Adstringendum voice mail

[leashed]

If you require my services and have tried to contact me without a response, I may be unavailable.

Please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I am physically able.

Romulus Hart, 1st lieutenant

Comments

[leashed]

but my duty would be to the people, rather than the organization. i am unaccustomed to that

that is a paradox. a person who orders a thing like that would not be a leader and would not be followed in the first place

[mere_shopkeeper]

Unaccustomed does not always mean wrong, just as accustomed does not always mean right.


Ah, I don't suppose you have heard of Adolf Hitler.

[leashed]

yes. it is just a significant change. i would miss the pack

i have. but hitler is not present. he would be countered by the ombudsman if he were

[mere_shopkeeper]

In a place like this, I think you would quickly find another one.


But he existed, and so your claim that such a person would not be a leader and would not be followed in the first place has already been proved false. Additionally, those that obeyed his orders without question were later tried and found guilty of the atrocities they committed under his command. Were those rulings wrong?

[leashed]

not one with a common goal and motivation. many people here are only concerned with supporting a small group of people.

you are asking me to give you an answer based on a hypothetical situation. i would not follow hitler if he came and assumed power over the protection squad. i am not entirely sure why he is a part of this conversation

[mere_shopkeeper]

But not everyone is like that.


Because with the way this city works, today's hypothetical could become tomorrow's reality. There was an event a little ways back that changed people's personalities. Kindness turned into cruelty, innocence into corruption, and helpfulness into trickery and manipulation. Orders given then... would you have followed them?

[leashed]

if i gather people into a group to help others i would essentially be making a new protection squad

no. there is a part of the general protocols put forward by mandrake which gave a chain of command and instructed us not to take orders from a commander who is incapacitated by an event

[mere_shopkeeper]

Yet it would not be exactly the same as the old, and hence, would be a new focus.

There are those who are capable of pretending as if they are not affected by events when in reality, they are. What then? Or if all your commanding officers have been incapacitated, whose orders will you follow?

[leashed]

it would still then need a leader. Packs without alphas tend to die off very quickly

While i understand your concern, i believe this is a very hypothetical situation. I cannot say how i would act because I have never been put in a similar situation

[mere_shopkeeper]

If you formed the pack, would you not be its alpha? A rhetorical question, you do not need to answer.


However, keep this in mind. Everyone, including you, is capable of choice. A soldier that follows orders without questions is useful, but will never be anything more than the lowest of drones. The chain of command works because a captain knows that his soldiers will not only obey him, but also stop him should he attempt to take things too far. It is not only the responsibility of those above him to keep him in check, but also that of his lieutenants and anyone who forms a contract with him by accepting his command.

One day, and I do not know how soon, you will have to make the choice between blindly following an atrociously heinous order that you know is wrong and going against everything you've been taught and disobeying it. I hope that when that time comes, you are able to pick the right choice.

Because Hart-san, and again, this is not a question you have to answer, do you still truly believe everything you have written during this exchange?

[leashed]

i believe that is where we conflict. I am the lowest of the low, compared to humans- i have no problem with this. It is how things are

I have been actively training for forty-nine of my fifty-six years to become this way. I realize that things are simply done differently in here, and even in your own world, but in mine, subhumans like myself answer to human handlers and commanders because we are subhuman and cannot be trusted to make our own decisions

I serve as a squad leader here because i am capable of leading others with proper instruction and because others thought it was appropriate. I enjoy what i do and would like to keep doing it. I do want what is best for the people, but i accept the fact that i am not to be trusted to make that decision because I am not human. It is my place to serve, and i will do so as long as i am able

...However there are things that i hope i will not be asked to do. I am not sure what my actions would be if i were.

[mere_shopkeeper]

That may be what you have been taught and believe of yourself, but know this, Hart-san... It is not what someone is that defines them as human or not, but rather who we are.

And there are people here who trust you.

[leashed]

i am not sure i understand. a dog for all that it feels emotions and protects is master will never be considered a human

...i hope i will continue to be trustworthy

[mere_shopkeeper]

Ah, but you are not a dog, despite the wolf that is part of you, and that, Hart-san, makes quite a difference.

[leashed]

i am only slightly more human than a chimpanzee mister urahara

[mere_shopkeeper]

I disagree, but only time will tell which one of us is right~

[leashed]

i mean genetically

[mere_shopkeeper]

And like I said, genetics do not define our souls.

[leashed]

i am not sure if i believe in a soul

[mere_shopkeeper]

You should~ I am basically only a soul!

[leashed]

then why can i see you

[mere_shopkeeper]

The Animus tend to put the more... floaty of us into solid bodies.

[leashed]

i was not aware of that

where did your body go in your world???

[mere_shopkeeper]

I lost it a long time ago! Whenever it was that I died, that is.

[leashed]

i am sorry you are dead