[The pause doesn't bother him, he's got one of his own while he looks down at his pierced target. It had attacked him, but maybe for a reason he hadn't considered. He wishes that made a difference to him, but it doesn't. It makes no matter. Just that it attacked him.]
Let them try. Then you'll see who the big fish is.
[He has staved off beasthood before, but only barely and only by the skin of his teeth. It wasn't pleasant. He's giving this hero musing the time of day, which might say something for the person saying it. It also might be because he speaks to Shigaraki on his own level as well, no joke intended. He understands whatever gets thrown at him in a way no one else bothers to. Or wants to.
Blabla the law, blabla be kind. But the last part? The powerful have the luxury of mercy. There it is.]
Mook? Lol. What are you, 90? You drive a hard bargain. A really hard bargain. Normally if someone attacks me, they end up food for the crows. I wonder if they'll remember that you saved their life to be restored instead of telling me to do whatever I felt in my heart.
Speaking of. If I ever turn into a beast, feel free to murder me. Or call someone that'll respond to "Deku". I already have it worked out with him what I want done.
[Because boy his heart said things. However, he did stop, took the time to keep it pinned and ask out of curiosity.]
Killing is killing though, no such thing as doing it kindly. I'll call someone to take it and do whatever it is people who care do. Maybe I'll get a few hearts with the villagers.
Twenty four, thank you! Would you prefer goon? Cannon fodder? Redshirt? Intro dungeon boss?? Big fish don't go around trying to convince everyone how large they are, you know. Here, if you thought that makes me sound old, this one will date me: 7H475 N07 4 Pr0 64M3r M0V3.
That hurt me to write, I want you to know that.
Feeding the crows doesn't necessitate making the meal for them suffer needlessly in the process. There is absolutely a way to kill kindly. Scenario: You have yourself a beast. Before you kill it, you torture it a while for the giggles. Or, you have yourself a beast. You just cut off its head, killing it within seconds.
One sure as hell is a lot kinder. Dead is dead, but there's no point to prolonging getting there except to twirl a moustache evilly, especially when dead isn't always dead.
Don't grow a moustache. Nobody ever pulls it off.
Hey, maybe it really will get you some rep bonuses with the locals. Which frankly doesn't hurt given the weird stuff that happens around here. Speaking of dead, I don't think I have the power to kill a beast, but I'll be sure to find someone who can handle it quickly and neatly. Nobody deserves to suffer, not even a big fish. Deku, huh? Not that guy you told me to talk to earlier about learning to control fire and ice?
You had to felt it from here. Impossible not to have felt it. Right past the bullshit above it and right into straight sadge.
It sure tried to play with me. Isn't turnabout fair play? If someone hurts you, or tries, make sure they know better next time? That's merciful in the long run. They'll never make the mistake again if they remember. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth? You don't think that has merit?
[The only hair this man can grow is the damn locks on his head, that seems to be a latent quirk so he lets the fact that he will never see a moustache go and will not lament its loss because no. No one pulls it off.]
Oh goodie. I could have so many friends. No, no. That annoying little shit is named Todoroki. Todoroki, Shoto. He's as annoying as it sounds just from me thinking of him. "Deku" is the hero name of Midoriya, Izuku. You like heroes, don't you? You'll love them.
If for example Bob the Random was some big powerful threat to you and you chose to torture and humiliate him, Bob wouldn't learn to avoid you or not be a threat, he'd learn to hate you and want revenge. And then you haven't solved a damn thing except to give yourself headaches in the future. So you kill Bob. Then all Bob's friends come after you for even more revenge, and the cycle just keeps spinning out of control. Why not stop the cycle entirely, and prevent Bob from wanting revenge to begin with?
Put him in your debt instead with a little bit of noblesse oblige. Then he can't go for revenge or cause you problems because of the implication. He owes you, after all.
[Ugh, that's practically his brother's modus operandi, but it's better than murder and torture.]
Hey don't knock having allies. You don't know when you'll need some. A good balanced party composition is the best way to beat the game.
I like many heros, but we went over that before. Some are written to be dicks just for the fun of being dicks, and that's not the brand I go for. Consider it incentive to not become a beast, because now I'm going to try to get ahold of both of them if you do.
So you want me to what? Blackmail my enemies? lol. I'd rather kill them and let the morons who think they're not getting the same treatment try to claw their way to another MMR. How would I in debt bob? Put his wife and kids in danger, then save them and hope he never catches on?
I prefer glass canon, but I'd take a healer or a good, solid DPS on my side.
[It makes him want to contact Dabi, he hasn't talked to him in a long, long time.]
If you bring or contact Todoroki, I'll kill myself. The green hair brat said he'd do it, let him do it.
So you'd rather spend the rest of your life dealing with the endless parade of random people thirsting for revenge? Sure you could presumably stop them all but won't that get really tedious really fast?
Blackmail suggests you have a secret they want to keep hidden. That's not how favors work. How you get someone to owe you a favor thanks to your GRACIOUS UNDESERVED KINDNESS really depends on the situation. For the previous topic, if Bob's a beast, you get him turned back into a person, well, he owes you now, and will likely be grateful. Or some other beast menaces his family! You could handle the beast as you did this one and hand it over to Authorities and whoops, they all owe you now. Opportunity lurks around every corner.
Yeah yeah I know you're not keen on anything that whiffs of heroics, but it's common sense, not heroism. Grateful people are cooperative people. Cooperative people help you get the things you want, be it better food, nicer belongings, new games. Life becomes better. You CAN steal, murder and swindle your way to all of that but it then instigates the revenge loop.
Will you even know it's him if you're a beast?? I didn't recognize anyone at all. That I remember.
...So if you want a healer and a DPS are you a tank? Do you protect the rest of your party?
Anyone who comes at me, physical threat or otherwise. Anyone for as long as it takes to make Bob and everyone who has the balls to try to tell me what to do will realize any hope of winning is crushed. Let them send their best, we'll see who comes out on top. That's the way the world works.
[There's your brother's handiwork.]
You're saying that I can indebt them by pinning beasts? Sus.
[...Except.]
No. You're saying I can indebt the local families. That's devious. What is it you do back in your world?
I'm a flex. Though, tank's not a bad way to put it. I hold the lives of the people I'm fighting in my hands, direct the flow of battle, and decide if the people fighting with me are worth my effort. I always saw myself more glass canon dps, but tank could work.
I assume that method has gotten you where you are today and life was full of happiness for you because of it up until you arrived here. But if it wasn't, you might want to revise what a grand plan it is. And I'm willing to bet this coin I found that given how you talk about heros and society, that life wasn't so sweet and cozy.
Six thousand plus years of written human history says the world works through the power of cooperation, innovation and beheading dictators. Somehow all those power mongers never seem to actually keep their power long and wind up dead in a gutter, long, long before Heros were a comic book fantasy.
Tanks protect the party so the party can do THEIR jobs without getting their faces ripped off. A tank that doesn't do that, is a shit tank and needs to be kicked from the dungeon. A DPS that can't work with the party, keep threat on the tank, and keep things from attacking the healer so the healer can heal is a shit DPS and needs to be kicked from the dungeon.
The only ones who get a god complex, who direct where and when things happen, is the healer. They are the MVP. They decide who lives and who dies. You don't have a healer, you don't have a party.
Life is never sweet and cozy. And yeah, I was content at times. I had people with like minded aspirations and that's all I needed. So you'd lose that bet. Six thousand years of written human history can kiss my ass and so can any world betting on heroes or not to save it. That's as good as both those ideals are worth.
If I end up dead in a gutter? I wasn't strong enough.
I'm my own healer, what does that make me? MVP.
For someone who doesn't know who they're talking about, you sure like talking about it.
You don't get to change what you already wrote now, Shigaraki.
Friends aren't a weakness. Or "allies", if you're as allergic to that word as you are to hero. Humans are pack animals, every sapient species I've encountered is. And if you were as secure in your solitude as you're trying to act, you'd be hermiting it up in the woods, not texting me or anyone else. Or relying on others for housing, clothing, and so on.
Why are you trying to make whether or not you're lonely a matter of what I do or don't like? Who are you trying to convince?
As silly as I'm sure you think it is, I want people to have better lives than what they already have.
And everything you've ever written me tells me you're miserable, and have had a very unhappy life, trying to make up for it with power plays and acts of Jaded and Disaffected.
Call it the hero fan in me, but I want to change that, even if it's just in a small way. Even if it's just finding a way to get you to see alternate paths to whatever your goal is, since the one you currently have seems a lot like it does you no good at all. And leaves me wondering who it does do good for.
[The small delay is fine, he wasn't going to answer, but the second text does save the life of the beast because he checks it instead of being done with this stupid bullshit being thrown at him.]
I'm not miserable.
[There's small sounds of wet squelching because he's holding down this thing until the 'authorities' get there.]
You know nothing about me, nothing about who I am or what I want from my life. I am the apex predator of my world, I got to where I am because of how I am and I think it's worked just fine for me toward my goals. There is no "better life" to have. There is no "better life" to make. There is only firesale at this point. Us or them. That doesn't change just because the world does.
Do you think that making things up and then threatening me over it is going to make me suddenly believe you? Or stop poking holes in a terribly flawed narrative?
It's not a weakness to have friends, or to be lonely, or to need people. It's part of being human, or your definition of human from earlier for non-human sapients. And you may not know it yet because you may not have experienced it yet, but those friends and allies can be a source of greater power than whatever it is nature's handed you that you feel you need to constantly brag about. Combine the two, you may actually get closer to the unstoppable being you like to pretend you are.
You don't have to admit any of it to me. I'm not looking for some public Come To Jesus hallelujah moment. In the end it's your life, but that life CAN get better. You're just so mired in it that you can't see it.
What do you have to lose, really?
Think about it.
From all I've told you, all my suggestions, what would taking my advice cost you?
And then if I make a move to prove myself, I'm back to villain. Hunted to be tutted by snot nosed brats or people who think they know better for me what's best for me? What it costs me is the respect of the people who you're telling me I need.
[Which, again is telling in itself.]
I already didn't kill the stupid bastard I asked about. I wanted to know your opinion if it should live or die. I told you it had consequences, your answer, and that's what you chose. You chose to let it live.
You said you needed them. I merely didn't let you walk back what you wrote. :)
Friends want each other to be happy. I think you know that on some level. I think you also know that your friends would likely want to go with you instead of shun you. Nobody's asked you to go around loving heros, distributing flowers and making peace with your enemies, and yet you act like I have. Understand that I know that's never going to happen, and I'm not interested in trying to get you to.
You deserve better. And it doesn't mean destroying everything you are or everything you want. But there ARE better ways to get there, without them you'll just wind up how I did, locked up and with someone else thinking they have the right to make all your decisions for you.
If you valued my opinion on the life of a beast because it was once a person, value my opinion on the life of you because you're still a person.
I could rationalize something more noble sounding, or cite altruism as being a core tenant of our species' instincts, but while all of it might be true, I want to, and so I do.
Alright. You can care, I can't say I'm going to give much a damn but go for it. That includes realizing I'm not a nice person, never have been and never will be. If you want to care, you'll have to care for that, too.
I told you before, I make those judgments for myself. And in spite of the rumors and claims, I'm still here bothering you whenever you text me.
It can be difficult, even attempting to trust someone. But let's try it out and see where it gets us. It's not like being dead sticks here, so what's the worst that can happen?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 08:38 pm (UTC)Let them try. Then you'll see who the big fish is.
[He has staved off beasthood before, but only barely and only by the skin of his teeth. It wasn't pleasant. He's giving this hero musing the time of day, which might say something for the person saying it. It also might be because he speaks to Shigaraki on his own level as well, no joke intended. He understands whatever gets thrown at him in a way no one else bothers to. Or wants to.
Blabla the law, blabla be kind. But the last part? The powerful have the luxury of mercy. There it is.]
Mook? Lol. What are you, 90? You drive a hard bargain. A really hard bargain. Normally if someone attacks me, they end up food for the crows. I wonder if they'll remember that you saved their life to be restored instead of telling me to do whatever I felt in my heart.
Speaking of. If I ever turn into a beast, feel free to murder me. Or call someone that'll respond to "Deku". I already have it worked out with him what I want done.
[Because boy his heart said things. However, he did stop, took the time to keep it pinned and ask out of curiosity.]
Killing is killing though, no such thing as doing it kindly. I'll call someone to take it and do whatever it is people who care do. Maybe I'll get a few hearts with the villagers.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 09:00 pm (UTC)That hurt me to write, I want you to know that.
Feeding the crows doesn't necessitate making the meal for them suffer needlessly in the process. There is absolutely a way to kill kindly. Scenario: You have yourself a beast. Before you kill it, you torture it a while for the giggles. Or, you have yourself a beast. You just cut off its head, killing it within seconds.
One sure as hell is a lot kinder. Dead is dead, but there's no point to prolonging getting there except to twirl a moustache evilly, especially when dead isn't always dead.
Don't grow a moustache. Nobody ever pulls it off.
Hey, maybe it really will get you some rep bonuses with the locals. Which frankly doesn't hurt given the weird stuff that happens around here. Speaking of dead, I don't think I have the power to kill a beast, but I'll be sure to find someone who can handle it quickly and neatly. Nobody deserves to suffer, not even a big fish. Deku, huh? Not that guy you told me to talk to earlier about learning to control fire and ice?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 09:14 pm (UTC)It sure tried to play with me. Isn't turnabout fair play? If someone hurts you, or tries, make sure they know better next time? That's merciful in the long run. They'll never make the mistake again if they remember. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth? You don't think that has merit?
[The only hair this man can grow is the damn locks on his head, that seems to be a latent quirk so he lets the fact that he will never see a moustache go and will not lament its loss because no. No one pulls it off.]
Oh goodie. I could have so many friends.
No, no. That annoying little shit is named Todoroki. Todoroki, Shoto. He's as annoying as it sounds just from me thinking of him. "Deku" is the hero name of Midoriya, Izuku. You like heroes, don't you? You'll love them.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 09:31 pm (UTC)If for example Bob the Random was some big powerful threat to you and you chose to torture and humiliate him, Bob wouldn't learn to avoid you or not be a threat, he'd learn to hate you and want revenge. And then you haven't solved a damn thing except to give yourself headaches in the future. So you kill Bob. Then all Bob's friends come after you for even more revenge, and the cycle just keeps spinning out of control. Why not stop the cycle entirely, and prevent Bob from wanting revenge to begin with?
Put him in your debt instead with a little bit of noblesse oblige. Then he can't go for revenge or cause you problems because of the implication. He owes you, after all.
[Ugh, that's practically his brother's modus operandi, but it's better than murder and torture.]
Hey don't knock having allies. You don't know when you'll need some. A good balanced party composition is the best way to beat the game.
I like many heros, but we went over that before. Some are written to be dicks just for the fun of being dicks, and that's not the brand I go for. Consider it incentive to not become a beast, because now I'm going to try to get ahold of both of them if you do.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 11:32 pm (UTC)So you want me to what? Blackmail my enemies? lol. I'd rather kill them and let the morons who think they're not getting the same treatment try to claw their way to another MMR. How would I in debt bob? Put his wife and kids in danger, then save them and hope he never catches on?
I prefer glass canon, but I'd take a healer or a good, solid DPS on my side.
[It makes him want to contact Dabi, he hasn't talked to him in a long, long time.]
If you bring or contact Todoroki, I'll kill myself. The green hair brat said he'd do it, let him do it.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-22 11:46 pm (UTC)Blackmail suggests you have a secret they want to keep hidden. That's not how favors work. How you get someone to owe you a favor thanks to your GRACIOUS UNDESERVED KINDNESS really depends on the situation. For the previous topic, if Bob's a beast, you get him turned back into a person, well, he owes you now, and will likely be grateful. Or some other beast menaces his family! You could handle the beast as you did this one and hand it over to Authorities and whoops, they all owe you now. Opportunity lurks around every corner.
Yeah yeah I know you're not keen on anything that whiffs of heroics, but it's common sense, not heroism. Grateful people are cooperative people. Cooperative people help you get the things you want, be it better food, nicer belongings, new games. Life becomes better. You CAN steal, murder and swindle your way to all of that but it then instigates the revenge loop.
Will you even know it's him if you're a beast?? I didn't recognize anyone at all. That I remember.
...So if you want a healer and a DPS are you a tank? Do you protect the rest of your party?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-23 06:22 pm (UTC)[There's your brother's handiwork.]
You're saying that I can indebt them by pinning beasts? Sus.
[...Except.]
No. You're saying I can indebt the local families. That's devious. What is it you do back in your world?
I'm a flex. Though, tank's not a bad way to put it. I hold the lives of the people I'm fighting in my hands, direct the flow of battle, and decide if the people fighting with me are worth my effort. I always saw myself more glass canon dps, but tank could work.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-23 06:59 pm (UTC)Six thousand plus years of written human history says the world works through the power of cooperation, innovation and beheading dictators. Somehow all those power mongers never seem to actually keep their power long and wind up dead in a gutter, long, long before Heros were a comic book fantasy.
Tanks protect the party so the party can do THEIR jobs without getting their faces ripped off. A tank that doesn't do that, is a shit tank and needs to be kicked from the dungeon. A DPS that can't work with the party, keep threat on the tank, and keep things from attacking the healer so the healer can heal is a shit DPS and needs to be kicked from the dungeon.
The only ones who get a god complex, who direct where and when things happen, is the healer. They are the MVP. They decide who lives and who dies. You don't have a healer, you don't have a party.
You need to play less FPS and more MMOs.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-23 09:54 pm (UTC)If I end up dead in a gutter? I wasn't strong enough.
I'm my own healer, what does that make me? MVP.
For someone who doesn't know who they're talking about, you sure like talking about it.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-23 10:25 pm (UTC)Sounds lonely.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-23 10:36 pm (UTC)Not at all.
If you're trying to get at me being alone and lonely because I choose something you don't like? Good luck.
What's the difference to you what I do or don't do?
1/2
Date: 2023-03-23 10:47 pm (UTC)Friends aren't a weakness. Or "allies", if you're as allergic to that word as you are to hero. Humans are pack animals, every sapient species I've encountered is. And if you were as secure in your solitude as you're trying to act, you'd be hermiting it up in the woods, not texting me or anyone else. Or relying on others for housing, clothing, and so on.
Why are you trying to make whether or not you're lonely a matter of what I do or don't like? Who are you trying to convince?
2/2, after a short delay:
Date: 2023-03-23 10:53 pm (UTC)And everything you've ever written me tells me you're miserable, and have had a very unhappy life, trying to make up for it with power plays and acts of Jaded and Disaffected.
Call it the hero fan in me, but I want to change that, even if it's just in a small way. Even if it's just finding a way to get you to see alternate paths to whatever your goal is, since the one you currently have seems a lot like it does you no good at all. And leaves me wondering who it does do good for.
That 'better life' is for everyone.
Don't you deserve it? I think so.
Voice;
Date: 2023-03-24 07:43 pm (UTC)I'm not miserable.
[There's small sounds of wet squelching because he's holding down this thing until the 'authorities' get there.]
You know nothing about me, nothing about who I am or what I want from my life. I am the apex predator of my world, I got to where I am because of how I am and I think it's worked just fine for me toward my goals. There is no "better life" to have. There is no "better life" to make. There is only firesale at this point. Us or them. That doesn't change just because the world does.
Not Voice
Date: 2023-03-24 07:57 pm (UTC)Evidence based on your own writing, in multiple posts, with multiple people, suggest strongly otherwise.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-24 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-24 08:19 pm (UTC)It's not a weakness to have friends, or to be lonely, or to need people. It's part of being human, or your definition of human from earlier for non-human sapients. And you may not know it yet because you may not have experienced it yet, but those friends and allies can be a source of greater power than whatever it is nature's handed you that you feel you need to constantly brag about. Combine the two, you may actually get closer to the unstoppable being you like to pretend you are.
You don't have to admit any of it to me. I'm not looking for some public Come To Jesus hallelujah moment. In the end it's your life, but that life CAN get better. You're just so mired in it that you can't see it.
What do you have to lose, really?
Think about it.
From all I've told you, all my suggestions, what would taking my advice cost you?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-24 11:20 pm (UTC)[Which, again is telling in itself.]
I already didn't kill the stupid bastard I asked about. I wanted to know your opinion if it should live or die. I told you it had consequences, your answer, and that's what you chose. You chose to let it live.
Good enough?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-24 11:34 pm (UTC)Friends want each other to be happy. I think you know that on some level. I think you also know that your friends would likely want to go with you instead of shun you. Nobody's asked you to go around loving heros, distributing flowers and making peace with your enemies, and yet you act like I have. Understand that I know that's never going to happen, and I'm not interested in trying to get you to.
You deserve better. And it doesn't mean destroying everything you are or everything you want. But there ARE better ways to get there, without them you'll just wind up how I did, locked up and with someone else thinking they have the right to make all your decisions for you.
If you valued my opinion on the life of a beast because it was once a person, value my opinion on the life of you because you're still a person.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-26 12:31 am (UTC)I'm going to ask you this one question:
Why do you care?
no subject
Date: 2023-03-26 02:10 pm (UTC)I could rationalize something more noble sounding, or cite altruism as being a core tenant of our species' instincts, but while all of it might be true, I want to, and so I do.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-27 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-31 03:54 pm (UTC)It can be difficult, even attempting to trust someone. But let's try it out and see where it gets us. It's not like being dead sticks here, so what's the worst that can happen?
:D