Nika's a good kid. She's not scary.
The flesh building... It's rather mean. Or, greedy? Clingy? If it were really mean, or evil, or wanted to kill, both Lera and Nika would be dead soon.
But the building of flesh doesn't exist, does it? Even in the game, the reality is vague. Was it all just in the kid's head? Pondering these questions, in a place where snow is a constant...
Russia?
... I saw some things reminiscent of WW2, posters that would fit right in at around that time...
Is it NK? A country which traps its inhabitants.. A building of flesh...
Is the main point the abstract... Or rather, the philosophical questions?
I think... Neither answer is wrong. After all, I didn't see a "Bad End"... Only a good end, and a true end.
It's possible that the good end is the bad end which is argued to be good by Nika.
Nika's stance on the building seems conflicted. It's nice. It's safe. It's impossible to leave, though. It's good. Something Nika would invite a friend to partake in. But she's lonely. She's lonely, so she wants to leave. She's lonely, so she wants others to stay. Perhaps it isn't conflicting after all.
The flesh building could simply be death. After all, it's the simplest way to live forever. It's hell. Live in hell. Ants eat their kin, and produce more ants... Corpses are flowerbeds... This all starts with death.
"Allusions to suicide."
This would all make sense as simply an allegory for death.
Nika's analogy with the ants which are one being and live on by eating one another and being born again, reconstructed, was one that she sort of waved off for being considered literally as immortality through cannibalism.
If flowers and mold are included, we have plants, animals, and fungi, plus the building. Nonliving. It's a world, no? The living building is a world of its own.
One gives birth, one eats, one drinks, one sleeps, one lives, and one dies.
One is born, one is eaten, one is drunk, one is slept on, one watches, and one doesn't.
Death cannot be escaped, much like being part of the living building. It is assumed to be an eternity of nothing. Perhaps there are others who walk the same road. But seemingly, also, no way to be sure of anything.
Nika would be the guide. The reaper? No, perhaps not. A river ferry? A guide. All who have come before go on. That can't be, if the ant analogy worked. surely, someone would have joined her in all those years. But perhaps the joining is only with the living building. They won't see Nika again, not exactly the same way.
What is different with Lera? Maybe nothing. Doesn't hate, isn't as scared, thrash...
Is Lera familiar with Nika? Maybe they are. Maybe they're even childhood friends.
But familiar with death, or one in it... "Allusions to suicide"... I'm not perceptive enough. However, one considering death, coming close to death, longing for death, to go quiet...
For long enough, and deep enough, would they not be death's friend?
But after all, death's guide ought accept a lost soul's departure. They guide, they don't reap. If their rightful place is yet the side of the river only once called home...
Nika helped Lera back.
Dead people do reach out from heaven and hell.
They're still there, woven as fabric of memories, huh?
Is Lera old?
Is Lera young?
Is Lera old, dreaming of when he was young?
Is Lera young, dreaming of when he is old?
For a hazy observer like myself, both are plausible.
450762... What is this number used for? Maybe in the beginning, perhaps?
Death is desirable because Life is known.
Life is desirable because Death is known.
To be given something, then to want nothing, and find it, yet realize something was better... What a common occurrence.
To return to the womb is to die.
What is death? What is bliss?
Ignorance is bliss.
It's safe. It envelops all around. It's warm. It helps. It takes care.
Ones inside live at no effort. Little knowledge, and much pondering.
It's quiet. It's empty. It's suffocating. It's uncontrollable. It's lonely.
With no way out, there is no exit. With no control, one cannot be made.
If there is a way out, there is an exit, which may be taken, which is in one's control...
Is that life?
Perhaps, as always, nothing is correct.