therookery | (no subject)

Rules can be grating if not proposed from a place of responsibility and respect. Some keep people alive.

As for absolutes, I do not think they should be used. There is rarely a time where they apply to real life.

What rules have you encountered that lacked the responsibility and respect you speak of?

I see your reasoning. I wonder at them not being used, however; absolutes allow decisiveness and action. Not without flaw or risk, certainly, but considering every nuance risks hindering progress.

In Baldur's Gate there were the Steel Watch. Autonomous guards under the control of Enver Gortash, who took command of the city through mind manipulation magic. He used them to corral foreigners.

If I said all dragons are dangerous, it would discount any dragons currently amicable to those of us on two legs. The githyanki fly on Red Dragons, use them as steeds.

Mind manipulation suggests that the Steel Watch would not have acted so, and that the power was claimed illegitimately. Would that conduct not be a breaking of rules and laws?

Is githyanki a title granted those who train dragons? I am unfamiliar.

It was yes. The claim and the use of the Steel Watch as it was.

I apologize. Githyanki is a race from my home. They do have specific titles for those who ride dragons, though.

Then all rules and laws imposed are illegitimate.

( It is too easy to lean into old habits of the absolute in Tranquility, to forget the fear that would have people conform to the decree of someone willing to take such steps to grasp power. )

No apology is required. Are the Githyanki like the elves or dwarves of this world?

Githyanki are a warrior race, of sorts. The look a bit like elves, but have a longer face.

Why are you asking?

My inclination has been to act in accordance with absolutes, as a means of self-definition; forming rules to act by and hold as a frame of reference. These past years I had endeavoured to depart from this pattern, however, in Tranquility I have returned to it.

I asked without context so as not to influence responses, so I can best determine if my past efforts were misguided. Rules appear logical, if applied consistently, and yet, illogical to hold to absolutes that oft accompany or inform rules' construction.

I feel like you just answered your own question.

Rules provide certainty and efficiency. Without emotions to inform or grasp at nuance, rules hold greater value. My answer would be to hold to rules.

Me too.

But like you said, it's illogical to make that an absolute.

How do you navigate rules without the certainty of absolutes? Do you have a rubric you refer to for guidance?

I just weigh the options and go with what I think makes the most sense in the moment. And if I'm still not sure, I think about what my dad would want me to do.

Inefficient, though that may be unavoidable.

Is your father a wise man?

Like a lot of things are.

[ hesitant, ] I wouldn't say wise... He's a strong man.

Do you find strength of greater value?

Yeah.

[ no offense to all of research or whatever ]

Without strength, wisdom may not be able to be applied. Without wisdom, strength may inflict great harm.

( No judgment. Everyone has their skills and priorities. )

Do you agree with all your father does, to value his opinion so even in absence, and not considering him wise?

I don't agree with everything he does. But I was raised to be like him. It's complicated.

No absolutes.

( It would be helpful if absolutes could be leaned on. Alas. )

Were you raised to be like him at the cost of yourself?

( The same flatness, uniformity of tone; there is no judgment, no pity, no condescension. Not even curiosity, just a question asked to help form a fuller picture. )

A possibility in any instance, perhaps elevated when strength is the trait one is being raised to emulate.

No. I come by it pretty honestly. There was no "cost."

[ well, except her childhood, but that story's not rare around here. ]

Gladdening news.

( Not for her, no relief lightens her tone.

She can recognise, however, that most people would be glad to hear it wasn't at the young woman's expense. It is an evident positive, even if Tranquility has made it easier to take things at face value. If she were to cross examine people on every answer they gave her, the rabbit holes would be endless; inefficient, to say the least. )

Was there a code you held yourself to? You made mention of rules, before.

Well, the rules of combat. Rules of tradition. Rules of the great heroes. Not an official code, just stuff like that.

Which rule do you hold most dear?

Always sacrifice the best piece of meat to the gods.

[ she's kidding. that's nowhere near the most important rule. ]

Is "best" objective, or subjective to your own favourite cut?

My own.

No absolutes, that's a fuckin' contradiction. Some absolutes.

Duly noted. What absolutes do you favour?

For starters: If you're fucking more than one girl, they all gotta have different hair colours. Keeps you from getting mixed up.

Is your inability to engage with features beyond blocks of colour another absolute?

If you do it by ass, people get offended.

Depends on what the rules are, why they are in place, and the consequences breaking them bears.

Why?

They hold capacity to be a valuable support, or weaken those that lean on them too greatly. I do not excel at making the assessment without considerable time to reflect on them, and even then, much eludes me.

Hm. Much of human law and etiquette is elusive and contradictory. You aren't being considered for a role where you have to make quick decisions, are you?

Rules're an agreement. Expectations and consequence. But y'know that already.

[ he has been listening. ]

When y'said you want to move away from them before all this, what ones were they?

( She might be surprised that he listened, if she had capacity. )

I sought identity in fulfilling expectations borne of absolutes. To fall short in any way was not the result of another party's subjectivity, nor an inevitability born of mortality and our nuances, but a flaw in myself. In the Circle I fixated on the duties of a Knight-Enchanter, sought out codes of chivalry and ideals that held little relevance in reality. When the Circles fell, combat, faith and honour were all I allowed myself. When I connected with an Honour Spirit, I was dissatisfied with anything that could not fulfil their expectations, but those were the expectations of a concept manifest, not a person bound to reality.

When I was badly injured some years back, weakened enough that I could not raise a sword or walk without a cane, I could not tolerate it.

It is less that I wished to avoid being capable in battle, but that I wished to embrace being more than one thing. I could make mistakes without being incapable, I could be a good daughter of the alienage even as a human, I could do something just for fun, and not because it concerned duty or honour or purpose.

Learning to juggle, for instance. I became quite adept, without practical purpose.

Striving for absolutes is what I strove to avoid. I wished to be many different things. Tranquility makes the evasion of absolutes an impossibility, by its very nature.

Y'talk on rules and absolutes like they're the same thing.

[ rolls it around his mouth. ]

Maybe that's something to think on: The way you been thinking about it. Dunno that Tranquility means y'can't be more'n one thing, or can't find nuance. Reckon just by turning it over this much, you're doing that.