[That was his first thought - and a second later he could've slapped himself for it. This wasn't supposed to be about Dio. It was about Kakyoin, and him, and the things that made them the same, their strengths and their fears both. Dio was an incidental this time, and that thought made him grimly pleased, because from everything he knew he was sure that that would drive him insane.]
[(Wasn't it true, though? That he would have loved it, taking a child and twisting him into something more like himself, and then realizing, halfway through, that there was a tool in that child that was perfectly reflective of his own manipulative intentions? Wouldn't he have laughed? Giorno knew he would have laughed, if he had had one ounce less luck, if he had stayed with his mother and stepfather for one month longer, if, if, if - and this was what they didn't understand, that it wasn't one aspect of himself that he feared, it was so many, things that if he looked at them sideways were direct in origin, easy to trace back to their roots. His roots.)]
[His expression flickered, like an old movie projected onto a hung-up bedsheet or a blank white wall, as he tried to settle on something, anything, to think, to say, to feel. In the end, what came out was a sigh; he pressed the tips of his fingers to his temples and rubbed small circles.]
Power . . . is just power. That's what I should say now. That power is only meaningful as it's wielded. A knife can cut the stems off a flower or gouge someone's eye out. Hands can hold or they . . . can strike out at something weak, and. Ah.
But that's shit, in this case. A Stand is not a knife. It's part of us. You know that better than anyone, so I'm not going to use a stupid argument on you in order to try to make myself feeling better about not being able to make you feel better.
I think you have a penchant for manipulation. I do. But I also know, from personal experience and from everything you or Jotaro have ever told me about you, that when you're in control of yourself, you use your ability to read and understand people in order to protect the people that you care about. When we met, do you remember, the night I arrived - you took one look at me and you knew exactly how to address me so that I would focus on you instead of Jotaro. So that I would see you as an equal; somehow you knew, too, that unless I saw you as an intellectual equal as well as a threat, I would ignore you and move on to the threat presented by Star Platinum, by Jotaro's fear. I don't think you even thought about it on a conscious level. You saw and understood and acted, and it was not only a right move, it was the only right move.
Being able to control people is a matter of degree. I control people all day, every day. Everyone does. It's part of being human. Where it goes wrong is when you do it solely for yourself, and I've never once seen you do that. I've never caught you even musing on it.
I'm not telling you not to worry about it. You should think about it. It's important to consider your actions and motivations always, whatever they are, because powerful people who aren't self-aware are very dangerous.
. . . That's it, really. That's where danger in power comes from. Selfishness, ignorance, and greed. Everything else - cruelty, sadism, callousness, a thirst for power, everything - it comes from one of those, or a combination. That's what I believe, anyway.
no subject
[That was his first thought - and a second later he could've slapped himself for it. This wasn't supposed to be about Dio. It was about Kakyoin, and him, and the things that made them the same, their strengths and their fears both. Dio was an incidental this time, and that thought made him grimly pleased, because from everything he knew he was sure that that would drive him insane.]
[(Wasn't it true, though? That he would have loved it, taking a child and twisting him into something more like himself, and then realizing, halfway through, that there was a tool in that child that was perfectly reflective of his own manipulative intentions? Wouldn't he have laughed? Giorno knew he would have laughed, if he had had one ounce less luck, if he had stayed with his mother and stepfather for one month longer, if, if, if - and this was what they didn't understand, that it wasn't one aspect of himself that he feared, it was so many, things that if he looked at them sideways were direct in origin, easy to trace back to their roots. His roots.)]
[His expression flickered, like an old movie projected onto a hung-up bedsheet or a blank white wall, as he tried to settle on something, anything, to think, to say, to feel. In the end, what came out was a sigh; he pressed the tips of his fingers to his temples and rubbed small circles.]
Power . . . is just power. That's what I should say now. That power is only meaningful as it's wielded. A knife can cut the stems off a flower or gouge someone's eye out. Hands can hold or they . . . can strike out at something weak, and. Ah.
But that's shit, in this case. A Stand is not a knife. It's part of us. You know that better than anyone, so I'm not going to use a stupid argument on you in order to try to make myself feeling better about not being able to make you feel better.
I think you have a penchant for manipulation. I do. But I also know, from personal experience and from everything you or Jotaro have ever told me about you, that when you're in control of yourself, you use your ability to read and understand people in order to protect the people that you care about. When we met, do you remember, the night I arrived - you took one look at me and you knew exactly how to address me so that I would focus on you instead of Jotaro. So that I would see you as an equal; somehow you knew, too, that unless I saw you as an intellectual equal as well as a threat, I would ignore you and move on to the threat presented by Star Platinum, by Jotaro's fear. I don't think you even thought about it on a conscious level. You saw and understood and acted, and it was not only a right move, it was the only right move.
Being able to control people is a matter of degree. I control people all day, every day. Everyone does. It's part of being human. Where it goes wrong is when you do it solely for yourself, and I've never once seen you do that. I've never caught you even musing on it.
I'm not telling you not to worry about it. You should think about it. It's important to consider your actions and motivations always, whatever they are, because powerful people who aren't self-aware are very dangerous.
. . . That's it, really. That's where danger in power comes from. Selfishness, ignorance, and greed. Everything else - cruelty, sadism, callousness, a thirst for power, everything - it comes from one of those, or a combination. That's what I believe, anyway.