[L quirks a brow. It really does seem like the latter is a reference to Rich, given the mention of scars, and it certainly reflects his feelings, though not in a particularly noble or flattering way. He's not the type to confront evil directly, much less attempt to defeat it that way; while he might have been able to do as much back home, having the support of numbers by being able to mobilize the world's police, there was no resource that couldn't be withdrawn by some higher authority. And while L had been powerful, there were higher authorities, in the military, the government and even the police.
So, cloaked and secretive techniques weren't just a matter of style. They were wholly practical and necessary. L is the former, here, seeking out evil at its own level whether or not he could be called any sort of hero. There are some who would; L's not sure he features in that number, himself.]
Isn't the price one is willing to pay unique to them? There are some who aren't willing to take it very far, and others who are willing to give everything they have. Some are willing to give everything they have, and more.
[In other words, taking from others to achieve that end. While that's wrong, in theory, hasn't L been guilty of it in the past? Maybe a part of him believes that everyone has done it on some level, and haven't they? Hasn't every child taken shamelessly from a caretaker, be it a parent or some other adult, simply to achieve the end of reaching adulthood themselves?]
If evil is truly being defeated, in this hypothetical scenario... in the form of soothing it, or through "more direct means"... the death of one person is actually a small price on a cosmic scale. It's not as though it's a civilization, or a planet, or a universe. The stakes could be that high, while we're playing with conjecture, and one life doesn't even register on a scale of that magnitude. Minds and souls can seem more important; that's where the twisting occurs, the momentary delusion that we're more than animals, in the end.
[L is a man. Scarcely.]
Its ambitions reflect the ambitions of both its user, and the ambitions that most humans share. The desire to be accepted, to be respected, to be influential. All of these factor into a formula for social success and cohesion, and none of them are inherently bad things. I don't think that the SQUIP is inherently bad, as the embodiment of those things. But humans have a way of ruining things that aren't inherently bad, so much that I wonder if demons exist in my world, too, and everyone is just tremendously at ease with a darker nature that manifests at birth and only grows.
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So, cloaked and secretive techniques weren't just a matter of style. They were wholly practical and necessary. L is the former, here, seeking out evil at its own level whether or not he could be called any sort of hero. There are some who would; L's not sure he features in that number, himself.]
Isn't the price one is willing to pay unique to them? There are some who aren't willing to take it very far, and others who are willing to give everything they have. Some are willing to give everything they have, and more.
[In other words, taking from others to achieve that end. While that's wrong, in theory, hasn't L been guilty of it in the past? Maybe a part of him believes that everyone has done it on some level, and haven't they? Hasn't every child taken shamelessly from a caretaker, be it a parent or some other adult, simply to achieve the end of reaching adulthood themselves?]
If evil is truly being defeated, in this hypothetical scenario... in the form of soothing it, or through "more direct means"... the death of one person is actually a small price on a cosmic scale. It's not as though it's a civilization, or a planet, or a universe. The stakes could be that high, while we're playing with conjecture, and one life doesn't even register on a scale of that magnitude. Minds and souls can seem more important; that's where the twisting occurs, the momentary delusion that we're more than animals, in the end.
[L is a man. Scarcely.]
Its ambitions reflect the ambitions of both its user, and the ambitions that most humans share. The desire to be accepted, to be respected, to be influential. All of these factor into a formula for social success and cohesion, and none of them are inherently bad things. I don't think that the SQUIP is inherently bad, as the embodiment of those things. But humans have a way of ruining things that aren't inherently bad, so much that I wonder if demons exist in my world, too, and everyone is just tremendously at ease with a darker nature that manifests at birth and only grows.