explosivecombat | NIETZSCHE; DEAD PHILOSOPHERS' INBOX

Yes, but you can't fault me for wanting to exchange a few pleasantries first.

How are you, Nietzsche?

I can't complain. Yourself?

I'm all right. Packing, at the moment; I decided to pay a visit to Goldenrod, after all.

That's not why I'm calling, either, but I did promise to let you know.

Consider it appreciated, then.

Should I be concerned that you're being forthcoming about your location rather than the reason for your call, or is this just for dramatic effect?

It was the natural extension of the question I was answering.

Also, I feel a little strange outright ambushing you with "I think there was someone you know on the Network today" without at least a little idle chatter first, but if you insist.

So you noticed Fullmetal as well.

Yes, he's one of ours, so to speak.

An alchemist, then?

Yes. One I've...worked with in the past, to use the term extremely loosely; he's an interesting one, though we don't get on well at all - our ideologies are a bit too different for that.

He tried very hard to spare my life once; in what was actually a completely unrelated turn of events months later, I ended up saving his.

...Was he in Ishval? He looked awfully young.

No, he wasn't. The war in Ishval ended a bit over seven years ago; he would have been maybe eleven at the oldest, which is nowhere near old enough to be sent to the front lines.

Then you worked with him after.

...Is he employed by the family, too?

Oh, not at all. Quite the opposite, really.

We struck a bargain up at Fort Briggs, where I was stationed to carry out two assignments for the family. I had something he wanted rather badly in my possession, but I wasn't about to part with it for free; I had also been seriously injured to the point of nearly dying shortly before I met him. The agreement was that I would give him what he wanted if he assisted me in my work.

Needless to say, that went absolutely nothing like was planned.

Briggs is...on the border with Drachma, in the north.

And when were you seriously injured? How?

That would be the incident I've told you about before - the one on the train, involving an Ishvalan I was sent to kill and a steel pipe through several of my internal organs.

Oh. That one.

Yes, that one.

I met Fullmetal shortly after; while ultimately he sided with the group of soldiers that tried to snipe me in the middle of a mission, I have reason to believe he didn't want to see me shot. He seemed uncomfortable about deceiving me while the snipers got into position, and I'm fairly sure he was standing too close for them to get a clean shot. He's valuable to our military; they wouldn't shoot me if there was a chance it might harm him.

He tried to subdue me after that - so that I could be captured without being killed, and without sustaining any more injuries than were really necessary.

It's...sometimes a little unsettling, you know, to listen to you say things like that so casually. Not that I doubt that's exactly what happened, but...

I don't know. It's not that I mind listening to your war stories, but I guess I just don't always know how to respond to them.

There's a difference between hearing about them in a historical context and hearing about them as something that happened to a friend of yours.

I also imagine Fullmetal's age is a bit disconcerting, in this circumstance.

That, and it's the way you phrased something about the snipers. That they wouldn't shoot you if there was a chance of risking one of their own.

I don't know if I have it in me to pull a trigger and take someone's life. I think that can make it complicated for me, when it comes to hearing about situations filled with people who wouldn't hesitate like I would. I don't know if I could obey an order like that, even if I were told to, and that's why I wouldn't make a good soldier.

I know that's egocentric of me, but it's what I usually end up feeling at times like this.

It doesn't strike me as egocentric; those who know they wouldn't make good soldiers are often...disgusted, in some way, by those who do. I think it's a natural reaction, and I don't take up issue with that reaction itself, nor am I offended by it. Where I take offense is when others attempt to take some sort of moral high ground about it - whether it's those who wouldn't make good soldiers passing judgement on those who do, or those who have enlisted trying to make themselves out to be anything other than what they are.

This is likely sounding horribly condescending of me and that's a bit rude overall, but it's not intentional; I just don't expect you to react to these things in the same way I would.

...Do you know why some of your friends became soldiers? I'm using the term "friends" loosely, but — your fellow alchemists, the other soldiers you've mentioned before. I know you've told me before that the State Alchemists are considered "the dogs of the military", but surely they didn't all join the military with the intention of being its hired killers, did they?

...If we're being realistic about what a soldier is, I'm...not sure of a gentler way to phrase it, that's all.

Some enlisted because they wanted to defend Amestris from potential threat; some, because they were displeased with the state of things and wanted to gain a position where they might be able to influence the direction our country was going in. Many joined because our government is highly militaristic and as such joining the military itself is a stable job with steady income and good benefits.

But if we're being realistic about what a soldier is, they also should have known when they enlisted that they were being hired with the expectation that they would kill if ordered to do so. Taking lives is a soldier's job, and it's not a hidden aspect of their work. Whatever one's primary motivation for joining the military may be, killing is very much a part of it; some people just aren't ready or willing to accept that.

It makes for a hard choice, though, doesn't it? From what you've told me before, being a soldier is one of the few stable jobs with steady incomes and good benefits in Amestris. That doesn't seem like a fair exchange, to me. Take someone in a situation similar to Hughes, with a wife and a family — to give them a stable, comfortable life, the trade-off is that the breadwinner has to be willing to kill for it?

I'm probably just not seeing the whole picture, but...it doesn't sit right with me, a situation like that.

Tell me how you would define "fair," then.

It's never going to be entirely fair; that's just how life is. But...well, take that hypothetical soldier again. What if he has strong moral convictions against killing, but war is the only way he can provide for his family? If he keeps to his convictions, they suffer, but if he provides for them, he has to become something he despises.

I...suppose in defining "fair", I'd at least start with a scenario that didn't make people choose between compromising their livelihood or their morality. Wouldn't that be better anyway, since in theory it'd weed out some of the people who'd be most inclined to deny what they are, as soldiers?

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