#chapter 12.1

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--

Skitter: Does this feel like a nightmare? Skitter: Like something out of a bad dream? Skitter: Because that’s the effect I was going for.

She’s quite skilled at that. :P

(Under. The eyelids.)

Imp: [In Skitter’s chair in her lair] Hey, look at me, I'm Skitter! Tattletale: She doesn't generally spin that much. Imp: Right. This is Skitter: "Oh, no, I can't do anything fun tonight. I have to count my past sins, then alphabetize them. Oh, by the way, I'm thinking of snapping on Friday." 

Ahaha!

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.

Ahaha, that’s very appropriate. :P

Ahaha, I see! It is overall pretty vaguely described, too, more by feel than by its literal appearance.

When sending me this ask, Sharks also added:

Apparently including lonsheep.

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.”

Yeah, that’s a good point. She was unwilling to use the dirty money from her Undersider gigs back when she was trying to be a hero, but now she’s spending Coil’s money left and right without even sparing the idea of dirty and/or blood money a single line of narration.

It is implied in Interlude 8b that much, maybe most, of Coil’s riches are actually clean - earned through using his power on business decisions - but Taylor wouldn’t know that, and some of it is definitely ill-gotten.