imperious | (no subject)

(no subject)

[let's say this is Emeraldy shenanigans. Peony has arrived in London, although he looks about ten years younger because crazy unspeakable horror aliens have no regard for taking people from the same point in time. This means Peony's not wearing emperor clothes, but snow surfer dude type clothes like when he first arrived in Grand Chokmah. Right now he's looking around a market like a certain other noble kid who was locked up for his own good. Peony is knowledgeable enough not to steal apples though, so he's got that going for him.]

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None that can avoid those possible consequences. Ethical considerations aside, even experimenting on others in a similar situation would be inadequate, as their possible erasure from history would mean we might not know we experimented on them. [Thoughtfully, he adds,] Which would lead to a situation where we repeat the experiment on multiple parties, erasing people or even universes from existence without any awareness of our crime. A fairly atrocious sin to not have on your conscience. [...Look, he already decided it was unethical to experiment on other people. That doesn't mean he can't have a thought experiment about responsibility and culpability without memory. Ethical thought experiments are fun.]

[Shut up, at least he is thinking about these things.]

[Peony looks up at Jade, his hand still petting the dog]

You put a lot of thought into all that, huh? [He sighs.] It seems like a hassle to know any of this future stuff, so I'll pass. [going back to petting the dog] You're worse than an annual Score reading. [it's not said without some begrudging fondness at least]

I'll add that to my list of foreboding titles and epithets.

It's probably the worst one you could ever earn. [he frowns, because he really doesn't like this part of himself that's being so difficult, so he's going to try to be nice or open up conversation.] This is all really weird. I'm betting it's weird for you, too. If you changed this much, I must've too, so meeting me now, it's weird, right?

[Jade considers the question before he answers.] Yes, but not to as great a degree. Giving nothing further away, I understand that I have changed profoundly in the last twenty years. You will have as well, but less so. Further, I have already known you at this point in your life, while you haven't known me at this point in mine. Any unfamiliarity with you exists with a strong framework of knowledge to compensate, while you have been presented with a great amount of uncertainty.

[With a smile, he also adds:] On top of that, old men like me hardly feel surprise any longer. It's much more difficult for youngsters to deal with confusion maturely.

I'm still older than you, even when I'm not, so that last argument doesn't work at all.

Is that so? You've yet to demonstrate this.

I have ten years of experience that demonstrates it, and you have twenty more years that I don't even know about that probably prove it even more.

[Jade does actually laugh.] It seems you've also taken an interest in Scoring.

You don't need a Score to make a guess like that. It's just common sense.

My understanding was that that wasn't your domain. It's so nice to see a young man expand his horizons.

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