magentarific | o9 :: Flood of Destiny

[voice]
Since the whole place is in shambles anyway, does anyone with building skill want to help me make a new building for a coffee house? I'm willing to work as long as whoever I'm working with actually knows what they're doing, because I don't.

[ A beat of silence before she completely changes gears. ]

Also: I've got a ref and at least two players signed up, but I want to hold a beach volleyball tournament when things are less wet! I'll need at least two people to wear bikinis and aprons to hand out refreshments and lots of participants.

{{ ooc: I got permission for Yuri to have a coffee shop, but since there's no place for one she'd have to build her own. Since she has no building skill, she needs help. The flood is like a sign from destiny, though. }}

[action]
[ At any point during the day after this post, one might find Yuri wandered around town looking for a good spot that she wants to set up shop. She's wearing something different than normal, a nice green coat that she'd received as a gift quite some time ago, and it almost looks as though she's about to give up--

No, she's just heading off to get out of some of the mess to take her socks off, since they're pretty much just getting covered in mud and mess anyway and making her a lot more uncomfortable than if she had bare legs. Sure, it might not be as warm, but it's not itchy at least. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Only about things I want to find out more about.

You can be curious without being suspicious.

But if you're not suspicious then you'll accept everything as the truth the first time you get an answer, whether it's right or wrong.

Yes, but then when you investigate further, the inconsistencies start to show through the cracks.

Yeah, but what happened while you were expecting it was truth? You might've lost something if you didn't see the cracks soon enough.

Lost what? If there's nothing to tell the truth from the lie, what good would it do to suspect a lie over the truth?

Because in the case of people like them, they might use you looking at the shiny truth to do things that aren't so shining. Not every lie is like "Santa Claus" at Christmas. If it looks beautiful and fun, then that just means it's that much easier for them to do horrible things behind the scenes. If it really is the truth, scrutinizing it will make it obvious it is. Lies don't hold up, but the truth does.

But in the same way, couldn't you spend so much time scrutinizing what they said that you miss what else they do?

Noticing the good that someone does doesn't excuse what they're doing that's bad. Just because someone feeds you, protects you, lets you have fun and for the most part keeps you out of harms way, it doesn't mean that they get to do one or two bad things because the scales are already off on the end of good. That's like saying "I don't care if they enslave or kill one or two people as long as the rest of us are all having a good time."

No, but if the good can only exist if the bad does, things become much less simple. You can't always say "just stop doing the bad things" and expect that the good will remain. If it were possible, bad things wouldn't be done in the first place.

No, but that's why everyone has free will. In a place like this, we don't get a say in what happens to us. If it were in a normal place, we would at least have the right to give input to what happens to us. Get warning or have to volunteer for things. If one party has all of the control, there's a problem because the others don't have any choice at all.

It's possible that they've tried so before, and doing so rendered the process itself ineffective. After all, how many people do you think would be suspicious whether any good was even being done, and therefore opt out or refuse to volunteer?

Humans always end up working together though. That's part of being human. So even if some opt out or refuse, it's not like everyone would. The point is that they have the choice.

Not everyone here is human. You also seem to have a very optimistic view of humanity.

Maybe not, but most people still have some level of what we call "humanity." Even if it's kind of a narcissistic name by the human race, it's still qualities that a lot more than just humans share and even then, not all humans have it either. If I gave up on everyone that easily I wouldn't even be here right now, so maybe it's optimistic but it's better than just assuming that everyone sucks.

Not even everyone needs to opt out. All you need is enough people doing it to make things ineffective for it to be a problem. Asking people to hurt themselves for others, knowing that their hurt will turn around and affect others, is not something that will get a great number of volunteers. Even from those who are selfless.

I wasn't saying that that's what everyone should do. I was saying, that's what people are like, in general. There are exceptions, obviously, but that's just how people behave.

Which is why we don't have war.

It's why we do have war. There's always someone who wants to take away our free will, that unites people to claim it back. When we claim it back, we help each other out toward our own goals. So we may not help out the people we're against, but war itself is basically just fighting to protect something or someone you care about. It's really, really stupid.

But if that were the case, in your idea, one side would never be large enough to become a threat. It's not always about free will. The world is not so black and white, and it's not always the case that one side is clearly "wrong".

It's always about free will. It's just whose version of their own free will wins out against others and what the groups' present wills are.

Also, if you keep saying not everything's black and white then you can't make any conclusions at all, ever, since every single individual is different on different levels so we might as well stop having this conversation if you don't want to generalize at all, moron.

There's a difference between generalizing and oversimplifying. You can still draw conclusions without making incorrect assumptions.

How about daimyos fighting over who earns the tax from which peasants? Those who are drafted to fight don't reap the benefits of their labor.

The samurai get paid by the daimyos though right? So they get their metaphorical paychecks from the people who are getting more money. If the daimyos wanted to just cut their paychecks, they could get more money that way too. By fighting for their daimyo, they're keeping the money in their own pockets, so they definitely have benefits for working for their rights to having a decent dinner and some spending money when they get home.