Why would ageless, millennia-old creatures ever make friends

>>49222925
>why live

Why are humans getting pets?

>>49222925
Why would you get a dog?

>>49222940
That is a very good question.

>>49223005
to die
and live again!

>>49222925

More or less the same reason why one should consider to watch a film or read a book, in the most extreme cases. They are going to end at some point, but it's not for that , that you refrain to check them out and/or have fun with them.

>>49222925
As I put it elsewhere...

>“Sirocco,” she had said, when the only light in the room had been the fireplace. “I have had three husbands and one wife. I loved them all, completely, honestly. Each one has, when their time came, died, and it hurt me each time, and thinking back it hurts me still, because I do still love them. But each time, I have moved on, recovered, and been capable of loving once more. And you must understand: the same will happen with you. I will endeavor to make our time together the best time of your life and the best time of mine. I will never leave you while you yet draw breath. I will love you forever. But I will not join you beyond the pale…and after you are gone, though it may take me years or decades or even centuries, I know I will find love again. It would not be fair to you if I did not make you aware of this…and if you cannot bear it, I will understand.”

>And she would have, too. Cadenza had been married four times, but she was no stranger to the occasional casual romp between the unmarried, which may have been all Sirocco had been seeking; further, for every one of her spouses who had made it through the Talk, there was a person who could not reconcile their mortality against her immortality.

>Sirocco had thought, long and hard. Cadenza had waited patiently – time being something she had in abundance was the whole reason for the Talk in the first place, after all. Eventually, he had looked to her. “Will there always be a space in your heart reserved only for me?” He had asked.

>“Always, unto forever,” Cadenza had promised.

>Sirocco had smiled at that, leaning forward. “Then it would be selfish for me to demand any more. I cannot ask for all the years ahead of you – but I can ask for the years yet remaining to me. Can you give me that?”

>“I will,” Cadenza responded, leaning towards Sirocco herself.

And then they had PG-13 rated sex. Good times.

>>49222925
Because they are dynamic. You may be immortal but they will come and go and have variety. Sure, they will all have traits you've seen in people over and over again but every one of them will have a different and often refreshing perspective on "life"

Do you wallow in anguish when a beautiful flower blooms and withers? People are like flowers and should be cherished before they wilt.

Well, you can always make friends with their children when they die. And then their children.

Why do you think spirits bound to bloodlines are so common? If you're lucky the children will even be like the parents!

>>49222925
As they say, "It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all"

>>49222925
>>Why would ageless, millennia-old creatures ever make friends or lovers with short-lived humans as anything but a passing fancy?
Well OP you tell us! Falling in love isn't a logical and rational process.

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Sometimes, the ancient lich just needs to be Team GrandMom.

>>49223436
Her character in Granblue Fantasy is beyond useless

>>49223470
>Granblue Fantasy
Well there's your problem

>>49223087
This sounds super familiar... Where is it from?

fetish

>>49223525
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/70999/an-awkward-day

pls no bully.

Or do, doesn't matter since the source material doesn't invalidate the point.

>>49223087
Pardon me being relatively new to this board, but what is this from anon? Fan fiction or a book? It hit me right in the feels.

>>49223557

That's... actually well written. Completely non-canon, but I think you captured why an Elf and a human can have a relationship.

>>49222925
Because you're strong enough to deal with heartbreak.

>>49223557
Oh... I thought I'd read this in a book.

>>49223564
Pony fan fiction. I wrote it mostly because I dislike angst-filled immortal stories, so of the various immortals I've had show up in the fanfictions, none of them have been shown to regret their immortality.

Cadenza came closest to doing so since unlike her mother Luna or her aunt Celestia she was born in modern times and grew up around normal ponies, and so didn't have a chance to "get used" to and ease in to the fact that ponies die and she does not. Her first husband's death tore her apart, even more so when her adopted children started dying one by one (in-universe alicorns are sterile; there were some VERY unique circumstances around Cadenza's birth) to the point where she just sealed herself in a cave for three months and cried her eyes out. But eventually she got better, left the cave, resumed her normal life (or as close to normal as she could have).

She doesn't *forget* her past loves and she doesn't ever think to herself "hmm, been long enough, time to get married again". The way I describe it is rather like imagining two people fall in love and get married in their 20s. But then one of them dies. The survivor grieves, but eventually moves on, and might in their 30s find someone new, fall in love again, and marry again. That doesn't mean that they no longer love their original spouse - just that they're now capable of loving again.

>>49222976
Pretty much this.

Like, the ratfags on /an/ are so infatuated with their little fuzzballs, who will be lucky to live past the age of two.

>>49222940
>>49223040
But how can you live when you've been barred from dying?

>>49222925
Cus 50 years to a millenia old being is probs the equivalent to a month long rebound fling to.

>>49222925
Maybe just maybe you they are able to track their lovers soul through different lifetimes and reincarnation just waiting for them to achieve immortality so they can be together for ever.

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>>49224633
>Be some squire in a bumblefuck-nowhere part of the world
>Get stalked by an immortal being because she fell in love with a previous incarnation of you
I wonder if some representative from a lawfully-alligned demiplane could write up a magically-enforced restraining order.

>>49224716

Isn't that basically just a rule 63 Curse of Strahd?

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>>49224991
It is, in fact, exactly that.

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>>49222925
What if they want a big family to keep them company?

>>49223087
please give me some kind of sauce!!

Because they aren't being little bitches about it. I mean you have to do something to pass the time

>>49222925
They all secretly hope that the human they love will love them back enough to find immortality for themself so they can be together forever.

>>49225627
Or maybe there's a certain appeal in not being together forever, but ending with a bang

>>49225562
SEE >>49223557

WELCOME TO THE DARK SIDE.

>>49222925

Why would a relatively young mortal human in their 20s or early 30s or so ever make friends or lovers with someone in their 50s or 60s?

>>49225514
I find that fella quite unsettling

>>49225775
Well he is an incestuous pedophile, so that's completely okay

>>49222925
Because they have literally forever to get over it

>>49222925
> what is a one-night stand

>>49225757
I think Ben Franklin wrote something on this exact issue

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>>49225801
>incestuous pedophile

>>49223067

I like this analogy, and it can go deeper than just passing fun or enjoyment. Some books or films can change your life, make you see the world differently, inspire or even enlighten you. Same with friendships for an immortal.

They likely wouldn't even feel much grief. No more than we feel when we finish a great book or come to the end of a symphony. Just a deep appreciation and perhaps a melancholic memory.

>>49226100
> No more than we feel when we finish a great book or come to the end of a symphony.
>Books, movies, or music never reduced me to crybaby tears

>>49223087
>Cadenza
>Immortality
Is this where I think it's going?>>49223557
YOU SNEAKY FUCKER
Still not mad,twas pretty well written

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>>49222925
>Why would ageless, millennia-old creatures ever make friends or lovers with short-lived humans as anything but a passing fancy?
They probably would not. I think they would probably not even register regular-life-spanned beings to begin with.

There is a fantastic short story called "The Immortal" by a famous Argentinian writer/scholar named Borges. You can read it here:
http://www.akirarabelais.com/vi/o/thelibraryofbabel/borges/immortal.html
It offers some of the most interesting perspectives on immortality I've ever read. It actually inspired me to create a "race" for my world of essentially ageless people who... are not what people generally imagine thousand-years-old humans to be.

>>49226100
That is an excellent analogy. I will use that for any eternal beings I come up with, because that really, really makes sense. To them, the lives of mortals are naught more than a short-tempered jest, but you never know if this jest would be the one to change your perspectives.

>>49226662

Borges is a goddamn genius

>>49227164
Yep. He fucking is.

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Sometimes there's just nothing more interesting out there.

>>49225801
>>49225514
Oh gosh is that the series with the spiderweb family tree?

>>49227164
>>49227197

Anyone that wastes the idea behind the marks of aleph, bet, and gimmel as a throw away line in the shit pile that is the rest of "The Lottery in Babylon" is a madman, not a genius.

>>49222925
FRIENDLY REMINDER :
People who can live to 1,000 years, if they spend 20 years with a loved one, would register it as about 2 human years. 50 years, as 5.

Spending 5 years with a loved one is noy a short timeframe at all.

Other friendly reminder: humanoid brains have an upper capacity for memory. At some point without magic these people are going to start forgetting things.

There are a lot of popular interpretations of what it is like to live forever. The ones I like the most are the ones that stop to think about the strength of will to keep on living all of that time. Think about mankind for a second: nearly everything we do is a kind of memento mori. Anything, anything at all to leave a mark on the world that says "I was alive."

But for an immortal, nothing will outlast his long life. Nothing he builds will last forever, nothing he conquers will exist forever, and no one he loves will live forever. To an immortal, who experiences time in astronomical scale, even the stars themselves are transitory. It is what the immortal does with the certain knowledge that nothing he does matters that defines him.

Like the God Emperor of Dune, the sport of immortals is instead in influencing the tapestry of history, and it is their joy to see what results from their meddling. Few, if any, spare any thought to the well-being of any particular individual. For Zeus, seducing all those women may have just been the immortal equivalent of stopping to smell the roses.

They don't suffer from hearbreak, they have grown accustomed to things dying quickly and easily.

Bit like dogs.

>>49228962
It's not too much of a spiderweb, but the same few people keep showing up in places where they shouldn't. That guy is just the biggest offender.

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>>49222925
Why do humans?

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>>49231345

>>49223087

Bitch you basically just condensed random anne rice into a schlocky pony fan fic shitpost but still not bad, try to write something original

>>49223087
>I have had three husbands and one wife
Why are vampires always bisexual degenerates?

I'd really like to see a vampire who is a hardcore reactionary way to the right of /pol/ just by virtue of living according to the social values he grew up with a few centuries ago.

>>49223087
That's some really bad fanfiction, I thought /tg/ had better taste
btw what a slut

>>49229382

At what point do they get curious and decide to construct their own universe with laws of their dictations?

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>>49222925
>Why would ageless, millennia-old creatures ever make friends or lovers with short-lived humans as anything but a passing fancy? Why risk the heartbreak?

See these Anons: >>49222945 , >>49222976 , >>49223766 , >>49231345 , >>49231365 .

Pets are amazing.

A dog can live for maybe 15 or 20 years and a Human can live for 80 or even 100 years, but does that mean we close ourselves off from getting dogs? Does that mean that every other new dog we get is any less special or meaningful? No, dude, having a dog is AMAZING- Dogs are AMAZING.

I'd imagine friendly immortals would have similar instances in which a friendship or marriage with one would literally be a companion for your entire mortal life. Just because they'll outlive you doesn't mean the experience means any less to them then it does to you, have you forgotten the dogs you've had or owned in your life? Do you forget them when you get a new one?

I mean, I hope you don't cause that'd be pretty fucking cold, but you know what I'm getting at.

>>49231522
Cadenza isn't a vampire, but to answer the broader question...when you're 700 years old, you stop sweating the small stuff, is how I think of it.

But that's not quite the case here; rather, within the setting, sexual orientation isn't a moral issue and never has been. Most people tend towards heterosexuality, but they're more willing to experiment than in the real world, and preference is treated with the same weight as most/least favorite foods.

Like, someone might consider guys being with guys disgusting, but they do it with the same "intensity" that they consider zucchini or something disgusting. There's no moral weight to it.

>>49231633
lol no u

>>49222925
people make bad decisions when they're horny.

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>>49229936
I counted 11 times.

>>49231865
Treating someone like a cat or a dog isn't a good sign, Anon.

>>49235187

A large reason we treat cats and dogs like cats and dogs is because they don't live as long as us. If there was a subrace of humans that only lived a decade and a half, they'd be treated like that, too.

>>49235344
That just sounds rude.

>>49235344
We also treat pets the way we do because we're a LOT smarter than they are. While this could still ostensibly be the case, in most media the super-long-lived races aren't that much smarter than regular mortals, they've just lived long enough to be really crafty about it. So while they're "lesser species" to a degree, there's a lot more opportunity for egalitarian relationships than you'd have with a pet.

On the other hand, the relationship between a person and their pet is significantly different if said pet is necessary for them to acquire food or somesuch.

>>49235140

Oh my god. Incestuous pedophilia just gained another damning dimension; the bookkeeping alone is a mortal sin.

>>49222925
You answered your own question.

Love, anon. It's a son of a bitch, and borders on being a cop-out, but there you have it.

>>49235140
Holy shit that's where Makoto gets it from.

>>49235461
>On the other hand, the relationship between a person and their pet is significantly different if said pet is necessary for them to acquire food or somesuch.

Doing actual work with your dogs (mine herd alpaca) does change your perspective I think.

I imagine if you had to trust your dog to keep you alive against goblins or orcs or whatever the relationship would be very different.

>>49235746
Makes me think of the bond between Drizzt and Gwenhwyfar. It's blatantly obvious that Drizzt considers her fully self aware, but simply unable to commune with him verbally because of physical reasons.

But if their bond had not been so strong due to everything they had gone through, would he have simply come to view her as an unusually clever exotic pet? Although I have no doubt whatsoever that he would still love and cherish her deeply no matter what their path together had been.

>>49222925
Gee OP, why do humans make friends with dogs.

>>49222925
They don't know any better.

>>49236021
Because dogs aren't sapient.

>>49235140
That's what my current Crusader Kings game is starting to look like. Having an immortal William the Bastard does strange things to your royal breeding program.
And yes, I think he's had more time spent stressed and depressed than not. He's gone through 7 wives so far.

>>49236643
You wouldn't be friends with a sapient dog?

>>49236643
>>49236885
You do realize that there is a difference between sapience and self awareness, right?

All living things that can move around are sapient. Including dogs.

>>49236911
You're thinking sentience, sapience is the actual thing people are usually thinking of when they say sentience.

>>49222925
Because they can make said mortal immortal?

>>49222925
Not all love comes from conscious choice, OP.

And people are notorious for making bad decisions that hurt them again and again, especially when it comes to love.

Have you not heard of anecdotal stories of a girl being heartbroken by bad boys several times without learning?

Or men who get burnt by bitches and yet can't keep crawling back to them?

Immortals may not necessarily be perfectly in control of their emotions, after all.

I'm in love with a straight guy who I can't ever make turn gay and I've spent the past few years chasing him even though I know it's futile.

Love makes you do dumb, stupid, and irrational things.

>>49237351
And then there's this faggot!
>>49237364

>>49225886
He is the emperors finest after all.
Gotta keep the blood of the higher class pure
:°)

>>49235140
Truly, a shining example of imperial purity!
The emperor would be proud of this one.

>>49237407
But he is speaking the truth. A friend of mine is after a Girl she loves but well... shes not a lesbian so bad luck.

This problem is common for a lot of people.

>>49222925
Where's that elf comic?

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>>49237364
I hope you can one day find someone who will return your love fagtron. Gods speed and good luck faggot, you have my respect cock knocker

>>49235140
I've always adored how the line of genetic diversity's death gets off to a good start with Sawagoe impregnating his half sister.