Let's Do The Space Warp Again

[iamnotpolaris]

'Guided random' selected, parameters recalibrated, universe selection initiated.
What's on the other side now?

Comments

[whatamithinking]

"I wasn't angry at you!"

[endragoned]

Yeah, he doesn't get it.

[whatamithinking]

Okay...
The way the Endarkened approached sex was massively screwed up. Most places in most worlds (i.e. everywhere that isn't terrible) don't treat it like that. In most places, rape is considered a special kind of evil, something that can scar people for life, and that apparently happened to him, and this filled her with rage at the other Endarkened.

[endragoned]

...well.

He did notice that he didn't like the way things worked in Shadow Mountain very much, but he doesn't really have any examples of alternative social structures, though he has already realized that most kinds of people must manage to figure out their sexual encounters without threats and power games. His dragon-self is managing just fine with Saravasse, but Saravasse is being very... direct, in a way that he would not feel comfortable emulating without really understanding how to avoid threatening anyone. He does not want to threaten anyone.

[whatamithinking]

...Well, to start with, with Edie at least, he can take it as a given that she knows he doesn't want to threaten her or anyone else, and if she hears something that sounds like a threat what it really means is that Shadow Mountain was particularly terrible.
As for the rest...she's not sure she can condense a lifetime of social conditioning and experience with alternative social structures for him, not without transmitting her entire life experience which might well not overwhelm him considering how much longer his life has been but would contain things that aren't really hers to share.

[endragoned]

It's kind of her to promise the generous interpretation, but it still wouldn't be comfortable to do things that feel like they will be threatening even if she knows better than to take it that way. Oh well. He's sure he'll adapt eventually.

[whatamithinking]

...Eventually, yeah.
She still kind of wants to set something on fire, but it helps that what she wants to set on fire hasn't existed for about two thousand years. It can just go on the pile of things to ponder when she wants to be pissed off, like the fact that the Holocaust was a thing that existed or any form of institutionalized prejudice.

[endragoned]

It is... strange, that she wants to set something on fire over this. Perhaps it's just that she hasn't had ten thousand years to get used to it. Or perhaps it is that he is unaccustomed to being the target of someone else's sympathy.

[whatamithinking]

It's true that she probably won't feel this strongly about it in ten thousand years, if she lives ten thousand years.

...Ten thousand years is a long time. She hadn't really thought about that before now.

And the unicorns still remember Tialle and her demon, wow, unicorns are great at history.

[endragoned]

It is a long time, yes. But Endarkened live until killed, and they are very hard to kill.

[whatamithinking]

In this particular case? Good.

[endragoned]

Aw.

[whatamithinking]

It is really remarkably convenient that most of the known ways to do so depend on evilness. And whatever metaphysical marker of evil he had seems to have gone bye-bye at some point.

[endragoned]

That is so. Although he is not sure unicorns couldn't still kill him if they tried.

[whatamithinking]

Luckily the one they met doesn't seem inclined to try. Also, most other universes do not have unicorns in them.

[endragoned]

He feels it is unlikely that otherworldly unicorns would be the relevant kind of unicorns, anyway, given the impression he has of how different multiversal-category-dragons are from local-species-dragons.

[whatamithinking]

Quite. Although it's possible they might find another world relevantly similar to this one; she and her sister did find those two worlds that also had mutants.

[endragoned]

Wouldn't that be something. Hopefully this hypothetical other world has also got rid of all its other Endarkened, or that could get awkward.

[whatamithinking]

It could get very awkward indeed. Edie would rather not have to find out whether she could break a regular Endarkened's mind. Partly because of the fact that it's even a question in the first place.

[endragoned]

Yes. That would be troublesome.



He observes that before they got distracted, they were considering her fondness for him and how she might like to express it.

[whatamithinking]

Oh--um--right.

She is very fond of him. He has the loveliest mind she's ever (seen/felt/perceived).

But she's a little bit...cautious of the idea of expressing this fondness physically. A very little bit because the culture she's from has all kinds of hangups about sex, but mostly because...well, what happened to him was Not Okay. And then nothing of the sort since then unless you count Saravasse, which is debatable, and...she sort of wants to be careful.

[endragoned]

He appreciates her carefulness, but he expects that she doesn't need to be that careful.

For clarity's sake, he shows her his feelings in more depth:

If she had taken him up on his original offer, that would have been okay. Maybe not if she approached it like an Endarkened would, but she is not an Endarkened, so that's not really a concern. He meant it when he thought/said that it would be delightful. If she would rather avoid that whole conceptual framework, well and good, he has no particular attachment to it and is happy to figure something else out. But there are no dire harms lurking just around the corner; it has been ten thousand years, and he is okay.

[whatamithinking]

Okay, regardless of everything else, what she would like to do right now is hug him.

[endragoned]

He shares his feelings about this suggestion. His feelings about this suggestion are very positive.

[whatamithinking]

Hug!