the most important decision any person or bear must face

[icebearforpresident]

[Oh hey, Nexus-people, your phone/tablet/electronic device has been hacked today, because when a question needs to be asked, somehow the Nexus delivers. The username #icebearforprez seems to show up, followed by a very daunting chain of text messagaes that're clearly from a cell phone. It's more words than what the bear would say in real life.]

Ice Bear is reaching out to you. Ice Bear has a very serious question that needs answering.

What is the best trait that a person should have?

Do you follow your instincts and have faith in your skills above all else?

Maybe staying calm and focused is the best ability to have?

Or is brute force and strength the only way to accomplish anything?

Ice Bear wants to hear your thoughts and opinions. Ice Bear has a lot riding on the line. [He'll never tell that he actually bet monetary things on this.]

Comments

[rebelscumfather]

Modern Han Solo with naught all that much to do, has been spending more time in the Nexus lately. At present, he is having a light breakfast and flipping casually through the paper. It's something he could easily be doing at home, but ... eh. Also, the multiverse coffees are kinda good, to be honest.

He's often wondered what 'verse the establishments he tends to patron get their coffee from.

At any rate, he's having an everything bagel - toasted with butter - reading, when suddenly his iphone starts lighting up and nearly dancing off the table with vibrations of back to back text messages. 'What the hell,' is his first thought. The second one is 'If Ben signed me up for cat facts again, I'm gonna put a boot to his ass.'

Han reads the messages, sort of wonders what #icebearforprez means and decides to answer.


Are you looking for us to choose between instinct, calmness or strength or can we answer with something else?

[icebearforpresident]

[You need to get with the times, modern Han. Hashtags are all the rage, after all. It's also probably for the best that Ice Bear can't see the alternate version of his favorite space traveler. Thankfully, the response back will not be 6 text messages back to back.]

Ice Bear wants to know which one you would be most like, doesn't have to describe your perfectly. Ice Bear will also listen to your other answers as well though.

[rebelscumfather]

[This could be anybody from the nexus. This Han doesn't have the same number as the one that Ice Bear knows, after all. Just some old guy from earth 2016. Maybe ...]

Instinct. Of those choices. I can't tell you how many time's I've been able to stop a bad situation from getting even worse because I could feel things starting to go wrong.

[The next message comes in a moment later.]

I was gonna say charisma and good looks, though. That will get you out of anything. Likely before it starts going bad at all.

[icebearforpresident]

[Which is why Ice has little idea of who he's talking to right now, except he knows it's someone who traverses the Nexus.]

Ice Bear doesn't have a great deal of instinct. Better suited for brothers.

...That doesn't seem to fall into any category. Nothing wrong with having either skill though. Ice Bear has never use charisma or looks to get out of a situation.

[rebelscumfather]

[It's difficult to say who would be more surprised by whom at this moment. As far as he knows, he's talking to someone's whose online handles reflect his love of cold and ursidae.]

Well have you tried using either charisma or good looks to get out of something before? Like they say, you miss all of the shots you don't take ...

[icebearforpresident]

Not really. To be fair, Ice Bear uses brute force more than anything else.

[Charisma? Charm? Alas, that's more of Panda's strength.]

Ice Bear has never been the charming one, even though Ice Bear knows he's cute.

[rebelscumfather]

Well, the combination works well for me.

[No small amount of conceitedness coming from this Nexus traveler.]

[westfallcorndog]

Another day, another device hack. And you know what? Harrow's totally okay with this. He loves it, in fact. There's nothing better than texting strangers about strange subjects. Better yet, this time it's Ice Bear! He only knows the bear from seeing him so often at movie nights, but that's enough to know he likes him.

He taps onto his phone keyboard, Strength for sure. I follow my instincts all the time but I wouldn't get far if I didn't have strength to back it up. Strength makes up for any mistakes you make.

[icebearforpresident]

[See, at least some people are open to the idea of being randomly texted, instead of your average Nexus visitor who hates being messaged.]

Ice Bear agrees...to an extent. Strength is good, but without focus, power can be a negative trait. Ice Bear is respectful of your opinion, even if it doesn't completely match Ice Bear's ideals.

[He has to pause for a moment, something has taken his attention away from the phone.]

A vote for red. Got it. How is Harrow doing today?

[westfallcorndog]

Wait. Red? Red is bad. Red is the Horde color. Is blue an option? Take my point off red put my point on some other color

Jeez, Harrow, big baby...

And what do you mean without focus? Every one's got focus right? Every one wants stuff and everyone goes after some thing right?

[icebearforpresident]

What's a horde? The color is for a game. Valor. Mystic. Instinct. Three teams with three colors.[But, to be fair, the Horde probably does represent strength and power too much.]

A good battle requires concentration. If you attack like that, you'll miss the target. Here, Ice Bear will show you. [And Harrow might find his phone switching from text to a video call, as the black fuzzy nose of Ice Bear greets him on the other end.

The bear flips the camera view, revealing some sort of amusement park, with lots of games. He points the device at a person who's playing one of those silly 'hit the chicken into the pot' games. The player isn't hurrying, rather taking his time, then finally bringing the hammer down on a rubber lever. The poor floppy chicken flies straight into a cast-iron pot.]

"See?" [Hey look, the bear can speak after all.]

[westfallcorndog]

Harrow texts back, The Horde are the bad guys. The enemy on my world. They wreck stuff and kill innocents. Better dead than red were I'm from.

But then, wait... Video call?! Oh no, Harrow wasn't ready for that! His phone's own camera kicks on reciprocally to reveal him in all his splendor: Not only is he lying on the grass somewhere and not wearing a shirt, he's... Maybe not Harrowheart at all? There's some kind of yellow-furred wolfman with jutting lower fangs on the other end of the phone. Still, he's got the same bright blue eyes as Harrow, and this is Harrow's phone number. His pointed ears go flat when Ice Bear surprises him like this, but they perk again quickly because he can't help but laugh at the sight of a rubber chicken ragdolling into a pot. It's the simple things in life.

"So maybe you're not wrong about concentration," he says in a deep voice. "But now I want to know why you're at a faire. You never struck me as a carnival guy!"

[icebearforpresident]

Ice Bear will put you down for blue, but take notes that your personality matches red. No worries. [Not going to argue the fact that killing innocent people isn't a good thing, that's for sure.]

[As for the sudden appearance of Harrow's Worgen form, Ice Bear just has to stop and blink for a few seconds. Wolves are bad, but this one is Harrowheart, so he's good. Ice Bear doesn't understand what's going on, but he trusts the death knight enough to know that he isn't dangerous.]

"Ice Bear is taking a day off. Enjoying summer and having some fun." [He gives a thumbs up, before panning the camera around so Harrow can see all the games.] "Does Harrowheart like amusement parks?"

[brother_alone]

What the fuck? To be honest, the only reason Josh notices his smartphone's gone on the fritz is because he was trying to reach one of his very few Nexus friends and instead is getting this slew of texts.

Josh actually stops someone and asks them if they're seeing this too before he takes a seat in the Plaza. What the hell, he's got time to kill. He'll bite.

Loyalty is the best trait a person can have. That and the willingness to take action. Being willing to do something, when no one else will. If it had to be just between those two though? Calm and focused.

Force is taking a hammer to a problem that may need nothing more than a tap in the right place.

He pauses a moment. Then nods to himself.

Also, can you unlock my phone, I need to use it.

[icebearforpresident]

[One has to wonder why the Nexus allows people the privilage of directly messaging people without any respect for personal space. Either way, there's an immediate apology coming from the bear...sorta.]

Ice Bear will fix it. [It takes a few minutes, but he's managed to find some sort of setting option where his texts don't take complete control of someone's device. Josh will find that he can access his phone without difficulty, but Ice's message in now back to being a usual text message.]

A split between the two. Ice Bear thinks loyalty is very important with friends and family. Ice Bear will take note of your opinion for this ongoing debate. Another point for blue.

[brother_alone]

Thx.

There's nothing from Josh for a few minutes, but then he did say he had to use his phone. When he's finished with his call though, he does open up his messages again. He vaguely knows Ice Bear from a few scant meetings. He never thought of the bear as something of a tech buff, but.

Takes all kinds. And he has seen weirder in the Nexus. It's better not to ask.

Glad to help, bro. Anything else you need?

[icebearforpresident]

No problem.

[Ice Bear really isn't bothered by the fact that Josh doesn't respond immediately to his text. After all, he's not doing much of anything at the moment.]

Not really. Ice Bear is just standing in a line and is killing time. Wanted people to talk to. Josh is helping [Awww, the bro comment gets a smile out of Ice, which is happily translated into text.]

:D :D :D

[brother_alone]

That is indeed a grave need. Queuing can be lethal levels of boredom if you're not careful.

He can't help but smiling a bit as he sends his reply. Ice would get along well with Chris in that regard, he thinks. His friend is always glued to his phone whenever he has to wait for anything ever.

So who are you debating with?

[icebearforpresident]

Ice Bear is okay with waiting in lines. Sometimes.

[And to prove his point, on goes the video chat feature, with Ice Bear manning the camera from behind. A ton of people are standing in a line that loops back and forth, most are dressed in shorts and summer apparel. If Josh knows anything about amusement parks, this sure looks like a line to get on an attraction.]

"A competition with other people. Ice Bear is playing a game to see which team is best."

[rekindledtitan]

Experience with one or two previous hackers has helped prompt Blaze to keep a small tablet device handy. Mostly to save her Ghost fretting about the dangers of her accessing the local networks directly. It's a habit that comes in handy when she's alerted to the incoming messages.

If we're picking from those three, I say go with your instincts. Staying focused is important, but you don't want to start overthinking. Over-planning. Once the action starts you've got to be able to see what needs to be done and go for it. Trust you'll be able to see it through.

There's a scant couple of seconds before she adds, Got to admit I rely on my strength nearly all the time, too. But strength is only as good as the person wielding it.

[icebearforpresident]

[The Nexus has a funny and annoying way of letting people hack into electronic devices, so it's a good idea to have something less important take the question. Ice is always happy to talk with new people as well, so him message back is very polite and formal.]

Instinct is good. Ice Bear could learn more about it, outside of turning primal. Strength isn't bad either, if used properly.

[He pauses for a moment.] Thank you for answering Ice Bear's question, ever if Ice Bear doesn't know who you are.

[rekindledtitan]

My pleasure. I don't know how this shows up on your comms equipment, but this is Guardian Blaze-37. Did you intend to transmit your message to the whole Nexus?

She accesses the settings while she contemplates the rest of her reply. She doesn't know what Ice Bear is using or how compatible it is with her little bit of tech. Maybe she can adjust things to transmit some ID of her own.

What is turning primal, by the way?

[icebearforpresident]

It shows up as a abbreviation: GB-37@nexusforums. Nice to meet you, Guardian Blaze.

[For now, it seems like his modern cellphone is as least able to show some of Blaze's ID, even if it's not the full wording. Better than being anonymous.]

Losing control. Reverting back to natural instincts. Becoming hungry, angry. Things like that.

[rekindledtitan]

That's good enough for now. Good to meet you too, Ice Bear. You can just call me Blaze.

Not that it isn't nice to be addressed by her title once in a while, but there's no sense standing on formality when nearly the whole Nexus calls her by name.

Ah. I know more about the kind of instincts you hone through experience than the kind you're born with. Hmm. She adds another message. Unless programming counts.

[icebearforpresident]

Same. The pleasure is all Ice Bear's.

[It's nice to meet another new person, even if it is only through the power of Nexus texting.]

Ice Bear didn't think about that. Blaze seems very smart, thinking about other aspects of the world 'instinct'. [A pause, as Ice has to ponder the last comment.] What kind of programming?