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[recollecters]

Hello, everyone! As you've probably noticed, we've been having a few problems - I mentioned earlier that something got knocked out of balance, and we had to recalibrate, but in a few days we should be able to drop the emergency measures. Please be aware that there is an incoming storm, class four. General orders for that kind of thing are to report to management for any known threats and follow instructions, but so far what's known is "that might be a little annoying" and "hope it isn't". Theoretically it'll probably be related to the holiday, I think, because a large group of souls focused through the needle of a pin on one thing can sort of shape a thing around them. That's sort of a really inaccurate way to put it on the technical side of things, but I think it's the easiest way to understand it! At any rate, we'll know more once we're in the thick of things. Please take care as usual; resources aren't exactly what some of you seem to think they are, and we had to expend rather more than usual in the past month or so to keep things with a few of you steady. Joanne Wiseman Technician 2nd class Retrspec Incorporated Per the mod plotting post, you may use this post to obtain one of this month's freebies! This month's freebie can be earned by turning in a thread on this post that has 5 or more consecutive comments from you with someone new. We define someone new as someone new to the game, or simply someone your character has never tagged before. Please feel free to use this post as a network mingle. Every toplevel can be considered a new post, and threadjacking is permitted. No NPC response will be given. Usernames are the character's full real AU names, not aliases or chosen nicknames or usernames, and seemed to have filled themselves in; nothing characters do can change or obscure their names currently. This post is the overflow for the post originally found here! Please feel free to make new toplevels or simply shift your threads over.

Comments

[floret]

I'm not that good at making people angry on purpose, I don't think. Do you have any suggestions?

[compendiem]

I don't know... In your memories, you mentioned some burly gentlemen hating you. Can you remember why? Maybe that'll work on me too.

[floret]

I'm pretty sure it was just because I'm pathetic? So, same reason as in middle school, lol.

That hasn't worked on you so far, so we'd have to try something else.

[compendiem]

It's a weird thing to hate. But yeah, you'll have to try harder than that to get me angry. Maybe if you punched me?

[floret]

Well, small variations between otherwise similar groups of people are magnified and reinforced the longer the groups stay together, right? So even though there may not be a straightforward reason to care that much about something, and at a lot of places no one really does, in others it becomes part of the ethos that you hate it so much you just can't let it stand.

Have you been punched before?

[compendiem]

That... actually makes a lot of sense. You've put a lot of thought into why people hate what they hate?

I think so. When I was in middle school or high school, maybe. Years ago.

[floret]

I've already had five semesters of sociology, so, you know!

Do you remember whether it made you mad?

[compendiem]

I don't think I've touched the subject since high school. Maybe I should've taken an elective or something. I'd be able to understand people better.

I didn't care at all. Wouldn't cry or speak or react. That just make them more mad.

[floret]

Well, maybe. It can help make sense of things at a macro level, but I don't know how much different it makes when you're dealing with individuals.

Then I guess it probably won't work to make you mad if I punch you... What if you punch me, and I don't react at all?

[compendiem]

I need help on all levels and will take what I can get, honestly.

I think I would hate myself if I punched you. But I definitely wouldn't feel like laughing.

[floret]

Really? You have so many friends, though.

So you don't even feel like laughing when you hate yourself...
Maybe you're just not the type of person who laughs?
Honestly, that's probably for the best since you might die.

[compendiem]

I have maybe... four? five friends. I don't know if that's a lot.

I guess this is just my body's self-preservation measure. Temper my humor to a maximum level of smiling, but having a hard limit to prevent deadly laughter. I think I'm fine with it.

[floret]

Well, that's a pretty good number of friends to have... I guess I felt like there were more, though. Sometimes it seems like you know everybody.

If I ever hear of a funnier joke than the one about the pony, do you want me to tell you, or keep it to myself? It's your life on the line, so you deserve to make the decision.

[compendiem]

I work in three places and have exchanged names with people, so it probably feels that way. But I don't know if most people consider me a friend.

Hmm. How often do you think you'll find a funnier joke? I don't want to have to steel myself for death very often. Maybe once a month.

[floret]

Why wouldn't they?

I can't imagine it would happen more frequently than once every five years.

[compendiem]

Uh. Maybe it's a me problem and I don't consider them friends. I don't really know what makes a friend.

That's an acceptable time frame. Please tell me the jokes.

[floret]

Hmm. When you say it like that, I'm not sure. Maybe I'm the one who's too quick to assume friendship. What is it that makes you consider your four or five friends to be friends?

[compendiem]

Mm... I guess because they use that word for me. They tell me I'm their friend, so I don't doubt that they think of me that way.

[floret]

Oh!
Then did you not know that I consider you a friend?
I don't think I've ever told you I do.

[compendiem]

Oh. Number six. Or more? Now it's complicated, because what if there are people who consider me a friend but never told me. I wouldn't know, then.

[floret]

You can probably make an estimate. About how much did it surprise you to find out that you and I are friends?

[compendiem]

Not very much, since we live together, and that's usually a closer arrangement than friends. We see each other almost every day. Most people I barely talk to once a week. Or month. Or several months.

[floret]

I feel like there's some way to apply a mathematical formula to this, but it's not quite coming together. Like, multiplying that level of surprise by the level of surprised you'd be if the most distant of your acquaintances turned out to consider you a friend, and then dividing that by the number of people you know...

[compendiem]

There's probably a model for it, since all these things factor into friendship, but I wouldn't know how to go about it either. But as an estimate, that would be a low level of surprise multiplied by a high level of surprise divided by a large number of people...

Assuming surprise has no units, that gives me a small number of inverse friends. I think that's about right.

[floret]

Oh, it's even worse than that! I was imagining the surprise levels as fractional amounts. You'd end up with no more than a hundredth or so of a friend.

I can't leave you with so few, so I suppose we should just multiply the surprise by the number of acquaintances instead...
Is there another factor in there that we're forgetting? Is there a friendship constant?