Originally Posted by
grampagen
Still standing some distance apart, Zaofan slowly shook his head.
"That won't do," he said, "How can you scrutinize the lives of other people if you don't know what it means to live yourself?"
Geez Banespell, where did you find this guy? This whole situation stunk, even for the Judge who could not escape this strange cycle of violence. If it had been a worse day, Zaofan might just had done him in, but now that he saw him for what he was, frankly it would be against his chef's code of personal honour.
The Sixth and Tenth Philosophies of Cooking: Nutrition of the mind and body is important, and Real Cooks...share and teach.
And coming down to the last call of the year on an advance meal ticket, to lose a guy like this with this conflicted mentality, it would be like hitting the pan with a dollop of butter and then taking the scallops off the gas mid-sear; something compelled him to prevent this issue from being a half-finished mess.
"The Forger trusted your judgment to find and prioritize his targets in the name of bringing his peace, well that didn't get you anywhere, especially with insufficient data. Well now, I'll give you a chance to re-evaluate your math or whatever," he said, wagging a finger before him. "But my help is not unconditional. You're going to have to do something for me, for all of us. If it's for the sake of saving the Universe, maybe we could use an...advanced sort of computer-mind."
At this point, he motioned for Jinzi to come over. "It's beyond me, but maybe my friend here can take a look at you, find the pieces of you that are missing. In return, you'll teach Wilhelm here how to operate that hand-cannon of yours, balance the scales."
He blew out a sharp exhale.
"Stick around for a while, and maybe you can figure out what your true calling is. I can tell you right now, it's got nothing to do with taking orders and doing someone else's work...but it's something more than snuffing out lives when there's another way of dealing with the circumstances."