Acceptable behaviour

[jack]

Suppose Viking raiders have been terrorising your coast. A few Vikings have previously settled here and become accepted. You know one noble in the capital city is a Viking, but this is generally unknown, and you suspect him to have *some* nefarious purposes.

However, you have some dealings with him, partly because he's rich and powerful, and partly to find out more about him, and he hires you to assassinate the leader of a band of Vikings who have settled in the nearby countryside.

However the leader is still a boy, just old enough to go into battle, but young enough you don't feel right about holding him culpable. Killing non-resident Vikings is generally regarded as a good thing, but you don't know if this specific band has been raiding anyone, or just settled there.

Do you:

(a) Find out if they have been raiding, and if so feel no compunction about one more regrettable but necessary death?
(b) Go ahead with the assassination anyway, them being here is problem enough
(c) Talk to the boy, find out if he's as malicious as Vikings in the country generally are, or if he might find allegiance with this country.
(d) Refuse to assassinate a boy whatever the circumstances, and try to expose the secret Viking noble who instigated it?
(e) Refuse to cooperate with the noble in any way, cooperating with an evil enemy is wrong even if the specific cause is valid in itself.

(The metaphor I'm seeking is Viking <=> DnD Dragon. And "leader of band" with "30-ft-long and breathes fire". Dragons are invariably but not in this campaign necessarily evil. Killing enemies is necessary. But this young dragon could be entirely innocent, his enemy, the dragon we became embroiled with, has politicl reasons for targetting him)

Comments

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

(c)

This would then undoubtedly be followed by forging a strong, if unlikely, friendship with the boy, and eventually probably giving up my life to save him.

Extract:

The boy was buried beneath a great furskin, snoring gently in sweet slumber. I had not thought that he would look quite so young. It was a child's face I saw when I creeped round to where his head rested at an awkward angle on the ground, though his brow was furrowed, suggesting that his mind bore the burden of an adult's cares and woes.

I drew my long knife, not with the intent of hurting him, but so as to ensure his cooperation. I was otherwise undetected by the burly menfolk of his camp, and sought to keep it that way.

Getting as close as I could, I held my breath and, with a single movement, clasped my hand firmly over his mouth. His skin was soft to the touch, no trace of a beard. I held the knife in a prominent position so that he could see and understand my threat in an instant.

His eyes flicked open, eyes of a very pale, almost fragile, blue. He raised his eyebrows as he saw the knife, not in fear but in a sort of consternation, and his muscles tensed. For a moment I feared that I had misjudged him, and that he might struggle and force me to kill him there and then for my own safety.

But after a moment I felt him relax ever so slightly. "Keep quiet and still," I hissed, "or I will kill you." I said it slowly and clearly, since I did not know what sort of Norse tongue he spoke.

After a moment, his eyes showed clearly that he understood, and he nodded ever so slightly. I removed my hand from his mouth and saw his lips twitch in defiance. But he remained silent, and I began my interrogation.

Disclaimer: There was a story! I wouldn't be me if I wasn't filled with a sudden desire to write it! ;)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

ROFL. That's great, so sweet. This is why I always try to ensure characters even in hypothetical moral situations are interesting and nuanced, in case they run away with you[1] :)

[1] With one, not with you personally :)

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

With one, not with you personally :)

It's just *usually* me who runs away with it ;)

Damn you and your burrowing plot bunnies, by the way! At least I can console myself that writing this story properly would take an awful lot of proper research which I couldn't possibly hope to undertake in the next... 6 years, I hope!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Damn you and your burrowing plot bunnies,

:-/

But *hug*. It's sweet we do this, even if we can't finish them.

[rochvelleth.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean it - I adore your burrowing plot bunnies[1] :)

It is sweet :) Though now I do want to finish it. Indeed, I figured out I could bypass the research stage by making it fantasy rather than historical. But, of course, there are other stories that should be finished first...

[1] Actually not a euphemism.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, sorry, ":-/" isn't *bad*. It just indicates a moment of wry expression or double take. Somehow the burrowingness of the plot bunnies sounded... momentarily disturbing, although perfectly clear.

*hugs* Before stories might make sense. This is lovely, but may or may not be a whole story, but there's other ones that definitely are.

BTW, I saw kingdom again. I think it did work better. I didn't fall in love with it, but it was very pleasant, and lacked some of the problems of the first (admittedly exciting) episode.