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singindemonhqI’m not much for names. In some ways they’ve got too much power – labels can have too much power for anyone to cope with. I don’t think I ever met this William Faulkner guy, but I wouldn’t necessarily know. From the sound of it he just might have been a good target for a Gig, but then, many humans are.
Most thinking creatures work the same way; they have a basic personality, of a kind, right from the start -but most of it’s pretty standardized to the species. Then their experiences and memories shape what they turn into. That includes the rules they get taught and the rules they can see and feel. The rules they get taught officially can vary a lot with the society and the species; the “pragmatic rules” for coping can vary too – and either can clash with the basic rules for survival.
Humans can get real interesting because they learn most of the rules that they live by when they’re knee-high. There’s a group in one dimension – the Jesuits or some such – who used to say, “Give me a child until it is seven and it will be mine forever.”
See, humans have some interesting mental processes. When they’re real young they perceive what they see and hear and smell, and they deal with what they learn as best they can. Then they get to start talking and processing the input in words. Then they start mixing outside the family, or at least finding out that there's a world out there. They learn hieroglyphics or the talking drum, lion-hunting or reading or surviving on street corners or whatever their society has - and the way they think changes again.
Inside they’re all the people that they’ve ever been, and every time they start processing all that input differently it creates another layer to their personality that'll have real problems in communicating with the layers that were there before!
Humans just don’t remember most of their past - then add that they learn some rules that they have to follow as though they were running on rails; "fire burns", "falls hurt," "don't breathe water" and they learn other things to believe and ways to behave when they’re infants, too. Not one of them in a thousand can remember back that far - and what they can’t remember they can’t get at - and what they can’t get at they can’t change. The past is always with them. Man, thinking creatures are all of us weird bundles of strange!
Anyway, all that can lead to some hot numbers, just in itself. Then there’s those humans who get dragged out of their cultures and taught something real different, the opposite to the rules they knew – it happens every time there's a war or something. We can all be in trouble when survival means breaking the rules that we really believed were the walls around our worlds. Sometimes what happens then means humans can’t live in the same skins with themselves.
There are songs about that, of course…
You can close the door,
On who you were before,
Lock and bar your former self away.
There's a prisoner there,
Deep inside, somewhere,
Never free to see the light of day.
Someone who you were,
hides deep inside there,
While your new self laughs
and spreads its wings.
But the prisoner
bars his door and hides there,
able to reach out and pull your strings. ..
There’s usually more verses and the whole shtick can vary from there, but if humans do something that another part of their minds can’t forgive – well, they can catch Hell for that, all right, and the person who can hand it out is right there in their minds with them. That leads to some real hot numbers in itself, but there’s worse.
Humans are children for a real long time and they learn how to behave from the adults around them. Example and precept – and direct teaching. You want your kid to grow up right and what do you do? Well, in most cultures the mother gives the kids a slap if they do wrong and a kind word and maybe a cuddle and a treat if they do right. If they do too much wrong she says,
“You wait until your father gets home! Then you’ll be sorry!” Most human child-rearing seems to be some variation on that. They can't always reward their kids but any parent worth their salt tries not to slap a child who’s doing right.
It means that humans are a species that believes, almost from the beginning, right down in the core of their minds, in the part that they can’t get at, that things ought to be fair. The adults look around a universe without a shred of fairness in it and they talk about justice.
Humans tend to believe in mother goddesses and father gods – and justice. In some cultures they look at those who suffer and say, “He must be wicked to deserve such pain.” There are people that can see a rabbit dying in the snare and know that out there, somewhere, her newborn kits will starve in the burrow – and they’ll maybe decide that the rabbits were the reincarnation of evil creatures. Somehow, it’s gotta be just and fair and right. There are whole religions built on,
“You wait until your Father gets home! Then you’ll be sorry!”
Now that’s a set of attitudes that can lead to some real hot numbers, usually from people who’ve caught enough Hell already. Some of the Vengeance girls call themselves Justice Demons but they just give you what someone else thinks you deserve. If you’re in one of my Gigs you’re more likely to get what you think you deserve (That's often a hot number, too, but all a matter of what the customer has inside.)
I don’t know everything. The longer I live the more that I know that I don’t know – but as far as I know, there ain’t no justice naturally built into things, not in this world. There's just us.
Justice is something people have to construct for themselves, they have to build it into their societies like most of them try to build it into their families. Hell, their own bible tells them that. Humans talk about justice but most just … don’t build it, most don't even try to build it. Some of them work hard to build the opposite, too. It's as if they can’t enjoy being rich unless somebody else is poor.
(There’s some human blood in my own family. Sometimes that really worries me, especially during the Gigs.)
Muse; “Sweet” the Singing Demon.
Fandom; BTVS
Words, 1010
OOC; 1010 words and my computer still hasn’t been fixed! I had help in posting this but I cannot guarantee to post again until everything is repaired and returned. Please will the Mods note that I am in difficulties and I am still requesting Hiatus? ,
Most thinking creatures work the same way; they have a basic personality, of a kind, right from the start -but most of it’s pretty standardized to the species. Then their experiences and memories shape what they turn into. That includes the rules they get taught and the rules they can see and feel. The rules they get taught officially can vary a lot with the society and the species; the “pragmatic rules” for coping can vary too – and either can clash with the basic rules for survival.
Humans can get real interesting because they learn most of the rules that they live by when they’re knee-high. There’s a group in one dimension – the Jesuits or some such – who used to say, “Give me a child until it is seven and it will be mine forever.”
See, humans have some interesting mental processes. When they’re real young they perceive what they see and hear and smell, and they deal with what they learn as best they can. Then they get to start talking and processing the input in words. Then they start mixing outside the family, or at least finding out that there's a world out there. They learn hieroglyphics or the talking drum, lion-hunting or reading or surviving on street corners or whatever their society has - and the way they think changes again.
Inside they’re all the people that they’ve ever been, and every time they start processing all that input differently it creates another layer to their personality that'll have real problems in communicating with the layers that were there before!
Humans just don’t remember most of their past - then add that they learn some rules that they have to follow as though they were running on rails; "fire burns", "falls hurt," "don't breathe water" and they learn other things to believe and ways to behave when they’re infants, too. Not one of them in a thousand can remember back that far - and what they can’t remember they can’t get at - and what they can’t get at they can’t change. The past is always with them. Man, thinking creatures are all of us weird bundles of strange!
Anyway, all that can lead to some hot numbers, just in itself. Then there’s those humans who get dragged out of their cultures and taught something real different, the opposite to the rules they knew – it happens every time there's a war or something. We can all be in trouble when survival means breaking the rules that we really believed were the walls around our worlds. Sometimes what happens then means humans can’t live in the same skins with themselves.
There are songs about that, of course…
You can close the door,
On who you were before,
Lock and bar your former self away.
There's a prisoner there,
Deep inside, somewhere,
Never free to see the light of day.
Someone who you were,
hides deep inside there,
While your new self laughs
and spreads its wings.
But the prisoner
bars his door and hides there,
able to reach out and pull your strings. ..
There’s usually more verses and the whole shtick can vary from there, but if humans do something that another part of their minds can’t forgive – well, they can catch Hell for that, all right, and the person who can hand it out is right there in their minds with them. That leads to some real hot numbers in itself, but there’s worse.
Humans are children for a real long time and they learn how to behave from the adults around them. Example and precept – and direct teaching. You want your kid to grow up right and what do you do? Well, in most cultures the mother gives the kids a slap if they do wrong and a kind word and maybe a cuddle and a treat if they do right. If they do too much wrong she says,
“You wait until your father gets home! Then you’ll be sorry!” Most human child-rearing seems to be some variation on that. They can't always reward their kids but any parent worth their salt tries not to slap a child who’s doing right.
It means that humans are a species that believes, almost from the beginning, right down in the core of their minds, in the part that they can’t get at, that things ought to be fair. The adults look around a universe without a shred of fairness in it and they talk about justice.
Humans tend to believe in mother goddesses and father gods – and justice. In some cultures they look at those who suffer and say, “He must be wicked to deserve such pain.” There are people that can see a rabbit dying in the snare and know that out there, somewhere, her newborn kits will starve in the burrow – and they’ll maybe decide that the rabbits were the reincarnation of evil creatures. Somehow, it’s gotta be just and fair and right. There are whole religions built on,
“You wait until your Father gets home! Then you’ll be sorry!”
Now that’s a set of attitudes that can lead to some real hot numbers, usually from people who’ve caught enough Hell already. Some of the Vengeance girls call themselves Justice Demons but they just give you what someone else thinks you deserve. If you’re in one of my Gigs you’re more likely to get what you think you deserve (That's often a hot number, too, but all a matter of what the customer has inside.)
I don’t know everything. The longer I live the more that I know that I don’t know – but as far as I know, there ain’t no justice naturally built into things, not in this world. There's just us.
Justice is something people have to construct for themselves, they have to build it into their societies like most of them try to build it into their families. Hell, their own bible tells them that. Humans talk about justice but most just … don’t build it, most don't even try to build it. Some of them work hard to build the opposite, too. It's as if they can’t enjoy being rich unless somebody else is poor.
(There’s some human blood in my own family. Sometimes that really worries me, especially during the Gigs.)
Muse; “Sweet” the Singing Demon.
Fandom; BTVS
Words, 1010
OOC; 1010 words and my computer still hasn’t been fixed! I had help in posting this but I cannot guarantee to post again until everything is repaired and returned. Please will the Mods note that I am in difficulties and I am still requesting Hiatus? ,
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