More of these silly questions?

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 4/20/2004.

I actually rather liked the last set. What a pity these are mostly quite banal again.

( More silly questions )

Democracy or monarchy for who?

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 5/12/2004.

Which is better, democracy or monarchy?

For what species? I'll narrow it down to Humans and Q-- I could go on and on about any number of species, but there's only two I care about lately.

( Talk about politics! )

Movies!

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 5/15/2004.

If my life was a movie... it would be hideously long. And as fascinating as it would be, mere mortals *aren't* really capable of sitting through a movie about a life that's lasted five billion years and counting.

But then, no one actually makes biopics anymore. The art of making an entertaining story about someone's life involves picking the right spot to dramatize. So, what kind of movie would my life make? That entirely depends on what part the producers choose to tell.

( Pick a movie, any movie )

This one absolutely takes the cake.

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 6/3/2004.

( In which I discuss the nature of 'mu.' )

These are really quite terrible.

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 6/7/2004.

And one wonders why I let this go periodically.

( More ridiculous questions. )

The end of it all

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 6/18/2004, 14 of 50 posts. Slightly revised.

The world is ending tomorrow. What do you do today?

You know, the ironic thing about this question is that this already happened.

( It's the end of the world as we know it )

Commitment: being trapped in an insane asylum?

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 7/3/2004, 15 of 50.

How do you view commitment?

Well, it certainly hasn't escaped my attention that in at least some languages it's a euphemism for being declared out of your gourd and locked up in prison with the rest of the crazy people.

I think that about sums up my view of commitment.

If you had the choice, would you live forever?

Well, I'm not dead, am I?

I do have the choice-- so long as I don't choose to end my own life, and so long as peace reigns within my civilization and no one gets the bright idea of shooting me with the guns we invented during our civil war, and so long as I manage not to piss off so many people that they kick me out, again, I probably will live forever. This is a situation I am quite pleased with, I assure you. As dull as immortality can be sometimes, it certainly beats the alternative.

(I can't believe I'm actually willing to admit this.)

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 7/7/2004, 16 of 50.

What do you most regret losing?

There are many things I've lost, throughout my lengthy existence, and usually, the loss has come with a commensurate gain. For instance, recently I lost a good bit of my free time and became chained down to responsibilities I never used to have to deal with. On the other hand, I gained power and status within my society, and I have a son, who is both simultaneously the most annoying creature in my existence and the best thing that ever happened to me. I lost my innocence and sense of wonder at the universe so long ago I'd practically forgotten I ever had it until I saw it again in my son, but I gained knowledge and power and an understanding of the universe.

I lost friends during the war. Some of them, I killed myself. Others died for the beliefs they shared with me. That's extraordinarily painful-- these are people I've known for billions of years, people I never expected to see die-- but they died for a reason, and I believe the cause was justified. My civilization has a chance to escape stagnation now. I can't regret that.

No, the only thing I've lost and never gained anything by...

( you're all on tenterhooks, I'm sure... )

Yes, yes, I'm so bad.

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 8/11/2004, 17 of 50.

I know, I know. I'm supposed to answer these things faster than this. Mea culpa. If you were eternal you'd have trouble keeping track of weeks too.

( Questions I couldn't be bothered to answer when they first showed up )

Life after life... or not

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 8/23/2004, 18 of 50.

Do you believe in an afterlife?

For who?

I am a being of pure psionic energy. I am *very* difficult to destroy. I don't age, I don't get hurt-- something actually has to be actively *trying* to destroy me to do it.

All mortal sentiences have within them a psionic energy core, a *thing* that is the essence of their selfness, which is generated by the activity of becoming sentient, but once generated cannot be destroyed any more easily than I can. Mortals-- sentient beings made of matter, especially those made of meat-- can age, and die, because the stuff they are made of is fragile. That core of them, however, is as immortal as I am.

So do mortals have an afterlife? Sure they do. What they do with it, mind, is up to them. It differs from species to species, from individual to individual.

The Q, however, cut out the middle-matter and took our immortal souls straight up. We *are* our immortal parts. (So are mortals, but since they can't see that part, and since their matter existence is profoundly different from their energy existence, it's understandable that they get confused on the issue.) If I choose to manifest myself in meat, I and everyone I manifest to know it's an affectation, that the "real" me is the psionic part. I hate the term "soul"-- it's so redolent in primitive superstition. But that is, in essence, what I am.

There are ways to destroy one's immortal essence. And if that happens, there isn't anything left to *have* an afterlife. The Q have always, in the past, conducted executions with mercy-- instead of attempting to destroy a Q essence, we simply enflesh a criminal in meat and cut them off from the Continuum, which makes them mortal, for all intents and purposes, and their essence as a Q will live on the way mortal souls live on after the meat they are in is destroyed.

But during the civil war, we found a way to actually annihilate one another's Q essences. For the first time we brought true death to the Continuum.

So do I get an afterlife? That entirely depends on how I die-- *if* I die, which I plan not to. If I were made mortal and then killed, yes. If I were killed as a Q... then no. Those of my comrades who died during the war are dead forever.

We can bring mortals back to life. It's easy to reconstruct matter around an existing psionic energy core. But if that core is itself destroyed... well, all the Q's horses and all the Q's men won't be putting *that* back together again.

I was supposed to pass *values* on to my child? No one told me this!

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from 9/5/2004, 19 of 50.
What is the most important value you can pass on to your child?

You mean I've been doing this wrong the whole time?!

Values? I don't think I have been passing on any values to my child! Have I? I mean, is "don't blow up the universe, you'll find you'll want it around to play with it later" a value?

I've been doing this all wrong, haven't I? But what was I supposed to be teaching him? I thought training him to use his powers-- and try not to cause untold devastation with them-- was all I needed to do. Was I supposed to be teaching him values too? What kind of values? Because if it's like "respect all life" or "be completely responsible and boring" then I'd just die of hypocrisy, and besides, he's a Q. He knows me far too well to fall for it.

Lead, follow, or sit around munching popcorn?

OOC: reposted from theatrical_muse from 9/18/2004, 20 of 50.

( Lead or follow... and other questions )