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[helpdesk_hero]

This is David Alleyne, I'm not available at the moment.
Please leave your name, contact information, and what this is regarding after the beep.

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[helpdesk_hero]

[Yeah, David... figured that. Sephiroth was far too capable to not have been involved in something serious. A soldier of some sort he expected.]

Sometimes that's how the world goes.

[unkindled_madness]

Sometimes, yes.

It has been a while, though.

[Monsters don't count, right?

He doesn't have to touch David, but the proximity makes it easier. He lifts his free hand, and a soft green glow washes over the cut, mending it.]

[helpdesk_hero]

[Of course they don't count. But he closes his eyes so the man can work, and is shocked by the pleasant tingle of healing energy.]

You know, I might have a secret power I didn't know about that is just finding people who can, and will, heal my stupid ass when I do something foolish.

[unkindled_madness]

An important power, considering you're otherwise lacking in an instinct for self-preservation.

[helpdesk_hero]

Hey!

[Just because a guy has died more than a few times doesn't mean he has no instinct for self-preservation.]

I usually don't resemble that remark!

[unkindled_madness]

You say that, but only one of us has never died.

[helpdesk_hero]

[Okay, really? David sighs.]

Everyone throwing a few small deaths in my face.

[unkindled_madness]

It is commonly seen as a significant failure.

[helpdesk_hero]

[David sighs in frustration at that. Sephiroth isn't wrong.]

I know plenty of people who have died a whole lot more times than I have.

[unkindled_madness]

You should aspire not to catch up with them.

[helpdesk_hero]

I couldn't catch up with Logan if I tried.

[Ain't that the truth.]</small. I don't want to die, Sephiroth. I swear it. I just... I want to protect people.

[unkindled_madness]

At the expense of your own life?

[helpdesk_hero]

I don't like dying. At all. So let's not pretend I seek it.

[unkindled_madness]

I don't mean that.

But you say it as though it's preferable to allowing harm to come to others.

[helpdesk_hero]

[Well... isn't it?]

I didn't sign up to be a super hero, but that's what I am these days. I have to take care of people.

[unkindled_madness]

...but is it what you want?

[helpdesk_hero]

[That's the question, isn't it?]

I want the people I love to survive all of this.

[unkindled_madness]

I believe the goal is to survive together.

[helpdesk_hero]

[yes, it is, and yet...]

I didn't grow up seeing that happen much.

[unkindled_madness]

Why should that have any impact on what happens now?

[helpdesk_hero]

[David... sighs.]

It's hard to not want to save them even at the cost of myself at this point. Because I can't handle losing them, burying someone else I love.

[unkindled_madness]

...is that how love is meant to work?

[It's an honest question, not a rhetorical one.]

[helpdesk_hero]

No. But it can be how fear works. And as a mutant, I'm full of that. Far too full.

[unkindled_madness]

Hm.

Perhaps you should work on that.

[Actionable advice!]

[helpdesk_hero]

[Yeah, he knows. David groans.]

Now you sound like Balthier.