#12.1p2

Written by Krixwell Jace

Directed by Krixwell Jace

Produced by Krixwell Jace

Lead PR manager: Elizabeth Claire

Camera operator: Krixwell Jace

Boom operator: Krixwell Jace

Special effec--

Yeah! Look, it’s not completely thankless work!

“You’ll want to sterilize the place.  Rubber gloves, bleach.  Boil or replace every dish, every piece of silverware, toothbrushes, linens and clothes.”

Seems reasonable.

“We don’t really have the ability to do all that.  We don’t have much money, let alone those things.  Stores aren’t exactly open, and we don’t have running water or electricity either.”

Ah, shit.

Hm. Time for Taylor to generously provide them with some money to buy those things?

Geez.  “What have you been drinking?”

“We have a rain barrel and we have a water collector on the roof that came with the supply kit.”

Better than drinking the water on the ground, at least. Not great, though.

That’s not good enough for this many people.  “Do you have a propane tank?  One should have come with the supply kit.”

“It’s nearly empty.  We’ve been using the propane to cook rice, but we don’t have measuring cups, and if we use too much water, it takes too long to cook, and so we’re running out of the gas.”

And the oil pump’s broken, the guy who could fix it is dead, the well’s drying up, Don Paragon wants them to trade their last bit of oil for just a little more water, and things are just generally not great for them.

That was a fairly strong opening chapter for the Arc. We got to watch Taylor do pest control and rock the benevolent ruler role, had an interesting discussion with Brian about Coil’s acceptance of Taylor’s way of ruling her territory, and then got to the Slaughterhouse developments fairly quickly. It looks like we’re in for a third truce, which I’m absolutely down for.

Seriously, I really should’ve thought of that. I know I’m not that great at predictions most of the time, but this is downright embarrassing.

But yeah, I think we’re in for an interesting Arc.

Next chapter, it’s meeting time! It’s going to be interesting to see how different it’ll be from the one in Hive. Most notably, Hookwolf taking the initiative, suggesting he might take charge rather than Coil. Something tells me the mediation of the meeting will be a little more aggressive this time around.

And then there’s Skidmark, who’s much more powerful in a social sense this time. Last time he was a pathetic whelp, easily dismissed by the big shots, especially Kaiser. This time, he’s a pathetic whelp with a following. Kaiser isn’t here and Skidmark belongs at the table, but Hookwolf, a fellow racist, is in charge and Skidmark just suffered an embarrassing defeat, so he might find himself just as excluded as last time. Though Hookwolf at least seems more inclined to stay professional than Kaiser was, and might not act on his racism.

Skidmark did get set up in this chapter as one to watch, though. That might be a red herring, or just something that made it in because of the Undersiders’ conceptions of him. But it’s possible that the caped Skidmark wouldn’t take getting excluded as well as he did last time, so it might be worth keeping an eye on him either way. That is, if he shows up.

Heh, stealth bug. Maybe she’ll sneak into the cloud of bugs surrounding the house, appearing in front of it as the bugs finish their job and clear out?

“Just a minute or two longer,” I said.  Charlotte and some of the family members jumped.

Hehe, or that. Her startling people is just as good as badassery, and the other thing I was hoping for.

“You,” a man who might have been the patriarch of one of the families pointed at me, “You did this!”

Yes. Yes she did.

You just don’t know what she’s doing, though.

“Yes,” I answered him.

“Is this some sort of game to you!?  We were prepared to leave, and you keep us from getting our things?  Add another infestation to the one that’s already there!?”

Yeeah, might want to tell this guy what you’re actually up to, Skitter.

“She’s just trying to help!” Charlotte said, with a tone like she wasn’t expecting to be listened to.  I got the impression she’d tried convincing him earlier.  I raised one hand to stop her.

Ah, so they did give more explanation than just “stand back, this could get nasty”. That’s good.

It was better if I handled this myself.

The man drew himself up a fraction, “No reply, huh?  I’d punch you right here, right now, if I thought you’d give me a fair, no-powers fight.”

No wonder they were getting ready to leave.

I hoped my dad’s situation was better.

Ouch, right in the feels.

Hey, maybe you should go visit him sometime, wherever he lives now.

“Make a note,” I ordered Sierra, “If these people are having trouble, it’s easily possible others are in similar straits.  We’ll want a fresh set of supplies going out to everyone in my territory.  For this family, a delivery of cleaning supplies; bleach, rubber gloves.  They’ll want some new clothes, you can get their sizes after I leave.  Supplies, of course, and containers to keep the food in.  Tupperware.  We’ll arrange for a doctor to come by and check them for bites, scratches and infections.  Standard inoculations.  The doctor will know how to handle that stuff better than we do.”  Hopefully.

Now this is how you act as a benevolent ruler! Good job, Taylor.

Now we just need Sierra to burn the note with her fire breath so it travels to Miss Militia Coil.

I’m thinking no. He’s giving plenty of signals that he doesn’t agree with Taylor’s desire to go.

“No.  But it isn’t up to me and me alone.  When I weigh everything in my head, including the risk of our groups spending time fighting and arguing on the subject when we could be organizing and putting measures in place to protect our territory in our absence?  I think it makes more sense to accept it and go with the flow.”

That’s a wise train of thought. I like it.

“When is the meeting?”

“With a situation this critical?  There’s no time to waste.  Tonight.”

“Aren’t we?  Look at our group.  Regent and I are going on the offensive.  I’ve got Aisha and I making constant, coordinated attacks against enemies in my territory, terrorizing groups with attacks from the cover of my darkness, or from someone they can’t even remember fighting.

Regent’s got a squad of Coil’s soldiers with him, and he’s tracking and kidnapping the leaders of enemy groups and gangs, using his power to control them and then having them sabotage their own operations, or start fights with other groups that leave both almost totally wiped out.  Then he cleans up the mess.”

Ohh, so that’s how he got those people he had in Interlude 11g! Maybe.

“And us girls?”

“Lisa’s running the shelter, and she says she’s doing it to get more info, but I think she doesn’t mind how it connects her to the community there, either.  You, too, are almost nurturing in how you’re treating the people in your territory.

Yeah, I suppose that’s true.

And Rachel you could argue doesn’t count because she’s Rachel.

Or, hell, you could even claim she’s nurturing too, but to her dogs.

And you’re acting like you’re getting that aspiring superhero thing out of your system.  Or entrenched deeper into it.  I can’t tell.”

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?”