Chrono Trigger
Optimism and pessimism; A chapter in which we address two contradicting mentalities…
There are two types of mentalities in this world: optimism and pessimism…
There are strong characteristics for each mentality as well as problems inherited in their natures. A pessimist is incredibly real and logical in their thoughts. Although they are generally thought of as doom-and-gloom types, that is far from the truth. They are realists who feel that there is nothing for them but themselves. They are constantly preparing and never hesitate to do anything necessary within their power. However, their weakness is they are quickly out of hope when the situation is most disagreeable. An optimist is full of hope and a hidden power that cannot be tapped by normal means. They are typically viewed as dreamers who accomplish nothing but their peaceful thoughts that abandon them when things go wrong, but that is far from the truth as well. When everything is taken from them they draw upon their spirits and the spirits of others and overcome great obstacles. We also know that an optimistic man on a battlefield will usually be the first to die, thinking to much with hope and not enough with the mind.
Everyone in this world and all others share these two mentalities. There are those that say that you are one or the other, but that is also false. There are times when a dreamer realizes it is time to move on and take action and there are times when a realist must take a risk to achieve something great. When people use both mentalities they can achieve far more than they could if they were to rely on only one. When a man can dream and develop realistic ways to bring his dream into fruition that is when you know that both sides are perfectly balanced.
In this world, where dust storms covered fire-bleached bones and monsters ran amuck, it was understandable that people were not balanced. There was no reason to be happy or expect things to change. As the trio found out by further examination, this world (or their future world) was a millennia and three centuries older than their own. This future was brought to pass three centuries ago by this hellish demon that rained fire from the sky. So we can support the fact that many of these people were born into these conditions and knew nothing else. If the human mind was a scale representing the inhabitants of this future, pessimism weighed more on the hearts by far and optimism found no place in them. This is even truer when it came to the inhabitants of Arris dome who had expected death to come very soon.
So you could imagine the surprise that filled them as the dark corridors were suddenly filled with electrical humming and churning water going through pipes.
There was a fearful hush of silence as if they thought that perhaps their senses got the best of them. They wondered if there was some horrible accident that had befallen them in some shape or form until several moments passed by, but even then they were still skeptical. The men rose from their resting places and looked around the area, creeping slowly in case there was an odd visitor, but evidently no one was there. It was only then that they realized that their problems have been absolved! Their future, which appeared so grim and bleak, had suddenly been illuminated by light, both figuratively and literally. However, not everyone in the dome had been rejoicing. In fact, there was a group below that was experiencing far more pain in a single moment then they should have ever endured at that age.
There are those who desire to know the future, and we can imagine that there were times in their lives where Crono, Marle, and Lucca wanted to know what would occur. However, after the unspeakable things they have just seen they wished that they had never come on this journey at all. Many different things flashed through their heads at that moment, and most of them random thoughts that somehow corresponded to their shattered security. Did these people know what had happened? Was that very thing underneath their world in their time even now? What was the point of continuing if there was an abrupt end?
"It is all a dream…It isn't real…It is all a dream…It isn't real…"
Crono and Lucca looked up from the floor to see Marle shaking her head vigorously, sending her golden locks flying over her shoulders. Crono and Lucca gave each other uneasy glances as Marle kept repeating these words to herself as she pounded her small fists against the dusty floor, growing increasingly loud with each proclamation. She became so distraught that Crono and Lucca had to force feeling into their legs so they could scoot closer to her. That sat on her left and right, each taking hold of a hand and shoulder, causing her to go limp and quiver with sobs once again.
"Marle, breathe, you need to breathe…" Crono spoke firmly, yet softly as he began to rub her back which still continued to shake.
Marle obeyed, but each breath was shaky and more like a gasp than anything else, before she gave up and sobbed openly again.
Lucca followed suit as she said, "Marle, we just need to go home, then we can just forget about what we saw here and…"
Marle shot to her feet abruptly and turned about on her heels, staring down at Lucca who replied with a bewildered stare. Marle was still crying, and her eyes were red and her nose was runny, but her fists where clenched so tightly that they were shaking like leaves in the wind. There was a moment when Lucca thought she was going to strike her, but as the moments passed she realized that Marle was only going to shout very loudly.
"F-f-forget?" Marle was so flustered that she was stuttering, "W-w-what do you mean, 'f-forget'?"
"There is nothing we can do," Lucca said raising her hands and gesturing for her to calm down, "you saw those weapons they had, you saw the world of technology here, you know what was going on, but they still lost! This isn't like a war between countries, this isn't something we can fix, and it is almost as if the world is meant to end this way. Who are we to change that?"
"B-b-but to forget what we have seen? HOW THE HELL CAN I FORGET THAT?" The last words echoed again and again against the wall.
Lucca stammered as well, saying, "There is nothing we can do! This is what happens! We just have to try our best! We can't change what happens!"
"But you did! Remember? I died and you guys brought me back! You changed the future!"
As soon as she said these words you could tell what thoughts had leapt into her head. Her eyes suddenly cleared and there was a glint of hope in them, that seemed to spread all over her face as she looked onwards, as if she could see past the walls of this place and beyond to see something that Crono and Lucca could not. She even went as far as to smile, saying, "That's it! We can do what we did for me!"
Lucca looked at her with dismay, "Marle," she shook her head slowly, "no, we can't do it."
"Why not," she began defensively, "we did it for me and look! I am right here! Why can't we do it for this?"
"If the world could not destroy that thing, then how can we? We barely made it the last time we tried anything…" Lucca began, sounding stronger this time.
"I bet you didn't think you could take on the army to break Crono out, am I right? But you did! We can do this! We have to!"
"No we don't!" Lucca shouted back, "this will never happen to us, so why worry?"
It would be best to explain a few things about how royalty views the world as compared to a regular civilian. The typical civilian, although expected to care for others in their society tend to be generally selfish if we were to examine their emotions. They will work to support themselves, they will care for those that are close to them, and we see no more than that except for the rare person who has a love that extends to all. I am sorry to say that Lucca did not have that love this at this time, and if we were to examine the story until now, you would see that she had a certain motivation to each action, be it to help those dearest to her or for herself. However, when we look towards Marle as she walked among the people in the impoverished domes, her heart went out to them and she wanted nothing more than to assist them. That is because she carries within her the heart of a leader that had been carefully crafted since her birth into the royal family. Although there are kings and queens who lose their way, most of the time there are those who are born with that infinite charity to improve every station whether it stays with them or not. Marle, I am happy to say, will become a marvelous leader, being led by her infinite love to her citizens and their descendants. Say what you will about those who are in power, but do not be so ignorant as to say that they are not conscious of every single consequence to every choice they make. It is their business to know what the losses are, as well as the gain. While Lucca did not see herself suffering, Marle could see the end of all she held dear, and therefore when she heard these words she could no longer contain herself.
The action was so sudden that not even Lucca felt the slap across her face. However, a few silent moments passed as she held her cheek.
Marle glared at her, "How can you say that?"
"Y-you hit me!" Lucca stammered, finding her voice at last.
"It didn't happen to me, so why should I worry?" Marle shouted back, rather nastily and full of sarcasm.
"Say you're sorry!" Lucca shouted back, rising to her feet.
Lucca began walking towards Marle threateningly as if she were going to punch her, and it was at that moment that Crono jumped to his feet, stepping in between them. He was very careful not to let his hands go where they didn't belong as he pushed the two apart, each trying to reach for each other. They began to growl and fume while Crono tried his best to calm them down. It wasn't until someone accidentally slapped him in the face that he took a more forceful approach. He rooted himself on the floor and pushed out his hands with all his might, sending the two women flying to the floor.
Crono regretted doing so the very moment he felt them fly from his hands. They landed roughly on the dusty floor, even skidding a short distance before they sat upright and looked at Crono incredulously. For a moment he felt just as surprised as they did, but he forced several words to leave his mouth while they lay there in silence. "This isn't helping! This won't do any good! Why are you arguing?" He found himself shouting rather loudly now, and it was something that came very rarely.
"You agree with me, don't you Crono?" Marle began passionately, looking to the ground, "We can change this! Please!"
There was a feeling of sickness that came over Crono as he looked into her pleading eyes. He remembered how sorrowful those eyes were as they visited him in prison and how sad they were as they left her home. He did not want to make her pain even worse; he wanted to spare her of any suffering, but for this situation he could not protect her from all pain, but only the most threatening one. He looked into her eyes, his own full of melancholy as he said, "Marle, we can't."
Her voice wavered, "Crono, you don't mean that. You want to help, I know you do!"
"Marle, this is something beyond us. We can die if we pursue this. We have been lucky until now. How much further do you want to press our luck?"
Marle looked towards Lucca, expecting that she would have a victorious grin on her face, but she sat there as silent as stone.
"Crono," she said looking towards him again, "I remember when I came to you in jail, and I was crying then. You said everything would be okay. Were you lying?"
Crono said nothing.
To his surprise, Marle quickly crawled to him and gripped onto his pant leg tightly, "See, I know you think this is wrong! Please, we must do something, or…or…"
"Marle, I have to think about it…" He did not know why the words left his mouth, but they did, on their own free will.
The prospect that he was merely pondering the thought greatly lightened Marle's mood so that she was smiling a trembling smile. She buried her forehead into his knee and only repeated her thanks again and again. Unfortunately, Lucca took this in the exact opposite way. She glared with all annoyance at the two of them while she gave a very unladylike spit to the ground and snorted, "'Think about it'? What is there to think about? We will die if we go after this, and you know it!"
"Maybe there is a way to change the future without getting involved to deeply." Crono offered rather unconvincingly.
"Maybe if I grab onto your pant leg then you would be agreeing with me, is that it?" Lucca replied heatedly.
"You know I am not that kind of person, Lucca." Crono said with a great air of offense.
"All I know is that you are choosing that girl and her opinion over me! What kind of friend are you?"
"Lucca, just take a moment to collect your thoughts! I only said that I will think about it! You are acting like I am purposefully committing suicide."
"That is because you are!" Lucca shouted, "If you plan to go after that thing then kiss your life goodbye!"
"We are all going to die, whether it is today or tomorrow! What is the difference?" As soon as he said this it almost seemed as if something clicked inside his mind.
"Crono?" Evidently whatever awakened inside him was shown by his sudden silence.
"We must try what we can do," Crono said strongly, earning a happy grin from Marle and an appalled look from Lucca, "we will all die, but if I were the people in the future, I would want them to do something, anything to help me. I can't walk away from what I have seen. I would be no better than my father."
There was a mingled look of bitter sadness and resentment as she said, "In that case, when we get home, you two can go on your little journey! I'm through! If my opinion doesn't mean anything to you then just forget it!" She turned her back on them so that they could not see the steady stream of tears falling from her face.
"Lucca, please don't say that. You mean a lot to us." Crono said gently.
"Let's go to the elevator and get the hell out of here." Lucca murmured violently.
Lucca could not stand to be in the presence of people at the moment. She took the whole incident to heart insomuch that she wanted nothing to do with another human being for some time. Instead of joining Crono and Marle for the brief celebration she stormed off to the entrance of the dome so she could not hear any voices cheering them on in euphoria. She was not only angry at them, but at herself while she leaned against the cool, concrete wall.
"I thought I was over this. Why am I so mad that he took her side?"
She thought about what the people in this world were like. She thought about the people that stared at her while she visited the dome like she was some kind of fossil to be examined by all in her vicinity. Just thinking about other people seemed to make her angry as she snarled and pounded her tiny fist against the wall, causing a dull thump to echo throughout the corridor.
"Why haven't they come to cheer me up or apologize yet?" She seethed between her teeth.
Things that she knew to be unjustifiable reasons to be angry continued to creep into head as she envisioned Crono and Marle standing side by side, receiving all the praise for the work that she had also engaged in. Suddenly, and out of nowhere a thought came to her head that made her sick to her stomach: an image of Crono and Marle kissing?
"Where did that come from?" Lucca shouted inside her head as she shook away the image, "Why did I think of that?"
Have you ever been in the presence of someone so angry that you were frightened even to approach them in fear that you would become a target to appease their anger? Evidently a little girl that approached her from the corridor was not too keen on addressing her. Although children seem to lack in observance, this girl was able to tell if anyone was cross and wanting to throttle anyone that came close.
That is why she had to call Lucca's name softly, gently increasing in volume until she was noticed. "Are you Lucca?"
Lucca turned to her, her brow furrowed. "What do you want?" She said rather rudely.
"I was the girl that was with Doan earlier. My name is Melissa." She nibbled on her thumb nail while she spoke.
"Like I said," Lucca said a bit more gently, her civility returning slightly, "what do you want?"
"I want to say," the girl struggled with her words and she looked up rather timidly, "did you see anybody down there?"
"What do you mean?" Lucca began, not thinking before she spoke, "You heard the story from the people I came with; that mutant and everything."
"That isn't what I asked," the girl said with a trembling voice that showed she was on the verge of tears, "Was there anyone that survived?"
"Survived? What do you mean? All of us came…"
It was at that moment that Lucca realized what she had heard only a few hours before. How could she have been so forgetful? Perhaps it was because she was so infuriated by what she thought to be betrayal that she failed to take any other perspectives into her heart. She felt as if she were going to be sick, the guilt hitting her so hard as she looked into the girl's unblinking eyes. She remembered what Doan had said before they descended into the depths of their recent trial.
"I already told you. It is dangerous. We already lost ten men to that place…" What he said earlier entered into Lucca's mind again, resounding over and over.
"No," Lucca said very softly, "we found nobody."
The girl had a look of horror on her face as she shook her head. She blinked, sending two rivers streaming down her pale face. Lucca reached for her shoulder, but she only backed away with a gasp, much like a stricken dog. She looked from Lucca's hand, to her eyes, and back to her hand again before leaning against the wall.
"Daddy…" The girl whimpered as she hugged herself, slinking towards the ground.
Nothing could be said as the girl sat with her back against the wall, her face buried into her knees that were propped against her chest. Her crying was strange; not sobbing and heaving like Marle had done earlier, but soft and breathless, almost making no noise at all. Lucca wanted nothing more than to put her arm around her and comfort her, but every move she made the girl would tense and become defensive. Finally, Lucca ignored this and slid her back down against the wall until she was sitting next to her.
"You know, when I was your age my mother had an accident…"
The girl kept crying.
"I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do. She lost both of her legs and she hasn't been the same since…"
The girl continued crying.
"So, I know that this is hard, but please remember that you have someone who knows how you feel…"
The crying stopped as the girl sneered, looking towards Lucca.
"You don't know what it is like! Your mom is still alive! You can see her! You can hug her! You can talk to her! I will never see my daddy again!"
The guilt dug its way into Lucca even further, almost as if it were a splinter that could not be removed.
"W-well, I mean, I know what that feeling of sadness is like, I mean…"
"Shut up! Just shut up!" The girl screamed, standing on her feet now, "Why do you care?"
Lucca felt tears brimming in her own eyes now, "Please, I just wanted to say that I know how you feel…"
"No you don't! You don't know it at all! I have no one now! Mommy is gone, daddy is gone, my brother, everyone! They are all…dead…"
The girl had gone silent at these words, as if she had only realized this horrendous fact as soon as she had said it. The tears resumed and her chest heaved rapidly as her breathing began to quicken, "I thought that maybe my daddy had lived somehow, but now I know…" She could not finish, merely allowing herself to sprint down the corridor blindly as her tears blurred her vision. She left Lucca alone in the dark to ponder on what had occurred, which made her cry as hardly as Marle had done before.
She had stopped crying almost twenty minutes ago. It was thankful that she did because the last thing she wanted was for Crono and Marle to see her crying as Marle had done before. She straightened herself up and watched as their shadows came closer until she was able to see their faces. They were tired but confident, doubtful but resolute. However, Lucca stayed true to form, allowing no emotion to show on her countenance. She had always known how to hide her true feelings if she wanted to do so.
"How did the people react?" Lucca asked casually, as if she were only appealing to her curiosity.
"We only wish that you were there." Marle offered.
"Yeah, they wanted to thank you as well." Crono commented.
They stood there, the three of them, awkwardly as they tried to force words between them. Mainly, it was Lucca and Marle who wanted to speak to each, each wanting to mend the damage that had occurred, but neither willing to admit fault. Surprisingly, it was Lucca who offered the first sound after three solid minutes of silence. Lucca began her sentence so abruptly that it took a brief moment for Crono and Marle to understand what she meant.
"You know, I was thinking, I mean, while I was waiting here, that there could be some interesting things we could see…"
She waited a moment for a response, but received none. She continued, "Well, I mean, I suppose that if you guys want me to come along…"
There was more silence before Marle placed a soft hand on her shoulder, "I was hoping you would."
Lucca bit her lip and took the hand that rested on her shoulder, smiling and simply replying, "Good."
Crono smiled reverently as if he were contemplating this strange turn of events, "Okay, let's go then."
With that the three began to walk towards their vehicle and head off into the unknown once again. As I have said before, there are two types of mentalities in this world: optimism and pessimism. There are strong characteristics for each mentality as well as problems inherited in their natures. There are those that say that you are one or the other, but that is false. There are times when a dreamer realizes it is time to move on and take action and there are times when a realist must take a risk to achieve something great.
As Lucca walked alongside her friends she thought to herself, "Can you really refuse to help to crying child?"
Author's Note: I am curious; what do you guys think of Lucca so far? Is she becoming too whiny? Are the characters still likable? Thanks for your comments and please know that they are shaping this story as I write them. (I say this because Lenarta wrote that it would be unrealistic for them to want to save the world right after they saw something so destructive. I was actually going to do something like that, but she pointed that out and therefore I thought on it and it made sense! Just keep that in mind! Thanks for all your contributions and thoughts!) Oh yeah, Lenarta, I would still like to see that story if you ever change your mind! Anyway, don't worry just yet! Magus will still most likely live! (I am saying that because it gets you all suspenseful keeping everyone interested in my story! Ha ha!)