Intruders
So I finished writing the first half of Diary of Penny, and: your honor, I love them~
Usually when you have a hero character suddenly partnered up with a villain character, you get a lot of fun banter and that 'maybe we’re not so different after all' dynamic where they develop a soft spot for each other…yeah, this isn’t that. ^^; Instead it’s mostly Watts going "heh, stupid robot with low self-esteem" while Penny has a whole existential crisis.
And yet, I find it really entertaining for some reason. XD I like the idea of Penny having a bad influence who’s barely even manipulating her; really all he’s doing is telling her the harsh truth– she just happens to be in a place in her life where that’s enough to earn her trust. Or I guess you could say, she’s fully aware that she’s being used and berated by an objectively bad person…and yet, it feels like a net benefit, simply because she’s actually allowed to express her emotions and ask questions now. Really puts her life into perspective…
I think this ‘villain arc’ Penny goes through is, overall, a positive development for her. She does need to know that Atlas sees her as a product, not a person; she needs to know that her father built her with that in mind (even if he tries his best to be kind to her regardless). I’d even argue that she needs to feel the resulting fury and indulge it, so she can eventually learn how to manage it as a normal emotion.
And then, of course, her doing the things she does eventually puts her in a position to choose freedom on her own terms…you’ll see. ;) But yeah, I don’t think Watts will ever really know how much he “helped” her, if only by giving her the opportunity to learn how to get angry. ^^ Once she finishes her character arc and mellows out a bit (and once Watts literally comes back from the dead…li’l spoiler for ya) I think it would be in-character for her to come back and actually thank him for it. ^^ I don’t think that scene will make it into the timeline of this story, but it might be nice to illustrate someday.
