[PLAYER PLOT | HUB SCANNING SYSTEM INSTALLATION]

[spellbindmods]

Who: Any coven members interested in installing the hub scanning system OR exploring the (???) on the map!
Where: From the mansion to the peak of the hub's tallest mountain.
When: Day 128
Open/Closed: OTA!

[ Come one, come all, it's time to head to the top of the Hub mountain! Whether your character has been involved in the preparations up till now or not, anyone near the mansion on this clear morning can join the expedition that's going out. The mission: to boldly install some monitoring equipment up on top of a mountain, and see what's there while you're in the area. Time for departures and last-minute tinkering! ]

((ooc note: If you'd like to backdate any participation, please feel free to comment to the post linked above -- if not, jump in from here!))

Comments

[rootandbranch]

We're not dreamwalking again. I think I'd be able to tell!

[he shifts to fly straight again: they may need to land soon if the air gets much thinner for his passengers, but for the meantime they can appreciate the view.]

Will the pod really be able to find out more about this place? You told it not to fall off the edge once it starts moving around, right?

[splinten]

Yes, Geir. We programmed it to have a sense of not falling to its maiming or dismemberment.

[It's a valid concern but also a hilarious one, so he's amused here.]

[rootandbranch]

I just wanted to make sure! I don't always know if you have one of those, so you might not have remembered--

[teasing again.]

[splinten]

I try to give all the robots I help make traits I lack. It's why they're all super sarcastic.

[rootandbranch]

Eheheheheheheheh...!

[Geir takes another couple of wingbeats up into the air, ready to coast for a little while.]

I think hanging out with you makes me more sarcastic too.

[splinten]

So basically, I'm a positive influence on you.

[rootandbranch]

That's what I think. What do you say about that?

[funny: he sounds teasing there, but not actually sarcastic.]

[splinten]

I say you have a very skewed idea on what an actual positive influence is, my dragon bro.

[rootandbranch]

Don't you think maybe you're underrating yourself? Different things can be good for different people, probably.

[ah, there's an updraft here: it takes them a bit higher.]

[splinten]

[Geir is such a cute floaty pal. Dirk does not think this in those exact words; mostly he thinks flying like this is kind of cool.]

You're implying that precisely what you need in your life is more sarcasm.

[rootandbranch]

What I need is a bunch of things including sarcasm!

[he could elaborate.]

[splinten]

You mean you've had so few experiences that you need to sample the wide variety life has to offer in order to know what options are out there and choose what kind of person you're going to be.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir shifts into telepathy; the air is getting thin enough that it's hard to talk and be heard here, and as unconcerned as he is with the public setting, he thinks Dirk might want more privacy for this part of the conversation.]

That's true. But I also need people who I can trust to talk to about it without getting mad, or scared, or defensive. I've started to realize that not everyone accepts my past or my options. I can't...

[share? reach out? connect with people?]

I can't really think about things when I'm upset and trying to explain, all the time. You're really open, did you know that? I got lucky.

[splinten]

[That actually surprises him. He can assume there must be people who get upset and scared and defensive—well, everyone does sometimes. But Geir must not have known that, and encountered that.]

'Open' isn't usually the first word people think of to describe me. But I guess if my chill approach to helps you out, then I've got no objections.

Are you okay, Geir? It seems like something about this has [not ruffled his feathers] metaphorically unsettled your scales.

[rootandbranch]

If it's not, they're wrong. You listen and you answer questions when people ask. If they don't talk to you long enough to find that out, that's not your fault.

[Geir's very definite about this opinion. it's an educated and sincere one. affect isn't the only way to express openness, and all it takes is talking to Dirk long enough to hear him express a few opinions to see that he's very accepting of connection and willing to help others past his deadpan delivery. do people judge Dirk by appearances a lot? how stupid.]

Which "this?" I've been thinking about a lot of things, I guess. But when am I not these days...

[it's exhausting, when he pauses to notice it, but tiring himself out more by thinking about how he's thinking too much sounds like the worst idea possible.]

[splinten]

[It's an actually really nice thing to say, and Dirk isn't sure how to handle it. So, like a mature adult, he decides to not handle it and focus on the other thing.]

Sounds like you're kind of tired of it. What have you been thinking about?

[rootandbranch]

[Geir doesn't miss that Dirk ignores the first thing and moves on to the other. does Dirk not believe him, or does he just not know how to respond? maybe people need to give Dirk updates on his strong points more often. well, Geir can handle that.

he's not even sure how to answer Dirk's question. there's so much.]

I don't know. How people are people, I guess.

[splinten]

It is an extremely complicated topic, if admittedly more simple-seeming when you put it that way. Multiple branches of human knowledge have been dedicated to trying to answer that question.

[Dirk, of course, tried to study them, and in some ways he was good at it—the abstract, the theoretical—but in others he always finds himself falling short. How people are people is hard.]

[rootandbranch]

Really? Most humans seem pretty good at it naturally. Maybe because they're people already?

[that's either extremely insightful or a tautological fallacy, Geir. Charles Taylor would shake his head.]

I wondered if I could just do people things and be a person that way, but that seemed too simple. Then I figured if you were born a person, everything you do is a person thing by default, and I can't be one. But that was really depressing. Now I'm just sort of confused. I can't tell if that's a person thing or not.

[splinten]

Confusion is definitely a thing persons do, although it likely isn't the exclusive provenance of people. But that depends on how you're defining personhood. Right now, it seems like you're structuring your definition to by default exclude you.

[Here we go: philosophy time]

[rootandbranch]

Well, yeah. Whether I can be a person or not, I'm not starting as one.

[his default is monster, cats-paw of the apocalypse. they've talked about this, gosh, Dirk.]

[splinten]

Why not?

[They have but Dirk has an argument to pose here. Because Dirk, too, is an annoying person who calls it like he sees it.]

Don't get me wrong, I understand feeling like you aren't a person. It doesn't however seem like a philosophically rigorous argument.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir wouldn't expect anything else from him, but at least in his own mind, he does have good reasons for feeling that way. because it's Dirk, and this is what they do, he patiently tries to explain rather than getting defensive or upset. Dirk isn't going to attack his experience, just give his own thoughts on it -- he already trusts in that much.]

People have, umm-- an independent view? Motivations of their own? Things they want. People-- decide.

I don't even know if I can do that. It's not what I exist for. I was born to take my name and play one part. Some of the other gods are different, but Jormungand was never anything but a monster, and the name is stronger than "me."

[he's quiet for a few beats, flying up along the mountainside.]

I worry about it a lot. I know Vern wants me to be a person, and sometimes I want to be too, but even if I manage it, I don't know if I'm strong enough to fight that.

[splinten]

That might be possible. At the same time, it isn't like human babies are born with independent views and motivations of their own. Similarly, there are cases where human children are isolated and brainwashed until they serve exactly one purpose and have no apparent autonomous desires. It's a fucked up thing, but it exists.

So am I to understand your argument as saying that these aren't people? I don't mean this as an attack, I genuinely want to know if you'd define them as not-people.

[It's kind of one of the main issues here, at least considering all of this.]

I don't think it's unreasonable to worry about your ability to turn away from what part you were meant for in the grand cosmic scheme. Where I'm from, it's sort of literally impossible in the sense that everything you ever do is probably part of that scheme. I'm just not sure if considering it as an issue of personhood is ideal. I think it does a disservice to how much potential you have, and how much you've already lived up to your own definition of a person with independent desires and motivations.

[rootandbranch]

I know you're not attacking! And I don't know if I think that. I don't know much about humans. I think they're probably people anyway? They'd want their own things if they got the chance.

[he's silent for a moment, thinking that one through.]

The troll girl said a little about that. "Paradox space?" It sounds hard. I'm not sure it's the same, though. I have a chance to see what kind of person I'd want to be because of Vern, but he could take it away again.

[Geir's a little anxious about saying that, because he doesn't want Dirk to say anything against Vern; but it's probably okay. Vern hasn't done anything wrong, truly. it's just the nature of being summoned by him.]