one death: tragedy / a million a statistic / incommensurate

[roc_on]

Beila gives Dao space. He is extremely right that she's not the best person to be sad about his dead serial killer friend with and that seems to be his principal occupation, so - space.

Comments

[roc_on]

"Republic City police were called to the location of the serial killer, deceased in a conflict with the Avatar, turned out to have been a bloodbender using pyrotechnic equipment, insert about new bloodbending information available on page six."

[thinklikethis]

[roc_on]

"So the usual procedures for ruling out bloodbending in criminal processing have been updated. People are nervous about that but it'll die down."

[thinklikethis]

"Yeah."

[roc_on]

"Yeah."

[thinklikethis]

Vaguely awkward silence. Weird fruit smoothie.

[roc_on]

"I haven't gotten the impression that you've given much thought to the victims," she says softly.

[thinklikethis]

"...I'm not sure what to say to that?"

[roc_on]

"It's just... very different from how I think so I'm not sure what to make of it."

[thinklikethis]

"Well... I think maybe you haven't gotten a good impression of what I've been thinking about for the last couple of weeks, because I've been avoiding you the whole time?"

[roc_on]

"That could be it, yeah."

[thinklikethis]

"Yeah."

[roc_on]

"Do you want to tell me what you've been thinking?"

[thinklikethis]

"...I'm not sure? Like... I don't not want to, exactly, maybe, but I don't... know what you want to hear?"

[roc_on]

"I didn't ask for, like... recreational purposes."

[thinklikethis]

"I, uh, what?"

[roc_on]

"It's not about what I want to hear, I mean."

[thinklikethis]

"Yeah, I didn't say that right. I mean like..."

He pauses. He looks contemplatively into his weird fruit smoothie.

"Okay, if we're going to get into this can we go somewhere that is not your kitchen? Like your room, or the roof, or something."

[roc_on]

"Sure."

Roof it is.

[thinklikethis]

Dao sits on the roof.

"So. What do you want to know? And why do you want to know it?"

[roc_on]

"...I haven't come up with a less hopelessly incomprehensible way to say the thing that's been bothering me than 'I understand your perspective but I don't understand your perspective'. Um, with the part I understand being - I get what factors and ingredients and experiences would cause the parts of your feelings on the whole subject that I can see, but I don't have a good understanding of their ratio. And I usually find other people's feelings-ratios bizarre but this feels more fundamental."

[thinklikethis]

"Okay... uh, well, I don't really know what to say, still, because... do you just want me to say I'm sad that those people got killed? Like, I am."

[roc_on]

"That's... not what I mean, although it's in the neighborhood..."

[thinklikethis]

"Then I kinda don't know what you're asking me for."

[roc_on]

"Maybe I should just explain the thing I do instead of trying to guess at the thing you're doing. Like... imagine everybody in the world all formed a line. On some surface long enough to hold a line of everybody in the world. And absolutely everybody in that line it is my very own personal job to make sure they have a happy fulfilling life. But I'm not omnipotent and even if I were that would be really hard to do for everybody all at once. So I have to put the line in an order. Does that make sense?"