☀️ Arselia and Akonia

- So, are you feeling better? - Beata asked quietly, taking the empty cup from Gion. - Yes, thank you, - he grimaced, settling more comfortably in bed, - but I don't think I have the strength to get to "Constellation." Maybe it's for the best. I don't really want to watch children burning. What exactly does Her Highness have in mind? - As far as I understand, Ayko doesn't really want to watch children burning either, - Beata shrugged, - and I don't think any of us really want to. Not even me. It just feels...unsportsmanlike, somehow. - Nevertheless, if things are really as bad as they seem, I have no doubt that you would shoot without hesitation. Like back then in... - Oh, don't remind me, - Beata shuddered, - I'm still not sure I did the right thing. If they had been adults... - If they had been adults, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And if that makes you feel better, we probably saved a few more lives. It was a terrible place, - Gion grimaced at the memory. - We saved our lives, and that's what will comfort me the most. But still. Adults are adults; they have been consciously following the path of depraved individuals for a long time and don't want to change anything. It's almost enjoyable to kill them. But children depend on their environment. Children always have a better chance of being reformed. You know, if I had been picked up by a lonely millionaire who dressed up in a bat costume and fought crime at night instead of a traveling circus when I was a child, maybe I would have grown up to be a completely different person. - Yeah, and I would have been rotting away in slavery under the Darkmooners. Thanks a lot. - And you would have been testing some new flying machine for the army - not a dirigible, but something like a bird - and you would have found a dying foreigner who would have given you a magical green ring! - Why does it have to be green? - I don't know, it's a pretty color. - You're such a dreamer... - It was very boring in prison, so I made up all sorts of stories, - Beata smiled. - Well, since you like green so much, you could come up with a story where you dress in green and wield your crossbow. Also green. - And since you're so gloomy and chirping at me, in this story you would be wearing black and breaking windows with your chirping. - Deal! (Someone, please take the DC Comics collection away from Koshi.)