Q (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
qcontinuum) wrote2008-02-04 05:25 pm
qcontinuum) wrote2008-02-04 05:25 pm
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Dear me, you mortals *do* ask quite a lot of questions, don't you?
OOC: Re-entered from Feb. 3, 2004, from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
theatrical_muse.
Scrolling backward through time, I notice there have been quite a number of these silly questions. Ah well. Some of them may be downright entertaining. (Others, however, are simply idiotic. New Year's Resolutions?)
Do you feel that you were born with a predetermined role in society? If so, how do you feel about it?
I answered this one already, but the question annoyed me, so I was rather terse about it. It's actually rather more complex than that.
In a sense, I suppose this *is* true. I wasn't exactly born, precisely, but I did come into existence to fulfill a role within my society... which, of course, the ingrates have never been happy about my taking. In a word, I exist to question. It's been my job, and the job of others like me, to point out that the emperors of the Q Continuum have no clothes on. (Well, of course non-corporeal beings aren't wearing clothes, but you see my point.) We push the boundaries of the allowed, and the allowable. We may set the new trends or we may overstep the edges of good taste, but the point is to act as an engine of change within a society that, without those like me, would be condemned to stagnation, crushing boredom, and eternal, immortal death within life.
The reason I answered the question "no" last time was that this is something of a sore spot with me. I don't hold my role because anyone told me to-- that would entirely miss the point, in fact. I do it because I want to. It's fun, and it suits me, at least when it works. Which is where the sore spot comes in. Despite the fact that the Continuum essentially created me to fill this role, they don't want me to do it. Heaven forfend we should actually try to change! Or try anything new! Perhaps my role was predetermined, but those that determined it no longer want me to do it, since it involves the embarrassing concept that I might mention, loudly and at length, that they are boring and their existences are pointless and futile.
We actually had a schism over this, eventually. I fought a war for the right to change and grow, for expanded freedoms within the Continuum. And I won. And I ended up part of the same leadership body I'd spent five billion years criticizing. And now I feel they may have co-opted me, that they're *trying* to force me into a new role, one I was *not* designed for and one I most emphatically do not want.
What are your New Year's Resolutions?
*blink blink* What, I'm supposed to pay attention to Earth's solar calendar? I think not. Next question!
Any reason to get blindingly drunk?
Yes. Unfortunately it's very difficult when you're omnipotent.
How did you lose your virginity?
With which species? I believe I've enjoyed some form of pleasure-reciprocating activity with over 33 thousand at this point. (Species, not individuals. There's quite a few more individuals than that. I play favorites with certain species.)
Do you believe in love at first sight?
No. Often those that seem most interesting at first turn out, on further testing, to be thoroughly unworthy of your affection.
What's more important, self-preservation or forgiveness?
That depends. Are you going to have to live with the results for eternity? In the case of other Q, self-preservation and forgiveness are identical. They have to be. I know of no immortal species where individuals manage to hold eternal grudges against each other without a permanent schism developing in the society (I betcha![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
metatron_tm could tell you all about that). If you're going to be seeing someone's face around for the next twenty billion years, it is important to forgive them for minor little infractions like PUTTING YOU UP AGAINST A TREE AND TRYING TO EXECUTE YOU-- so, all right, perhaps I need to work on the forgiveness thing a little harder, but then, I didn't say it was *easy*, only necessary.
On the other hand, there's no good reason to forgive mortals if you don't want to. On the third hand, if the mortal in question is really interesting, then once again self-preservation and forgiveness work together, because if you're going to run around holding grudges against every interesting mortal you run into due to them, oh, say, not letting you be crew on their starship, then you'll be bored, and for a Q, boredom is death.
I would say that self-preservation is definitely more important but frequently the most effective method of preserving one's self-- or one's dignity, or one's enjoyment of life, or any number of other things-- may involve forgiving those who do annoying things to you. I mean, if I was going to hold grudges against every Q who's ever betrayed me, insulted me, tried to shoot me, thrown me into a wall while I was trying to teach her about her exciting new existence, walked off and left me with a kid... well, the list goes on, and the point is, if I did that there wouldn't be a single Q left in the Continuum I could spend any time with.
theatrical_muse. Scrolling backward through time, I notice there have been quite a number of these silly questions. Ah well. Some of them may be downright entertaining. (Others, however, are simply idiotic. New Year's Resolutions?)
Do you feel that you were born with a predetermined role in society? If so, how do you feel about it?
I answered this one already, but the question annoyed me, so I was rather terse about it. It's actually rather more complex than that.
In a sense, I suppose this *is* true. I wasn't exactly born, precisely, but I did come into existence to fulfill a role within my society... which, of course, the ingrates have never been happy about my taking. In a word, I exist to question. It's been my job, and the job of others like me, to point out that the emperors of the Q Continuum have no clothes on. (Well, of course non-corporeal beings aren't wearing clothes, but you see my point.) We push the boundaries of the allowed, and the allowable. We may set the new trends or we may overstep the edges of good taste, but the point is to act as an engine of change within a society that, without those like me, would be condemned to stagnation, crushing boredom, and eternal, immortal death within life.
The reason I answered the question "no" last time was that this is something of a sore spot with me. I don't hold my role because anyone told me to-- that would entirely miss the point, in fact. I do it because I want to. It's fun, and it suits me, at least when it works. Which is where the sore spot comes in. Despite the fact that the Continuum essentially created me to fill this role, they don't want me to do it. Heaven forfend we should actually try to change! Or try anything new! Perhaps my role was predetermined, but those that determined it no longer want me to do it, since it involves the embarrassing concept that I might mention, loudly and at length, that they are boring and their existences are pointless and futile.
We actually had a schism over this, eventually. I fought a war for the right to change and grow, for expanded freedoms within the Continuum. And I won. And I ended up part of the same leadership body I'd spent five billion years criticizing. And now I feel they may have co-opted me, that they're *trying* to force me into a new role, one I was *not* designed for and one I most emphatically do not want.
What are your New Year's Resolutions?
*blink blink* What, I'm supposed to pay attention to Earth's solar calendar? I think not. Next question!
Any reason to get blindingly drunk?
Yes. Unfortunately it's very difficult when you're omnipotent.
How did you lose your virginity?
With which species? I believe I've enjoyed some form of pleasure-reciprocating activity with over 33 thousand at this point. (Species, not individuals. There's quite a few more individuals than that. I play favorites with certain species.)
Do you believe in love at first sight?
No. Often those that seem most interesting at first turn out, on further testing, to be thoroughly unworthy of your affection.
What's more important, self-preservation or forgiveness?
That depends. Are you going to have to live with the results for eternity? In the case of other Q, self-preservation and forgiveness are identical. They have to be. I know of no immortal species where individuals manage to hold eternal grudges against each other without a permanent schism developing in the society (I betcha
metatron_tm could tell you all about that). If you're going to be seeing someone's face around for the next twenty billion years, it is important to forgive them for minor little infractions like PUTTING YOU UP AGAINST A TREE AND TRYING TO EXECUTE YOU-- so, all right, perhaps I need to work on the forgiveness thing a little harder, but then, I didn't say it was *easy*, only necessary.On the other hand, there's no good reason to forgive mortals if you don't want to. On the third hand, if the mortal in question is really interesting, then once again self-preservation and forgiveness work together, because if you're going to run around holding grudges against every interesting mortal you run into due to them, oh, say, not letting you be crew on their starship, then you'll be bored, and for a Q, boredom is death.
I would say that self-preservation is definitely more important but frequently the most effective method of preserving one's self-- or one's dignity, or one's enjoyment of life, or any number of other things-- may involve forgiving those who do annoying things to you. I mean, if I was going to hold grudges against every Q who's ever betrayed me, insulted me, tried to shoot me, thrown me into a wall while I was trying to teach her about her exciting new existence, walked off and left me with a kid... well, the list goes on, and the point is, if I did that there wouldn't be a single Q left in the Continuum I could spend any time with.