Voice; @the.boneless Can't hurt feelings when there's none there

[ragnarsson]

[It's the early morning, so early some might still consider it to technically be part of the night. Deal with it, people, he cares nothing about your sleeping schedules. The only reason he's up this early is his left leg is aching and won't stop. Ah, the thrills of having a disease that create brittle bones easily. So he's bored and this is what he's left to do: bug all of you until he can get back to sleep.]

Serious question time. What does a conscience feel like? In detail, if you don't mind. Or, if you're like me and don't have one, what does empathy feel like?

[This has been on his mind as of late. Blame talks with guilt-ridden ex-assassins he's had. Ivar's been thinking a lot about it. He can fake the latter to some degree, but the former has never much bothered him, which does explain why killing comes so easily to him.]

Comments

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will's sleeping schedule has always been an art form in how not to sleep.

Which is just a fancy way of saying he was awake and probably had been most of the night. ]

Empathy and conscience aren't necessarily the same thing. You can have one, without the other.

[ragnarsson]

I know that. But they are related.

[He also has neither, so there's that. He's self-aware enough to realize this isn't the case for everyone.]

And you didn't answer the question.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

That's what I'm trying to explain to you. They're not always related. Some of the most effective sociopaths gain a lot of their high functioning ability from the strength of their empathy.

It's what allows them to successfully mimic what 'society' deems normal behavior.

text; un: stranger.things

[potentialed]

[ Stephen has his nights of being unable to sleep and if he's not allowing his body to rest while his spiritual form is in the astral dimension, he often sees these "late night" posts. But he tends to have more regard for his "roommates". ]

Having empathy and a conscience are two separate things and both can make life ridiculously difficult.

[ He's just going to say it because it's true. ]

And painful. But I wouldn't want to live without either one.

[ragnarsson]

Seems like there's too much caring and guilt involved with either one.

[He can do without the amounts of either. If he didn't, he'd probably be crippled with guilt after how many people he's killed.]

@a.parrish

[antietam]

[ He's awake to get homework done, but a break can't hurt. ]

What does it feel like to not have a conscience?

cw: gore

[ragnarsson]

Kind of hard to explain. I just don't feel bad about the things people should feel bad about. For an example, my brothers and I killed a king in a very horrible manner before we got here. We shoved nails through his hands and then blood-eagled him, which involves tearing open someone's back and pulling their lungs out while they're still alive.

[He sounds positively gleeful describing the brutal way in which they tortured a man to death.]

I figure most normal people might feel a little bit bad about that, maybe have some nightmares if they aren't feeling it in their waking hours. Me? I'm only sad I was only able to kill him once.

[antietam]

It depends. I mean, did he deserve it? There's no reason to feel bad if you thought he did. [ Or maybe that's just Adam. He's pretty sure he has a conscience, he just doesn't feel the way it tells him he should. ]

I think a conscience is a construct of societal norms, which is why most hear voices of people they know in their heads. Would you feel bad if you killed someone who you liked?

[ audio | un: jkent ]

[supersweet]

It's kind of like a voice in your head that tells you not to do bad stuff. Sometimes it sounds like my mom.

[ragnarsson]

[That gets him to laugh.]

If I had one, it wouldn't sound like my mother. She did a bunch of horrible stuff herself.

[Yeah, allowing her children to watch her force a Christian missionary to hold a red-hot piece of metal was probably the least of what Aslaug had done.]

[supersweet]

Uh, okay. What do you think yours would sound like?

@dodger/text

[smokedout]

kinda like explaining colors to a blind man.

[Hi he's not sure where he stands with you so he'll just give an honest answer and see what happens.]

[ragnarsson]

[Considering he still remembers the time Dodger was practically purring over the idea of torturing him to death, it seems he's got a kindred spirit here.]

Humor me. Do you even have one?

[Ivar shares the sentiment of not knowing what to do with each other. Well, at least the advantage of these devices is they don't have to do this awkwardly face-to-face.]

[smokedout]

[For congruency and his own convenience, he's actually switching to audio.]

Used to have one. Turns out it's possible to beat it out of people.

[S h r u g.]

Far as I can remember, a conscience is just an impulse that tells you what'll help other people. Without it you can focus better on helping yourself.

voice | un: d.wayne

[bestrobin]

( Damian hadn't slept yet. He was used to spending this time patrolling, but it often ended earlier than he was used to with so little to deal with in such a seemingly non-threatening place. )

Everyone has a conscience. What differs is your morality. An assassin's conscience will differ greatly from that of the surgeon or someone sworn to spend their life saving others.

[ragnarsson]

And a Viking's is different from just about everyone else's here.

[But Damian would know something about being raised in a society like the ancient culture that Ivar comes from, revolving around killing. Granted, the Vikings did it to please their gods, and gain a place in the afterlife.]

[ private voice ]

[bestrobin]

But everyone.

( Damian understood in his own way what it would feel like for people to think you didn't have a conscience or be told you didn't have one. )

I was raised to be an assassin, taught how to lead the world's greatest, elite force of assassins. I don't regret taking someone's life or causing them pain. It's what I know.

text;

[inebriety]

And you tried to tell me you're not crazy.

[ragnarsson]

Says the crazy one himself. So do you have one? Or is that an inconvenience for a supposed 'genius'?

[inebriety]

I was the nice twin so yes to both. It's only an inconvenience if you can't work around it.

text; @RuffRabbit

[bunnyblock]

If you've gotten enough replies by now, I'd like to know what the summary of what you learned is.

I don't know the answer myself.

[ragnarsson]

What I have learned is that each person's level of conscience and empathy vary from person to person. They seem to all agree that it helps them figure out what to do versus what their own desires want, but not many seem to agree if this is a help or a hindrance. Mostly, it seems to be there so that people won't all mercilessly do what they want to all the time.

[It's been a lot of food for thought for someone like Ivar. He's never had cause to look at the situation any other way than his own. He'll never be able to truly gain a conscience, but being able to fake it might be a good idea down the line.]

[bunnyblock]

[He takes a minute to consider Ivar's response. It's definitely food for thought, and if anything it's a good look into what he can't understand, either.]

'Mercilessly' doing what you want all the time seems logical. But I've noticed that others don't agree with me on that, either.

I guess it's something you have to grow up with, or learn.

audio; @68

[sixtyeighth]

Eh, who knows!

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar snickers.]

Definitely the best answer thus far.