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

[leitstern]

I beg to differ. One should be a fortunate young man not to encounter a gentleman who would curtail his sticky fingers by paring them to the bone. People simply never admit this creative punishment is anything but arbitraty due to some outdated notion of fairness.

Not that it especially matters. My sympathies lie with the victim not the criminal. I wonder to the character of such persons who lean the opposite way.

[omnicrafter]

Take jabs at me all you like; it does not change my opinion that you, like many elite, need to gain some perspective. Morality isn't so black and white. Is it a bad thing, stealing? Yes, but it'd be lovely if no one had to steal to survive. My world is full of families like that. Mine was not one of them, but it damn well could have been if things had gotten bad enough.

I am a knight, but I have not forgotten where I came from.

sorry for delay. busy with christmas and moving home

[leitstern]

What a fine proclamation! Anybody would think you are playing to an audience. Though I should miss the rest of your performance as yours are words I have endured before.

Mayhaps it does not fall upon your shoulders to administer punishment. But regardless,at present it is clear your understanding of the solemn vow of knighthood is so different from mine.

Perfectly different on all matters, I dare say.

dw, it's December, totally understandable

[omnicrafter]

Perhaps because it's not the sort of knighthood you must be thinking of. I do not protect the sovereign, I protect the powerless. If you are the opposite, it stands to reason our philosophies would differ.

If that makes me a pariah in this world, so be it. I'm not about to make the lives of the refugees harder than they need to be.

[leitstern]

That is fair enough. But you can hardly complain when they make your life hard in turn.

[One can imagine him dropping the rodent before grabbing it by its tail. A lack of concern for the person beneath its skin.]

Not that you strike me as a wallowing sort. Though you seem willing to make your own life harder than it ought to be... for the right cause.

[omnicrafter]

...All right, yeah, I'll admit you've got me there. For better or for worse, that's just kind of how it's always been.

I'll be sure not to complain, then. I could easily just put the mantle down and step out of the way, but this is what I've chosen for myself. Though I confess, I've always been sort of a rebel when it comes to authority.

[leitstern]

Oh, you had a wild steak as a child, then? I must say that is entirely predictable.

I wager you made some poor soul's life a real mess.

[omnicrafter]

Had? I still have one, depending on who you ask.

Yeah, maybe a number of them. Messing people up is definitely something I'm good at. But being a total arse to people isn't something I enjoy doing most of the time, crass though I may be.

[leitstern]

[Now, now. If that isn't an underhanded dig at his attitude, what is?]

Well, should every soul be inclined to act austere, nobody would understand the value of clemency. One is quite as necessary as the other, friend.

[omnicrafter]

I suppose. But there is a balance to be struck, for certain. Cases that deserve mercy, and cases that definitely don't. To be sure, I've seen plenty of the latter as well as the former, even struck down my fair share of Ishgardian clergy acting out of abuse of power.

Clear perspective is important; being able to rotate yourself just enough to see someone else's point of view is a valuable skill.