into existence and became you, you proved you had one.

[text | permanon]

[exeggutorhead]

So, what, even a plant would have one?

I'm not exactly alive, though. Or at least, I wasn't back home.

voice; he doesn't do anon

[heartdive]

If a soul is what makes you, you, then I think it's pretty close to what the worlds I come from call a "heart."

People without hearts have memories of the people that they were, but they don't really feel anything. It's like they're just pretending. But I've learned that even people without them can get them back eventually.

You probably don't even really realize when it starts to grow back - or grow at all. It just does, slowly. Then before you know it, you're not just acting on memories anymore - it's genuine.

[text | anon]

[exeggutorhead]

In my world, most people think you either have one or you don't, and getting a soul when you didn't have one before would be nearly impossible.

What would get the hearts to start growing back? Something specific, or is it just by chance? And what did you mean by the people they were before?

Video

[redenzione]

This is more a question to be answered by a scholar than a soldier, but I speak from experience that a soul is your immortal body; long after the flesh has gone cold and started to rot, your soul will eternally exist. All mortals have a soul, but I do not know if it is possible for a man to be born without one.

[text | permanon]

[exeggutorhead]

What about someone who isn't exactly mortal or a human, and wasn't born in the same way?

[Not anon because Heather doesn't afraid of anything]

[foolishwren]

do you think and feel stuff?


congrats you've got a soul

[text | anon because Envy is ridiculous]

[exeggutorhead]

Okay, so thinking and feeling means soul.

So new question. What the hell do you do with a soul when you've got one?

[Because he's metaphorically holding his increasingly-convinced-it-really-has-been-there-all-along soul as though it's simultaneously a priceless porcelain vase and a nest of angry hornets. This whole soul business was much easier when he thought he didn't have one, or could write off having emotions as a Johto-only thing.]

[text]

[beholdmydemons]

[wh

okay what the hell is this even supposed to mean, and are these not-gauntlet things just not used for normal communications or...what]

You've feeling enough to write this, haven't you? Why would you think you haven't got a soul?

[He didn't even really pay attention in church and he knows that much. That's like asking what color the sky is.

(ps it's blue you moron)]

[text | anon]

[exeggutorhead]

There are a lot of reasons why. Besides, I'm pretty sure I have one here. It's back in my world I don't know about.

And you didn't answer the actual question. What do you think a soul is?

[Envy's gameplan in any given situation: when in doubt, distract distract distract.]

[text]

[soundmind]

Your soul is you. I don't think it's that hard to get.

As for how you know if you have one, the fact that you're thinking about whether or not you have a soul is enough to say that you do in my world.

[text]

[exeggutorhead]

Yeah, maybe it's easy for you if you've always known you had one.

So what you're saying is that a soul is self-awareness?

[text]

[pinnedbangs]

[Oh boy. He doesn't remember those old lectures word-for-word, but he can give the Okumura Abridged Version.]

You can't tell if you have one. It's just there. Think of it like a passport you gotta take care of. You're born, you get a soul that supposed to be free of sin, then you die. And go on to heaven, if you took care of it.

Not having one just means you're not alive. Everything has a soul.

[text | anon forever]

[exeggutorhead]

In my world a soul is something that can be measured, usually.

So how do you take care of a soul? Not sinning?

Text; unanon

[handydecisions]

If you're aware enough to wonder, that means you've got one. Your soul's what makes you a person, and it's something that keeps going even after your body quits. It doesn't give you anything, it's just you.

I've seen what happens when there's a body left but no soul, and [there's a brief pause.] it's something nobody deserves.

Text; anon forever

[exeggutorhead]

That is something it gives you, then. It gives you a self.

How does a body with no soul happen, in your world?

[Since before he came to Johto Envy considered himself a body with no soul, he's especially curious about that.]

[action]

[no_ufo_ending]

<sub>[Out and about, Townshend is just trying to enjoy a quiet walk. Boo, his Litwick, sits on his shoulder and babbles happily with a drinking straw in her nubby little hands.]

[It doesn't take him long to find his favorite palm-tree headed friend! And he...doesn't look happy. 8c]

[Henry decides to investigate the best way he knows how which is to advance toward Envy with his arms straight up in the air.]</sub>

Envvyyyy-y-y-y.

[action]

[exeggutorhead]

[No, this palmtree head is not happy. He's been answering the replies to his question, and now he's out trying to get his head straight about all of it.]

[...and get his 'Gear screen repaired at the Center, that too.]

[He looks up automatically when he hears his name, and then stares. Hen...ry...]

Yyyyesss?

[On a normal day he might have put his arms up in the air too because playing along yes let's do this, but today is not a normal day.]

[Anon Text, but not nearly as well anonified]

[francia]

[France is taking a break at work when this message comes up on the 'Gear feed. The Mahogany Inn Kitchen isn't one of the bigger or busiest places he's worked at in Johto or Kanto, so he's able to take his time with constructing his comment.]

To have a soul means that there is an aspect of a being that is able to transcend the physicality of the body, that isn't bound by the body's basic needs. There's a lot of theological arguments across religions in my world about the nature of the soul and whether those besides humans have them. I personally think that it is your soul, since it is what survives the body, that allows you entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whether or not I myself have a soul is a question that has never been answered, and, since I cannot tell definitely what a soul looks or feels like, I don't know how to tell if you have one or not.

[anon text]

[exeggutorhead]

Well, you're the first person to respond who hasn't been sure of their soul either.

I'm not so sure about whether that whole surviving the body thing has much to do with me. Or maybe it does, it gets complicated there. What about emotions, do you think having a soul has an impact on whether you can feel those or not?

[That's one of those things he's been getting a few mixed answers about. And if this other person isn't sure either, Envy is especially curious about the answer.]

[fabricatedheart]

[A few hours pass between Envy's message and Mary's reply. Seems like this little girl's given the subject some thought.]

is a soul like a heart?

[anon text]

[exeggutorhead]

That depends on what you think a heart is. In my world it's just an organ that pumps blood.