shellphones | Tutoring Request | VIDEO

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ His gaze slides off to the side at some point during this lengthy ramble. He's still listening - it's just that some of the points hit rather close to home. He has had a long time to reflect, bemoan, and curse his lot in life. He hasn't had nearly as long to ruminate over a future without his people in it.

Emet-Selch closes his eyes and sighs inwardly. He used to be as naive as Darin. He used to think men were inherently good. But they're not; they're self-centred and unwilling to surrender their ego. Humanity needs guidance else they fall into chaos. Pain begets pain, yes, but a lack of it inspires indolence instead. ]

And when you are gone? Those who survive you take your name and your deeds and make proclamations in your stead. They use it to moralise cruelty, to excuse discrimination, to justify oppression. Nothing lasts, blacksmith. A man's ideals will die long before the mountains crumble. Even your swords will outlive them.

[ He shifts in place, recrosses his legs. His eyes are gazing offscreen into some distant, unseen vista. It is not easy for him to say what he does next. ]

Empathy will not create the ideal world you think it will. Nor will setting a heroic example. Men must suffer, but they also must have joy to weather through it. They must fall so that they can learn to get back on their feet. Shielding them from life's agonies...will mean they forget its sting. Yet forcing them to endure countless sorrows will break them.

As one who has governed many across the ages, I tell you: you must let them hurt themselves before offering your hand.

[Darin is quiet though he doesn't seem despondent or dejected. Thoughtful. He's certainly taking Emet's words to heart. There's a part of him that is honestly enjoying this. A spirited philosophical debate? He never would have thought himself capable and, honestly? He never thought anyone would value his perspective enough to even engage.]

[After a minute of silence, he laughs.]

Don't you think you're giving people too little credit?

[He leans forward, grinning.]

You said it yourself, nothing lasts forever, right? Sooner or later, the ideals I tout are gonna be used to keep people down because someone's gonna get it in their head that they're the answer to all of the world's ills. He'll rise up, and he'll probably surround himself with like-minded people. Raise an army. Hell, maybe raise a kingdom. An empire. All while declaring himself the champion of my virtues.

But here's the thing...sooner or later? Someone else is gonna see the fault in him. Enough people will see through the illusion he's presenting and they'll rise up. Someone, somewhere, is going to be kicked around enough, fall through enough cracks, and come into a power all his own and he's going to stop the despot. And you know what? It all happens again, over and over, until the end of time.

[He leans forward even closer, grinning wider.]

That's the beauty of it, Emet. See, you see what I'm putting down and seeing the problems that will eventually befall that logic. And then I look beyond that. Nothing stays bad forever, and nothing stays good. That's life. And I think what's important is that a leader...whether he be a king or a general or...anyone in a position of authority, needs to be able to relate to the people he leads. He needs to have his good days and he needs to have his bad days. What matters? Is that he shows that the bad days don't define him.

A leader is only as good as his hands. If he can't reach out with them, then he's not leading. He's just...

Hoarding.

[ His gaze is irresistably drawn back to Darin. Their confidence and assurance that things would turn for the better, despite hardship, despite knowing people, society - the world - would cycle through highs and lows, echoes a certain hero's determination. So much so that he almost checks with his sight to be doubly sure the man isn't one of their shards (he already knows they aren't).

Emet-Selch is old. He's tired. Watching men commit the same mistakes across history, he can't help but want to strangle them. He has already accepted the world has moved on but that won't stop him yearning for those days of old, where the worst thing he had to look forward to was cleaning up Azem's messes. No mass slaughters, no pandemics raging unchecked, no cities languishing in poverty or too much excess. Just...peaceful days.

This time his quiet sigh is audible. Resigned. He has already lost this battle once. He has no interest in humiliating himself further by being obstinate. ]

If that is the sort of world you envision then grasp it tight. Don't let it go. The worst thing you could possibly do is give up before seeing such a ridiculous ideal through. Although my opinion matters little here, know that I will be terribly disappointed should you fail.

[Maybe Emet was expecting Darin to give a self-assured confirmation. That he will never waiver on his ideals and that his path is guaranteed. But that's not the road that Darin takes. As ever, Darin forges his own path, veering off from the well-trodden avenues of those he seeks to aspire to.]

[He doesn't meet Emet's request with an abundance of confidence. He tilts his head, like a puppy, as if Emet's words hit his ear strangely. In fact, they had.]

...Why do you think your opinion matters little? I really enjoyed this talk.

We might not have agreed but...your perspective helped me solidify my own. I wouldn't have come to those conclusions if not for you.

...Every perspective matters, Emet. If it didn't, then...we'd just wind up with the types of leaders we're fighting so hard to avoid. Leaders who can't see beyond the ends of their own noses. So...even if we disagree, I'd always be happy to hear about the things you've seen that I haven't.

[ He frowns slightly. But it's a perplexed frown, not a disapproving one. This is certainly not the typical response he receives when discussing this sort of topic. Most people assert their view (in opposition to his) and leave it at that. Or, well, attack him in the literal sense.

But thinking about it a little more, he realises that at some point he'd become one of those leaders Darin mentions: the sort who can't see beyond the ends of their own noses. Not out of wilful ignorance but tired adherence to duty. The stubbornness which characterises him had been tempered in days of yore when they had a full council to debate matters amongst. But left on his own, how could he do anything but rely upon his own judgements? ]

...Well, [ he says after a pause, ] if you feel the ramblings of an old man have value then I will advise as needed. Mayhap you can avoid making novice mistakes should you ever find yourself in a position to govern.

[Darin laughs sheepishly.]

I think I'd make a terrible leader. I like to make my own mistakes but when other people's lives are on the line, I can't really afford myself that luxury.

But I'll take you up on your offer. A good debate is the best thing to get the brain gears turning.

Tutoring Request | VIDEO | OPEN

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