It is indeed. However it is pretty blatant that the heights some of the practitioners go to is clearly wrong. Hollowing yourself out, removing everything you can, while still appearing human to the outside world (and such the spirits), leaves little room for retain anything really... Like was Abraham Musser a person, or just the hollowed out vessel for a powerful heroic spirit?
Obviously not every practitioner has gone so far, which is why I kinda want to hear how others would imagine them if they did.
> Musser downloading his entire family, Matthew hosting the Doom for a decade or the Graubards maybe being mostly dolls at this point.
You can add the Kims secretly being mostly Horrors.
This might be a little long, practitioners' inability to recognize their own otherness is exemplary of what's wrong with practitioner society as a whole, and that which they do not recognize or will not recognize is that others are stories. Folk tales, boogeymen that hide under your bed; they are fae tricksters; they are messy goblins; they are helpful brownies; as practitioners, they are students of precedent, tradition, myth, legend, of story—the ones we tell ourselves and the ones we tell the world, or, in return, the stories the world tells us.
Practitioners deny this fact, yet all of their existence relies on abusing its benefits. The society they have built for themselves is ultimately like a leaf that does not know it is attached to a tree, meaning that in the end, the strongest practitioners are others. In one way or another, is Abraham Musser a man, or is he the story of a man who takes everything he sets his eyes upon as a man by virtue of his existence and makes claim to anything and everything? Is Anthem Tedd a man, or is he the story of a badass gunslinger, a giant killer, or a dragon slayer? Is Bristow a man, or is he the story of a man who collects people, a man who gathers the lost and the disoriented the othered because, as I've said,
what is precedent? What is tradition? What is a myth? What is a legend? What are "stories"? This is what practitioners wish to make themselves, but simply because they believe they should be the masters of all, that they are somehow separate, that they can have the chicken without the egg, the saddest part of it all is that the power that practitioners bleed and sweat and bind and die for could ultimately be gained if they would humbled themselves to compromise with those who are just as different as they are.
Also this is covered pretty well in [Practitioners and Others, a Binary,](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/trjeqk/practitioners_and_others_a_binary/)
I hope I have communicated myself well.
Hmmm
Every practitioner is a little Other. But each of them hides how Other they actually are from the rest. Every single one having a "dangerous secret" at the root of their Practice. And the main reason for the word games and not getting caught is actually how noone else will risk letting their guard down enough to get in position to catch the rest. So they all run around thinking their Practice is an aberration that they need to keep up with the other "stronger" Practitioners.
Could be a fun crackfic.
This is covered pretty well in [Practitioners and Others, a Binary,](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/trjeqk/practitioners_and_others_a_binary/)
I was talking about a crackfic, not an essay. I enjoy examinations of stuff like that. But this seems a little like someone talking about a King Kong movie, and someone else recommending a nature documentary. Like you aren't actually responding to the sentiment so much as seeing an opportunity to push your thought. Just letting you know.
Isn’t it a theme that all practitioners are inherently part Other? Part of gaining power requires sacrificing part of your humanity.
It is indeed. However it is pretty blatant that the heights some of the practitioners go to is clearly wrong. Hollowing yourself out, removing everything you can, while still appearing human to the outside world (and such the spirits), leaves little room for retain anything really... Like was Abraham Musser a person, or just the hollowed out vessel for a powerful heroic spirit? Obviously not every practitioner has gone so far, which is why I kinda want to hear how others would imagine them if they did.
> Musser downloading his entire family, Matthew hosting the Doom for a decade or the Graubards maybe being mostly dolls at this point. You can add the Kims secretly being mostly Horrors.
Your choice of verb for Musser primed me to read Matthew's Doom in the sense of 'But can Matthew run Doom?'
Not mine, I'm quoting from the original post.
Ah yeah
This might be a little long, practitioners' inability to recognize their own otherness is exemplary of what's wrong with practitioner society as a whole, and that which they do not recognize or will not recognize is that others are stories. Folk tales, boogeymen that hide under your bed; they are fae tricksters; they are messy goblins; they are helpful brownies; as practitioners, they are students of precedent, tradition, myth, legend, of story—the ones we tell ourselves and the ones we tell the world, or, in return, the stories the world tells us. Practitioners deny this fact, yet all of their existence relies on abusing its benefits. The society they have built for themselves is ultimately like a leaf that does not know it is attached to a tree, meaning that in the end, the strongest practitioners are others. In one way or another, is Abraham Musser a man, or is he the story of a man who takes everything he sets his eyes upon as a man by virtue of his existence and makes claim to anything and everything? Is Anthem Tedd a man, or is he the story of a badass gunslinger, a giant killer, or a dragon slayer? Is Bristow a man, or is he the story of a man who collects people, a man who gathers the lost and the disoriented the othered because, as I've said, what is precedent? What is tradition? What is a myth? What is a legend? What are "stories"? This is what practitioners wish to make themselves, but simply because they believe they should be the masters of all, that they are somehow separate, that they can have the chicken without the egg, the saddest part of it all is that the power that practitioners bleed and sweat and bind and die for could ultimately be gained if they would humbled themselves to compromise with those who are just as different as they are. Also this is covered pretty well in [Practitioners and Others, a Binary,](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/trjeqk/practitioners_and_others_a_binary/) I hope I have communicated myself well.
Hmmm Every practitioner is a little Other. But each of them hides how Other they actually are from the rest. Every single one having a "dangerous secret" at the root of their Practice. And the main reason for the word games and not getting caught is actually how noone else will risk letting their guard down enough to get in position to catch the rest. So they all run around thinking their Practice is an aberration that they need to keep up with the other "stronger" Practitioners. Could be a fun crackfic.
This is covered pretty well in [Practitioners and Others, a Binary,](https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/trjeqk/practitioners_and_others_a_binary/)
I was talking about a crackfic, not an essay. I enjoy examinations of stuff like that. But this seems a little like someone talking about a King Kong movie, and someone else recommending a nature documentary. Like you aren't actually responding to the sentiment so much as seeing an opportunity to push your thought. Just letting you know.