Mask Or Menace - IC Contact Post

[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.

Comments

[mysterioisthetruth]

Who's talking about Spider-Man. I'm talking about Peter.

[Yes, he's seeing them as two different entities. Not literally, but he is separating them in his mind. He's convinced Peter should abandon the Spider-Man concept, thinking he doesn't really want that responsibility and that he just wants to be a normal kid. Destroying Spider-Man is a goal, but not Peter - even though they really are completely linked so one affects the other. Or more specifically, he wants to destroy Spider-Man's image as a hero. Force Peter to stop. It makes sense in his own head...]

[helpdesk_hero]

Peter is Spider-Man. Spider-Man is Peter. They are as entwined as myself and Prodigy. As you and, apparently, the masks you insist you cannot function without. It's just depressing.

[mysterioisthetruth]

But he doesn't need to be Spider-Man. He's just a kid. Everybody needs to stop telling him he has this big responsibility to be the hero. Let the kid be a kid.

[So essentially he's encouraging lack of responsibility under the nicer guise of saying he should be himself and do what he wants without thought for others... Like Beck does.]

[helpdesk_hero]

No, it's not his big responsibility to be a hero, Quentin. But his choices are his own. And that's where you're different from him. How you know you're not a true hero. A hero fights, no matter the cost to themself. Do I wish that wasn't the path he was on? Yes. But I think he could no more accept standing by than I could. Than I can.

[mysterioisthetruth]

So you think you have to help people, no matter what the personal cost?

That sounds... harmful.

[helpdesk_hero]

That's what makes the difference between heroes and those that play at it, Beck. We are self-sacrificing.

[mysterioisthetruth]

And what does that get you in the end? Glory after you're dead?

[helpdesk_hero]

Lives saved.

[That's what matters. More than anything.

[mysterioisthetruth]

But once you're gone who saves everybody else?

[helpdesk_hero]

The next person? The government? A hero? A bystander. It doesn't matter. The lives I save now are the important thing.

[mysterioisthetruth]

That sounds very much like only living for the now and not planning for the future. Is that really the best way to live?

[helpdesk_hero]

You plan for the future, but you plan for the world continuing. For people you love. For the people who come next. You plan to keep the world moving!

[mysterioisthetruth]

And what if there isn't anyone you love?

[helpdesk_hero]

Do you love the world, Quentin? All the Earth has? Do you love movies and plays and the taste of fresh fruit in the morning with your breakfast? Isn't that worth protecting? If not for yourself, if not for people you love, than for people who you don't hate?

[mysterioisthetruth]

[He frowns thoughtfully.]

And what if I don't want to make an actual dying sacrifice and lose all of that for myself? What if I want to give to the community by continuing to work on my tech for their benefit instead of going down in a blaze of glory - to let everybody else pick up the pieces.

You're implying the only way to be heroic is to self sacrifice for the now instead of helping more people over decades. While that might make a good show and a great story, I don't believe that's the way it needs to be for myself.

[helpdesk_hero]

Then don't be a hero. Be a scientist. Be a researcher. Be something else. To be a hero is to accept that you're putting your life on the line for others.

[mysterioisthetruth]

That is a very limited definition of a hero, David.

[He picks up a slice of pizza.]

[helpdesk_hero]

It's the definition of a super hero. Which is what you're pretending to be.

[mysterioisthetruth]

I have real powers. I am a superhero.

[As if that's all it really takes.]

You can't just call someone a pretend superhero when they haven't yet sacrificed themselves for the world.

[helpdesk_hero]

No, Quentin. Superheroes are the whys of what they do. Not the powers. And you don't do it for people.

[mysterioisthetruth]

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.

[He says dismissively and eats his pizza.]

[helpdesk_hero]

[Oh well. He shrugs and, having finished his salad, he stands.]

I suppose we will. But I need to get home. There's a lot to plan before Thanksgiving.

[mysterioisthetruth]

[He looks disgruntled.]

What am I going to do with two and a half spare pizzas?

[helpdesk_hero]

I couldn't even eat a quarter of one on my own. But...

[Well, he's got to think of something.]

I could take some home with me? I've got house mates.

[mysterioisthetruth]

At least take one. I bought them for you.