Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-6533159-20151015224111/@comment-24891101-20151018042710

I understand. I speak of temperament. To dedicate oneself to monster-slaying requires a commitment to physical fitness, considering that's your career, just as any other discipline requires one become proficient. One doesn't need a meticulously-planned timeline to have some idea of what one's job will be like after college, after all. In the case of a Hunter, that's years of physical fitness. If they care at all about it, they'd take precautions, especially for something as stupidly easy as contraception. Lots of couples do this, even in fields which don't require physical fitness. Because parenthood derails everything and puts everything on hold.

Plus, this career choice requires a lot of dedication, by design, so that people getting into it can make sure they want to do this. There are combat high schools, graduation from which is a soft requirement for entry into a school of Beacon's caliber. This is a career that is literally deadly. Everyone who follows through on it has done a whole lot of introspection to make sure this is what they really want. The possibility of death will do that. This is a career more deadly than being a soldier, because wars aren't on all the time, and not everyone gets deployed to a combat zone. Every Hunter will wind up in a combat zone. That's what they're paid to do. Everyone who graduates Beacon knows and assumes the risks, and judges it worth it. There's a reason Hunters are rare; few people are willing and able.

Why then, would a couple throw away their ambition and career, just starting out, to have kids? They'd take precautions. Remnant, as a culture (or at least what we've seen of Hunter culture) is very big on personal responsibility and accountability. One makes one's way on one's own merits. And while the phenomenon of people pairing off and having kids early is well-documented in wartime and other similar situations, this is not a passing phase for them. This is their life. They are inured to this possibility. This is part of their education. They have the responsibility to themselves and others to not take stupid risks. They have been trained and held accountable for their own actions for their entire college career.

Even the blithest, most carefree of spirits, by virtue of being a Hunter, by virtue of education, acculturation, and indoctrination, has at their core grim purpose and a well-developed sense of personal accountability. The spectre of death will do that.

Accidents happen. But they are just that.

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Forgive me. That rather got away from me.