[Video] Kazoo 16

[ayao]

Forgive me for being...selfish...

And I warn you, the subject matter of my question might be sensitive...

[But why not make this inquiry here rather than in his world where it would surely bring negative repercussions.]

What are your thoughts on two men being in a relationship? [He doesn't dare say married, but he is drawn to the idea.] Do you perceive it as...wrong? Should the men instead continue their respective lines with wives?

[Heirs are important. Yet can they not be had in other ways? Of course said ways are illegal and immoral in the land he knows.]

Comments

[morganizedchaos]

I've got news that's either great or terrible for you on that front: That's true of most people. Especially if you've been in shitty circumstances, and especially when you're young. I don't know how much your when and where knows about brain development, but you're not done becoming the person you will be until like, twenty-five. Right now, you're still in the big making mistakes and figuring shit out range.

So ignore the shadow and work on figuring that out. It sounds like you've got a decent set of values figured out; 'don't do to other people the shit that was done to me' is a good starting point.

[ayao]

I am only eighteen. [Can that be true? His brain isn't done developing?] It is tempting to give what you have been given, but I can see the devastation that causes. Especially if you go too far.

[And going too far is inevitable when emotions run high.]

How did your people come to those conclusions about the mind?

[morganizedchaos]

You want to give what you got to the people who gave it to you, that's... Well, at least fair by some definition. It's just not right to take it out on innocents, if you ask me.

[What matters is how you treat the people who are still alive.]

Oh, uh, hold on - [He's got to calibrate his explanations for your time period here, just a second.] So there's a particular kind of light that we use to see inside the skull, and from there we can draw conclusions about how the brain is developing and what parts of it control what. It wasn't always that easy - there's a ridiculously famous study of a guy who survived getting a metal bar through the front of his head, and how wildly the injury changed his personality that's relevant here.

The part of the brain in the front is what's still changing a lot at your age; it controls judgement and your ability to not make impulsive decisions. And it holds up for most people, who look back at their teenage selves and go 'wow, what the hell was I thinking back then? Did I think at all?'

[He's rambling a little bit, sorry. This is kind of what he does.]

[ayao]

I began to wonder if anyone is truly innocent. At least among the sects. Cultivators are not just taught their craft; they are also taught the hierarchy and how to exist in their individual sects. You can surely imagine how power is manipulated in said circumstances?

[He winces at the story before nodding, understanding.]

I am amazed so much can be known about the human mind. I am also certain a day will come when I regret many of my actions - especially the ones that cause those I care about pain. Isn't that simply part of life? We are not born wise.

[morganizedchaos]

That's how is it in every society, unfortunately. Those who aren't raised with the rules are more likely to make mistakes, and those mistakes are used to make an example out of them.

[In a lot of ways, he's more familiar with the top of that hierarchy than the bottom - but it would take being willfully blind to not acknowledge that it exists. Exists still, even in the end of the world, just shaken out into a different arrangement.

The comment about not being born wise brings a flicker of amusement over Ghost's face, but he's not up to getting into the exact oddities that are involved with his own birth. He just nods, instead.]

Culture is a lot like individual people that way - there's not one that's perfect, and all we can do is try to make it grow in a better direction. Unfortunately, that's a hell of a lot harder to do on your own than it is to just change yourself to better fit, so most people end up doing the latter.