un: phoenixevolution

[manufactured]

So many questions about relationships, about partnerships and the like, since I've arrived here. For those that choose to engage in such things, I suppose my primary question to you is why.

This is a world where affection is a commodity; I would think it more beneficial to most to treat it as such. There seems to be little point in dedicating oneself to others that are in just as much of a coerced situation, short of making it seem slightly more bearable.

While I'm sure this will be harped on as pointlessly cynical by those with nothing better to do, I consider it more a point of curiosity. It's interesting to me that some will invest themselves so fully into something that essentially doesn't matter – to the world or otherwise.

[...It's not so much cynical as it is making you sound at least mildly like a psychopath, Wesker, but whatever.]

Comments

un: sparkler (btw)

[liberaltus]

I'm under the impression that affections like love have a chemical reaction component about them, is that something one can discipline?

You'd also have to remove all of the alcohol and drugs, they certainly lead to escalations.

ty and no worries!

[manufactured]

Are you genuinely arguing that one has no agency in what affections they cultivate and which they do not?

[liberaltus]

Now, now I did say component, meaning it is likely that there are multiple interactions involved with the whole affections process

I think the agency comes into play when we make the choice to avoid situations, meaning the things we choose not to do and the people we choose not to interact with or invest ourselves in.

[manufactured]

And that would be my point. There's an element of choice in those we choose to invest ourselves in - if you agree such a choice exists in the negative sense, then it must exist in the positive as well. Which is a choice that renders itself pointless in a world in which such things are commodities.

If others wish to do this, I hold nothing against them for it. If it helps people sleep at night to think that anything created in this world under these conditions holds value, then by all means. It just seems senseless to do so fully knowing those parameters.

[liberaltus]

As I see it there are two options, you can become a detached recluse and avoid people and situations that would put you in the position to avoid bonds or you could be the opposite making it far more difficult to avoid attachments. Those are the choices.

As for commodities, well, that's a curious thing and I'm interested in your meaning. My take away is that this place turns physical acts into a commodity.

You give off a hyper-pragmatic aura, that's something I can respect. [considering that Dorian possesses normal levels of pragmatism] Do you hold the same perspectives about attachments with regards to your own world?

[manufactured]

The physical act far moreso than the sentiment, yes, although the types of physical acts it chooses to accept as said commodity are the sort that lend themselves to the sentiment being formed, if you follow.

With regards to my own world, this isn't a perspective I hold in and of itself. Attachments do have their uses and therefore can be considered commodities in their own way, but it's nowhere near as blatant and it isn't anything I would have thought to put into so many words.

[liberaltus]

It's not an unfair point, but at the same time, one is not synonymous with the other.

I can have sex with someone and not love them and I can love someone and not have sex with them. The physical expressions can be a detached act or an act of necessity and not all love or affection need be expressed through physical means.

Do you, as a general rule, consider attachments people have to you as something you can use? [Honestly, he's not judging, he's just curious.]

[manufactured]

All attachments can be used in such a way; I merely try to maintain them such that I'm not the one being used at any given time. They're surely assets, if nothing else.

[liberaltus]

It seems as though you already have a predisposition, I suspect that makes relating difficult.

The forts you build must come to you very quickly, no room in the arena of your life for the trivialities of love and affection, if I'm reading the metaphorical room correctly.

[manufactured]

Yes, exactly. Though that isn't to say I haven't experienced the love and affection of others, as freely given to me. I wouldn't say it was an unpleasant experience in the least; just not one I had time for.

[liberaltus]

Not a priority for you and I suspect that is the very reason people have given their affections to you so freely. Who doesn't want to be the one to sidle past those forts and jam a flag right into that arena.

Charismatic as well I take it? Leadership skills of some sort? Dark mystique?

[manufactured]

An ability to tell when I'm being flattered. Though it is charming, I'll give you that much.

At least one of those relationships was as you describe. One of the others didn't particularly care one way or the other.

[liberaltus]

Years of training in social machinations and thaumaturgy have transformed me into a prodigy of a kind. I do not deny it, though I'm far more flattering in person.

I can only imagine how it all ended.

[manufactured]

Thaumaturgy, of all things? Interesting.

If you're looking for something either sordid or climactic, I'm afraid I'm about to disappoint you. We parted ways without much fuss about it.

[liberaltus]

I'm a mage and with a specialization in necromancy I've built a skill tree suited to a pyromancer, though I consider my talents to be varied. One must always make room for surprises.

I was looking for something morbid and thematic. Alas, I must endure my disappointment, endeavor to collect the shattered remnants of my existence and sally forth.

[manufactured]

Truly a shame. My sympathies.

There are a few necromancers around here, it seems. Are they common, where you're from?

[liberaltus]

No need for the honey, my dear.

No, they have approximately the same negative reputation as blood mages, most necromancers are the custodians of Necropolis', cities of the dead. I use my talents in a more practical and amusing way, who wants to spend their whole life in a dark hole stuffing spirits into rotting corpses?

[manufactured]

Well, that sounds positively inspired. Dare I ask what it is you're doing, then?

[liberaltus]

I can do a number of things. I can siphon mana off of death to fule my magic and recover from injury, I can mark a target with a spirit that will inflict damage, I can curse an enemy with walking bomb by inserting a spirit inside of them I can command to explode, I can control the flow of time around me. I don't know what other necromancers from other worlds are like, by here it is.