lydamorehouse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lydamorehouse) wrote2023-06-29 10:57 am
lydamorehouse) wrote2023-06-29 10:57 am
Entry tags:
Murder Hobos be Murdering
The moral question of ambushing a bunch of human bandits under the cut.
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June 29
Logging Camp in the Derlow Forest
Ceyan Empire
Dearest Idyril and Sierra:
Hana and the others are attempting to convince me that murder is okay when the people doing the dying are “bad.” Apparently, bandits are simply “asking for it,” by choosing their dastardly profession, but are they really? Did they choose this lifestyle? I can’t pretend to understand poverty, but isn’t this the sort of profession that desperate people turn to? Let’s just say that I’m pretty sure we just murdered a bunch of guys who were waking up and making breakfast and considering a fine day robbing the rich on the Emperor’s Highway.
Speaking of being able to survive because of one’s social standing, I considered leaving a diamond behind in case they had friends who might arrive in time, but… I liquified a guy’s face with Inflict Wounds, so, I mean, would he want to come back like that?
Such a mess. This whole thing was made worse by the fact that Rakke is clearly possessed by something, probably that new rapier he’s carrying around. He’s normally our stealth assassin (did I mention that Mother would love him?) but this time he was chortling as people died, shooting them at point blank in the throat, and calling for blood and destruction at the top of his lungs.
I couldn’t help but feel a little ooged out by it all. Like, it’s hard to feel good about a well-placed crack to the head, when your colleague is hissing, “Yes, yes, die! DIE! You all must die!!”
Plus, it’s just awkward when what you’re killing are people-shaped people. People you’ve ambushed. People who hadn’t yet shaved today. People in the middle of getting dressed, making coffee, waking up. People who are very clearly humans and humanoids. The zombified gray render we met later? That creature was actively murdering people and eating them. Killing that thing did, in fact, feel like a service.
Like, how different are we from the Grey Render? We slaughtered a bunch of strangers under the assumption that their lives were forfeit simply due to possibly having robbed or planning a robbery later today, and then we then robbed them.
And, while we didn’t eat their flesh, we totally helped ourselves to their coffee and bacon.
It’s not a good look on me, Idyril. It smells of Mother and her firm belief that we were born with a name and station that grants a goddess-given right to choose who lives or dies based on the winds and whims of politics and power.
I need a drink.
On the very long list of things that are driving me to drink, Hana really wants to have a talk about “us.” Like, she wants to be assured that there is an “us,” and I said there was, but what am I supposed to do with this, Idyril? Like, I like her a lot, but we’re elves! I’ve not declared my adulthood yet and I have the feeling that what she wants from me is very much a step in that direction because it is SERIOUS and possibly, gods forbid, STABLE.
Oh, what am I going to do? If you have older brotherly advice as a guy who has clearly made peace with “settling” down with a human, please help. I have read and re-read your previous note and I understand that I’m supposed to ask her what she wants and really listen, but how am I supposed to know what *I* want? Communication is all well and good, Idyril, if you know what you want to SAY.
I have no fucking idea. Hopeless in love, I remain--
Your sister,
Ave
======
June 29
Logging Camp in the Derlow Forest
Ceyan Empire
Dearest Idyril and Sierra:
Hana and the others are attempting to convince me that murder is okay when the people doing the dying are “bad.” Apparently, bandits are simply “asking for it,” by choosing their dastardly profession, but are they really? Did they choose this lifestyle? I can’t pretend to understand poverty, but isn’t this the sort of profession that desperate people turn to? Let’s just say that I’m pretty sure we just murdered a bunch of guys who were waking up and making breakfast and considering a fine day robbing the rich on the Emperor’s Highway.
Speaking of being able to survive because of one’s social standing, I considered leaving a diamond behind in case they had friends who might arrive in time, but… I liquified a guy’s face with Inflict Wounds, so, I mean, would he want to come back like that?
Such a mess. This whole thing was made worse by the fact that Rakke is clearly possessed by something, probably that new rapier he’s carrying around. He’s normally our stealth assassin (did I mention that Mother would love him?) but this time he was chortling as people died, shooting them at point blank in the throat, and calling for blood and destruction at the top of his lungs.
I couldn’t help but feel a little ooged out by it all. Like, it’s hard to feel good about a well-placed crack to the head, when your colleague is hissing, “Yes, yes, die! DIE! You all must die!!”
Plus, it’s just awkward when what you’re killing are people-shaped people. People you’ve ambushed. People who hadn’t yet shaved today. People in the middle of getting dressed, making coffee, waking up. People who are very clearly humans and humanoids. The zombified gray render we met later? That creature was actively murdering people and eating them. Killing that thing did, in fact, feel like a service.
Like, how different are we from the Grey Render? We slaughtered a bunch of strangers under the assumption that their lives were forfeit simply due to possibly having robbed or planning a robbery later today, and then we then robbed them.
And, while we didn’t eat their flesh, we totally helped ourselves to their coffee and bacon.
It’s not a good look on me, Idyril. It smells of Mother and her firm belief that we were born with a name and station that grants a goddess-given right to choose who lives or dies based on the winds and whims of politics and power.
I need a drink.
On the very long list of things that are driving me to drink, Hana really wants to have a talk about “us.” Like, she wants to be assured that there is an “us,” and I said there was, but what am I supposed to do with this, Idyril? Like, I like her a lot, but we’re elves! I’ve not declared my adulthood yet and I have the feeling that what she wants from me is very much a step in that direction because it is SERIOUS and possibly, gods forbid, STABLE.
Oh, what am I going to do? If you have older brotherly advice as a guy who has clearly made peace with “settling” down with a human, please help. I have read and re-read your previous note and I understand that I’m supposed to ask her what she wants and really listen, but how am I supposed to know what *I* want? Communication is all well and good, Idyril, if you know what you want to SAY.
I have no fucking idea. Hopeless in love, I remain--
Your sister,
Ave
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