97 - Voice

[gotgreenmagic]

Well, that wasn't totally terrible. Kind of boring and after-school-special-y, but. No zombies, nobody died.

Seven out of ten?

Comments

[Private]

[lovewheniwin]

Ah, so I finally have a Warden do I? That's nice to know. Perhaps you can shed some light on why I'm here then. Shego, eh? An interesting name, but I shouldn't have any trouble remembering it.

Considering, as you say, what was happening just before I arrived, this place isn't so bad compared to the alternative.

[Private]

[gotgreenmagic]

Perhaps I can shed some light on --

You've seriously got no ideas of your own?

Re: [Private]

[lovewheniwin]

Haven't the foggiest.

[Private]

[gotgreenmagic]

That's cute. I guess the file I'm got here about a guy who basically attempted to commit genocide for profit is some other Lyle T Rourke?

Re: [Private]

[lovewheniwin]

No, I found items and retrieved them for profit. Any casualties of that mission were just that.

Casualties.

[Private]

[gotgreenmagic]

Nnnnno. 'Mission' and 'casualties' are words you get to use if you're fighting a war. The words you're looking for are 'job' and 'victims'.

Re: [Private]

[lovewheniwin]

And the difference, other than playing semantics, is?

[Private]

[gotgreenmagic]

If you can't even guess at the difference between a military conflict between two nations whose actual existence is on the line, and a conflict where one party's right to exist is infringing on the other party's right to make a gigantic stack of money? I really do not know what to say to you.

Re: [Private]

[lovewheniwin]

How many wars do you think have been fought where one side has actually been intent on completely removing the other from existence?

Wars are fought for lots of reasons, wealth and resources being among the most common. It's a simple matter of one side wanting something and the other side being an obstacle to that goal. Until you can recognize that, I don't think you should say anything to me.

[Private]

[gotgreenmagic]

Oh for - sure, it's not like I was using hyperbole for the sake of a straightforward conversation or anything.

Fact of the matter: You were not fighting a war. You cannot claim that what you did was justifiable in the way that wartime casualties might be. You were on a privately funded expedition, and you found some people who had something you wanted. Taking it away would at best drive them out of their home and destroy their way of life and at worst, mean they all died.

You knew all that and you did it anyway because you wanted your payday.

Re: [Private]

[lovewheniwin]

I'm all for a straightforward conversation, but that doesn't mean pertinent details should be ignored.

I wasn't aware that those people were there prior to arriving. Had I known, I might have not taken the mission. Though that's hardly relevant.

Lets say I turned my men around and left those people in their little crumbling island. The people were doomed anyways. It's like putting a dying man out of his misery.

[Private]

[gotgreenmagic]

And you would have just happened to get filthy rich off the back of this humanitarian expedition.

Re: [Private]

[lovewheniwin]

Me or somebody else. I'm not one to let an opportunity just slip away.

[Private]

[gotgreenmagic]

Apart from the opportunity to continue living that might have been offered by taking a route involving a little less 'letting a civilization die for the sake of your retirement fund'.

Re: [Private]

[lovewheniwin]

They were as good as dead anyways. If they hadn't figured out how to keep themselves from dying out in a thousand years, they were a lost cause.

All you're spouting is sentimental mush that is meant to make you feel good about being too weak to do what needs to be done.

Re: [Private] derp let me just edit once more

[gotgreenmagic]

Yeah, no.

Look, out of everybody on this lousy ship, I am one of the best placed to understand exactly where you're coming from. 'I'm gonna take what I want and anybody in my way is asking for it'? I get that. That was my entire career until recently. And I can promise you that graduating has not made me weak, or sentimental, or mushy.

But since I obviously can't sell you on basic ethics as a concept at this early stage, let's try something different: if you had chosen not to do what allegedly 'needed to be done', you wouldn't have wound up here.

Actually, every time we have one of these little chats, I want you to remember that. You are attempting to defend a series of choices that ended with you dying.