“I wouldn’t have minded,” Imp said.  “I wouldn’t have anything to contribute, but I’d like to follow along.  And I can’t figure out my niche in the group with the trio being so… trio-ish.”

The trio! Heh. I like how the newcomer is the one who finally points out in-story the dynamic of Taylor, Brian and Lisa having the tightest connection and the most relevance, while the remaining three are the flanks of the team narratively.

Which is actually reflected in the piece I brought up in the previous post, with Alec, Aisha and Rachel being literally in the flanks (though Rachel is a bit more in the foreground than the other two).

Anyway, I officially predict that this is going to be Aisha’s arc in this, well, Arc. She’s probably going to be critical to success. Which makes a lot of sense considering the way Coil’s power works – it’ll be far less useful to him if he doesn’t know there’s a threat. That’s one of the main reasons for the sneaky planning in the first place.

“Trio-ish?” I asked.

“Tattletale, you and my brother.  Making all the plans, you’ve got the nemeses…” Imp paused.  “Is nemeses a word?”

Yes.

“Yeah,” I said.

“And you three have the brains, of course,” she stabbed a finger in my direction, as if it was an accusation, “Which leaves Regent, me and Bitch, following along, expected to obediently do as we’re told.”

She’s absolutely right.

Though some of that seems to be because they haven’t tried very hard to contribute in the same ways the trio does.

I suppose it’s a good thing Brian and Rachel aren’t here. I don’t think either of them would like to hear this. Though Lisa would be fine with it, I think.

“Let’s quit and start our own group!”  Regent said, throwing one arm across Imp’s shoulders and gesturing dramatically with the other as he continued, “Regent, Imp, and Bitch, the Othersiders, a spin-off team.

Ahaha!

There are plenty of fanfics about the Othersiders, right?

And we’ll stick with Coil while the others turn traitor, and we’ll have this epic fight…”

I mean I was pretty much theorizing that exact thing for a while there.

Minus Imp, I suppose, but that’s because I literally forgot she existed while I was theorizing on it.

Imp took his cue, “And Brian and I will go head to head, and it’ll end in this dramatic moment where he says something pretentious-”

You know, I’ve said before that I like these two together, but I’m not sure I’ve ever actually put it like this: I think I ship it.

“Et tu, sis?”

Ahahaha!

“And then I’ll say ‘Yeah, it’s me’ and finish him!  No mercy.”

They were playing off one another, joking.

Yes, thank you, Taylor, I could tell.

And it is delightful.

“Whatcha thinking, dork?”

“You’re still calling me that?”

This isn’t the format of text messages in this story, so Alec and Taylor are either in the same place or talking over the phone. The latter sounds unlikely from what’s being said.

And if they’re in the same place, it’s probably morning. Let’s go attack the Chosen. Maybe. Or maybe that’s high-priority but not quite first on the list of to-dos.

Regent chuckled.  He was walking down the center of the street with Imp.  I was keeping to the sidewalk out of habit, and because the raised concrete path was fractionally higher, so I wasn’t wading in quite so much water.

I’m reminded of this piece of fanart by ImSkeptical:

Though it seems like Skitter and Impgent have switched places.

And the others might not be here? At least Taylor hasn’t described their placements yet.

“Just thinking about priorities,” I told him.

“Yeah, Tattletale kept trying to rope me into the planning phase last night.  Not my thing.”

Heh. Fair enough.

Planning is not really my thing either, even though I prefer to know what I’m doing.

After departing from our meeting, we’d taken the afternoon and evening to handle our personal affairs, agreeing to start on the major stuff in the morning.

Are we seeing that morning in this chapter or the next one?

This paragraph is all past, so if the morning is in the next chapter, this on takes place late at night. Does anything need to take place late at night right now? I’m inclined to think not, unless we’re getting a surprise visit from Armsmaster or something like that, something out of Taylor’s control.

So my guess is we’re gonna get to the morning pretty soon.

Bitch had to take care of her dogs, Regent was toying with gangs in his territory by puppeteering their leaders, and Tattletale had her various spies and scouts to keep in contact with.

Seems like Alec’s having fun, to the extent he can have fun, at least.

Things were a little less busy for myself, Grue and Imp: I’d tended to my territory, ensuring that the cleanup was going well and that the major concerns were being addressed.  Grue and Imp had taken the afternoon and evening to try to catch up on sleep.

You should probably get some of that yourself, now that you don’t have the Nine to worry about.

Taylor: “Sleep is for those without a tendency to blame themselves for every bad thing they were even slightly involved with, Krixwell!”

Oh, hey there! …so, uh, what’s with the silent treatment?

Taylor: “…what?”

I mean, I’ve been talking to you for a year and ten months now and I’m pretty sure this is the first time you’ve ever replied to me. What gives?

Taylor: “…”

Ah. Back to normal, I see. Well, then, be that way.

Hm. Maybe she refuses to talk to me because I’ve got that “sanity” thing my doctor mentioned, whatever that is.

One thing at a time.

Alright.

As much as I wanted to make it a focus, taking care of my territory was something I had to handle in my downtime.  I felt guilty; I’d left my people to handle things on their own, I’d failed to arrange the cleanup of the bodies Mannequin and Burnscar had left behind.  I hadn’t made arrangements for food, fresh water or accommodations.  I wanted to make it up to the people who had stuck by me, or at least the people who hadn’t left, but this wasn’t one of the instances where I could let my emotions dictate my priorities.

Makes sense, honestly. You have a lot on your plate.

We had a mess of things to do and a limited amount of time to work with.

I just don’t know what even half those things are. Just the goal and a vague idea of the style of chess we’re playing.

Oh hey, here’s another complication I just thought of regarding leaving Coil behind: Shatterbird. Alec claims he can’t control people while his main body is sleeping. Unless he was lying, that means he’s been having to contain Shatters, presumably in the cell we saw at Coil’s base. Which, if the Undersiders end up parting ways with Coil, Alec won’t have access to. So he’d either have to leave Shatterbird behind with Coil or attempt to find another way to contain her while he sleeps, without Coil’s resources.

Might be a good thing, though. She’s a huge risk factor for the team given how little it takes for her to break free. If Alec accidentally sends her too far away, or he gets knocked out in battle, she can free herself and wreak havoc in revenge. She might be reluctant to go near Alec again, but she’s got her insane range to work with.

(This might seem like a non-sequitur from the comment on the quote, but I swear there’s a connecting railway for my train of thought here. Chess, shogi, the capture of Shatterbird and Cherish, Shatterbird, the control of Shatterbird.)