Demifiction: "On Matters of Life and Death", part 2

[ng_moonmoth]

Continuing the previous demifiction with the second part, set at another memorial site.

Warning: This piece is intense and contains some things that might be upsetting to some. The setting was a site of combat in a recent war, and suffered mass casualties (mostly non-combatants) and extensive damage and destruction over a wide area from an event

Comments

[thnidu]

I was hoping the narrator would join in the tiling. And I'm very glad to have read the parts in immediate succession, and end on this note rather than at the end of Pt. 1. Thank you.

[cflute]

This is both very satisfying and uplifting in its own right, and a poignant contrast to Part One. Well done!! My (virtual) hat is off to the hardy souls who've come together to re/build, and chosen to do so in a way that provides opportunities both to honor the past *and* to create a better future for themselves and those around them.

I have just one question - and this is clearly something where I simply lack context. These lines

>> legends have grown up around the poem and the change of government that followed ...

... From the unknown person who probably spent the last few days of their life crafting a memorable warning that wound up changing the course of history <<

Imply that some written work was created in the immediate aftermath of Brakeworm's destruction. Is there a link somewhere, to that work?

[ng_moonmoth]

It's a bit further back in the blog: "The Conscience Of The War". And while there's nothing I've written about it (thus, "legends"), I'm expecting that a government that would respond to the Massacre as described in "News Bulletin: The Massacre Of Cascabel" would be on very shaky ground with folks who have spent many years funding and fighting a war, only to get kicked out of the space they were contesting and have a decent chunk of one of their planets annihilated.

So, I don't know what tipped things over and brought down the regime that sought to pursue and obtain retribution for the Massacre, but I would not be surprised if "Playing Soldiers" helped a number of people make up their minds.