[Day 191 | Open] What's that familiar sizzling sound?

[freedom_engineer]

Who: Colin, anyone who wants breakfast
Open: OPEN
What: One word. BACON
When: Day 191, Morning
Where: The Distillery
Format: Take your pick
Warnings: Who needs a warning when BACON is involved?

Three days ago, Colin introduced his new buildings to the Bastion. This morning, the lab's work had finally come to fruition. Colin brought a slab of skillet-ready bacon to the kitchen, first thing in the morning. The kitchen was freshly upgraded, how fitting it would be to have it broken in with fresh meat?

Rin had been apprehensive at first. Artificial meat couldn't be good, could it? But that apprehension seemed to melt away gradually like so much fat off of sizzling meat as the bacon cooked.

So, when everyone shows up for breakfast, there's a giant serving platter loaded down with bacon to go along with the rest of the breakfast for the day.

Go nuts, everyone.

Comments

[freedom_engineer]

"And?" Colin asks, blinking. "Science isn't prejudiced. It's simply how things work. From the finest saint to the worst tyrant, science plays no favorites. For that matter, one man's proper use of science is another man's heresy."

He pauses, and he smirks. "I'm sure even you must know of mobs hunting down people who do things they don't agree with, tormenting them until they change their ways," he says. "Or killing them when they don't. Barbarism is fairly common when someone doesn't agree with something."

[daughterofursa]

"My father led those kinds of mobs," Zuko states, not knowing why that kind of remark merited a smirk. "And I'm pretty sure fewer people would have died if he hadn't had battleships and airships and bombs."

[freedom_engineer]

"Then you don't give your father enough credit," Colin says, leveling a wicked stare at her. "Bigots and fools don't need technology to be monsters, nor do they need weapons to raise a body count. Science is not, and never will be, evil. How people use it, that is evil, but that evil exists whether or not they can see the universe or if they can't see past a single difference."

[daughterofursa]

Zuko stares levelly back at him for a moment. She knows her father was a horrible person, and he always would have been, with or without armies and war machines at his disposal, with or without his firebending. But having them made him a lot more dangerous. What would her face have looked like if he hadn't been born a firebender? Black eyes heal a lot nicer.

But it's becoming clear enough that this isn't something Colin is going to understand. He's missing the point. She takes a few more pieces of meat and turns to go.

"Thanks for the bacon." It's about the least grateful-sounding thank you ever.

[freedom_engineer]

"Why are you defending him?" Colin asks, ignoring the least grateful sounding thanks ever. He keeps his gaze focused on her, letting his eyes bore into her.

[daughterofursa]

She was trying to walk away from this before her temper got the better of her, but it looks like that isn't going to work out. She whirls back around, furious at the question.

"You think I'm defending him? He was a horrible person, and a terrible father! Of all the people I lost from my world, I'm almost glad he's dead!"

[freedom_engineer]

"So why are you excusing his behavior, blaming his tools for his monstrosities?" he asks. He knows he's provoking her. He knows she's trying to extract herself before she does something she'll regret.

But he's not content to let it go. Technology can't defend itself. Entire cultures have been scrubbed from existence for thoughts along these lines.

[daughterofursa]

Just what is this guy's problem?

"I'm not. That doesn't change the fact that he used them. He almost destroyed our world himself."

[freedom_engineer]

"A single man can destroy a world with a silver tongue and nothing more," Colin says. "Tools do nothing to change that, and thinking otherwise has set back societies and resulted in more deaths than you could imagine. An evil soul can use a tool just as readily as a good soul can. The only difference is what they do with it."

[daughterofursa]

"Just what are you trying to convince me of? I already know what kind of person my father was, and I think I know it better than anyone else. Nothing was going to change that about him."

[freedom_engineer]

"I'm trying to tell you that technology isn't some horrible inspiring force of destruction," he says, his tone measured but still a little cross. "If I'm reading you wrong, then I apologize, but from the sound of things, you think that your father would have been harmless if he hadn't had his weapons."

A slight pause, never taking his eyes off her. "Am I wrong?"

[daughterofursa]

"My father could never be harmless. That's why I had him imprisoned even after the Avatar took his bending away."

She would fold her arms, but she's still holding the bacon she was trying to make off with, which makes it a little awkward.

"I never said technology was a force of destruction, but that's how my nation used it, and the world would have been better off without us having it."

[freedom_engineer]

"Oh, my collective knowledge for the power to show someone how their hypothetical situations would work out," Colin says, sounding both frustrated and amused. "Yes, your world would likely have been spared your kingdom's tyrannical power grabs, slaughters, and whatever else they did. And how would your people have fared in your scenario, had they been driven back to pre-industrial levels? Especially if your father remained the individual he was, what sounds to be a man who would use every resource he had to meet his desires?"

"For that matter, would your enemies have been so understanding?" he asks. "A nation, ripe with resources, and no defenses to speak of. Can you say that there is nobody in your world who would exploit such a thing?"

[daughterofursa]

"The people of the Earth Kingdom only wanted the war to be over. They wanted their lands to be safe, and their soldiers to come home.

"I don't know what they would have done if they'd won the war on their own, without the Avatar's intervention, but I know it wouldn't have been as cruel as what my father planned. And maybe, they could have ended things long before I was even born."

[freedom_engineer]

"I think you give your nation's enemies far too little credit, even if they were better than your own people," he says. "That said, I know nothing of them, so perhaps I'm wrong."

He shrugs, and he shakes his head. "Whatever the case, putting the cart before the horse is never a sound strategy," he adds.

[daughterofursa]

"What?" Putting a cart in front of an ostrich horse wouldn't make much sense, but she doesn't see what that has to do with anything now. It's like one of her uncle's proverbs. She shakes her head.

"I think you and I have different definitions of giving someone credit." Among other things.

[freedom_engineer]

"Peace is one thing. Revenge is another," Colin says simply. "If this 'Earth Kingdom' didn't want some measure of restitution for what they went through, I'll eat my own cooking."

That's more of a statement of confidence in his opinion than it sounds. You'd have to see his cooking to understand...

[daughterofursa]

Zuko looks a little confused about that statement as well (did he not cook the bacon?), but she at least gets what he's trying to say this time.

"...I'm sure they would have. But even with the way things did turn out, I never got the chance to speak with them about it."