Through the heart

[jianai]

[1 - locked to Argos Flight]
[Immediately after the mission ends, someone is checking on VG's downed TSF.

VG himself can see a weird person appearing in the entrance to the cockpit, looking at him with a concerned expression.]

Are you wounded? I know you didn't die, but it'd be a shame if you were hurt because of me.

[2]
[Later, back at Unity Group Bases, someone is making a video introduction.

That someone is an individual with horns and an unchanging smile on their face. Ren switched the old robe to standard, baggy technician overalls. The reason for that is simple: the robe had a gunshot hole at the heart, and was stained with blood - Ren's blood.]

Hello, my name is Ren Ubuntu. I am really grateful for saving those ESUN soldiers. Let me explain. Hmm, where should I start? Ah yes. These...

[Poke at the horns.]

They are real. No, I am not a demon or anything supernatural like that. I am an artificial human-like being, birthed from a cloning pod. I'm afraid that my kin, beings similar to me, are after me. They want to, well, kill me and eat my flesh. I am not too concerned for my own safety, but they started to target people around me as collateral.

So I'm turning to you for help. I know Unity Group is powerful and can defend itself against my kin, and your Commander-in-chief agreed to grant me asylum, at least for a little while. I have a little bit of skills I learnt here and there, so don't worry, I won't be a freeloader. If there is a way I can help you with anything, I will.

This introduction feels... impersonal, but I'll gladly talk to everyone in person. I'd like to get to know all of you better.

I'm sure you are all wonderful people.

[The transmission ends there, but Ren is easy to find in person. They don't exactly blend in with the crowd.]

[3]
Several people have died that night. So many more could've perished, but even that few make me sad. It's a tragedy.

[Ren found the memorial, and puts a lit candle in front of it.]

I know most of them were not members of Unity Group, but I hope it's alright if I remember them this way.

Comments

[ugyuuya]

Sounds like all the old Catholic lectures I used to hear as a child.

I believe that humanity on the whole tend towards the good but there are a lot times where we are tempted away by desires or anger and fall short of being as good as we could be. In some cases those feelings can feed off of each other or a particularly disturbed individual can commit atrocities beyond what most people could understand.

Unfortunately when those people are also charismatic it just compounds the problem.

So it's impossible to classify the human race on the whole, some are good and some aren't but it's all a matter of choice.

If it's something similar for you then are there others like you? If there are then we could try to gather them and protect them if they need it. I assume that even a young woman like yourself would want companionship from your own kind.

[jianai]

Some of my kin think humanity is the worst, and everyone is selfish or one step away from becoming a monster.

Some think not too differently from you - that humans may be good, but there are flawed individuals who are often in power. So they don't believe in humanity, they just want to be left alone.

From those who believe in fundamental decency of humankind, not just in general, but every single person - there is only one. Well. I would not mind if there were more, but as far as I know, there is just me.

So to answer your question: it is a personality thing. My view on the world and humanity is unusual even for my own kind.

[ugyuuya]

You really believe that much in all of us? After what happened here, what's been happening for thousands of years in our history, what we continue to do in our day by day struggle to survive?

That's pretty amazing even if it is beyond what a normal human could ever achieve.

[jianai]

Yes, I do.

And, VG - thank you.