#and look maybe I'm projecting because parental deaths are not always tragic and terrible and that's a story not often told

[ophelialmx]

I feel like there’s an interesting Essek note that gets missed. It wasn’t:

Essek: I feel responsible for the death of my dear father D:

It was more like...

Essek: I guess being responsible for the death of my father would be objectively considered a ‘bad’ thing I have done? Social norms suggest his death should be significant to me, so it seems pertinent... He was not a great loss though, not a lot of life goals there.

... Which again I find way more interesting than the sweet/tragic/tortured interpretation, that he is a person haunted by responsibility and loss over the death of a loved one. Being blocked off from most pain or guilt related to the event, or legitimately having little regard for the person who died, is the road less travelled and so very interesting. Essek doesn’t even know if his father was close enough to a beacon to be reincarnated - and from the way he spoke about it, that’s not tearing him up inside. He is perhaps wary about the idea, but mostly finds the possibility academically fascinating. Wow.

Edit: And that doesn’t even open the can of worms that is the contrast to Caleb’s story, let alone anyone else’s.