By Pericardium. Hah! First the Tide pods and now this… I think I like the way Pericardium thinks. :p Wait a moment… Matted auburn, a mop of black, blonde, brown on a darker-skinned person – is this chimera made of the original four Undersiders? …nice.
By RespitePostTe. I love the poster gimmick of the first four pieces. These public service annoucements from your friendly neighbo[r]hood Slaughterhouse Nine are a really fun concept backed up by excellent and distinct art for each piece. Incidentally, I like the irony of putting “Do What You Love” with an image of Burnscar. Practice what you […]
Artists in order: synapsekisses, ArtLounge, scarfgirl, cedeelbe, LinaLeeZ, icehippo, CopperRose98, Ellenrules, lonsheep, astrisjursen More excellent art by assorted artists! synapsekisses’ Bonesaw looks great in that super frilly dress. I love the look of the blood stains in particular. The imgur link I was given for ArtLounge’s Tattletale had the caption “I tried to draw Tattletale, hope […]
Squealer is not an Ork.
…are you sure?
I’m with the other people who said Gallant saw jealousy in Amy, I think the poor wording was specifically to mislead the reader. I mean, it still fits the situation pretty well. Also, pretty sure the stuff about his final thoughts as he died is WoG.
Oh yeah, if this was the case, the poor wording was intentional to mislead the reader. All I’m saying is it needs to make sense in-universe too – in other words, Gallant would need to have actually made that mistake in expressing himself, and then not corrected himself. That’s believable.
So ultimately it’s hard to tell, but I personally find “he misinterpreted what he was seeing because auras are vague and Amy’s distaste was born from love” far more interesting than “he just happened to misspeak, and not correct himself, in a way that was very convenient for misleading the reader”.
Either way, I can believe the WoG about Gallant’s dying thoughts. He was clearly concerned about Amy’s situation. In Interlude 3, they seemed like close friends, and while it turns out Amy was secretly hiding a distaste for him due to jealousy, I’d like to think that was quite genuine from his side. He seemed like a very genuine guy overall.
…
…
Shit.
I just reread the bit and noticed something that invalidates my entire argument.
Based on the way a previous ask quoted it, I’ve been talking about how there’s a difference between having feelings for someone versus about someone and how it would be a mistake to say the former when you mean the latter, but looking back at the original text, he doesn’t say either. He says towards, which is closer to “about” than to “for” in function.
Fair enough! I guess he did mean her distaste, then, as reflected when he subsequently suggested that Amy probably wouldn’t want to talk about it with him.
Well, that could’ve gone at least 6% better.
Hookwolf had a strong showing here, flexing his group manipulation skills against the Undersiders and Travelers. After hypocritically chastising Faultline and Skidmark for arguing on neutral ground, he expertly turned the conversation to be about the Undertraveler takeover and spun that into a reason to limit their involvement and attempt to get them to leave their territories undefended.
Now they’re outside the alliance that has been formed, and most of that alliance harbors animosity for the Undersiders. Well played, Hookwolf.
Next time, the Undersiders and maybe the Travelers will have to figure out what the hell they do now. Do they attempt to join in on the fights against the Slaughterhouse (not that they need to go out and find them), or avoid the Empire Mercoiline altogether while managing their territories?
I think I’ll leave my speculation at that for now, because I really fucked up by doing this chapter in one piece, and need to go sleep.
Until next time – good morning!
“You guys are making a mistake,” Grue said.
“I think you have things the wrong way around,” Hookwolf said. “Nobody wants to break the peace at neutral ground, so perhaps you should go before things get violent?”
Yeeeeah, this could’ve gone better.
Tattletale asked, “You won’t let us stick around and discuss the Nine, who they attacked, what our overall strategies should be? Even if we aren’t working together as a single group?” She paused, looking deliberately at Faultline, “You know, the smart thing to do?”
Hah, nice one. :p
She was met only with cold stares and crossed arms.
There was little else to be said or done. We’d lost here. I turned and helped push our boat into the water, then held it steady as everyone piled in. Tattletale had started the motor, and we were gone the second I’d hopped inside.
Well. See ya, folks.
“And Miss Militia?” Hookwolf asked, “A truce?”
“Keep the business to a minimum, no assaulting or attacking civilians,” Miss Militia said, “We still have to protect this city, there’s no give there. Don’t give us a reason to bother with you, and we’ll be focused wholly on the Slaughterhouse Nine in the meantime.”
Those seem like reasonable terms.
“Good. That’s all we ask.”
The leaders of the new group crossed the roof to shake hands. In the process, things shuffled so that our group, the Travelers and the heroes were near the bottom of the roof.
The underdogs.
…That would be a good name for an AU version of the Undersiders led by Rachel.
The heroes moved off to one side, as if to guard us from any retaliation, making the separation in forces all the more obvious.
I appreciate that they seem to protect the Undertravelers here, whether it’s intentional or not on their part.
“It seems,” Hookwolf said, “The Travelers and the Undersiders won’t agree to our terms for the truce. Merchants, Pure, Faultline, Coil? Are you willing to band together with my group?”
But yeah, I suppose the truce proper isn’t really in effect yet.
And it’s looking that it’ll be Undertravelers vs Empire Mercoiline.
Maybe having it both ways was Coil’s plan here? Getting a foot in on either side of this conflict?
Purity, Coil and Skidmark nodded. Faultline shook her head.
“You’re saying no, Faultline?”
Ooh! Another ally? Or are they going to pull the same schtick they did last time and go with “whoever pays more”?
“We’re mercenaries. We can’t take a job without pay. Even a job as important as this.”
Looks like it.
Well. The Undertravelers have money to spend, but so does the guy who provided them with that money in the first place.
Question is whether he’ll make a bid or let the Undertravelers have Faultline.
Besides, the other groups probably aren’t poor either.
“I will handle your payment here as I did for the ABB, Faultline,” Coil said, sounding just a touch exasperated.
Alright, guess he’s going for it. I suppose his main objective is to get as many people against the Slaughterhouse Nine as he can.
“We could make the same arguments about ourselves,” Grue pointed out, “If we agreed, we’d be sitting ducks for whoever came after us.”
Yeah. As I said, they would almost certainly attack this “hotel”.
“I think the Protectorate can help watch and guard nine people,” Coil replied, “I’m less confident of their ability to protect everyone present.”
That’s a fair point.
So Coil wasn’t willing to play along if it meant losing his ability to stay where he was, but he was willing to make life harder on us, his territory holders. Did he have some plan in mind? Or was he just that callous? Either way, he was an asshole.
He’s Coil, he can have it both ways.
“No. I’m afraid that compromise won’t work,” Hookwolf said, squaring his shoulders.
Miss Militia glanced my way. She didn’t say or do anything, but I could almost read her mind: I tried.
It was a good attempt. Thank you.
Hookwolf wasn’t about to give up anything here. He had us right where he wanted us, and he was poised to kill two birds with one stone: The Nine and his rivals for territory.
You’d think this sort of manipulation would constitute a breach of the truce, honestly.
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