Soulless Beauty Aorta

TESTIMONY

Hello?

Can anyone hear me?

...

Where am I?

Anyone?

Please!

Anyone!

Please speak to me!

...

I'm sorry...

There's no need to apologize, Rose

A- a voice... hello? Who are you?

Who are you?

Wh- what? What does that have to do with anything?

Who are you?

Fine. I'm Rose, daughter of Mary, the head of MANNA

Who are you?

Damn it, I just told you! I'm Mary's daughter!

Who are you?

Shut up! What- what am I supposed to say to that? I don't even know where I am! What am I supposed to do?!

You have to find that answer for yourself.

... What?! Are you insane?! I'm just a kid, I don't understand any of what's happening- I can't do anything here, it's all far too much!

And you've always felt that way, haven't you?

...

I suppose... You're right. When I was human, and even when I was Aorta, I didn't... know anything.

...

I... I'm still just a kid, I never understood what I was supposed to do or who I was. I couldn't... define, myself. I'm me, but who is 'me'? And... At the same time, I was too afraid to experiment and try new things to learn about myself. Because I'm too afraid to fail. I'm terrified of it.

Why are you so afraid to fail?

HYACINTH: Because I have to be the best. I have to make sure they never see what I really am, how horrible and selfish and weak I am.

Who are you?

HYACINTH: I'm the cool one! I do everything with style and efficiency!

Who do you want to be?

GARDENIA: I wanna be a train conductor!

ROSE: That's right, I wanted to work with steam engines. Trains were so cool to me, so interesting and complex... but then I learned that it was an irrelevant dream. No one needed trains anymore. No one needed the one thing I wanted to be as a child. No one needed me.

What did you do then? What was your new dream?

HEATHER: I never really found one. I just did whatever, and never amounted to anything. I was just the grocery bagger, the assistant, the background character. I think that my dream of working with outdated machines being utterly shattered at such a young age, caused me to fear having other ambitions.

So you never even tried.

ROSE: I never even tried. That's true of so many things from when I still had my human body. I'm afraid of other people, so I don't want to get close. I never lo-... I never fell in love. And now I never will.

That's the first thing that comes to mind? Why do you think that is?

HEATHER: That's the only reason living beings exist; to procreate. It's... disgusting. It's uncomfortable, to think that despite reaching the stars, at our core, humans were just like any other animal. Maybe that's why we wanted our new bodies to have as little organic material as possible...

Why do you fear others?

GARDENIA: They're gross and scary! I don't like people, why would I ever want to do that with anyone?

You distrust people.

HYACINTH: I don't need anyone else, I'm fine on my own!

ROSE: People scare me.

HEATHER: People disgust me.

GARDENIA: People confuse me.

So, what will you do?

ROSE: That question still doesn't have an answer! It never will!

It never will if you don't find it for yourself.

HEATHER: But that's impossible! I don't know me, why should I have to figure this out? It's terrifying, I don't want to be the one in control, I'll ruin everything!

You don't want total control.

HYACINTH: Who the hell would? Godmode always gets boring after a while.

So what if you had a limitation?

Without natural 20-20 vision, you couldn't become a pilot.

HEATHER: Fantastic, that's a single career path I didn't have to worry about. Why does it even matter now?

But you have less to worry about, right?

ROSE: But how does that help me here? I still don't know what success is, or happiness, or love.

You don't need to know those things right at this very moment. You will grow and change, to live is to change.

ROSE: And what if I don't want to live?

Then you will know what you do want.