02/08 [Video]

[anationisnothing]

I was hesitant about committing to taking part in this war until I had all the facts in front of me, but the recent attacks on civilian targets have certainly dispelled any doubt in my mind. I'm ready to do whatever is needed to shut these Witches down.

I'm told that I'll need a partner, and I must admit that I haven't been looking very hard. Apparently I'm a meister, meaning I'll need a weapon. If there's anyone available and interested, I would appreciate a response.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to working with all of you.

Comments

[anationisnothing]

Son, you have a warped sense of values if you think that not standing by while innocent people are hurt is 'lemming' behavior. In most circles we call that common human decency.

[lionborn]

[His eyes narrow dangerously, both at the 'son' and 'human decency'. Oh yeah, he's seen what humans consider decent. Rape and using others as spare parts stock isn't even scratching the surface of it.]

Ya need a couple new ears gramps. I didn't say that, I'm saying that you're singing the same shitty conformist song as everybody else here who'd rather not use their brain. 'Oh shit, something bad happened where I had to see it! Now it's all clear that the others are evil and we must help those poor unapologetic assholes here!'

[anationisnothing]

Mind if I ask you a question?

[lionborn]

Which'd be?

[anationisnothing]

Have you ever seen war? And I don't mean watching footage on television, or reading about it in the paper. I mean, have you ever gotten up close and personal with it? Woken up in a foxhole with the smell of wasted lives filling your nostrils, heard the rumble of armor bearing down on you, wondered if this was the day you finally went home in a bodybag?

1/3

[lionborn]

[He frowns, but then suddenly smirks, baring small non-human fangs.]

If I was in a war? Fuck no, you humans don't do that anymore back where I'm from. You're much too busy keeping yourself from dying out by whatever it takes to want to waste your own precious lives like that!

[lionborn]

But if ya want to know if I'm familiar with suffering...

I'm from a place where kids like me never had a family and where others have the right to do anything, literally anything, to one of us whenever they'd like 'cause you don't even deign to give us human or as much as animal rights. Seeing a five years old getting killed for their shoes? Damn normal. Sleeping in the middle of the winter on the streets with no place to go, no warm clothes and no food, wondering if you'll ever wake up while others are stepping over you? Tell me something fucking new. Being seen as spare parts for the 'better people', as breeding stock and a piece of shitty ware? Welcome to reality. Not to mention of the good custom to walk right into schools, pick a girl ya like and drag her out by her hair, kickin and screamin, just so that ya and your pals can gang-fuck her, film it all on tape, make a buck selling it and then put all the blame on her because that date-rape shit ya forced down her throat clearly proves that she's an underage whore who didn't want or deserve it any other way? I dunno what the hell you're complaining about, law's got it covered, as long as ya don't kill her you go free.

...or do you mean the sight and the glorious smell when one of your closest friends gets turned into a burning bloody mess because somebody didn't do their work right? Or how about having to toss their not even yet properly dead bodies into the sea because its the only fucking way of a funeral that ya can afford and that will ensure that their organs won't be sold? Not only once or twice, but over and over again until it's rare that ya don't make that trip twice a month? Oh, or how about seeing the girl ya loved end up smeared three ways over the walls of a a dirty loo while your only friend left's busy overdosing in a corner since this whole fucking shit's driving him insane?! Is that the kinda thing that you want to hear?

[lionborn]

Because in that case, yes, I've been there for all sixteen years of my fucked up life. Just that we call it ordinary daily life in a big city and there's no body bags when you can use a trash bag for the same result.

Is there anything else you want to know?

[anationisnothing]

[He looks kind of taken aback. Yikes, this kid's story is a particularly grisly one, and Cap's heard a lot of bad ones in his time. Seen a lot of bad ones. But if Leo thinks he's going to make Captain America back down on defending innocents, he's got another think coming.]

I'm sorry for what you went through. I really am. I can't imagine what that must have been like. But that doesn't change the importance of protecting those who can't protect themselves. I'm sure you can agree that there's nothing lower, more disgusting and inhumane, than attacking those without the power to defend themselves. After all, from what you've just told me, it sounds like you were on the receiving end of that for every day of your life.

The people of Death City are not soldiers. They did not choose this fight. They are victims, and any time I see the powerful making victims of the powerless...well, I know where I need to be. As a friend of mine is fond of saying, with great power comes great responsibility, and I intend to live up to that responsibility as well as I can. And if you think that makes me old-fashioned and a 'conformist', then so be it. I've been called far worse in my time.

[Corny as all of that may seem, he is totally sincere about it. Especially when he said he was sorry for what Leo went through.]

[lionborn]

[He doesn't care if the other is sorry or not, that's not why he launched this sudden angry rant at him. He'd simply hit a nerve.

He also can't agree with them 'attacking weaker ones is bad' thing since it is pretty much the way he had learned to survive on, no matter whether he likes it or not. Hell, most Halfs enjoyed that sort of stuff even!]

...what about the kishin eggs?

[anationisnothing]

What about them? Specifically, I mean.

[lionborn]

Do you know what they are made from?

[anationisnothing]

My understanding is that they're the souls of corrupted humans. People who began killing other people and devouring them.

[lionborn]

True. But don't tell me ya it's normal that there's such a lot of bad people in this place for the witches to use. And all go about it in the same ways.

[anationisnothing]

If you have something to say, I suggest that you stop dancing around it.

[lionborn]

Not all kishin eggs are people who become them by choice. I've seen it before as did plenty others. Shibusen rewards their destruction because it will make its allies become stronger and they react pretty nasty if you ask them the right kind of wrong questions.

I'm not saying the witches are the good guys 'cause they aren't, but I'd be wary of taking Shibusen's words and the 'goodness of their hearts' for granted either.

[anationisnothing]

[Steve looks taken aback again, but also kind of like he'd been half-expecting something like this.]

...are you saying that Shibusen is force-feeding innocent people souls, to turn them into Kishin eggs that Shibusen can harvest?

[lionborn]

[He gives him a dark, serious look from eyes that have clearly seen to much but shakes his head.]

No. Not that. But I think that the hunt and the war is apparently way more top priority to them than trying to find a remedy for it. Ya know what they did with the water of the city? They put a similar shit that made normal people into kishin eggs close to last christmas, in one of those fucking big malls.

[anationisnothing]

Shibusen did? Or was it the Witches?

[He's a little confused by the pronoun reference.]

[lionborn]

The witches did.

[He's starting to think that the real problem here is Steve's brain.]

[anationisnothing]

Just checking.

Well, I appreciate you telling me all of that. Contrary to what you seem to think, I don't trust Shibusen implicitly, any more than I trust any large and powerful organization. Even the most benevolent can be prone to corruption. But if the Witches prey on civilians who can't fight back like this? I will fight them, no matter what it takes. Because that's the right thing to do.

[lionborn]

..if you say so, superman.

[He doesn't sound convinced as he takes the cigarette out of his mouth and slowly exhales.]

Then all I can wish ya is sweet dreams and a not too rough awakenin' when you do.