#messages .. anonymous

[taliasshaw]

what would you do if someone you were close to turned out to be a hunter?

That wouldn't happen because I don't associate with hunters. They're all murders who think they know better than the rest of the world and get to play God, deciding who lives or dies based on nothing but their shit, hypocritical moral code.

Why would I care about that? I know plenty of hunters. I've hunted myself even. As long as people have the right permits and obey all the rules and regs, what's it matter?

[zackbanes]

Meta: How would you describe your character's moral alignment?

My simple baby boy is, simply, Neutral Good.

A lot of Zack's life is built around a desire to be liked, to be good. It's why he was so quiet and tried not to be any trouble as a child, and it's why his family determining that he needed an exorcism was so devastating. He wants, desperately, to do the right thing and be praised for it -- he always has.

I think as a young child up to about when his powers began to manifest, he leaned more toward Lawful Good. He always wanted to be liked and have friends, but he was far more concerned with being in the good graces of that adults around him than impressing the kids who thought it was cool to get detention. And I don't doubt a large part of that came from being a kid in the system who didn't want to have his home taken away from him.

Once he ran-away, though, the life he was leading necessitated that he live a little further outside the bounds of law and order. And, being forced into those spaces radicalized him about hierarchy and law, to some degree. He no longer believes in following the rules just for the sake of the rules. However, nor does he believe that anyone should just do whatever the fuck they want-- Well. That's not exactly true. He doesn't believe that he should do whatever the fuck he wants. It's important to him that he still mostly operates within the bounds of society and always tries to do what is right and good toward others.

He disagrees with the hedonism and cruelty of evil or bad, and he things that those who take a morally neutral stance are apathetic in the face of bad things happening. Unfortunately!!! This does put Zack in a lot of Situations. He sees something bad happening, or what appears to be something bad, and he just HAS to see how he could help.

[taliasshaw]

Meta: How would you describe your character's moral alignment?

[brief mention of sibling death]

For most of Talia's life, she was basically a perfect representation of Lawful Neutral. The rules and the code are an ends to themselves. The impact and intent don't matter. All that matters is following the code. She saw herself as little more than a pawn to be moved in order to achieve her pack's end goal, but she wasn't really a zealot for the pack's cause. She felt no personal investment in ridding the world of hunters, that's just what she did because it was what the pack wanted her to do

(While the argument could absolutely be made that her pack around her was Lawful Evil, Talia herself never really was. In her mind, her actions were all toward the end of balance. They sought to eliminate hunters, but only because hunters sought to eliminate them. Balance. If you wanted to argue that she was still Lawful Evil for operating within the bounds of such an organization, I wouldn't put up too much of a fight against you.)

Growing up, Talia valued fairness and honor to a higher degree than even her siblings around her. It's why she took the edict of control so seriously -- that's how she brought honor to her pack and her family. That was how she ensured there was balance in the world, by creating balance within herself. It's also why so many of the pack's practices made her a little sick. She didn't want to fight another pack member when they were already wounded on a new moon, even just in a training exercise. Being able to win, in that circumstance, didn't bring her any satisfaction because it was dishonorable.

Since leaving her pack, though, Talia has been taking a steady right-ward journey across the alignment chart. I think Talia herself would insist that she fell somewhere closer to Neutral Good, but that would be wishful thinking on her part, or aspirational perhaps. Either way, she's firmly in the Chaotic Neutral camp.

While she doesn't value chaos, as some reading of this alignment propose, she does value full freedom from dogma and just about everything else. A fun shifting of her lever has occured: where before she was a slave to order of her pack but not so much the ideology of the mission, she has now completely thrown off the constraints of that hierarchy while throwing herself into the mission.

But Chayya, you ask, wouldn't that make her Chaotic Evil? Maybe in mindset, but not in action. Despite what she thinks and tells others about killing hunters, she hasn't actually devoted herself to the slaughter of all hunters (and won't). She wants to, because that's the means she's chosen for avenging her sister's death. And sure, she absolutely has killed her fair share of hunters. But since settling in Wicked's Rest, her devotion has actually been entirely to....whatever the fuck she wants to do. For the first time, she has the freedom to make her own choices. That was paralyzing but only for a short while, when she was moving cross-country (and there was maybe a brief period then when she did fit into a more Neutral Evil or True Neutral alignment), but she has settled wholly into the ability to do what she wants, when she wants, and for whatever reason.

What about how much she cares for others and wants to help them out? Yeah, but only her people. She's not going out of her way to offer a hand to just anyone -- we've seen this in her ample complaints about tourists and others that she has to give a hand because of her job. And, while all people can burn out, Talia's recent lapse into apathy, near antipathy, toward those she has to help I think further solidifies her Neutral stance. Sometimes she behaves in a way that's Chaotic Good, sometimes Chaotic Evil, but overall what she's doing is behaving the way she wants to in that exact given moment, which to me feeds into Chaotic Neutral.

Additionally, her own view of good and evil falls to more neutral territory -- just ask her and she'll tell you that she's a "realist," believing good to be naive and evil to be radical, and both of them to be boring.

[taliasshaw]

do you think you're really capable of saving anyone?

No. [...] Not yet. Haven't you heard? I'm a big damn hero.

[taliasshaw]

I heard a rumor that Baz is the most pleasant person in this town. You should delete your post, you're definitely embarrassing yourself.

Hmm, I think I'll trust my actual lived experience over your rumor.

Anyway, Caleb is the most pleasant person in town.

[zackbanes]

would you let your first @ into your house if they needed a place to stay?

@vengeancedemon

Every time, any time, no matter the time.

[taliasshaw]

what supernatural species do you think would be the WORST to be?

Just personally, I would hate to be a vampire or a faun or anything like that. Anything that has to feed on a specific thing in a specific way. I prefer to hunt only when I want to

[taliasshaw]

if you could be any supernatural species, what would you choose and why?

Heh.

Hmm, let's think. LOL. Probably a werewolf! They're super fast, and super strong and super hot Plus, the moon is already very important to me, so it would fit right in.