Words between Cabalmates

[Avis]

"That's the same path you took in life," Avis said, slowly rotating her bottle of ginger beer between her fingers. "You wanted to be a teacher. You wanted to uplift, to enlighten, but instead you chose the path of the enforcer. You made a choice that you thought no one else wanted to make. Did that make you feel special? Did that make you feel like you had value? More value than if you'd dedicated yourself to educating people? I guess we'll never find out, but let me say a few things.

"If you wanted to make the world a better place, strapping on a gun isn't the only option. Taking up a book and a piece of chalk in a classroom also fights crime. Giving people tools to find other ways to live is also Just. Probably more just than destroying misguided lives. But, instead of doing that you chose the path of conflict. Then, years later, you join the Awakened Nation and you choose a path that you feel no one else is willing to walk. In other words, you chose the path that you felt people were most conflicted about. But you know what? The Guardians aren't the most conflicted. It's easy to say 'It doesn't matter what I do because I'm sacrificing myself.' It's easy to make that excuse.

"But you know what's hard?" Avis asked, leaning forward. "To walk the path between sacrifice and creation. To walk between life and death. To kill, but not to lose your soul. That's the path of the Adamantine Arrow, and, I think, that path could be yours, too. If you choose it. Because conflict calls to you, and no one knows conflict better than the Talons of the Dragon."

[Avis]

"Do you believe that death is the only thing you can bring to this world?" Avis returned, arching an eyebrow at the man across from her.

"Maybe I missed something, but it seems to me that when you talk about 'doing what no one else wants to do' that only involves killing people. The thing is, though, you're not the only one that has to take life. Do you remember when we played that round of 'two truths, one lie' when Varyx joined? Well, one of my truths was that I found my favorite shampoo when I had my arms around someone's neck. Well, I wasn't talking about Star. I was talking about a Master of Space that I strangled to death to protect my cabal," Avis explained, her voice strangely calm.

"I accept that I chose to do it, not that I had to, and I accept that by doing so, I also jeopardized more than just my own health. Because we're not lone fonts of the Supernal. We're like wells, and if we're poisoned, so is the rest of the groundwater. That's why we have to find a balance. A way to do what needs to be done, but without destroying ourselves, and everything that we're working for. "

[Avis]

"Well, tell me, what hard decisions have you made that aren't about killing? And what's the point in doing anything if you don't know why it's being done?" Avis countered, hoping that July would bear with her for just a bit longer. Ironically, though she was trying to show him that he was more than just a hammer in a world of nails, she was, herself, hammering away at him. Hopefully, he'd see that it wasn't coming from a place of spite. That it was coming from a place of concern. But, perhaps she going about it wrong. Perhaps she had to offer him something more than an interrogation.

"Just think about this: when you first picked up a badge, it was to fight injustice. To enter into a War, but not just one that relied on murder. It was also a War of Ideals. In order to be anything besides a thug with a gun you had to Honor the Oaths you'd sworn and uphold the ideal of Service to your community. The Adamantine Arrow recognizes all of those things. That is exactly what we are: warriors that seek to balance in Conflict, that seek Mastery in Service, that find enlightenment and truth through action that matches our ideals and intentions, who are adaptable, and who realize that in order to find victory we have to be better than our enemies. We have to protect our souls or we Lose, no matter how many enemies we've brought low. Because then we would have become just like them, and what we sought to build would be lost."

[West]

Hitting a month and been nearly a week without a post -- Scene ends.