[ “I personally did not murder this child’s parents” doesn’t fly for a kid whose family got caught in crossfire and then trained in a military organization that at least nominally recognizes proportionality obligations, but more pressing: ]
You don’t get to make a mess and then blame them if they can’t survive it!
[ He keeps it to a strangled hiss, but it gets a girl to stir, and Shinn kneels to pat her back. This isn’t a particularly graceful maneuver; Shinn was only a few years older than his sister, so remembering how to deal with really small kids requires both racking his memory and awkwardly translating a little boy’s gestures of reassurance to a teenager’s body. But his hand is steady and light, and, with an effort, he’s actually decent about keeping his voice slow and calm as he murmurs to the girl. ]
Sorry. You’re okay.
[ For now, anyway. And when the kid reaches out sleepily in acknowledgment, Shinn lets her take his hand and keep holding it. He’s back to being baleful when he glances up at Set again, but none of it is for the kids, and he's back to keeping his voice low. ]
What you’re teaching them is that they can let people die when they’re inconvenient. That’s not creating a gentle world, that’s screwing everyone up.
If you want them to be gentle and better, then you be gentle and better – when it’s hard, not just in “downtime.”
[ Shinn knows he has a mixed record on this, even putting aside that yelling isn't exactly gentle, but at least he’s trying and maybe improving. And he knows it’s not impossible to be gentle and effective because Kira does it somehow (at least when Kira isn’t having a mental breakdown) and Shinn would follow Kira to hell and back for it. ]
no subject
You don’t get to make a mess and then blame them if they can’t survive it!
[ He keeps it to a strangled hiss, but it gets a girl to stir, and Shinn kneels to pat her back. This isn’t a particularly graceful maneuver; Shinn was only a few years older than his sister, so remembering how to deal with really small kids requires both racking his memory and awkwardly translating a little boy’s gestures of reassurance to a teenager’s body. But his hand is steady and light, and, with an effort, he’s actually decent about keeping his voice slow and calm as he murmurs to the girl. ]
Sorry. You’re okay.
[ For now, anyway. And when the kid reaches out sleepily in acknowledgment, Shinn lets her take his hand and keep holding it. He’s back to being baleful when he glances up at Set again, but none of it is for the kids, and he's back to keeping his voice low. ]
What you’re teaching them is that they can let people die when they’re inconvenient. That’s not creating a gentle world, that’s screwing everyone up.
If you want them to be gentle and better, then you be gentle and better – when it’s hard, not just in “downtime.”
[ Shinn knows he has a mixed record on this, even putting aside that yelling isn't exactly gentle, but at least he’s trying and maybe improving. And he knows it’s not impossible to be gentle and effective because Kira does it somehow (at least when Kira isn’t having a mental breakdown) and Shinn would follow Kira to hell and back for it. ]