The argument weighed on me, as did the things Grue had said, the judgements. Had I been wrong? Were we risking letting one of the Nine get away, to murder others?
I don’t think so.
In any case, the way the others, especially Brian, behaved would be unacceptable even if they were right about the victim being one of the Nine. He was downright nasty and emotionally manipulative back there.
Was I arguing because I was still clinging to old ideals, or because the miasma was making me divisive?
Old ideals. I don’t think that scene would’ve gone all that much differently if Taylor had been unaffected by the miasma’s (narratively) secondary effects.
Even if the miasma was to blame, I hated the idea of failing the others yet again.
Just don’t mentally talk yourself into going back and shooting the girl here, or something.
Not that I think you would.
This situation was fucking with my head. I still felt like I was in the middle of a fight, that heart pounding mode where I was ready for bullets or laser blasts to start flying, for me or a friend to be in mortal danger, where a split second response meant the difference between life or death.
I think this is because of both the overall situation and the miasma’s direct effects.
Except there was no danger here. The only people nearby were the woman we were leaving behind, Grue and Tattletale.
Relatively no danger.
I glanced at Tattletale as we ran. Could I trust them? They had been in the miasma for a little longer than I had, and I was already experiencing what I could only label as paranoia.
“Can I trust them? After all, I’m paranoid.”
With only a difference of minutes, Legend had been thrust into a paranoid state where he was taking a reckless, offensive course of action, eliminating everyone from the battlefield, regardless of whether they might be friend or enemy. How much was it affecting these two?
Again she seems to remember who Legend is. It could be a deduction based on the memories from just before the miasma set in, but she seemed to be going back and forth on whether she did or did not know Legend’s name earlier, making it look more like either an error or a writing convenience for the sake of the audience.
How would it influence their actions?
Well, for one thing it’s making Brian an asshole.
More to the point, what was my best course of action here? If I worked on the assumption that I could trust them, would they drag me into a situation that was just as bad as what we’d gone through with the bound woman? Or if I didn’t trust them, if I allowed myself to become suspicious and take countermeasures, would that be a slippery slope that led to me trying to kill them, in fear for my own life?
Yikes. Just, yikes.
I’m still loving this whole situation, by the way. It’s wonderfully painful.
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