IC Inbox

[notevensorey]

Hello! You've reached Dr. Shepard. Please keep in mind that this inbox is not secured by HIPAA standards. Leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can! Thank you!

POKEGO Inbox

Comments

cw mentions of abuse, indentured servitude

[thavnairian]

[Fuck. He doesn't know what mercy is supposed to be like. There's probably a right and wrong answer to this pop quiz...

He breathes in through his nose, calms himself a bit, and responds.]

to me, it's... an act that alleviates suffering, with an eye toward the future

i don't have a lot of faith in institutions because i've seen people abuse power over and over again. true mercy takes all the factors into consideration. for example, feeding a person for one day but not doing anything to make their circumstances better isn't mercy. it's just pity and it's short sighted at that

cw mentions of abuse, indentured servitude

[notevensorey]

Then, I have another question for you.

Do you believe that feeding those children was mercy?

[Sorey promised Amal his honesty, and it's his job as a therapist to ask him the hard questions.]

cw mentions of abuse, indentured servitude

[thavnairian]

of course not

i was a kid too. that was survival

mercy would have been realizing that maybe we should actually feed the pariahs in the lowest parts of the city instead of selling them off

but the thing about mercy is that it comes from people with power

cw mentions of abuse, indentured servitude

[notevensorey]

Do you believe that those without power have no ability to be merciful? In other words, do you believe that mercy is a privilege?

[thavnairian]

i think mercy doesn't exist without some kind of power imbalance. ive seen it used as a tool to control people who fear oppression, making some chosen target of their 'mercy' into a pet.

on a battlefield, isn't mercy shown to an enemy only possible because there's a sword in the other hand?

i think mercy in a lot of cases isn't alleviating suffering but it's just a more subtle threat

[notevensorey]

Are you angry at them for using mercy as a weapon? Or are you angry at yourself?

[thavnairian]

why would i be angry at myself?

[Is both a good answer? Probably, and slightly less evasive.

He hasn't connected the dots that maybe he felt powerless and like he allowed some stuff to happen. Why would he, when he could just channel all that anger into the people who wronged him and his peers?]

[notevensorey]

That's a good question, and it's an important one to answer. Why would you be angry at yourself?

[thavnairian]

[The hell kind of trap is this.]

are you..... asking me.... to imagine being mad at myself?

i dont get it

[THE NILE IS NO LONGER A RIVER IN EGYPT]