[ text ] un: aragaki; like 4 am

[petsthedog]

[It comes on the network like an intrusive thought -- because it is. Because Shinjiro can't sleep, even with all the talk of distracting activities like movies and pumpkin carving and costume parties. (Where do you even get costumes on a spaceship, anyway?)

Because he can't stop thinking about what Olexa said in that building, at the end. Would you die trying to get that stone back? Cheri's motivations were selfish, but then, aren't theirs too? So-Yeon's hadn't been, and while she'd surrendered the orb, what if she hadn't? What about the next mission?]

do you think the orb is worth killing people for

Comments

[petsthedog]

[He's bringing the spicy discourse for all the night owls.]

that include stoppin any of us who would?

[Andy is one of the people he's thinking about, here. She'd said she's not seeking out murder, but she'd do what she had to. Us or them. She's immortal, though. Could anyone really stop her, if she was ready to kill for it? Would anyone want to? Doesn't that make them all complicit, if they don't?

He had simply looked the other way, with Strega, and it blew up in his face. Andy isn't Takaya's kind of unhinged, from what he can tell, but that specter lingers. Turning your eyes from reality doesn't make it go away.]

[arc_reactor]

Let's get right to the point:

Do *you* intend to kill us to get what you want?

( Iron Dad is tired, okay. )

lmk if this isnt enough dialogue lkjslkdjf

[petsthedog]

[He doesn't reply right away. There's a lot he can say about how it doesn't matter if he doesn't want to when there's several dozen people on this team and he knows at least a couple feel differently, and he stands by it, but it doesn't answer the question. After a long moment, finally:]

no

[But he's not stupid. He's already seen how the attack on Lionetta HQ has gone. He remembers what happened to So-Yeon. It's only a matter of time before they're in a situation where the question of killing for it is unavoidable, and he's terrified of that moment.]

it's perfect 👍

[arc_reactor]

( He's patient, so he waits, breathing a sigh out in the darkness. )

Good, because I don't intend to, either.

Killing is simple. It's stupidly easy. Don't let anyone church it up by telling you it means anything more than that. Making a choice to do good, to work together to find a better solution, that takes effort. It's hard.

/o/

[petsthedog]

[Again, there's a pause. Shinjiro doesn't have any illusions about killing being exactly what it is. After all, it's someone's death he's trying to undo, here.]

ain't it kinda churchin it up to talk like we're here to do good, though?
all of us came here for somethin selfish

[Even Erik, who wants to change the world, might erase himself from existence at the end of it. He doesn't know.]

[arc_reactor]

So now you can't do the best you can because, what? Once you do one thing sketchy, that's it, forever? Full speed ahead into evil, no take-backsies.

( He has some experience in being a sketchy twat and turning it around, okay. )

[petsthedog]

[Admittedly, no take-backsies is more or less how Shinjiro feels about this particular topic, but he doesn’t want to get distracted here—]

i’m just sayin this place ain’t exactly signed us up to help people
it was lookin for suckers desperate enough to listen to a sketchy dream voice offerin to let em take back the past
we ain’t even met our boss yet
for all we know he’s gatherin the orbs to take over the world himself

[arc_reactor]

Yeah, that thought occurred to me, too. A handful of us met a guy like that.

( Thinky-think and a pause here, before he decides he's tired of talking through the link. He's also not getting any sleep tonight, apparently, so: )

Do you like coffee? I could go for some coffee.

-> action?

[petsthedog]

coffee's fine
i'll see you in the kitchen i guess?

[Shinjiro makes his way out to the kitchen area in short order. Tony will find that his new network acquaintance is pretty young, eighteen or nineteen at most. Even so, the jacket and beanie are pretty old and weathered, like he's been wearing them a long, long time.

His hands are buried in his pockets when he steps into the kitchen, posture somewhat hunched as usual as he looks around for the person he's supposed to meet. He nods in acknowledgment when he spots the other man.]

Stark, right?