Fugue Why

you fell down the stairs, now see if you can fall back up them

sentient or sapient? makes a big difference. if it's only the souls of animals and the like then that might be ok, but feeding on the souls of highly intelligent creatures? that's bad.

Kevin: "Uh... okay hold on... Stefervin, you mean Sapient, right?"
Stefervin: "AH! YES. APOLOGIES, HARVESTER. THIS ISN'T MY FIRST LANGUAGE. TO CLARIFY; WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS THAT THE CORE IN QUESTION BELONG TO AN ENTITY CAPABLE OF JUDGEMENT, INTROSPECTION, MORAL REASONING, ETCETERA."

Hey good news Kevin, you don't have a soul! (either that or you aren't sentient)

Anywhoo, If we're gonna free a soul-beast might as well do it right.

So where do we get that key from and what are the time constraints you're under. If this guy "must" feed on souls and their imprisonment is keeping them from doing so then it's likely they might perish if we don't get them some soul food in time.

Oh and would they care to elaborate on this "man that could never be captured?"

> Bid them farewell.

> Or ask them how one would help them.

> Okay, time to fulfil your end.

Kevin: "I... uh, I don't know, um, voices. It seems like most of you want me to help but... uh.. I... he eats people. How... uh, that seems like it's probably wrong. I'm not really sure I -you know..."
Stefervin: "YOU SHOULD CONSIDER LISTENING TO THEM. THE MORAL POSTULATE THAT IT IS ALWAYS WRONG TO KILL OR CONSUME OTHER SAPIENT BEINGS IS BASED ON THE FALLACIOUS ASSUMPTION THAT ALL SAPIENT BEINGS EXIST WITHIN THE SAME SPOT ON THE FOOD CHAIN. IT'S SOMETHING THOSE FROM THE SURFACE AND, OF COURSE, THOSE IN THE HARVESTER'S UNION OFTEN HAVE TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING."
Kevin: "... What?"
Stefervin: "I DIDN'T CHOOSE TO BE A CARNIVORE, FRIEND. AND IT DIDN'T CHOOSE WHAT I HAVE TO PREY UPON. BUT I DO CHOOSE UPON WHOM I FEED. THE WICKED AND THE CORRUPT. ONLY THOSE WHO POSE A DANGER TO OUR FELLOW, CHERISHED CITIZENS. WHY DO YOU THINK I WANTED TO SHAKE YOUR HAND SO BADLY?"
Kevin: "... You were going to eat me?!"
Stefervin: "OF COURSE NOT, DEAR HARVESTER. FIRST I HAD TO GET A TASTE. ASSESS YOUR MORAL CHARACTER. WEIGH YOUR VALUE AS AN ALLY AGAINST THE NUTRITION YOUR IMPOSSIBLY NONEXISTENT CORE WOULD HAVE PROVIDED."
Kevin: "Uh... this is insane, right?! I wish I could remember if this was a thing that was insane or not."

Add one more thing to the list of things to recover, after your memory and purpose and pants.

I contest the necessity of souls and pants.

Kevin: *Sigh* "I... uh, I think a robe counts as pants... I mean... I'm made of bones anyway. So, uh.. it probably doesn't matter. I don't know..."

Dude, you shook on it. I told you to ignore this guy at the start, but nope you wanted a peak, so now we are all in.

Don't let your first act after regaining consciousness be reneging on a deal. Not cool.

Well if you can't trust a horrorspider you just met then who can you trust? Besides he seems pretty strong so it would be good to have him tag along on your journey.

>Kevin, you promessed you would set him free, it is, true, and I suggest you do... eventualy. i don't beleive any time constraint was given in your promess.
>If, as it happen, the very people who happened to capture them in the first place are right near you when your free them and decide to recapture them, that'll still staisfy your promess.

>One has to wonder, does his consumption of sentient core natural for them or something to do with their little 'friend' ?

> Say yes, but think about it to yourself. Leave the area to "go find something to free them with" and see if there are other people to ask about the "big man eating spider."

Ok I don't know what everyone else is going on about, but eating people is wrong. like super wrong. I get that this guy is nice and gentlemanly and polite, but that doesn't excuse their actions. I could jump down the rabbit hole of all the morals involved in this, But their judgement has already been passed. It seems fair enough.

"THOSE IN THE HARVESTER'S UNION OFTEN HAVE TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING." also this. I think your boss(es) would frown upon letting him go.

In the end this is your decision. we can't and shouldn't make you do anything.

"THOSE IN THE HARVESTER'S UNION OFTEN HAVE TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING." also this. I think your boss(es) would frown upon letting him go.

Yeah, that's probably because soul-munchers hurt their quotas, rather than their morals.

> Go look for that key. It will be important whether you free him or not, & I'm leaning toward fulfilling your end of the deal that you shook on.

>You know, also technically, you didn't made a promess, you just agreed on a deal, aka a potential trade.
The 'deal' that was agreed upon is that you bring them the key and then they'll answer your questions. The one they answered was offered as a gift of good faith and not contratualy binding.
Meaning you dont actualy have to free them if you don't intend to ask them any other questions.

Ok I don't know what everyone else is going on about, but eating people is wrong. like super wrong. I get that this guy is nice and gentlemanly and polite, but that doesn't excuse their actions.

the argument is not weither their politneess should influence their judging but their nature.

Can you judge a predator for eating their prey ...when their prey happen to be sentient ? Unless it's proven the predator could get nurition any other way (we dunno enough about spider to say), one way or another someone's getting screwed in the deal.

Of course giant spider here seems still pretty alive and it's doubtfull it's been fed souls regukarly so it must have some other way to eat.

Why are we pondering this now, AFTER accepting the deal? You've made your bed, now lie in it. We don't know that there isn't something enforcing our deal, and we were mostly willing to take it before we knew anything about this guy.

there shouldn't be a difference.

Wellllll he SAYS he's not evil and you've already made a deal, so. :/ I don't like it but whatcha gonna do.

Stefervin: "WELL, HARVESTER? WHAT WILL YOU DO?"
Kevin: "Just... Hold on. The voices are, uh, debating... Most of them, um, want me to uphold the deal, but, uh... listen this whole thing happened under, like uh, false pretenses. You were definitely going to eat me if I had a core and you... wanted it, I guess... Or judged it wrong or whatever."
Stefervin: "...YES. THAT IS ACCURATE. KEVIN, HAVE YOU CONSIDERED IGNORING THE VOICES?"
Kevin: "Uh... well... first could you go back to calling me 'HARVESTER?' Even if Kevin isn't my name, the sort-of hollow way you say it makes my skin crawl... my hypothetical skin... And second, why would you want me to ignore the voices? They mostly want me to help you."
Stefervin: "I SUGGEST YOU IGNORE THEM BECAUSE I MADE A DEAL WITH YOU; NOT THEM. IF YOUR INTENTION IS TO BE A SUPPLICANT TO THEIR WILL, THEN MY ONLY ALLY - AND MY BEST SHOT AT FREEDOM - IS ESSENTIALLY A PUPPET FOR ENTITIES I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. BESIDES, IT INTERESTS ME FAR MORE WHAT YOU WANT THAN WHAT THEY WANT."
Kevin: "I... hm..."
Head Thing: "Nyeheheh!"
Stefervin: "TAKE YOUR TIME AND THINK IT OVE-"
Kevin: "No! Sorry, uh... I mean, I don't need to... I'm going to get the key... I promised I would. But, uh, when I bring it back here I can't give it to you until you answer all my questions... and if I don't like what you have to say I... I'm gonna find the Harvesters Union and give it to them... Uh... Yeah. They can decide what to do with you... in that case..."
Stefervin: "..."
Kevin: "Is that... uh... does that work... for you?"
Stefervin: "FRIEND, YOU HAVE ALL THE POWER IN THIS ARRANGEMENT. WHAT 'WORKS FOR ME' MATTERS VERY LITTLE AND, AS SUCH, I WON'T EVEN BOTHER ANSWERING THAT QUESTION. IF I MAY BE FRANK, THOUGH... YOU ARE A TERRIBLE NEGOTIATOR."
Kevin: *weak laugh* "I... uh, yeah. So where do I find the key?"
Stefervin: "THE TYRANT WHO IMPRISONED ME - A DUKE BY THE NAME OF 'THE SWARM COUNCIL' - RULES A SMALL-BUT-INFLUENTIAL FIEFDOM NEAR THE SURFACE."
Kevin: "That's... the duke is a council?"
Stefervin: "YOU COULD BEGIN YOUR SEARCH THERE, IN THE COLONY. HOWEVER, THE SWARM COUNCIL DIDN'T RETAIN MY KEY FOR VERY LONG. IT WAS SOON STOLEN BY THE VERY ROGUE THAT PERPETRATED THE CRIMES I'M PAYING FOR. AT THE TIME, THEY WERE KNOWN TO MOST AS SMILE EYES. UNFORTUNATELY, I HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE OF THEIR FATE OR THEIR WHEREABOUTS."
Kevin: "Alright... So I just have to track down an infamous thief who was never caught and, uh... all I have to go on is a pseudonym they might not even use anymore?"
Stefervin: "YES."
Kevin: "..." *sigh*

((This is likely going to be the only update this week. It's one of those weeks))

>I'm proud of you. this was a hard decision to make, but you didn't rely on us to make it for you.
alright, maybe you should ask for directions to the surface and the colony from Stefervin. they'll probably agree to help expedite things.

You might want to get the both sides of the story, so getting to the Colony would be a good idea. Let's hope they welcome Harvesters there!

hey, harvey. kevin. bud. i know you just woke up with no memories whatoever and you've got the 13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo howling in your head, but you're a stammering, anxious wreck. that's indisputable. i want you to think about what you want, who you want to be, the way you want other people to see you: not a stammering anxious wreck, right? right, that's ingratiating to nobody.

so i want you to take a couple deep breaths and pull yourself together when you get to the top of those stairs. you've got to be feeling pretty overwhelmed with all the questions you have about your weird existence, but i'd like you to push that out of your mind. maybe you'll never learn why we're bothering you or what happened to your head or what those marbles are for, and that'd be just fine — these are just base facts of your existence, accept them. obviously it'd be nice to get at a "why," but don't let it chew you up inside. instead, focus on the tasks you have ahead of you, and i don't mean "get the key from, probably smile eyes." that sounds hard! just think about what, specifically, you're going to do when you get into town. the first step. you're gonna ask somebody about smile eyes, you're gonna ask them about stefervin, you're gonna ask them about mikar, you're gonna ask them about the harvesters, you're gonna ask them about all the things you couldn't ask stefervin. you could look for people you think are gonna know a lot, but if i had to guess, you could get these questions fielded by anyone who isn't a small child.

now practice what you're going to say when you ask those questions, so that when you get up to asking someone, you know what you're saying. "hi, what's your name? nice to meet you. you can call me kevin, but enough about me. could i ask you a couple questions?" like that. and when you don't know what to say out in a real conversation, stop talking and think. now breathe again. you can do this, harvey.

I'm down with this whole "supplicant to our will" idea. Sounds like a good plan.

Let's climb on up to that surface and hope the sun doesn't turn you to ash or anything.