Open RP post!

[inasmithsyard]

I will add prompts or scenarios in comments, or feel free to come up with your own!

Currently up for grabs characters:

Rosie
Spindle's End
inasmithsyard

Rosethorn
Circle of Magic
earthandpine

Briar
Circle of Magic
thornandmoss

Hadand
Inda
deheldegarthe

Charity
Dresden Files
charityandfaith

Molly (Rag Lady)
Dresden Files
veiledthreat

Karrin
Dresden Files
isgoodpeople

Maggie
Newsflesh
talesuntold

Chouji
Naruto
16autumnroad

Neville
Harry Potter
mimbletone

Rue
Hunger Games
daisiesguardyou

Kitten
Tortall
skysung

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Comments

[deheldegarthe]

"A family," says Hadand very quietly, thinking of her mother and Aunt Ndara, Inda and Tanrid, Evred and Kialen and Tdor and Joret... Not all of them are blood relations, but they were always an integral part of Hadand's life and her purpose. She decides that for all of her loyalty to blood relations like her father, for all of the times she's focused on her ties and duties to people in spite of their flaws, there's only one definition she wants to give Sky.

"A family is people who care about you. People you love. People who are loyal to you, and who earn your trust in return. People you can rely on. I had one on my own planet, but I'll never see them again. It's important to me to have a family, though. I'm finding a new one here on Voyager."

She'll circle back to that other question eventually.

[creepyfreezone]

Several of the concepts she understood. As a weapon the definitions were pertinent. Loyalty, trust, rely, care. She had a few bits of Borg terminology in her mind, to know her enemy. And words she learned from Tuvok and Tom. "Do they stop being your family when you exceed a certain proximity?"

"What's love?" That was a word she had heard before, but in multiple contexts. It got very confusing. Tom said it a lot. But it was always in setting where it would be inappropriate for Sky to ask what it meant, as he was talking to somebody else.

[deheldegarthe]

"They don't stop being family, but they stop being able to support me or communicate with me or let me help and protect them. I need people in my daily life to fill that role. People who are with me." That's what bothered her most when she first came aboard, Hadand thinks. She was lonely and purposeless. Hadand isn't a solitary person. Having people to care about and protect is incredibly important to her.

"Love is a feeling." And it's one that's hard to define or describe. She knows that words won't be adequate, but Hadand will do her best. "It's a very strong positive sentiment about the most important people in your life. When I love someone, I can't help but smile more when they're with me. I value their well-being above my own. There are very few lengths I wouldn't go to make them happy and protect them. I like to demonstrate love physically, with hugs and kisses, but some people don't. The way you feel is the important part."

[creepyfreezone]

"So a family is like a maintenance crew? They are important but only if they are close enough to provide support?" Sky that is not a good metaphor, you don't know what metaphor means. Stop that.

"So my well being is of less value than most people, I love them?" Sky was a weapon, she was meant to be of value, and her value ended with the lives of those around her. Certainly the efforts went into protecting her meant she was loved by the scientists that died. But the concept still seemed incomplete. "But... if your feelings are shared, wouldn't they also put your well being before theirs?"

[deheldegarthe]

Hadand shakes her head. "My family will never stop being important to me. Not when I'm on the opposite side of the galaxy, not when I know I'll never see or speak to them again. They're so important to me that my life feels empty without them unless I let my family grow. I need to find other people to love and share my life with, or I'll be sad and lonely for the rest of it."

And if that first comparison made her miss home, the second nearly breaks her heart. "Your well-being is no less important than that of any other person on board. Captain Janeway doesn't believe in sacrificing anyone, you included, whatever the reasons were for your creation. And this crew is a lot like a family already. They've gone through a lot together." Before Hadand joined them, and after.

"If I love someone, I try to keep them safe, and if they return my feelings, they do the same. We take care of each other."

[creepyfreezone]

She considered the idea in terms she could understand. Information was valuable, it continued to be valuable even if the exact parameters no longer applied. And you constantly needed to find more or else you would lag behind and suffer for the loss. Sky would feel empty without it, "So family is important in the same way energy consumption is? It is a need?"

"But if that is the case, when a situation requires someone to take on the greater risk, who does it?" Sacrifice was a part of any dangerous endeavor, and the idea of trying to minimize damage was one thing. But how do you decide who takes the greater risk if everyone is attempting to protect everyone else. No one person becomes the obvious choice.

[deheldegarthe]

"On this crew, we're pretty stubborn. We don't want to sacrifice anyone, and we'll fight against impossible odds to keep from doing it. Captain Janeway even moreso than the rest of the crew. But Voyager has come through some really awful things intact, so I think the strategy is working." Stubbornness is not so much a strategy as a lack thereof, but it pushes them to come up with some innovative and, frankly, crazy ideas. So far, those ideas have worked.

Fortunately, Hadand is every bit as stubborn as the rest of the crew. She fits in nicely.

"That goes for you too, now. No sacrificing members of our crew, not even the new ones."

[creepyfreezone]

"But the math does not work. Why would you take a path with the highest chance of failure and the greatest risk of assets?" You are attempting to explain stubbornness in the face of danger to a weapon designed to face a swarm of angry robotic bee people. She understands Borg practicality to counteract it. To force their losses to be the greatest possible.

"If I am the most logical choice, and the probabilities are in my favor, I shouldn't put myself in jeopardy of being lost? Even if the alternative is everyone? Wouldn't I be sacrificing everyone for myself?"

[deheldegarthe]

Hadand has always been good at equations of cold practicality. She was willing to marry her brother's murderer because she had no proof and held her kingdom and her duty as more important than herself.

"I don't think there are many people on board who wouldn't sacrifice themselves for the sake of the rest of the crew. But it isn't fair to anyone to make that choice too soon."

Sky is far more grounded in logic than any other child Hadand has known, and she thinks helplessly that perhaps she's making a mess of this and Tuvok would handle it better. But no. Sky should learn to understand emotion as well as logic, and to make choices based on both. She forges ahead. "I think that it's possible to get too caught up in probabilities, and to underestimate your own importance to the people around you. Yes, sacrificing someone is sometimes absolutely unavoidable. But don't give up until all avenues of creative thinking have been exhausted. It's likely that we won't always agree on what odds are worth facint. That happens."

[creepyfreezone]

"How does time change the probabilities of success?" Sky is the most expressive compassionless construct in the cosmos. She can't see how being more attached changes the cold hard practicals of the situation.

The mistake is looking at Sky and seeing a child, she acts like one, is innocent like one. But she never grew up, never evolved that way, "What other way is there to decide on actions? If I cannot rely on statistical analysis, and have to be 'creative.'" Sky's not sure on the meaning of the word. She knows what create means, but she doesn't understand the concept of creativity separate from that.

[deheldegarthe]

Evred, fortunately, gave Hadand some preparation. He was extremely precocious. Hadand taught him to read at two and then had to spend her nights up late reading to keep up with all of his questions. And her own life gave plenty of preparation for the idea of sacrifice.

"Time gives us the chance to think of other ways out of the situation. Sometimes not all of the options are immediately apparent, or another may present itself. I'm a Marlovan, and we grow up believing in duty and sacrifice. That doesn't mean I want to see anyone taking drastic and irreversible measures until it's been proven absolutely necessary."

[creepyfreezone]

"They aren't?" Sky was very clever, so the idea that there were more ideas, cleverer ideas, out of her reach was very interesting. She supposed that if the problem were complicated enough it would take her more time to do all the calculations too. There were a lot of factors. Huh.

You learn something new.

"So it is okay to postpone choice provided your reasoning is to allow the most options to be found? But what if the situation is more immediate. Like..." she quickly searched a handful of personal logs she could access from a data storage pack inside the barriers separating Sky from the rest of the ship. "Harry Kim is about to take the last slice of pizza and you wanted it for yourself?"

[deheldegarthe]

Sky surprises a laugh out of Hadand with that example. It's far from life or death, but assuming it was... "If it would threaten lives for Harry to eat the last slice of pizza, I would stop him by any means. Words, weapons, other non-lethal measures. Otherwise, I would ask for half, or set aside my own wants."

She's always been good at that. Setting aside what she wants for the good of people she cares about. Hadand has been doing less of it, here on Voyager than she did at home, but it's still a bone-deep part of her.

[creepyfreezone]

"So I can use a low powered phaser blast?" She wants to be sure, because that would prevent Harry Kim from having the last slice of pizza. It is a practical and direct way to prevent him from having it. The fact that the question is completely earnest would be a problem, to anyone that forgets Sky is a weapon and not actually a normal little girl.

"Or I could just threaten him with the phaser. That is less wasted energy."

[deheldegarthe]

Hadand never forgets when she's dealing with a weapon, regardless of what sort. She just sets that fact aside with Sky whenever it's irrelevant. Now, she chooses her words carefully. "If, as we assumed for the purpose of this example a moment ago, Harry eating the last slice of pizza would threaten lives, stunning or threatening him with a phaser would be reasonable. The circumstances in which pizza is life or death are so rare that I can't think of any right now, unless the pizza were poisoned, in which case I would not want it for myself any more than I would want Harry to eat it."

You thought you'd seen the last of me, but I was biding my time. Mwahahahaha

[creepyfreezone]

Sky pauses to consider the words, and then to delve into more personal logs. "Mr. Paris makes it sound like a slice of pizza is of immeasurable value." Sky stop reading Tom Paris's personal logs. They are a bad source of information and are seriously derailing this conversation.

"So... the goal is to allow for the most time to create the most possible plans. To find the plan that causes the least threat to all members of the crew. And not to eat poison pizza." Sky is a weapon of devastating power and she has trouble dividing the lessons of a conversation correctly. Admittedly most weapons don't talk about morality or pizza. So this is new ground for everyone.

Re: You thought you'd seen the last of me, but I was biding my time. Mwahahahaha

[deheldegarthe]

"Tom has somewhat skewed priorities when it comes to pizza," Hadand tells Sky.

Her summary of the lessons discussed makes Hadand laugh, but it isn't far off. She does sober enough to agree, "Yes. Willful self sacrifice is sometimes necessary. I grew up knowing that. It's also irreversible, and the attitude on the Voyager is that we ought to avoid it until we're completely sure it's the only option open to us."

She drops the subject of pizza, though.