"There is little else to do on a train ride, you must admit." Jon replies with a little shrug.
"Ever since meeting all these people I met here, learned their stories and about their worlds I... I have been wondering if my Earth would have stood a better chance had they faced a truly external thread. The Fears, in the end, are entities that came into existence and evolved because living beings feared things and the things they feared changed over time. Nothing truly came from the outside. The monsters ending up torturing people and the people being tortured in the end all were human. Every avatar trying to summon their respective patron used to be human. In the end, we created our own suffering and it only could escalate the way it did because it happened slowly. Subtly. In ways that appeared perfectly mundane. A door that should be there appearing in different places, a crate that feels a little too warm to the touch than it should, a circus that gives you the odd sensation that something isn't right..."
He casts a somewhat apologetic smile up at Ikora. "I'm aware this all sounds very pedestrian. But in the end.... That's why it still worries me. I know the Fears are still out there and I know they are again lingering and bidding their time because I failed to end them. Because the only spirit left on my Earth after I destroyed it was not focused on fighting the Fears, but to make them someone else's problem instead." Plain self preservation. Jon may not be a brave person himself, but he didn't agree with that decision and still feels guilty for how it played out. Because now more people will suffer. Because of him.
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"Ever since meeting all these people I met here, learned their stories and about their worlds I... I have been wondering if my Earth would have stood a better chance had they faced a truly external thread. The Fears, in the end, are entities that came into existence and evolved because living beings feared things and the things they feared changed over time. Nothing truly came from the outside. The monsters ending up torturing people and the people being tortured in the end all were human. Every avatar trying to summon their respective patron used to be human. In the end, we created our own suffering and it only could escalate the way it did because it happened slowly. Subtly. In ways that appeared perfectly mundane. A door that should be there appearing in different places, a crate that feels a little too warm to the touch than it should, a circus that gives you the odd sensation that something isn't right..."
He casts a somewhat apologetic smile up at Ikora. "I'm aware this all sounds very pedestrian. But in the end.... That's why it still worries me. I know the Fears are still out there and I know they are again lingering and bidding their time because I failed to end them. Because the only spirit left on my Earth after I destroyed it was not focused on fighting the Fears, but to make them someone else's problem instead." Plain self preservation. Jon may not be a brave person himself, but he didn't agree with that decision and still feels guilty for how it played out. Because now more people will suffer. Because of him.