Tag: Arc 7

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“If it comes down to it?  Yeah.”

I stared at him.

“I’m being practical, Taylor,”

He’s being neutral.

Grue lapsed into using my real name, “People are suffering all around the world.  We ignore what’s happening elsewhere every second of every day, focusing only on our country, our city, our neighborhood, or on the people we see daily.  

He does have a point.

We only really care about the pain and unhappiness of our loved ones, our friends and families, because we couldn’t stay sane if we tried to support and save everyone.  

Spoken like a true True Neutral character.

Nobody could try to do anything like that, except maybe Scion.

Oh hey, long time no hear-about!

I’m applying that concept to a smaller scale.  My family and my team, they take priority, and they take priority in that order.  If I have to choose one way or the other, I’m going to take the option that includes Aisha and you guys.”

Not gonna lie, I feel like every single word that just came out of Grue’s mouth validated my view of his alignment from the last post.

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I had a suspicion he got her to cooperate with some sort of incentive.  Figure out she’s unhappy at home, give her a place to stay and some sort of bribe.

Well… technically that is what he did. Though as it turns out, that bribe happened to be “candy”.

Either way, it’s more fitting with his methods to date, and it would have been short term or more benign.  Not so bad.”

Yeah, it does fit into his MO, if we compare with how Coil gets others to work for him.

“Kind of off there,” I said, bitterly.

“I’m aware,” Tattletale answered, with just as much emotion in her voice.  “I don’t like it either.

Yeeah, me neither.

He’s been around me enough, communicated with me enough, to have an idea of stuff that I won’t necessarily know or think to look for.

Filing this under evidence that Tattle’s Knowledge needs to be at least somewhat consciously targeted.

I didn’t even know she had powers, or how Coil would have found this out or found her.  This is out of character for him.  Ruthless, power hungry.”

I mean we knew he wanted power. That was a whole spiel he had back when he laid out his master plan. He’s power hungry, just relatively realistic about how much power he can maintain and thrive with.

The ruthlessness is more camouflaged.

“If it bothers you that much, tell him to fuck off,” Bitch cut in, sounding irritated.

“It’s more complicated than that,” I said.  “We can’t just walk away and leave her like that.”

Ooooh.

Is this headed towards the Undersiders not only terminating their agreement with Coil but actively going up against him to free Dinah?

Because I really don’t think he’s gonna give her up through negotiations.

“And some of us are kind of relying on Coil for some major stuff,” Grue spoke.  “Some of us have people we can’t leave behind.”

Ahh, right, Coil was helping Grue with the whole Aisha situation, among other things funneling part of his income through a seemingly legal employer.

I looked at him, surprised, “I don’t want to say your sister isn’t important, but… are you really willing to let Dinah stay in captivity, just for Aisha?”

…yes. I think Grue might be willing to do that.

In D&D terms, Grue strikes me as a True Neutral character, whereas Taylor is Chaotic Good. Sometimes the differences between their alignments on the axis of morality causes conflicts between them – Grue is sometimes inclined to not do the “Good” thing in favor of what keeps him and those closest to him safe, whereas Taylor has the heroic (”Good”) instinct to not only harm others as little as possible, but also put herself in harm’s way if it can protect innocent people.

As for the remaining Undersiders, Bitch is the only one I’m decently sure about, but she and Tattle both seem to be Chaotic Neutral (or Chaotic Dog and Chaotic Fun respectively). Regent might be True Neutral along with Grue.

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“We’re not to blame for what Coil did,” Grue told me.

“We sure helped it happen.”

Hm. Starting off strong with two opposing opinions. Taylor thinks that because the Undersiders blindly took money to do something that helped their boss do something they didn’t know about, that something is on them. I’m inclined to agree, but only partially – most of the blame is on Coil, but the Undersiders have some culpability as willing henchpeople.

“There was no way we could know what he was really doing.”

“Because we were complacent, not paying attention.  Because of that, and because we assisted Coil in distracting the capes, Dinah has been held captive for what, three weeks?  Almost a month?”

The only reason they didn’t know is that they didn’t try to know. They were content with taking their reward without thinking of what kind of consequences they were enabling.

“Almost a month,” Tattletale echoed me.

I looked at Tattletale, noted how she was refusing to look anyone in the eye, and I had an uncomfortable thought.  “Did you know about this?”

I don’t think she did. Her behavior since she paled in the last chapter has seemed surprised and disgusted, even before it became clear to her that Taylor figured it out.

“I-” She stopped to give a little sigh and briefly make eye contact with me before staring back down at the ground.  “I had an idea, sort of.  I didn’t think it would be this ugly.  It’s hard to explain.”

Ah, I see.

“Try,” I spoke, my voice hard.

“She disappeared from the middle school near Arcadia the same day we robbed the bank.  Obviously, Coil wanted to ensure the Wards weren’t close enough to interfere, probably why he was so keen on us doing the bank job, after I suggested it.  I made the connection, after.  I just didn’t think – Nothing he said or did led me to think it would be a serious kidnapping.”

She figured out they had enabled the kidnapping, but wasn’t prepared to see Dinah being drugged and abused like we saw in Coil’s basement.

“What else could it be?” Grue asked her.

“Her uncle’s one of the mayoral candidates in the election this Summer, you know that?  I knew Coil was putting a lot of value on getting hold of her, I thought maybe he was kidnapping her to use her to ransom for the uncle’s campaign funds, or to get the uncle to drop out of the race in a more direct play.

I wouldn’t characterize this as a “non-serious” kidnapping, but it does seem less… permanent and abusive.

Buzz 7.12

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Howdy! Krixwell here, ready to read-y some more… Worm…y!

Last chapter, the Undersiders got more of a glimpse at what Coil is actually like, and what they’ve already been contributing to. Turns out he, like so many other characters, is a piece of shit. (Though he’s still nowhere near the top of the Worm douche scale so far.)

This chapter, I believe will primarily be spent dealing with that new knowledge and deciding what to do. It could really go either way at this point.

There isn’t really anything left to say, so let’s jump into it!

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Hm… Guessing the Interlude POV characters hasn’t really worked out for me so far, but… Usually the Interludes act as bridges between the Arcs, so they tend to tie in with both what has just happened and with what’s coming up next. Maybe we’re getting an Interlude about Coil, Dinah, or a member of New […]

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Maybe that’s the case. But it’s worth noting how Dinah answers each of the questions: “I did.  But I want the Undersiders to hear what you say.  Give me a number.  How would they do, without my help?” “Forty-six point six two three five four percent chance they all come back.  Thirty three point seven […]

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Honestly, judging by what we’ve seen of each of them, those two seem to act just about the same (seeing what will happen given people’s actions in the present), and with far more determinism than the probabilities Dinah gives would imply for the Wormverse.