thisavrou | Voice only

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metal gear: solid snake

Voice only

[He still doesn't like putting his face out there, not when it's identical to Miles. So the voice that comes over the comm is grouchy, and entirely unaccompanied by video; the only name attached is "Mark".]

There's a lot of talk about being dangerous at the moment, but... what makes someone dangerous?

[Because honestly, as little as he likes actually doing it- he knows exactly how to kill people. How to fight, how to assassinate, how to leave as few traces as he can. And it's not like he couldn't, in the right circumstances, or like he hasn't, even if it was only once.

But it's kind of alarming, all the talk about justice and not fighting, and he just wants some idea what to expect.]

And what kind of laws are we talking about? Where I come from- there aren't really laws, just Deals. [Capital letter entirely intended.] I mean, I've studied some other laws before, but it might be kind of useful to know what kind of other systems are out there.

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["Ryuuzaki"'s voice is low, measured, British.]

Why don't you explain what a Deal is?

[Mark's accent shifts slightly, towards something very similar- except with a thousand years or so to change the sounds of it. Still, it's close enough to his time on Earth to be almost familiar, enough to trigger mimicking it, trying not to be noticeable.]

Exactly what it sounds like. An arrangement made to theoretically benefit both sides- except each side is really trying to maximise the benefit to themselves, obviously. There's a certain amount of leeway in the exact terms, but you can't break it.

[He notices the shift, but doesn't make a significant note of it -- were his ears fooling him?]

I understand. How do they functionally supplant laws?

Someone dangerous is someone who can take things away from people.

[Whether your existence threatens to take valuables, lives, or power - in the end, it's doesn't matter. People will react fearfully all the same.]

Where I come from, there are all kinds of laws. Some people follow them, some people don't.

If you get caught, you get punished, but the laws don't stop that many people from doing what they want. Not since the new era started.

What's it like in a place that doesn't have them?

Can't everyone take something away from someone? There are people on board who can take a lot from me, but no-one considers him all that dangerous. Even though they probably should.

[He isn't sure how Miles gets away with it, honestly. The man is a walking, talking danger zone, and it's still a miracle how he's still alive, as far as Mark's concerned.]

What kind of laws, though? What kind of punishments?

Bad. What did you think it was going to be like?

Yes, but I don't mean like stealing little things. I mean taking things that people are afraid to lose. Stuff like power or really valuable stuff, or their lives.

And if you can do those things to the people in charge, then they'll try to make sure you can't anymore.

[ Robin's curious about what person he's talking about, but she won't pry just yet.]

All kinds, like I said. There's stuff like 'no stealing' and 'no killing' but the harshest laws are about going against them. Like studying parts of history that are supposed to be forbidden, or becoming a pirate, or laying a hand on one of the world nobles.

If you break those laws, you get a bounty on your head. And if they catch you alive, they either hang you or take you to a prison called Impel Down. Most of the pirates I talked to would prefer to be hung, though.

[ A pause.]

I wasn't sure. I've never heard of a place that uses deals instead of laws before.

People are dangerous when others feel threatened by them. Someone can have the propensity to be dangerous - aggression, malevolence, power that's uncontrolled - but it's really about how others perceive their actions. Not to say it isn't the individual's responsibility to keep themselves in check...just that I imagine every world's culture and view of these things is different.

[ That's a bit of a mouthful. She doesn't usually talk about things like this anywhere, especially not on the network, but-- ]

We're all scared of each other here. We have no reason to trust each other.

It isn't how people perceive their actions. It's fear of what the next thing they do will be.

[She's speaking from experience here. Her entire island was wipe out purely because the scholars there knew too much.]

Just because someone hasn't done anything scary doesn't mean people won't be afraid about what they can do.

That too. Just knowing what someone's capable of doing is plenty enough to make people afraid. They make assumptions and start accusations.

But that just means almost everyone is dangerous to someone. So when people are talking about stopping dangerous people, do they mean to stop everyone on board?

[He genuinely doesn't know. His education was... pretty narrow in scope, really, and very influenced by the terrorists who commissioned him.]

So there's no reason to try?

I think there's every reason to try. But we also need to build trust in one another. You need a solid foundation of something before you can build something sturdy.

[ And hopefully that 'something' won't be animosity. ]

But none of us really know each other, and you have to know people to trust them. And even then, maybe some of them aren't worth trusting anyway.

[He has a hard time trusting that when the crew includes him, it doesn't include anyone else like him, or worse. And Mark finds it pretty hard to trust anyone at all.]

I agree. And that's what needs to happen. The problem, though, is that a lot of people don't want to tell others about themselves...very specifically because of what's recently been happening. If someone's different, they're just as likely to be labeled dangerous because people aren't getting to know them before assumptions are made.

In the end, it's a double-edged sword.

And if they aren't talking because they are dangerous? It isn't sounding like there's a solution.

They aren't talking in part because they might be dangerous, or have been considered to be before, but they're also afraid to talk. We can change how hostile this environment is, too.

If you'd be considered dangerous, then so would I. You haven't done anything wrong here, Mark.

[Text isn't strong enough for how he feels about this, so he switches to voice.]

You're much more dangerous than I am. How many people died, or could have, for some of your mad schemes? How easy would it be for you to just tell people what I am, and get me locked up?

[ oh. ouch. somehow, miles wasn't expecting that. maybe he should have. he's not even quite sure how to respond to that, to justify himself. ]

What makes you think I want you locked up?

Maybe you don't now, I don't know. But maybe eventually you'll remember I'm not your brother. I'm just a clone. One with about seventeen ways to kill you crammed in his brain.

[It's a little harder to read intent over text, but- the lack of response to his shot leaves him oddly on edge. He's not sure if it went home or not- or even if he meant it to hurt.]

I haven't forgotten who or what you are, Mark. And I think if you wanted to kill me, you could've done so by now -- or back on Earth. But you didn't then, and you haven't since.

Where I'm from, you got a choice between too many shitty laws that dictate everything you can do or no laws at all, but you gotta fight for the second one.

[ Guess which one this guy chose. ]

Is it worth fighting for no laws at all, though? I've seen what the wrong people can do with that.

[All the Barons, living in luxury and cloned bodies, using cloned or conditioned slaves for anything they want... the world he was made on isn't a good one, really.]

Freedom's always worth fighting for.

[ He says it with the conviction that someone might defend the color of the sky. There's no room for doubt in that one simple fact. ]

Intent to cause harm and/or disregard for the outcome of your actions.

Just intent? Does it matter how often, or how long?

Acting upon that intent, I guess would be...

You know, this is pretty tough. You've got people who want to cause harm but are pretty inept about it, but then you've got people who want to do good but end up causing harm, and those guys are more dangerous than the first lot, right? It's not a cut-and-dry/black-and-white thing.

To be perfectly honest, you aren't a thirty-foot metal robot who murders people for fun, so even if everyone on the ship was labeled as 'dangerous' you'd still be fairly low on anyone's priority list.

[Mark would recognize this voice, obviously. He cuts to the chase.]

You're safe here, Mark.

I could probably kill a thirty foot robot, though. Disabling systems was part of what he taught me, and I'm betting he's just a really big set of systems.

[He's just saying. Not that he'd want to, because thirty-foot robots are still presumably people if they can kill for fun, but- he could. And maybe even would, if it came down to it. The giant robot sounds... awfully like Galen, in some ways. And he wouldn't bleed...]

It doesn't feel safe. It feels like a bigger cage, that's all.

I might hold you to that. [Muttering.] For temporary disabling purposes, at any rate.

[Gregor sighs.]

You're not wrong. But you're in the same cage as the rest of us, at least, and we're doing our best to keep each other safe. I'm not sure if that helps.

Depends how shielded he is from EMPs, where the weak points are, if there's something that counts as a brain, or a heart, or arteries.

[He isn't going to hack a system if it's genuinely alive, which rules that out, and he's almost certain most of his knowledge of poisons is irrelevant in the face of robots even if he could get hold of any of the ones he knows.]

I studied how safe Miles keeps people. And Ivan can't even keep himself safe from me. If everyone's that good at it, I think I'm better locking myself in my room and staying there.

[Gregor goes quiet for a moment, his lips pressing into a thin line as he watches Mark's familiar-unfamiliar face over the network.]

That's your right, if it's what you choose to do. I'm not going to argue over the finer points of my cousins' particular styles of not dying and their efficacy or lack thereof. But we're trying. [He tilts his head slightly, his eyes sharpening in thought.]

But unless you're intending to disavow Barrayar entirely--which would also be your right, and not a decision you have to make on the spot--you're still a vassal secundus to me as Emperor, which means it's my responsibility to keep you as alive and relatively unharmed as possible. One that I take seriously. To promise I'll be able to keep you safe would be wildly irresponsible of me but... I will do all I can. And if you have need--or desire--for my assistance, you only have to ask. I am legally bound to protect you on top of being perfectly willing to do so, though I suspect the former will give you more peace of mind.

A person becomes dangerous when they upset others' lives and livelihoods. Whether that danger is a bad thing depends on your perspective. A murderer is dangerous, but so is a freedom fighter. If the freedom fighter's cause is just, that's a danger that can be focused and used to a greater end.

[It sounds like this is prompted by the captains' request for ideas to reform the ship, so that's the direction she takes.]

Ideally, any laws we make on the Moira will exist to ensure the crew's safety, without curtailing personal freedoms unnecessarily. At the most basic levels, they should state the consequences for actions that put other crew members in danger. They also should lay out ways the laws can be changed and who will be involved in changing them.

[A pause.]

Could you tell me more about these deals of yours? It sounds like your home uses a very different system than I'm used to.

[...She might not know it, but she's stepped on a sore spot there. He'd been made by "freedom fighters", raised to be a murderer by them in a convoluted plot that would never have worked to begin with, not that that would have stopped Galen. Either way, when he responds, it's with noticeable heat, a surlier edge than usual.]

I'm sure freedom fighters are more dangerous than murderers. Murderers probably kill less people, in the long run. And they tend to discriminate.

[But that's getting a little too close to personal, and he doesn't want to share what he might have been and done with people who don't know him. Which, at the moment, is pretty much everyone. He changes the subject, but not his tone.]

It wasn't home. I don't have one. It was the planet where I was made, that's all. You can get pretty much anything, if you have the resources to trade. And if you agree to a trade, you can't change the terms afterwards, that's a Deal. You can basically do anything else, as long as it doesn't change the deal itself, and you can cheat people a little and get away with it if you're valuable enough, but that's about it.

[They're just going to trod all over each other on this one, aren't they? Her tone turns flat, a little disbelieving.]

You'd rather have one more killer roaming a system than somebody trying to ensure the galaxy's freedom?

[That's certainly a choice, if not one she can understand.]

So it's set up to benefit those with the most. That's a good way to keep those with the least from getting much more from their lives.

Power.

Descriptive.

Did you want an answer, or a poem?

[ Sorry Mark, there's something more important Alys would like to establish that has nothing to do with laws. ]

Mark? The very same that's an acquaintance of Gregor's, correct?

[Al is someone else who greatly respects the voice only function of these devices. He's had too many people ask him about the armour, especially considering he has the voice of a pre-teen, and he'd prefer to avoid another set of awkward questions.]

It's a hard question to answer.

[He hums thoughtfully.]

I guess it depends on the situation. Anyone can be dangerous under the right circumstances.

Don't hurt people.

[Ratchet's not surprised by the wide philosophical chasm that's opened in this discussion...but it doesn't make him less unnerved by it. The idea that anyone could be judged as inherently dangerous (or not) regardless of actual evidence strikes him as profoundly backward.

But more importantly, it worries him how much of the crew seem to really think that's true.]

Anyone can be dangerous, but intent is what makes it true or not.

[It's really not that complicated.]

Edited 2016-05-21 22:15 (UTC)

( ugh. )

[It says Mark, but doesn't he sound just like someone else she met fairly recently? Miles? Without video, there's no confirming or denying, but she makes a mental note to tab through the directory and have a look later.]

Someone with the ability to cause harm to another being, for better or worse.

[ Even with only a voice and a name, Snake can put two and two together. He and Miles had an extensive conversation about Mark.

Usually if someone asks a question like that, it's because they've been labelled dangerous in the past. Given that Mark had been trained as an assassin, there's no denying that he fits the bill. Snake won't lie to him. ]

If you're able to harm someone else, you could be dangerous. Maybe you don't have any intention of acting on it, but this ship can screw with our heads.

[ Snake is dangerous too. He wouldn't ever try to pretend otherwise. ]

We have laws where I come from, plenty of them. And a system in place to try and punish people who break them, but it's hardly perfect.

...A lack of control. Not over others, just over yourself. It makes you dangerous.

A lack of understanding. And an unwillingness to listen.

Maybe on the part of both parties.

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