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[droppedstitch]

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[love_and_peace]

So then what was your question again?

[droppedstitch]

Do you only see worth in his life, value in his life, because you understand the way he communicates?

[love_and_peace]

No!

[ He doesn't! ...Does he?

No! No, he doesn't! Plants aren't alive the same way animals are, it's different! ]

Growing things like that, they're... it's just different! They're not animals, it's different!

[ Somewhere, he swears he can hear his brother laughing. ]

[droppedstitch]

But you don't know how?

[love_and_peace]

I last studied botany a hundred and fifty years ago, cut me some slack! Vegatables are alive, sure, but they don't feel pain like animals do! They're not aware.

[ But he's not as sure anymore. He's starting to doubt what he's assumed to be true, because he doesn't know. Nearly everything he ate back on his world was created in a kind of matter replicator, so he never had to think too much about the origins of his food.

He started this conversation to try and get Istradez to think about the fact that he's still got free will, even if he's in prison, and boy did that good intention backfire! ]

[droppedstitch]

A hundred and fifty years ago?

How old are you?

[love_and_peace]

Older than that.

[droppedstitch]

And you still act like this?

[love_and_peace]

Like a responsible grown-up with compassion for all living things? I sure do.

[droppedstitch]

Like an idealistic child who takes every death to heart.

[love_and_peace]

...Yes. Yes, I suppose I do.

But my heart's big enough to bear all that loss. Yours could be too, with a little effort.

[droppedstitch]

There's no point in caring about it, my friend.

[love_and_peace]

Because people are going to die, and you don't want to feel their loss when it happens?

[droppedstitch]

That's hardly my responsibility.

[love_and_peace]

Who said anything about responsibility? You don't care for others because somebody told you it's your job. If you care about others it should be because you see them as people, alive and breathing and worthy of your compassion.

[droppedstitch]

How noble of you. But it still seems exhausting.

[love_and_peace]

And being the stand in for a king isn't?

[droppedstitch]

King?

[love_and_peace]

[ Oh, right, that's not the term he used, was it? Istradez will take any opportunity to nitpick semantics instead of continuing a conversation, Vash knows -- he needs to be precise with this guy. ]

Hexarch. The boss. His lordship! That very important, very exhausting role that I'm certain you excelled at, once upon a time.

[droppedstitch]

Oh calm down. I just wanted to make sure I knew what that word meant.

[There is an audible eye roll.]

It wasn't really all that exhausting. Dangerous, but easy. He spent years training me.

[love_and_peace]

It was easy?

[ See, he doesn't beleive that for a second. ]

Dealing with the concerns of millions, of billions of people, wasn't tiring?

[droppedstitch]

I didn't make those decisions. I made the decisions I knew my brother would.

That's my job.

[love_and_peace]

[ Oh. ...Huh. Something about Istradez clicks in Vash's mind. ]

You weren't being the hexarch. You were being Mikodez.

[ This conversation started with Istradez complaining about not having any freedom here, but it sure sounds like he didn't have any freedom back home either. ]

Did you ever disagree with those decisions?

[droppedstitch]

No, of course not.

Mikodez went to Shous Academy. He knows what he's doing. I advise him sometimes, but he always has a plan in place.

[love_and_peace]

[ That's not true, Vash almost crows, but he bites back the impulse just in time. Istradez didn't always agree with Mikodez, and Istradez is the one who told him that! He died for his brother, didn't he? And at first, Mikodez had tried to talk him out of it.

So he could stand up to his brother, when it was something he thought important enough. ]

Oh really? Hey, that's really impressive then! He had to go to the Academy to learn how to be hexarch, but you're able to make the same decisions just by studying him! That's pretty remarkable, don't you think?