"Hm... I'll up the cash the more you show while you do your thing. Five hundred is where I'll stop and I'll tell you when."
Bethany may notice something is up with Kyle's eyes but it's not really much to worry about.
Will facepalms.
((Care to explain the look, for Will? I'm pretty sure his previous comments on the situation show he was present.))
Kyle smirks and gets close to Bethany.
"Get me one of up your skirt... I'll double it."
Annnnnnnd that gets a punch in the face.
"Excellent choice. Kyle, seriously, be a gentleman."
"In the last 100 years, we have killed less humans than how many of us a human has killed in a single day."
"You claim yo have killed almost 40 humans yourself. Even assuming this is twice the usual number for a warrior, that warriors are only 1% of the whole population, and that you have been a warrior for a solid 20 years--around how long I believe you have been alive--that implies that an average warrior kills one human per year--one dead for every hundred people. Overall, a society of merely 500--the approximate minimum for sustainable breeding--would have killed 500 people over that hundred years. Therefore, the whole community of 500 would have been more than wiped out by a single human in a single day. Therefore, in order for this claim to be true, either some other lie would have needed to be made earlier, or you are an impossibly proficient warrior."(And a bit of a Mary Sue.)
"Less than humans kill other humans in a single day."
"Hardly fair. Humans see each other every day, you see humans barely ever. Of course we kill more humans--that's like saying more murders happen in America than Antarctica. Moreover, with a handful of exceptions, humans do not kill other humans on sight; your kind do. In other words, humans kill only the tiniest fraction of other humans they come across, but you kill damn near every human you see."
"As a whole, there is a bigger amount of fatal snake bites each year than what we kill in a hundred years."
"Again, there are more people being bitten by snakes each year than finding you. Besides, that means you kill less than a thousand people per year--not terribly reassuring."
"I'd take a guess, it might very well be less than the amount the average dragon would kill in a hundred years."
"That's racist. It implies that dragons are human-killing savages."Will is glaring at Hai right now.
You say we underestimate the giants capacity for compassion? You underestimate the giants capacity for cruelty. They don't need to be combatants. All it takes is a young boy who likes to play with insects, or a man who takes a bit of a drink and gets offended at a bad joke, and we have a catastrophy at our hands that can lay waste to entire districts.
"And you use this to justify killing every human you come across?"
I find it remarkable how much you can blow up the death of less than 100 humans over the last 100 years--"
"So, less than a hundred humans have been killed over the past century, and you have personally killed almost 40?"((Seriously, what the hell?))
"--to be a war crime without example, and at the same time can not fathom just how much of a threat even a single human can pose to our kind. If single human spreads the details of our location, soon more will come, and even if those are kind and compassionate and only genuinely interested, they will leave spreading the stories, and every year more will come, and with everyone that comes, the risk rises. You call it unreasonable that we judge humanity over one drunkard? We are judging the potential risk. A single drunkard to us is an attack of what you call a Kaiju to you. It is no laughing matter. The sheer damage done is enormous. All because he had a little drink, as so many humans do, and took offense in a joke and got angry. The chance is almost 100% that will happen again if we allow humans to freely come to our land and then go back home to invite others. Even if the amount of humans that would do us no harm is the overwhelming advantage, a single bad egg can poison the entire cake.[/size]
"Have you considered the possibility of, you know, talking with the human governments? We can deal with drunks in our towns, we can protect you from other drunks. Or, you know. only attack people who are actually destroying your town, and don't fucking kill people just because they're drunk. Or, hell, a simple 'Do Not Enter' sign or something would do wonders. Why didn't any of your kind think of something like that?"
Your own reaction proves my point - giants can not see us as equals."
"I see you as an equal, deserving to be tried in the same courts."
"I am telling you about the havoc mankind has wrecked upon us, bringing us the brink of extermination, and all you see is the handfull of people we have killed to prevent that from happening. That's not the viewpoint among equals, it's the viewpoint a man has upon the dog that has attacked a human. Nobody cares if the dog had a reason, they all just call to put him down.[/size]
"Your species is killing uncounted numbers of people--you claim only a handful, but you have personally killed nearly 40 so that is obviously a lie--and you claim that every one of them deserved to die?"
The unfortunate ones that stumble into our territory, small at it is, were prepared for danger. It's far away from trails and camping spots, they'd have to go where there isn't a human being in every direction along the horizon. Anything could happen there. As I have said, the risk of being bitten and killed by a poisonous snake on the way to us is higher than actually stumbling through the glamour.
"Then how do so many people do it? Even the one-a-year you have claimed is too high for that."
If you fancy yourself a champion of justice, try and come to perspective. If you are a defender os humanity, ask yourself, does humanity need a defender? And if so, from *what* does it need to be defended from? That we have to make sure they do not leave to spread our secret among the world is unfortunate, but the only responsible decision. It's not an easy decision, mind you, but just have a look around. Just last year, about 10 species have gone extinct because of giants. And the efforts giant activists made to prevent that were half-hearted, and by the majority of humanity, was just smiled at."
"You are condemning the whole for the actions of a few?"
"The only problem is, the number of people who encroach on our territory has been increasing over the last decade."
"It's almost as if hundreds of people have been vanishing in that area, and people want to know what happened to their loved ones...OH WAIT, that IS what's happening, you murderous mouse-sized bitch!"(The dragon comment was the straw that broke the camel's back. Especially since Stella was the only dragon-blooded creature Will had any reason to think Hai had seen, since no dragons had been seen in recent history.)
"It has become almost impossible to keep up. and frankly, I see no solution to that problem, other than to earn the respect of humanity *before* the location is unveiled."
"And I'm sure killing hundreds, if not thousands, of people is a GREAT way to earn their respect."
"Esters father was just the first, though I fear my own effort will go entirely unnoticed when there is freaking gods all over the town, that make my own efforts, as well as the efforts of anyone else just pale. If need be, I could have saved that man myself, and neither the surgeons nor that quack would have been needed."
"With what, acupuncture? We have that, too. We've moved on because it doesn't work."(If you want magic acupuncture,
choose it as your magical ability. I'm not asking for Nuriel to spontaneously develop the ability to cover areas in darkness, or to turn people into demons, or anything like that.)
"And I will continue to jump at every chance to prove myself and through that my kind as equal to humanity. Through valor. Not as a beggar, not as a threat, but as an equal. All that it takes now is proper opportunity."
"I'll give you an opportunity..."AfterHai flies away, Will calls the police station.
"Hello, Northdale police? I have a strange report to give, but if you'll trace the call you'll note that I am in the worldwide heart of strange. There was a four-inch woman showing up yesterday, who claimed to be from an enclave of other such individuals. She boasted that in the defense of said enclave, she had killed nearly 40 humans who were just blundering through. Further stories explaining these encounters suggested that the individuals were killed on sight after an unfortunate accident involving a drunkard. If you want, I could bring the woman in for questioning at some point."
P.S.
"...Oh! That reminds me. Selina, could you pull these out?" Will removes the slightly crumpled copy of the plans of the parts for his server thing.