( really, though, even if these things were burdened with what was once a mortal soul, he's not sure he would care all that much about them being smashed to bits by the more martially-prepared of the three assembled — it was certainly a tragedy, to be sure, but john's compassion towards such things typically doesn't extend very far once the salient line of "actively trying to kill him" has been breached. from what he has seen and learned about this aetós individual, they didn't see any inherent sanctity in the soul and used it as liberally in their experiments as an artist might any readily-available medium. at that point, was it even worth worrying about the implication of killing them if they were so inextricably removed from their original state, their original self?
but, no, these did indeed seem to be more like machines programmed for a purpose, so they are at least spared that twist of a moral quandary for now. but it feels foolish to think they might manage to avoid it indefinitely.
if they are creatures devoid of thought or reason, it only means that he's doubly useless against them, as his only real manner of defense towards anything that would intend on doing him harm is to attempt to compel them into deciding otherwise. zhongli and the raised skeletons do a handy job of reducing the swarm of spider-like constructs to shards and bonemeal. the creatures' advantage in numbers causes more than a few close calls, but given the other john's proficiency at the matter at hand, that advantage is essentially nullified.
oh, right, of course. surely it's child's play for anyone to conjure a human tibia out of thin air, he thinks to himself, completely unaware of how accurate the griping was. no, he's just too busy thinking about how jared hopworth might have taken such comments.
after a brief coughing fit (he's trying not to think about how much of the dust he might be inhaling is pulverized bone), he does pry at something the emperor had said, however, ) And how certain are you that he was only experimenting with control?
( for these constructs, it's hard to say. perhaps they were just intended to be a defensive force, ready to be loosed on unexpected and unwanted guests. but aetós' undue fascination with shards and the soul makes john uneasy. sure, it would be an easy enough way to exert one's will over another, to manipulate it, but... what manon had said had been done to his shard — it had felt to him like there was far more to that than simply trying to exert control on previously unknown variables. )
no subject
but, no, these did indeed seem to be more like machines programmed for a purpose, so they are at least spared that twist of a moral quandary for now. but it feels foolish to think they might manage to avoid it indefinitely.
if they are creatures devoid of thought or reason, it only means that he's doubly useless against them, as his only real manner of defense towards anything that would intend on doing him harm is to attempt to compel them into deciding otherwise. zhongli and the raised skeletons do a handy job of reducing the swarm of spider-like constructs to shards and bonemeal. the creatures' advantage in numbers causes more than a few close calls, but given the other john's proficiency at the matter at hand, that advantage is essentially nullified.
oh, right, of course. surely it's child's play for anyone to conjure a human tibia out of thin air, he thinks to himself, completely unaware of how accurate the griping was. no, he's just too busy thinking about how jared hopworth might have taken such comments.
after a brief coughing fit (he's trying not to think about how much of the dust he might be inhaling is pulverized bone), he does pry at something the emperor had said, however, ) And how certain are you that he was only experimenting with control?
( for these constructs, it's hard to say. perhaps they were just intended to be a defensive force, ready to be loosed on unexpected and unwanted guests. but aetós' undue fascination with shards and the soul makes john uneasy. sure, it would be an easy enough way to exert one's will over another, to manipulate it, but... what manon had said had been done to his shard — it had felt to him like there was far more to that than simply trying to exert control on previously unknown variables. )