Aedan nodded. "It seemed like at home, I was in a lot more actual trouble most of the time. I'd get hauled back up to the palace by the guard or by an annoyed merchant, or piss off a tutor and get the lecture and what followed that was never verra pleasant." He flexed his hands involuntarily there, wincing at the memory of Starkhaven's version of handling a thieving heir.
"But it was a medieval society so it wasn't as though we were as advanced in the way of anything like THAT, there. You fucked up, you could count on swift violence visited upon your person. Here, I can count on one hand the number of times Da felt the need to make his point as sharp as THAT. I get self destructive sometimes, and let's say fifteen through eighteen were the height of THAT brand of my bullshite."
He didn't know that he was any less self destructive these days, but he wasn't advertising that fact to his family, even if he was properly too old now anyway. He'd no doubt Sebastian would find other ways to combat THAT if pressed.
"So we're talking...Batman and Catwoman? Though I guess if I'm being fair, Catwoman seems more doing her own thing, so...Batman and what's her face, Thalia? Or....Black Widow and Doctor Doom?"
He grinned. "Stop me if I'm being offensive on that front."
The rest had him falling more contemplative.
"That does sound a LOT like how our mages got treated by the world at home. Like freaks and worse...before my sister was born...they locked mages away. That changed at home, eventually, when the Divine...the head of the chantry...uh our church got replaced, but people still, ESPECIALLY the chantry, can be awful about it. Elle had some tutors who didn't treat her well after she learned, who made her feel it, princess or no. It sounds like a hard life. But sometimes, some freak stuff...it's not SAE bad."
So saying, he extended his left hand. With his blade detached from the show and being around the house, the missing finger was impossible to ignore.
"Mine's a small freak thing, and I've others that you wouldn't tell to look at me but if it helps to know I've got SOME anyway..."