009 .. human nature and other mysteries

[amagicalmystery]

This one could've been a whole lot worse. Good thing I'm not stupid enough to let everything out once we're chums. (You're still a pompous waste of skin, Crane, you've just got the added excuse of bein' out of your mind

Comments

[grand_lotus]

Hmm.

What do you think?

[amagicalmystery]

Oh, a few things. Mainly that folks are ugly enough when they don't know it that I don't see the sense in you makin' projects of the ones who do.

...of course, everyone seems to have turned "snake" into "group the listener hates most", I'm gonna confess I didn't expect that.

[grand_lotus]

But would that not be what the snake represents, in this story? Something that the listener considers evil by its very nature?

[amagicalmystery]

Granted. But I'd have thought the whole "charity" thing would have made my point obvious.

[grand_lotus]

But this is a tale from which many lessons can be learnt. Not least that everything is exactly as it seems at first glance, and the worst of our fears will be proven right in the end.

It strikes me as an odd story for you to be telling.

[amagicalmystery]

[he thinks he takes Iroh's meaning, but]

Interesting. And why's that?

[grand_lotus]

Because in your time here, you have made your feelings very clear about those who see no further than their own prejudices.

[amagicalmystery]

[there's a pause, because Iroh has him there and God knows he simply HAS to win every debate]

I've made it clear that you don't underestimate me or set limits on me.

[grand_lotus]

You have.

But just as I will not underestimate your intelligence, or your perception, or your talents, nor will I underestimate your capacity to change.

he can quit anytime he wants!

[amagicalmystery]

[meaningful pause]

Much obliged, but I don't see any good reason to. I was doing just fine.

Far as I'm concerned, I'm here because a stupid little man let a frog out of a jar.

[grand_lotus]

Yet you would not be here, either, had the frog not been in a jar to begin with.

[amagicalmystery]

If I could've just worked for myself, didn't have to rely on anyone else, I'd have had it all by now! I wouldn't have had to worry about bein' here or...or anywhere else for that matter.

Private

[grand_lotus]

Have to?

It was entirely your own decision to drive yourself so deeply into debt that schemes involving frogs and jars became one of the last few solutions available to you.

You may blame other people for as long as you wish, but all they ever did came as consequences of choices that you had made. If it hadn't been the frog in the jar, it would have been something else, eventually.

Private

[amagicalmystery]

I'm not blaming

I knew that when I

Your world ain't my world, but I'm guessin' folks are pretty much the same. So here's what I learned very quickly: most men are real eager to put you under their heel, and they'll use any excuse to do it. You come out ahead by knowing more, risking more, taking more. I never said it wasn't my decision. But I could be no one, or be who I deserved to be. Guess what I picked.

And if no one had held me down, I'd have done it. I don't need fixing. I ain't sorry.

Private

[grand_lotus]

So. You would have succeeded, if not for the protestations of the many other people who did not want to suffer in the name of your success?

Private

[amagicalmystery]

And the lackey that mucked up the plan. Or weren't you listening?

Am I bein' clear yet? My conscience ain't hurting for change. I was close, and I could get there again.