[RFC][SI][Multi-Xover]Being You is Suffering

[Black Aeronaut]

Bluemage wrote:

---

...I'm
sure I should be making some sort of theological argument here. 
Something about how, according to that religious framework, humanity
wasn't even designed to know basic things like the difference between
good and evil, so why would we have the potential to get anywhere close
to the Creator in power or wisdom?

Theological discussion spoilered out so as to spare the rest of you guys.  :p 

Spoiler

Whooo.  Man, times like this I'm glad I was raised LDS.
Most
other frameworks only have two outcomes: Heaven and Hell.  A few others
have Purgatory, too.  Trouble is, that's a little too absolute.  Human
history has shown there are really no absolutes in life.  This applies
in the LDS belief system.  In the LDS system, what is perceived as
heaven and hell are merely the first thing after death before you're
judged.  Think of it as people awaiting a trial.  Someone that's had
generally good behavior and only have a few minor things on their record
are allowed to go free until trial.  But those that have done some
really bad things... yeah, they get locked up until then.
Afterwards...  (Bear in mind, for this next part I'm doing a LOT of generalizing...)
You
have to be pretty damn (hah!) insufferable to get cast into outer
darkness with the fallen one.  Like Adolf Hitler levels of evil.  It
needn't be quite on that scope, just as evil as that.Above that, is what some people might call the real heaven, and it's divided up into three tiers.
On
the lowest one, you got people who were general failures in life.  The
murders, rapists, thieves, dope slingers... yeah, they were pretty nasty
folks, but again, human history shows us that in most cases these
people are victims of circumstance.  And some are just plain broken in
the head, like Ted Bundy.
Then you got the second tier, the
people who were only so-so.  the sort of spiteful people that loved to
spread misery only because no one could really stop them from doing so
beyond telling them to stop being mean.  Why that's such a bad thing is
because they're really being agents of the fallen one, because he's in a
pretty miserable state and, in his own spitefulness, he only wants
everyone to be as miserable as he is right now.  And this is why they
say that true evil lives in the hearts of us all.
The highest
level... This is where all the good people go.  These are the ones that
have it in them to understand and recognize the things that really
matter on both ends of the good/evil spectrum and how you avoid the
pitfalls.
So what makes the difference?  Basicly, it's your
destiny.  First tier people wind up as the behind the scene workers. 
You don't see them, ever, but their out there doing the grunt work of
keeping God's creations running on an even keel.  Second tier, they're
the ones that get to see the more interesting action.  They'll get to
interact with people on Earth and get to be God's front-men.  In other
words, think of them as angels.  Third tier?  These are the graduates. 
They get to (eventually) go on and do their own thing.  What they do is
up to them, but the point is that they've passed the test and are
considered trustworthy with the power they've gained.  Our eldest
brother, Jesus, will more likely than not be doing this
eventually.

Bluemage wrote:

---

I do like the implication that the
Abrahamic God (if Garrick's faith is accurate to his home 'verse) is of
the same family as the three goddesses of the Tenchiverse- it gives me
so many interesting ideas.

That's pretty much what I had in
mind - that when you got down to it most humanoid deities would pretty
much all be part of the same family, no matter how separated they are. 
Of course, there will be others that are not part of the family - eldritch horrors and the like.

Bluemage wrote:

---

I also like Katherine.  Cute treekid is cute. ^^

Yeah,
got the idea from when we get to hear Kiriko's tree when she greets the
rest of the crew for the first time...  And then latches on to one of
the other girls, repeating her name again and again like a three year
old that just found their new favorite big person.  Also, I'm a sucker
for cute kids. 

ClassicDrogn wrote:

---

I
pretty much just hang a giant "meh" on RL religious elements in fiction
and move on to the more concrete action. I've seen no evidence for such
things existing, though I'd like to.

No worries.  All it is there for is to set the stage for what will come later - the most we'll hear about it after he starts jumping around is something along the lines of, "Okay, I'm the offspring of an all-powerful reality warping being of phenomenal cosmic powers... let's see what I can do."  Oh, and a few other gods are gonna get boatmurdered.  Reason: Garrick winds up in Forgotten Realms some point midway through his journey... He becomes very judgmental over other deities afterwards.  This will go double for anyone pretending to be a god.

robkelk wrote:

---

An aside: I marathoned War on Geminar this week. Don't worry, BA - the timing is wrong to add it to your story.

Oh?  How so?
Further note: I certainly haven't lost interest.  I'm just working on other parts of the story until I can get into the proper mindset for writing the next sequential bit.  The upshot is that I'll have a nice sized buffer ready to go once I make the connection to the stuff I'm writing now.