Weird bit his lip. He wasn't sure this was a good thing to say publicly, but it was at least tangentially related to the nameless fuckwad that was pulling all the strings.
"I don't know if it is related to our mutual malefactor or not;" he started, "But.. over the past few weeks, I have tried to patch things up between eric and myself; while nobody would believe it from what has come from those attempts. Trust me, I hardly believe it myself-- yesterday, I had the most obscene potty mouth you could imagine, and called eric everything but a sane and rational person. The issue, is that I have no idea why I keep doing this. I would like to state it openly that I do not intend to be adversarial to anyone. While I distrust Eric's powers, I am sure he has equal incentive to distrust mine; none of us are explicitly trustworthy, which is, I presume, why this meeting was called. I can live with everyone here being dangerous. We are all dangerous, in our own ways."
He slipped off the now practically soiled looking pigtail gloves. Constant wear while doing manual labor and working in dirty conditions had taken their toll on their once gleaming whiteness, but he held them up anyway.
"These aren't just ordinary gloves, for instance. They are the result of shared research between X and myself concerning the mechanical subjugation of magical forces. Suffice it to say, these things allow me to handle considerably more magic than I could ever possibly hope to control unaided. With both of these on, I could possibly raise every last dead man, woman, child, fluffy kitten, and crawling insect for miles around. At once. The prospect terrifies myself, so if it makes any of you have pause as well, I perfectly understand and agree. They are also very utilitarian, and I have made almost wreckless use of them since the earthquake earlier in the week. The first 2 firings of that big kiln outside, for instance. The very bricks being laid under our feet were fired using magic I commanded with these gloves. Hell, the ice I sprayed everywhere down here the day of the earthquake to buy time to evacuate-- same story. I want to use my powers, and my creations to make life better and more bearable for the people living here. While I have power enough to possibly lay waste to the whole countryside, it is always easier to destroy than to create. I take no joy in destruction; any idiot can do that. Not every idiot can take a hammer, and not use it to smash, but to shape a better future, like the blacksmith works his iron. I don't think that any of us considers ourselves to be idiots-- and so, I refuse to accept that any of us would be one, unless undeniably shown to be otherwise."
He bit his lip again.
"If, In the fullness of time, *I* should be shown to be such an idiot, I want it known now, while I still have some credibility, that I WANT to be put down, or rendered harmless in such a circumstance. It goes against everything I believe in to blithely destroy, or torture, or deface without provocation or cause. It is that provocation or cause, that worries me. As I said, I have recently been trying desperately to avoid direct conflicts with other people here, but circumstances have been betraying me like a knife in the back. A misunderstood word or phrase, a misinterpreted action or gesture, and even sometimes, like as of late, a complete failure of self control and composure-- these things can kill us. Our enemy uses subtle things to set us off, or to cause a trainwreck. I want to tap the brakes on this particular one right now. While at times I may come across as a complete and insufferable ass, likewise, there times that each of you will suffer the same plight. If you can overlook my seemingly pathological dick-headedness, I will attempt to overlook each of yours as best I am able. We should each make promises to ourselves and each other to do the same. "
"Instead of "watching" each other, we need to watch out FOR each other. Random occurances can mean the difference between prosperity for us, or bloody !!FUN!! For him. This is entirely hypothetical, but say-- X over there. He's a really sophisticated AI, with failsafes, error correction, and a whole host of things to make sure the remains who and what he is. But no system is perfect, because materials aren't perfect. Memory cells can be dodgy; software can have quirks and bugs. Those are things that are subtle, and could be exploited: what if a tiny bit of really radioactive pitchblend got inside his processor, for instance? Radiological decay is a random event. The way it would manifest in his behavior could take many turns. Its the kind of thing that might be used against him by the kind of adversary we are facing. Instead of being paranoid OF X, we should be paranoid FOR X. The enemy doesn't *MAKE* us do things against our will. That is the point here. As such, we have to willfully choose not to attack each other."
God he hated being a grandstander, but it had needed to be said.
"I'm not picking on X, or anyone else here. He was just in the front there..."
(There was a little forced laughter..)
"We just have to be aware that nobody makes our decisions for us, except for us. We should watch each other's backs for signs of mysterious manipulations, and help each other deal with them if, and surely when, they do happen. We should choose to accept that help from each other. Distrust will kill us all."
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Topic: If Bay Forum were a Mountain Hall, continued... FULL DISCLOSURE (Read 266070 times)