[ you and i both, falco thinks. a fun time would be a festival or ice cream. anything related to death was horror. he presses his lips tightly together, because it was a hard topic to begin with. gabi had been one of those people, but it wasn’t just on her— he’d defend her. it was a mix of tendency, personality and where you’re brought up, how you’re raised. both falco and gabi grew up in the same environment, but their tendencies were vastly different. their personalities were.

he’s just glad there was time for change, and this wasn’t about gabi. he keeps her remorse tucked safely in his heart. ]

I don’t remember the times I’ve killed someone. [ he says it outright. ] And it wasn’t because they had to be punished . . . Never. They just— happened. Most were accidents.

[ including the most recently charred dipper. ]

There was only one time that I chose to fight, or else my friends would die, but I . . . Don’t remember that, either. [ it was his first shift and he had lost control, as all first timers do. but still, his expression falls. ] That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. I think about it all the time.

[ there’s one perpetrator behind that, and one alone. ]

War doesn’t give you too many options.