You've been lied to. There are, indeed, dumb questions.

[reversesock]

A QUESTION FOR A QUESTION


YOU MAY KNOW EACH OTHER ALREADY - OR YOU MAY NOT. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, YOU'RE NOW PASSING THE TIME ASKING EACH OTHER QUESTIONS. IT'S A GAME! A QUESTION FOR A QUESTION. YOU START OFF ASKING YOUR OPPONENT A QUESTION OF CHOICE AND IF THEY ANSWER IT, THEY'RE ALLOWED TO ASK YOU A QUESTION IN TURN. THE RULES ARE SIMPLE, ONLY AS LONG AS YOU ANSWER THE OTHER PERSON'S QUESTIONS ARE YOU ALLOWED TO ASK QUESTIONS YOURSELF, BUT THERE IS NO EXPECTATION OF TRUTHFULNESS HERE, LIE IF YOU MUST OR WANT, JUST KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING.

How to play -
1. Comment with your character's name, fandom and preference.
2. If you want, leave a question in the comment field that your character is asking their opponent. Or don't. I'm not the cops.
3. Pick other characters to question and have fun!

Comments

[shieldofrohan]

In one other person, or in people as a whole?

[thewisechild]

Sometimes one other person can become all the people that matter. Have you ever felt that way?

[shieldofrohan]

...Yes.

[On her knees, begging to betray lord and people to ride with him, to die with him, to help. Was it for the man, or for what he represented? She is not sure, but she knows that it is the truth: in that moment, Aragorn was the only person whose answer mattered.]

[And his answer was no.]

[She clears her throat, tightening her jaw.]

But it is a dangerous thing, to feel so. Is it not better to hold first to your duty in that regard, and not one man?

[thewisechild]

It is. When there are people who count on you, you mustn't let them down. That's what I've been taught.

[ Her family, whose future and reputation are at stake - of course, she should do everything at all possible to secure their lives, too. Still... Still... ]

But am I not right, when I claim that we also have a responsibility to our own hearts?

[ Maybe not first, maybe not foremost, but she wants her own happiness to count as well. ]

[shieldofrohan]

[Had she not said something similar herself, not so very long ago? And yet...]

Does that hold true, when our hearts are fools?

[thewisechild]

What difference does one more fool make in the world's decision-making, really? [ There are already enough of them, isn't that so? One thing is her father's muttered complaints, another is Satoko's own two eyes. She isn't blind, after all, even if she is powerless to change it. ] I wonder if there's a compromise for these things. If the heart can bear some responsibility, in return for tasting just a little joy.

I don't know if it will work.

[shieldofrohan]

There was no joy in it, for me; only hopes dashed, and darkness deepened.

Has it brought you joy, to give yourself over to your heart?

[thewisechild]

Yes. There have been moments of unspeakable joy, moments after which I would gladly have ended my life, to die happy.

[ She doesn't mention the times in between. ]

What does your duty require of you?

[shieldofrohan]

I no longer know.

[It is something of a transitional moment, this. Partly because I backed myself into a very specific canonpoint without thinking. For the past months, she has known her duty, even as she chafed against it: to keep the city and the court running, to tend to the King in his sickness, and to ward off the worst effects of Gríma's advice. Now Gríma is gone, and the King is himself again, and it seems so unnecessary to keep things running when everything - all the world, it seems - is coming to an end.]

If I am obedient, if I do not question, then my duty is to wait. To stay behind, when the end comes, and comfort those who remain, and hope that the stragglers of our host return alive. But they will not; and if they do, then how long will that life last, when the Shadow comes? When all is washed away before the forces of darkness, what empty duty is it to be sitting at the window to watch?

There is more that duty demands of me. I know it.

[thewisechild]

The window is a terrible vantage point. It always puts such distance between you and that which you're looking towards.

[ She has lived behind windows all her life. Windows, not doors. There was never an outside world she could enter without having someone in tow, Tadeshina. Her mother. Family. Reputation. Satoko never walks alone and she can never touch that which her eyes have landed on.

Not where anyone sees. ]

Can you watch by a door instead? That, at least, offers entry. And exit.

[shieldofrohan]

A window, a door, a wall. Does it make a difference how open the exit is, if you are not free to take it?