#mr ethical

First, I'd intially assumed Heavy has some sort of super healing powers. But he doesn't, does he? In that one scene with Tonya, he says he's holding himself together and hoping it'll heal. So, he's using his gravity powers to physically put his body back together and hold it in place, but that doesn't speed up the healing process it only allows it to happen, in a way that it generally wouldn't happen for someone who just got their lower torso blown to bits. So there's scarring and pain and all that fun stuff, and he's not even sure it'll work. He's not sure he won't have to hold himself together with his powers alone forever.

Second thing. Etienne. What a shitty life. Like wow. Most people mostly get the things we need to grow up given to us -- sometimes there's some neglect, sometimes there's some abuse, but to survive infancy and early childhood we need things to be given to us freely. Etienne, from a few minutes of his birth, had to take what he needed, using his mind control powers, in order to not die.

Which means a couple things, firstly, no wonder he's not a Kantian, if he had moral lines he wouldn't cross and they included reasonable things like "not using your mind control powers to make someone else do a thing that they wouldn't have done otherwise", he wouldn't have survived at all. And it'd be a less interesting story. The surprising thing is that he didn't go full on supervillain. He's got a great supervillain origin story.

The other thing is, he's never been loved. Nurses physically cared for him, but he was unresponsive, there's a good chance none of them ever spoke kindly to him or showed him any sort of emotional affection. (Even setting aside the racism thing, and well, the racism thing was clearly there.) He's gotten little or no physical affection. No bedtime stories. No lullabies. No time when he fell and bumped his knee and got a kiss to make it better.

Who knows whether it makes it better or worse that he's known all along that those things exist and other people get them, just not him.

And yet, he gives the little kindnesses he never received to others. He does his God act to soothe Eliza -- yeah it's creepy and fucked up, but he understands the concept of trying to make someone feel better and how to make someone feel better. He's kind and gentle with Masumi. He lies to the public with the intention of keeping them calm. He takes this life of his that's been utterly devoid of any recieving of affection and kindness, and gives affection and kindness back, and is at least reluctant to respond to attempts to kill him with using lethal violence back.

Although I'm not sure what the deal is with him going after Kid Ignition, who after all didn't do anything to him and neither did Heavy and surely he knows that.

I think. I'm not sure how the psychic cage concept works. Magus thought he had the stadium set up to block Etienne's psychic abilities, but if it did that then how was "Etienne" still doing anything? It is confusing. Perhaps Etienne is lying about not being able to break through the Pyramid? Seems like a thing he'd do.

Back to Etienne's shitty childhood. I think there's a bit of ambiguity around his first act of mind control. Was Etienne already like that and "it'd be more ethical" was Etienne's words? Or did Etienne do some sort of nonverbal push on the doctor's mind and he came up with those words to justify trying to keep Etienne alive, and that's where Etienne's obsession with ethics began?

Hidden things and security blankets. The thing the US used to attack Heavy was supposed to make them feel better, according to Magus, not supposed to be a thing they'd actually use.

The police have something that they think protects them, made by Magus, that does not.

And this all seems very, very Etienne's style. (He's also got playing God with Eliza to keep her feeling safe, similar concept, and whatever he's doing with Isabella (to keep her and Masumi calm and feeling safe), and lying to Masumi (I'm pretty sure he's pretending to like her more than he actually does) to keep her calm and feeling safe, and lying to the public about being on good terms with Heavy to keep them calm and feeling safe.)

But those first two involve Magus, and at least one of them is something Etienne was in on, and Etienne acted as though he wasn't involved in the second, to Magus, and he communicated telepathically so presumably there wouldn't be an audience to lie for, but...idk. I think maybe they're working together a lot more than they're letting on.

So. Motive. Some people don't like the Atomics in general, and some people really don't like Etienne. He does the Superpowers' dirty work. He knows he's got enemies and is making more. And his enemies are going to want to join up with someone who also seems to be his enemy, you know, someone like Magus. But if Magis isn't actually his enemy, but is promising to do things like scan recruits to make sure they don't have any of Etienne's tracks on them or keep family members safe in his pyramid, while secretly doing whatever is actually going to help Etienne, well. That would be very convenient for Etienne, wouldn't it?

It'd also be convenient for Magus. He's getting a shit ton of power and getting to expand the Pyramid by convincing the new US president that he needs someone like Magus. (Which uh, the failed Heavy assassination and aftermath sure helped sell that. I don't think Heavy was in on anything, but perhaps Etienne wasn't actually trying to talk Heavy out of what he did after all. Etienne presumably could figure out what buttons to push to get Heavy to do anything he reasonably might do, under some circumstances.)

Although as far as the story goes, I think it would take things way off the rails in terms of the Cold War themes in a way it couldn't possibly come back from. Cold War theme requires genuinely conflicting goals, not secret back room collaboration. So, in that sense that...doesn't seem right.

Magus definitely chose Dev as his replacement when he made him a fucking arsehole at the latest. Let me explain.

Higher members of the pyramid get major arcana names. (The major arcana is the part of the tarot deck that isn't the such and such of wands/cups/etc. The such and such of items are the minor arcana. So, Magus is, well, Magus. The magician. Which makes sense. He's a magician. He's the magician. But the thing about the major arcana, is it's not 21 unrelated cards, it's a sequence, The Fool's Journey. The Fool, Dev's card, represents a beginning, the start of the journey. And the Magician is the second card, the second step on the journey, what the Fool turns into.

(Note: the Magician can also be a con man.)

Another angle on this. Etienne said something about the Mumbai Atomic being precognizant (I think that was the word, not looking it up right now.) (or rather, Heavy said Etienne said that, but I think Heavy is actually mostly a reliable narrator here -- keeping secrets isn't something he's good at.) So, there's been at least one future predicting Atomic, and Etienne knew about her. (And may well have taken her out. And come to think of it, what would have stopped Etienne from hearing the prediction she gave to Heavy? He seems to be aware of everyone's consciousness all the time, yeah? And Heavy can't keep his surface thoughts from him except inside Haven?) Anyways. Etienne may well have gotten some future predicting from her or someone else. He seems surprised to have found out about Kid Ignition. But we know he's not always honest. And that he plays, idk, twelve dimensional chess. He might have a reason for pretending he didn't know a thing he knew, if nothing else to keep everyone else from realizing how many other things he might know. (Like pretending the police officer's devices work.*) Apart from Magus, the other superpowers don't think about things too hard. Heavy certainly doesn't. Eliza doesn't -- she's too focused on her big repentance deal. Masumi certainly doesn't. Valentina might not and even if she does, she's on Etienne's side. It wouldn't actually be that hard for Etienne to trick the other superpowers into thinking he's less on top of everything than he is...minus Magus.

But Magus (fake Magus) is going around telling everyone that Etienne is growing in power and is apparently goading Eliza into trying to kill him, based on a lie. Why?

This series is very fun. Quality enrichment for my enclosure.

P133/158 (ebook, two page spreads are combined)

Magus/Dev talking to Etienne seems to be dropping all his britishisms. Contrast "she's having a nice sit-down and a cup of tea and can do without you shouting at her. What's got your goat?" with what he tells her on p 87: "sorry it's been a while, luv. Want to pop around for a cup of char?"

Is char tea? Must be tea, right? (Google search, yeah.)

Point is, usually Magus can't get three words out without saying something that makes it sound like he's the one talking. Except when he talks to Etienne, since the second summer of love. Except-except for a bit that's clearly part of a story he's telling to Eliza. (apparently while they're fucking. He can multitask.)

That bit in ch 8 where he says "asshole", not "areshole", that's not part of the story he's telling Eliza.

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that not only Etienne knows, but Dev knows he knows. Either Dev isn't trying to hide it from him or he actively told him. But he's telling Eliza that they have to hide it from him. Which means he's lying to her.

Part of me wonders if the Dev thing is actually the fakeout, if he's got some illusion ability or picked up an Atomic who does. But that would imply that the way he talks around the Pyramid is a fake and the way he talks to Etienne is the real Magus. Possible, I suppose. Could be doing some elaborate double bluff where they pretend to hate each other because they see some benefit in it, while actually maintaining a secret alliance.

I don't think I like that reading though, I think it makes too much of what we've been shown on the page a lie. (It would make for some very high drama though.)

But just Dev having some sort of alliance with Etienne, for some unclear reason, or perhaps Etienne having gone "dude I know, keep up the act around others if you want but you don't have to with me", that seems possible.

I was going to say after the second summer of love, but idk, could be the other way round and Etienne arranged to get Dev in there as a mole way early on.

Lots of unanswered questions. Such as, what's Dev trying to accomplish? Such as, what exactly is Eliza going to do to Dev when she finds out that he's been using her? She's got all the powers of hell. She could make it hurt.