(no subject)

[nihilo]

[ She sounds breathless, breathy, terribly in awe: ]

Most of the universe is terra incognita.

Unknown, never to be discovered if not for its indelible pull on what we can see. What we conceive is only a mere five percent, a fragment. The rest is guesswork.

Here, there, [ sigh ] everywhere be dragons.

Comments

[commandsthewind]

[Elizabeth listens as the other woman talks, not that half ear she gives courtiers, but proper attention.]

But that is the beauty of it, is it not? The far great beyond, without definition, even there are dragons there...

... there is hope, that there will be more than just dragons. There will be that in which a whole new self can be constructed.

[nihilo]

And why construct a new self when you can be without definition?

[commandsthewind]

Because without definition, we know no pain, but we know no happiness either.

[nihilo]

[ She smiles, scoffs. ] I wonder. Is pain an absence of happiness or vice versa, which is it?

[commandsthewind]

They say a deep pain burns where love used to be.

That is assuming that love is a happiness at all. [and in Elizabeth's experience, it was just a bitterness.] Not that is the only happiness to be had in life.

Pain and happiness to compliment each other, but I do not think one needs to be present or not present in the other. Sometimes happiness is unexpected after all.

[nihilo]

Does that mean the difference between them is a matter of quantity not of quality?

[ She chuckles. ] A little pain?

[commandsthewind]

I think that depends on the person. But truly, many little happiness do not make up a true deep one.

[Elizabeth bits her lip, thinking over her words again.] A little pain is ignorable, depending on the pain itself.

[nihilo]

What is a true, deep one? Love?

[commandsthewind]

Love is a bad example. [there's old pain in her voice, for that part.] Love is something that is beyond simple definitions of happiness and pain.

[nihilo]

[ She chuckles. ] Will you tell me it is both?

[commandsthewind]

I am sure there is some tortured poet that insists so. [she shakes her head, amused over that briefly.]

No, I think that is a poor description of love. It has parts pain and happiness, but more besides that. It has too much faith in it.

dictated forever

[ofhope]

Now you're just making the universe sound far too complicated. All that matters is what you conceive. All that matters is the world you live in, right now. That is the hundred percent. The rest is void.

[ Tap tap...tap. ]

And you missed most of the dragons.

Re: dictated forever

[nihilo]

But it isn't, really. The void will still pull you down, push you away, crush you without you seeing it.

And dragons can fly.

[ofhope]

If you think something will limit you, then it will. In my universe, nothing can crush me.

Not even flying dragons. But...you should know they can't all fly. Even they're prone to limiting themselves, just like people.

[nihilo]

Ah. [ There's a smile in her voice. ] Only the mind dictates our possibilities?

[ofhope]

[ Tap tap. ]

“All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.”

[nihilo]

Yet it is power that gives validity to the interpretation and not contrariwise.

[ofhope]

Do you know what it takes to gain power?

[nihilo]

[ She smiles. ] Yes.

[ofhope]

Then you know that there is no power without perception; without belief. What one considers a gift, another might consider a weakness. No matter how that power is used, it must be acknowledged by someone to be valid.

Otherwise you're just a child banging your stick against the gate and claiming you own the house beyond it.

[nihilo]

That is certainly one way.

But it is a weakness to rely on validation from such [ sigh ] fickle things as people.

[ofhope]

It only needs to be acknowledged once. Whether it holds with that individual is irrelevant. These things carry their own momentum, and when that starts nobody can take it away unless the powerful person in question forfeits it.

In which case it was never theirs to claim to begin with, don't you think?

[nihilo]

[ No, she thinks, it should be acknowledged always and forever and again. She relishes each syllable. ]

Forfeits or expires.

[ofhope]

An expiration date is outside my realm of acknowledgment unless it applies to that bottle of milk in my refrigerator.

[nihilo]

Even galaxies rot much too fast in the grander scheme of things.

[ She switches and sounds lighter, more nonchalant. ] I've never managed to finish the entire carton before it goes bad, how do you do it?