Which WB Protags Would Survive Blindsight by Peter Watts?
Setup: Assuming the WB is included on the ship crew for whatever reason, not replacing anyone
Taylor Hebert: Absolutely DEAD. Even assuming she was allowed to bring hordes of insects onboard, we see that Taylor has a weakness to emotion influencing effects. She’d do great if it was JUST the mental stuff since her power makes her resistant, and her bug senses would absolutely be difficult for Rorschach to mess with effectively. Not to mention they’d all die on Rorschach. The problem is that she can’t actually do anything about their predicament on the ship. She’d probably mutiny, but even if she defeats the Vampire, the ship AI would just kill her.
Victoria Dallon: Absolutely DEAD. Same issues as Taylor, but reversed regarding mental vs emotional powers, even with the benefit of the Fragile One giving her warnings and instincts. Funny enough, her forcefield would prevent the radiation tumors in her brain from forming if she was sent down onto Rorschach, but that’s about it. I guess she could bail and fly out into space herself, but she’d die eventually from lack of resources.
Note: There is a funny possibility that the tumors caused by Rorschach mess with the Corona Pollentia and make Taylor and Victoria have a broken trigger. Theoretically this does kill Rorschach eventually lol
Blake Thorburn: SURVIVES… assuming he’s in mirror form. Human or tree man Blake dies at the end with everyone else (well, technically Tree Man Blake wakes up in the Abyss… I guess he lives too). Mirror Bogeyman Blake hangs out in the mirror dimension and watches in horror as everyone dies except him. Long travel back home though.
Sylvester Lamsbridge: Absolutely DEAD. Human body or Noble body, it won’t make a difference. Sending this mentally fractured and fragile killer into an alien that explicitly dices up your sense of Self via radiation and EM signals is like sending a baby into the baby kicker factory.
LVA: 50/50. Assuming they keep their Practice they can literally open a Path Door and rescue everyone on the ship, abandoning the mission. On the other hand, now that they are Vampires, they could suffer the consequences of the Covenant (aka why Otherverse Vampires are so weak) and thus they also die.
Mia/Carson/Ben/Natalie: SUPER DEAD
A and Basil: 50/50. Basil will be put through the fight of his life as he builds redundancies to survive Rorschach for A, mitigating the lesions created by the radiation (though likely weakened due to Onboards genetically enhancing their hosts to be radiation resistant) and likely being the first person to understand the true horror of Rorschach. He and A likely stage a mutiny and successfully hack systems due to Basil experience and skill. Maybe even deploy a nano weapon onto Rorschach for good measure. But this could also just end up with A and Basil dead from Rorschach seeing them as the biggest threats.
Winniefred and Toby: Most Likely DEAD. Toby is not as robust as Basil, and Winnie body could be extra vulnerable to Rorschach fuckery. She may also be so absorbed in exploring the ship that she forgets her mission lol In a perfect world she steals it for herself
Orion: Absolutely DEAD. His experience with glyphs and his onboard will be some vital protection, but he has no skills or abilities to cement his survival.
