~ Xenoblade Chronicles 2
"What's the world like?"
Maribel was in the viewing portal of the Rhadamanthus. She couldn't remember how she got there.
Below her, the Earth stretched out. No matter how often she saw the sight, she never grew tired of it. Of the vast blue, and great islands of white clouds that floated over it. The various shades of browns and green that were the land on which people lived. The way it glowed, reflecting sunlight just like the Moon did. And when day turned to night, one could see the twinkling lights of humanity that shone in the darkness.
She knew Renko felt the same, if not more, even if she didn't often have time nowadays to simply enjoy the view.
The girl standing next to her was curious. She wasn't human. Maribel knew that much, even if she looked human. A young woman, dressed in a white and black jumpsuit not unlike what the Skell pilots wore. Unlike those pilots, her vibrant turquoise hair reached down to her hips even tied up in a ponytail.
Maribel turned towards the girl. The girl turned towards her. Her eyes were the same shade of turquoise, luminous like the glow from the Earth below. Luminous like the strange green crystal on her chest, in the shape of a cross.
"The world?" Maribel gave the question some thought. The young woman waited patiently, her hands clasped.
"It depends on who you ask," Maribel said at last. "Reality is defined by the cumulative experiences and beliefs of the observer. By nature, it is subjective," she turned back to look down upon the Earth. "Some people might say that the world is good. Special, unique in all the cosmos. Others might say that it is a wretched place, full of evil and misery. Some might see it as a place slowly dying, diminished as it is from what it was once. Others might see it as a place of hope, for how far we've come. Some see it as temporary, a stop before going on to somewhere greater, whether it be the stars or Paradise. Others as the only place that matters. For most humans, it is home. But not all."
She thought of the Realians. Artificial creations of humanity, who resembled humans to the point of practically being humans but who were not born from their dreams or fears or beliefs but created through careful and deliberate science. Was the girl a Realian? She wasn't a yokai, Maribel was certain. But neither did she feel entirely earthly.
The young girl blinked at Maribel's answer. It wasn't surprising. A sizeable number of people were uncomfortable with the subject of subjective reality, which Relative Psychology as a disciple was wholly about.
Rather than argue, however, the girl seemed to mull over Maribel's answer for a moment.
"Then, what was the world like for you?" she asked.
Maribel considered the question for a moment, laughing even as she furrowed her brows.
"That's a difficult question," she admitted. "Or, rather, it is difficult to answer succinctly. If I had to put it simply it's…"
Being able to see boundaries for as long as she could remember. To be able to observe the hidden worlds folded within the gaps of the world, to know how fragile things were. To be able to see mysterious, unknowable things, to constantly have been on the brink of teetering between this world and some other. Of hating it until she had met a young woman who had said to her face that her eyes were strange before asking her if she wanted to help solve the mysteries of the world.
"…It is a place full of mysteries," she said at last with a frown. "Sorry if that doesn't quite answer your question."
"It's alright," the young woman said, though she clearly was a little annoyed. The young woman's frown turned into a more thoughtful expression.
"The way you describe the world is very different from how Doctor Galea describes it."
"Is it?"
"And it's different from how the Professor talks about it," the young woman added, almost reproachfully.
"Well, it's like I said. Reality is what the observer makes of it."
"So…" the young woman became pensive. "If I wanted to know what the world was like, I'd have to go down there myself?"
"It wouldn't be a bad idea," Maribel said.
The young woman turned back to look down at the Earth. Her hands balled up into fists, before she brought them to her chest and clasped them together.
"I wonder if I'll get to see it…"
