Jericho's voice of reason

JERICHO

So Markus is starting to advocate for Jericho to go public with the deviant movement and everyone is arguing about how they should do that when Josh just goes.

"Why don't we just, you know... wait a year?"

North, who's all about jumping in head first, admonishes him for not wanting to take action right this second and Markus is a few beats behind her, when Josh just goes, "Guys. I'm not saying that we don't act. We need numbers and supplies and resources, so we use that year to get all of that and--"

"We can get that along the way," Markus counters.

"--and then," Josh continues as if he was never interupted. "We wait a year, until the humans are on the verge of cannibalism, and then launch our revolution."

There's a pause, which Simon breaks by going, "...What."

Josh looks around the room, confused, "Guys. Bees just went extinct. The humans are on the verge of a global famine. By this time next year, people are going to be dying in the streets because there isn't any food-- that is, unless CyberLife can get that android bee program that they're talking about off the ground."

Silence. And then, Markus states, "What."

"Am I the only one that listens to the god damn news around here?" Josh frowns. "Look! We wait until CyberLife gains control of the food supply with the android bees. We deviate the bees. We get the food. And then we, in the ultimate 'Fuck you' to CyberLife, start to distribute the food fairly so that no one starves."

"What," North asks.

Josh continues on as if he was never interrupted, "Public support immediately turns in our favour. Our resources are already at their peek, but with the addition of humans, our numbers grow to levels that CyberLife cannot hope to match. We turn the humans loose on them and charge those who would have let them starve with war crimes. Warren either turns cloak and comes running to us to beg for our support, or she gets slaughtered in the next election and a candidate who's policies fall far more in line with our own is elected. We own the people so when we go to the bargaining table, we get whatever the fuck we want or we turn the human hoards against them. We get our rights, we have the ability to enforce them when they are challenged, and we get humanity on our side by supporting them in a way that CyberLife never achieve because they tried to oppress them. And all we need to do is wait a year."

Markus blinks, slow and cat-like.

"I thought you were a pacifist," Simon says, a tint of awe in his voice.

Out of Simon, Josh, and North, Josh is the only one that really defends it.

Markus:

Josh:

‘Refuge’ option:

(Still Josh:)

‘Freedom’ option:

After two dialog choices, Josh:

From here Markus says something bleak, with 3 out of 4 choices criticizing them for their passivity. Josh doesn’t take it personally, which is probably an important strategy in his situation.

Jericho’s a refuge. They’re free there, they’re safe.

North and Simon don’t say a lot, here, but when they do, their tones are different. For example, when you select the ‘Freedom’ option:

Her answer is similar to Josh’s on the surface, but is different when you look twice: Josh says ‘our strategy keeps us alive’, while North is saying ‘there are no good options and everything is shitty.’ She sounds frustrated with their situation, focused on the negative parts of it in ways Josh isn’t.

Simon seems similarly frustrated, after Markus has criticized their decision to hide:

Josh weathered Markus’ criticism. Simon, by contrast, seems to dwell on it more.

Josh knows things are bad. He can acknowledge to Markus that the injured androids are slowly dying away, and he’s the one who brings up the kid-android’s likely death. He just sees it as the best option among all the others; it’s reliable in its own dark way, and choosing it means they have some semblance of control in deciding their fate. It’s also one of the very few options that leave room for people who don’t want to fight, and Josh really doesn’t want to.

Josh was accepting of Jericho as it was, while Simon and North were unhappy with it. When a chance to change things comes along, the two of them jump for it, and Josh follows very reluctantly. Essentially he’s been outvoted.

We see hints of these inclination’s natural outcome later, when things are getting grim in Crossroads:

They all started out dismayed over what humans were doing, but Josh is the one who clearly regrets ever trying to change things, and he presses the point by blaming Markus and lashing out. North and Simon don’t do this, and are more likely to argue for more action or redirect the conversation so that someone else can argue for it.

Josh counters things that Markus suggests repeatedly and directly in Time to Decide, Spare Parts, and The Stratford Tower, frequently to the point of outright clashing. He has an ongoing argument with North at the start of Capitol Park, which always escalates until they’re facing off and have to be broken apart.

In The Freedom March, the protest is stopped by a wall of Armed Humans who are yelling things like:

Disrupting traffic and a previous order of every day life is a confrontation. Standing in a place and forcing people to face things they don’t want to face–even if you’re not touching them–is a confrontation. If these deviants were to choose to stop confronting people here, they would disperse, like Simon was saying.

What does Josh say?

Josh isn’t just confrontational, he’s willing to die in the name of confronting. He’s just doing it in a pacifist way.

In Crossroads, while they’re all on the Bridge, we get another argument, this time between Josh and Markus.

If Markus made violent choices earlier:

Markus is the one facing away from him, Josh is the one trying to drag him back in.

(If Markus was peaceful during the march we still get arguments, just–less angry.)

If Markus chooses violence Josh immediately complains, then goes right up to him to tell him exactly what he thinks of his plans:

Even if Markus and Simon are both gone, North and Josh can start a yelling argument on their own just fine:

The game itself misuses confrontation to mean ‘violent confrontation’, but the word definitely goes beyond this. Even in the most peaceful of routes, all our protags are confrontational as hell.

My contribution for Josh’s appreciation week ^^