Dimitri resisted the urge to sigh in disappointment at Kassy's lack of shock from his movement. It was to be expected sure, but the exaggerated response from her took the wind out of his sails for all of one nanosecond before he speared a cucumber with his fork. The hero listened to his companion as he nibbled at the item half heartedly before he placed the fork down, still not all that thrilled with eating any sort of vegetable despite his awareness of the nutritional value. "Well, that's what we've got the death penalty for. Unfortunately as you said, the world is a strange place. I can wallop on thugs all day non-lethally and more will crawl out of the woodwork, which means people complain that i'm not doing all that I can, yet the moment I resort to a method I know puts fear, real fear into a crook, people complain because I don't have the law backing me. It's like the world's shittiest balancing act.".
Dimitri felt a bit of tension build in the muscles where his prosthetic met flesh, something he remedied by sitting back and rolling his arm a bit as he prepared to continue furthering his point, "The weirdness of our planet and its people aside, i've sorta come to believe that sometimes you've gotta be willing to become the enemy to do what needs to be done, because at some point the lines are going to get blurred no matter how hard you try to avoid it. You know why? Because there are always going to be people out there that leave you with no other options but to sink to their level. And if you aren't willing to do that, then they will snuff you out.".
Dimitri's eyes bored into Kassy's as he raised his prosthetic limb again and allowed its metallic surface to catch the light of the setting sun, "We've both met people like that before Kassy. We met them, and we learned first hand what happens when you don't want to blur the line.". Dimitri's expression changed quite drastically, he was almost always scowling as if angry at the world for having the gall to exist, but this was different: Dimitri's mouth twisted into an aggressive -almost primal- sneer, his eyes bore a cold intensity that bordered on murderous as he stared not at Kassy, but rather through her as he recalled his final encounter with Slade and Kijani.
Even after several years he still vividly remembered the taste of dust and blood in his mouth, and the sensation of pain wracking his body as he battled Slade in the decimated remains of the hotel room he and Kassy had shared. He'd never told Kassy this, but he was certain that he could have finished both of his aggressors off with his decimation attack, but that he'd chosen not to knowing that it would have killed her alongside Slade and Kijani. Not once did he ever blame his partner, nor hold it against her, but there was still that one little part of him that wondered; should he have gone all out? The bionic hand began to open and shut slowly "Some days...I can still feel it. Like it was never gone..." Dimitri muttered as he remained lost in memory.
Somehow sensing something was a bit off with Dimitri, Regis crawled over to the hero and began climbing up Dimitri's leg. It took a few seconds, but the sensation of something skittering on him snapped Dimitri out of his daze, his expression quickly returning to normal. After realizing that he'd zoned out in front of Kassy, Dimitri quickly made a move to shut down any concerns she might have had for his lapse of focus. Which is to say, he folded his arms and snorted dismissively before haughtily announcing that sometimes you had to let a criminal, as he put it, 'eat shit on the pavement'.
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