#15.i2p1

[krixwell-liveblogs]

He looked down at his hands and picked off a peel of skin.

“Um.  So yeah.  You stay right here, try to take it easy?”  She sounded a little tense.

Save the skin peeling for your alone time, Brian. Seriously.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Maybe we could go for a walk later?  Check on one of the ‘rents?”

I mean, that’s a lot easier for you to do than for Brian.

It also sounds like one of the last things he’d want to do. Though it’d be nice to get a direct look at their dad the way we did for their mom.

It sounded so unlike her.  He could count on one hand the number of times she’d been this conciliatory and gentle.  He couldn’t remember a single case where she’d acted like that when she hadn’t wanted something.

Hmm.

I’m still inclined to think she’s genuinely very concerned about you, for once.

Brian forced a smile.  “Maybe.  You go.  Be safe.”

He was both relieved and terrified when the door shut behind Aisha.

Alone time, for better or worse.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“I’m going with Regent.  Relax.”

Not sure that makes me feel better.

Hah.

“Not sure that’s the company I want you to keep.”

He was well familiar with the annoyed look that flashed over her face before she forced it away.  She said, “It’s fine.  He’s your buddy, and our powers actually work well together.  You and me, we can’t… what’s the word?”

Synergize?

“Synergize.”

Yes, that.

“We can’t synergize.  I do my thing, you do yours, but we get in each other’s way.  You blind me, I wipe myself from your memory.  With Regent and me, I can set people up for him to mess with, give him a chance to use his power.  Or we mix it up a little, so I spook people, then he uses his power to make them feel like they’re being pushed around while I deal with others, to freak them out.

Niice.

Wait. Does Regent not forget about Imp too? Does his awareness of people’s bodies work around it like Lisa’s general intuition does?

Or I go in first and then give him word on what’s going on.”

“You’ve been out with him before,” he realized.

Yeah, it’s pretty clear by now that she doesn’t tell you everything she’s up to.

“Couple times.  Just doing what you asked, not going out alone.  You weren’t exactly up to it.”

Like you take Brian’s authority seriously enough for that to be the only reason.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Don’t want to argue.  Don’t want to get too deep into this.  There’s already too many things to keep track of, too many variables to consider.  “Hopefully everyone has more common sense than that.  He really should be keeping her in containment unless she’s needed.”

Yeah, I agree. She’s a constant risk factor, even as useful as she may be.

But Brian, are you suggesting that you think common sense is common?

“We were taking on the Chosen, and some of Purity’s people.  It’s all good.  We picked up Victor, and Tattletale’s hoping you’ll try your power on him, see if you can’t pick something up.”

Time to see how Brian feels about not being told this in advance.

Brian nodded, “After.”

Huh. Seems like he doesn’t particularly mind. Even hearing that his sister had been up against the supremacists.

“So I’m gonna go now-”

He grimaced.  “I don’t want you going alone.”

“It’s dangerous to go alone,” he said, pulling a tiny sword out of his pocket. “Take this.”

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Even the simplest things were screwed up, now.  Sleep in particular was hard to come by, and was riddled with terror dreams that left him more exhausted than when he’d put his head down to the pillow.

Unsurprisingly.

He clenched his fist, feeling the sting where his hand was still bleeding.

Okay, seriously, if it’s still bleeding at this point, you really should go and find a bandage for that.

He’d go after Aisha, lend some assistance, maybe, or make sure that everything was going okay.

Yeah, looks like we’re doing this.

There was no good narrative reason for the map to inform Brian of the next target otherwise. Some okay reasons, sure, but no good ones.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Of course, he couldn’t not deal with Coil.  Taylor wouldn’t stick around if they didn’t, for one thing, and he knew that the little girl deserved to be rescued.

She does, but let’s note that while he does think this, this makes it sound like he doesn’t care enough to remember her name.

I’m sure he does, it’s just something about the use of “the little girl” in place of it.

I spent three hours in that refrigerator.  Dinah’s spent nearly that many months with Coil.

Ohh. So that’s what brought about this change of heart, besides the reduction in how much he needs to depend on Coil: He can relate to Dinah now.

And though it was nebulous, he feared the future.  He’d spent so many years of his life so sure in what he was doing, how A led to B led to C, that he wasn’t sure what to do now that the possibilities were so open-ended.

Let’s add Dinah to the list of people Brian should talk to.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

He shook his head, as if to shake off the thoughts that were plaguing him.

It had been four or five days since the Nine had left the city, and he’d been, what?  Spinning in place?  Sinking deeper and deeper into this well of negative emotion?

Finally, a solid timeframe. Thank you.

Hated this.  Hated that his body, which he’d always seen as something under his absolute control, a tool to be honed, was betraying him with this anxiety, panic and weakness.  His power, too, was a tool that now carried so many negative connotations.

Right. Though I think that last thing is something almost every cape who didn’t get their power from Cauldron has to deal with. You’ve got two triggers to think about, though, one of which literally had your body disassembled, so maybe you do have a bit of an upper hand in the misery olympics.

He hated that everything seemed so ugly now.  The city was soiled, ruined, and festering.  His friends and family were tainted with negative associations.

Naturalist literature hit this city hard.

Seizing territory felt both hollow and it reminded him that this business with Coil might collapse soon, or the city would be condemned, and he would have nowhere to go and nothing to do after that.  Except dwell on memories he didn’t want to dwell on.

Yeeeeah, there’s a very tangible sense of futility here.

It was hard to convince himself to care, especially with the alleged end of the world.

Maybe you should talk to Alec about that.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“I don’t want you doing this again, okay?” she gestured toward the bag, then his hands.  “Really, it’s more than a little creepy.  I know I don’t have a nurturing nature, like, at all, but I’m gonna feel pretty terrible if I come back and you’re a bloody mess.”

At least she’s self-aware about it.

“Oh,” Taylor’s voice, a croak.  “Oh, Brian.”

Ah, second flashback, this time from when the Undersiders found him in that freezer room (right?). If we’re going chronologically, that probably means we’re not getting any more Bonesaw in these.

He winced.

“Poor choice of words,” Aisha said.  Quieter, she added, “Sorry.”

It’s good to see that she recognizes it.

“We shouldn’t be going anywhere alone,” he said.  He was only now feeling like his breathing was getting under control.

It doesn’t help that both of them ended up in Bonesaw’s clutches because they each went off on their own.

“Tattletale did.  Skitter did.  Regent sort of did.”

“Tattletale and Skitter can see trouble coming.  Regent’s got Shatterbird so he’s not alone.”

Debatable.

Aisha shook her head.  “Which doesn’t do him any good if he gets shot.  Shatterbird would get free, and then everyone loses.”

True!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“You’re gone,” Brian growled to the empty room, seizing the mask in both hands and pulling it free of the stand.  “We won.  Shut up.”

Yes. Keep telling her that.

Her giggling was so vivid in his memory that it sounded like she was right next to him.

“No I’m not.”

He stared at the mask, glad it wasn’t the skull mask that Bonesaw had referenced.  Hard to explain why.

You really don’t need to explain why.

He was reaching to pull his mask on when he felt something brush against his bare arm.

Hm?

A moth?

Taylor, are you controlling this one?

Are you spying on Brian for Aisha?