shitposting rave 5: discount rejects from every genre

*sighs* I don't know, but... I wish I did. I wish I really understood you and Papyrus, your noble and unreachable ideals... I wish I could really, truly believe they were possible, that they could work... but... I guess I can't...

 

I've seen them w9rk.

 

Seen Alternian society get restructured into a better one without violence and/or whatever weird shit happened in Karkat and Dave's dimension?

 

N9, it's...

They're mem9ries 9f h9w things used to 6e.

 

... how things used to be?

 

9n Alternia.

 

...not Alternian, but. It is possible to go from 'highly militarized dystopia' to 'hypermilitarized not-quite-dystopia'. We're still working on a lot-- or, well, Cybertron is, I'm... yeah, but. Better's happening.

 

Miiii! -once chases after the string, the other hunkers down and slowly stalks it-

 

So things used to be better there. Great. Great.

But that doesn't answer the question of how to improve things now, though, does it? Or even prove that you can do it now?

*sighs* Yeah. There was a revolution on Pennarion too, years and years ago, and now it's awesome - though I don't think Pennarion was ever as much of a dystopia as Alternian is or Cyberton was. But it does feel like... I dunno...

 

I d9n't kn9w the answer.

 

*sighs* ... well, neither does anyone else... I guess that's why most of us settle for assassination and explosions instead.

 

"Our dimensional sheaves got messed up pretty badly by three demon siblings," Ford says wearily, "and something's going on with her and one of them. Her successor will be in their dimension of origin. And therefore, once she is gone, and the demon is dealt with, she will not be able to get at us." He shrugs. "As long as she's been gone, her successor may already be in place."

 

Like... what, man, gimme a vague feeling besides 'I dunno' to riff off of. Like Pennarion's a special case? Like Alternia's not doing enough? Like someone has different opinions than you and your friends? I got no clue where you're goin' with this.

WEll, that an' bein' just plain pissed. Scared and hurting people don't always make the most moral choices.

 

....right, universal slag, way outta my paygrade, got it. If takin' her out gets rid'a your demon too, I guess that seems like the obvious solution, yeah.

 

ALTERNIAN SOCIETY WAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED. THE CONDESCE INTENDED TO KILL THE FEW OF US WHO REMAINED--ALONG WITH THE HUMANS WHO WEREN'T OF USE TO HER--SO SHE COULD REBUILD HER EMPIRE WITHOUT OBNOXIOUS CHILDREN WHO'D DECIDED THEY LIKED NOT LIVING UNDER A TYRANT. THE GAME WAS *OURS* TO WIN, SO ROXY & CO TOOK HER OUT. IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND

 

I think Pennarion's problem was out-of-control capitalism, not military dystopia shit, and Ford and Tainell and Valiska solved it way back then by having better tech than the people they took down. I'm not sure if that would work for Alternia's problem, particularly if killing's off the table.

*sighs* And yeah, I know... It's just...

 

I mean, to be perfectly fair, Cybertron's problem was more 'widespread corruption and stratification' than 'active military oppression'-- military castes really weren't much better off than disposables, 'specially since most polities constructed their forces. Pits, we're probably more militarized now than we were even under Sentinel, unless you count the returned colonists as part of Cybertron's population. But... I'm not really equipped to tell anyone how to do a nonviolent revolution, see also: four million year civil war. We blew up the Senate and brawled in the rubble over who got to be in charge, that ain't much a good model.

It's just...? You really like leavin' your sentences unfinished, doncha?

 

*laughs sheepishly* Yeah. That or I just keep realizing I'm out of my depth in this conversation and then forgetting it the next time I think of something to say.

 

[Wires laughs too, not unkindly.] Fair enough! Trade secret, though, bro: most of us are also outta our depths and frantically making jetfuel up as we go in the hopes it'll turn out marginally better than the last plan.

 

I guess you're right. But it's hard to apply that to the Signless, with how all the trolls in the household have been working his hype machine.