Scenario:Created by the Stars, Loved by the Skies - The Sky's Future - Chapter 1: Truth of Arbitration - Episode 2

Created by the Stars, Loved by the Skies - The Sky's Future - Chapter 1: Truth of Arbitration - Episode 2

Zooey reveals that she, Other Zooey, and Geo are all surrogates of Cosmos. Though she understands that (Captain)'s death was a result of world arbitration, she and the crew would rather have the captain live on.

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Zooey: To be precise... She and I are not primal beasts.

Io: Huh? So I had the wrong idea all this time...

Zooey: Rather, because neither one of us has a core...

Zooey: We cannot be considered true primals.

Medusa: That sounds a bit like Medusiana.

Medusa: She doesn't have a core either because she's an offshoot of me and my sisters.

Rosetta: So just like Medusiana originates from the gorgon sisters...

Rosetta: You mean to say you originate from another being, Zooey?

Zooey: Yes... Our true form goes by the name Cosmos.

Zooey: She's a primal beast created in the Astral Realm over two thousand years ago to watch over the skies.

Rackam: Two millennia, eh? Makes her about as old as the archangels.

Satyr: I had no idea a primal like that exists...

Zooey: Cosmos's creator designed her to arbitrate the Sky Realm.

Eugen: A primal meant to break up fights, huh?

Medusa: But if that's true, then why'd the War drag on for so long?

Medusa: Couldn't she have just jumped in with her arbitration a lot earlier?

Zooey: Not exactly... Cosmos oversees things from a much higher stratum.

Zooey: Resolving problems so great that skydwellers could not possibly handle on their own...

Zooey: Problems that, if left untreated, would be forever unmendable.

Zooey: Namely, she was to eliminate any threats to the world's continued existence.

Katalina: Then the reason that other Zooey kept calling (Captain) the world's enemy is because of... Cosmos?

Zooey: ...

Medusa: So the War's no big deal, but (Captain) is?

Medusa: I'm calling bunk on that! Total snake poop!

Grand Order: The singularity is a threat that uproots the world and so must be eliminated.

Baal: Maybe you can tell us your criteria?

Grand Order: ...

Eugen: Mum's the word again, huh...

Medusa: Tch, we're getting nowhere.

Medusa: How about you bring Cosmos right here, right now! I'll ask her directly!

Even in the face of Medusa's furious protest, Zooey listlessly shakes her head.

Zooey: I cannot do that.

Satyr: Why not?

Zooey: Cosmos has been hidden in the Astral Realm ever since her creation. For her to come here would be...

Rosetta: Well, it is true that the path between the two realms is generally closed off.

Satyr: I guess she won't be showing up then...

Zooey: We are here in her stead.

Zooey: That "Zooey" and I manifested in the Sky Realm as surrogates of Cosmos's power in order to perform arbitration.

Nezha: And I suppose Geo, the primal we met on that war-torn battlefield, is also cut from the same cloth?

Nezha: After all, he mentioned Cosmos as well.

Geo: Why... can't you see...

Geo: I am will made absolute. I exist to bring tranquility unto the world.

Geo: Oh, Cosmos...

Zooey: I have never met the one you speak of, but that does seem a safe assumption.

Medusa: This Cosmos primal must be off her rocker.

Medusa: I mean, just look at Zooey, Other Zooey, and Geo...

Medusa: It's like they're each going off and doing their own thing.

Medusa: What's the point of it all!

Zooey: Despite how the actions of us surrogates may appear, Cosmos has one simple role: to arbitrate the Sky Realm.

Medusa: That'd be a little more convincing if the three of you stand-ins were actually consistent!

Zooey: That particular point is rather difficult for me to explain.

Zooey: For starters, our actions and when we choose to appear are independent of Cosmos's will.

Zooey: Even our manifestations in the Sky Realm are the result of an autonomous system.

Zooey: Cosmos herself does not control any of it.

Io: Gah, how irresponsible can you get!

Io: Hiding out in the Astral Realm the entire time, never having been to the skies herself...

Io: While lording over us with "arbitration this, arbitration that" through some automated system!

Io: What the heck could someone like that possibly know about (Captain)!

Zooey: Io... I'm sorry.

Zooey wearily hangs her head.

Zooey: I understand your umbrage.

Zooey: Though I came to exist because of the arbitration system, I've been able to spend precious time with all of you.

Zooey: Because of that, I now understand what it means to be a skydweller...

Zooey: To feel pain, anger, and sadness...

Zooey: That is why Cosmos remains by herself in the Astral Realm.

Io: What do you mean?

Zooey: In order for arbitration to remain as objective as possible, it must not be influenced by any individual or emotion.

Zooey: That is why she...