to: everyone

[restingstitchface]

Everyone. There has been nothing convenient about entertaining a few of our divine friends these past months. At this point, I believe some of them meddle in our lives on purpose. But you know how these beings are. Loving, violent and above all selfish. But their conduct should never be mistaken as good or bad.

Do you want the opinion of a professional? It’s human.

Of course, when I examine our delusions about being divine, and remember my mortal origins, it motivates me to question where they come from.

Were they once human like us?

In any case, I would like to remind you that your memories will take you by surprise. Not today. Nor tomorrow. But someday you will recall more about who you were, and perhaps find you cannot stand it. And whether that happens today or tomorrow, take a seat and have a drink, and try not to take yourself too seriously.

Comments

open to threadjacking;

[stations]

How are you defining 'human' in this context? If you're considering the Old Gods basically human in behavior and motivation, I'm just curious where you'd start drawing the line. Especially since a lot of them, and a lot of the Summoned, are a completely different species than human to begin with.

[ancunin]

Just the question I was going to ask! All this human-centric rhetoric is long past getting stale, if you ask me...

[stations]

It does kind of become inherently problematic, if you think about it. It excludes other sentient species from personhood, for starters, but I think Dr. Crane was using it in more like a broad, catch-all descriptive way meaning empathetic, curious, capable of a broad range of emotions and interests, simultaneously selfish and benevolent, and all the other abstract things we attribute to the concept of having a soul. In that case, it's still problematic because it kind of implies anything that isn't human doesn't have those things.

It's just an interesting case of a word being antiquated and insufficient for its use. We should come up with something new. We have a pretty nice opportunity to invent a cool word.

[restingstitchface]

𝒲𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓁𝓎 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝒽𝓊𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓁𝒹 𝒷𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝒹𝒾𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁 𝓈𝑒𝓃𝓈𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹. 𝐼𝓃 𝒻𝒶𝒸𝓉, 𝐼 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝒾𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝒽𝓊𝓂𝒶𝓃 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒷𝓎 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝒾𝑒𝓈 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝓈𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒. 𝐼𝓉'𝓈 𝒶 𝓆𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒶𝓅𝒽𝓎𝓈𝒾𝒸𝓈, 𝑒𝓈𝓈𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎. 𝒯𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝒻𝓊𝓃𝒹𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓁 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝑒𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒾𝒸𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝒻𝓎 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒.

[stations]

Instead of coming up with a new definition, maybe we should come up with a new word? It's not every day you get to help language evolve.

[nomnoms]

[restingstitchface]

𝒜𝒽, 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜𝑜 𝓀𝒾𝓃𝒹.

𝐻𝑜𝓌 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜𝒹𝒶𝓎, 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹?

[nomnoms]

YOUR WEL COME
:)
NICE DAY! HOW YOU?

[magicalarchaeologist]

They were. Theoretically, they were Summoned a few thousand years ago and this happened to them, including the clown god who started the group vision.

[restingstitchface]

𝒟𝑜𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓇𝑒𝓂𝒶𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒? 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝒹𝒾𝓇𝑒𝒸𝓉𝓁𝓎 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈, 𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓆𝓊𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝓇 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓉𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝒶𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓎𝓈𝑒?

[magicalarchaeologist]

I think Umbvagher's actions imply that there is. He wanted us to know what was coming ahead. He must still remember when he became one, if he showed us what could be for our future.

I don't believe there is anything of that sort left behind, the only people who have access to gods directly are in Solvunn. The only reason I knew about the former Summoned was through historical texts in Thorne, but they lost information about what happened next when the High Mage at that time founded Solvunn and left.

[rookvision]

I’d be surprised if that’s not where they started from, considering what happened to us in that dream/vision/whatever that was. Something doesn’t come out of nothing, and the fact that they act like that does make me wonder if perhaps they haven’t left all of their humanity behind when they did

whatever it was that made them what they are now.

[restingstitchface]

𝒟𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝓊𝓅𝓅𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓊𝓁𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓉𝓎 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒? 𝒪𝓇 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝓉𝑒𝓍𝓉𝒷𝑜𝑜𝓀 𝒸𝒶𝓈𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓅𝓈𝓎𝒸𝒽𝑜𝓁𝑜𝑔𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝒶𝒹𝒶𝓅𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒶 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝑒𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓇𝑜𝓃𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉? 𝒟𝒾𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂𝓈𝑒𝓁𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓊𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝓈𝒾𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃? 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝒾𝒻𝒻𝒾𝒸𝓊𝓁𝓉 𝒸𝒽𝑜𝒾𝒸𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓌𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒻𝒶𝒸𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝓋𝑒𝓈?

𝒲𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝓌𝑒'𝓁𝓁 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝓊𝓉, 𝓌𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝓌𝑒?

[thoughts]

i met the clown. he said we were special and that humans are jealous of us. made them dance just because he could, because he wanted to, said it was our right.

selfish and violent. not good. jury's still out on bad. i don't know about loving but seemingly human, or humanlike. he was just having fun.

[restingstitchface]

𝒲𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓇𝒶𝑔𝑒𝓈 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒽𝒶𝓋𝒾𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒷𝓎 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒶𝓈𝓀𝓈 𝒻𝓊𝓃. 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝑜𝒹𝓈 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝓇𝑒𝒸𝑜𝑔𝓃𝒾𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒾𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝒽𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂.

𝒪𝒻 𝒸𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒, 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝑔𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓆𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒾𝓃𝒻𝓁𝓊𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝑜𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓂? 𝒫𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝒶𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓂𝓅𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓇𝑒𝓁𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒷𝓎 𝓈𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝑒𝓃𝒿𝑜𝓎. 𝒫𝑒𝓇𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓈 𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓈𝒾𝓂𝓅𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝓇𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒾𝓃𝒸𝓁𝓊𝒹𝑒𝒹.

𝒲𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁 𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓇𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒶𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒾𝓃 𝒶 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓁𝑒.

[tedandroses]

Made them dance because he could.
...sounds just about humanlike to me, yeah.

Do you believe him, that ...the people who aren't Summoned are jealous?
What if he's just making us dance?

[thearchangel]

You know, turn back the clocks a few years and I'd have said there was no way something called a "god" was ... you know. Normal. But then this place and... other things happened.

So who knows? Maybe they were?

Can't agree about the "human" bit, though. A guy could take offense.

[He's not. He's trying to be funny. What a comedian.]

[restingstitchface]

𝒜𝒽, 𝓃𝑜 𝑜𝒻𝒻𝑒𝓃𝓈𝑒 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓃.

[Ha.]

𝐵𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒶 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝒸𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒻𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃: 𝐼 𝓂𝒶𝒹𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝓇𝒶𝓌 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝑜𝓊𝓉.

[Hello, Garrus. How are you today?]

[princessvegas]

Umbvaghr was for sure human and from some version of Earth at some point. That motherfucker definitely had multiple finstas before he was a god. Bet he was a 4chan troll.

[tedandroses]

Holy shit, someone else from close enough to...my...present to use "finsta" and "4chan" (okay, 4chan could be...within the last 20 years but for my sanity let's pretend).

This is the same guy as the clown god, right? The one who took selfies? If so I'm putting real money on his whole deal being trolling. I wasn't here last time, I just had it retold to me, but...

That thing in the Horizon after the dreams. You Are Not Theirs -- what do you make of that? Just the equivalent of ...Godly shitposting? Or -- more like.
Hmm. Does the word "Goncharov" mean anything to you?

[restingstitchface]

𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒻𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝒷𝑒𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝓉 𝒶 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝓈. 𝐼 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝟤𝟢𝟢𝟧, 𝓇𝑒𝓂𝑒𝓂𝒷𝑒𝓇? 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓃𝑜 𝒾𝒹𝑒𝒶 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑜𝓈𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝒹𝓈 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃.

[Perhaps he is lying and just wants to hear Julie explain 4chan. Who knows?]

[tedandroses]

What makes what we experienced a delusion?
I know a lot of us are happy to call it that. Or a dream, an unreality, an illusion.

But. Given the assumption that this world itself is not a delusion, that you're not going to wake up from Oz and are functionally reminding the Tin Man to sit down and have a drink, and we are all in fact real people -- and also, evidence that other states and worlds and realities exist, like the Horizon, or like those of us who aren't from Earth, and even a good few who are and whose timelines don't quite match up with each other --

We have memories, in that life where we had powers, whatever you want to call it. Ones we can agree on. People we know, friends we made without having met them here, that we remember the faces of without priming or prompting. What makes it a delusion and this Abraxas real, except that it's unreachable?

[restingstitchface]

[Disorganized thinking. Questions beget statements that become suppositions, leading to questions that indicate longing. The desire for friendships, relationships, connections and health.]

𝒲𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒶 𝒷𝒾𝓏𝒶𝓇𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝒾𝓉𝓊𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒸𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉𝑒𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒷𝓎 𝓅𝒽𝓎𝓈𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒾𝒻𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓃𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓁 𝒹𝒾𝓈𝑜𝓇𝒹𝑒𝓇. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓃𝑜 𝓅𝒽𝓎𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓁𝑜𝑔𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝑜𝓇 𝓅𝓈𝓎𝒸𝒽𝑜𝓁𝑜𝑔𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒾𝓃 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓂𝑜𝓃 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒾𝓃𝒹𝒾𝓋𝒾𝒹𝓊𝒶𝓁 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀𝑔𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹𝓈. 𝒲𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑒𝓋𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓁?

𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝒹𝑒𝓁𝓊𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒶 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝑔𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝓃𝑜 𝓈𝓊𝒹𝒹𝑒𝓃 𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓅 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓉𝒽 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒾𝒻𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃.

[shaltnot]

Nothing's more humbling than realizing God isn't all that magnanimous in His divinity.

Guessing that's the same for the gods around here, then? I heard there was a whole mess with them.

[restingstitchface]

𝒲𝑒𝓁𝓁, 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝒶 𝓂𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒷𝒾𝑔 𝓂𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒾𝒸𝓊𝓁𝒶𝓇. 𝐼𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓈 𝒶𝓃 𝓊𝓃𝓊𝓈𝓊𝒶𝓁 𝒸𝒶𝓈𝓈, 𝒶 𝒸𝒶𝓈𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝒶𝓈𝓈 𝒹𝑒𝓁𝓊𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝒾𝒻 𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑒𝓁𝓈𝑒. 𝐼𝒻 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒸𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝒾𝓉 𝓈𝓊𝒸𝒽. 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝑜𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓌𝒶𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝓌𝒽𝑜 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓁𝓎 𝓌𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝓊𝓅 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒸𝑒.