"Evil is evil, Stregobor,” said the witcher seriously as he got up. “Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I’m not a pious hermit. I haven't done only good in my life. But if I’m to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all."
Andrzej Sapkowski, The Last Wish
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The Viscount de Fucking Lettenhove, Chapter 12: Lesser Evil
warnings: pregnancy loss/infanticide, discussion of attempted suicide
Two rules were added when he was nine years old. The second was simple; to the point. It went like this: "don't kill yourself."
"What do Ava's braids mean?" he asks under his breath.
"Recently widowed. In mourning."
He thinks about that. Amélie's hair is too short for the style, he supposes, but… "Your mother doesn't have those braids."
"No," Jaskier says with an amused look. "No she does not."
Before Geralt can ask any other questions Jaskier is leading him into what appears to be a staging room. There's a big table in the middle where unfinished dishes are being ferried back to the kitchen and dirty plates and cutlery are being collected. Ava is waiting unobtrusively by a china cabinet.
"Did she…?" Jaskier whispers.
"Piotr's orders, maybe? Are you…?"
"Just a cut."
A muscular woman comes in from the direction of the kitchen to shoo all three of them out. Jaskier and Ava jump apart, though they're not fooling anyone.
"Okay, kids," the woman says. "We have work to do. Out, out."
"Sorry, Ilvini," Jaskier says, looking appropriately chastened. He's giving her an unmistakable puppy-dog-like expression.
"Oh, child, you are a menace," Ilvini says with a laugh and a ruffle of his hair.
When Jaskier pouts further she snatches a dinner roll off a passing tray and passes it to him. He gives her his most winning smile and a kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you, Ilvini."
"Get out," she says, and this time he goes. Before Geralt can follow, the woman stops him. "Witcher."
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Find whoever's doing this all, won't you?"
"That's the plan."
"Quickly," she says. "...but not too quickly." She watches his reaction to make sure he understands. She must see what she's looking for because she pats his arm, says "good lad, now get out," and pushes him with an impressive amount of force for a human toward the hall.
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Shit man, this wizard war is fucked. I just saw a guy clap his hands together and say "the ten hells" or some similar shit, and every one around him turned inside out, had their tibia explode and then disappeared. The camera didn't even go onto him, that's how common shit like this is. My ass is casting frostbite and level 2 poison. I think I just heard "power word:scrunch" two groups over. I gotta get the fuck outta here.
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the men and boys are innocent too.
we cry "the innocent women and children" to appeal to the masses, to try and force their sympathy, but the men and boys are innocent too.
I have seen sons crying out for their mothers, their fathers, their siblings. I have seen them break down at the loss of their families. I have seen them cling to their dead and grieve.
I have seen fathers cradle their dead children, seen them kiss their faces and hold their little hands. I have seen them faint with grief when asked to identify the dead. I have seen them carry their sons and daughters. I have seen them fasting to provide what little they can for their families.
I have seen men and boys digging through the rubble with just their bare hands, I have seen them comforting strangers, playing with children, rocking them, hushing them, even if the face of such imminent danger. I have seen them cry, seen them grieve, seen them break down into each other's arms, seen them be selfless, beyond selfless, becoming something I don't have a word for.
I have seen the men who are doctors refuse to leave their patients, even when they have no medicine or supplies to give them, even when they're threatened with bombings. I have seen fathers who have lost all their children pick orphans up into their arms and proclaim them their child so they are not alone. I have seen men and boys digging pets out of the rubble.
the men are innocent too. the men and boys are being hurt and killed too. the men and boys are grieving too. the men and boys are scared too. the men and boys are fighting to save their people too. the men and boys deserve to be fought for too.
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people always talk about evil clones like oooh a dark mirror oohh what if you saw what a cruel person you were/are capable of becoming. and well yes but what if you were the evil clone. what if you looked in the mirror and what you saw was so bright it blinded you. what if you had to know exactly how good you could have been.
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