![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qcontinuumCrossposted from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
theatrical_muse, today.
Prompt 284: You're fired! Talk about a time you were forced out of something.
There are assignments the Continuum has learned to never, ever, ever give me.
There was the time that I was assigned to supervise the development of the Onshara, a delicate, peaceful species who had an elaborate ritual for absolutely *everything*, which led everything they did to take about seventeen times as long as it had to. In other words, they were the ultimate bureaucrats. I got pulled off the case right about the time that the Onshara were figuring out that the ball electricity which was hitting everyone who stood still in public places for longer than 30 seconds was not natural in origin. But hey, it sped them up! Now their rituals take about 2 seconds, and they're done.
Then there was the time the Tuwalik were discovering time travel. I was supposed to go discourage them from engaging in time travel, because time travel is bad for causality and makes messes we end up having to go clean up. So maybe I shouldn't have had one of their time travelers step on a butterfly in their primitive past and wipe out their entire species retroactively, but if they'd been smart about it they could have figured on going back again and keeping the guy who stepped on the butterfly from doing it instead of just shooting him in the head, like revenge was gonna accomplish bringing their species back. The Continuum didn't even *let* me fix that one; they just told me to go away, and had someone much more boring than I am come in and fix the timeline.
The Continuum thought they had me when they made me oversee the evolution of slime molds on some planet that doesn't have a name yet because no sentient beings besides the Q have discovered it, and we don't give out names on the grounds that we know what stuff is without having to name it. So I figured out how to make the slime molds noncorporeal, and now the planet is covered with noncorporeal hungry ghosts that will suck the life force out of any matter-based living being. But nobody appreciated my innovation at *all*, even though this is much more interesting than slime molds would ever have gotten otherwise, and after they pulled me off the case, chewed me up one side and down the other for making noncorporeal entities that consume life force, and confined me to the Continuum, they stopped giving me assignments that were deliberately designed to bore me. (And after the number of Q I lied to, seduced, picked fights with, insulted, broke up relationships between, and politically humiliated during the period I was confined to the Continuum, they never tried *that* again either.)
They were... kind of more successful about firing me from *all* my duties in the Continuum by taking away my powers, but, well, I'm now one of the guys in charge so I guess *that* didn't work either. Nyaah.
Prompt 283: What languages do you speak?
All of them.
Prompt 187: Which is the more exquisite sensation: revenge, relief, or vindication?
They're all pretty good, but I'm most partial to vindication, because it gets you what you wanted in the first place. Revenge doesn't fix the wrong that was done to you, it just makes sure the person who did it suffers... it's kind of useless, honestly. Though it feels good at the time... but in the end, it's empty. Relief just means the bad thing you thought was going to happen isn't going to; again, feels great at the time, but what would have been better is never being afraid of the bad thing in the first place. Relief doesn't move you forward, it just keeps you from moving backward.
Vindication, however, contains revenge (you get to say "nyaah" to all your detractors, and humiliate them for not having believed you in the first place), relief (people are no longer insulting you or impugning your honesty or competence), *and* it moves you forward. You gain in status, and whatever it was you wanted to do in the first place that they wouldn't let you do that you need to be vindicated about, you're probably going to be allowed to do it now. Okay, perhaps vindication would be less fun if one were mortal and it could therefore come posthumously, but since every time I've been vindicated I've lived to see what I originally wanted be implemented, I think it's nifty keen.
Prompt 253: Awesome.
Yes, I know. I am, aren't I?
OOC note: The story attributed to the history of the Tuwalik, above, actually comes from Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder".
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG
theatrical_muse, today.Prompt 284: You're fired! Talk about a time you were forced out of something.
There are assignments the Continuum has learned to never, ever, ever give me.
There was the time that I was assigned to supervise the development of the Onshara, a delicate, peaceful species who had an elaborate ritual for absolutely *everything*, which led everything they did to take about seventeen times as long as it had to. In other words, they were the ultimate bureaucrats. I got pulled off the case right about the time that the Onshara were figuring out that the ball electricity which was hitting everyone who stood still in public places for longer than 30 seconds was not natural in origin. But hey, it sped them up! Now their rituals take about 2 seconds, and they're done.
Then there was the time the Tuwalik were discovering time travel. I was supposed to go discourage them from engaging in time travel, because time travel is bad for causality and makes messes we end up having to go clean up. So maybe I shouldn't have had one of their time travelers step on a butterfly in their primitive past and wipe out their entire species retroactively, but if they'd been smart about it they could have figured on going back again and keeping the guy who stepped on the butterfly from doing it instead of just shooting him in the head, like revenge was gonna accomplish bringing their species back. The Continuum didn't even *let* me fix that one; they just told me to go away, and had someone much more boring than I am come in and fix the timeline.
The Continuum thought they had me when they made me oversee the evolution of slime molds on some planet that doesn't have a name yet because no sentient beings besides the Q have discovered it, and we don't give out names on the grounds that we know what stuff is without having to name it. So I figured out how to make the slime molds noncorporeal, and now the planet is covered with noncorporeal hungry ghosts that will suck the life force out of any matter-based living being. But nobody appreciated my innovation at *all*, even though this is much more interesting than slime molds would ever have gotten otherwise, and after they pulled me off the case, chewed me up one side and down the other for making noncorporeal entities that consume life force, and confined me to the Continuum, they stopped giving me assignments that were deliberately designed to bore me. (And after the number of Q I lied to, seduced, picked fights with, insulted, broke up relationships between, and politically humiliated during the period I was confined to the Continuum, they never tried *that* again either.)
They were... kind of more successful about firing me from *all* my duties in the Continuum by taking away my powers, but, well, I'm now one of the guys in charge so I guess *that* didn't work either. Nyaah.
Prompt 283: What languages do you speak?
All of them.
Prompt 187: Which is the more exquisite sensation: revenge, relief, or vindication?
They're all pretty good, but I'm most partial to vindication, because it gets you what you wanted in the first place. Revenge doesn't fix the wrong that was done to you, it just makes sure the person who did it suffers... it's kind of useless, honestly. Though it feels good at the time... but in the end, it's empty. Relief just means the bad thing you thought was going to happen isn't going to; again, feels great at the time, but what would have been better is never being afraid of the bad thing in the first place. Relief doesn't move you forward, it just keeps you from moving backward.
Vindication, however, contains revenge (you get to say "nyaah" to all your detractors, and humiliate them for not having believed you in the first place), relief (people are no longer insulting you or impugning your honesty or competence), *and* it moves you forward. You gain in status, and whatever it was you wanted to do in the first place that they wouldn't let you do that you need to be vindicated about, you're probably going to be allowed to do it now. Okay, perhaps vindication would be less fun if one were mortal and it could therefore come posthumously, but since every time I've been vindicated I've lived to see what I originally wanted be implemented, I think it's nifty keen.
Prompt 253: Awesome.
Yes, I know. I am, aren't I?
OOC note: The story attributed to the history of the Tuwalik, above, actually comes from Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder".
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG