2020-01-13 [DMFA #1963] - Different moral codes

[Tapewolf]

Given the weird tangle here, I hope that Alexsi understands that Abel isn't after her.   Because one interpretation of this is that he took the job to assassinate her for murdering his dear old dad.
Of course, the fact that he was nearly killed trying to protect her speaks against that, but if you were paranoid it might be "Abel wanted to do the deed himself".
Hopefully it's explained that Aniz screwed up so badly he made mortal enemies of everyone, including his own son.  And that Abel is not trying to play some kind of long game for revenge.

[Dard]

Considering how big the bounty on Aniz was I think She should be reasonably certain that he was not much of a nice guy.
Being a mortal enemy with everyone should not be a long stretch.
The fact that Abel is a certified nice guy (even if grumpy) by all those who know him and the even government of Zinvth should give her a big hint that he is not after her.

[Tuyu]

Alexsi: "How did my mallet get in my hand?"

At the moment I expect that "Is Abel trying to kill me?" is bouncing off of "But Abel's not like that, is he?" in her head.

Though maybe there's a bit of "SMASH THE AMBIGUOUS MESSENGER!" in there too.

[Tapewolf]

Considering how big the bounty on Aniz was I think She should be reasonably certain that he was not much of a nice guy.

Sadly Furrae doesn't work that way.  If you delivered Dan's head and clan mark to Hizell, the bounty could probably let you start your own nation, never mind an inn.  That doesn't mean Dan isn't a nice guy.  For that matter, Abel has a large bounty on his own head and if he leaves Zinvth it'll be collected (p.1765).

And then you have the Demon culture where a bounty would be considered proof that you've arrived.
Destania is extremely evil and yet still had at least one fan determined to avenge her supposed murder in the form of Aary.

Aniz didn't even have a very large body count and the person the bounty was over was killed unintentionally when Aniz was not in control of his own actions.  Although we know it's not the case, Abel's reticence about his past makes it easy to build a narrative where he's out to avenge his dear old dad.

[Alondro]

When you realize your family life is as FUBAR as 4th Century Rome. 

[Carmeops]

i'm still not convinced that Dan and Alexi's father is NOT Aniz after all this
i mean, it's one thing that their dad look like Aniz, but ALSO that his first wife is the one that "killed" Aniz? really?


like, he could have done the same attempt than with Abel: get a random woman pregnant, wait until the kid reach puberty to see if they turn out to be Cubi, then ditch the mother and get away with the kid

but somehow the mom found out, she attacked Aniz, who killed her and faked his own death to get the reward money and use it to build an Inn and continue raising the little girl

luck have it that his first love get in a dangerous situation right outside his Inn, he take her in, have a child with her, and keep the first failure of a daughter around for the illusion

[Tapewolf]

i'm still not convinced that Dan and Alexi's father is NOT Aniz after all this
i mean, it's one thing that their dad look like Aniz, but ALSO that his first wife is the one that "killed" Aniz? really?

A lot of the arguments against that theory boiled down to "Do Not Want", and you have to admit that collecting your own bounty would be a good way to get Zinvth off your back.
That said, I imagine that given his visual similarity to Aniz, they'd have given Edward the adventurer stone when he collected payment (AS2/p.75) just to make absolutely sure.

[InhumanInterest]

I don't think Alexi is immediately suspicious about Abel if solely because she never gave me the impression of being quite that level of paranoid. Her current suspicions are far from that because finding someone sneaking around who works for a family enemy is a lot stronger reason for distrust than finding out your mater killed your employee's pa. Definitely something that begs a conversation but not one that I would think places him directly onto a bad list.

Granted that's gonna be a fun discussion.

"Sooooo, turns out my mom killed your dad."
"I know, did I say thank you yet?" 

[techmaster-glitch]

Just cuz no one else has mentioned it yet, wanted to put a little shout-out that those are some very nifty-looking portraits Amber did for the background of the last panel. They make the background very neat!

[e_voyager]

I have to admit  it's kind of weird when I think about it.. Abel's life debt to the T Fiona line came from the fact that the TT on the family is responsible for the death of someone whom he himself had wanted to / desire to kill.

[InhumanInterest]

It does make a sort of sense though. You owe a life debt to someone because they did something for you that was worth a life. Guess sometimes it's just not your own life.