capeandcowl

Monster
--noun

1. an animal or plant of abnormal form or structure
2. one who deviates from normal or acceptable behavior or character

a threatening force

an animal of strange or terrifying shape
one unusually large for its kind

something monstrous, especially: a person of unnatural or extreme ugliness, deformity, wickedness, or cruelty

Once I would have said that I had never met anyone who could be called a monster. That nobody who was still able to think and feel could truly be a monster.

I'm not sure of that any more. But if people can be monsters, then what makes a person a monster? Is it their power? Or is it their will? If a person has the power to cause destruction, even if they don't want to, is that person a monster?

I want to think that a person's power doesn't make them a monster so long as they don't wish to use it to do harm. But it's possible to harm others without meaning to. Even if you're only trying to do something good, it's hard to know what will happen. I think, probably, not many monsters know that they are monsters.

If you try to help someone, and it ends up hurting many other people later on, what is the right answer?

If you think that, by killing someone now, you could keep many other people from being hurt in the future, what is the right answer?

This is something I have been wondering about lately.

[ooc: and I now apologize if "monster" no longer looks like a word.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, that's why people are supposed to learn, right? If there's something you're worried about, you learn about it so you don't have to worry anymore. And when you know about it you don't have to hate it anymore. I can't think of anything I hate!

That's good. [a little smile] Then maybe that's really the answer.

[Is pleased to have helped]

I'm Jordan. What's your name?

Jonah Matsuka. It's nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too! Matsuka, Matsuka. Is that Japanese? My friend Ick is Japanese. I learned some once because I thought it would be fun.

You're not the first person to ask me that. I suppose it might have been Japanese originally... although that would have been a very long time ago. Japan no longer exists where I'm from.

Oh! So you must be from the future! There's no Japan anymore? That means that there's really peace and everyone works together? I guess Jonah isn't a Japanese name at all so it must be like that. That's great!

You must feel so strange being back here where there are countries and interracial problems, then. No wonder you were wondering about what makes people monsters.

Ah... it's a little more complicated than that. But it's true that I am from the future. It's probably been five or six hundred years. Actually, until I came here, I'd never been to Terra before.

[Jordan is quite excited!]

We talk about creating colonies on the moon and Mars and on other moons in some of my classes. It'll be fun to do. But I bet it's different being here.

[She squees at him, because.... just because]

I hope you like it here and all the people in the past are nice to you!

[he smiles; her enthusiasm is kind of infectious]

I like it here very much. People here have been very kind to me. But it is very different. I haven't lived for this long on a planet since before I can remember.

It's different for me too, here! I'm from 25 years ago, and things really look different. And there's all this new technology, and all these things I have to learn about. You wouldn't think it would be that much in 25 years, but it's really a lot!

[hooray for someone smiling at her! Jordan is very happy. She shows this by being more hyper and talking faster.]

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