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It had become common sense for aliens from the day they evaded and took over Earth that humans naturally feared death. Humans and living creatures alike fear the end of their lives, fear the blade hanging and lingering on the top of their heads, just waiting for the time to strike.
It’s something they’ve known since birth, known for their entire lives, yet when the time comes, they dread it. They refuse to give in despite the odds so obviously stacked against their favor. All to live a little longer despite its inevitability.
That’s why the aftermath of both the first and sixth round caused an uproar among the aliens in attendance to the surrounding audience in alien stage. The utter confusion was imminent, the one simple question of how spreading quickly in the crowd.
How?
How could these two pets smile? Smile despite the knowledge that their death is set in stone? Smile despite the knowledge that their lives will come to an end?
Does death matter so little to these two humans? If so, why?
Both the aliens and the pet humans pondered such questions. The spectacle that both pets took part in left its audience in awe, such an event too unexpected for anyone’s preference. After all, these little humans who were created solely for their pleasure and entertainment, were willing to do anything to live longer.
They were willing to doom another to their death just for their own sake. And yet, these human pets died for another and even had to courage to smile fearlessly as if death was a dear friend.
But what they saw was only the surface. The surface that both Ivan and Sua freely showed, that they had courage, that they weren’t afraid of death. However, they didn’t see the slightest twitch in their smiles, the wavering glint in their eyes, one quickly replaced by adoration. They failed to notice how their hands trembled as they blinked back tears.
They feared death. An idea so terrifying that it made their guts twist with nausea. An idea so terrifying that it made their palms bleed when they pressed their nails too hard. But, something was able to overcome this fear, it was able to help them to make up their minds and do what had to be done.
It was one word, mentioned briefly during a class in Anakt Garden.
Yes. They called it love.
Such a simple feeling that only humans were able to feel. A feeling so consuming that you can’t help but let it consume you whole until nothing is left. A tender yet cruel feeling able to fill you with overflowing warmth but at the same time, is able to shred your little heart to small pieces.
A feeling so terrifying yet so beautiful.
It was the one and only thing that aliens could never hope to understand even when their lives came to an end. Something they’ll never be able to feel, because of its exclusivity to the humans cursed to be alive.
But with such a feeling called love nestled in the deepest parts of their hearts, it makes one wonder what humanity’s true curse is. Is it being wholly consumed by love to the point that you’ll welcome death? Or is it being used by eldritch creatures to the point that you’ll welcome the exact same thing?
Most pets naturally choose the latter, but it seems for those two, they chose the former with a genuine smile plastered on their faces as blood painted the cheek of the man and woman they loved.
A truly peculiar emotion indeed.