Ask Aklon

[BigRob]

Mayg: Oh good, she's drunk. Hello again, Aklon! I was wondering, seeing as you appear to be a fellow intellectual, if I could ask you something of a philosophical question. If someone has the misfortune to be born to someone who could be appropriately described as purest evil, does that mean that the child is born with evil that they must overcome, or are they the same as any other youth with no direction?

 

Aklon: Many traits are passed between parent and offspring. Face, form and disposition are all among them, or so I have observed. Rare is the red dragon who gives kindness instead of death and many a child follows in the footsteps of a parent. If a child were born of the purest evil, then one might suspect that a certain disposition for evil would be born into the child, the influence of their other parent, if they had another parent, notwithstanding.

 

Yet a being is not always like their parents. How often have great rulers been followed by inept fools? I believe that, ultimately, all can choose for themselves what they will do and what they will be. What we are is more important than what we might be, do you not think?

 

 

Mayg: It has been said that strange situations make strange bedfellows. *ahem* On more than one occasion, I have been forced to rely upon someone who I did not really trust in order to survive. Have you ever been in a similar situation, and how did you handle the ensuing guilt?

 

Aklon: I have been in such situations more often than I would like, but as you say, strange situations make strange bedfellows. In one case though, I ended up making great friends through being forced to rely on people I did not know or trust.

 

But you speak of guilt afterwards, so perhaps you speak of being forced to rely on someone you suspect of being evil, or likely to betray you outright? I would prefer to trust myself and whatever slim chance I might have than someone who I believe will betray me, so have never been in that situation. I have had to trust someone evil though, in order to survive.

 

(Aklon shrugs) I tried to minimise the harm I did to others through that trust, but sometimes, one must simply live with the things that happen in one's life.

 

 

 

Mayg: (glances at Kyoko) And finally, can you recommend a quick way of sobering up someone who just drank six pitchers of winter wine? I do NOT wish to travel with a hung-over Kyoko.

 

Aklon: (Aklon raises an eyebrow) Six pitchers? Unless your sister has a stomach of iron, the first thing I suggest we do is get her to throw up whatever is left inside so we can get her some water. I would not reccomend trying to sober her up immediately, though I do have one or two things that will keep her hangover from being too severe, unless you prefer she sleep for the day.