Two [Video/Backdated to Event]: In Which Klaus Has Feelings Because Plurk Wanted It

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

[After talking to Ingrid, Klaus is feeling more than a little bit... off. For a man usually utterly unflappable, this sudden influx of ~feelings~ isn't usual or welcome.

He isn't a bad parent. He worked for years to make sure that his son was independent and strong. He did his very best to ensure that when, finally, one of the assassins actually hit their mark, Gil would be able to run the country efficiently. Wasn't that the important thing? Keeping Gil alive was far more important than keeping him happy. Dead children can't adore their fathers.

Only now, he's not so sure.]

I have a question for you, Prospero. An entirely hypothetical question.

Say there is a man. He is in charge of a country -- a large, volatile, war-torn country. He was welcomed as a savior when he first took power but almost immediately fell out of favor when he actually began to make decisions and it was discovered that he could not, in fact, please everyone. This man has a son.

He is, naturally, worried for his son's safety. He himself is the victim of several assassination attempts a month. He can handle them. A young child could not. Is it therefore acceptable for him to sever his ties with his child and keep the relationship a secret in order to protect the son and ensure that he grows up independent of the stress of being the heir to the throne, as it were? Especially considering that he did intend to tell him when he was old enough to handle it?

[Entirely hypothetical. Yes. SO HYPOTHETICAL BITCHES DON'T KNOW.]

Comments

[Video]

[toomanypetals.livejournal.com]

[YEAH RIGHT]

...You have a son?

[Video] 1/2

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

[STOP JUDGING]

This is a hypothetical situation, Kanda.

[Video] 2/2

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

...But yes. Yes I do.

[toomanypetals.livejournal.com]

Hn.

[He just... finds it interesting? idk.]

As for your question-- I wouldn't know. I have no family.

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

[Why is it interesting? Is it really so weird to think that abominations of science can get laid too?

... Don't actually answer that.]

Then think of it in terms of general ethics rather than personal experience.

[toomanypetals.livejournal.com]

...Tch. If it was me, I'd rather know right off. If he grows up independent of his responsibilities, and the dangers thereof, how is he expected to take them on when the time comes?

[genius-idiot.livejournal.com]

[Kaiji knows everyone's been spilling their guts out lately, so he wonders how hypothetical this is. That's not going to stop him from answering honestly.]

I think it's unfair for the kid not to know, whether you're the one who's raising him or not. He'll grow up with his own life, his own aspirations, only to have them taken away and replaced by a life he may not want.

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

Ah, but he was raised in such a way as to combat that. He was purposefully given a forged history that put him on the very bottom rung of the social hierarchy, thus forcing him to learn how to hold his own and fight his way to the top. He was educated with the sons and daughters of nobles as well as other orphans like himself, thus giving him a taste of the life of those in charge as well as the peasantry. And he was informed of his position when he entered university, several years before he was revealed to the world officially, giving him ample time to come to terms with his new role.

[IT WAS A GENIUS PLAN OKAY]

[toomanypetals.livejournal.com]

...So it's not a problem.

[Pause.]

Are you unhappy that you didn't get to spend time with him growing up?

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

[It is ENTIRELY HYPOTHETICAL WHY WOULD YOU THINK IT WAS ANYTHING BUT?!]

And if he is raised with a strong sense of duty and a sympathy to the needs of the country in which he resides, he should be able to set aside his own dreams for the good of all.

[Says a man who did just that and regrets it every day of his life. WHOOPS.]

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

[... no Kanda no shh that is entirely too far into the ~FEELINGS~ side of things nooooo]

... You could say that. I do not regret my decision to raise him as I did.

[Lies.]

Indulging myself and attempting to juggle the jobs of father, mentor and ruler all at once would have resulted in the same scenario, I feel, merely with more attempts on his life and further stigmatization by his peers.

[genius-idiot.livejournal.com]

Should he? How can you be so sure? It's not like he'd be raised in that environment. It'd be one hell of a shock. It's a shitload of pressure to put on a kid.

[toomanypetals.livejournal.com]

And a strong feeling of "this is where I belong", and seeing his father as someone to look up to and trust.

[Yeah no this plan doesn't fly with him.]

Speaking as someone who didn't have parents-- I would've rather had them and been in more danger. But tch. That's me.

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

There were precautions taken -- he was raised in the capital city, alongside both children of no parentage and children in the highest nobility. Vicariously, he was raised in the environment and shown what it was both to be in charge and be dependent on those in charge. The pressure may not have been his to begin with, but it was certainly a present factor in his maturation.

[genius-idiot.livejournal.com]

So why are you posing this "hypothetical" situation when the damage is already done? It sounds like you've already made the decision and what's done is done.

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

[K-kanda... Kanda no... why aren't you agreeing with him what is this strange, horrible place]

It just seemed selfish, to put his life in danger merely because I wanted a taste of a normal familial life. I wanted to give him a more... normal childhood. I suppose, in a country where the majority of children are orphans, my 'normal' may be a bit... skewed.

[Is he admitting that he's wrong...? MAYBE. NO. WHO KNOWS?]

[toomanypetals.livejournal.com]

It's time and interactions neither of you will ever be able to get back. Not saying it's all bad-- it probably worked. But family makes you stronger.

[WHO KNOWS. Kanda cherishes his makeshift not-really family very much, okay.]

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

I am posing this hypothetical question because the ethics behind it intrigue me.

[Lies lies lies he wanted asspats and validation.

Only he's not getting any of either. So he'll just. Gently steer the conversation elsewhere.]

We are faced with millions of choices every day. Clearly your choice in this situation would have been different than mine, favoring the happiness of an individual in the short term to the safety of an entire country's worth of people in the long term. Why is that, do you think?

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

I would not know. My family -- the few members that were left alive by the time I came along, that is -- was never particularly close.

[But you had two friends, didn't you? Two friends who were like brothers and made everything better. And the way you raised Gil, he didn't even have that.

Red fire you are a terrible father.]

[toomanypetals.livejournal.com]

Family doesn't have to be related by blood.

[He really is a horrible father.]

[myblimpisbigger.livejournal.com]

[The worst. Ever. And he's not even going to respond to that last thing Kanda said because he is so far past that now. Waaaaaay way past that and into the land of HORRIFYING EPIPHANY.]

He grew into what I set out to make him. How else was I supposed to achieve that? I couldn't coddle him and expect him to mature into the man he's going to have to be to run an Empire.

[GRASP AT EVERY STRAW!]

[video]

[needsteaplz.livejournal.com]

[You do realize when someone says its hypothetical, it obviously means they're talking about themselves or someone they know.]

I believe a child has a right to know about their birth parents. For this case, if the son knows his background, he has a better grasp with what's expected of him. How he decides to approach them is something only he can decide.

[nomammano.livejournal.com]

Well then how would we end up with great fighting masters or kings without powerful secret fathers abandoning their sons. It gives them a great destiny!

[Video]

[techno-logical.livejournal.com]

[Yeeeeeeep, COMPLETELY HYPOTHETICAL.

Anyway, have a line facing April, Klaus.]

No, I don't think it's fair. People have a right to know who their family is and it would've better prepared him for what's to come if he knew.

[toomanypetals.livejournal.com]

There's a term we have on my world-- it's called "parenting". Maybe you've heard of it.

[BURN]

You don't have to coddle someone to raise them. Hell, even if you leave them in the exact same environment you grew up in, they won't walk away with the same knowledge you do. That's why elders are important-- to teach the young the mistakes and experiences that they went through.

[He knows this...abstractly. The only elder he respects even a little isn't really respectable.]