Off-Topic Thread vol. 2

Fiction Portal Intergalactic Summit
1548

That would be a first.

But honestly, I’m getting tired of this back-and-forth. Do I need to spell it out for you? Fine.

I want you to approve of the path I’ve chosen. It’s important to me that you specifically understand and approve of it, because I’ve looked up to you for so long.

And I get that I have to earn that. But you won’t give me the chance. You won’t even sit down for coffee with me. Sure, you endured the roller skating party, but to what end? You still clearly see me as some idiot kid who doesn’t know what she’s doing. So maybe it takes more than just one “party”, or maybe you have to talk with me one-on-one before you start opening your mind.

If you have no intention of getting to know me—and no, reading my posts here doesn’t count—then kindly tell me to ■■■■ off so I can stop having to log on here every day in a vain attempt to chase you. If rejection is all you plan to offer, then I’ll happily go away and spend that time with my coffee and my hot priest.

1549

“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”

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1550

It wouldn’t.

As to the private stuff, you can convo me any time we are online at the same time. You share private circle channels with me. I have always responded to you unless I have been otherwise engaged, never refused to talk to you. I have already told you, I have precious little time for sitting down for coffees with anyone at the moment - that’s not you. Do with that what you will.

1551

I’ve done that. Guess it’s not good enough either.

Anyway. Signing off for now.

1 Like
1552

I think that quote might be a little misapplied here, Ms. Tsukiyo. There have been plenty of “winning moves,” here over time, even when things get vicious.

The question is whether we want this place to be something people try to win, and, also, whether it’s worth the cost. Or rather, I guess it’s more like … the question for everyone involved is who they want to be in this space.

If I do the rhetorical equivalent of glassing planets, it’s still possible to “win,” but the battlefield will keep getting uglier and shorter on life. The same’s true of everyone else, too, but I’m the only one whose actions I can control.

1553

Nothing is good enough for you except me accepting your politics and relationships of appeasement without any reservations or trying to tell you my opinions and concerns. I have been much more accepting than makes any reasonable sense, both here, in space, and back at home, and I still am, after all this rage and demands you choose to throw at me on a public forum, but it seems you will not be satisfied before I post on the IGS declaring that Melisma is right and peace in our time is now also my goal, and go to all events you and your lover go to and bloody enjoy it too.

It also seems you cannot think of any other reason for me, or anyone else, to not approve of your path than that we do not truly understand it, and so you believe that if I just had a cup of coffee and let you explain it to me again, I would change my mind. Understanding your point but agreeing to disagree will never work for you, and there’s no room nor interest in any other opinions but yours in your world. In your mind, people either agree with you, or they are stupid and blind. I suppose it makes sense your lover is a missionary too.

1 Like
1554

Precisely why the “winning” moves aren´t exactly that on the long run.

Moments of triumph perhaps? Of those there are plenty, but since the metrics vary from belly button to belly button, it´s not exactly something that is shared/recognized by everyone, so the cycle of eventual triumphs continues at the expense of something.

Some people are quite happy to sit at the edge of a ruined universe and say “Ha, told you so!”

So many strings connecting some many people. Everyone can make them giggle in a different manner.

Do they actually want to?

1555

Uh … it feels like that’s a little similar to saying nobody wins wars because there’s an aftermath and a next time, Ms. Tsukiyo. And then citing the second law of thermodynamics to say that nobody ever really wins anything?

True, sort of, but it feels like leeching meaning out of the world. Like, looking at a banquet and saying, “Why bother?”

Then again I guess that’s the kind of thinking that leads me to get all tangled up in stuff. So maybe staying aloof and avoiding engagement is better after all.

1556

That is one way of looking at it, another is

Person A “How many unique things at the banquet! I´ll start with desert because it felt right when i looked at it”.
Person B “But milady, there is a proper socially structured order of food ingestion. A, then B, then C”
Person C “Where i come from, it´s B, C, A”
Person D “In my tradition, it´s C, B, A”

Persons B, C and D start arguing about the proper food ingestion order deemed acceptable.

Person A watches while eating icecream with popcorn because her guts craved for it.

B, C, D start fighting for the food, excluding access to certain elements from one another, trading punches and stealing from each other to have, according to their expectations, the proper order of ingestion.

Person A wonders what the hell people, just eat what you want, or go to another venue of your choosing.

But behold! The whole universe is like this, in different forms, in different agreements.

Eat what you feel like eating, fight for what you believe, make others adapt to your prefered food consumption order, its all good, and its all pointless, and its all fun and tragic at the same time.

Find your flow and surf it. Or don´t.

Everything is in its right place.

1557

Being a nosy person, sometimes I wonder what the armchair theorists make of my public posting on the IGS. How close or wide of the mark their perceptions are.

1558

Sure. Except … I don’t want to suffer or see people suffer or make people suffer, Ms. Tsukiyo. I’ve had my fill of it.

Your approach to our faith seems to be to say nothing matters, but that seems to me like turning insight into a chasm for us to throw ourselves into-- that your answer to the old parable is not to strain and struggle to reach the berry, but to consciously let go and fall into the flood.

Ultimately it makes no difference, but making the difference isn’t really the point of that story to begin with.

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1559

Somewhere in the middle, somewhere in the middle.

1560

Well then, there is always the option to disengage from the world. Cut the strings that connect you to others and the suffering is gone. Interacting with it will lead to one of the 3.

Or see that since to do something, anything, is making some of the 3 happen (or all of them), just take it as collateral and go testing to see what kicks in for you, or as our kin seems to like, search within then whatever mainfests itself is a byproduct of this journey.

1561

Disengaging is the traditional monk’s method, yes, but that means making myself useless. It’s hard to really disengage without being terribly selfish and irresponsible, which I guess isn’t an unusual problem. That Achura wound up as a theocracy is nearly enough to make me think the universe even has an active sense of irony.

Ah … this world really is a dreadful trap! I wonder if the Elder Visionaries suffer from headaches a lot.

2 Likes
1562

Or, Aria, there’s always simply engaging by other means. In true Caldari fashion, perhaps it’s best to assess everything as a cost/benefit analysis. Every single thing we say and do has certain benefits and corresponding consequences, some intentional and some incidental. Sometimes we have to wonder whether there are better approaches to how we particularly move through this universe, and whether the outcomes are worth the investments.

Many of our capsuleer victories are elusive, and those we obtain often Pyrrhic. In the end, one should always reserve the ability to say or do nothing. It should cure your headache at least to be able to forget. All our lives are but moments beneath the stars, and I’ve often found comfort in placing that energy in those places and people who most benefit, most deserve, and most want it. And in all those other cases, it is often best to wait to be of service and evaluate the terms then.

1563

Do you know that a single information gathering unit could represent more threat than, for example, a whole tank company?

1564

Excellent, now that there’s one of these we can talk about pets again!

I suppose my only worry about having another blueback mastiff is that I don’t know how often I’ll be home to take care of them. It seems cruel to neglect them, and needlessly mean to take one with me wherever I go. I travel relatively frequently.

1565

I own an Achuran shorthair cat, Veikitty.

I also own three Falcons called Taavi, Kisoinen, and Jirika; two Eagles, Kaaviya and Ruutila; Two Syrikos Hounds, Asam and Tamar; and an Octopus, the Right Honourable Lord Esquire, The Third, Duke of Duchy.

I adore them all and don’t think any are better than others.

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1566

No pets, me. I did have a slaver hound at one time-- somebody wanted to give me one creature in this universe I could trust.

I miss him, but I kind of feel like it’s better not to have the distraction. I’m responsible for enough lives as it is.

1567

I know it might be strange to be referencing a two week old post with nothing controversial being said as a point of discussion, but upon stumbling upon it I actually got to thinking about the idea of being a solider and wondering who among us consider themselves soldiers.

While I served in the Praetoria, I think I was some sort of soldier, but I don’t think it’s an accurate label for myself now. At the same time, I don’t think ‘civilian’ is anywhere close to an accurate description of me either, so I’m honestly at a bit of a loss at the moment. How does everyone else see themselves in this regard? Feel free to inform me how you see me as well if you’ve an opinion on the matter (in regard to being a ‘soldier’ or not).

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