shitposting rave 5: discount rejects from every genre

Mi! -shoulder mi seems to approve, it licks his cheek-

 

"You are completely and utterly a person, morally, ethically, spiritually, and in terms of the rights due you," Valiska assures him quickly. "In that respect, there's no such thing as 'enough'--everyone is enough. But you're still learning how to act like a person. As are the rest of us, of course, but some of your challenges are different. There's a reason why beings like djinni are regarded as demons or gods in some cultures, and that's because the power you wield can destroy enough of a world that mortals relate to beings like you as either gods to be appeased or demons to be bound. But you want to be a person among persons, and in order to do that, like all of us, you have to learn what you are capable of. There's a saying that a person's right to swing their fist ends at the other person's nose, and that's true, but it's more complex than that, because you can see where my nose is, but there are other ways that you can hurt the people around you that aren't as easy to discern as where their noses are. It's why people are often concerned about relationships between people who have differences in the amount of power they hold. But as long as you're in this dimension, where you want to be, interacting with the people you care about...you can't have a relationship with someone whose power is equal to yours. So you have to learn how to be careful."

 

*sighs* ... it's still weird, though. This... being a person thing. And well... I dunno what to do. 'Cause, I mean, even if I do everything you guys suggest, I'll still be more powerful than Sunshine and Papyrus and Dali and everyone else...

 

-wiggles the paw around in a not-serious attempt to 'fight' it off-

 

-pats his arm in commiseration-

 

Miii! -it will vanquish the evil evil paw!-

 

"Yes," Ford says, "you will. But you know, when Lise and I met, I was thirty-six and she was twenty-one, and I had two doctorates, even if they weren't recognised here, whereas she had had to fight to get into college. At the same time, she was my cursebreaker and she actually had a lot of power over me, because the literal salvation of my soul and mind were in her hands. And...it actually wouldn't be legal for Valiska and I to marry Sev under permanent contract right now, because he is legally still an asylee; he's passed his basic comprehensives, but anyone who comes to Pennarion from somewhere where their life is forfeit just for being who they are is not only eligible for extra benefits, they're under special protections. I pay everyone in the household for their work, and I pay them a lot more than the refugee stipend would be, but I'm not legally the employer of anyone who hasn't passed their comps and can't sign an employment contract. Technically anyone in the house could stop working and I'd be expected to continue their allowance as a member of the household, because I promised to support them as long as they lived in our home. And I would, because there are an awful lot of good reasons why someone who's been through the sorts of things we've all been through might find themselves unable to work for a while."

Ford sighs. "So. Sev is an asylee. And I'm on a first-name basis with my old college buddy, the Imperator. But on the other hand--Sev has literally held my life in his hands. He restarted my heart. He kept Lise from bleeding out after her stab wounds started bleeding again because she had to fight to defend herself, and technically, doctors aren't supposed to be sleeping with their patients either. Power imbalances are unavoidable sometimes. I'm not going to tell you love makes all of that irrelevant, because it doesn't. What makes it okay is that we're all aware of all these things, and they have a way of balancing themselves out...and we're determined not to abuse the power we have."

 

Yeah, I guess so...

*looks down*

*sighs* *in a small voice* ... but Valiska said you guys were scared of me? ... so, do you think Papyrus and Sunshine and Dali... that they ever were? Or that they are right now?

 

Ford grins at him. "No. Papyrus thinks the best of everyone and never had to consider what a loose cannon as powerful as you could do to his Imperium, or even just his home and family. Sunshine hasn't got the sense to be afraid of anything; he counts every moment he's lived since Ascension as borrowed time, and expects to die at any moment. You heard what he told the Handmaid, didn't you? He's not afraid of her, because he believes that when she comes for him there's nothing he can do about it, and until then he's going to do as he pleases.. He's also a better jumper than I am; it probably would never cross his mind that there is anything other than death that he can't get away from, or that you could ever prevent him from it. And Dali is like I was when I was her age--everything alien and different is amazing and wonderful, even if it's powerful enough to crush her like an ant. But if you're worried about it, you could ask them. And maybe it would be a good idea. I can't possibly reassure you of your partners' feelings to the degree that they can, no matter how well I know them--and I think it's well established that I fundamentally do not get Papyrus."

 

*laughs* So you think they only aren't scared by my powers 'cause they don't have the sense to be?

Yeah, I can buy that.

*sighs*

And true, I should probably just ask them. Dunno how exactly I'd get into the conversation, though. "How was your day? Also, by the way, are you scared of my phenomenal cosmic power?" just sounds awkward. *laughs*

 

"Well," Ford says, "I also think they love you, or at least like you a lot. Dali is not a romantic person, but it doesn't mean she can't love, it means she doesn't become infatuated. Love makes it difficult to be scared of someone, until they do something that really hurts. But that's why you have to be careful with them, sometimes. I might start with, 'Hey, I hope you know that if I ever do anything that upsets or hurts you, you'd tell me about it, wouldn't you?'"

He shrugs. "Has there ever been a time when you decided you could use your powers to help them, only you didn't ask them what they thought about it first, or when you had the ability to help them, but thought, for your own reasons, not theirs, that you shouldn't, because you thought you knew what was better for them than they did? That's the kind of thing you've got to watch out for. You don't strike me as someone who's likely to lash out violently at someone you love, although you might have a couple of minefields in your head due to the way you came up in the world. But...you do strike me as someone who might get caught up in thinking you know what's best for someone else, even though that person hasn't actually been making any bad decisions. I mean, Valiska did put me in the hospital once without asking if that's what I wanted, but she did it because I made her sit in a closet with me and my biggest gun and I couldn't even tell her coherently which of my enemies I thought was coming after us. Because somebody had a combustion engine backfire outside of the house we were staying in. In situations like that, sometimes you do have to step in and take control, but most of the time you should let people worry about what's best for them on their own."

 

Yeah, that does sound like a good start.

... well, Sunshine had to persuade me to wish him his damn hair back... *sighs* I had got the idea in my head that if I wished it back he'd think I just wanted him 'cause his hair's gorgeous or whatever and well... he had to be quite adamant about what he wanted to get me to realize that I was kinda projecting my own insecurities onto him there... but I still wouldn't have felt good doing it if he hadn't asked for it, you know...

And if Papyrus gets himself in danger by trusting someone do much or going for the peaceful solution in a situation without one, I'd definitely do something about that, whether he agrees with it or not. I don't want him to die, you know...

... I do get your point, though. I think.

 

Ford nods. "That thing with Sunshine. That's what you need not to do," he says. "You just ask him what he wants and let him tell you. Having known him for over twenty-five years...I can tell you for certain that as a yellow-blood, he's sensitive about his dignity and his bodily autonomy, not insecure about whether you care for him or not, because first the Alternian Empire denied him those things, and then Bill Cipher did. As his former kismesis, I know where a lot of his fault lines are. That kind of insecurity isn't one of them. But push on his desire not to appear weak in public, or his desire to look the way he wants to look, and you'll trigger him hard. I did a lot of things on purpose to annoy him back then, but that's a line I wouldn't cross."

He sighs. "The worst damage I ever did to my marriage, the thing I'm lucky it survived, was when I decided that it would be better for me to disappear from Pennarion, than for Valiska to have to go back to the Falls with me to fight Bill. She was right to be furious with me and I am lucky she forgave me. She and Sev have both made it clear to me that I'd better not fuck up that way again."

 

...i think how scary someone's powers are also has a lot to do with what kind of person they are...'landeau's powers were scary at first, 'cause that was before we learned he's a pretty cool person.

it's also true the other way around...otis' powers seemed cool at first...even though he was always a pretty big jerk. but that was before we realized how horrible he was treating arin... his explosions seemed much scarier after that.

you're a super duper aggravating, jerkface meanie a bunch of the time...and i'm still not over what you said about entrepreneurs!..but i don't think that you're bad person...so i don't think your powers are scary, even though you're way more powerful than all my friends... 'm i making sense..?

 

Oh sweet primus on his gilded throne, that is the stupidest thing I have ever fragging heard.
Every superpower is automatically dangerous and a liability. Keep close tabs on everyone who is more specialized than "can walk", even "can walk real fast" should go on the badwrong list so we can have the guy under constant surveillance just in case he considers deserting or switching sides, that's just how these things go. If someone has a weapon, they might point it at you eventually. Don't give them the element of surprise ever.

 

ikr
Trust no one, not even yourself-- exceeeept your higher-ups they're totally perfect obvs why would you even consider keeping an optic on them?

 

if you gots world breaking powers you have to accept that everyone who doesnt also have world breaking powers is stuck basically taking you at your word that you only use them for good and dont
yknow
break the fucking world
and even then they gotta hope your view of good and theirs line up
and even if they know you thats asking a lot

 

I would never keep tabs on high command, nuh-uh there's absolutely no ammount of slag I have on various members of spec-ops over the millenia, no sir.

There is no good, there is only "acting in the majority of people's benefit" or "the fairy in my head said i shouldn't" so even then it's just a gamble on whether the world breaking powers (or even the mountain shattering powers or the mindcontrol powers or any of the other stuff) will be used in a way that doesn't end up killing you.

 

Of course not, you're a good little cog! (But we're gonna watch your every flicker anyway. Just in case.)

 

What can I say, Prowl has trust issues the size of Fort Max. If he started just taking my word for slag I'd have to... I don't know, probably call someone. I don't know who, but someone. Because a Prowl trusting someone is clearly an imposter planted by the Decepticons and letting that continue without comment would probably be high treason or some slag.