NIETZSCHE; DEAD PHILOSOPHERS' INBOX

[explosivecombat]

[TEXT; LOCKED TO doitrockapella]

The offer for conversation is always open, should you desire to take me up on it; I can't guarantee that I'll respond immediately, nor will it necessarily be the response you want, but I'll always respond in some way.

In the name of enlightened discourse.

Comments

[explosivecombat]

Don't expect me to ask where you're going, in future. You've made it hideously plain that you aren't going to tell me without making me practically beg you for any information at all, and even then you hardly give me anything.

That's what I'm angry about. So yes, if you insist on continuing with this whole "You don't know where I am" game, I'm going to be sarcastic and accusatory because I'm not going to play it with you.

[doitrockapella]

All right. I understand.

[explosivecombat]

You asked me once, when you were playing hard to get, whether I always just walk away from doors when someone closes them on me. I suspect that's what you're doing with that particular behavior as well - closing the door to see if I'll try to open it again, or at least to...I don't know, prove to yourself that I'll make the attempt. But I don't take closed doors as a challenge, nor do I take them as an invitation to try to open them again.

When people close doors on others, that's a sign that whomever they're closing those doors on aren't wanted.

[doitrockapella]

You know we've talked before about habits. Assumptions about the world that have carried over and stay with us, even when we ought to be aware that they're counterproductive and illogical.

It's a habit born of the notion that people will only care if I make them. I'm not defending it or saying it's a good habit to be in. That's just how things are, where I'm from.

It's not personal, or targeted at you. Maybe that's why it bothers me when I get the impression that you're implying it is. I know it bothers you more than it would bother most people. It's just...a part of me. For now, at least.

[explosivecombat]

It has nothing to do with whether it's targeted directly at me or not. It's hideously manipulative and a rather repulsive mind game to constantly be playing with anyone, much less someone you claim to care about, and I don't tolerate that sort of thing from anyone.

I'm fairly sure that the last time we got in an argument regarding someone being manipulative and cruel, whether intentional or not, you understood perfectly well why it doesn't matter whether it's specifically targeted or not. If I am able to have enough basic understanding of how empathy should work to understand that, then bluntly put that's saying something.

[doitrockapella]

I can't ask you what I want to without sounding inherently manipulative.

I won't make excuses, offer explanations. I...

Just. If I say that I understand that I'm facing someone within his rights to kill me, and who does...kill...and could. If I understand that.

Please.

Are you going to exercise it, Nietzsche?

[explosivecombat]

Were we back in Amestris, I would have, without thinking twice about it. Because that's how things are in Amestris, and because back then I would have said it's simply within my nature to do so.

However, I haven't been in Amestris for quite some time.

[doitrockapella]

I don't want to be dismissed.

But that decision is your right, too.

[explosivecombat]

...You aren't.

[doitrockapella]

Then what happens now?

[explosivecombat]

I don't know, Locke.

[doitrockapella]

I'm sorry for how I treated you the last time.

I owe you that, too.

[explosivecombat]

...It's fine. I'm hardly a paragon of fairness once I've been slighted either, intentional or not.

[doitrockapella]

Mm. We need to get better at this.

[explosivecombat]

You aren't the first person to tell me that, actually.

[doitrockapella]

Will I be the first person to succeed at it?

[explosivecombat]

We have no way to know that at this point, do we?

I know what I'm supposed to be working on; it's a process, that's all.

[doitrockapella]

...This is a hard exchange to grapple with when I can't tell if you're still furious or not.

Can we start with that?

[explosivecombat]

Of course not. Do I seem as though I am?

[doitrockapella]

You don't.

...That's why it's confusing.

[explosivecombat]

I don't understand. In what way?

[doitrockapella]

...Be patient with me, please, I'm the one who's going to need something spelled out carefully for me this time.

You were furious and now you're not. I've...got that much straight, to start with?

[explosivecombat]

Yes...?

[doitrockapella]

...What...caused you to stop being furious?

[explosivecombat]

[...wait, wait, is he missing something here]

...We resolved the issue, didn't we?