Oh, I'm aware of the personal hassle it would be should this city become inhabited more by shades than humans. While I'll take myself and my Bonded to be cured ere we reach that final point... I don't know what manner of intervention you expect from me in regards to anyone else.
[But if there was some sort of mind-control going on... would that explain Mettaton's behavior? It was hard to believe that he'd become so accepting of being diseased without it, but he otherwise seemed almost- normal. Sometimes.
That made it all the more important for Emet-Selch to be able to get through to him, to convince him. Of course he'd be able to. There was no option otherwise, there was no one else to turn to.]
A strange goal for anyone, to spread a disease like this for the sake of it. Unless the goal in itself is to seed chaos- a task which I am not unfamiliar with- I wonder who benefits.
Well, it's not as though humans aren't inclined to work against their best interests of their own accord, but I almost hope there's some greater goal at work here that's yet invisible to us.
My best theory so far — from a more sensible angle untouched by a breed of madness often demonstrated by nobility — is that the current benefit is knowledge. Using the Cwyld to experiment on humans and monsters is unethical by common standards. Given how the group is mostly made up of the upper class, and the documented victims constitute the lowest, it's all too easy to suspect that this group is using their power and connections to conduct such experiments below the public eye. None of them would care if people they must consider quite dispensable disappear... not to mention the most destitute do that all the time.
If this is all true, and if they are making real progress in understanding the Cwyld intimately enough to combat it, it really might not be such a bad thing for Geardagas in the long run. It's just that the means to this end are checkered and rife with risk.
If so, I can't say their process comes across as terribly scientific, dubious motivations aside.
And if one is the sort to care for ethics, there's ways to accomplish much the same thing. Surely a few altruistic souls would volunteer to be infected, that various treatments might be tested, the progression observed in controlled surroundings. 'Tis not as though infection is a death sentence, for all that curing is apparently unpleasant.
Well, even if this group believes in the justness of their madness, they wouldn't be the first to have their convictions founded more in sadism than science. Cruelty under a veneer of research, perhaps. A fine pretense that what they do is for the good of us all, and what are a few sacrifices along the way...?
[Which is a line of thinking uncomfortably familiar. Not that he'd ever taken pleasure in the mortal lives he'd ended, at least.]
If the lost cases deposited back onto the streets are their doing, I can't say I have much faith that they're discovering any more than what's already known.
I can't say that only a few test subjects would be enough. But I also can't claim that I know exactly what their aim is, whether they've made any headway or not, or even what aspect of the Cwyld they are so fascinated by. I can only speak in potentials and hypotheticals at this juncture. Their treatment of victims may not be that different from what happened with the kidnapping and the torture of many Mirrorbound and refugees, which could at times generously be considered experiments.
I do know one thing, however: they're mad, and they're inducing madness in their members somehow. Be on your guard. The less Mirrorbound I have to deal with like I did Mettaton, the better for us all.
And I doubt that either of us, nor indeed most people, are likely to be convinced on the validity of their research any time soon.
And if their studies are anything like those conducted by the Rathmores'... something that I believe we both have firsthand accounts of- I'm sure you can understand my hesitation in believing that anything at all usable will come of it.
[There's a slight delay before he sends the rest; if nothing else, Soren's warnings have gotten through to him in part. No more stray pucas, attracting the wrong sort of attention.]
I'll do what I can to keep Mettaton indoors until I can convince him to go to the Coven with me to be cured. Separated from whatever inciting madness they're provoking, I'll restore to him his sense.
[Except that doesn't happen and they both die but welp.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[But if there was some sort of mind-control going on... would that explain Mettaton's behavior? It was hard to believe that he'd become so accepting of being diseased without it, but he otherwise seemed almost- normal. Sometimes.
That made it all the more important for Emet-Selch to be able to get through to him, to convince him. Of course he'd be able to. There was no option otherwise, there was no one else to turn to.]
A strange goal for anyone, to spread a disease like this for the sake of it. Unless the goal in itself is to seed chaos- a task which I am not unfamiliar with- I wonder who benefits.
Well, it's not as though humans aren't inclined to work against their best interests of their own accord, but I almost hope there's some greater goal at work here that's yet invisible to us.
no subject
My best theory so far — from a more sensible angle untouched by a breed of madness often demonstrated by nobility — is that the current benefit is knowledge. Using the Cwyld to experiment on humans and monsters is unethical by common standards. Given how the group is mostly made up of the upper class, and the documented victims constitute the lowest, it's all too easy to suspect that this group is using their power and connections to conduct such experiments below the public eye. None of them would care if people they must consider quite dispensable disappear... not to mention the most destitute do that all the time.
If this is all true, and if they are making real progress in understanding the Cwyld intimately enough to combat it, it really might not be such a bad thing for Geardagas in the long run. It's just that the means to this end are checkered and rife with risk.
no subject
And if one is the sort to care for ethics, there's ways to accomplish much the same thing. Surely a few altruistic souls would volunteer to be infected, that various treatments might be tested, the progression observed in controlled surroundings. 'Tis not as though infection is a death sentence, for all that curing is apparently unpleasant.
Well, even if this group believes in the justness of their madness, they wouldn't be the first to have their convictions founded more in sadism than science. Cruelty under a veneer of research, perhaps. A fine pretense that what they do is for the good of us all, and what are a few sacrifices along the way...?
[Which is a line of thinking uncomfortably familiar. Not that he'd ever taken pleasure in the mortal lives he'd ended, at least.]
If the lost cases deposited back onto the streets are their doing, I can't say I have much faith that they're discovering any more than what's already known.
no subject
I do know one thing, however: they're mad, and they're inducing madness in their members somehow. Be on your guard. The less Mirrorbound I have to deal with like I did Mettaton, the better for us all.
no subject
And if their studies are anything like those conducted by the Rathmores'... something that I believe we both have firsthand accounts of- I'm sure you can understand my hesitation in believing that anything at all usable will come of it.
[There's a slight delay before he sends the rest; if nothing else, Soren's warnings have gotten through to him in part. No more stray pucas, attracting the wrong sort of attention.]
I'll do what I can to keep Mettaton indoors until I can convince him to go to the Coven with me to be cured. Separated from whatever inciting madness they're provoking, I'll restore to him his sense.
[Except that doesn't happen and they both die but welp.]
no subject