[network] Night 378 | @Ecks | I am two and what is this | video [open]

[ecks]

[Many people here will recognize the inside of the sports shed on the campus of the elementary school. Newer people may not have seen Ecks's face before; she's a patchwork woman with a perpetually blank expression, and when she speaks (turning the tablet around as she does so, so that she's only visible for a moment at the start of the video) her voice is flat and inexpressive.

The new subject for viewing is a conical hat with the word 'DUNCE' written on it in big, red letters, which she has set on the floor of the building.]

What is this? What is a dunce? This hat is not comfortable or warm. What is its purpose?

Comments

[devoutish]

They don't wanna murder; they're too innocent.

[ecks]

I don't want to murder but I do murder. Am I not innocent?

[devoutish]

You don't murder anymore, do you?

[ecks]

[This time, rather than a pause that's too long, it's a reply that comes too quickly.]

Correct. I do not murder anymore. I choose not to murder. Anymore.

[devoutish]

Yes. You've chosen to murder, and now you choose not to. You do not murder, present tense; you did murder, past tense. Mm?

[ecks]

Correct. That is correct.

[Is this a trick? She had said that already.]

[devoutish]

Very good. Then you've got no reason to say "I don't want to murder but I do anyway", eh? You've got your free will. You own it.

[ecks]

Oh.

But what if I do not intend to murder but I get angry and I murder? I have free will but I think I am bad at using it.

[devoutish]

You'll have to learn, then, won't you. Your decisions are still yours, even when you're angry.

[ecks]

but it is very difficult
I thought that I made a rational decision and it was a justified murder and then it was not and I was wrong

[She's not talking about Royce. She knew that wasn't justified when she did it.]

[devoutish]

[Unfortunately, Royce's murder is what he assumes she means, so he doesn't ask about it - at least not yet.]

It is very difficult. Yeah. You'll find that many things in life are.

[ecks]

does it stop being difficult?

if it is this difficult why do other people not murder?
why has everyone not been murdered?

[devoutish]

Well, that would be because different things are gonna be difficult for different people.

pretend I didn't forget she was on video....

[ecks]

I do not like that this is difficult for me. I would prefer something else to be the difficult thing.

o7! i had just assumed she'd switched back over

[devoutish]

It's a shame that we don't get to choose.

nah, it's just such an ingrained habit when I write her tags

[ecks]

What is difficult for you, Alfie Solomons?

[devoutish]

For me?

[Oof. Asking the hard questions.]

Getting up in the morning is difficult for me.

[ecks]

Why?

That does not seem difficult.

[Yet "not murdering" super is.]

[devoutish]

Different things for different people, Ecks, remember.

[ecks]

Is not murdering people easy for you?

[devoutish]

Yeah, it is.

[Says the guy who also has no problem with murdering when he feels it's necessary - but it's not a compulsion.]

[ecks]

I am not sure if it is worse for it to be difficult not to murder people or to be difficult to get up in the morning. If you cannot get up in the morning how do you do things?

[devoutish]

I don't know. I haven't reached that point just yet; not regularly. Royce will haul me up, I expect.

[ecks]

That is acceptable. Royce is capable of being forceful.

[devoutish]

Particularly when he's fussing. Yes.