"Gamzee, if we were in a place like Alternia, you know you would want to make them act more according to Alternian law. We still wouldn't be equal, with what you're saying. Only they would be the ones that are trodden on, and we would be on top, and that still wouldn't be right no matter how you try to justify it. What the Guardians are trying to do, to integrate us into a world that's not ours with the intent of letting us all live here on equal ground, that's what I want to hope for. And if maintaining something more peaceful than what we're used to is the way to do it, then yeah, that's what I'm gonna go with. I don't care if it's human shit. Human shit is what's allowed me to survive. The system here has given me more of a chance than I ever would have had if we were home. Even if you hadn't been the one assigned to cull me, it still would have happened, one way or another, because I was not viable. But now I am. So no, I'm not trying to bow under human ways or take anything up way too hard. I'm just trying to live in the only way that I know I have a chance. If you're not happy with that then...then what am I supposed to do? Just trade everything back? Because you don't think that we should live this way?"
Tavros stood, picking up Tink to use as a comfort object to try and even out his voice, which had started to rise in pitch and quake the longer he spoke. He pressed his nose against the top of her head when she squeaked at him, starting to pace slowly. "You're living on rules that aren't exactly viable here, Gamzee. By your logic, I'm letting myself be a slave to them and their laws. The them that you hate so much, they're not the ones that made the rules that we live under. If they were, I wouldn't be alive and you wouldn't be around to help me. You probably would be around at all. You and Equius both, you would have been locked away and never released because you would be deemed insane and he'd be a terrorist and nobody would listen to anyone lobbying for you."
"I'm not saying that you owe me anything," he continued, standing on the other side of the room and looking back at Gamzee. "You did so much by yourself. You have a life here, under the rules that allow us to actually coexist, in spite of that culling urge, that whisper in your blood that makes you want to enforce laws that aren't even a thing here. You can't take down anyone. It's not your responsibility. Not anymore."
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Tavros stood, picking up Tink to use as a comfort object to try and even out his voice, which had started to rise in pitch and quake the longer he spoke. He pressed his nose against the top of her head when she squeaked at him, starting to pace slowly. "You're living on rules that aren't exactly viable here, Gamzee. By your logic, I'm letting myself be a slave to them and their laws. The them that you hate so much, they're not the ones that made the rules that we live under. If they were, I wouldn't be alive and you wouldn't be around to help me. You probably would be around at all. You and Equius both, you would have been locked away and never released because you would be deemed insane and he'd be a terrorist and nobody would listen to anyone lobbying for you."
"I'm not saying that you owe me anything," he continued, standing on the other side of the room and looking back at Gamzee. "You did so much by yourself. You have a life here, under the rules that allow us to actually coexist, in spite of that culling urge, that whisper in your blood that makes you want to enforce laws that aren't even a thing here. You can't take down anyone. It's not your responsibility. Not anymore."