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]

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?

[doitrockapella]

...

Well...yes, but that doesn't...

[. . .]

So you were only furious as long as the issue was ongoing, but now that it's been...dealt with, you've stopped being so — having reason to be so, maybe — and are back to the status quo. Something like that?

[explosivecombat]

Well, there's not much sense in continuing to be furious if the issue isn't ongoing, is there?

[doitrockapella]

Fury tends to be an emotion that isn't traditionally governed by sense.

It...usually takes a while to come down off of it, in most people's experience. Certainly in mine.

[explosivecombat]

Yes, I've noticed that, actually. It's always struck me as incredibly strange, how that works - it's as I said, really, if there's nothing for me to be furious about, then really, I'm not furious because there's nothing fueling it anymore.

I think the only times that doesn't fully work is when I'm angry at someone and they don't do as I expect them to do; that tends to be oddly unsatisfying and I don't care for it very much. In general, though, if I don't have any argument with someone or something, then I simply don't, and the anger tends to leave quickly.