“Regent got a visit from one of the Slaughterhouse Nine last night.  So did Coil, though the man is quiet on details.

Interesting that Coil mentioned that. I suppose it makes sense to keep them informed, though, and it might’ve come up naturally when he was informed about Cherish’s visit to Alec.

Also apparently Interludes 11f and 11g took place on the same day.

Coil’s also reporting that Hookwolf got a visit on Tuesday, and one of Coil’s undercover operatives died in the ensuing carnage.

What day is it today? Thursday?

The PRT office downtown also got hit, according to Tattletale…”

Nice, so by now the Undersiders as a whole know vaguely about at least four out of the events from the Interludes, not counting the fifth one Rachel is presumably keeping to herself. Them being informed on this could come in handy later.

“They’re active.”

“Yeah.  More to the point, they’re recruiting.  Looking for a ninth to round out their group.  Regent was one candidate.”

Which is a huge problem, though likely not as big of one as the fact that Bitch is also a candidate. I think that might create problems even beyond bringing a second set of tests down on the Undersiders.

“No.  You’re right.  I’ve been thinking too short-term.”

“I really did want to come by and talk about less serious things.  It’s a shame we can’t.”

You can’t?

“We have time to do that, don’t we?  We could go back to my lair, hang.  I can show you what I’ve got done on your new costume, and we could talk about the mask,” I suggested.

“Let’s go home to my place and talk about clothes.”

So is this where the Slaughterhouse get involved?

He shook his head.  “No.  What I meant was that I’d hoped to spend today talking about that stuff.  But we’re not going to get the chance.  Something more serious has come up.”

Looking like it.

“Oh hell.”  My initial suspicions had been right.  This wasn’t a social call.

Nope.

“No, but it’s something.  Look, Coil’s a proud guy.  He said it himself.  He’d be upset if he took over the city and it wasn’t better than it was before.  I’ve got the old Boardwalk here.  I can help set that going again.  I’ve also got the Docks, here.  A part of it.  If I can improve things here, if I can take this place and make it better than it’s been in decades, wouldn’t that be a feather in his cap?”

That is assuming he was telling the truth, but yes.

“Even if things went smoothly, that’s not going to happen fast, and it’s not going to be easy.”

I don’t think Taylor is in it for “easy”.

Not fast.  Grue had been pretty merciless in trying to poke holes in my approach, but the realization that he was right on that score was like a punch in the gut.  “If I can show Coil I’m making headway…”

But here we have Taylor, who’s been trying to do everything as fast as she could, to show Coil that she’s serious about this, and maybe to set Dinah free faster. Getting a reality check on how fast she can actually do this is something she kinda needed, I think.

Even I wasn’t convincing myself.  Coil wouldn’t give Dinah up for something as minor as a good start.  I think Grue noticed my dejection.

Slow down, focus on doing a good job over time rather than on doing everything at once.

“I’m sorry if I’m being hard on you,” Grue settled one hand on the armor of my shoulder.

I don’t think he is. He’s being blunt about some truths and opinions that are hard for Taylor to swallow right now, but I think he’s fairly civil about it and not making it feel like an attack.

“What do you want me to do?  That doesn’t involve taking protection money or peddling drugs?”

“Those would be your biggest revenue streams.”

Are you doing that?

“I’m taking control like he wanted me to.  Faster than the rest of you.”

“But you’re not leaving yourself in a position to do anything with that control.”

Well, besides helping people.

“I can get all of the people in my territory onto Coil’s side.  And I have over three hundred and fifty thousand dollars I can put towards infrastructure here.”

Skitter is certainly not poor these days.

The point about making people loyal to Coil is an interesting one. I suppose a good start is making them loyal to yourself. And while it’s an outright lie that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, the meaning behind that saying does hold true here.

Or at least the flies you catch will get more stuck. Metaphorically speaking.

“Maybe.  But… no,” he changed his mind after thinking for a second.  “I think both you and Lisa could be a lot more aggressive.  It kind of worries me that you aren’t.”

Taylor, sure, but Lisa… I guess Lisa could use blackmail to make people willingly submit to her reign?

“Worries you?”

“If you aren’t taking out the other gangs in your territory and turning a profit, why should Coil bother keeping you there?”

Aaand we have a thing for Taylor to worry about in this Arc. It’s kind of close to what I was talking about earlier with Coil’s expenses towards Taylor’s altruism. If Taylor doesn’t figure out a way to turn a profit instead of just blindly spending to help people, she risks Coil going back on things. And isn’t Taylor’s main objective across Arcs currently to prove her worth to Coil, in order to convince him that she’s more useful than Dinah?

Of course Taylor doesn’t want to stop helping people, but Brian has a point.

“First of all, I’m totally prepared to squash any troublemakers the second they make themselves known around here.”

Yeah, I don’t question that part. We’ve seen Taylor do this already.

“Assuming you can find them.”

“I can.  Second of all, Coil didn’t say a thing about turning a profit.  He has money.  Scads.”

Hm, true enough.

“He has his own money.  Money that he has to devote time and attention to earning.  If your territory never starts earning for him and just becomes some black hole that sucks up tens of thousands of dollars of his money each week, you think he’s going to be okay with that?”

But yeah, this is a valid point.

I didn’t like that he was mentioning that.  Sore spot for both of us.  “Just following my instincts.”

Yeeeah, of all the people to get that from, Brian might be the worst.

“And maybe pushing yourself a little too hard, too fast in the process.”

“Mmm,” I offered a noncommittal response.

Yes. Yes, she is. If you can help her cut herself some healthy slack, that would be nice.

I could have asked how Bitch fit into his interpretation of events, but I already knew the answer.  Normal rules didn’t apply to her.

Yep. Rachel doesn’t count, because she’s Rachel.

“I think all this ties more closely into how our individual powers work than it does to gender.”

Probably, yeah. Hard to use the darkness and oblivion as more than defensive measures in combat, Tattletale’s power is almost useless for direct combat, and what else is Alec supposed to do? Manipulate people’s nerves to make them help themselves? Make them trip over winning lottery tickets?

Granted, they all do have access to the Coil resources Taylor is making use of to help people.

“Little girl?”

“You know what I mean.  Look at it from his perspective.”

That’s the kind of thinking that led me down the train of thought at the end of this post.

“What if I recruited him?  Gave him the opportunity and the power to help others?”

Hm… It’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure he’d accept. First being upstaged by Taylor like this, and then immediately after getting asked to work under her?

“He’d be intolerable.  I mean, sure, things would get better in the short-term.  But over the long haul? You’d wind up with someone who criticizes every last thing you do, every last call you make, to make himself feel better about the fact that he isn’t the one in control, the one calling the shots.”

Yeah, that too. Charlotte might become someone who’s willing to call it as she sees it when Taylor does something she doesn’t think is good, but she’d fill that sort of role in a much more healthy way, criticizing Taylor when and only when she saw a need to criticize her, when there’s something to criticize, in the interest of genuinely helping. This guy would just criticize for the sake of criticizing, in the interest of feeling better about himself.

“Fuck,” I said.  “I thought you said you weren’t good with people.”

Hah! He did, didn’t he!

Then again, it’s not the first time he’s shown an understanding of how people act in response to certain things. For instance, there’s the way he deliberately added an incomplete description of his power because it was easier to catch people off guard with the finer details if they thought they knew his power than if they didn’t know anything about it. That wasn’t anywhere near as thorough as this, though.

“I’m not good with girls, mainly.  Guys?  Or ‘manly’ guys like him?  I’ve met enough people like him in the gyms with my dad, in fighting classes.”

That’s fair.

“Taking up a side business in extermination?” he asked me.  I thought I detected a note of humor in his voice.

Yes, clearly. :p

“Assisting my people.  Some goodwill will help when I’m more firmly in power here.”  I couldn’t help but sound a mite defensive.

“Yep.  That guy over there will be singing your praises.”

“Yeah, I was thinking of inviting him as my plus one to the boxing club gala this weekend. Have some fun beating the crap out of each other in formal clothing.”

I looked over my shoulder at the ‘dad’ who’d been giving me a hard time.  He was ignoring Sierra and Charlotte, who were talking to the larger group of people.  Instead, he watched the bugs cart the dead rats down the street, as if he thought I would slack on the job.

I would imagine that would be the more interesting sight anyway. :p

“I don’t understand people sometimes.”

I don’t know if anyone does, really.

“My guess?  When everything went to hell, he told himself he’d be the ‘man’ for his family.  Take charge, provide, protect.  He failed.  Then some little girl waltzes in and takes care of all that all at once?”

Ah, yeeah, that might spur some irritation.

I could sense Grue a block away, my bugs settling on his helmet, unable to see as they got close.  I could feel that faint push of the darkness billowing away from him.  He’d been watching for a minute or two.

Oy. You’re keeping the boy waiting.

Though to be fair, when you set the location, you weren’t expecting him to be close.

“If there’s nothing else that’s pressing?” I asked.

Silence, a few shaken heads.  I turned to go and meet Grue where he stood at the corner of one building.

See ya! Enjoy your newly ratless house!