Q

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.

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... )

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 )

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! )

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse from Apr. 1, 2004, with slight revisions for continuity with other posts.

Normally I find paying attention to assorted mortal calendars tedious to the point of absurdity, but I make exceptions for a small number of mortal holidays, and the humans' April Fools' Day is one of them. I've been a trickster god to enough species that I admit to getting all warm and fuzzy inside when I find a holiday that celebrates the trickster, and while modern humans have managed to bowdlerize their holiday until it's about nothing but puerile practical jokes, this day was originally about reversing the accepted order of the world, about chaos and misrule and *fun*. They used to turn their notions of everything inside out on this day, to play for a day at being someone they could never be in everyday life, to make kings into beggars and beggars into kings.

Of course, ever since we won the war the joke has been on me; it turns out that reversing the natural order of things and making the trickster, the court jester, the fool whose job it is to point out that the emperor has no clothes, *into* the emperor... well, in real life it's a lot less fun than when it's a game for a single day. I've been entirely occupied with inane stupidity, aka Continuum committee meetings, for... quite a while even in terms of this timeline. Somehow more than half of the most advanced species in this universe continue to manage to be complete idiots... it doesn't seem to matter who holds the most privileged positions within Continuum hierarchy. Except that now, I actually have to *pay attention* to these incredibly stupid ideas instead of simply mocking them and then boycotting the rest of the meeting. Frequently I think life was easier when I was a marginalized questioner of the status quo than now, when I'm one of the leaders of the Continuum. (Ouch. The phrase "I'm one of the leaders of the Continuum" still strikes me as an April Fool's joke all by itself.)

In any case, I'm back, and it seems the questions have improved somewhat in my absence. Or perhaps anything that isn't a meeting of the Continuum just seems much more pleasant now.

( To dream the impossible dream... )
( Ah, decisions, decisions... )
( The moving finger hath writ, and having writ, moves on... )

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse Mar. 12, 2004.

What makes me laugh?

Many things, which is good, because if there was nothing amusing in the universe I'd probably destroy myself out of boredom. When you're an omnipotent immortal, finding things to amuse yourself is as vital as food and drink are for mortal creatures. You may not be able to die-- not easily, anyway--- but you can certainly wish you were dead.

So, what amuses me?

Well, I amuse myself, of course. Nothing like being self-sufficient. I devote a significant portion of my vast intellect to the pursuit of the perfect witty retort. However, this becomes rather pointless when no one else has the skill level to play, so I would have to say that I am at least slightly dependent on finding conversational partners that don't bore me.

Humans are a very funny species at times. I used to hang around at the Algonquin Round Table, trading quips with the likes of Dorothy Parker, George Burns and Groucho Marx. Ah, that was fun. Reminded me of the early days of the Q Continuum, before the others all got so stultifyingly dull. And Jean-Luc's provided me considerable entertainment over the years-- both when he's trying to be funny, in which case he makes quite a witty bantering partner, and when he's trying to be earnest and serious, in which case he's such a pompous, arrogsnt windbag it's hilarious to listen to him.

I also think it's really funny when you force some pathetic mortals to recognize their own foolishness-- and they STILL DON'T GET IT. Okay, listen to this one. There was once this species where, due to a natural mutation, about half the population had blue hair and half had purple. No other genetic difference. But they used to come up with *all* sorts of ludicrous distinctions, like blue-heads are happy-go-lucky drunkards with no head for practicalities, or purple-heads are overly violent, or whatever. And they made people live with these stupid stereotypes. So one day I turned all their hair green. Did that make them realize the foolishness of their prejudices? Oh, no, no, no. They had the idea that they could do personality tests on people to find their original hair color, and then passed laws saying they had to dye back to it! Oh, if I weren't immortal I'd have died laughing at that one.

OOC: Reposted from theatrical_muse, Feb 8 2004.
What historical figure would I have dinner with?

I believe I've actually had dinner (or... other things) with every historical figure I had any interest in having... mmm... dinner with. When you're five billion years old and all of space and time is your playground, this is not the sort of question that needs to remain hypothetical.

Besides, what qualifies as history? I don't live in the same linear time most of you beings do, so for me who qualifies as a historical figure depends on who I'm talking to and when they exist.

That being said, thus far, I have not successfully talked either Jean-Luc or Kathy into having dinner with me. Not that I eat, unless I feel like it, but humans do so love to mix socializing with their silly nutritional requirements, and I'd be delighted to have an opportunity to simply hang out, without having to have an excuse like "the Continuum is at war" or "I have tests to conduct here" or something like that. Unfortunately, no matter *how* boring whatever they're doing is, they always act as if it's more important than spending time with moi, so I really will have to come up with a decent excuse one of these days.

OOC: Posted from theatrical_muse, from Jan 31, 2004. 2 of 50. I'm consolidating all my Q posts here and eliminating the extra account eventually.

If you must know, I try to avoid the sensation of guilt under most conditions. I prefer to be a law unto myself, and to make my own rules. Obviously, when one is making up the rules, there's nothing to be guilty *for.*

Unfortunately, some stuffy and entirely boring individuals of my acquaintance have, historically, rather more influence in my society than I would like. Which is to say they had more influence than me. Even for the omnipotent, it's difficult to stand against the opprobrium of one's peers without feeling a teensy tiny modicum of guilt.

So, my guilty pleasure? Humanity. They're small, petty, underevolved, downright idiotic, arrogant, and most of them have no sense of humor. Plus, their fashion sense has completely disintegrated over the centuries, so the only attractive clothing they know how to wear are military uniforms and period costumes. (Don't even get me started on the jumpsuits.) They're entirely beneath me, and I really shouldn't find them nearly as fascinating as I do... but I do, and I confess, it hasn't escaped my attention that my little hobby has occasionally made me the laughingstock of the Continuum. Or started civil wars. It is a tad hard, even for me, to avoid feeling embarrassed about that.

On the other hand, life is too long not to do things one enjoys, even if one has absolutely no idea *why* an obsessive interest in a race of furless monkeys should be quite so enjoyable. I've more or less given up feeling embarrassed about my hobby (it does help that they helped me win a war. That tends to impress even the stuffiest Q.) After all, they keep me from being bored, and when you're immortal and you can do anything you want, boredom is quite literally a fate worse than death.

I suppose it was inevitable. In fact it was hardly the first time. Once again, I've been tooling around the multiverse, and this time, I've run into various iterations of... myself.

I'm... a trifle disturbed, actually.

q_tm seems sufficiently close to me, I suspect he might actually be me (the trouble with being omnipotent and eternal is that when you run into another iteration of yourself, you don't necessarily know whether he's your future self or some alternate universe version of yourself.) On the other hand, the_amazing_q... bothers me. He seems so... childlike and cheerful. Am I like that? Was I *ever* like that? Or is this a completely alternate version of me and I shouldn't concern myself with him any more than my starship captains should concern themselves with their mirror universe duplicates?