004. video/spam

[wildguardian]

[He settles himself on a sofa in a corner of the common area, along the very base of the tree, and lifts his wrist to a comfortable level to smile at the camera. He's done this before. It's performative as fuck, and he doesn't enjoy it, but it's past time that he got over his sulk and started getting people motivated here.]

Good morning, Clipper! Some of you I know and some of you are strangers, but we can welcome one more lovely day on this new boat together regardless. To the strangers: Zhao Yunlan! Formerly of the Barge, and even more formerly of Dragon City's Special Investigations Department.

I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk to all of you about happiness. Peace. Indeed, justice itself -- because I'm sorry to say I think our dear Nurse's head is not in the right place on those topics, and we could all get some better results with just a little change of perspective.

Anger, you see, is the natural response to injustice! Think back to the last time in your life you got real peeved -- what caused that emotion? I bet you were thinking, That's just wrong, or You can't treat me like that, or How could you do that?

It's a powerful feeling, and don't get me wrong, it sure as heck can be misdirected and cause some real harm in the world.

But the true cure for anger is to gather the strength to go after injustice. Not listening to happy music and putting on a smile. You know it as well as I do! Don't you feel that anger lingering in your heart as long as the wrong goes unfixed?

[He grins at the camera, sharp.]

Who ever repaired a wrong just by saying they were fine?

[And with a grand gesture of his free hand:]

I open the discussion! How do we make a better world? How can we improve this good ship?


Spam

[Zhao Yunlan spends most of his first week either moping in his room or moping generally around the ship. He'll participate in his assigned shifts, but he's hopeless in the kitchen and hopeless at custodial work, outside of the truly unskilled tasks like emptying garbage cans and hauling buckets of soapy water.

Once he's gotten his week of uselessness out of his system, he's choosing to become aggressively involved. Expect him to plop down next to you on the couch and strike up a conversation, Barge transfers and Clipper natives alike. He'll volunteer to tell stories at storytime, and launch into tales of war or murder investigations past if he's able to take the mic. He'll... be stuck washing dishes on every kitchen shift, because he doesn't seem to have the least idea of which flavors can safely go together and which ones will create a heart-rending abomination of a dish.

Sometimes, after the evening storytime but before it's late enough to sleep, he can be found leaning on the railing and staring up at the treehouse and the useless, opaque ceiling above it, lollipop stem jutting aggressively from his lips, expression very far away.]

Comments

[talkstofungus]

You can do both, you know. Help people. Take out injustice.

Without letting it make you all - uh - jaded and grumpy.

[wildguardian]

Do I look jaded? Grumpy?

[He spreads his hands] But I confess, my friend, I can get mad! And I think that's a good thing.

[talkstofungus]

[Luigi doesn't actually know what jaded means, only that he's heard it before, so he can't really answer that question. He moves to the next statement.]

You can get mad! It's just about what you do when you're mad, you know?

[wildguardian]

All right: I also show it, and I think that's a good thing too.

[talkstofungus]

Yeah? Show how?

[wildguardian]

Might rant a bit! Might even start a fight, if someone's trying something truly unacceptable in front of me.

[talkstofungus]

Hey man, I turned an evil King into fungus because he kidnapped my - uh - Daisy and was turning other people into these lizard things.

That made me angry, but - I only did what I needed to make things better!

[wildguardian]

Uh huh. Okay. Don't look at me, man, I wound up demoted on arrival because I yelled at the Authority over not getting any answers about where my friends were going.

[talkstofungus]

What's the Authority?

[wildguardian]

Big boss that runs all the different ships floating around the multiversal ocean.

[talkstofungus]

Is that the reason you all showed up on our doorstep?

[wildguardian]

That's the one. Our last ship got impounded and they sent us all off to bright and shiny new homes.

[talkstofungus]

Huh. Well at least you're here!

I didn't even know there were other ships.

[wildguardian]

Well, now you do. I'm not a big fan of this one! The last ship could get a little wild at times, but I think it was more honest about it.

[talkstofungus]

Yeah? Huh.

I like this place, though. It's got its bad parts, but I really do want to help people here.

[wildguardian]

Helping people is great, but just teaching them how to keep a happy smile on through a veritable storm of bullstuff isn't exactly helpful. In my opinion.

[talkstofungus]

I guess some people do that. But I never have.

My brother's kinda grumpy like that, but I don't tell him to always be happy. Just - don't get all - you know - grumpy.

[wildguardian]

Uh huh. You do realize that's just a matter of degree, right?

[talkstofungus]

Huh?

[wildguardian]

When you're telling someone they don't have to always be happy, they just can't ever be grumpy, that's just as bad as telling them they have to always be happy! You're still shutting down a whole range of feelings that they've got the right to have.

Sure, you can tell them not to be a dork to people when they're being grumpy, but everybody should be allowed to express themselves, you know?

[talkstofungus]

Huh. I guess so! But when you're always uh - uh - what's the word when you're always thinking something bad's happening?

[wildguardian]

Pessimistic...?

[talkstofungus]

Yeah! That one!

[wildguardian]

Well, Luigi, if everyone out there is only looking on the bright side of a situation, you're going to get a nasty surprise whenever things go wrong! Optimists and pessimists both have our place in the world.

[talkstofungus]

Eh, maybe. I don't know, man. It's worked out well so far.