#15.i3p3

[krixwell-liveblogs]

End of Interlude 15c

This was a big one! Lots of great stuff:

Alexandria’s backstory

Further proof that she’s a lot like Taylor

Good stuff about communication between a victim and her relatives (communication really seems to be a theme of the Arc)

The Doctor portrayed in a positive light (though her less scrupulous side shows too)

Cauldron backstory

Evidence suggesting the quiet bodyguard (Contessa?) - who’s apparently been with the Doctor since she was a teenager - is more than she seems

Protectorate backstory

Meeting Doormaker

Confirmation that Cauldron has long-term goals besides making money

Behemoth

Getting to see Case 01 from an internal perspective, even if Alexandria didn’t really have much of an immediate reaction to Hero’s death

Some clarification on Manton’s situation

Alexandria of all people collecting lab rats because all that matters to her is that they live

Confirmation/reveal that Coil is somehow important to Cauldron’s ominously-named plans

Where do I even begin to elaborate? This Interlude was awesome through and through.

I appreciate that the dates were given for each section. It helps make not only this chapter’s, but the entire story’s timeline a lot clearer. A lot of this chapter’s events were things we knew happened sometime within the last 10-30 years, but exactly when each thing happened was unclear. Now we know, for instance, that Case 01 took place in 2000, and even that it was September 15th. Nice.

I think my only complaint is that the obvious dangling book-end bait of fake smiles to keep up morale was barely tugged on at the end. It’s not a big complaint, though, at all.

Next up... mayor mission? Maybe also the conversation with Coil about Parian, if any of how that goes down matters. See you then!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

September 16th, 2000

The next day.

Alexandria sat in the hospital.  Eidolon’s healing had only been able to do so much.  She held a glass eye in one hand, the remains of her other eye in the other.

They, uh.

Let you keep that?

She looked up at the Doctor.  “William Manton?”

Ooh, did the Doctor decide to tell her?

The Doctor nodded.

“How?  Why?”

“I don’t know what predicated it.  His daughter’s in our custody.  One of our failures.”

...is that whom Siberian is modeled after?

“He gave his daughter the formula?  Without the usual preparations and procedures?”

Or was it the Doctor who did?

“I suppose he thought he was qualified to oversee all that.  Despite my strict instructions that staff weren’t to partake.  Or he had other motivations.  It could have been a gift from a father trying to buy his daughter’s affections.”

Fair enough. Maybe. I’m watching you, Doctor.

“Or her forgiveness,” Alexandria looked down at the glass eye, then back up to the Doctor.

The Doctor’s eyebrows were raised in uncharacteristic surprise.  “Did you see anything suspect?”

“No.  I only met his daughter twice, and it was brief, her father wasn’t around.  But I know the divorce between Professor Manton and his wife was pretty bad, as those things go.  He was angry, maybe did some things he regretted?”

Are you implying the kind of thing I think you’re implying? Domestic abuse?

The Doctor sighed.

“So that was him?”

“Almost certainly.  He gave his daughter one of our higher quality formulas, and she couldn’t handle it.  When he realized what he’d done, realized that he couldn’t hide it from us, he took one formula for himself and fled.  I didn’t know what it had done for him until tonight.

Wait, so this was the very first encounter with Siberian?

The resemblance between Siberian and Manton’s daughter is subtle, but it’s there, and the footage from Hero’s helmet-camera has been run through every facial recognition program I could find.”

And there we’ve got a nice seguing opportunity to talking about Hero, if Wildbow wants to take it.

“What did Legend, Eidolon and…”  Alexandria stopped when she realized that she’d been about to say Hero.  “What did they say?  About Manton?”

Oof.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“In short?” Alexandria leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table.  “He doesn’t even know it, but everything rests on his shoulders.”

...and the Undersiders are sabotaging him.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

She was at the cloud-level when the door opened.  She stepped into the brightly lit corridors of Cauldron’s testing laboratory and strode down to the cells.

...well then. Collecting test subjects, are we?

Thirty cells, filled with subjects.  Thirty-one now.  The cells didn’t appear to have doors, but  the individuals within were all too aware of the dangers of stepping beyond the perimeters of their cells, or of trying to harass Alexandria as she strode by.

Jeez. Wait to turn ominous on us, Alex.

Only two-thirds of them were monstrous, affected by the formulas.  Others would go free with alterations to their memories.

Alterations that make them believe they’ve had natural trigger events?

Some would have fatal weaknesses inserted into their psyches, reason to hesitate at a crucial moment against a certain foe.

Yikes. I take it that’s for the Nemesis program?

But they would be alive.  That was the most important thing.  They had been destined to die, in places where the wars never stopped, or where plague was rampant, rescued from the brink of death.

I can’t help but wonder about the state of Iceland, considering Gregor was implied to be from there. Is it wartorn?

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“I will not condone the loss of life for your ulterior motives.  I will not let monsters walk free, to profit from the fear they spread.”

“You’re right,” the Doctor said.  “I… must be more shaken by Manton’s betrayal than I’d thought.  Forget I said anything.”

Yeah, right.

Work on your lies, Doc. It’s gonna pay off - you’ll be much better at it in a decade.

If Alexandria saw a hint of falsehood in the Doctor’s body language, she convinced herself it was the strain of one eye compensating for the job she’d used to perform with two.

“You realize what this means, don’t you?” The Doctor asked.

What?

“That we’re no longer doing more good than evil?” Alexandria replied, bitter.

“No.  I still feel we’re working for the forces of good.  Manton was a selfish man, unhinged. The exception to the rule.”

The Doctor does seem more genuine in this chapter than we’ve ever seen her, but that might be partially because of POV bias. I’m willing to give her some benefit of doubt, but I still don’t trust her anywhere near fully when she says this.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

■

April 10th, 2008

Hm. We’ve covered her origin and some important events we already knew about. What’s next? Something to do with the Doctor’s project?

Mortars, bombs and air-to-ground missiles rained down around her.

...warzone?

Pretty sure Bakuda wasn’t active yet. Though we’re quickly catching up, so maybe I’m wrong.

It had been a decade and a half since she had really felt pain, and she still couldn’t help but flinch as they struck ground in her immediate vicinity.  Still, she continued walking, her cape and hair fluttering behind her.

Interesting - she’s not counting the incident with Siberian. It doesn’t compare to the pain of Behemoth’s attacks?

(The cancer was two decades ago.)

Two people lay face-down on the edge of the street, a teenage boy and girl holding hands.  She knelt and checked their pulses.  Dead.

That’s... bittersweet. Mostly bitter.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Something I don't think I've really commented on: Cauldron seems to be capable of making more powerful capes than most trigger events do, which is especially reinforced by Alexandria seeing Behemoth as the first natural, villainous equivalent to the Doctor's work.

It's not like I haven't compared Siberian to an Endbringer before.

It's worth noting that this correlation between strong powers and Cauldron comes into conflict with the "early capes were stronger" theory, by giving a different reason why half or more of the data points have strong powers. I think I'm ready to ditch that theory, then.

Scion is, of course, still a very special case.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Very clever, burning the words into the paper in front of me.  Thank you.  Was I convincing?”

“You managed to feign skepticism over this apocalypse scenario,” Alexandria spoke.

...suggesting they may have already known about that too.

“Well, that’s the most important thing,” the Doctor spoke.

“He’s suspicious.  He knows or suspects we’ve been lying to him,” Alexandria said.

And in just a moment, he’ll know for sure.

“Unfortunate.  Will he expose us?”

Alexandria shook her head.  “No.  I don’t think he will.  But he may distance himself from us to lower the number of opportunities we have to see his doubt for what it is.”

“We’ll manage,” the Doctor replied.  “In the worst case scenario, we’ll explain the circumstances, explain our plan.”

Why have you been keeping him out of it, anyway?

“He won’t like it,” Eidolon spoke.

“But he’ll understand,” the Doctor said.  “If the Terminus project is a success, the end of the world isn’t a concern.  And I believe we will succeed.”

This Terminus project just sounds more ominous by the line.

“Provided we come up with a solution to the bigger, more basic problems we’re facing,” Eidolon said.  “Or we’ll simply find ourselves in the same circumstances after we’ve gone to all this trouble.”

Problems like... the Endbringers?

Alexandria nodded.  “The Protectorate is proving to be a failure on that front.  Recent events haven’t given me much hope in that regard.”

It’d be easier to comment on this if I knew which front that was.

“So that leaves only my end of things,” the Doctor said.

“Coil,” Eidolon said.  “And if he fails?”

So Coil is connected to Cauldron. Honestly not particularly surprising given his use of the Number Man.

Most importantly, that gives an indication that his objectives do go beyond just taking over Brockton Bay for shits and giggles, and it finally connects the Undersiders to all of this plot that’s been building up in the Interludes.

Nice.

“Ever the pessimist,” Alexandria said.

“This revelation about the possible end of the world has decimated our projected timeline.  We don’t have time to prepare or pursue anything further,” the Doctor said.

Alright, so they didn’t know about it, but they believe it can be circumvented via the success of their existing plans.

“If we assist him-”

“No,” the Doctor spoke.  “If we assist him, there’s no point.”

...does Coil not know that he’s doing stuff that’s important to Cauldron (for some reason)?