HP: Dementors, souls. FFXI: Eek! Monsters! Run!

[thistlechaser]

In amanuensis1's thread about Sirius being dead (or not), there was a side conversation about Harry dying in at the end of book seven. I put forth the situation I'd like to see (Harry dying and getting to be with his parents and Sirius in the afterlife), and that's had me thinking for a couple days now. It took Duinn Fionn's (wonderful) fic, A Thousand Beautiful Things, to make more things click in my head.

I don't believe in "souls" (spirits, whatever) in real life, but in the HP world it's been established that they exist. Dementors suck them out, leaving just a husk of a person behind. (Again it was A Thousand Beautiful Things that made me question more about this. What's the use of sucking someone's soul out? Is there anyone left to suffer? Wouldn't it just be more work for people (since they need to feed and care for the body), with no one left inside the body to feel what's happening to them? Why not suck the soul and then kill them right away?)

I'd like to think JKR is setting up the existence of souls to use at the end of book seven, but I'm one of the faithless and figure that she just thought "hey, dementors sucking souls would be cool!", and so went with that...

There's a counterpoint though: How would people know that it's actually a "soul" being sucked out? Maybe they suck intelligence/personality/something else important, and people just call it a soul. I wonder if people can talk after they lose their souls? React to things? Feel pain? (Rrr! How can JKR introduce things and not tell us every little detail as to how they work? :) )

Hm, I can't find my searchable text-file books, but I wonder what they had said about ghosts being made. Were they from souls, too?

---

I made the run/ride to Jeuno last night, and just made it by the skin of my teeth. I believe chocobo rides last 30 minutes when you rent them at level 20 or above? I made it in about 28 minutes. (I got lost in La Theine, as I always do. Too many canyons!) Once I got there, I went in search of the NPC who hands out the Gobbiebag quest. Perhaps I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was to walk into a store and see goblins in it. Goblins! My first thought was "Oh my god! It's a trick! This is a high level city, it's not surprising that they'd put monsters IN the city!", followed quickly by "RUN!!!"... but then I noticed the weren't interested in killing me, and one was named the name I was looking for, so I talked to him and got the first quest.

Figuring that the items would be more expensive to buy in Jeuno, I bought them elsewhere (total about 35K). Handing them in, he gave me the five extra slots. Yay! He didn't offer me the second quest, so I thought my fame might not be high enough, so I went out and did some other quests. (I got some keen titles, too... then lost them when I went back to Sandy and turned the beetle shells in.) When I went back the second time, he gave me the second quest. I didn't have the items, so went to the AH and bought them. Over 45K. Eek! But turning them in, he gave me another five extra slots, and so it was cool. 80K for ten extra slots is totally worth it (at least to crafter-me). I tried to get him to offer me the third upgrade (I still had 80K left at this point), but even after more quests he didn't, so I gave up and went home.

I spent the rest of the evening/night cooking and selling (and found some new things that people snap up!). Between the time last night and putting a few batches up this morning before work, I made 20K back. Heh heh heh. Not bad!

I think tonight we're going out as a party, so that'll be fun. I think we're partying again tomorrow, though I'm not sure I'll make that one. Hopefully, but it depends on how long it takes to pick up my con tickets/badge/whatever. (I wish wish wish this con had taken place a couple months ago, when I was still rabidly into anime. I stilllike anime, but it's taken a big back-burner to FFXI. It would have have been a lot more fun to go when I had been loving every little anime-related thing. Oh well.)

Comments

[fealu-bryne.livejournal.com]

I think tonight we're going out as a party, so that'll be fun. I think we're partying again tomorrow, though I'm not sure I'll make that one.

Wow. I was skimming, caught that, and blinked. "Oh my God, Thistle's... going out?!" Then I read more carefully. "Oh. Duh. FFXI."

But hey, you are going to that con (ACK! LIGHT!!!) which is fairly impresive. So I guess I should give you some credit, eh? Lucky lucky...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Eeek! Snake!

Stop that, meanie!

And you suck! I go out a lot. I'm out right now, aren't I?

*sticks tongue out*

:)

[pinkfinity.livejournal.com]

What's the use of sucking someone's soul out? Is there anyone left to suffer? Wouldn't it just be more work for people (since they need to feed and care for the body), with no one left inside the body to feel what's happening to them? Why not suck the soul and then kill them right away?)

I think it's because it deprives the one whose soul was sucked of any opportunity for being part of the afterlife. You can't be a ghost, you can't exist beyond the veil, and you can't take part in whatever that next great adventure is. Instead, your existence is snuffed out, and perhaps digested painfully over a millenium, like that sand-creature that they tried to feed Luke to in ROTK.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hm, that'd make sense. I wonder what's left of the body though. Just a husk that someone needs to put into bed every night and wash every morning? Or more like a sleepwalker who just needs to be watched an nudged in the right direction?

But hm, even if someone was a massmurderer, wouldn't keeping them from an afterlife be an excessive punishment?

[chrysoula.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, aren't the dementors considered a hideously evil and over-the-top form of punishment who only suck out souls when they can get away with it, rather than as a matter of course?

Is the body left, or do they die when the soul is sucked out?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

who only suck out souls when they can get away with it, rather than as a matter of course?

Am I mixing up fanon and canon? Isn't being Kissed a punishment they use in the books?

Is the body left, or do they die when the soul is sucked out?

I'd like to know that, too! :)

[chrysoula.livejournal.com]

From what I remember from the books, the only time we actually see somebody Kissed is Barty Crouch, Jr. And I think there either the Dementors did it without instruction, or Fudge sort of encouraged them to suppress Voldemort news. The Dementors guard Azkaban, and surely if it was used as an actual punishment rather than a deterrent to escape, people like Sirius and Bellatrix LeStrange would have been prime candidates, yes?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hm, interesting. Could be, yeah. I'm rereading the books, but I'm only mid-CoS right now, so I haven't hit them yet.

Thanks!

[loneguardian.livejournal.com]

Well, look at it this way: There will more than likely be lots of people cosplaying FFXI jobs and such. :3 (I've seen a lot of RDM AF and WAR AF cosplaying around~)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Really? Hee! That'll be fun to see.

I'm feeling less twitchy about going to the con now, anyway. Our LS 20s party is camped out in Jeuno, and we'll be staying there ... well. I'd guess about two weeks. (The goal is to get us all up to 28, so we can party with the LS people above us.) There's less for me to do in that city when not partying, so I feel less twitchy being off doing RL stuff. (I do want to try fishing there though!)