#i11gp3

[krixwell-liveblogs]

End of Interlude 2.933 monme

What a wonderful family reunion!

Cherie, or Cherish, is a really fun character. A girl who is quite relatable when it comes to music, entertaining through her cheerful bluntness and super disproportionate revenge plots, and scary through her mix of cunning, ambition, mild crazedness and not least of all her power. Getting to know her and her relationship to Alec was quite entertaining. :)

In the process, we also got an update on Alec: He’s been provided with soldiers and has people he keeps under his control, like he used to in his past. That’s... morally questionable, but it’s not like we didn’t know that about him already.

And we got some pretty important further details on the nomination process:

Cherish is the reason the Slaughterhouse Nine knew about some of the nominees in the first place.

Everyone knew in advance who everyone would go for, regardless of how their attempts went. So no second chances.

Even if they didn’t successfully convince their nominees to join, the nominees will still be tested.

Burnscar, what the hell.

At this rate, Arc 12 will be quite intense. It seems likely to me that Arc 12 as a whole will be about the testing process, which ought to be interesting considering the Undersiders have two members being tested and one of them is at best on the fence about it.

So yeah, I enjoyed that quite a bit! Hopefully the next one will be just as good, as we either watch Bonesaw making contact with the scaredy cat or the crusader, or loop back to Interlude 11a. Prrrrobably the former :P

See you then!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Got you, little brother.  You still suck at fighting.”

Should’ve taken sparring with Grue a little more seriously, perhaps.

He stared up at her, panting for breath and looking half-bored at the same time.  He used his power, and she let go of his left hand to strike him across the face.  He stopped.

“Oh quit it, I won fair and square.”

She smiled, “Thought you should know that things got pretty shitty at home after you left.  Daddy got really overprotective, angry.  It sucked.

Ahh, got a bit of resentment for the consequences of Alec leaving, do we?

Sucked worse when we couldn’t find you.”

“Sorry,” he said, in what she judged as the least convincing tone he could manage.

Yeeah, he doesn’t care that much.

“My payback?  I’ve nominated you for the Nine.”

That’s a weird payba-- oh.

The trials.

Welp.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Not interested.”

“Doesn’t matter.  You get nominated, you’re tested no matter what you want… and a few of the Nine don’t want to have two Vasils on the same team.  Shatterbird hates my guts, for some reason.  Crawler doesn’t respect me.  Jack thinks it would be boring.  So what I’m thinking is that this test?  The initiation?  It’s going to be a little harder for you.  They won’t be testing you to see if you’re mean enough, bloodthirsty enough, creative enough.  They’re just going to try to kill you.”

Damn.

Also, this spells bad news for all the other seemingly “failed” nominations we’ve seen.

Only two people we’ve seen have actual interest in participating - one of them only because he’s being forced into it - but apparently they’ll all be attacked by the remaining Fellowship members nonetheless.

That includes Labyrinth, the daydreamer. Way to go, Burnscar, I thought you liked her. Possibly even romantically.

And now the Undersiders have the Slaughterhouse coming after two of their members, and one of them is somewhat willing. Yeeeeeeah. This could get pretty intense for them.

Oh, and they’ll be trying to test Noelle too. That probably means more attacks on Coil’s base to get access to her.

Arc 12 is gonna be a wild ride, I think.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Well, I still remember how to hijack your body, pretty much.  Info that’s stored away in whatever corner of my brain makes my power work.  I’m thinking I could get control over you pretty fast if I tried.”

Nice subtle namedrop of your past self there, Alec.

“Fuck,” she said.  “I think we’d both be happier if you didn’t.”

“Oh?  You going to tell me the Nine will come after me if I don’t let you go?”

Probably not Shatterbird. Maybe Jack? But in general, I doubt the Nine are the most fiercely loyal bunch.

She shook her head, then used one hand to brush the hair away from her face.  “No.  This.”

She reached inside her jacket, and Alec made her hand seize up, the fingers striving to bend the opposite way.

Hm. At first glance, this sounds like a way to just mess up her pulling out whatever it is, on the assumption that it is a gun or something, but more subtly, this particular maneuver might still let her grab it but keeps her fingers away from any triggers switches.

“It’s cool,” she said.  She winced with pain, then used her splayed hand to work a metal case the length of her forearm out into plain view.  It dangled from a thick cord that stretched around her neck.  “See this?”

There was a mention earlier of something hanging around her next. So what the hell is this all about? Some sort of life support that might not mesh well with body control?

“Yep.”

“Yes, I have eyes. Eight of them, actually.”

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Ah.  I sort of remember that bit about your power.  The part that sticks in my head is that you don’t have long-term benefits.  It wears off, and your targets build immunity pretty quickly.”

Sometimes I get momentarily confused because I split the paragraphs into chunks to comment on, so things aren’t always in response to the last thing I quoted. The main thing Alec is responding to here is the comment about her power having range.

Also, that’s an interesting tidbit. I guess that’s why she didn’t even try to mess with Alec’s emotions, to what extent he has them anymore.

Cherie shrugged.

“I’m not the best when it comes to strategy, but I’m thinking… I’m going to win here. Eventually.  You can’t run without me getting control over my people and sending them after you, you can’t use them to attack me, and if you stay, I can try doing this.”

So the tug of war is actual hostility on some level. At least now that Alec knows who Cherish is with.

Her arm jerked involuntarily.

“Remember me practicing my power on you when it was new?”

Oh yeah, that’s still part of his powerset.

Wait.

Is he implying what I think he’s implying?

It’s been a while, but if he’s taken control of her before, then it’s easier to do again now...

“I remember, little brother,” she frowned, looking at her arm.  “Daddy had us all practice on each other.”

That’s a little less awful than it could’ve been with some different powers, I guess. Can’t imagine being a practice subject for Nicholas was any fun, though.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“I got the info on him a day or so ago, after I heard the Slaughterhouse Nine were in town.  Isn’t he immune to powers?

Oh! Well, that puts a stick through that theory’s wheel.

I guess she must’ve gone for something more indirect. Siccing the other Slaughterhouse members on him would be one possibility, probably, with powers like Shatterbird’s glass control not technically affecting him directly. Is he immune to mundane damage too? I’ve speculated that he’s a Brute before, so maybe he’s just really tough on top of this.

That’s pretty much what he does.  Super strong, enhanced toughness, big… and your powers just stop working when he gets close.  Or they go haywire.”

Oh, that is very interesting. He’s not just immune to anything that affects him directly, he can create an anti-power field. Can he make it affect only his enemies? Also, what sort of range does it have?

I particularly like the haywire part. Haywire powers or magic can be fun.

“He is immune to powers, but he didn’t get close.  See, difference between me and Daddy is that I have range.  I can use my power even if I can’t see the person I’m using it on.  Through walls, from the building next door.  Hatchet didn’t get close enough to me to turn off my power.

Well, that answers my range question: Not long enough.

Also, if Hatchet Face can pick and choose whose powers to turn off (not clear yet), and has to do so actively, can he also detect whenever there’s anyone within range with powers he can turn off?

He tried, but it works both ways.  I was prepped to run any time my power stopped working, because it told me he’d found my trail or guessed where I was.”

Seems like a good tactic.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“What I find really interesting is that you’ve got some connections.  A girlfriend, maybe?  No.  Nothing romantic.  You have friends?  A team?”

Fuck.

He stayed silent.

“Come after me, I go after them.  You may be immune, but they aren’t.”

“Fine.”

I suppose as long as she keeps it as a bargaining chip, that’s better than her just going after them anyway just for the sake of a little more revenge.

“And remember, I can always tell Daddy where you are.  He’s pissed you left.  Pissed I left, but he’s too scared to come after me.  Not with the Nine having my back.”

Ahh, yeah, that makes sense.

“They don’t have your back, Cherie.”

That is a good point. She just admitted that.

But Heartbreaker doesn’t know that, does he now?

Which could change...

[krixwell-liveblogs]

She shrugged.  “Close enough.”

“No.  They’re going to kill you someday.  Probably sooner than later, when you’re no longer useful and they want the thrill of the hunt again.  You’ve probably seen what they can do.  Fates worse than death.  Just don’t ask for my help when you realize it’s happening.”

Yeeeah, that’s fair after what she’s just done to him.

“Whatever.”

“You just screwed me over, Cherie.  Don’t know why you did it, but I think you did a pretty fucking good job of it.  You trying to be like Jack?  Trying to act like them, pretend you have a place there?  Rest assured, you screwed yourself ten times as bad as you screwed me.”

How? But yes, she did do a really good job of it.

She scoffed at that.

“You’re way out of your depth.  As good as you think you are, they’re better.”

He’s probably right.

She smiled and shook her head, “We’ll see.  I’m gonna leave now.  You’re going to let me.  Cool?”

There’s not much else either of them can do at this point, really.