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[in_the_cracks]

What could you never accept? What would it take for you to shut the door to someone?

Can you truly be friends with someone you're obligated to act against?

Comments

[erastes_owner]

Betrayal of trust.

The second question, I have no answer for.

[in_the_cracks]

Then you'd need to know them first?

I'd have thought not, however...

[erastes_owner]

It's perfectly possible to trust someone you've never met.

However...?

[in_the_cracks]

There must be some connection to betray, though, mustn't there?

I'm aware other people don't think the same way.

[onemorebounty]

I can accept many things; it's a balance between the good they offer and the injury they do to me and the people I value.

Not true friends, no. I can work with people I'll eventually need to act against, but an inevitable betrayal precludes the trust that real friendship needs.

[in_the_cracks]

The pragmatic approach. How far does 'people you value' stretch?

I'm not certain why anyone would think otherwise.

[onemorebounty]

I'm fairly selective. Friends, lovers, family; personal connections. And my people, if I find any of them alive.

Some people think that if they just give enough, it will somehow convince other people to reciprocate, perhaps change in some way that removes the necessity of acting against them. "If I just love the genocidal warlord enough, maybe they'll stop killing people and I won't need to oppose their despotic regime." I haven't seen it work very often.

[in_the_cracks]

That seems an easy requirement to meet...

Ah, right. They do love to think they're different. That's what happens when people feel immune to the threat, I suppose.

[kohi_no_tora]

It is possible to be friends with someone you have to act against, but the end results are rarely pretty and how bad things get are more or less directly proportional to the stakes involved.

Believe me... I speak from experience having watched just such a relationship from the sidelines.

[in_the_cracks]

I don't doubt you.

How bad was that one? If you don't mind my asking.

[kohi_no_tora]

It was pretty damn bad. They came within a hair's breadth of killing each other and the fight leading up to that moment was, from what information I saw on the cockpit recorders later, just brutal.

They eventually did reconcile but only after behind the scenes politics brought them around so they were on the same side.

[in_the_cracks]

That last part, I would expect. I'm surprised they were the greatest threat to each other, though.