[Just for clarity’s sake, the following posts were not written by future me during the migration. After the twist finally landed, past me went back and reread my liveblog of the end of 14.8 and most of 14.9, with the context of the Nine’s ruse in mind. All links below lead to posts from 14.9.]

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One of the more subtle hints, maybe: While she’s more knowledgeable on the subject of medicine and diseases, Bonesaw is way more likely than Lisa to mispronounce “Creutzfeldt-Jakob”.

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Taylor could’ve pulled the trigger when Bonesaw put her head to the barrel. It probably wouldn’t have killed her. Might not even hurt much.

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Jack and Bonesaw are actually pretty good actors.

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Let’s take a moment to appreciate the fact that Jack Slash has canonically given Taylor a warm hug.

Let’s also take a moment to appreciate that my guess at what he was about to do was wrong because hoo boy that’d be awkward.

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“Incidentally, the best way to identify the Nine right now is probably to see if they act like they know who people are.”

Don’t you think I’m right, Lisa?

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“Hadn’t I recently been thinking about chemistry and intuitively understanding how your teammates operated? The miasma might be throwing us off in that department.”

Yes, Taylor, or perhaps it’s the fact that, like when you fought alongside Weld, you were working with someone who wasn’t actually on your team.

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“Fine.” He dropped his hand to his side and rejoined us. We kept walking. I had to admire them, the way they were confident enough to avoid looking over their shoulders.

Hmm.

That does sound like Armsmaster, among others. Or Jack, having not much cause oh wait she’s talking about the Undersiders

…no comment

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“Brian” drew a knife.

Hundreds of feet away from the target.

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“Lisa” referred to some of the Undersiders’ anti-Nine activities as “harassment”. It was just so mean of them!

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“They are being weirdly pushy. This behavior is unlike them. Especially unlike Brian.”

GEE KRIXWELL YA THINK

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Pastwell, as Skitter: “We’re sympathetic protagonists, we can’t just kill anyone who annoys us!”

Jack, as Grue: “Yes, we, uh, certainly are. How do you do, fellow sympathetic protagonists?”

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Jack Slash, to Skitter: “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you.”

This is an odd ship.

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“This is probably a chapter certain Brian haters point to, while ignoring or downplaying just how much his mind is compromised right now.”

Somehow I suspect the fact that Brian doesn’t even appear in the chapter and is completely blameless in this debacle doesn’t help dissuade this quite as much as it should.

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“That might be the most disturbing part of this entire scene. The way he just flipped a switch back to fake normality.

I say fake because real normal Brian would apologize.”

And not because that isn’t Brian, real normal, fake normal or otherwise.

Also, I suppose Jack snaps back to “normal” because he’s getting back into character.

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“Let me know when she’s not in your range anymore,” Tattletale said to me. “I’ll try to use my power to make sure she isn’t following us.”

Why exactly did Bonesaw say this? All she really accomplishes is giving Taylor another way to tell that she doesn’t have access to Lisa’s power as much as she claims. Even if Taylor hadn’t been suspicious, she might’ve taken note of it if Battery caught up with her range and “Lisa” didn’t say anything.

Also, considering Bonesaw attacked Battery with her spiders (seemingly remote controlled somehow, probably through some implant in Bonesaw’s brain – eerily similar to an unnatural mirror of Taylor’s power), what she said here was actually true.