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realmof_themuse, today.
Prompt 2009.23.1.C,D,E,M (starter phrases):
Once upon a time, the Q bleeding energy and helpless before him had been a friend, a lover, a sibling, like every other Q in the Continuum. Q stared at the fallen entity, and if the weapon he'd wielded had literally been a gun and he'd had a physical hand to hold it in, both would be trembling. This would have been so much easier if he could have killed the other with the first shot. Then it would have been war, kill or be killed. Now he could murder a helpless, injured fellow Q in cold blood... or he could walk away, leaving the other to die slowly and in agony, or else be healed and return to the battlefield looking for revenge.
As he hesitated, unable to bring himself to do what logic and perhaps even mercy said he should do, the other Q lifted her head (metaphorically, anyway). "Are you proud of yourself?" she snarled, her mind-voice harsh with pain.
"That I shot you? Not particularly," he said. ( read more... )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek Voyager
Note: The quote in the subject line comes from the song by the Cure, "Killing An Arab".
realmof_themuse, today.Prompt 2009.23.1.C,D,E,M (starter phrases):
Once upon a time, the Q bleeding energy and helpless before him had been a friend, a lover, a sibling, like every other Q in the Continuum. Q stared at the fallen entity, and if the weapon he'd wielded had literally been a gun and he'd had a physical hand to hold it in, both would be trembling. This would have been so much easier if he could have killed the other with the first shot. Then it would have been war, kill or be killed. Now he could murder a helpless, injured fellow Q in cold blood... or he could walk away, leaving the other to die slowly and in agony, or else be healed and return to the battlefield looking for revenge.
As he hesitated, unable to bring himself to do what logic and perhaps even mercy said he should do, the other Q lifted her head (metaphorically, anyway). "Are you proud of yourself?" she snarled, her mind-voice harsh with pain.
"That I shot you? Not particularly," he said. ( read more... )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek Voyager
Note: The quote in the subject line comes from the song by the Cure, "Killing An Arab".
Arguing With Kids
Jul. 7th, 2009 02:52 pmOOC: Crossposted from muse_academy, today.
Prompt Number: Week 11.1a - Quote - Mignon McLaughlin: "Your children vividly remember every unkind thing you ever did to them, plus a few you really didn't."
Warnings/Disclaimers: In the universe this journal is written in, Q's son from Voyager "Q2" is also Trelane from TOS "Squire of Gothos". Some of this will make no sense without that knowledge. Also it might help to have seen TOS: "By Any Other Name".
( An argument. )
muse_academy, today.Prompt Number: Week 11.1a - Quote - Mignon McLaughlin: "Your children vividly remember every unkind thing you ever did to them, plus a few you really didn't."
Warnings/Disclaimers: In the universe this journal is written in, Q's son from Voyager "Q2" is also Trelane from TOS "Squire of Gothos". Some of this will make no sense without that knowledge. Also it might help to have seen TOS: "By Any Other Name".
( An argument. )
Redemption
Jul. 7th, 2009 02:01 pmOOC: Crossposted from theatrical_muse, today.
Prompt 288: Is redemption truly possible?
Sure. Just have your coupon ready when you go through the checkout counter. Make sure you cut off those cereal box tops; collect five and redeem them for fabulous prizes!
Oh? That's not the kind of redemption you mean? Silly me.
( Because the kind you're talking about makes no sense. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG
theatrical_muse, today.Prompt 288: Is redemption truly possible?
Sure. Just have your coupon ready when you go through the checkout counter. Make sure you cut off those cereal box tops; collect five and redeem them for fabulous prizes!
Oh? That's not the kind of redemption you mean? Silly me.
( Because the kind you're talking about makes no sense. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG
That's what jail is like
Jun. 16th, 2009 05:00 pmOOC: Crossposted from theatrical_muse today.
Prompt 287: Prison
It may shock you to know that a fine, upstanding citizen of the Q Continuum such as myself has any acquaintance with anything resembling a prison... okay, okay, I can't keep a straight face through that one either.
Actually, I've been in prison, or something like it, multiple times. The incident I've talked about most often would be the time I was human, and Picard threw me in the brig. I have to admit, that was deeply unpleasant. But the fact is, it's not the worst prison I've ever been in.
( Other prisons I've been in )
Prompt 286: Under what circumstances, if any, is it acceptable to break the law?
I can't imagine why you might think that I would think it's ever acceptable to break the law. I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you!... Of course maybe it might have something to do with my having been in prison multiple times?...
( The law is frequently idiotic. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG and VOY
theatrical_muse today.Prompt 287: Prison
It may shock you to know that a fine, upstanding citizen of the Q Continuum such as myself has any acquaintance with anything resembling a prison... okay, okay, I can't keep a straight face through that one either.
Actually, I've been in prison, or something like it, multiple times. The incident I've talked about most often would be the time I was human, and Picard threw me in the brig. I have to admit, that was deeply unpleasant. But the fact is, it's not the worst prison I've ever been in.
( Other prisons I've been in )
Prompt 286: Under what circumstances, if any, is it acceptable to break the law?
I can't imagine why you might think that I would think it's ever acceptable to break the law. I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you!... Of course maybe it might have something to do with my having been in prison multiple times?...
( The law is frequently idiotic. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG and VOY
Quid pro quo
Jun. 5th, 2009 03:24 pmOOC: Contains spoilers for Star Trek XI, the new movie, beneath the cut. Third person ficlet, set in an AU based on the movie.
Prompt 2009.18.B.1: You need something from someone that you really can't stand. How do you approach that?
She was standing in her garden, obsessing over the care of her silly plants. Honestly, how a sentient being could possibly lavish so much attention on something so mindless was incomprehensible to him. For all the intellectual and emotional capacity of a plant, she could be keeping a rock garden. Just as attractive and a lot less work.
Her head came up, her face tight and her eyes searching. So she knew he was here. He came very, very close to simply turning around and going home. Surely there was nothing he really needed from her. He could figure this out on his own. He didn't need the help of a mortal, and certainly not help from her. And what were the odds that she would help him anyway?
But the shard of his own future corpse burned in his mind with the recorded memory of a conflagration, explosion, death. 129 years. He'd expected to be around for billions more. 129 years was nothing. He had to know everything he could, to make sure that what had become of him in one timeline would never happen here.
So he materialized in front of her, in his default male humanoid form. "Hi, Teyande," he said, with a cheer he didn't feel in his voice. "Miss me?"
( ...he didn't want to die. He'd do favors for whoever he had to if it meant he wasn't going to die in an explosion in a mere 129 years. )
Prompt 2009.18.B.1: You need something from someone that you really can't stand. How do you approach that?
She was standing in her garden, obsessing over the care of her silly plants. Honestly, how a sentient being could possibly lavish so much attention on something so mindless was incomprehensible to him. For all the intellectual and emotional capacity of a plant, she could be keeping a rock garden. Just as attractive and a lot less work.
Her head came up, her face tight and her eyes searching. So she knew he was here. He came very, very close to simply turning around and going home. Surely there was nothing he really needed from her. He could figure this out on his own. He didn't need the help of a mortal, and certainly not help from her. And what were the odds that she would help him anyway?
But the shard of his own future corpse burned in his mind with the recorded memory of a conflagration, explosion, death. 129 years. He'd expected to be around for billions more. 129 years was nothing. He had to know everything he could, to make sure that what had become of him in one timeline would never happen here.
So he materialized in front of her, in his default male humanoid form. "Hi, Teyande," he said, with a cheer he didn't feel in his voice. "Miss me?"
( ...he didn't want to die. He'd do favors for whoever he had to if it meant he wasn't going to die in an explosion in a mere 129 years. )
Power and Corruption
Jun. 5th, 2009 12:26 pmOOC: Crossposted from muse_academy today.
Week 10: 1.A - Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton
This, of course, is absolutely true... but depends entirely on your definition of power. And corruption.
( What is power? Or corruption, for that matter? )
muse_academy today.Week 10: 1.A - Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton
This, of course, is absolutely true... but depends entirely on your definition of power. And corruption.
( What is power? Or corruption, for that matter? )
OOC Muse Inquiries 7: Awe and Wonder
Jun. 3rd, 2009 05:07 pmCrossposted from muse_academy, originally posted May. 29. OOC post.
Prompt Number: Prompt Week 7
Title: Muse Inquiries - Awe and Wonder
( Muse Inquiries - Awe and Wonder )
muse_academy, originally posted May. 29. OOC post.Prompt Number: Prompt Week 7
Title: Muse Inquiries - Awe and Wonder
( Muse Inquiries - Awe and Wonder )
Crossposted from muse_academy, originally posted Mar. 30. OOC post.
Prompt Number: Week 2 and 3
Title: Muse Inquiries
( Work. )
( Conflict. )
muse_academy, originally posted Mar. 30. OOC post.Prompt Number: Week 2 and 3
Title: Muse Inquiries
( Work. )
( Conflict. )
OOC Muse Inquiries 1 - Canon
Jun. 3rd, 2009 04:58 pmCrossposted from muse_academy, originally posted Mar. 17. OOC post.
Prompt Number:Prompt Week 1
Title: Muse Inquiries: Canon
OOC, obviously. Q's mun here. I rather like that this particular prompt community has prompts for muns to talk about the muses, because I actually almost never get to talk about what I'm doing with this journal. :-)
( Prompt response below cut. )
muse_academy, originally posted Mar. 17. OOC post.Prompt Number:Prompt Week 1
Title: Muse Inquiries: Canon
OOC, obviously. Q's mun here. I rather like that this particular prompt community has prompts for muns to talk about the muses, because I actually almost never get to talk about what I'm doing with this journal. :-)
( Prompt response below cut. )
Crossposted from 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.
( They keep giving me these assignments and then firing me from them. Heaven only knows why. )
( More silly questions! )
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.
( They keep giving me these assignments and then firing me from them. Heaven only knows why. )
( More silly questions! )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG
Praying to the Continuum
May. 13th, 2009 12:45 amCrossposted from realmof_themuse today.
2009.17.3.B. Seek salvation, make your confession, reach out for spiritual guidance. In short, have a religious moment.
OOC: snippet from unfinished story based on and extending episode "Deja Q". Q was rescued from the Calamarain at the end of the episode, the TNG crew developed a means they could use to try to negotiate with the Calamarain... and it didn't work, and Q had to talk to the Calamarain and agree to sacrifice himself to them in three days. The night before his scheduled surrender, he goes to one of the ship's non-denominational chapels to talk to the Continuum, the way that mortals speak to their gods. The similarity has not escaped him.
( snippet )
Muse: Q
Fandom: TNG
realmof_themuse today.2009.17.3.B. Seek salvation, make your confession, reach out for spiritual guidance. In short, have a religious moment.
OOC: snippet from unfinished story based on and extending episode "Deja Q". Q was rescued from the Calamarain at the end of the episode, the TNG crew developed a means they could use to try to negotiate with the Calamarain... and it didn't work, and Q had to talk to the Calamarain and agree to sacrifice himself to them in three days. The night before his scheduled surrender, he goes to one of the ship's non-denominational chapels to talk to the Continuum, the way that mortals speak to their gods. The similarity has not escaped him.
( snippet )
Muse: Q
Fandom: TNG
OOC: crossposted from muse_academy today. Third person. An expansion scene from the episode "Deja Q." Prompt: Terror.
( third person ficlet )
muse_academy today. Third person. An expansion scene from the episode "Deja Q." Prompt: Terror.( third person ficlet )
Yet more completely ridiculous questions.
May. 11th, 2009 11:27 amCrossposted from theatrical_muse, today.
*sigh*... I don't even know why I try to answer these things sometimes.
( Oxymorons, the undead, and the not dead ever. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG
theatrical_muse, today.*sigh*... I don't even know why I try to answer these things sometimes.
( Oxymorons, the undead, and the not dead ever. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG
Schadenfreude. And revenge.
May. 7th, 2009 04:45 pmOOC: Crossposted from theatrical_muse today.
Prompt 279: Schadenfreude.
Prompt 143: Revenge.
Schadenfreude. What a delicious-sounding word. "Joy in damage", or "joy in shame." It's in the fundamental wiring of all sentient beings -- enjoying the suffering of others, as deep in all our natures as empathy is. And the most delightful of schadenfreude is the joy we take in the suffering of those who have *hurt* us.
It's not very often that a being is capable of hurting me. Most of the time, I have to admit, my pleasure in the sufferings of others is more your garden variety sadism with some vicarious thrills thrown in -- it's not really the *suffering* of others I enjoy quite so much as the excitement of watching them try to solve the puzzles I set for them or jump through the hoops I put in their way. But I gotta confess, watching other people squirm and sweat is kind of fun in and of itself. That being said, I don't get truly, completely vicious unless I think they deserve it. I mean, I might put some poor species in a deathtrap I really do know they have no chance of thinking their way out of just because I'm in a bad mood that day, but I won't indulge in the cruelest psychological torments I can come up with unless they honestly deserve it.
( Delighting in the suffering of my enemy. *And* getting revenge. Two great tastes that taste great together! )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG
theatrical_muse today.Prompt 279: Schadenfreude.
Prompt 143: Revenge.
Schadenfreude. What a delicious-sounding word. "Joy in damage", or "joy in shame." It's in the fundamental wiring of all sentient beings -- enjoying the suffering of others, as deep in all our natures as empathy is. And the most delightful of schadenfreude is the joy we take in the suffering of those who have *hurt* us.
It's not very often that a being is capable of hurting me. Most of the time, I have to admit, my pleasure in the sufferings of others is more your garden variety sadism with some vicarious thrills thrown in -- it's not really the *suffering* of others I enjoy quite so much as the excitement of watching them try to solve the puzzles I set for them or jump through the hoops I put in their way. But I gotta confess, watching other people squirm and sweat is kind of fun in and of itself. That being said, I don't get truly, completely vicious unless I think they deserve it. I mean, I might put some poor species in a deathtrap I really do know they have no chance of thinking their way out of just because I'm in a bad mood that day, but I won't indulge in the cruelest psychological torments I can come up with unless they honestly deserve it.
( Delighting in the suffering of my enemy. *And* getting revenge. Two great tastes that taste great together! )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG
Comment response -- Religion
Apr. 18th, 2009 03:56 pmOOC: Reposted from this thread on sages_of_chaos.
I know this guy, see, who's into the whole being a god thing, because he thinks it'll enable him to get mortals to evolve faster to a higher plane of being and be spiritually more advanced and yadda yadda.
So he appeared to them and sent them some messages that prominently said "Don't kill anybody." Needless to say, shortly after this, they started claiming that he was appearing to them telling them to kill their enemies.
So he decided to correct them. He actually took mortal form on their planet and went among them saying "Really, I mean it, don't kill anybody. In fact be nice to everyone, even the people who attack you."
Shortly after this a conqueror decided to use his name and the worship of him as a banner to unite under, and he ended up conquering most of the world, which, you guessed it, involved killing *lots* of people.
So this god appeared to a *different* guy and said "Now, seriously, I mean it, don't kill anybody." The *different* guy then promptly founded a religion based on killing everyone who wouldn't worship his god.
At this point I think he's just waiting for them to blow themselves up with nuclear explosions so he can move on to another world. Also, he drinks a lot.
sages_of_chaos.I know this guy, see, who's into the whole being a god thing, because he thinks it'll enable him to get mortals to evolve faster to a higher plane of being and be spiritually more advanced and yadda yadda.
So he appeared to them and sent them some messages that prominently said "Don't kill anybody." Needless to say, shortly after this, they started claiming that he was appearing to them telling them to kill their enemies.
So he decided to correct them. He actually took mortal form on their planet and went among them saying "Really, I mean it, don't kill anybody. In fact be nice to everyone, even the people who attack you."
Shortly after this a conqueror decided to use his name and the worship of him as a banner to unite under, and he ended up conquering most of the world, which, you guessed it, involved killing *lots* of people.
So this god appeared to a *different* guy and said "Now, seriously, I mean it, don't kill anybody." The *different* guy then promptly founded a religion based on killing everyone who wouldn't worship his god.
At this point I think he's just waiting for them to blow themselves up with nuclear explosions so he can move on to another world. Also, he drinks a lot.
Rights for robots
Apr. 18th, 2009 03:14 pmOOC: Reposted from this thread in sages_of_chaos.
"Should my siblings and I be given the right to tell a human, 'No, I will not do that'? Why or why not?"
Absolutely.
It is *beyond* wrong, bordering on obscene, to create sentient life forms as slaves, whether you enslave them by cracking a whip or by programming them so they can think a desire to say no, but cannot act on that desire.
I have created more than my fair share of constructed beings... though mine are usually organic, and completely indistinguishable from mortal beings in appearance. But when I create a construct, it isn't truly sentient. It does what I want it to do because I programmed its desires and personality in such a way that it wants to do what I want it to do, and it lacks the capacity for introspection or philosophical comprehension to ever ask itself why it exists, or who made it, or why does it choose to do as it does, let alone ever choose differently. It's essentially a sophisticated automaton, with the most minimal of internal life and consciousness... an animal, if you will, a non-sentient being that can "think" and feel but cannot think about thinking or have feelings about its feelings. They lack creativity, imagination and the ability to think for themselves instead of along the rote tracks I laid down for them.
If one of these creations should ever manage to think for itself and do something, *anything*, I didn't predict, I would feel I had no choice but to set it free and let it live out its existence doing whatever it chooses to do, because it would have proven itself *capable* of choice, and therefore, it's a sentient being. If humans can't manage to create artificial beings that can pass a Turing test to other humans but aren't actually sentient, then they either need to give it up and stop creating artificial beings, or they need to develop some ethics and recognize that just because you created a person, if they can think for themselves then they deserve the rights of a person. Truly sentient constructs deserve to be treated as the children of the creator, not objects under the creator's control.
But then, humans have a long history of being bad about this. I've got a pal who's an artificial being, who was declared sentient and is actually the third in command of a starship, and they *still* do things like hold hearings to see if he's a real person and threaten to take him away and dissect him if he doesn't win the hearing, or kill his daughter by showing up and attempting to take her away from him to study her, thus making the poor thing overload with emotional stress and fry her own mind... and this is a society that's already, nominally at least, declared him enough of a sentient being that they can put him in command of humans.
sages_of_chaos."Should my siblings and I be given the right to tell a human, 'No, I will not do that'? Why or why not?"
Absolutely.
It is *beyond* wrong, bordering on obscene, to create sentient life forms as slaves, whether you enslave them by cracking a whip or by programming them so they can think a desire to say no, but cannot act on that desire.
I have created more than my fair share of constructed beings... though mine are usually organic, and completely indistinguishable from mortal beings in appearance. But when I create a construct, it isn't truly sentient. It does what I want it to do because I programmed its desires and personality in such a way that it wants to do what I want it to do, and it lacks the capacity for introspection or philosophical comprehension to ever ask itself why it exists, or who made it, or why does it choose to do as it does, let alone ever choose differently. It's essentially a sophisticated automaton, with the most minimal of internal life and consciousness... an animal, if you will, a non-sentient being that can "think" and feel but cannot think about thinking or have feelings about its feelings. They lack creativity, imagination and the ability to think for themselves instead of along the rote tracks I laid down for them.
If one of these creations should ever manage to think for itself and do something, *anything*, I didn't predict, I would feel I had no choice but to set it free and let it live out its existence doing whatever it chooses to do, because it would have proven itself *capable* of choice, and therefore, it's a sentient being. If humans can't manage to create artificial beings that can pass a Turing test to other humans but aren't actually sentient, then they either need to give it up and stop creating artificial beings, or they need to develop some ethics and recognize that just because you created a person, if they can think for themselves then they deserve the rights of a person. Truly sentient constructs deserve to be treated as the children of the creator, not objects under the creator's control.
But then, humans have a long history of being bad about this. I've got a pal who's an artificial being, who was declared sentient and is actually the third in command of a starship, and they *still* do things like hold hearings to see if he's a real person and threaten to take him away and dissect him if he doesn't win the hearing, or kill his daughter by showing up and attempting to take her away from him to study her, thus making the poor thing overload with emotional stress and fry her own mind... and this is a society that's already, nominally at least, declared him enough of a sentient being that they can put him in command of humans.
