>>@KRUGER | @ALL

[trample]

With our mission in Paris just about at its limit, I have a few questions to posit to you all. This isn't quite my thing, and I don't mean to sound high and mighty, but you have all piqued my interest.

Firstly, the ideas of liberty and self-government were, indeed, revolutionary at this point in time. They're run of the mill for some, and to others they are representative of an ideal rarely achieved in their own world. I speak this of course to all of us, members of this response team. Do you agree with this revolution? Which is more right, the government of a king, or of a nation's people?

Second, to those whose plans have been a part of the mission, what went through your minds during the planning process? Or during its execution. [ He does not...see the irony behind this phrasing. ] Having failed the mission directives, do you feel in part responsible for whatever consequences arise? I say this both to those that were successful, and those that were not.

And lastly, given the state of affairs, this hardly matters much. It's more of a personal question. Do you think you are free?

Comments

@BUCKET

[lefthandfree]

Free in what sense?

Revolutions are all a mixed bag. They’re never black and white. Governments are the same. You can have an amazing thing, but one bad egg can make it all worthless. None of these are purely “right”, pal.

Some of us are probably more responsible than others for what we’ve changed. Aligning with COST sets us all as culpable though, doesn’t it? At the end of the day.

[trample]

In your own sense. Do you consider yourself free, I mean to say. If you can't answer that, then I suppose that in itself is its own answer.

And indeed, we are all responsible in some way or another. Who takes the heat though is its own matter entirely. Generally that would be the higher ups, but with such a small group, where would you draw the line?

[lefthandfree]

I think everyone is as free as they let themselves be, whatever that may be. But I don’t think most have the consciousness to know what that really means. It’s different for everyone. For myself, I could be free. Freer than I am now, anyway. But I don’t choose to be. Freedom comes at a cost, and it’s not one I take lightly.

Honestly, I don’t know how the line should fall in an organization like this. We’re fighting a kind of war — not the one in France, the big one — that still baffles me some days, but when I was in proper war myself, it was never about pointing fingers. Mistakes happen all the time. Sometimes you even lose people because of it. But you don’t stop just because tragedy strikes. War doesn’t wait on anybody. You just move forward and keep fighting for the right results.

That said, if there must be blame, if you really have to point fingers, then I’m not scared to admit that the cumulative failure is in large part a failure of what my partner and I took on. And even then, it’s certainly more on me than Siegfried. I should have had more foresight, expected another contingency. These types always have them, and I already had an idea about the guy. Just didn’t think far enough around all of it is all.

My best wasn’t enough this time around. For that, I'm truly sorry. That’s all I can say about it though. None of us are done, no matter what the truth of it really is.

[byhand]

@KRUGER Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are.

@KRUGER Are you much of a reader?

[trample]

I read often the month in which I was interred within a hospital. Before being brought here, I mean.
And before then, whenever I had the chance.
However, literature was never a strong suit of my native land. All too often was it banned and its enthusiasts prosecuted.
Sometimes they were even executed.

[byhand]

I was going to suggest books for you to read, my boy, but it seems you've had far too much of that. Instead, I shall make a postulation.

Do you believe man is inherently good, and corrupted by separation from his finer nature, or do you believe man is inherently cruel, and raised up by control and rigorous restriction?

un: @DIEDHARD

[mylawn]

We never figured out who or what threw things off in the first place. Did what we could to correct course. Better question is if it's worth the risk to see how close we can get.

[trample]

You seem rather hardboiled.
You wouldn't happen to be the same man I played ball with before Valmy?
The very same seventy-six?
Regardless, you're quite right. Though it confuses me how the slightest change of a date could cause any lasting difference, I do believe in following orders to the letter.
In which case, I'd say it's well worth the risk.

[mylawn]

Yeah, that's me.

I'm from here. Different country, couple hundred years in the future. Learned about this in school. Maybe that's what had me take an approach I figured would cause as few ripples as possible. I don't know much about how this works, but I think there are always going to be more variables than we can account for.

Could be worse. They're still gonna kill him.

[northerndragon]

>>FROM:@AEGONNER

@KRUGER I've been saying all along that a king should be for his nation's people. If the king is a good king, you shouldn't have to choose. This king is not a good king, but I don't think he deserves death. It would be better to limit his powers.

@KRUGER I am free and I am not free.

[trample]

@AEGONNER Does anyone deserve death?
@AEGONNER I would say so. Some more than others.
@AEGONNER A king which does not protect nor care for his people is not a king. Nor is one who searches for a scapegoat for his people's troubles.
@AEGONNER You'd be hard pressed to find one where I come from.
@AEGONNER Regardless, your last sentence is a curious one. I can relate in some fashion, but that's just my own interpretation of it. What did you mean by this, @AEGONNER?

[private]

[northerndragon]

@KRUGER I am a king. I'm here. Neither has ever felt like a state of freedom.
@KRUGER Though I suppose for some men it might be. Those men shouldn't be kings — as you say. The freedom I have is the freedom to protect and care for my people.
@KRUGER Maybe it's easier for those who were born princes to forget. I don't know.

[ryuji]

@KRUGER Any life where someone else is makin' the choices for you isn't a free life.

[trample]

@ENTERTHEDRAGON That's very philosophical of you, dragon man. I can't help but agree.

[ryuji]

@KRUGER Thanks, I have my deep moments.

@ACHEELIES

[chariotry]

[ This post is full of hobos. ]

This revolution must have been inevitable, if the state has gotten this bad.

That being said, you have to wonder if whatever change happens will be at all meaningful or lasting. With one man who had all the power dead, won't that leave room for another to take his place?

We failed our mission, but I would argue that the end result will be the same.

[trample]

[ Damn straight. ]

Something you'd even call inevitable, huh? I do believe it's something like that. Times change.
The people with it. There's no way a monarchy as bad as this would last.

I guess the results will be shown once we fly through time once more.
I have little invested in this country, but I do wonder what difference we've made. I'd like to believe we've made some.

un: @MINIMALCAT

[hakanai]

I merely go with the flow of things. Whatever the answers I've spent my life as a stone in the current, moving with stream as it flows... except, of course, when I did not.

Myself and my companion succeeded in changing the mind of Danton and made enough impression for him to wish to continue contact. At that moment in time I was knowingly moving against the flow and personally succeeded, which is something that has never happened before. But that effort did not change the river's course overall.

Yet that course itself was an altered one, from what we are told. So right now I have no answers to give, but a thousand questions of my own. Not a helpful response, is it?

[trample]

Everyone's got their questions,
I'm sure. Only time can tell what the answers will be. What difference do these small successes make when the greatest victory yet slips out of our grasp?

I suppose our target - me and my partner's, that is - did eventually change his mind about the king insofar as voting for a delay. In the end,
his hatred for the royalty in general couldn't be stymied, but whose could?

Your talk of flows got me thinking. COST's goal so far is to keep things accurate. To make sure everything goes according to plan. I don't believe that in doing so, we're changing the future much, if at all. Do you think that our mission directives should be modified so we can make a bigger difference?

[hakanai]

I think things cannot remain accurate no matter what we do. The Regency attempt to create alterations, we attempt to stop them, but in doing so history has changed already. The best we can manage along those lines is 'mostly the same' but our mere presence in a time and place not our own creates ripples, which means COST's mission is not truly about maintaining the original flow, is it? In one way or another we make a difference.

A curious thought, isn't it? Perhaps we ought to make a bigger difference. I want to know more about the larger situation before I decide.

un: @MAXIMUMTIGER

[handtowels]

If people are content, they won't rise up. The real problem here is that the governance of the land is poor under the king's authority.

Of course we bear some responsibility.

I have a place and a set role to fulfil. I don't think that's a bad thing.

[trample]

Indeed. It isn't. In fact I'd argue people's lives are more fulfilling when they understand the roles they need to take. At that point, it's up to them whether or not to shake themselves free of it.

I'd say, most don't.

[handtowels]

My first Lord taught me that our dreams are worth pursuing. Even if they end up broken.

un: @BROKEBACKSTAB

[handsomefoil]

@KRUGER I can only agree with whatever limited knowledge I learned in my textbooks
@KRUGER So yes, I agree with this revolution and its outcome
@KRUGER Reaping the benefits of the results and all that
@KRUGER If I want to get more in-depth I suppose I can't agree that there is always going to be a "right" way to govern- just what works best at the time couple with what the nation's people desire. Monarchy worked for a time and then shit got out of hand when people realized that they could fight their miserable situations
@KRUGER Now on to new and better things or what they hope is better

@KRUGER While our plan didn't pan out as we'd wanted, in the end it worked out well for the bloke
@KRUGER Not sure how I feel about King Louis XVI having surviving family members though
@KRUGER That might either come back to bite us in the arse or lead to something we never would've imagined in present day
@KRUGER At the end of the day, we'll just have to see where our actions takes us
@KRUGER That's what history is all about isn't it?

@KRUGER No I don't think I am free
@KRUGER But sometimes I find that brief moment of something similar through small acts of rebellion

[trample]

[ Eren doesn't quite reply to the man's thoughts on the revolution. For the most part, he doesn't have much to say, given his general lack of understanding prime Earth history as opposed to his own, but he's willing to give everything a good once-over before internalizing it as best he can.

He does agree with what seems to be a jaded sort of acceptance over both the politics of the matter and the mission itself. All they could do was move forward. Which moved Eren on to the next topic. ]

In that case, what is it which impedes you?
Is it responsibility to others? A family? Or even, a dream? Most wouldn't consider these things shackles, but often it's the will of others which forces us into situations that would otherwise be terrifying.

Most folks step into hell under orders.

Who's giving yours? And how do you decide when to step on your own accord?