Tutoring Request | VIDEO | OPEN

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Type: Video
Sender ID: forgeabettertomorrow | (Darin Altway)
To: Everyone
Subject: Darin needs some added perspective for his studies
Warnings: He's stupid

[Darin pulls back from the camera sitting at a drafting table in his home. However, instead of blueprints and sketches and diagrams, things you'd normally see on his drafting table and workstation, there's...an awful lot of textbooks. Darin reaches up and pulls the small pair of reading glasses from his face and pinches the bridge of his nose. No, he's not wearing them for show, he actually does wear reading glasses when he needs them.]

Okay, this is going to sound really really weird coming from me but...I guess I could use some help.

Does anyone understand how like...government works? Like, at all? Because it seems like a whole bunch of rules and guidelines that should be common sense until they aren't and the more I read, the more I feel like I've either understood this my entire life or I'm going crazy.

Plus? I never went to school so...anyone up for a spirited debate? Something? Anything? If I spend anymore time reading I think I might eat the next book.

Comments

audio; un: readytogo

[stealthpun]

I think that depends on the location of the government in question. Unless you are simply looking for perspective based on everyone else's experiences?

VIDEO

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Yes! Perspective! That'll help!

So, what do you look for in a governing body?

[stealthpun]

A good question.

Many of us who live on the islands in my world don't hold a strict since of a governing body. More or less, each village governs itself with a mayor and such to help with guidelines, but most importantly many of us seek to simply uphold each other in times of need. Be it against a natural disaster or something more nefarious.

So, perhaps to that I would say: I would seek a sense of flexibility, a respect of identity, and encouragement of community so we may cooperate together for a brighter future.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Huh...so you're kinda left to your own devices...?

I'm pretty sure there are places like that where I come from but...I'm starting to realize I'm not nearly as worldly as I thought...

» video | un: tilfrosset

[tilfrosset]

I think it would depend on what kind of government you're thinking about. I spent most of my years in a Grand Duchy, though I was born in the Northern Territories where my father was the chieftain. Two very different kind of governments and that is without considering the makeup of the Holy Empire of Sanbreque, the Dhalmekian Republic, and the Iron Kingdom.

[There's a hum as she considers a subject to debate on, but then she chooses to mention something that most likely isn't going to start much of a discussion.]

I wasn't aware you wore spectacles.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Darin blinks, then laughs.]

Oh...these? [He pulls a pair of small, square reading glasses off of his face. Honestly, he looks good in them.]

I use them mostly when my eyes get tired. I don't need them but...it helps when I've been staring at one thing for hours.

'Chieftain?' So...You're kinda like a princess? I can kinda see it. [He gives her a friendly, teasing smile.]

Though...honestly, your world sounds similar to mine. But I really only know about how Alvale, my home country, was run. We were a traditional monarchy with an inner court and dukes controlling territory and the like. We make up probably about 35 percent of the continent.

[tilfrosset]

[Jill would agree if asked: they give him a rather striking look.]

Then it would appear you do need them at the moment and for longer, if you don't take a break.

[Though his smile is teasing, Jill purses her lips at the thought of being royalty. Technically, she could be considered a noble at the very least, but a princess? No, that's Zelda. After how she's been treated as a pawn of war and then a weapon of mass destruction, a princess is the farthest thing Jill would consider herself.]

Not really. I was just his daughter, that's all. It didn't matter that who my father was in the end.

Thirty-five is quite a bit of control. I take it that it didn't come so peacefully?

emet_sulk; video

[emet_sulk]

[ Ah, you've triggered his TRAP CARD. ]

Oh, my boy, I regret to inform you that government is much more than upholding a series of laws.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Well I know that. There's all sorts of systems in place. I've just never...familiarized myself with them? I've never cared to before now.

[emet_sulk]

[ Imagine the devil taking out a pencil and notepad-- ]

Well, to start: what form of leadership are you interested in? Democracy? Autocracy? Theocracy? Or mayhap even tyranny?

Next, what economic values do you wish to govern over? This will set the tone for the sorts of people you wish to welcome. You could have a communal state, a capitalist state, or something simpler such as a barter system with no currency whatsoever.

Now there is the judicial system! Outside of the traditional courts, mayhap you'd like a loose and lawless empire based upon strength of arms - but I must add that even the Corsairs adhere to their own set of rules. People cannot function as a society without some guidelines after all. There is plenty of flexibility in this area.

[ Emet-Selch seems to be in his element, gesturing animatedly. ]

text; un: archangel

[thearchangel]

Nice lenses. Trying to copy my look?

[#helpful]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Last time I checked if I wanted to copy you I'd shove the right side of my face in the forge.

[thearchangel]

You never know. Zelda might prefer a man with facial scars.

I'm told they're popular like that.

text | un: astudyinviolet

[astudyinviolet]

If only Mycroft was still here, you would get a dozen lectures in the span of an hour about Queen and country.

[ No, Sherlock, that was special treatment for you from the Queen's Best Boy. ]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Mycroft?

A dozen in an hour? Good thing Im fast at taking notes.

Did he hate the royals or something?

[astudyinviolet]

My elder brother. The one from the other world has long since left, and the Mycroft from my world has thankfully never arrived.

[ He doesn't miss his brother at all. Really! ]

He did not hate the royals. He worked for them and thought I should dedicate myself to the same.

video; un: weenwoon

[weenwoon]

[ While he can guess that things work differently on other worlds, Hythlodaeus has experience with only one system of government (and bullying its members). ]

Fourteen people, experts in their respective fields, are chosen to oversee and guide all matters within those fields. Most of them act as heads of large institutions, encompassing many people who dedicate their lives to the pursuits of said institution. That is about it, I believe?

[VIDEO]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Oh this is a new face he doesn't recognize.]

Just fourteen? Doesn't that seem kinda...small? What if someone acts in their own interest? Do the other thirteen step in?

[weenwoon]

Oh, that is the Seat of Azem! No, in my memory the other members never needed to truly interfere in Azem's endeavours. But conflicts do arise, and resolving them is the duty of Elidibus - another member of the Fourteen.

[ While Hythlodaeus looks eager to be helpful and explain things, there is likely just a hint (a tiny one!) that he may be aware this is not, in fact, actively useful. ]

video

[moremystyle]

If you're going to have a king or a queen, they'd better give a damn about the actual people they're ruling.

On the other hand, they'd better not go so overboard on that bit that they're courting death every five minutes.

VIDEO

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Darin blinks at that last statement.]

So uh...does your kingdom have a problem with royals that get in over their heads a lot...?

[moremystyle]

[Faris' first instinct is to say he doesn't belong to any king, but then it strikes him that he does have a claim to a kingdom now... it's just one that he leaves to the person who's better suited for it.

But yes, that person is a problem.]

You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

Let me ask you this, what would it take to get you to eat poison?

voice | un: skypatrol

[playertwotailed]

It looks like Espio beat me to the punch on our own world's system... or lack thereof. [Long live furry anarchy.]

But if it helps, one outsider to another? You're not the only one who feels nuts trying to make sense of it all. These things can get pretty messy, likely because of how many people are involved in the whole system — organizing it in the first place, running it, holding others to it, leading it...

VOICE

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Honestly, it's not too difficult to fathom, especially if I draw it out in the form of flow chart or something of that nature. Making it look like a blueprint kinda helps my brain understand it.

I guess my sticking point is just...the realization that there's no such thing as a foolproof government. All it takes is one bad actor and everything starts to grind to a halt. It's like if one gear gets rusted and cracked, it throws the whole array out of whack.

voice

[playertwotailed]

I mean... ultimately, it's a bunch of rules made up by people. So it makes sense that it can be changed or broken by people just as easily.

But it's probably a good thing that it can be, isn't it? Because the bad actor could just as easily be the chief of the whole system, or even the guy who drew up the blueprints. What if it kept running, no matter what happened to the gears inside of it? How would you fix the parts that weren't working?

[Can you tell he's had to deal with a would-be robotic dictator trying to take over everything? Because he's not going to derail the conversation to get into that. Yet. But it probably shows.]