[ 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

Text | Un: Star-Lord

[spacedisaster]

No.

[ The answer is short and blunt, but it's 4 am and he just woke up from another nightmare, so... ]

[petsthedog]

[Shinji doesn't either. But there's the crux of his dilemma: it doesn't matter what he thinks. He's not the only one on this team.]

could you still accept it if someone else here killed someone for it?
what if cheri and olexa hadn't given it up when they did?

that girl so-yeon died givin it to us
sure we had a deal and she was already done for long before we came but she still gave up what time she had left with her friends and family
what if the next one doesn't?

[Sorry Peter, are you new, Shinji has not paid that much attention tbh.]

[spacedisaster]

I've been fighting a long time, and I had to kill people in the past. Powerful entities who were trying to destroy the galaxy, people who were trying to murder my friends, my family...People who were beyond stopping. It is not an easy choice. There are reasons to end a life, for example when it means millions of other innocent people get to survive, but it should be a last resort.

I wasn't here for the first mission, so I don't know So-yeon's story. However, I have been having these same worries about what might happen if someone refuses to give up on the orb's power.

The orbs and this station, as things are now, have too many unanswered questions surrounding them to make a proper decision. We will have to wait until we find ourselves in that situation, theorizing now is useless.

[ That's all right, there's a lot of people around here. ]

[petsthedog]

is it
we can't take that shit back once it's done
hell people were ready to kill lionettas at the hq to save our own skins
but shitty people or not we did attack em first

so-yeon just wanted to save her people
the lord there had the orb first and caused some sorta plague
and then he was gonna kill all of them to cover it up
she stole it to protect them, and made some new bargain with it to exchange her life force for power
then she made a deal with us to hand it over if we could cure the plague
the sciencey types pulled it off, and she gave it to us before literally fadin away

i dunno
just seems like maybe we should think about it before we get any deeper in
we haven't even seen our boss yet

[spacedisaster]

Yes, I am aware. My blaster guns have a stun function, so that's what I was using instead.

Things can turn ugly really quickly on missions, and we don't know each other too well just yet. Some might be willing to do all it takes to reach their personal goals and to undo their regrets.

You need to ask yourself what are your limits, what you think it's right, and what you can live with. I can't control other people's choices, only my own, even if the repercussions affect us all.

Ah, poor So-yeon, that's awful. At least it seems like she managed to help her people in the end, in a way.

We can talk about it but you can't plan ahead for these things. People might react irrationally out of fear, anger, the need for vengeance. Maybe we're on a mission and one of your friends gets hurt, or it's about to be killed by an attacker you might be able to stop. You can't predict now how you'll react then, can you?

Pretty sure that telling the people here 'yo, guys, let's try not to do murder' won't really change the mind of those who think the end justify the means.

[petsthedog]

i ain't sayin it'll change anyone's mind
you said the orb ain't worth killin for
i'm askin you if you think your regret's worth the blood that'll probably end up on your hands eventually anyway

[Asking himself is the part he's struggling with. Hence why he's awake at ass o'clock livestreaming his depression thoughts to the whole space station.]

but i think i got my answer already

["You can't predict what's going to happen", he says, but Shinjiro can only hear a "yes", in that. Yes, his regret's worth doing what he finds necessary. Yes, he'd be okay with it if someone else made that call. It doesn't lend him the clarity he'd hoped for when the man had first answered no.

Maybe nobody can.]

[spacedisaster]

Making a lot of assumptions here, mate. You don't know me, or the choices I already had to make.

[ Choices like agreeing to kill Gamora to ensure Thanos wouldn't find the Soul Stone. Choices that were for nothing, in the end. ]

My regret is worth everything. But...she wouldn't like that.

So no, I still wouldn't kill for the orb, which was your first question.

[ Killing to protect others is different. ]

[petsthedog]

what's the difference?
if someone's dead cause we were there, does it really matter if you're the one who "pulls the trigger" or not?

[spacedisaster]

[ Peter takes a moment to ponder the questions because a) It's fucking 4 am and his brain is only half functional, and, more important...B) it looks like they're getting to the root of what is really bothering this kid. ]

The difference is Responsibility vs. Accountability.

You can't be responsible for things that are beyond your control, like someone getting killed by another person, but you can feel accountable for the death regardless because it's not the outcome you wanted. Morals and having a heart plays a big part.

Accident happens. Bad decisions happen. What matters too is what you do next, if you find a way to fix it or if you atone for it.

[petsthedog]

bullshit
dead’s dead
you can’t fix that shit
unless these orbs really can undo regrets, anyway
i ain’t stupid enough to think someone would waste their orb on anyone from these missions though
so everything that happens here is for keeps

[spacedisaster]

Yes...and no. I died in my world, along with half of all sentient life in the Universe. I stayed that way for five years until a group of heroes found a way to bring us all back. [ Or...almost all. ]

Maybe the orbs are really as powerful as the Infinity Stone, it's hard to tell. But their purpose seems to be spreading chaos and that's why I'm wary of what is going on here.

That's a very cynical way of seeing things. In the mission in Braccia, my personal goal was to not help when I could do it, which might have jeopardized the mission as a whole, and I chose to ignore that. I know of others with similar fucked up goals that refuse to go through them. There's still good people out there in the galaxy.

video; un: alenko

[majorbiotic]

No, not at all.

text; un: s.wilson

[unclesam]

I'll fight to help people, I ain't here to play intergalactic executioner. it ain't always that black and white. but categorically? nah, it really ain't.

[petsthedog]

that ain't what i mean
you only get one regret to fix
i'm guessin your infinity stone's got a similar sorta deal goin on or you wouldn't be doin this
any more pile up here, and you gotta choose

[You know that expression "one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic"? That's the sort of experience Shinjiro is having with Peter's story right now. He can't even really conceptualize half of an entire universe being dead. He can picture a woman crushed and broken in her own home, blood leaking into the street. He can picture the woman's son, alone in the world because of him.]

anyway
there ain't any such thing as atonement or redemption or whatever
doin other good shit later don't erase the fact that someone's dead because of you

[petsthedog]

the other guy said that too
but there's already people who died in our attack on lionetta hq

[Andy and Erik about said as much. Us or them.]

shitty people or not, they died because of us
that blood is on all our hands already
so-yeon died givin us the orb too
it's only gonna keep happenin
is your regret worth it?

[petsthedog]

i know it ain't black and white
that's my point
say so-yeon went back on her word, in gyeongje
wanted to stay with her friends and family now that they were finally safe
would we have taken the orb from her?
and then there's the people in lionetta
they were out to kill us, but we came at em first

you guys keep sayin you don't wanna kill anyone but shit like this'll keep comin up
least it felt honest when erik and andy said it's us or them

[unclesam]

look I can't speak for everyone. personally? wouldn't have taken the orb from so-yeon in that case, no.

I don't think our personal regrets, any of them, no matter the scale, are worth walking over everyone and everything we encounter on principle. it ain't us vs them. what kinda 'we are gods and our mission matters more' bullshit is that? that don't mean we'll never encounter situations in which things get complicated and fucked up, in which we end up not doing right by people on accident, and hey, with some situations I'm sure on purpose. don't mean we shouldn't aim to do better where we can, when we can. it ain't always that simple. but I can tell you I got no qualms about failing if my personal line is crossed, and I have no illusions about the fact that my line would be reached far sooner than some other people's.

that ain't dishonest, man. it just ain't as easy as the scorched earth approach.

[majorbiotic]

That's true, people are dead because of us.
But people were also dead because of Cheria and how she chose to use the orb.
Should she have been allowed to keep it and continue killing? Would she have given it up willingly without our interfering?
I think these kind of judgment calls are always easier to see in hindsight.
And it's not always going to be like that first mission or this one, where the person gives up the orb. We may come across someone who refuses to do that, or who is using the orb in a peaceful way. What do we do then?
That's what I mean whey I say it's not worth killing over, because it's not always going to be the same scenario.

@PARKOUR

[webdesigned]

no. nothing is worth killing for. death is... death is forever. i don't feel comfortable making a choice like that. i don't think anyone should feel comfortable making a choice like that.

[petsthedog]

viveca said there ain't a way back on the station without the orb
we woulda been stuck in gyeongje the rest of our lives
you fine with that too?
say you are
you'd still have to convince everyone else
if you can't, you'd either have to fight em or let em take it
we can do the best we can or whatever, but it dont make the people we get killed less dead
or their deaths less our fault
that's what i'm askin
is it worth the fucked up parts?

[unclesam]

you might wanna direct the pointed questions about the fucked up nature of our indentured servitude at the entities we're bound to. just saying.

listen, I see what you're doing, setting up a couple strawmen like that. it ain't as easy and simple as you're tryna make it, and it shouldn't be when other lives are affected. so, you looking to appease your own guilt over how screwed up the nature of our work here is, or are you looking to find out who you gotta cross if you wanna indeterminately cut your way through every person holding the orbs?

text; un: stark

[arc_reactor]

No. We should do everything we can to avoid it.

( riling up all the insomniacs tonight, aren't you )

[petsthedog]

we don't exactly get a chance to talk to 'em
already tried with viveca and got a bunch of "we're the good guys really" platitudes and bullshit

tch
i ain't tryin to appease shit

[He is tbh.]

but i ain't interested in pretendin our hands are gonna be clean at the end of of this either
we're in a situation where it don't even matter what we would or wouldn't do
because we still benefit if other people cross our lines and we don't or can't stop em

text | un: andy

[oiorpata]

You're still thinking about this?

You gotta figure out where you stand, don't depend on others for it.

[petsthedog]

bein part of this means makin that choice though, don't it?
once anyone gets blood on their hands for it its on all ours
especially since we can't get back to the station without em