Firefighter

[not_the_deer]

[After the last mission, Tobia is covered in soot - when the fighting was over, he helped the locals that didn't evacuate (or die) contain the fire. And he's in a pretty bad mood.]

Why did the corporations think reactivating Nineball is a good idea? Why did Zinovie think the best way to destroy it is to set fire to the city? And was Nineball a thinking creature or just a very complex machine?

Either way, they're a bunch of assholes! No wonder they keep resolving everything by shooting at each other - because they're such jerks they can't stand each other!

Comments

[the_innocent_blade]

Not just each other. They opened fire on the entire city.

[Kurou is looking a bit spent, he was abusing De Maligny's Clock to the most of his ability to try to help the reconstruction effort.]

[not_the_deer]

You don't have to remind me.

If Zinovie tries to do that again, he's toast for real!

[the_innocent_blade]

Maybe he'll learn his lesson from that...maybe.

[not_the_deer]

Maybe. It's human nature to be violent when other means are available... But it'a also human nature to get better.

[lastfeather]

... You know I should try and argue against that, but I can't really find a fault in your statement.

[Yes they are all assholes, and Ryou is willing to admit he is one as well - by surface standards anyway.]

[not_the_deer]

You worked with these guys before?

[lastfeather]

Eh... Worked with Zinovie a while back... was a job I took with you guys.

[Ryou paused and took a deep breath.]

It didn't go well, even if people didn't get banged up too badly, seeing a kid get herself killed in a reactor explosion would screw people up. I fought Agraya when that one Kairos Aspida general Biff Bannon showed up.

The Corporations were always what you'd expect, wanting to mess around with things they barely even understand then try sell it for a profit - especially if it kills people.

[not_the_deer]

Why does big money make people so blind and stupid?

[lastfeather]

Well old books always did say that money was the root of all evil.

[Ryou shrugged.]

I guess that must've been why I got the books with that phrase so cheap. People thought it was nonsense.

But either way... greed induces stupidity.

[not_the_deer]

Yeah. Although what Zinovie did was stupid and callous too, and he wasn't motivated by greed.

Think he will pull off something like this again?

[lastfeather]

If he thinks he can stop another incident like what happened?

I'd say yes.

[Ryou shrugs though.]

But keep in mind he just lost everyone who'd be willing to follow him. Agraya, those MT pilots. If he's going to try again... he won't last very long.

[not_the_deer]

They all died for him. And if not for Agraya, we could've been dead too.

[lastfeather]

... They chose to die for him. That's more than most people can say when they die...

That they died for someone and believed in them.

[not_the_deer]

I don't think it's unfair. Who knows how many people they killed before we got there! But, at the same time, I still want to minimize casualties!

[sexygodofscienceandwar]

[Tobia isn't the only one in need of a shower, either.]

I dunno, man. Clearly Zinovie didn't know where it was being stored, and I don't think he had enough force to penetrate the corporation offices on foot...

Whether that thing could think or not, I think it's safe to say they weren't studying it for the good of mankind...

[not_the_deer]

Yeah, I know... But there had to be a better way than attack a whole city to destroy one robot!

[sexygodofscienceandwar]

Probably. But desperate people pull desperate stunts, especially when they think the world's at stake.

[not_the_deer]

Lesser evil, huh?

I don't buy into that philosophy...

[sexygodofscienceandwar]

...I ain't exactly a fan, either...

But what's done is done, and we gotta live with what's left.

[not_the_deer]

At least we were able to help in some way. If we haven't come, the whole city would be gone!

[zetahatsudo]

My guess is that the corporations have this thing where intelligence is weighed against personal greed, and the more greed you have compared to intelligence determines how far up the corporate ladder you go, where having a 0:1 Intelligence/Greed ratio makes you top dog.

Either that, or they're doing just to see how much they can get away with before they finally succeed in a suicide by cop deal.

[not_the_deer]

Is it even possible to have 0 intelligence? Doesn't that make you as smart as a rock, or a tree?

[zetahatsudo]

Maybe not intelligence then... Survival instinct?

[not_the_deer]

So they're like, how these creatures were called... Lemmings?

[zetahatsudo]

Lemmings? What are lemmings? [Ah, the beauties of spacenoid education]

[not_the_deer]

Rodents with tendencies to swarm as they migrate and no survival instinct, or at least that's the common knowledge. I read about them in a book!

The same word can also apply to little green-haired humanoids, but those aren't real. I think they're a folk tale or something.

[zetahatsudo]

... Is that actually a thing? There's actually an animal with no survival instinct? How have they not gone extinct?

[not_the_deer]

It's just common knowledge. In reality lemmings do a lot of things that seem suicidal but make sense when you look at the details and think.

I guess humans are similar in this way.

[zetahatsudo]

... I really want to shoot that down, but damnit, you're right. [God knows he's done some stupid shit.]

Lemmings, huh? Wouldn't that imply some sort of pack mentality though? Company CEOs tend to be singular in their purpose, aren't they?

[not_the_deer]

They don't follow the pack, but they follow the same trends. Or something else that explains why their behaviour is all the same.

[zetahatsudo]

... I feel like that lends itself to the intelligence theory...

Can you even apply mob mentality to people in separate buildings?

[not_the_deer]

Why not? Humans connect even if the physical distance between them is large. This includes the bad kind of connection too.