It Takes Time <To Be Properly Taken Apart> - Chapter 46
Chapter 46
Chapter Length: 4,900~ wordsThe Role of Suffering: Part II
Author's Note: From this point onwards, thoughtform prevalence is gonna be really spotty. I didn't finish one for each chapter, and I don't want to wait on publishing the story until I have, so I'm going to go ahead and keep releasing chapters then come back and add them later.)
Also, please contact me on Discord if you see any instances of Wessmiyr getting misgendered in the text so that I can remove them! There are tons of typos where I accidentally she/her'd wyr, because - in spite of all the memes saying that FF14 black mage players should be good with pronouns - it took me *forever* to start using them correctly for eir, and I haven't been successful in removing all the erroneous she/hers from before wyr had neopronouns.
"To specify, I do not wish to preserve violence simply for its own sake," Wessmiyr continued. "As a phenomenon, it possesses no inherent value in and of itself. Rather, it is the existence of suffering as a concept that I believe should be safeguarded." Punica thought she might have been suffering a psychotic break of some sort. Up until now, everything Wessmiyr had said about the existentialist school of domestication had seemed sane and reasonable; and she had even found herself agreeing with most of it. But this? What Wessmiyr had just said was nothing short of insane. "Wessmiyr, that is- that is virtually the definition of feralism. You are advocating for the continuation of harm in the universe! That is the exact opposite of the Affini Compact's mission statement!" Wessmiyr remained calm despite the hostility that was once again growing in Punica's tone. "Allow me to clarify further: I do not in any way believe that the Affini should simply step back and allow the universe to tear itself apart. I am still a supporter of the domestication initiative, Punica. What I believe, in specifics, is that the goal of domestication on a societal level should be the reduction of harm and suffering; rather than its outright elimination." This response mollified Punica somewhat, and the vines that had begun twitching angrily around her base settled down somewhat. "I see. But still, I do not understand why you would want there to be any suffering in the universe at all." "The reason that I defend the existence of suffering is because of the role that it plays in self-development for sophonts," Wessmiyr replied, keeping her tone level. "Are you familiar with Iotarall Nisanthyme's research into sophont drives?" "Oh, yes!" At the mention of this name, the discomfort and agitation that Punica had been feeling suddenly inverted, and her vines began to sway with excitement. "I remember the day that her publication reached the Longbough's archives. A colleague of mine mentioned that it was coming, and I had been waiting several years for it to arrive. I took a month-long break from my work to read the full report the moment it arrived." Her voice had taken on an unusually musical cadence as she spoke. "The results were, I suppose you could say, predictable; but they were fascinating nonetheless. The question of how to motivate behaviour without in-built bodily drives still remains entirely unsolved." "Indeed. It was a very well-written piece of work." Wessmiyr's eyes were filled with deep blue and pink specks for a moment, which quickly vanished. "It is not the conclusion for which I mention this, however; rather the issue of motivating behavior. As Iotarall conclusively proved, when deprived of motivating stimuli, sophonts are drawn towards a state of perpetual stillness; in which they may still experience but will not take action in response to doing so. The vast majority of sapient creatures have shown an evolutionary preference for drives predicated around the avoidance of negative stimuli. While species do exist that possess drive systems that focus primarily on the acquisition of positive stimuli, these are generally the exception rather than the rule." "Yes," Punica agreed. "I have always found that curious. The conditions which are speculated to have lead affini to evolve our heavily pro-social drives and lack of competitive behaviour appear very rare on a universal level. The conditions of the core worlds of extreme resource abundance and a lack of predator species allowed both affini and beeple to develop without most of the harm-avoidant drives present in, say, humans; for example. Humans needed to compete with not only each-other, but many other non-sapient species for resources in their early evolution. Many of these competitions turned violent, and so humans evolved a wide variety of drives related to harm avoidance and conflict navigation." She gestured with a vine. "Even in the present day, when the majority of early-evolution threats to humankind have long since been rendered non-dangerous, these drives still play a central role in defining human behaviour." "This is correct." Wessmiyr nodded. "The urge to hoard resources in particular served as a defining feature of Accord-era human existence; as well as the tendency to attempt to subjugate one's fellow humans for personal benefit. However, these are societal-level concerns rather than personal. There is a trend that I have found most interesting when observing records of human behaviour from pre-Accord times." Several of Punica's vines inched closer to Wessmiyr. "What would that be?" "Prior to the full transition to Accord-style oligarchic governance, human civilisation within the Accord operated on capitalist principles; having not yet become fully fascistic. During this period, human civilisation was split among many different so-called 'countries'; of which all experienced heavily stratified societies. Within these societies, I found it interesting to note that anecdotal evidence speaks of a far greater trend towards empathetic behaviour in the oppressed and marginalised than in privileged groups." Punica frowned, but did not interrupt, and Wessmiyr soon continued: "Under certain models of behaviour, it was assumed that humans in more privileged positions would be likelier to demonstrate empathic behaviour towards others; because they possessed an abundance of resources and would therefore be less impacted by the small loss incurred via charitable behaviour. Yet in practise, this seems to have rarely if ever happened. Instead, the inverse appears to have been common: those in more financially or socially established positions in human society displayed less empathy to others; both within and outside of their own class." "That seems... baffling. Why would they not opt to help one-another?" Punica inquired. "It appears that evolution did not place any sort of a 'cap' on the human resource-hoarding behaviour. No matter how materially secure a human became in pre-Accord society, there was always the possibility to benefit socially from accruing additional resources or capital. The vast majority of humans in positions of power therefore became reticent to relinquish even trivial portions of their accrued resources, and instead dedicated the entirety of their resources towards trying to increase their position. This behaviour was observed even among the wealthiest and most powerful individuals of pre-Accord human society; suggesting that, no matter how much power one acquired, it would never be enough." Punica grimaced. "The Accord's wealthiest were very much the same, from what I have read about their society pre-domestication. It seems that trend in human behaviour did not change over the centuries." "Innate patterns of behaviour are indeed not quick to change. The reason I mention this is not simply to criticise the actions of humanity's privileged and wealthy, however: it is to spotlight the actions of its underprivileged and disenfranchised." Wessmiyr raised one hand, palm-up. "In yet another reversal of the theory that humans with more should be more inclined to share, a fascinating trend can be observed in some of the poorest and most marginalised members of historical human communities. Those whose perceived 'race', gender, sexual identity, or physical status deviated from the norm of their society often experienced discrimination, and were frequently highly deprived as a result. The members of these marginalised groups often had very little in the way of personal possessions or wealth, and even less in the way of social standing. Despite this, evidence suggests that these individuals - far more than those who had plenty - were inclined to share with others in similar situations." Once again, Punica's vines started swaying contemplatively. "That is strange. One would think that those with less would be inclined to defend it much more strongly, and I would have expected them to be far more reticent to part with their resources." "I agree. That is precisely what makes this behaviour so fascinating to me." Wessmiyr's tail had begun swaying from side to side behind eir in a pattern that almost perfectly mimicked the movements of Punica's vines. "Another complicating factor is in the recipients of these gifts. Commonly, members of disenfranchised groups have shown willingness to support other marginalised parties; even ones with whom they share nothing in common. Examples of this in pre-Accord times included cisgender women, who were often supportive of transgender women. Both groups suffered under the effects of societal misogyny, but the ways in which this manifested were very different for transgender individuals, and it was commonly believed that their struggles did not directly affect those of cisgender women. Despite this, records indicate that substantial amounts of them supported transgender women despite not perceiving themselves as directly benefiting from it. This belief was false; but that is another matter entirely." For a moment, Punica's focus turned away from the conversation. She was struck briefly by the absurdity of a race in which one entire half of their population had become a marginalised group, based solely on their biological sex. How does a situation like this come to be? I can fathom it occurring in a single small, isolated community- but across an entire race? It does not feel like it should be possible. "In general, it appears as if the experience of being discriminated against or existing as part of a marginalised community tended to cause humans to be less likely to engage in those behaviours themselves. This was not always true, and there are many instances of the exact opposite happening: where those who were discriminated against internalised the beliefs of their oppressors. At a broad level, however, the trend appears to have held true." Wessmiyr lowered her hand. "It can be concluded, therefore, that the experience of being discriminated against - in other words, enduring a type of suffering - lead to increased empathy and pro-social behaviour in those who underwent it. Inversely, those who did not experience discrimination - such as members of dominant classes in both Accord-era human society and beforehand - were much less likely to empathize with people who had experienced discrimination; on account of never having experienced it themselves." "I think I am starting to understand where you are going with this," Punica spoke slowly. "You are arguing that, in essence, experiencing suffering leads to the development of empathy within affected parties; and therefore, as much as suffering is undesirable, it still serves a purpose in helping sophonts to develop desirable behaviours?" "Yes." Seeming satisfied, Wessmiyr clasped eir hands together once again. "That is the crux of my argument. To translate this into a context relevant to the initial subject of domestication: I believe that, at present, the total elimination of all violence and discrimination from human society, as well as virtually every other opportunity to provide assistance to one-another, will deprive humans of the chance to develop empathy and kindness as traits." Punica paused, her vines continuing to sway gently by her sides. Her eyes flicked from point to point on the walls, and her leaves swayed up and down across her body; producing a soft rustling sound. "I believe I now comprehend where you are coming from." She took in a breath, then looked back up at Wessmiyr. "However, I do not agree with your conclusions. In the first place, it seems fallacious to imply that only those who have experienced suffering are capable of kindness. While you may be right about the majority of privileged Terrans lacking empathy for those in out-groups, there were exceptions to this rule; much the same way that there were those who were discriminated against and chose, rather than to treat others like them with kindness, to try and cope by siding with their oppressors." Small orange dots appeared in the phytoweapon's eyes, but wyr did not interrupt. "It would seem to me that a much more effective way to achieve your desired outcome, of making sure that humans still develop empathy and kindness, would simply be to teach them directly," Punica continued. "Under both Accord and pre-Accord Terran society, social structures punished overly empathetic behaviour. There are no such structures in place within the Compact. I have researched the subject of innate human behaviour myself, and there are strong indications that human children display a substantial degree of cooperation and empathy towards one-another when placed in environments where they do not need to compete for resources. My assumption would be that humans that grow up within the Compact will not be any less empathetic than their undomesticated predecessors; in fact, I would presume the exact opposite, because what natural empathy and kindness they possessed as infants will not be snuffed out by the system that they live in." A noise like static electricity emanated from Wessmiyr's body. "I acknowledge your points about the role of human social structures in stifling empathy and kindness. However, the issue remains that the Compact presents very few genuine opportunities for charitable behaviour, as the affini have stepped in to fulfill the overwhelming majority of sophonts' needs; thereby depriving other members of their race the chance to do so for one-another." There was a slight twitch in one of Punica's vines at this. "Kindness and empathy cannot only be expressed in rescuing sophonts from undesirable situations. It is still possible for one xenosophont to be kind to another simply by, say, showing interest in their project; or contributing their time and effort to assisting with it. There exist limitless opportunities for these forms of positive socialisation between xenosophonts within the Compact." The orange dots in Wessmiyr's eyes grew in number. "The example you present is of trivial significance compared to the mutual aid exchanged between xenosophonts in many pre-domestication cultures. It lacks either the depth or emotional significance of instances in which sophonts endured hardship to support others. The most any sophont could ever give up for the benefit of another in the Compact is opportunity cost in terms of how they might otherwise spend their time. All resources are limitless, save for experience, and so their value is infinitely diminished." The twitching had now spread to most of Punica's vines, and her tone had become noticeably stiff. "You are speaking as if the abundance provided by a post-scarcity society is a bad thing. Even if what you are saying is true, how is that not a price worth paying for an existence where no one need be murdered for wishing to behave in a way outside of the accepted norms in a society?" "If that were all that it was, then perhaps you would be right." Wessmiyr's voice hardened equally. "But it is not simply that the ability to demonstrate kindness is restricted. I have thus far spoken only of xenosophonts, but the issues created by current Compact society affect affini as well." Punica's core lurched, and her tone became openly defensive. "What do you mean by that?" "Terrans are not the only species which require first-hand experience of a type of mistreatment in order to empathise with it. A central pillar of Compact society is the right of affini to override both the choices and autonomy of xenosophonts; as well as their relative lack of rights in comparison to them. The argument commonly used to justify this behaviour is that affini are capabilistically superior to xenosophonts. While this is true in many regards, it makes light of the subjective experience of having one's decisionmaking and personal desires overturned." Wessmiyr affixed Punica with an unblinking gaze. "It is my belief that, were affini to experience this kind of treatment themselves, they would be far more reticent to treat xenosophonts within the Compact in such a way." Immediately, thorns began to protrude all over the surface of Punica's body. "Our overriding of xenosophont autonomy is not a form of mistreatment, Wessmiyr! Unpleasant though it may at times be to experience, it is always enacted for the benefit of those experiencing it!" "It is easy to argue that the end justifies the means when you have not yourself experienced the means," Wessmiyr retorted, eir eyes still flickering with specks of orange. "The affini exist at a position of absolute and unchallenged privilege: not only within the Compact, but the universe as a whole. Consider the existence of florets: The average floret taken from a second-or-later generation post-domestication society often regresses to the point where they do not possess any of the fundamental skills that would be required to sustain themselves in an environment without an affini to care for them. They lack the ability to cope with stress or to process trauma; and were they to be placed in such a situation, they would be utterly dependent on their owners to provide for them. Most affini, on the other hand, can not even conceive of experiencing such dependency themselves." "Why does any of that matter, if the florets in question will never need to experience stress or trauma? It is the promise of the Affini Compact that they will not have to! So long as they do not, there are no downsides to living at that level of dependency!" Wessmiyr's tail lashed behind eir body. "And were they to do so?" Punica's brow furrowed in anger. "What?" "The Affini Compact is predicated upon the assumption that the affini are the most powerful race and civilisation in the universe," Wessmiyr stated. "What if that turns out to be untrue?" There was a moment of silence as Punica stared at Wessmiyr with barely contained fury. "There are innumerable trillions, perhaps even quadrillions of florets spread across the dozens of galaxies controlled by the Affini Compact," Wessmiyr continued. "Every single one of which is dependent to some level on the affini for their wellbeing. The potential for harm in the event of even a minor systemic collapse in the Compact is unimaginable, even for one such as myself." One hand gripped the other tighter. "Punica Granatum. The primary driving force behind the Affini Compact is not kindness, nor a desire to care for others: it is hubris. The affini believe themselves to be the apex of existence; incapable of the failings proliferated by other, 'less capable races.' The Compact possesses no safeguards for situations like the one I am describing, because it is unthinkable to the affini that a day could ever come when they as a whole would fail." Just then, something clicked in Punica's head. Her voice grew quieter, and she spoke: "Is this why you helped Raqi to attack our ships?" The orange in Wessmiyr's eyes disappeared, and they flashed a bright yellow for a brief moment. "Yes. I am surprised that you were able to deduce as much." There was a momentary pause, as eir eyes returned to their normal colour. "I aided captain Marr in assaulting affini installations and vessels in order to prove a point: that the Affini Compact is not, in fact, invincible as it believes itself to be. Had I chosen to do so, I could have taken the lives of thousands of both affini and florets when I attacked the Longbough, and there was nothing in place that could have stopped me. I intended my attacks to illustrate that vulnerability, in an attempt to force the affini of the Milky Way to reflect upon their shortcomings." "Why go that far?" Punica's voice was filled with disbelief, and no small amount of horror. "You accuse us of overconfidence in our abilities, but if you had made a mistake in your attacks, you could easily have killed every sophont aboard any of the vessels you struck." At this, Wessmiyr visibly flinched. For around a quarter of a second, eir body fell entirely still, and eir eyes seemed to lose all colour entirely; shifting to a static white before returning to their default yellow. Punica noticed the abrupt shift, but was not sure how to interpret it, and so continued on to ask: "Why resort to such extreme measures? Why did you not simply raise these issues with the captain of whatever ship you were on?" "I did." Wessmiyr's voice suddenly grew cold and mechanical. "They ignored me. That is why I left their side." Slowly, it dawned on Punica. "The ship you left- your creator- They are the same person. You were created by an ascended affini." "I was, yes. I am the creation of Thisterila Rémarra, Eighty-Seventh Bloom." The leaves on Wessmiyr's tail flattened down. "Ship mind of the autonomous vessel Longbough." Punica's core stopped. Time fell to a standstill, and all motion in the world seemed to cease for the affini. "Your creator- is the Longbough actual?" The words almost didn't seem to register, even as she spoke them. Punica had known for some time now that the Longbough was an autonomous vessel; she had only learned as much after several years of being on-board, and had been surprised to find out at the time. Apparently, a large number of ascended affini were, if not secretive, then not particularly open with their status as such. It had intrigued her at the time, but she had been in the middle of an important piece of research, and had never actually gotten around to following up on it. In the years since then, she had only rarely remembered that the Longbough was itself sapient, and she had at no point felt any real need to engage with that fact. This also meant that at no point had she ever actually learned the ship's true name. Had she done so, she realised that in hindsight, she would have known it to have been Wessmiyr's creator at the moment of their introduction, on account of the two sharing a last name. Beyond that, the knowledge that the ship she had been staying on for the better part of a decade was responsible for creating a sapient phytoweapon that had in essence gone rogue and become feralist was hitting her with the force of a hypermetric round. The things that Wessmiyr had told her about eir creator thus far had done little to inspire confidence in them, but the realisation that Punica had been living aboard them for a substantial portion of her life now forced her to begin reconsidering dozens of things all at once. Had the Longbough Actual created Wessmiyr during the time that Punica was on-board the ship? If that was the case, and Wessmiyr had been there for potentially years beforehand, how had Punica never heard of the phytoweapon's presence beforehand? She wondered if Thisterila had somehow kept it a secret, and the rest of the ship's crew had been similarly unaware. Wyr said that she voided eirself eighty days before meeting Raqi, Punica realised. I must have been on board the ship during that jump. She racked her memory for any mention of an accident during a jump in the time she had been aboard the Longbough, but she could remember nothing out of the ordinary. How is it possible that eir could have gotten out of the ship under those circumstances, and I heard nothing of it? If wyr is telling the truth, then the ship would surely have stopped and turned back to look for eir! Yet even as she thought it, she could not recall any deviation in their planned travels at any point in the last several years. But that- that simply cannot be right! "That is correct," Wessmiyr affirmed. Even with the phytoweapon's confirmation, it took Punica nearly another ten seconds to finish processing the impact of what she had just been told. "Then, when the Talon came across the Longbough several weeks ago- You attacked your own creator?" "I did, yes." Eir voice remained emotionless as wyr spoke. "I refuse to allow sentimentality over our relationship to stop me from doing what is necessary for the good of the Affini Compact and the sophonts who reside within it. My creator is just another exemplar of the systemic issues that plague the Compact, and her ascended status in no way exempts her from that." Wessmiyr's eyes flickered, and for a moment, wyr seemed as if eir gaze was going through Punica. "If anything, she is the affini within the Milky Way whom I most wished to convince." The conversation fell into a lengthy silence. Punica continued to look on at Wessmiyr, at a loss for words, whereas the phytoweapon spoke no more. Eventually, after several minutes had passed, Wessmiyr was the one to break the silence. Wyr turned eir head back towards Punica and spoke: "You now know the reasons behind my actions, as well as the circumstances which lead me here. Is there anything more that you wish to know?" It took Punica some time to decide on her answer. "There is just one more thing that I want to know." She affixed Wessmiyr with a curious gaze. "Why did you choose to work with Raqi rather than just taking over the ship? It seems to me as if you could just as easily have accomplished your goals without any assistance from her." "Ah." To Punica's surprise, Wessmiyr's tone began to fill with a gentle fondness. "When I first came across captain Marr, I initially intended to pacify her in order to allow for her domestication at a later date. Yet, when we spoke to one-another, I became aware that she and I shared certain qualities in kind. Though we only conversed for a short time, I was able to deduce that she would have shared many of the same misgivings that I do about the Compact, were she in my position." The phytoweapon's eyes flickered a mixture of amber and green. "In particular, I spoke to a certain facet of her; one which I do not believe I have seen again since. The words which she spoke convinced me that the two of us shared very similar ideals, and in short, I concluded that there was no reason we ought not to pursue our respective goals together." 'A certain facet of her'? The wording took a moment to parse, but then, it struck Punica what Wessmiyr was talking about. She must have spoken to Rukhmar during their first meeting. That would explain the part about not seeing her since; I do not think that she has shown herself for more than a few sentences at a time since then. The only exceptions to this had been inside of Raqi and Punica's shared mindspace. For all that she now suspected Wessmiyr had been watching them since her arrival on the Talon, Punica was relatively certain that wyr had not been able to observe those particular interactions between the two of them. It makes sense. I do not know what exactly happened between them, but I can imagine it being the sort of circumstance that would cause her to appear. "I see." Punica nodded. Taking everything that she had just heard into consideration, she felt unsure how to consider Wessmiyr. The phytoweapon did not seem as if wyr posed an immediate threat to her or Raqi; and if she did, Punica was well aware now that there would be very little she could do about it. "Thank you for the explanation you have given me. I admit that I am still unsure what to make of much of this, and I suspect it will take me some time to process all that you have told me." "You may take as much time as you require to consider it. There is little urgency in our present circumstances." Wessmiyr spoke almost dismissively to Punica. "For my part, there are certain matters that I wish to attend to. Parts of my body are still damaged from our earlier confrontation, and need repairs. I will go and tend to this now." Somehow, even with the lack of tone in Wessmiyr's voice, Punica knew this time that the phytoweapon was lying. She wanted to leave, that much was clear; but it evidently had nothing to do with repairing eirself. Rather, Punica thought that she detected a hint of discomfort in... in what, exactly? The realisation that she could read Wessmiyr at all gave her pause. What exactly was there for her to read? It occurred to her that for the duration of their conversation, she had been able to gauge Wessmiyr's tone and emotions without either being reflected in either her voice, or any particularly obvious body language. Without waiting for Punica to reply, Wessmiyr turned and began making eir way back towards the door leading out to the main hall. It opened automatically for eir without the need to press any buttons on the control panel, and closed behind eir the moment wyr had passed through it. The instant it did so, the feeling of discomfort that Punica had noticed abruptly faded away to nothing. For a moment, Punica thought she must be imagining it; but there was no other explanation for why she had been able to read the sophont. The thought sent her vines curling in confusion. Wyr is a piece of phytotechnology. Why, then, does wyr have a biorhythm?
A L E R T : : t h o u g h t f o r m s_d e t e c t e d
I D : : Existentialist Domestication Theory ::Book 2
withering away :: The Prism System :: Intoxicants :: Plurality :: please believe me :: Landamaeri Domestication Guide :: Hypnotic Centres :: The Domestication Initiative :: Affini Maturity :: bullying :: Memory Maker :: chronic fatigue syndrome :: Uplifting :: lingo :: optimisation :: Digitisation :: Iterations of the Self :: Conflict :: eat :: Grooming :: Attractivity Conditioning :: the nature of pleasure :: Dreams :: chores :: Screen Games :: Affini Compact Naval Vessel Classifications :: Hedonistic Domestication Theory
Book 1
TerraTranslate :: Raqi Marr :: Punica Granatum :: The Affini Compact :: Landamar Mobile Fleet :: Hormone Replacement Therapy :: The Chimera Module :: Affini :: Intersidera :: Posters :: Magnesium :: Wonderland :: The Hundredth Time: Part I :: Communication :: aftermath :: Physical Confrontation :: Garments :: Interspecies Comparisons :: Touch :: Equality :: Hypnokink :: Speaking :: ahftrojn,lpijmnhfkg :: Pretheya :: Magic :: scared :: Materas Marr ::