un: aquila

[leitstern]

Name: Jasper
Date: 12/21 [Forward-dated]
Format: Text

[Come the evening of the 21st, a message pops up in words and sentences. Not a single letter is out of place. The script is formal and almost designed for an audience.]

It is a truth unfortunate that joyous times bring out those villainous souls who prey on the citizenry.

Bandits and cutpurses. Thieves who steal and contribute nothing. Should it be illegal to transmogrify those vermin into forms more suited for their crimes?

[The message falters for a moment; its sender considering his own question. Would he curse such boorish people? Yes. Would he were it illegal? Well, he ignores the fact he might have done so and continues.]

Rats, perhaps?

There is poetic justic in such literal representation if nothing else.

[This is all hypothetical. Clearly.]

Comments

voice; un: crow

[crowsfeat]

[ A snort. ]

That depends on if you're targeting the actual thieves of the world.

Pickpockets and cutpurses take very little, and often only out of desperation, compared to those who steal from the tables of the masses, after all. Would you dare turn your curses upon the ruling class, I wonder?

[leitstern]

[Fortunately one cannot see him grit his teeth.]

Absolutely. I hardly considered it incompatable with my office to bereave the gentry of their delusions of grandeur. It was my duty to uphold order, though I cannot pretend I punished them in similar fashion.

I hope that answers your question.

[crowsfeat]

You didn't punish them the same?

That figures...

[ But something about her tone suggested she wasn't exactly blaming him for it. While constables were tools of the state, she knew their hands were often tied by that same relationship, unwillingly so. ]

[leitstern]

Not in the manner you imagine. Dissimilar hardly implies they escaped with a slap on the wrist, does it not?

[His own relationship with the state, well that is a story for another time.]

[crowsfeat]

I'm not one to take strangers at their word, usually. Force of habit.

[ Habit of survival. ]

[leitstern]

I wish I could say the opposite to be contrary, but I have to say I should be the same. It would be a misfortune otherwise. Better we remain ahead of the game, is it not?

[crowsfeat]

That you call it a "game" at all is a marked difference in our perspectives, lad.

[ A small, chuckle-like sound, but it seemed... hollow. There was no mirth to it. More like a nervous tick, than anything. ]

[leitstern]

[Hm. Interesting.]

You are correct, I must admit. All the world is hardly so gentle and good; and unfortunately I cannot perceive what is good the same as most people. But no matter. Should everyone think the same that same world would be so tiresome.

[He cannot even claim he thinks the same as a person. But that is a story for another time.]

[crowsfeat]

Perhaps... But I still prefer my outlook, if it's all the same to you.

What's more, I'm too old to go changing it now.

[leitstern]

That must mean you have a lifetime of experience.

But I am hardly a man who pries. Your business is your own.

[And by extension so is his own.]