text; can you let me out? can you set me free from this dark inner world?

[truedetective]

[Why, what is this text message going out in the middle of the night?

It's someone who's hoping that not only will everyone be consumed with larger matters of what's happening in the world around them, but who will be fast asleep and not get this.

She knows she has to do this. She knows she needs to be honest with everyone, that she can't keep just hiding behind her assumed identity anymore.

It doesn't mean Naoto has to like it.]

"To thine own self be true." It's kind of a cliche saying at this point.
That doesn't make it inaccurate.

I can't think of any subtle or sensitive way to say this, so I might as well just be blunt: I've been keeping a secret from everyone as long as I've been living in this city. I haven't been honest.
While I've been outwardly presenting as male for quite some time now, I am-- and have always been-- a girl.

I apologize to anyone who feels that I've lied to them or deceived them. I'm sorry.
I hope this won't lead any of you to think differently of me, but that may be asking too much.

Good night.

[She hits send, and immediately regrets doing this at all. Oh god, this was a mistake.]

Comments

[truedetective]

No. I could use the distraction.

Unfortunately, my answer is also a negative one.

[liberal_arts]

It's been needling at me since then, like an itch I can't scratch.

Investment in the protection of history as an order of humanity and culture was something deeply important to my other self. It was the reason the touken danshi were formed at all. And I feel that same... pull.

I feel like I cannot rest until I've seen what this all means.

[truedetective]

Well, if my theory is correct, this world has no real "history." At least, beyond what they've created for it.
But then again, that hypothesis has been challenged by certain reveals.

Also, I'm sorry-- the "touken danshi"?

[liberal_arts]

I worry they intend to change *our* history.

As for that term, the best translation is "sword warriors", but not simply soldiers who happen to wield words. We *are* swords, given humanoid form by a ritual I do not fully understand.

[truedetective]

Ah. That's right. You were telling me about that. What an interesting... concept? I'm not actually sure what to call it. I never conceived that something like that could exist. Do you mean the history of the lives we lived before?

[liberal_arts]

Either would be considered a threat.

[truedetective]

True.
Which are you more worried about?

[liberal_arts]

-...-

I don't know. It feels as if that's a strange position to be in. That I should seek to defend the quality of this life, not of my other self. But both manage to keep me up at night.

[truedetective]

I think it would take a person with a heart of stone to no longer care about the lives they've made here.

Even if, as in my hypothesis, the lives themselves are illusory, the emotions that go with them are not.

[liberal_arts]

I suppose that's difficult to argue with. Whether this self or my other self are real, or neither, or both, my investment is genuine.

I want to protect both.

[truedetective]

I suppose that's reasonable.
I can't exactly choose one or the other myself.

[liberal_arts]

What a silly situation we find ourselves in. Longing to fight for lives which may or may not have ever been real.

[truedetective]

Does their reality, or lack thereof, affect the emotional value we give them?

[liberal_arts]

There must be a form of detachment between art and observer, or reality itself will become meaningless

[truedetective]

I'm not sure I follow.
Can you elaborate?

[liberal_arts]

The understanding that art is a reflection of reality, but not reality itself, and the level of detachment that comes from that truth, is a necessary part of the humanities.

Art can depict something "real" but art itself is not "real". One should not interact with art as if it were real.