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Message: <blockquote data-quote="covaithe" data-source="post: 5201186" data-attributes="member: 46559">[sblock=those pesky alignment issues]Quagmire's alignment is possibly a little confused, reflecting 1) his confusion, 2) my own confusion, and 3) the usual complaints about alignment being overly broad and not flexible enough and so forth.  Here's vaguely how the conversation has gone in my mind, on the several occasions I've thought about it; blurred, no doubt, by time and forgetfulness.  Quagmire's been around for a while, now.  Quagmire has some pretty strong feelings about how the world should work.  People should try treat each other fairly.  They should generally be honest and mean what they say.  They should keep their word.  They should respect each other, unless given cause to feel otherwise.  People should be loyal to their friends, and merciful to their enemies when it seems reasonable.  If you get yourself in trouble, you shouldn't pull other people down with you.  On the other hand, if your friends get themselves in trouble, you should try to help them out.  This is all tempered by a healthy dose of common sense and practicality.  I figure this probably came out of Quagmire's childhood in Madame Ketratek's brothel in Bacarte, from his mother, and probably indirectly from the madame herself.  It's a vicious, cruel world out there, and the good guys (that's us) have to stick together and treat each other right, or we'll all go down together.  Bacarte is a pretty rough place, and a young hob needs all the friends he can get in a place like that.  It's not a well-developed or completely logically consistent morality, but these opinions are real and deeply held, and Quagmire is willing to put his safety on the line to back them up.  That's the main reason for "good" as opposed to "unaligned".  As for how he got to this place...  He originally took the job because he needed money, and it seemed like a reasonably good cause; or at least not an evil one.  As a sailor, Quagmire has a mental habit of respecting ship's captains (though not necessarily *treating* them with respect; that's not really the Bacarte style).  And after all, Azrael did get kind of screwed.  As things went on, Quagmire has found himself torn between a number of motivations.  On the one hand, he has come to despise Azrael for being dishonest, manipulative, cowardly, irresponsible, and generally unfit to command a ship.  On the other hand, Redblade is a dirty no good cheater, and deserves what's coming to him.  Also, Quagmire's party members have so far wanted to go along with Azrael, and Quagmire feels obligated to help and support them.  On the other other hand, Quagmire is starting to feel a bit sorry for Redblade's guards, who are just trying to do their jobs.  Not sorry enough to endanger his friends to spare them, but enough to feel guilty about it.  He's currently channeling that guilt into anger at Azrael and Redblade, but it's making him uncomfortable nonetheless.  On the other other other hand, he agreed to this job, and isn't willing (yet) to break his word and back out of it.  At this point, Quagmire wants to finish the job, protect his friends, fulfill his obligations, and have nothing further to do with Azrael.  He could pretty easily be persuaded to turn on Azrael, particularly if it turns out that there are any more deceptions in store from him, or if Redblade turns out to not quite be such a jerk.  (For example, if he caught Azrael cheating at the card game first.)Is that good?  Unaligned?  Heck, I don't know.  I picked good because it helps remind me that Quagmire has morals, after a fashion, and actively tries to live by them.  [/sblock]</blockquote>

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