shitposting rave 2, electric boogaloo

Boo.

 

I distinctly recall the kitten you used to have came closer to killing me than you.

I have faith in your ability to get me really good. That just wasn't it.

 

I boo even louder.

 

I laugh at you.

 

That's just because you're allerg1c to all cats except Talassan1.

 

Good.

 

(Apologies for the late response-- something requiring more immediate attention showed up.)

That sounds... incredibly unusual, but I suppose anything's possible. Your planet has no extreme weather or seismic activity, no massive external threats to prepare for?

 

I suspect he might mean that compared to the human threats to his life, the other things are statistically insignificant.

 

He does have a lot of those...

 

But other sapients can be reasoned with, mostly. Still a danger, yes, but no more danger than a Swarm or some rogue security system.

 

Hahaha yeeeeah, not some of the guys Ford's fighting.

 

I would disagree with that 'mostly', or the utility of it at least. In a world of millions of sapients, 'mostly' still leaves many. And I have my doubts about how good many are at actually reasoning when it comes to matters of emotion.

 

That is a fair point-- my experience (with sapient opponents, at any rate) is heavily weighted towards dealing with individuals or small groups. I had assumed a good portion of a planet's population would not all be focused on hunting one individual, and of those the subset unable to be reasoned with would be smaller still, but... I should know better.

...
I have been reminded that not all societies have the same concept of 'negotiation' as my own, and that I should specify I consider threats and displays of force valid parts of same. Yes, every now and then one will find an opponent who goes adamantine under such tactics, but most opponents are at least a little willing to reconsider a direct attack when staring down a primed cannon-barrel.

 

Granted, I'm a little biased and cynical from my war experience, but it took about eight years of fighting before the war was over, which for humans is quite a long time indeed for open warfare. There have been longer wars, but they have generally involved a fair amount of time in which no major action was taking place. This one was face to face the entire time.

 

An eight-year battle is deadly to many people, yes, but was not the original discussion of a single individual's safety? Most individuals wouldn't have to deal with the entire opposing army trying to kill them at once, armies are too big for that anyway.

 

I think with Ford it's more that some of the people trying to kill him are extremely dangerous and unbound by normal rules of... physics.

 

Fair. Ford's priorities are not my priorities-- I may have misinterpreted his post, though I'd want confirmation from him specifically. Phrasing was "everything on my planet trying to kill [Ford]," seems to imply that there are no nonsapient dangers to him on his planet rather than nonsapient dangers being lower-priority.

A planet where the only dangers are sapient, even if they are spacetime anomalies... without further details I certainly wouldn't make a commitment, but it seems a nice place to live.

 

Greetings.

I'm not entirely sure what else needs to be said at the moment beyond that. Save that I'll continue to contend that this "plan" is hardly necessary.

 

There definitely are non-sapient dangers on my planet, but it's not like Alternia. If you're reasonably intelligent and well-informed, chances are you're not going to get killed by the biosphere on Pennarion*. I've travelled through a lot of dimensions and there was a reason I picked this one. I'd like to say Valiska was that reason, but I'd been here a couple of months before I met her. So perhaps there was an element of fate.

We have fire season, we have large wildlife, we have the usual run of earthquakes and storms. But we build well and we're fairly technologically advanced, and we have technology that doesn't do significant environmental damage.

But it's not a utopia. It's a better place socially than it was when I came here, but we didn't achieve the goals of public education, universal public health care, universal basic income, and the like without bloodshed.

And I'm part of the ruling class whether I like to admit it or not. I'm one of the Imperator's friends and advisors, and there is a non-zero, not inconsequential number of people on my planet who would like me dead for political reasons.

Then there's Bill. He drops by here every now and again, and when you meet him you will understand what Clover meant about the laws of physics.

* Unless you're my moirail. Jame will always find something that will try to kill her no matter where she goes. I'm convinced it's among her particular talents.

 

Is this going to be one of those 'Peace through Tyranny' things?