( open ) I can hear the sound of a heartbeat before it goes out

[politicians]

WHO: Elrond + Anyone, open and closed starters
WHAT: Elrond doing his best to cope + Activities around Thorne and the Horizon
WHERE: Thorne + The Horizon
WHEN: April.
WARNINGS: N/A for now

( prompts will be listed in the comments! )

Comments

[northerndragon]

[He nods -- a very small nod, but there is conviction in it.]

If you do not fight to give people a chance at life, where's the point in it? I thought to fight for glory as a boy, but I was wrong. There is nothing glorious in killing.

This execution they're planning... what do you think of it?

[politicians]

[ his expression tightens briefly, a strange look on a man who has always kept himself gentle and calm. ]

I do not see the point. It is merely punishment, not justice. The dead do not give absolution.

[northerndragon]

[He listens, frowning slightly. The situation is thorny.]

What is justice, then? In this situation?

I know why I voted to spare the acolytes. Why others did, I can't be sure.

[politicians]

Justice would be to make reparations. Or to allow for change.

[ he sighs. it is thorny. there are people he wouldn't offer such a chance to, but the idea of simply killing them in a public execution. it's vile. ]

I do not think killing someone without weapon in hand to the spectacle of all offers anything.

[northerndragon]

[He nods slowly, still frowning.]

I saw my first man beheaded when I was... can't say. A boy of six or seven years. It was the ancient custom of my father's people for the King in the North to do his own justice, then, when they were no longer kings, the Lords of Winterfell.

He thought that if you would condemn a man to death, you should do the killing yourself, and before you did it, you should look the man in the face and hear his words.

When they took his head, it wasn't like that, I'm told. My sister doesn't like to speak of it, but -- [A helpless shrug. Who would?]

[politicians]

I have fought in a war. I understand the necessities of this.

But to commit to this, after the bloodshed . . . I do not believe it serves any purpose other than to prove one's power over another.

And that is no way to establish peace.