02

[knifesedge]

[Some several days after arriving in Luceti, Knives finally appears in town in midafternoon. This is with remarkably little fanfare; what's one more new feather this week? Those who are familiar with Vash might well recognize him, as they are identical twins; his hair's shorter and black, he's a bit paler, but the rest is still there. The same features, nearly the same bearing..

But Vash probably doesn't pick his way through Luceti with thinly veiled distaste, as if he's spending most of the time wading knee-deep in something nasty. And he is shopping. Oh yes. So much shopping.

Probably because of the black and white border collie cheerfully tagging along wherever he goes. Which means Knives can be found at various times of the day at the grocery store, library, and in the forest near Luceti when he can't tolerate the town any longer.]

Comments

[misterbrief]

[Yeeeh Knives wants them dead. Now he understands a little what Vash was getting at from before. Vegeta's no stranger to the genocide of entire races by way of planet annihilation or a massacre to make an example of the might of the Saiyans, being responsible for that himself back in his younger days- but they'd never offended him to hold a grudge against a whole people, it was all business and a love of killing and nothing more.]

[His hard expression doesn't waver, and he hopes he's understanding the question correctly.] I'm not one to delve into the medical field so I don't quite understand the usefulness of grinding any living creature into a paste. We made them useful by taking their energy to destroy a creature that would have otherwise wiped out the entire universe.

[knifesedge]

Unsurprisingly, you misunderstand. I don't grind anything into paste at all, certainly not those useful to me. [He really doesn't seem surprised at all. Tiny meat brains and all, warrior cultures aren't known for their innovative technological advances. Or any advances at all beyond 'hit thing with other thing', with all the refinement and elegance of mud on a brick.]

Those who dedicate their lives to such things, be it medical advances, technology, or other similar non-combative lives, tend to be the ones most easily killed because they spend so much time doing things that aren't learning how to slaughter everything left and right. By your previous definition, this would make them 'weak' and thus worthy of death, but they are still tremendously useful and vital to their population. Which means they should not be killed.

Which leads back around to the idea of letting the useless perish, not the 'weak'.

[misterbrief]

[He's pretty offended that Knives just called him stupid, but he won't let it show. If anything at all he'll get an eye twitch, and nothing more.]

Perhaps I wasn't clear. If you choose to live a life where you can be slaughtered like sacrificial lambs, then you need to stay clear of the battlefield- and leave the fighting to the real warriors. And you better hope that they can defend your planet or die with the rest of them. Because if they cannot save it, then that race don't deserve to exist. Sorry if you thought I was thinking only on a smaller scale of simply decimating part of humanity when I implied to let the weak perish. They can kill each other but the victor will still have their technology and medical advances, when it's inside the same species.

[He can recognize the usefulness of doctors and scientists. But what good is it if they can't defend themselves? No different than the Tuffles to him. Besides, the strong will simply take the technology and use it- that's what the Saiyans did.]

[knifesedge]

[It's not the first time Knives has called him stupid either.]

Ah yes, that's the trick isn't it. Staying clear of the battlefield, when grand scale conflicts ignore things like boundaries and staying far from populations that don't revolve around beating things up. An interstellar conflict is going to likely strike cities first, and by the time the 'real warriors' arrive, countless lives are already lost without the opportunity to stay clear. Poof, there goes all the innovation your race is hoping to steal.

Having the technology to flee from these brutish invaders requires those with enough time to become educated enough to build space flight and more, which is impossible if you spend all day every day being a Neanderthal. Nature will catch up with the parasitic invader species. When they run into something stronger than them, or no more races to steal from, they will be sacrificed on the altar of progress instead.

[There's a pause. Knives doesn't like rambling this much, especially at complete strangers.]

By the by, how is your warrior race faring? Spreading across the stars in an unstoppable wave of thievery and thuggishness, I assume.

[misterbrief]

[He knows, but now it's irritating him more than it did the first few times.]

You think I don't know that already? There are some things that just can't be avoided. Beings will die, that's that. It's simply how warfare works. Besides, committing genocide doesn't mean you have to blow up every piece of technology in your wake. Don't assume that's how it always works. [He's getting pretty fed up and impatient with Knives on this subject, especially after that explanation and question. Since, well, he almost perfectly described his own race. And he is not telling Knives about that history.]

For your information, no, they're not. If anything they're a bunch of goody-two shoes who insist on living a peaceful life. That proves impossible though since every abomination in the universe wants to attack the planet. But we always destroy them. [He's just gunna leave out the whole part where he lives a peaceful life too. And enjoys it, mostly.]

[knifesedge]

[Black eyebrows rise sharply.]

Hm, it looks like the warrior culture idea of mowing down the 'weak' and stealing everything the 'weak' made wasn't such a good idea after all, if your own people aren't embracing it. It seems as if your kind are living to what I'd previously said was a better way to live. Good, the universe doesn't need two ignorant parasitic species roaming the stars.

Was there anything else you wanted, or can I go back to my 'shopping' now, Your Highness?

[misterbrief]

Whatever. The Saiyans are the most powerful beings in the universe as it is. We already have everything we need. So there's no reason for that. [It feels weird saying that now, even though it's true. They really don't need to conquer the universe and not even Vegeta has the want to do that anymore.]

[Either way, the thing he hates most about this is that Knives is right. If he were to argue with him more on the matter, he'd end up sharing more about himself- and he doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to prove him right, his pride won't let him.] Go about your business. I have nothing else to say to you unless you've got something left to say.

[knifesedge]

And how many of these most powerful beings in the universe are there, I wonder.

[Brutal experience taught him how life worked. If he knew what actually happened to the Saiyans, he would be disappointed but not at all surprised. It would fit with what he'd learned, and where his own kind would have wound up if Knives had continued on his reckless path.

... But it's not his problem. It really isn't. Vegeta was a random passing irritant, nothing more. Not human, which gave him bonus points and took him off possible kill lists unless Vegeta proved to be a slaver as well as a galactic genocidal killer.]

... I do not.

[There's no goodbye, why would there be? He just goes back to trying to determine what he wished to take and what he didn't. Only the best would be acceptable for his dog.]

[misterbrief]

When the being who controlled most of the known universe is dead, you know there isn't any others who can claim that title. [He turns on his heel, obviously peeved that Knives would even question it. And he leaves, he'd finish his own shopping later when he wasn't so angry.

But the information he'd gotten from this conversation hadn't escaped him- this definitely wasn't the one he'd met before and doesn't seem like the threat he'd been made out to be. So honestly, if Knives wasn't intent on blowing up the enclosure? He couldn't care less about the guy then. Let him suffer here like the rest of them. He's sure he'd run into the man again, but at least he didn't have to worry about having to blow the Plant's head off. At least, that's the impression he's getting now.]