Oh. Well if that's how you're looking at it then yeah, it's less messed up to leave someone to die. Like you said, it's less personal and it's not like you have to watch them die either and it's usually the watching part that messes people up.
As for soldiers and stuff...I haven't really dealt with a lot of war stuff either yet because that's a different sort of messed up but I don't think the whole marked thing is the reason. It doesn't count as murder though.
Yes, that's what I meant. It's still really messed up, but I can see where the chief was able to distance himself from it. I don't like that at all, but at least I can sort of make sense of that.
...I'm asking about soldiers because my friends and I are fighting against the beastmen. They're the ones who control the surface world and kill any human who sets foot up there. We're fighting to reclaim the surface for humanity and while there aren't very many of us, we've managed to capture a battleship. (I believe that's what it's called?)
My friends have killed a lot of people. Beastmen are a lot like humans. They're intelligent and they can clearly think for themselves, so they're closer to humans than beasts. No one really seems bothered by the fact that so many people died. We captured the battleship a week before I arrived here and before that we hadn't seen very many people die.
Then our leader died and it messed everyone up. I understand why, but no one really seemed bothered by the fact that so many beastmen died too. I understand that they're our enemies and honestly, I wasn't bothered by their deaths back home either.
But I've had time to think about it and being here surrounded by Pokemon... it makes it kind of hard to process what happened.
Our leader controlled a gunmen and it's one that no one else has stepped forward to pilot. I've been practicing with it, so they sent me out in it and... I think I'm going to have to fight some beastmen on my own. I'm going to have to kill them in order to survive and while I don't know how much of a problem that would be for me back home, it's kind of messing me up here. I don't really want to go back. I know I have to because they need me, but...
I'm sorry, I got carried away. This isn't really something I can talk about with anyone but that doesn't mean I should keep dumping all of this stuff on you.
It's like I said, I don't mind if you want to talk about stuff I guess. Better me than most other people because at least I've got some experience with this sort of thing even if the actual situation is pretty much beyond me.
[There's something else that's bothering him, though, outside of the situation itself; he wants clarification on that before even trying to look at anything else.]
Okay, before I get into the rest of what you've said I kind of want to know first - how old are you?
[Because this one had looked really young over the video a while ago.]
Yeah, I think it's better not to bother most of them with this sort of thing. A lot of them seem very innocent.
I'm fourteen. I believe our leader was seventeen, maybe? A lot of our friends are in their late teenage years or early twenties, though some of them are older than that. Why?
[And that really is all that it is; he's not a soft touch normally anyway, and he's not going to say that kids shouldn't die because the fact of the matter is that they do, all the damn time. It's not something arbiters are ever crazy about dealing with, but at the same time as far as Ginti is concerned, humans live just so they can die eventually - kids just happen to die a lot sooner than others.
Is it fucked up? Probably. But that doesn't make it any less of a reality, now, does it.
So this is a literal kid. That's fine. The literal kid is also indirectly asking him if he'll go to hell if he dies in some war that exactly no one asked for, which is sort of less fine but you know what, he's seen worse.]
Look, you and your friends aren't going to be marked for whatever it is you guys are doing out there. Because war is just like that and because if it wasn't them it'd be you. You called it survival right? That's an important thing, it's something you should keep in mind because that's why it matters when your leader dies but it doesn't matter when the people that are trying to kill you die, and there's no arbiter in the entire damn tower that's going to call you on that and say you deserve the Void for it.
Whether anyone's life is worth more or less than anyone else's is something that we decide all the time, but it's not something that the living can be expected to choose for themselves and like I said to you before, intent matters. You just do what you think you have to and you do what you think is right, and we'll take care of you once everything's said and done because that's what we do. If the idea of killing people messes you up that's a good thing because there's a reason it's considered so bad by pretty much every standard that's out there but we get that sometimes people die because they're in circumstances that no one in their right minds asked for and sometimes they die because war breaks out and sometimes they die because it's them or someone else and that's just how things shook out.
We get all of your memories when you come to us, we can see everything about your life and all the decisions that came along for you to deal with and we know how you think. If this is survival for you and your friends we'll get that too.
Thank you very much. I really needed to hear that. You're very good at saying exactly what I need.
I don't know everything our leader did before I met him, but he was a very good person. I don't believe he's in any danger of being sent to the Void. I really do appreciate hearing that though - that if it's survival it's different. I don't like thinking that any one person's life matters than another's, but you're right about that too. I was upset about losing my mother, not about the other villagers that were sent up to the surface world before and after her.
I think I'll need time to work through all of this as well, but I feel better. I feel like things will be okay now, even if I'm not sure how everything will turn out back home.
Thank you very much and I'm sorry I keep doing this. You're a very easy person to talk to!
no subject
As for soldiers and stuff...I haven't really dealt with a lot of war stuff either yet because that's a different sort of messed up but I don't think the whole marked thing is the reason. It doesn't count as murder though.
no subject
...I'm asking about soldiers because my friends and I are fighting against the beastmen. They're the ones who control the surface world and kill any human who sets foot up there. We're fighting to reclaim the surface for humanity and while there aren't very many of us, we've managed to capture a battleship. (I believe that's what it's called?)
My friends have killed a lot of people. Beastmen are a lot like humans. They're intelligent and they can clearly think for themselves, so they're closer to humans than beasts. No one really seems bothered by the fact that so many people died. We captured the battleship a week before I arrived here and before that we hadn't seen very many people die.
Then our leader died and it messed everyone up. I understand why, but no one really seemed bothered by the fact that so many beastmen died too. I understand that they're our enemies and honestly, I wasn't bothered by their deaths back home either.
But I've had time to think about it and being here surrounded by Pokemon... it makes it kind of hard to process what happened.
Our leader controlled a gunmen and it's one that no one else has stepped forward to pilot. I've been practicing with it, so they sent me out in it and... I think I'm going to have to fight some beastmen on my own. I'm going to have to kill them in order to survive and while I don't know how much of a problem that would be for me back home, it's kind of messing me up here. I don't really want to go back. I know I have to because they need me, but...
I'm sorry, I got carried away. This isn't really something I can talk about with anyone but that doesn't mean I should keep dumping all of this stuff on you.
no subject
[There's something else that's bothering him, though, outside of the situation itself; he wants clarification on that before even trying to look at anything else.]
Okay, before I get into the rest of what you've said I kind of want to know first - how old are you?
[Because this one had looked really young over the video a while ago.]
no subject
I'm fourteen. I believe our leader was seventeen, maybe? A lot of our friends are in their late teenage years or early twenties, though some of them are older than that. Why?
no subject
[And that really is all that it is; he's not a soft touch normally anyway, and he's not going to say that kids shouldn't die because the fact of the matter is that they do, all the damn time. It's not something arbiters are ever crazy about dealing with, but at the same time as far as Ginti is concerned, humans live just so they can die eventually - kids just happen to die a lot sooner than others.
Is it fucked up? Probably. But that doesn't make it any less of a reality, now, does it.
So this is a literal kid. That's fine. The literal kid is also indirectly asking him if he'll go to hell if he dies in some war that exactly no one asked for, which is sort of less fine but you know what, he's seen worse.]
Look, you and your friends aren't going to be marked for whatever it is you guys are doing out there. Because war is just like that and because if it wasn't them it'd be you. You called it survival right? That's an important thing, it's something you should keep in mind because that's why it matters when your leader dies but it doesn't matter when the people that are trying to kill you die, and there's no arbiter in the entire damn tower that's going to call you on that and say you deserve the Void for it.
Whether anyone's life is worth more or less than anyone else's is something that we decide all the time, but it's not something that the living can be expected to choose for themselves and like I said to you before, intent matters. You just do what you think you have to and you do what you think is right, and we'll take care of you once everything's said and done because that's what we do. If the idea of killing people messes you up that's a good thing because there's a reason it's considered so bad by pretty much every standard that's out there but we get that sometimes people die because they're in circumstances that no one in their right minds asked for and sometimes they die because war breaks out and sometimes they die because it's them or someone else and that's just how things shook out.
We get all of your memories when you come to us, we can see everything about your life and all the decisions that came along for you to deal with and we know how you think. If this is survival for you and your friends we'll get that too.
no subject
Thank you very much. I really needed to hear that. You're very good at saying exactly what I need.
I don't know everything our leader did before I met him, but he was a very good person. I don't believe he's in any danger of being sent to the Void. I really do appreciate hearing that though - that if it's survival it's different. I don't like thinking that any one person's life matters than another's, but you're right about that too. I was upset about losing my mother, not about the other villagers that were sent up to the surface world before and after her.
I think I'll need time to work through all of this as well, but I feel better. I feel like things will be okay now, even if I'm not sure how everything will turn out back home.
Thank you very much and I'm sorry I keep doing this. You're a very easy person to talk to!