Forever fascinated by the spectrum of morality in VSMP cause itâs like:
Thereâs Owen âI killed 2,799 people who I personally knew since childhood and who personally and viciously wronged me and took away my reason for living, and I donât feel bad about it at all, I would do it all over again, why would I ever feel bad about my sins, they all hurt me first, they all deserve it, why are you looking at me with pity and disappointment, there was nothing else I could have done, I refuse to let anyone get away with that level of cruelty, Iâll go to hell a thousand times if it means I can make them suffer a fraction or the pain that my loved one felt in his dying moments, Iâll never repent, Iâll never seek forgiveness or accept the very same light that would damn someone as kind as him, weâre all monsters in the end, and Iâll drag us all down together to suffer the same fateâ
And Legundo âI killed over 6,000 people in the most slow and horrific way, people who I did not personally know or have reason to care about, under orders I could have disobeyed but chose not to because it was the only way to end the war, and that decision haunts me every moment of my life and I reformed my whole existence around trying to do more good than the harm Iâve caused, even though I know nothing I do will ever fix it but thatâs no excuse to just lay down and die, I have a penance to pay and by god I will pay it before the end, itâs the only thing letting me keep a grip on my sanity, and Iâm terrified of how close I keep getting pulled to that edgeâ
And Cleo âI have killed well over 80,000 people, under duress and magical compulsion that I literally could not resist, at an age when I was too young to have any power over my circumstances, and I wish for death every day, this world would be better without me, and part of me also lowkey wishes that I never escaped because it was easier to be helpless, even though all I wanted was the freedom to make my own choices and not hurt anyone ever again, and now that I have that freedom Iâm so scared of losing it again, Iâm scared that Iâm broken and will become the thing I tried to leave behind, I need someone to guide me and keep me on the right path and at the same time I donât want anyone to look at me with anything like kindness ever againâ
And Pearl âI only kill people who kill people, I make no distinction between humans and monsters, I give no allowance for being weak or cursed or taking vengeance or preventing more death or being unable to control yourself in the moment, itâs entirely your fault for raising your hand to another living being, no I donât care if that vampire killed your family, I said what I said and I expect you to do what I did and be the better person, whatâs a moral quandary, why are you mad at me, why is it so hard for you to just stop, look itâs so easy to stop, why are you making this complicated, just be a good person, itâs literally not even hard, will you all just stop-â
And Avid âI killed exactly one person in my life, and it was entirely my fault and my choice and my circumstances that caused it, and Iâm so desperate to shift the blame that I will attack everyone but myself because itâs killing me to know I could have maybe prevented it, but I didnât, and I accept all of the blame but also none of the blame because really it was Them who caused her to attack me, itâs Their fault, she wasnât herself, I wasnât killing her, I was only killing a Monster, thereâs nothing inherently wrong with that, shut up, itâs not my fault (or maybe it actually was, maybe Iâm just a murderer, maybe it should have been me all along, I wish someone would blame me and call me the monster that I am)â
And Drift âitâs my job to help people and imprison criminals, but the second that my life was personally threatened, I ran away and I feel so guilty for it because now thereâs no one to stop the killer I was hunting, now every death that happens at the killerâs hands is on my conscience, because I could have stopped it or at least tried, but I didnât, I ran away and Iâm paralyzed at the thought of going back, I canât face the reality of my own death, thereâs nothing in this world worth sacrificing my life for, and I hate that I learned this about myself, I wanted to think I was strong and I was putting my life on the line to help others, but I just found out Iâm the kind of coward who would let other people die to protect myself, and I am not okay, I look at the people around me and see them making hard choices and wonder where they found the strength, and then I wonder when I started equating strength with killing people, what is wrong with me, I wish I could be more like them, they make killing look so easyâ
And Pyro âI have killed one person in my life, in a moment of uncontrollable rage, after years of enduring physical and emotional and mental abuse, and being told to just swallow it and be civil to my tormentor, until it all finally coalesced and pushed me to fight back, and I donât know to this day if I was aiming to kill him or not, if something in me just snapped or if it was purely an accident and now Iâm trying to take control and rationalize after the fact, Iâve never had control in my life, everythingâs always been decided for me, Iâve been told over and over that Iâm weak and stupid and impulsive, too emotional, not intellectual, I donât belong in high society despite being born there, despite not having a choice, is it so wrong that I want to claw out a place for myself, why is it only wrong when I do violence, yet everyone else around me can commit violence against me without any consequence at all, Iâll show them what consequences look like, Iâll show them the beast they all claim to despiseâ
And Shelby âIâve been told all my life about these creatures that are not human, these bedtime stories about killers and monsters and demons that Iâm supposed to fear, yet they were told to me by the gentle voice of my dad, so of course I find comfort in tales of the dark, of course I want to find these monsters that are pushed to the fringes of society and make them all my friends, what do you mean theyâre evil, can you blame them, maybe theyâre just lonely, did you even think of that, maybe they just need someone to hold their hand and give them a hug and tell them that they donât have to be alone anymore, maybe they just need to know that someone believes in them and cares about them, why else would they keep trying to steal away humans in the night, I would go with them if they asked, of course I would, I would kill people too if I was left all alone like that, why not, why does that shock you so much, do I really look that innocent to you, Iâll do anything if it means having a family again, I will tear apart anyone who tries to take my family awayâ
And Apo âof course I have morals, of course I have standards, Iâm a soldier (I never wanted to be one) and Iâm a good person (I try so hard to be one) and I want to help these stupid people and do the job Iâve been given to the best of my ability, except that the minute I take any action at all, I get told that it was the wrong choice, the immoral choice, why would you ever do that, you monster, youâre so selfish, were you even thinking before you did that (I agonize over every choice I make) but canât they see that my intentions were good even if I messed up, doesnât that count for something, why is forgiveness allowed for literal murderers and not me, fuck it, Iâm abandoning my morals, itâs not like they got me anywhere, I might as well serve myself like everyone else is doing, only one person has ever understood me and I fucking love her and Iâll do anything to get back to her, oh my god why are you yelling at me again, youâre making it so damn hard to be a good person right now, Iâm so tempted to just-â
And Scott âoh yeah, Iâve massacred civilizations, it was all the rage back in the day, itâs all Iâve ever known, I was born to power and I spent my life and unlife reaching for more power because why would I ever do anything else, moral quandary whatâs that, never heard of her, donât know her, I make all of your kill counts combined look laughable, if I ever had feelings and emotions they were buried a long time ago, yeah I had friends, they were all just like me, I made them just like me, Iâm not out to enslave or torment anyone, Iâm literally just over here living my best life, you should try it sometime, you should try not giving a shit, itâs great, itâs amazing, I promise my mental state is perfectly stable and not at all on the verge of total collapse after the loss of one fledgling, Iâm not at all being overprotective of my remaining fledglings and considering altering my entire way of life and flipping my moral compass just because my new friends asked me nicely if we could please not massacre anyone, Iâm fine, Iâm fine, Iâm totally fine you guys, Iâm not looking back at my kill count and seeing the tsunami of repressed emotion about to sneak up and riptide me, Iâm fine-â
And Sausage âof course I think about killing people, Iâm a writer, itâs my job to think about these things, I spend all my days and nights hunched over a desk doing research and using fiction as a medium to explore all kinds of taboo topics, isnât it kind of interesting to see what the human mind can come up with, isnât it fun to think about how the only thing stopping most of us from being killers is a silly little thing like laws and morals, what do you mean thatâs just me, youâre lying, I know youâre lying, everyone fantasizes about what they would do if they had unlimited power and no one to stop them from killing everyone who mildly annoys them, itâs totally normal for me to run off into the wilderness and throw myself at a vampire and beg to be turned, we all secretly want it, Iâm just the only one not pretending anymore, come on, come play with me, I know itâs getting a little real now and Iâm actually kind of scared, but I donât know how to turn back now, I donât know if I can or if I want to, I canât even do the cool metaphorical thing of looking in the mirror to see what Iâm becoming, please someone tell me that itâs not too late to turn backâ
And Martyn âyou see the thing about morals is, you assume I have them, I donât or I try not to, it gets in the way of getting what I want, which right now is a safe place to lay my head, Iâll stay here for awhile, why not, these people look nice and gullible, I can tell them any sob story I want and theyâll accept it, theyâve actually been more kind of me than I expected, theyâve gone out of their way to look out for me and keep me fed and safe, and I keep looking for the underlying motive in their actions and coming up with nothing, and itâs hitting me now after realizing the danger weâre all in that a lot of them are genuinely good people stuck in bad circumstances and I donât want them to die just for that, Iâve been there, I always wished someone had been there to help me, so Iâll gear up and do whatever it takes to get us all to safety, Iâve never been the hero in any story before and Iâm finding itâs actually nice to feel like Iâm strong and I have someone to protect, Iâll make the decisions that they wonât, Iâll hold them up when they falter, Iâll be the light in the dark, and for just a brief moment Iâll get to see what itâs like to be on this side of things, the one that stays instead of the one that runs awayâ
And Abolish âyou see the thing about morals is, not everyone can afford them, and I get that, I really do get it, this world is not a kind one, Iâve experienced that for myself and you do what you have to for the sake of survival, it becomes purely a numbers game, there are people with power and people without it and the scales wonât be balanced unless some of these people with power actually get up and start doing things for the benefit of the rest, I never expected to be one of those people with the power, it kind of snuck up on me, but Iâm here now so I might as well do the job, thereâs no point in making this world worse but there is a purpose in making it better, I donât really know if Iâm making it better or not, Iâm definitely doing more killing than I care to, and Iâm so damn tired all the time, honestly just point me at the monsters and hand me a crossbow, Iâll deal with it as fast as I can and try not to think too much about the moral implications of it all, I just hope that if my soul ever becomes corrupted or if I go off the proverbial deep end, thereâll be someone else ready to stand in my way and do what has to be done, please donât make me explain my reasoning to you, itâs both simple and complicated, and please for the love of god, donât make me kill youâ
And Ren âthe most traumatic thing that ever happened to me was an act of absolute senseless cruelty with no purpose or reason behind it, and I canât even speak of it without everyone mocking me and laughing because they assume my story is a joke, and now I struggle to trust anyone, human or monster alike, for fear of being tricked again, I withdraw and recoil from genuine acts of kindness, I cannot look into someoneâs face without trying to see the lie behind their smile, the poison in their honeyed words, I beg anyone to heed my warnings as I watch my friends fall to the same darkness that cursed me one by one, I can no longer trust any of them, I know that I must kill them before they escape and hurt anyone else, before they hurt me, and yet I struggle to raise my hand against them, I canât understand what would drive a man to become the very same monster that left my life in ruins, I cling to my humanity and my hatred of the darkness as the last thing I have left of my mother, and if I canât bring myself to kill these creatures, then at least I will die before I become like themâ