synopsychic | [jaunt] [mid-week 4] A question of Judgement

When you embody an idea, you almost by necessity have to define its opposite as well.

Do you think one of them is shifting like that?

So being reversed... that's when the opposite takes over?

It's... something I brought back from Achaia. When I was in Liminal Space just now watching the water drain, it started rippling in red and black circles and I could hear someone saying that about Judgement. To Judgement. I only heard the first few sentences of what they were saying, but they were telling Judgement that they'd become reversed.

Edited 2019-04-17 10:13 (UTC)

They're not very good at multitasking. So that would be what it means.

That sounds... prophetic. [Which is never easy]

If Judgement has to be told that it's happened, then it seems like something that's easy for them to fall into without realizing it if they're not careful.

My overlay during that Jaunt was a Seer.

They seem to be exceptionally bad at self awareness, so that might well be the case.

Sometimes I wonder what Destiny was thinking, when it comes to seers.

Destiny?

[The way she's using the word does not make it sound like she's talking about the concept.]

My big brother.

I never thought he enjoyed knowing the future.

Your brother is Destiny?

[That might take her a bit to absorb.]

My family are all personfications of fundamental aspects of our universe.

Like the Arcana are?

[Or say they are, anyway.]

I like to think we're a bit more mature, but yes. Even my youngest siblings wouldn't play games on this scale.

[For one thing they know she'd have Words]

This must be both strange and not for you.

What Ms. D said.

If I'm remembering right, Tarot cards have always had different sets of meanings depending on their state.

Or, well, different interpretations of their meanings. Like, you know how someone could be considered 'Powerful', but that could mean 'Powerful and Just and Kind' or 'Powerful and Abusive and Tyrannical'? Stuff like that.

Historically, it really isn't easy to tell when that change is happening to people. The change can be super subtle.

I have a crew member that loved this stuff, always pulled out Fortune when she read me. I had a good laugh about it after I got here.

So... a form of corruption, something that's not easily noticed from within.

[Until it's too late, possibly. Cassandra's seen that in action more than once.]

Fortune is your Arcana?

Not necessarily corruption, either. Two sides of the same coin, more like. How can you tell if you're changing if you're just being yourself as you know yourself to be?

Yeah, I'm one lucky sonovabitch, so it's no surprise. I'm a bit sad I couldn't help her win her round. Though, she's already one once.

Or if the traits they already have are shifting and they don't realize the balance is different now?

[She's quiet for a moment.]

Do you know what she would have done if she'd won again?

Yeah. In people it's something that happens under stress; Bravery becomes recklessness, loyalty becomes blind faith.

[You know these things when you're crew is thrown into life and death situations on the regular]

I can't really speak on her behalf, but this round of the game was left... mostly to chance. The fact that she started it again was also part of her idiom, so I guess it would have started anew, possibly with all the players back together again. I'm not sure what The World is capable of.

It would become easier to justify under duress as well, to themselves and others, wouldn't it? Not out of malice, necessarily, but...

[At least, she hopes that cases where a person starts from malice aren't so common.]

All I know about the World is that it's powerful enough to let them reshape reality and bring back their dead.

Yeah, out of perceived necessity. Do you know the sentiment “War changes you”? It’s kind of like that. War changes someone’s whole perspective and they’re able to justify and commit to actions they never would have otherwise considered, but it’s seen as the only way forward with their circumstances.

Then yeah, she probably would have used it to start the cycle over again, clean.

I've mostly heard it here.

[Her world's been the way it is for as long as she can remember, though, so it's probably not the best example. When you've always been under siege, why would you know anything different?

And yet her friend had maintained her innocence and naivete right up until her death. So Cassandra doesn't know.]

I wonder what she would have done with us.

I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing...

Hmm, can’t be sure but... She’s all about change and destiny. Maybe we would have been sent back to fulfill ours, or change them with the knowledge we gained here.
Who knows, really.

I guess that’s part of the game.

I don't know, either.

[Cassandra wonders what she would have done with the dead. What had she done with them last time?]

I guess so. The not knowing is frustrating, though.

Yeah, totally. But that's also half the point of living, getting to learn things, figuring them out as you go along.

Somethings you just aren't meant to know, too. But hey, we might actually be able to ask them, if we wanted to?

Edited (spelling) 2019-04-27 14:27 (UTC)

I see...

I know what Strength would have done, or what she said she would have done, but I'm not sure about the others.

What would Strength have done?

I know there's a list of the Arcana and their motives somewhere on the Network...

She would have sent everyone who could go home back to their worlds, and set up a part of Liminal Space for those who couldn't to live out their lives. She said the people there would be "mostly undisturbed."

[There are worse fates, she knows, but that is still far from ideal.]

"Huh. That doesn't sound too bad I guess... What would have been your ideal outcome?"

Going to a friend's world, if they'd have me.

[But being left in Liminal Space is probably safer for everyone else, if her control eventually does start to erode.]

[Jim thinks about this for a little while... because yeah, now that he's met these people that he cares about, that wouldn't be too bad.]

That'd be nice, actually. To keep being able to travel. My crew's mission is all about finding new stuff, after all.

It is?

Starship Enterprise: Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

At least, that's the official line.

The Federation isn't a military body, though sometimes people seem to think we are.

What is it actually?

It's...

Well, it's Humanity, diving into space curiosity first.

Along the line, we fell into aliens we forged alliances with, became family with, loved. We found ways of being who we really wanted to be, to make our mark on the universe.

[That doesn't really tell her much, and what it does tell her is a little concerning.]

Make your mark on the universe?

[Jim laughs. Yeah, now that he thinks about it it does sound kinda bad.]

Yeah, so Humans are selfish in many ways, but in one more than others. Most of them want to be remembered. We've been around long enough to figure out that we weren't put here for a divine reason... probably. We aren't going to be given purpose by a God or a fairytale and a lot of us aren't going to go down in history. But we want to make a difference, even if it's only to one other person.

So when we became inter-stellar travellers, we built something that would outlast a mere human lifetime. Something the Federation founders hoped would be their legacy, their ideal of humanity they wanted to send out into the world to be remembered by everyone else. And you know what? I think they did.

[Cassandra is quiet for a moment, absorbing this.]

So the Federation... represents humans?

Sorta? It represents what we believe to be the best of all Federation Species.

It's funny how 'Humanity' ended up being one of the biggest ones, especially when we make up less than half of the population. To be 'Humane' is to be Kind and Just, I guess that resonated a lot with the aliens we met.

They don't have terms for that?

[Being kind and just isn't just a human thing where he comes from, is it?]

It's not that they don't, or even that they're incapable- It's just... In difficult situations, most humans in our fleet choose to be kind.

Some of us are greedy, horrible people, but the best of us? They want to do better.

Oh.

[Cassandra had met very few of that sort of human in her life. Not until here.]

[jaunt] [mid-week 4] A question of Judgement

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