[not again] catchall for ogata

[fishingforcompliments]

Comments

[fishingforcompliments]

...

[well]

Yes.

[snyaiper]

[Gestures.]

There you are. Less guilty. Not innocent.

[fishingforcompliments]

Do you consider someone guilty when they take a life in defense of another, Ogata?

[snyaiper]

Is that what you think killing an enemy soldier is?

[fishingforcompliments]

...well... the soldiers in an army are fighting to defend people from their homelands, are they not? Though I suppose it is a little different if you are part of an invading force.

[snyaiper]

[Ogata is quiet for a lonng moment as he thinks about how Flayn’s logic would be applied to the war with Russia where both armies were arguably the invading force.]

Whenever I talk to you or Dimitri about war I can’t help but want to see if war in your world is truly as much of a noble and justified sacrifice as the two of you make it sound.
[It’s certainly not his experience.]

[fishingforcompliments]

...it would be better if there were no war at all. I do not know that it is noble or justified, in many cases. But... I really cannot fault those who fight against invaders, or who band together against rulers who are treating them poorly.

[snyaiper]

How about men who simply had no other option available to them than join the army? And they fight when and where they're told. Even when all they're fighting for is a piece of land neither army really aught to own?

[He didn't really mind going to war, but that doesn't mean he thought it was one worth fighting.]

I knew plenty of men like that. Men who were afraid to die, but needed to make money for their family. Men who were, conversely, far too excited to prove themselves in battle. To kill Russians. None who really cared much about what we were fighting over.

[fishingforcompliments]

...

[Flayn doesn't like thinking about this. In some cases - maybe. Those who fight simply to kill... well, obviously that's not noble. But to enlist because you needed to provide for your family...

That's a little different, isn't it? To choose between fighting and starving...]

I suppose in some cases it is... more complicated.

[snyaiper]

[Ogata seems satisfied with that, at least.]

Most things in life are. If people were more honest about how the world works, maybe that wouldn't have to be the case.
[Smoothing his hair back.]

You agree, don't you?

[fishingforcompliments]

I think if people were more honest about anything, life could be much simpler.

[she sighs]

...even things that people go to war over could be resolved if people approached each other to talk in good faith.

[snyaiper]

[Hmmm.]

And why do you think that's not the way things are?

[fishingforcompliments]

I do not know. I have never understood why it is not.

[snyaiper]

It's because most people, regardless of what they claim, will act in their own self interest, in the end. Human beings are naturally selfish.

[fishingforcompliments]

[she does not look like she wants to accept that at all.]

Surely not all of them are.

[snyaiper]

I suppose, mathematically, you're correct.

[Gee, thanks.]

But I do believe it's far more than you think. People lie, Flayn.

[fishingforcompliments]

Perhaps they do. But I cannot believe that lying is the default.

[snyaiper]

[Considers her for a long moment.]

Why not? It's a lot easier than trusting people.

[fishingforcompliments]

Distrusting everyone around me would be an exhausting way to live.

[snyaiper]

You get used to it.

[Or maybe Ogata is secretly exhausted and cranky all the time from living like this.]

[fishingforcompliments]

[secretly?]

That is not something anyone ought to be used to!

[snyaiper]

[Secretly as far as this being the cause of his temperament. He stares at her for a long moment.]

Why not?

[fishingforcompliments]

Having someone to trust and rely on, and being trusted and relied on in return, is one of life's greatest comforts. That is what people ought to be used to.

[snyaiper]

...

[He's quiet for a long moment.]

Giving up something like that to someone else is just asking to get taken advantage of. I'm not interested.

[fishingforcompliments]

[sad. that's really, really sad.]

I think fewer people get taken advantage of than you think, Ogata.