[D13 LM] Checking the Debris

[Jiyo Ayumu]

"I never really concerned myself with pride. The brawn just helps when you gotta deal with bandits or when you gotta haul stuff. Pride'll get you killed though. Easier to just let stuff go if you can afford to."

"I'm not a prideful person myself, but I'm trying to also not fall in the fallacy of false modesty. There are things we are good at, and we must not be afraid to state it clearly, so the others know they can count of us for those things.

And I'm curious about what you put into the category "cannot afford to let go even if it means risking your life"."

[Taochusu]

"Depends on what it is you won't let go of. If it's something that can be replaced and you're just being stubborn then it's just stupid. If it's something you just can't replace cause it's unique or got personal meaning then that's something I have risked my life and killed for."

[Jiyo Ayumu]

Ayumu cocked his head:

"Aren't all sentient living beings unique and irreplaceable?"

[Taochusu]

"Yeah," he says with a shrug. "But that don't mean they don't do things that get them killed. Sometimes what gets them killed is crossing the wrong person for the wrong reason. We all make our choices. I've made decisions that have almost killed me and only survived by luck. The world ain't a perfect place and people aren't perfect. Much as I don't want to hurt people when I think about it, if you push me over the edge I'll stop thinking about it. I think most people have that breaking point, especially people that have had to fight just to survive."

[Jiyo Ayumu]

"Are these limits, these tipping points that absolute though? I've seen people that used to be focused on their own survivals evolve into people ready to sacrifice themselves for others."

[Shinjo Koyama]

"Pride is seeing value in wha yer. Thir's hee haw wrong wi' that. How come bide if ye think ye'r worthless?" Koyama mused.

[Taochusu]

"I'm not saying a person ain't capable of that. I'm saying that most people are capable of killing for their own reasons. Dying for someone else is different. Folks can be capable of both at the same time. I'd have died to save my mother if I could have, but I have killed to get my mother's guqin back after it was stolen," he replies.

"And when all you do is survive as an animal would for years, you don't really see yourself as any more valuable than those animals you hunt. Since your only value is to yourself. You live like an animal long enough and you start feeling like one."

[Shinjo Koyama]

"If ye think animals dinnae hae pride, stick aroond mair aroond xiao bao, mah auld raccoon dug companion." Koyama folded his hands and looked back to where the animal was. It certainly was there somewhere, scouring the ruins according to his own agendas.

[Taochusu]

"Pride ain't the same as confidence though. Peacocks got pride, bear's got confidence, and a lion's got both. I live more like a bear. Do what I gotta do to live my life and don't worry too much about what other's think. It doesn't need to prove itself, it just relies on what it knows to get by. No pack to keep in line, don't worry about preening, and only ever concerns itself with food and it's young if it has them."

[Jiyo Ayumu]

"You're a strange bear then, as you followed a pack of various animals up to the gates of hell and this very plain, where food isn't exactly aplenty."