LIVE AND LET LIVE

[neigh_sayer]

Who: All and whoever!!
Where: Lobby/Lounge/Kitchen
When: 89 morning!! handwave before or after murder idc he'll be doing this for a while

[guess who was up at ass o'clock cooking and waiting for the cafe to open?? IT'S C, IT'S ALWAYS C

anyway when you come downstairs for breakfast or possibly brunch, there's quite a spread waiting. Most of it choice items from the cafe: macarons, muffins, dainty breakfast sandwiches, tea cakes, and such.

BUT there's also at least a 10 person meal's worth of bacon piled high on plates, deviled eggs, and sliced fruit. A pot of coffee is brewing and tea is made too. There's more of the cafe food, since that's always plentiful, but it looks like he didn't skimp on side items either.

C is dressed slightly less like a gremlin today, having brought down one of the alcheme thrones in the lounge and is well, lounging in it. He flashes a grin]

Gooooooooooood morning my lovely little false idols! How are you feeling? Great? Miserable? A whirlwind of emotions swirling inside you? Good, good!

Well, I've a very special announcement to make! It's been a while since we've all had a real heart to heart, don't you think? We're always going on about oh nooo, I died, oh no my feelings, or oh no demons! Demons are especially soooo boring now. Quick refresher for all you newbies--you're playing this game so those rascals can snatch you up and recruit you! Neeheehee, it looks like they're gearing up for something big. . .

But that got me thinking! Why should you all be busting your ass for them? When you could. . .be busting your asses, for me.

[at this point, he stands up on the throne with a grand gesture, spreading his arms]

Neeheehee! That's right folks! I'm officially throwing my hat into the ring! Becoming some demon's lackey is so dull, so I thought, why aim so low? A simple wish, going home. . .why settle. No, no, I intend to become a god. The whole package! I've already have a legion of followers, so this is the natural next step.

So consider this a recruitment breakfast! Oh, and don't worry. Neeheehee, even soon to be gods have to play by the rules! You don't have to put me before your teams or your lovers or your cat or whatever else. Just know that I've got you, when the time comes. . .well, some of you. As god, I'm gonna have to pass a bit of judgement, so not everyone can join. Sowwy!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANYWHO, that could all be bullshit! But come on on down for an Alcheme Brand Fortune~! And see exactly why you should join my faction!


Or just get some free grub and help me brainstorm a name for the new faction. I'm thinkiiiing. High-Cs? Capital C and all my Lowercases!

[as a side note, for everyone he's recruited that doesn't have one yet: they'll find a handstitched bandana outside their unit's door; it's white and checkered with their team colors.]

Comments

[liftoft]

Of course I would! Everyone with a dream would benefit from support, but calling 'em faceless masses is all wrong too. Sure, there are billions of people I wanna inspire that I'll never meet, but they all got their own lives, y'know? Everyone's their own contained galaxy! My world's just like--the universe that holds all of 'em!

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

And are you a believer of one life is worth the equivalent to another? Or do some have more intrinsic value than others?

[liftoft]

It doesn't work that way--life's not something you can weigh on a scale.

Everyone deserves to want to live. I won't begrudge anybody who fights their hardest to survive.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Even if you have to kill them?

[liftoft]

Especially if I have to kill them.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

. . .

That's the most sincere thing I've heard come out of your mouth yet.

[liftoft]

Man, I'm always sincere! You're just only half listenin' to me most of the time.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Maybe sincere is the wrong word then. How about coming to terms with recognizing that your viewpoint will put you in conflict with others around you. Possibly to an unresolvable conclusion.

[liftoft]

What the hell is an unresolvable conclusion? Everything resolves! One way or another... You really think I don't know that I'm not gonna see things the same way as others? Of course I know that! The point is, I'll make it work out!

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[It's like there's an echo in here]

Even if you have to kill them?

That's something I would have placed outside your idea of "making it work out". But maybe I have misjudged you.

[liftoft]

I'm not gonna jump right to killin' somebody the way a lot of people here do, and I'm never gonna go in with killin' somebody as my aim--if there's any fuckin' way at all to get out of a situation without killin' somebody, thenI wanna do it!

I think that's the biggest difference between me an' a lot of people here--it's like they're not even lookin' for solutions that don't end up in "somebody dies".

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Do you really think the rest of the community so barbaric?

[He asks, genuinely curious and not mocking for once]

Or are you talking about within the games? Two very different worlds.

[liftoft]

Nah, see, ever since that gladiator game I've been thinking about that--I think that's how they get people! Not by wearin' 'em down with bad shit over and over--it's not the bad shit that ends up breaking people! I think it's that we start tellin' ourselves there are times we can forget our humanity and then just pick it back up later, and then we start tellin' the new people who come in that that's how it is, and then once people are willin' to believe all that, the producers start blurring the line between what's a game and what isn't, until we're willin' to go after other people just 'cause they say to. Like people keep tellin' me, they've been doin' this a long time, right?

I mean, I totally get it! I've done some of that stuff, too. And I'm still not gonna hold anything against people if they do somethin' in a game, once we're all out--I just don't want people to forget that they got choices, or to forget to be sure they're the ones really makin' 'em.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

What you're asking for is accountability. Or good intentions. Both which are hard to come by here.

Accountability is difficult because it puts further constraints on our already limited freedom. Add in the wide range of morals here, probably on purpose, and that only widens that divide.

And as for good intentions - how can you prove that through words and not actions when, as you say, our actions are usually forgetting our humanity for a game's duration. Makes words cheap. Almost worthless.

[liftoft]

Yeah--that's why I don't really try to argue any of Alcheme out of the choices they make in games... it is kinda the only freedom we've got, and they're the ones who gotta live with what they do, and for good or not everybody comes back from the games alive. All I'm really asking is that people look their decisions in the face, y'know?

And when you put it like that, that basically describes all words, all the time! But that's what we've got, as a species, so we're just gonna have to put some faith in each other that we're not attacking each out outta ill-will. At least for me, I try and go check up on anybody that Alcheme had a hand in movin' against in a game. If they're mad, then I wanna hear about it! If they're hurt, I wanna help!

I know not everybody can believe in stuff like that, but I do, and bein' true to myself means doin' that kinda stuff even if nobody else gets it.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[It takes him a moment to think that over.

But after a few moments, he finally replies:]

Has AlcheME! ever seriously hurt anyone? Have you?

[liftoft]

Yeah, of course... it'd be pretty impressive if we'd managed to never do it.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Who'd you hurt?

[liftoft]

--Why does it matter? To you, I mean.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Maybe that's the wrong question. Fine. I don't need a name.

How'd you go about making reparations after the fact?

[liftoft]

Nah, it's not that simple! Sometimes you just can't make somethin' like that up to somebody.

But like I said, I always wanna go and talk to whoever it was, face to face! If I'm man enough to decide who lives and dies, then I'd damn well better be man enough to admit it to whoever it was, y'know? And they shouldn't have to wonder who might have it out for them. If they got questions I'll try and answer, if they wanna be mad at me then I'll hear 'em out, if there's anything I can do that'd make 'em feel better, then I'll try and do it!

The important part is, I want whoever it was to know that I don't think they're expendable.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Isn't it that simple? Even though death is cheap here, you want to go to the person your wronged and try to convince them that their death wasn't cheap.

[liftoft]

That's not really it... I don't mean that their death was super meaningful, I mean that I didn't make the choice lightly! I wasn't thinking "I don't know anybody on that unit, so I don't feel bad about choosin' them!"... it'll never be like that!

Getting hurt is awful, but... it's worse when it feels like nobody else notices or cares that you're hurting. Right?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Depends on the person. I consider it a blessing when I don't have to deal with the unnecessary fuss after dying.

[liftoft]

Really? You wouldn't start feeling' weird about it if Fin was gettin' picked in those games over and over?