voidtreckernet | Nebula 16

VIDEO|CW: ZOMBIE RELATED STUFF

Alright. Alright. One of those opinion posts.

[For those that don't know Murphy, the man on the screen outright just looks likes Voltaire wet dream, complete with red skin, Satan aesthetic, black suit with a red shirt and he's got the voice of a story-telling podcaster.]

Moral Quandary Time! Where do you draw the line in killing people? Are you a 'no, never' person? A 'only in self-defense person'? A 'the world'd be better without this person' person? Maybe even a 'You killed my father, prepare to die!' type. Or, maybe? All it would take is something that'll line your pockets.

Maybe the setting counts. Somewhere like my world, where billions of undead roam hungry and the living trample each other to survive. Definitely one where even the softest heart would be hard-pressed to stay their hand. Or you go to one of those colorful, magical places where the grass looks like astroturf and there are rainbows with no clouds. But you found out all the cute, adorable fuzzy things there were slowly going to cause the extinction of five other species.

This isn't just a question about murder philosophy. Missions are tough and some just want to help and some of us are desensitized. You might need someone who can easily do what you'd struggle with. Then again, you might need someone with a little more patience so you don't snap someone's neck.

[Murphy withholds the question about whether someone would rather him get information one way or the other if it came down to a choice. He'll wait on that one 'cause he's sure the initial answer would be, 'I would rather you do neither.]

Also hello to the new people! Hiiii. Yeah. You might get mindfucked. There's a lot of that recently. I'm sure someone else with a healthy dose of PTSD can fill you in on how that went.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sometimes you've gotta. Sometimes it's worse to keep someone alive than it is to kill 'em. Sometimes the mission just requires it.

It's a dangerous thought, and it sucks, and it's easy to go too far unless you're got a good soldier's discipline. But it also means you're a lot less full of shit than the people who talk a big game about nonviolence and then start making exceptions when it's convenient.

Edited 2021-10-11 04:45 (UTC)

Yeah, isn't that a weird sticking point? The best way to not kill someone in self-defense is to know how to kill them in self-defense.

Alright, got a hypothetical for you. If you were in a tight situation and, say, could turn the enemy against each other. Would you? Or would you consider it more noble to do it yourself?

Depends how much collateral damage it'd end up doing. Don't want to hurt anyone who didn't sign up for it. Otherwise? We're talking about a war here. It's not how you play the game, it's whether you win or lose.

Edited 2021-10-11 10:04 (UTC)

In the case of war sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, that's true.

And I, as a man that can control zombies [and occasionally people, under the right circumstances] have made executive choices a few times. [Though some of the choices he's made in the past he'd- well he couldn't promise he wouldn't make them now but he might try a little harder to find alternatives.]

[Cassie scowls. He's hit a bit of a sore subject without knowing it.]

You're not killing them just to enslave them, are you?

Do you like killing people because you're actually a blood-thirsty sociopath? Or do you need to win?

I'm not the only one here that can use the dead to win. But if it makes you feel better, if there is a zombie the telepathic link goes both ways. Turns out zombies aren't exactly empty, and I feel empathy from them, too. I feel both deaths. So it's not something I like to throw around willy-nilly.

[Four years ago, the answer would have been no. Three years ago, the answer would have been 'yes because fuck humans'. Two years, the answer would have been 'ew I'm done with zombies'. Right now Murphy's at a nice solid state of 'I'll use my powers if I need them'. The joys of fluctuating circumstances.]

Yeah. That's how it works in my universe, too.

[A long pause.]

I've got friends and family who've been brought back from being enslaved revenants. You've probably got your reasons, but it's a little too fuckin' personal for me.

[And this is exactly why usually he doesn't bring up that he can do it. Shouldn't have then, either, he knows. But it was putting out feelers.]

Yeah, well, just don't assume I'm the same guy. Two people can have the same abilities and use them different ways. Universe is funny like that.

[Cassie grabs the bridge of her nose and sighs. This guy isn't Havik OR Quan Chi.]

Yeah, I don't know you. It'd be pretty hard to be as big an asshole as the guys I'm thinking of.

But in the context of the main question, I don't think I could never mind control someone. Killing someone is only hurting them the one time. Mind controlling them is something that sticks. Especially if they're aware of it.

[She knows this firsthand.]

'Course, I'm not from a zombie apocalypse world. But that's not through lack of people trying.

Edited 2021-10-12 03:21 (UTC)

Well, I won't deny being an asshole. But in my world, you kill someone and they're gonna rise. Unless it's a headshot, that's just how it is. And because of a various pile of circumstances starting with some unwilling vaccine experimentation I can stop them from attacking, make them attack, make living people immune to them and plenty of other diseases, and create an antivirus that can turn a zombie back to a human.

Funny to think it happened because someone thought a bio-weapon was the best way to win a war so the asshole started a plague.

[Her lips flatten and press tightly. She is, at least, no longer scowling.]

I mean, if it were me, using that last one on as many people as possible would be the strategic goal and everything else would just be tactics to get to that end.

Whatever lab rats fucked your world up are proof enough that not everybody's up to the responsibility that comes with being able to take a life.

Unfortunately the train has screwed me out of the last one for now, to any large scale rate. But the rest, I assume, is what I'm expected to use here.

Not that the opportunity has popped up, but...

One of the ways in which I'm an asshole? I do not mind at all that they're dead now. Or some shade of it.

The lab rats, or the zombies generally? Because if it's the first one, I don't think I'd mind either.

The scientists.

I guess seeing as how I'm the only 'surviving' labrat and I'm technically dead, then that applies, too.

Thought that was what you meant.

If they're gonna fuck up the world at least they got fucked along with it.

Small favors, really. All the rich people that tried to hide from it died, too.

[His feelings on that are complicated. But in the end? It was definitely for the best.]

Speaking as someone who grew up a rich kid...most of 'em probably weren't that great a loss.

Nebula 16

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