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Did you stay out of trouble?

How the hell am I supposed to answer that?

Is that a "no"?

That's a "I was assigned to Sprawl, that rioting broke out, and I had a gun and a couple of kids to protect."

I'm sure you can put two and two together.

So, no.

Did you put your gun safety lessons to use?

I shouldn't be surprised you're asking that and not "how many people did you kill?"

Yes. I didn't point it at anyone I wasn't intending to shoot, I used the safety, and I kept my finger off the trigger unless I was ready to shoot.

And I take the damn thing apart to clean it regularly.

Sometimes using a gun is necessary. Using it responsibly is the important part.

[ He doesn't really care how many people Accelerator killed. John knows enough about him to know a body here or there isn't going to significantly change how many people he's killed or injured. And he's not personally equipped to handle Accelerator being upset about killing people, so he's definitely not asking. ]

The only people who got shot were the people I wanted to shoot.

[Which is... whatever. It's a drop in the ocean that is his kill count. It's fine.]

What was your impression of that fucking train?

Needed some improvements but mostly not my business. We completed the mission, what they do next is their problem. The kind of change they need is bigger than that.

[ Actually he thinks the train sucked a lot, but he's pretty firmly in the camp of "not my problem". ]

Holy shit, that's the total opposite opinion of Talis.

I agree with that last part, but "needed some improvements" is an understatement.

Who?

New guy who was really serious about saving everyone and fixing their fucked class structure. He wanted my opinion on his ideas.

Some people are idealists.

[ John isn't, and he's fairly sure Accelerator isn't either. ]

[Absolutely not.]

Yeah, that's what he is. I think he's really sensitive too, so it's a bad combination.

[The way he had reacted to learning about Academy City's whole deal was very telling.]

What's his full name?

[ So he can stay away. ]

Jayce Talis. That's his username, too.

Thanks, I'll make sure to stay out of his way.

Wow, can't even stand to tolerate one idealist?

Not if I can help it.

What about Finch?

[Come on, he has to ask.]

[ What about Finch. ]

He cares about people, he's not an idealist.

He shares some qualities with idealists. You can't deny that.

There's a difference between wanting the best for people and thinking you can do it. He does what is realistic.

[ And Harold's resources are so vast that what he can do is significant, but it doesn't make him an idealist. ]

He also tends to think the best of people even when they aren't good. It's idealistic of him. He should lower his expectations.

[ John has to think on this for a while. It doesn't sound quite right to him though he can't put his finger on why. He takes a long time to respond. He could have just walked away to do something else but instead he was thinking about what Accelerator said. He only replies (almost an hour later) when he's confident about it. ]

No, he expects people to do the best thing when confronted with it.

[ And he is disappointed, often, by the people they encounter. But his persistence in his belief that people can do good is part of what makes him Harold Finch. It's part of what makes him so special. It's one of the reasons why John follows him unerringly. John would never ask or want him to change that; he'll just do everything in his power to protect him when things go wrong. ]

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