[network] Event: Long & Lost [NIGHT 217]

[snowblindmods]

it's been so long between the words we spoke
will you be there up on the shore, I hope

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[godsspeed]

I don't have a heart. I'm not an organic being and my physical form doesn't mimic the functions of one.

[ He sounds a little put out about this. ]

It felt like the right thing to do at the time. But now I'm not so sure.

[lacecase]

[Awww, honey.]

It's okay, I don't think you have to literally have a heart. It's more like, do you have heart instead of a heart...if that makes sense.

[Does that make sense?]

And you sound like you have plenty of heart, to me. It wouldn't bother you at all if you didn't, right?

[godsspeed]

Oh, it's a metaphor. [ Right, he remembers somebody mentioning how the humans were starting to ascribe emotional significance to various organs some thousands of years ago. He hadn't been paying much attention at the time. ]

Do you really think heart and intuition can be an appropriate substitute for a chain of command? [ The question is skeptical, but genuine. ]

[lacecase]

Is it?

[She was never very good at Language Arts.]

I totally do! Especially, cause, like, imagine you were the leader, right? And you don't have anyone else to give you orders and you're the one giving the orders? Wouldn't you have to use those things to come up with tasks and stuff?

[godsspeed]

You were using "heart" to mean one's moral and emotional center, instead of the organ that circulates blood throughout the body. That's a metaphor. Invoking one thing using the name of another.

[ Castiel isn't particularly well versed in literary theory either, but there are some things a celestial being can't help but pick up after watching humanity since its earliest days. Humans love metaphors. ]

My leader is omniscient and has seen all things from the beginning of time to the end of all universes. I think He mostly gives us orders based on that.

[lacecase]

Oh...huh! Gosh, you're so smart. Which is the one that's personification? Would that be, like, my heart is so happy that it's tapdancing!

[Clearly the best use of her time here is to be having lessons on figures of speech.]

Anyway, I mean, like, imagine that that wasn't the case, though. If you were the leader and not omniscient.

[godsspeed]

I think so, yes.

[ It's a more pleasant subject than most of the other ones available to them, at least. That counts for a lot.

In any case, Castiel tries to imagine, and fails. Angels are not generally known for their imaginations, and those who make themselves exceptions to that rule rarely spend their creative capacity on hypotheticals and fantasies. ]

I am not a leader. I commanded a garrison for a very brief period of time [ 20 years, barely the blink of an eye by Heavenly standards ] but I only determined how a task would best be carried out, not which tasks to pursue in the first place.