Tag: 14.i1p1

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

She felt like she should say something, but the words didn’t come to her.  Had he been a mean-spirited lecher of a drunk?  Someone who’d worked hard at whatever job he could find to support his family, then drank his worries away with his buddies after a shift?  A lonely man without anyone to care for him?

A runaway from a circus? Maybe he worked at the carousel, ‘cause he looks a little dizzy.

What do you say for someone you didn’t know at all?

She considered a simple ‘sorry’, not necessarily because she felt guilty.  She was speaking more for the fact that she couldn’t do more for him, and apologizing on behalf of the random, senseless events that had taken his life.

That’s definitely a feeling Taylor can empathize with, except she’d feel guilty for those random, senseless events.

“Next?” Jay asked.

She looked at him.  He was tired, but she didn’t see any signs of the same emotional drain she was experiencing herself.  He’d been a gang member in the ABB, had preyed on others, maybe even killing.

He’s used to this kind of thing.

Sierra on the other hand is just a young woman who got involved in this life out of desperation.

This job didn’t faze him in the slightest.  Behind his shaggy hair, his narrow eyes were cold, uncaring.  He could have been carrying groceries for all he seemed to care.

Jay. Jay no. We’ve had enough cannibalism for a while.

It creeped her out.

That is very fair.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

When they’d started working yesterday, that sort of thinking had made her want to cry.  Now she felt numb.

Too many people to cry for.

Too few tears.

She could have thought about something else, but a part of her wanted to pay John Doe his due respect.  If nothing else, he deserved to be looked at as a human being rather than another body.

Yeah, this is true. Each one counts. Each one is a person the world no longer has.

She bent down to set the door on the ground.  Jay took hold of the man by the shoulders, she lifted by the pants legs, and they moved him three feet to the right.  John Doe was set down on the concrete floor.  He joined twenty-nine other bodies, now arranged in two rows of fifteen people.  Too many were fellow John and Jane Does.

That’s a lot of people, and I’m guessing they’re nowhere near done.

Oh man, I mentioned receiving the news about the Nine earlier, but you know what’d be even better? Seeing Sierra’s reaction to Skitter’s reaction to finally coming back to NeoPets the territory and seeing this. It’d mean we’d most likely miss out on seeing Taylor’s perspective on this, but that’s fine. I’d love to see what Sierra thinks of Skitter when she sees something like that, whichever way Taylor’s reaction plays out.

A blister had popped on her hand as she’d carried the door.  It smarted, but her focus was on the man.  Forty or so, but the yellow of his skin pointed to liver problems.

Alcohol, perhaps?

He could be as young as thirty, prematurely aged by alcoholism; it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen enough drunks around the city to be blind to the signs.

Ahh, yeah.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

“Lift!” Sierra grunted.

Oh hell yes.

Sierra (or Charlotte) POV? I am so here for this.

The tightness in her back was reminder enough to use her legs to rise to a standing position.

Alright, definitely Sierra. Hell yes.

Her hands were blistered and every knuckle was scraped or bruised.  They were carrying a door, torn from its hinges; the peeling paint, the worn wood, and the weight of their burden made it less than comfortable to hold.

So are they working on the shelter? Or maybe other repairs in Skitter’s territory?

…are we going to see Sierra receive the news that the Nine have retreated?

She held one end of the door.  Jay was at the opposite end, his back to the man who was draped over it.  She wanted to ask Jay to hold the other end; she doubted looking down at the figure as he carried the makeshift stretcher would even bother him.

…oh.

Well that would explain why the door was so heavy.

Is the man alive?

But she didn’t ask.  She couldn’t spare the breath.  They’d been working so long already, it was easier to forge ahead than to stop for any reason.

Despite being a lazy sack of potatoes sometimes, I know the feel.

Still, her silence meant she was faced with the corpse of the man who had once lived here.

Hey, guys, I think the man might not be alive.

I didn’t have high hopes for that.

Once upon a time, he’d had parents, had a first day at school, had made friends, even had a crush on someone.  He had probably worked.  He’d had things he loved about life, no doubt, and if he was living here, he probably had more than enough things about life that he’d hated.

A life cut short.

Whoever he’d been, he was another one of Mannequin’s victims now.  Not quite so disturbing as the ones killed by Burnscar.

I suppose Mannequin didn’t do much fancy stuff with most of his victims. Especially the gassing victims wouldn’t have many outward marks. But Burnscar? Charred remains still look just human enough to be very disturbing, I’d guess.

He didn’t have a wallet on him, so he was a John Doe for now.

Doe, a deer, a female deer
Ray, a drop of golden sun…

Interlude 14

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

Howdy! It’s time to wrap up Prey – and, at long last, the presence of the Slaughterhouse Nine in Brockton Bay – with an Interlude.

Who are we in for today? Well, that’s usually pretty difficult to speculate on, but I had some ideas at the end of the previous chapter:

If it’s an Interlude… fuck, Interludes are so difficult to speculate on. Maybe we’d have a look at what someone else has been up to under the miasma’s effect? Ooh, maybe we could get Legend’s perspective on the miasma and his head clearing? Though I do feel like if Wildbow had had a Legend Interlude planned around the time of Interlude 13, he might’ve saved the details on Legend’s family life for Legend’s own Interlude.

Another option is that we might follow one of the Nine – Bonesaw, Siberian or Mannequin if he’s alive – and seeing how they feel about the retreat. That feels wrong, though, due to the finality issue.

Hmm. Honestly, I feel like a Protectorate perspective on the Bakuda bombing and its consequences would be quite appropriate, ideally from someone who didn’t know about it like Legend did. Though such a thing could still be presented from Legend’s POV, as someone confronts him and/or Piggy about it.

But we’ve got other Protectorate characters we could use for that, such as Triumph or one of Legend’s people.

Then again, we had a PRT perspective last time. It’s probably more likely Wildbow’s going to switch it up.

Victoria could be an interesting and relevant POV character, but I’m not sure she’s in a good state to be giving her POV right now.

I should probably just jump into it and find out. Let’s go!