Etcetera

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

Of course they can. Anyone can. Unfortunately, as with all sentient species, myself included, their own drive to "embetter" themselves is often a masked drive to engage in the same primal activity, just with a more advanced veneer. Take the difference between, say, the Punic Wars, the first two World Wars, the Great Asian War of 2040, and World War III. In all cases, they advanced drastically in a technological sense, but, in all cases, their fundamental cause was the collision of rival imperial interests. Rome versus Carthage, France and Britain versus Germany and Austria, the United States versus China, I can go on for hours.

*He leans in.*

History does not repeat, but does rhyme. Humans are human, and fall into the same... primal traps.

@Tank O The Lake

*Nods*
And what if they could evade these traps? Ascend and become something greater than themselves? Every one of those events you listed share a cause beyond human ambition. Their striving isn't the source of their evil, but the bait that brings out the true evil inside of themselves.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend>

In my eyes, everything is. Including myself.

*I chuckle.*

I don't find myself particularly funny, so I watch humanity go by.

@Tank O The Lake

*Lifts a hand*
Do you ever think they could aspire to something more?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

whoops. I like quotes, though, so I'll keep them.

@Tank O The Lake

I think I made that last bit too ambiguous. I do thread backups and data analytics from time to time, so we really do want the post formatting on quotes to match across players. But if you want to do something like colors, I've already resigned to losing that battle

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

*I consider this for a moment. For a moment, something flickers behind my eyes.*

"I sense you and I have different definitions of primality."

@Tank O The Lake

Perhaps we do.
*Folds my hands*
Tell me, how do you see it?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

*I lean in conspiratorially.*

"They are invigorating, in the most primal of ways. I don't know what I'd do without them."

@Tank O The Lake

*Smiles*
Who are we but to rise above our primality and achieve new heights? For what greater scale could those who live ascend above those who do not?

Myriad Reality

@Tank O The Lake

Only format changes are the perspective of action symbols (modified first person with only externally-available info, like *Looks at my jacket*), and that dashes are only needed if swapping between characters. Anything else is assumed speech, so quotes aren't needed either.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Etcetera>

*The man sitting in front of them chuckles, putting a hand over his mouth. He holds up his coffee in a toasting gesture.*

- "Indeed, indeed. I suspect it's why a good portion of humanity wakes up in the morning."

*He looks out at the passers-by as well.*

- "To see the ant farm, as it were."

@Tank O The Lake

*A working age women sitting next to me in comfortable winter clothes opens her mouth to say something, but I lift a finger and she closes it*
Can you help but love them? They're an entertaining bunch.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Legend Begins>

I have zero preferences.

@Tank O The Lake

Here's a hook: roleplayerguild.com/posts/5644808

I read your post. Not 100% sure how we'll zip these together, but we'll make it work. Just heads up to match the shorter response style and the tense/PoV.

Myriad Reality

*Smiles over a cup of hot cocoa at a cafe, watching the bundled passerbies rush between destinations*
There's always a new slice of chaos to come across.