Audio clicks on

[raisedinabox]

[Jim sounds a little... off today. He's just gotten back from four days as a Witch, and it's kinda unnerved him

Comments

Private;

[raisedinabox]

I'm not discontented. [He's a touch discontented.] I'm just... coming back down to earth after that port.

Did you fall off?

Private;

[raisedinabox]

It's really not. [Okay, it kind of is, but in a wiggly, distant psychological way that Jim isn't fully aware of.] But, speaking of that other thing, you should really pick a night you're free this week, for the consequences you agreed too.

[Heh, you get a pleased little chuckle at that revelation.]

Were you now? Did you sweep many damsels off their feet?

[hourglass_twin]

And what's wrong with turning into a witch?

[Private]
If those who usually deal with the medicines can't come up with anything, I might be able to mix something up, but you'll owe me.

[raisedinabox]

I lived in a gingerbread house, and had a massive pot for cooking children in. There was a lot wrong with it.

[Private]

And thank you, I'll certainly bear that in mind.

[hourglass_twin]

...why would a witch do either of those things?

[raisedinabox]

Well, the gingerbread house was to lure the children in, and I believe eating the children was because they were my favorite dish.

[can_has_vodka]

You have a very good point. Though the only thing I truly minded about my transformation was that I constantly got on Mozenrath's nerves.

[raisedinabox]

At least you weren't trying to feed him poisoned apples. So what were you?

[can_has_vodka]

A fairy godmother obsessed with getting him paired off!

...I'm surprised he didn't feed me to his eel.

[raisedinabox]

More fool him if he had, it's hard to get on a reliable dating service.

So, did you find a nice Princess for him?

Filter.

[thegooddrjones]

How long have you had trouble sleeping?

Filter.

[raisedinabox]

I've had...

[Pause]

[Private]

It's complicated. There's a pretty specific set of circumstances that I slept under at home, and they've been getting harder and harder to replicate here. For several months now, I've been having trouble sleeping three or four nights a week. A few weeks ago It became impossible for me to replicate the circumstances I needed, and since then it's been becoming more difficult for me.

Private.

[thegooddrjones]

Apologies for prying, but what sort of circumstances have you been sleeping prior to the change?

Private.

[raisedinabox]

Oh, no apologies necessary. [Ngh, how does he put this without revealing what a creeper he is?] ...Uh, this is actually quite embarrassing, I had a blanket I'd had since I was a child, which was recently destroyed during a flood. I'm afraid, I might have invested a little more of my psychological security in it than I intended. I'm accustomed to having control at least over my surroundings in my own space, and having something so personal... interfered with here...

It's just not ideal for me, that's all.

private

[iam_aghost]

Self-control is one thing, Jim.

But there is, surely, something to be said for being a man unafraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. Surely there is a case for emotion to be as defining as anything else, and if you control them, you actually kill a part of yourself. You deny yourself that part.

private

[raisedinabox]

A man led by emotion is just being dragged helplessly along behind his life, and behind the rest of the world that provokes him.

I'm sure it's fine for people who want to live like that, but I don't see anything to aspire to there. I might regret the decisions I make, but at least I know that they're the best I could have made, instead of just... whatever I felt like doing.

Re: private

[iam_aghost]

I disagree. Actions, by and large, should have an element of rationality. A strong one.

But emotions - are what can truly define you, and if you deny them, if you push them aside because you think you get dragged along by them, you're actually missing out on a lot of the sense of self that you claim to need.

Say, for example. A man loves someone he can never have - for one reason or another - never acts on it, because it would be dishonourable. But he can persuade himself to stop loving. Or he can still love her despite.

One of those men is lying to himself.

private

[raisedinabox]

The one who still loves her is lying to himself. His feelings come from the desire for the fact that he can't have her not to be true, from the hope that eventually it will be acceptable for him to love her, but it never will be.

It's like falling in love with a statue, or with a photograph of someone who died before you were born. All it will ever do is cause him unnecessary pain and regret.