exeggutorhead | 47th Transformation [ANONYMOUS text

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47th Transformation [ANONYMOUS text | action for Mahogany]

[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.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Yes. Should the seat of emotions be removed, which also houses one's personality and memories, the soul can take over and continue to run a being as a living thing without feelings at all, though the memories are often kept. It is a very flexible thing, a soul.

If you are questioning whether or not you possess one, given your capacity to ask if you have one and what I assume is decidedly not a suicidal nature, you do have a soul.

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.

[...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?

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

So, what, even a plant would have one?

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

Heh, fair enough.

I guess I should've phrased that better. When I say acting without reason I mean more like... irrationally, without being held back by morals or ethics. Or, if you look at the soul as a sense of self, you could end up with something that's just... blank. Like I said, though, I'm no expert, and I'm sure that kind of thing varies from world to world.

And as for how you'd know if you have one... I almost feel like if you're asking that question, then you might already have your answer. What brought this up, anyway?

do you think and feel stuff?


congrats you've got a soul

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.]

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.

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?

Ah, no, they'd definitely be dead. Or, well, their original body would be.

Though I don't know that it's terribly practical to live forever that way; I suppose that one could, but the problem with it is that the new body might begin to cannibalize the soul to sustain itself, at least theoretically speaking, which would inevitably kill the person in question.

[Dante gives the question careful thoughts; for a moment he seems quite stumped, but a chirp from his Togepi nearby seems to provide some inspiration for an answer.]

My honest answer is that I do not know. But if God would judge humans for their sin and either condemn or bring their souls to a higher place, thus has he done the same for demons and angels. If even the unholy and the holy beings are subject to the same laws, thus must they too have souls that can be judged.

So yes, perhaps even those born not human or mortal have souls.

And what would you consider to be the seat of emotions? Most people would put that and the personality into the soul category.

It's less if I do have one and more a question of how long I've had one. When I came here I was turned into a human, so getting a soul to go with it made sense. Back home things like me are scientifically considered to lack them, but I'm not so sure of that now.

The heart. Not the physical one that pumps blood, it is a metaphysical thing, with its own powers and flaws. All living things have a heart, although some hearts are artificial and some are natural.

You have likely had a soul ever since you were born. Or hatched, or created or decanted, or whatever is appropriate to your species before you became human. If you were capable of acting in your own self-interests and self-preservation, then you had a soul even then. If you were a, for lack of a better word, if you were a mindless automaton receiving orders and making no decisions for yourself then perhaps you did not have a soul.

From the kind of answers I've been getting, I'd say that there must be some differences between worlds. Unless some people are just wrong, which could easily be true.

In my world, people think of souls as something only a human can have. There are creatures that are supposed to be soulless, but still have personalities and drives; they're incomplete beings and lacking that final piece of humanity.

It's just something I've been thinking about for a while. I wasn't getting anywhere with answers on my own, so I thought I'd ask.

I used to think something like that... Like if you don't have one then you don't really exist.

But that's wrong...

People lose their hearts where I come from. Sometimes the empty shell left behind starts to move on its own. They have their old memories, but no heart. No feelings or anything. Basically Nobodies just act based on what their memories told them that they were like.

When the heart starts to come back? I couldn't tell you exactly. I know that it happens partially because someone sees you. When you start having feelings about the people around you. I think that's a good sign.

[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)]

Edited 2013-08-30 02:13 (UTC)

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47th Transformation [ANONYMOUS text | action for Mahogany]

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

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