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. ]
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". ]
[ 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. ]
[His text goes for long enough without a response that Accelerator actually assumes John is just leaving him on read. Which is fine, whatever, he doesn't take it personally. He's being kind of a jerk about Harold, and he's fully aware that John cares a lot about Harold, so it wouldn't be weird for him to do that.
So he's surprised to see a text come in. He almost isn't sure if he should respond to that himself. He knows he isn't going to change John's mind, he isn't looking to do that. He just keeps thinking about how Harold expects the world from people (people like himself) and how people (people like himself) can never live up to insane expectations like that, because people (people like himself), more often than not, are at best shitty and at worst complete monsters.
After a few minutes, he settles on something.]
Expecting someone to do the best thing is fucking unrealistic.
[ John doesn't disagree. Harold has a lot of unrealistic expectations for what people will do. He just wouldn't want Harold to be any other way. And yet... and yet sometimes it works. Sometimes it works. Sometimes there are people like John who rise to the occasion, who think they'll do something terrible and walk back from that edge instead. He remembers Jennings, Benton, people who he would have put in the ground before and not lost much sleep, but at the last second, especially with Jennings, he stopped. He didn't do that. He chose another path. Even though Harold expected him to kill Jennings he didn't, and he didn't because Harold had asked him to be a different person and John had realized that he could do it. Without Harold's belief he never would have found his way back. ]
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Did you put your gun safety lessons to use?
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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.
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[ 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. ]
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[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?
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[ Actually he thinks the train sucked a lot, but he's pretty firmly in the camp of "not my problem". ]
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I agree with that last part, but "needed some improvements" is an understatement.
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[ John isn't, and he's fairly sure Accelerator isn't either. ]
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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.]
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[ So he can stay away. ]
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[Come on, he has to ask.]
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He cares about people, he's not an idealist.
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[ And Harold's resources are so vast that what he can do is significant, but it doesn't make him an idealist. ]
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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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So he's surprised to see a text come in. He almost isn't sure if he should respond to that himself. He knows he isn't going to change John's mind, he isn't looking to do that. He just keeps thinking about how Harold expects the world from people (people like himself) and how people (people like himself) can never live up to insane expectations like that, because people (people like himself), more often than not, are at best shitty and at worst complete monsters.
After a few minutes, he settles on something.]
Expecting someone to do the best thing is fucking unrealistic.
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Sometimes people prove him right.