❥6 [dictated]

[whathedoves]

Ah, salutations, everyone!

I hope you've been well, with all my heart! It's been a while since you've heard my voice, hasn't it?

What if I told you I just haven't had anything to say? Hard to believe, right? Can you swallow a story that outlandish?

I think for a while there I was just in fear of getting myself into trouble! You see, mes amis, I am the best at getting myself into terrible and fatal jams!

It's what I do second-best - apart, of course, from pleasing the ladies!

Some gentlemen.

So no, maybe not that.

Lately, I've been roughing it a little bit! I guess that stint at camp went to my head a little, and I went sniffing out adventure! Haha. Dreadfully selfish of me, isn't it? That's no good; that's what makes me a rogue.

So as I was sleeping rough, I took the opportunity for deep personal reflection.

Oh no, you'll be saying, I can tell! Pretend that I'm winking here. It will soften the blow!

What do you all think about us living beyond our abilities? Financially or - well, or otherwise! What causes us to always try to be better than what we are?

Comments

[whathedoves]

... Huh.

I didn't think of that! What would happen, then, when both we and the judges change at the same time?

Still, no one knows us any better than our friends - except for what we don't tell them!

[squartatore]

That's what I meant. Even if they change as well, they'll probably notice something different before we do. Objectivity and so on.

[this? Most definitely comes from personal experience]

[whathedoves]

What if they care so much for us that they refuse to see the change?

Sometimes caring can make us a little nearsighted.

[squartatore]

That's only for when you're referring to a negative change, isn't it?

[whathedoves]

Well ...

Now that you mention it, I guess so!

[squartatore]

[hrrm] In the end, we're still speculating about something that might turn out differently for every person.

[whathedoves]

Have you a bit more faith in individualism than the universal constant, then?



... Me too.

[squartatore]

... let's go with that. We do seem to have moved in that direction.

[whathedoves]

Pretty Western of us, don't you think? My European stint is poking through.

[squartatore]

[HAS NO IDEA WHAT THAT IMPLIES so she just...stares at the page as though something illuminating will appear]

Is that so? [what kind of stuff goes down in Europe...?]

[whathedoves]

The romance of the individual! How home it would be on the streets of Paris. Not that I have ever once felt that birddom in Japan was too collectivist, either.

I just think I picked up some romantic ideals in my youth!

Did you have a beau, perhaps, that rubbed them off on you?

[squartatore]

Hey, I'm still in my youth! [Sayaka: missing the mark since 2012]

And you don't exactly sound old either. [not that she has any idea how birds' ages are counted]

[whathedoves]

Of course! I didn't mean to insult you at all, merely call back to yesteryear. We are neither of us children, at least.

I passed 18 a little while ago, for my part. Though I might be stuck there forever!

... Since everyone says birthdays don't count here, haha!

[squartatore]

They count, if you want them to. It's a matter of being physically the same, so long as we stay here.

Would your eighteen years be equivalent to a human's?

[whathedoves]

I guess I'd better make them count, then! How sad it would be, if time didn't count for anything at all?

For us, growing up's a little more staggered than the gradual way humans go about it! Many doves my age are still in high school, as well as those other species who can attend! It's not really my thing, but that's the burden of knowledge for you, right?

Anyway, most of us reach sexual maturity long before that! I certainly did! [Haha!]

[squartatore]

Too much information! [there probably was something else she was going to say, but it skipped her mind because she's boggling at the last part. how WHY did we come here. She did not need to know that. INWARDLY WEEPING BLOOD]

[whathedoves]

There's nothing shameful about growing up, mon amie!

[squartatore]

[faceinhands.jpg]

Never mind...forget I asked...

[whathedoves]

Are you sure? I never like to just disregard a woman's words so flippantly!

But I shall wipe my mind clean as a slate should you wish.