Heaven's BBS | text

[slantedcross]

Posted: May 2
From: Hedone


I have a sneaking suspicion I could find the answer to this by going through the archives, but let's give me the benefit of the doubt and say I want to be as accurate as possible and allow for new people's responses, or else opinions evolving over time... any shinki out there who wish they were gods? Or the reverse, gods who wish they were shinki? Why do you think you got the better and/or worse deal?

Devil's advocates welcome; I may indulge in it a bit myself.

Comments

Anonymous

[koukai_kirai]

I don't know that I'd go so far as to say I was "noble". It's more that...

I came here remembering that I already made peace with the end of my life. I did my best to die with pride and without any regrets left. In a way, that makes me feel more free to start anew than I would if I just forgot everything that came before.

My shinki is lucky. They're happy enough not to question things too much. But I've never really been that type, and it would cause all kinds of trouble, I imagine.

[slantedcross]

But if there was no life, if you didn't remember it, you wouldn't need to make peace with it, would you? When there's nothing else to start from, "anew" has to be the default. If you can't remember what was there, there's nothing to be free from. It negates itself.

[koukai_kirai]

I don't think so. Not for me, anyway. If I didn't remember, I'd have questions, and that would make it harder to let go of.

[slantedcross]

Suppose that makes sense. That would also negate itself-- the very erasure causes its own questions.

Is that paradoxical, or is it just me? The set-up is just begging for everyone to go on a long quest to find themselves. 2

[koukai_kirai]

By "paradoxical", do you mean "asking for trouble"?

[slantedcross]

Not exactly, but that's a valid interpretation of the available data.

I specifically mean that, by putting these people into a situation where knowing about their former lives is dangerous, and they know it's dangerous, in most normal people that would create a desire to do the dangerous thing. Now, they have mechanisms against that... a certain feeling of dread... But nothing is foolproof.

[koukai_kirai]

For plenty of people, the sense that they're being warned away from something without adequate explanation is damn near worse than no mechanism at all.

[slantedcross]

Yes, I know quite a few of them. I wish we had consumer reviews about that sort of thing-- "this worked great for preventing my shinki from immolating himself! Buy yours today!" But I also get the sense that these... Career gods don't see things like we do. Which makes sense. Perspective alone... But if we don't follow their norms, we can't judge this using their experiences as a rubric.

Not accurately, at least.

[koukai_kirai]

They're not used to human nature, I think is the problem there. That's why they needed shinkis' guidance in the first place, isn't it?

[slantedcross]

But we are used to it, for better or worse in some cases. It just doesn't translate.

Still, we do need each for the ayakashi thing...

[koukai_kirai]

And I've met a god or two who could use the guidance, human or not.

[slantedcross]

By that point, they may be beyond help. How many non-human gods are there?

[koukai_kirai]

Hell if I know, but I wasn't really talking about non-human so much as "inhuman".

[slantedcross]

You say "inhuman" but I'm reading "inhumane." Is that off-base?

[koukai_kirai]

You're not wrong.

[slantedcross]

That's very serious. Are you talking of a specific individual, I wonder, or just the hypothetical potential for such?

[koukai_kirai]

It's not entirely hypothetical. I have at least one person in mind specifically, but it's not as if I'm able to rule out the possibility of others.

[slantedcross]

Especially if you assume everyone is a master actor who lies like a rug. Then you can't rule out anyone.

Try it; it's fun.

[koukai_kirai]

"Master actor" is a stretch, but I tend to, as a rule.

[It's... pretty exhausting, really?]

[slantedcross]

[And depressing. That too. They're not mutually exclusive...!]

Mm, malevolence really doesn't require that kind of intelligence or guile, it's true.

How often do you find yourself breaking that rule? I find it to be a hard thing to judge, and I'm usually wrong.

[koukai_kirai]

More often than I should, and less often than I'd like to be able to. That said, my initial instincts have tended to be fairly accurate.

[slantedcross]

Did you have a particular line of work before you ended up here, I wonder. Or just a very good vantage point to human nature in general.

[koukai_kirai]

An awfully particular one. I'm afraid I can't go into too many more details without compromising my anonymity, though.

[slantedcross]

I can respect that. I appreciate your attention span, even so.

[koukai_kirai]

Attentiveness and patience are requirements for my particular work, too.