#i11ap3

[krixwell-liveblogs]

End of Interlude 11a

That was a good time. A very interesting chapter with... way more talk of My Little Pony on my part than one might’ve expected regarding a chapter about Rachel and Siberian. :P

In order, this chapter gave us:

Seemingly happy Rachel

Seemingly happy Rachel questioning why she’s less happy than the other Undersiders

A look at Rachel’s feelings about Taylor and the events of Parasite

A look into Rachel’s backstory and why family isn’t among her top values (fuck Rachel’s third foster mom)

Bitch dealing with a civilian thinking he could get off with shooting at Angelica (what’s gonna happen to that guy anyway? is he dead? or is he just going to be lying there until someone dares go get him and take him to a hospital and/or Panacea?)

A short but entertaining fight between Brandish & Glory Girl and Bitch

Cut short by our first meeting with a Slaughterhouse Nine member

Siberian, who is great, freaky, and freakily great (and I love the angle of Rachel finding someone she can relate to in a Slaughterhouse member)

Rachel choosing to fail her challenge of loyalty and go see what the Slaughterhouse’s test is all about

wolf pupy

So basically, lots of really good stuff.

Next up... maybe more Rachel? If she’s going to the Slaughterhouse’s test, then she might act as our POV to get to know the rest of the members as well, allowing us to have a Slaughterhouse Nine Interlude half-Arc without actually looking through the eyes of the members we’re examining.

Then again, maybe Wildbow has done pretty much all he wanted to do from Rachel’s perspective for now and we’ll have another POV next time. I do feel like we’ll still be checking out Fellowship members, though, so it’s just a matter of who we’ll be following and whose perspective we’ll see them from.

I guess I should throw a wild guess out there... maybe we’ll find out about Hatchet Face next?

So yeah! This was fun. See you next time!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

It made her feel better, strangely.

Slightly calmer, her words measured, she called out, “I’m going to ask you again.  Who the fuck are you?”

I’m sorry, I think she would’ve answered by now if she could.

“Siberian,” the woman spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.  Barely audible.

...oh hey. She could. Never mind!

So does she normally not speak by choice, or does she have trouble actually putting the words together, with spoken human language being difficult for her in similar ways to how human body language and social subtleties are difficult for Rachel?

“What the hell are you doing here?  This is my territory.”

“I’ll leave soon.  I just wanted to talk.”  Again, the whisper.

Hm.

I guess she was watching the whole situation with Rachel, the now blind and broken-legged man and the other residents of the building he was shooting from. Witnessing Rachel’s actions might’ve caused her to recognize something of herself.

...

Y’know, the Slaughterhouse Nine are allegedly down a member. Maybe she’s recruiting.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Was it easier with him?  What did that mean?

Well... for so long we’ve known you as “the dog girl” because your power works on dogs.

Now it seems it’s more natural for you to be “the wolf girl”.

This is an interesting note to end the chapter on, especially after:

She couldn’t articulate the thought, but it was Taylor’s face that flashed into her mind’s eye when she put the phone away.

But it’s not a bad one. It’s just different and a bit more... metaphorical.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

There was a card in the bottom of the box, stained with urine.

Good job.

Bitch picked it up with the very tip of her finger and thumb.  She’d never properly learned how to read, so she had to work out the individual sounds, moving her lips to try to piece it together.

Ah, yeah... I remember the name spellings from 8.8.

“Ah… air yoh… you.  Air you a…”  That letter, she didn’t recognize it.

Are you a...

After it was… “oll… wolf.”

Hah, called that. Are you a dog, or are you a wolf?

She gave up.  She could guess, anyways. 

Are you a wolf, or are you a dog?

Oh, hehe, I wasn’t expecting the rest of the sentence to be there. :P

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Acting like one of them.  Playing and losing their games, decorating yourself in their clothing and their symbols, following their rules?”

Ah, so that’s why she’s naked.

“I-” Bitch paused, “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Are you sure?

The pause was telling.  She knew it was telling.  The woman understood her, she knew.

Didn’t think so.

The woman understood her.  The thought clicked.

There we go. It’s beginning to occur to Rachel what this woman could be to her.

The way the woman moved, her body language, everything, she was making sense to Bitch in a way that so few people did.

Yep.

I definitely think something similar is at play here between the two of them, not just in how they act but also why. Siberian has definitely made note of this as well. Rachel’s brutality is not the only reason she was picked.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Lucy let go and backed off, moving to Bitch’s side.

“They’re beautiful,” Siberian whispered, looking at the dogs.

In their own twisted way, sure.

Bitch nodded mutely in response.

Siberian approached her, walking with a great deal of care.  There was grace in her movement, and she walked on her tiptoes, each foot carefully placed a measured distance in front of the other.  Her eyes shone through the curtain of her white and black hair.

Very catlike in a multitude of ways.

Bitch felt a moment’s trepidation.

“What…” She regretted opening her mouth the instant she did, but it was already too late.  “do you want?”

...

I accidentally scrolled a little too far while copying this, so I know the answer is a single short word, but I was already going to guess something along the lines of “you”.

In part because I was half expecting part of the reason Rachel regretted opening her mouth to end up being that Siberian kissed her, before I finished reading what she was saying.

“You.”

“I don’t understand,” she tried to inject more confidence into her answer.

Yep. It seems we have a smitten kitten, and/or a recruitment attempt.

And you know what? I could almost see this ship working out.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

What if this is one of the Slaughterhouse Nine? That would be quite the twist to this chapter.

If it is, I guess it’d be Burnscar, since the dry hair seems potentially indicative of heat-based powers.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

The rule was to call Coil at a time like this.  To let him know what had happened.

Of course. But will you follow the rules?

At this point, I have a feeling she won’t.

She found her phone in one of her jacket pockets and she fumbled with the keypad to find him in her contacts.  Her finger hovered over the button.

But it comes down to this moment.

What was she holding on to?  Who was she protecting?  Her friends?  Were they really her friends?  It wasn’t that she wanted to betray them, she wasn’t about to repeat that mistake, but…

But is this really a betrayal in the same way?

She couldn’t articulate the thought, but it was Taylor’s face that flashed into her mind’s eye when she put the phone away.

Oof.

Wait, that wasn’t the end of chapter line either?

So because of Taylor... Rachel has decided at least to give Siberian’s offer some time.

I’m down for this storyline. :)

Maybe she would see what this test was about.  She wasn’t about to back down.  But in the end, she‘d make the call about where she went and what she did.

Yeah... maybe.

Though I guess Siberian would support her on that, no matter how much she personally wants Rachel to join.

“You,” she told the man with the gouges in his face, “Go to a doctor.  Take anyone here that needs it.  But I don’t want you telling Coil, I don’t want you using his doctors.  Got it?’

Not being very subtle about your decision to actively keep secrets from Coil, huh? Better hope you can trust these people to be more loyal to you than to Coil.

I’m not sure you can.