shitposting rave 4: (almost) anything goes

-lightly kicks @Terrence the Vampire's side while she works on one of her drinks. He ends up with whipped cream on his face and his drink on his shirt, such frightening monster of the night-

 

Dunno, I just continued talking because you kept talking, people tend to get real fraggin whiny when you just leave em standing places once you lose interest. And that presupposes me losing interest. And that I even had a goal in mind in the first place.
I don't exactly got stellar social skills you might've noticed.

Definitely.

... should I leave because I can leave.
[He looks vaguely uncomfortable.]

 

It's the Rave, I kind of don't expect anyone to stick around. Case in point: it looks like Norm's fragged off already.

If you want to? I will hold hands with my trinemate all I want and, again, looks like Norm's already given up, so... if you don't wanna stick around I'm not keeping you.

 

Before I can address any of this at all I will need a second, because

[She almost toples over, cackling hysterically]
Listen, I'm absolutely aware the democratic process right now still works ridiculously slow, is convoluted as hell and involves a couple of douchebags sitting around a table all pulling in the directions of the scrapheaps that sent them with no regard for efficiancy or reason. I haven't fragging tinted my optics rose and I don't think it's particularly cute. But slagging pits, it's still better than affecting change via assassination and usurping command position.
I will take a disorganized bureaucratic mess of petty slapfights and aft-backwards compromises over getting no input whatsoever every day. That's not a honeymoon period, that's called having some hands-damned faith.

 

Y'know since he left I'm just gonna assume I won the argument.
And also I'm gonna actually watch that show he fraggin made me miss now.

 

Whoa hey how about we don't do the everyone screams thing again didn't you just stop that

Spoiler: comms @ Scanner

[Venture to Scanner]: are you okay man? is this another Thing?
[Venture to Scanner]: I mean if you wanna go I'm not gonna stop ya but clips and I are equally capable of vanishing and tbh I think he needs a timeout

 

Aight have fun man. [Venture still looks a little worried, but Scanner's a grown mech, he can deal with his own emotions however he wants.]

 

"Fair enough," Ford says, laughing. "There are some false assumptions on your side, too. I didn't marry the local princess. Valiska has only been recognised as a queen since she became pregnant and we acquired about fifty new household members. Most of our power comes from the technical advances our family has made and our friendship with the Imperator, which goes back to the days when we were all disgruntled students and Valiska and I lived on top of a brothel her adoptive mother ran. She uses my surname because the one she was born with ties her to a death cult she escaped, and her mother didn't use one at all."

 

Spoiler: comms @Venture

[Scanner to Venture]: Nah, mech I'm good just kinda disgusted with myself as per usual. You and your beau do the makeout-cuddle-shmoopy thing all you want I'll be over here trying to beat my processor into realizing it ain't a manipulation attempt.

 

So it's more like... you're all a unit and she's the officer and represents your interest at High Command meetings?

Fair enough.

Just because you guys go way back doesn't mean "friends with the Imperator" is the same as "actually knows what the people want". Just saying.

What's a surname?
[... she might be joking with that last one. But only just barely.]

 

Spoiler: comms

[Venture to Scanner]: fair
[Venture to Scanner]: if the words help, I promise clips isn't going for manipulation here, he really does want a hug cos once the actual fight is over everything kinda hits him at once
[Venture to Scanner]: enjoy your show bro

 

-makes a face- Ewwwww! Why would I play with people cables!?

-giggles-

 

"Let's assume that we're all doing the best we can in good faith, Captain. If you want to discuss political philosophy we can do that later, but you're trying to correct one set of problems that's different from ours. Ideally, we will both end up with fair, free and participatory governments. We already have local elections in urban areas, though that has worked out better in some parts of the Imperium than others. The coastal lands will likely be governed by the queens as they always have been, but only women who have children and a certain number of freely sworn family are allowed on that council." Valiska sighs. "I also think that a multispecies society requires difficult compromises and negotiations. That's part of how the Cereuti sell their notion that limited government and purely free markets are best, without mentioning that they have very lovely euphemisms for slavery.

"At any rate, if we come to a discussion assuming the best of each other, we may all learn from each other."

 

I'm never going to get that cinnamon stain out. -it vanishes as he speaks-

 

I know some of the subgroups here run democratically, but any attempt at a democracy beyond judge-headed faction ends when they reach the other judges. Including me, because I saw how a lot of those factions ended.

Teal deer, the bigger the group, the bigger the mess, because there's more backs to backstab.

I was about to say, you have your platform right there. Accessible from everywhere anytime, and not even monitored. Anonymisable, too. Ask yer tech-proficient people for proxy connections and whatever flies for your darkweb. If the wizarding people have little tech proficiency, they won't know what hit them.

 

[vulcan squeezes one of the horns on her necklace]
Honk-honk.

 

I don't know why don't you start assuming, seeing as you seem to be convinced I must be assuming you are the devil just because I point out flaws in your conjunx' argument.
Anyway I assume a big part of our er... unique outlook must be that we started building democracy at a point right between "shut the frag up and at least try to be cooperative and constructive" and "We finally manage to drive ourselves to extinction"
I am under the impression you arrived at Democracy a different way.

 

do you mind fucking off.

 

=(] sorry.......7ove
=(] but the c7owns are omnipresent
=(] were a7ways 7urking somewhere just around the corner
=(] you rea77y should have noticed this by now

 

"Yes," Ford says, "if you could freely choose to walk away from your unit and join another, and having a certain number of people in your unit meant that there was an equal number of people who trust you to make good decisions." He smiles. "Feudalism implies peonage. There are no serfs among the Talassani. Only family members."

Ford considers this. "Yes, this is our disconnect, and you may be right to call me arrogant, but...I have seen how easy it is for the selfish and malevolent to convince people they want things that are terrible for them. I am concerned with whether or not the people are happy, and safe, and have a place to sleep and enough to eat, and are educated, and feel free to say whatever they want to say, and are not being forced to work much harder than others for the bare minima needed to survive."

He shrugs. "I am less concerned with what people in large groups can be convinced to believe they want, because I have seen societies in which people were utterly convinced that they were freer because wealthy people were free to exploit them, even though their own available choices were terrible. I don't know if this has happened in your history. It is unfortunately not unusual for humans and Cereuti, though the cattes do not seem to fall prey to it. One of the primary goals of our educational system is to make sure people eventually decide that they do want a democratic government of some sort, but not the one that existed before. I think Tainell would be very amused if there were someone who were trying to unseat him who was not trying to make it easier for Our Corporate Overlords to take over. He might put that person in his cabinet."

Ford sighs. "So yes. I'm an arrogant bastard. My twin brother could have told you that. But I'm an arrogant bastard who's fully aware of the irony in being a wealthy man trying to keep other wealthy people from destroying a socialist dictatorship that is actually socialist. I'm trying to engineer myself out of that job. I would really like to spend more time in the lab. But not if that means I have to Incorporate and can only protect the people I love." He sighs. "Have you any idea how many times I've been asked to Incorporate? And it's going to get worse when they discover what we're doing now."

Ford grins at her. "Pines is a surname."