I almost missed it in the gloom, but when I did spot it, it was almost impossible to ignore.  On every patch of skin I could see in the Chosen’s group, scars and scratches had just barely healed over.

Ah yes. Shatterbird’s work… I wonder if Taylor will recognize that.

There were still faint indents and lines of pale skin that marked where the deep lacerations had been.  The little scars made patterns across their skin, some spraying out from a single point, others running parallel to one another, going in the same direction like a snapshot of rainfall imprinted on their skin.

I guess that’s not really too far from what it is. It’s just from a different material.

With that many scratches and scars, they must have been hit hard.

They were, but as far as we know, all of that except for like one scar on Cricket was from one attack.

Faultline’s group was gathered to one side.  Faultline, Newter, and the new member Shamrock wore more concealing costumes than their usual.

I guess that’s like with Taylor removing the glass from her costume – they’re trying to protect their bodies more from powers like Shatterbird’s or Burnscar’s (they might also be hiding their wounds from their previous encounter with her).

Faultline’s face was covered in a tinted visor, and her arms and legs were covered in opaque gloves and leggings.

I hope that visor isn’t made of glass. Faultline seems smart enough to avoid that, at least.

Labyrinth and Spitfire were fully decked out in their usual concealing robe and fire-retardant suits, respectively.  Only Gregor showed skin.

He kinda has to for his power’s sake, but fortunately he’s somewhat resistant to at least some of the effects they’re protecting themselves against.

The barnacle-like growths of spiral shells that covered his skin had multiplied on one side of his body, until there was more shell than skin.  The skin around it was crimson enough that it stood out in the gloom.  It looked tender.

Huh. Apparently he does have some additional defense.

Hookwolf and his Chosen had situated themselves at the corner of the roof that stood highest from the surrounding water.

Because of course they place themself highest, towering over the others.

But seriously, metaphors about their opinions on themselves aside, it does make sense to put Hookwolf, the one inviting to this meeting and presumably taking charge, up high where everyone can see him, especially since there doesn’t seem to be a central table this time (well that makes some of my speculations pointless in retrospect).

Hookwolf stood with his arms folded, densely covered in bristling spikes, barbs, blades and hooks, only his face untouched by the treatment, covered by his metal wolf mask instead.

He’s ready in case trouble comes, and as a bonus, makes himself look even more powerful.

Othala, Victor and Cricket were sitting on the raised edge of the roof behind him.  Stormtiger floated in the air just beside Cricket, and Rune had levitated three chunks of pavement into the air behind the group, each the size of a fire truck, like weapons poised at the ready.

I don’t think this is going to make people feel more secure that this is not a trap, though.

Last time, there was a no-powers rule in place. The hosts don’t seem to be holding to that this time.

She sat on the edge of one of the chunks, her feet dangling over Victor’s head.  Menja stood just behind Rune on the floating piece of shattered road, twelve feet tall, fully garbed in her valkyrie armor, a shield in one hand and a long spear in the other.

Seriously, even I’m half beginning to doubt whether this could be a trap at this point. Hopefully they’re just trying to make it clear that they’re in charge and won’t be taking kindly to shenanigans.

Any corpses they have to drop into the lake won’t be found for a while.

With that in mind, I surrendered myself of that responsibility for the present.  Much in that same way, I cast off all the other worries, great and small.

I really like this scene so far.

A light flashed ahead of us.  Three blinks, then two.

Morse code? Or just a general identification thing?

“Regent!” Tattletale called out.

Regent raised a flashlight and flashed it twice, paused, then flashed it twice again.

Seems like the latter.

There was one flash in response.

Grue slowed his boat as we reached our destination.  Our meeting place was in the center of the lake, one of the buildings that still partially stood above water, leaning to one side so a corner of the roof was submerged, the opposite corner peaking high.

Seems like a nice enough place for our villain picnic.

Heh, and here I was theorizing about a fancy yacht earlier 😛

Come to think of it, a yacht would probably be dangerous. Too much glass, making it vulnerable to the one Slaughterhouse member who flies.

Tattletale didn’t slow our boat like Grue had his, and instead steered the boat in a wide ‘u’ to ride it up onto the corner of the roof.

Heh, neat.

Regent and I hopped out to grab the front of the boat and help pull it up.  When Grue rode his boat aground as well, a little more carefully, we helped him too.  Bitch hopped out and spent a moment using gestures and tugs on the puppy’s leash to get her dogs arranged and settled.

And thus, the Undersiders have arrived. 🙂

So why could I feel calm now?

I think it was that realization that there were moments where I was helpless to act, oddly enough.  This boat?  Speeding across the Endbringer-made lake?  I had to be here.  There was no other option, really.

Huh.

Taylor’s brain, constantly: “oh no things might go bad here what can i do”
This situation: “nothing”
Taylor’s brain: “huh. okay.”

As I clutched the metal rim of the boat with one hand while we soared forward, the wind in my hair, I could accept the fact that I couldn’t do anything in this time and place to get Dinah out of captivity sooner.

This is kind of interesting. Taylor has hangups about bystanderism and complacency that do make sense, but overall, Wildbow seems to be using that as an example not

to

follow. We’ve seen, plenty of times, Taylor stressing herself out about her desire to help. Now we’re seeing Taylor allow herself a moment of calm, of complacency, and it’s probably the mentally healthiest moment we’ve seen from her in the entire story. If I’m not misinterpreting Wildbow’s intentions, we’re seeing an argument between the narrator and the narrative about how deeply one should care about helping people around oneself at one’s own expense. The narrator argues fiercely for always putting others first, using Charlotte and Tattletale as surrogates for the audience, but the narrative is highlighting how unhealthy this actually is for her.

I don’t think Wildbow is teaching that we shouldn’t care about helping others. He probably means some of what Taylor is saying, stands by her stance on bystanderism. But I do think he’s trying to show us that there needs to be a balance.

And that was before I’d ever put on a costume and found myself caught up in my double-crossing plan against the Undersiders and everything that had stemmed from that.  Before Dinah and running away from home, before I’d decided to go villain.  Stuff that made some of what I’d been worried over before seem trivial.

Yeeah, it’s been a while since stuff like for example schoolwork was a concern, and even when it was, all we really saw was homework that I can’t believe so many people did, and Taylor’s art project… I still wonder what that art project was, by the way.

Telling us that would probably have been a good opportunity for some more early fleshing out of Taylor’s character. More so the more room there was for personal touches to the piece, though Taylor would probably underexpress herself in order to avoid standing out, just like with her clothes.

Anyway, more to the point, Taylor has even left the bullies behind, only running into one of them once in a bullying capacity since she left home. After that attack, Sophia only really climbed back into relevance through the reveal that she was part of Taylor’s new life too.

And now Emma’s in Portland, Sophia is staying the hell away from Regent (probably also in Portland or working on moving there, but most certainly leaving), and Madison… who knows. Maybe she’ll pop back up at some point, but she never felt all that important compared to Sophia and Emma. Though presumably her becoming relevant again would do something about that.

But yeah, I’m sure there are a lot of people who relate deeply to Taylor’s narration here.

To those who do: I’m so sorry you have to live with anxiety pulling you down. It sucks and I hope things get better for you.

Tattletale was at the back, steering the thing.  It seemed counter-intuitive, with the boat going the opposite direction she pushed or pulled the stick.  Still, she seemed competent at it.

Yeah, but that’s probably just something you gotta get used to. I have a clock that goes backwards in my bedroom, and after a few years of that, I have no trouble with it most of the time.

Better than Grue, which I found slightly amusing.

Hehe.

Y’know, I wonder what would happen if Rachel got to steer.

From time to time, I was finding myself in a strange emotional state.  As I stayed alert for it, I was able to catch those moments, try to pick them apart for what they were.  The high-end motor whirred and the boat bounced over the waves, the wind and water getting in my hair, all while we headed into the most ridiculously dangerous and unpredictable situation we’d been in for weeks.

Thrill, perhaps?

It was one of those moments; I felt almost calm.

…huh.

A sense of calm like “this is how it’s supposed to be”?

It’s also the calm before the storm, but how much that factors into Taylor’s emotions is unclear.

For a year and a half, I’d spent almost all of my time in a state of constant anxiety.  Anxiety about schoolwork, my teachers, my peers, my dad, my mom’s death, my body, my clothes, trying to hold conversations without embarrassing myself, and about the bullies and what they would do next.

Like father like daughter.

It’s not much fun living like this, I’m sure.

Everything had been tainted by the constant worries and the fact that I’d constantly been preparing for the worst case scenarios and maybe even setting up self-fulfilling prophecies in the process.  I’d spent every waking moment immersed in it.

And now she’s calm as opposed to anxious. That’s good! Like Leviathan prevented her from truly enjoying flying, the anxiety did the exact same thing with other enjoyable activities and made her an overall unhappy person. Right now, she’s finally in a state where she can actually enjoy what’s going on, as dangerous as it may be.

Let’s hope Taylor stays in that state for a while, for her sake.

The puppy was cute.  It was skittish, especially around people, which seemed a little odd.

Oh! It’s the wolf pupy!

It wasn’t the kind of dog I’d expect Bitch to favor.  Too young, not vicious or intimidating in appearance.  On the other hand, skittish as it was, it had an aggressive streak.

In short, it’s behaving like a young wolf.

It constantly hounded Bentley, nipping at his flanks, then spooking and running away the second the bulldog looked at him.  It had made for a fair amount of noise when we’d been getting the boats into the water.  One for Bitch, her dogs and Grue, one for the rest of our group.

D’aw.

Our boats weren’t out on the ocean.  We traveled through the area downtown where Leviathan had collapsed a section of the city.  It was now more or less an artificial lake.

Ooh, Lake Heroic! Weren’t there some ruins sticking up around the middle where some people lived, essentially using the lake as a moat? Those would be a fairly decent meeting spot. Especially since they’d have a good range of clear sight to see any incoming Slaughterhouse members and most of their members can’t fly. Then again, it’d also be difficult to evacuate.

The water was fairly still, lapping gently against the ruined roads and collapsed buildings that surrounded the crater, but with the speed these boats were capable of going, even waves a half-foot high made us ramp slightly off one and then crash down onto the next with a sudden spray.

I’ve gone rafting once, so this just sounds fun to me. Maybe not the best introduction to being out on the water, though.