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muse_academy today.
Prompt 1A – Category - Quote:
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. Leo Tolstoy
Been reading Starfleet analysts' notes on me. I'm finding them awfully amusing. The sheer misconceptions and silliness these mortals put in their reports based on never having met me, but merely reading reports that those who have met me put together? Oh, could there be any better example of the blind leading the stupid?
"It is unknown why the Q entity has repeatedly referred to various species as 'ugly' (cf 'It's as plain as the noses on your ugly little primate faces', stardate 42372.5; '...any more than you could win a beauty contest,' in reference to a Klingon, stardate 43539.1), if it indeed has no corporeal form at all. Why would an entity with no corporeal form have aesthetic preferences that in many cases seem to match Human?"
Because, you numbskulls, when I'm in a Human form, talking (mostly) to Humans, my frame of reference is Human. Besides which, you somehow managed to overlook that the first comment was about humans. (And you forgot me calling a Ferengi a "repulsive little troll", but I suppose Vash didn't submit any reports to Starfleet.)
I don't actually have any aesthetic preferences, per se. Not for bodies made of meat, anyway. I like form that follows function, but I also like creativity and decoration. There's nothing inherently ugly about Klingons or Ferengi in terms of their physical appearance... it's the mindset of the species I can't stand, but that's beside the point.
I told Worf he couldn't win a beauty contest because he was raised by Humans, serving aboard a Federation starship surrounded by Humans, and at the time, I myself was Human. (I also asked him if he'd eaten any good books. Starfleet analysts don't have much to say about that one.) I called the Ferengi a repulsive little troll to Vash, who is Human. I insulted the Humans' own appearances to their faces. Because species made of matter care a lot about what they look like. It's a weakness I can exploit. Things that are beautiful are good, things that are ugly are bad, and they can't get that idea out of their heads however often they try.
This is why I look like I do.
I happen to find this particular form aesthetically appealing, of course. But look at it carefully. Take a good look. It's not classically handsome by Human aesthetic standards. I've got a big nose and overly large lips and my eyes are just a trifle too close to each other. I happen to think it all works very well together, but no one element in isolation is particularly attractive. And that's deliberate.
When my kind appear as gods, we often do so with beautiful forms, aesthetically perfect by the standards of the people we appear among, because beauty is goodness. When I present a more malevolent aspect, either because I'm adopting a malevolent pose to get mortals to do something for their own benefit or because I genuinely feel like being a bastard today, I may take a hideous form or a terrifying form if I want the mortals' gut reaction to be sheer terror. If I feel like really screwing with their heads, I'll be both beautiful and malevolent. Mortals have no trouble hating and despising ugliness, but when you present them with beautiful malice, they don't know what to do with it. It confuses them, throws them off their guard, sows conflict in their minds, and that's usually exactly what I'm going for.
If I'm not interested in being a god or a demon, though... I take this form (or something with equivalent traits, for nonhumanoids, or something with equivalent traits but female if I need to be a woman). I appear as an ordinary person of their species... unusually tall, perhaps, and quite adequately attractive for my purposes, but not supernatural beauty or ugliness. Seeing a stunning aesthetic extreme hooks into mortal brains a certain way, suggesting to them that this is not their reality -- something is happening that is outside their tiny little minds' ability to comprehend. Seeing an ordinarily handsome fellow confuses them in a different way. I come across as just this guy, with superpowers, not as the awesome nigh-infinite entity that I am. It's as much a pose as the beauty or the ugliness is, but when I don't have a good reason to appear supernatural, I usually prefer not to... it's a pose that contains more honesty, in my opinion, than appearing as an obvious god or demon. Also, less pretentiousness.
muse_academy today.Prompt 1A – Category - Quote:
It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness. Leo Tolstoy
Been reading Starfleet analysts' notes on me. I'm finding them awfully amusing. The sheer misconceptions and silliness these mortals put in their reports based on never having met me, but merely reading reports that those who have met me put together? Oh, could there be any better example of the blind leading the stupid?
"It is unknown why the Q entity has repeatedly referred to various species as 'ugly' (cf 'It's as plain as the noses on your ugly little primate faces', stardate 42372.5; '...any more than you could win a beauty contest,' in reference to a Klingon, stardate 43539.1), if it indeed has no corporeal form at all. Why would an entity with no corporeal form have aesthetic preferences that in many cases seem to match Human?"
Because, you numbskulls, when I'm in a Human form, talking (mostly) to Humans, my frame of reference is Human. Besides which, you somehow managed to overlook that the first comment was about humans. (And you forgot me calling a Ferengi a "repulsive little troll", but I suppose Vash didn't submit any reports to Starfleet.)
I don't actually have any aesthetic preferences, per se. Not for bodies made of meat, anyway. I like form that follows function, but I also like creativity and decoration. There's nothing inherently ugly about Klingons or Ferengi in terms of their physical appearance... it's the mindset of the species I can't stand, but that's beside the point.
I told Worf he couldn't win a beauty contest because he was raised by Humans, serving aboard a Federation starship surrounded by Humans, and at the time, I myself was Human. (I also asked him if he'd eaten any good books. Starfleet analysts don't have much to say about that one.) I called the Ferengi a repulsive little troll to Vash, who is Human. I insulted the Humans' own appearances to their faces. Because species made of matter care a lot about what they look like. It's a weakness I can exploit. Things that are beautiful are good, things that are ugly are bad, and they can't get that idea out of their heads however often they try.
This is why I look like I do.
I happen to find this particular form aesthetically appealing, of course. But look at it carefully. Take a good look. It's not classically handsome by Human aesthetic standards. I've got a big nose and overly large lips and my eyes are just a trifle too close to each other. I happen to think it all works very well together, but no one element in isolation is particularly attractive. And that's deliberate.
When my kind appear as gods, we often do so with beautiful forms, aesthetically perfect by the standards of the people we appear among, because beauty is goodness. When I present a more malevolent aspect, either because I'm adopting a malevolent pose to get mortals to do something for their own benefit or because I genuinely feel like being a bastard today, I may take a hideous form or a terrifying form if I want the mortals' gut reaction to be sheer terror. If I feel like really screwing with their heads, I'll be both beautiful and malevolent. Mortals have no trouble hating and despising ugliness, but when you present them with beautiful malice, they don't know what to do with it. It confuses them, throws them off their guard, sows conflict in their minds, and that's usually exactly what I'm going for.
If I'm not interested in being a god or a demon, though... I take this form (or something with equivalent traits, for nonhumanoids, or something with equivalent traits but female if I need to be a woman). I appear as an ordinary person of their species... unusually tall, perhaps, and quite adequately attractive for my purposes, but not supernatural beauty or ugliness. Seeing a stunning aesthetic extreme hooks into mortal brains a certain way, suggesting to them that this is not their reality -- something is happening that is outside their tiny little minds' ability to comprehend. Seeing an ordinarily handsome fellow confuses them in a different way. I come across as just this guy, with superpowers, not as the awesome nigh-infinite entity that I am. It's as much a pose as the beauty or the ugliness is, but when I don't have a good reason to appear supernatural, I usually prefer not to... it's a pose that contains more honesty, in my opinion, than appearing as an obvious god or demon. Also, less pretentiousness.