Okay but the Seeker was a child soldier.
Like, we never get sold dates for how long the invasion took, or how long the being in a proper war about it took to start and to finish, but we do know the seeker was on her first life, was put onto the body of a grown woman who does nothing by (somewhat justifiably) ridicule and taunt her, and then was defiantly there for the war part of everything. She can't herself be more than 15 by the start of the story, assuming she was at the earliest born in the first waves before everything got violent?
And then she's told the bodies are supposed to be entirely overcome, but it's the beginning of the invasion, and the humans haven't gotten their reputation for mental resistance yet. So is something wrong with her that she can't suppress Lacey? She wouldnt have any other hosf to compare it to, and it wouldn't be a common thing yet.
And she probably thought about skipping, but found out it was frown upon, and just like Wanderer didn't want to be seen as weak for skipping, forgiving up? Again, a child trying to fit into a world described to her that isn't matching up with her reality. She probably thought it was the proper thing to don't just suffer with it.
And then, while I'm sure it was her own choice to become a seeker, it was also probably a matter of, if she was born at the begining of invasion, there were probably a need for seekers, and she had personal experience with just how frightening and viscious humans can be.
But still, a child of a notoriously empathetic species participating in a war, that it's stated put guns in their own hands,,,,,,
Like, I could go into fanfic territory, but I think it's fair to say that the Seeker was screwed up by her empire's propaganda of "no waste" and "greater good" and "we always do the right thing" and probably it being a war, saw thing the could screw up a fully grown human person, never mind her body, because her body was constantly attacking her from with in. And like, fair on Lacey, she was a victim too and probably hated what the Seeker was making her body do, but like. But a child seeing war???
And she wasn't even that bad? She was pushing and nosey, but she was also traumatized, probably? Her motives were finding a stopping what she preserved to be a legitimate threat to her people, and she wasn't wrong. And then Wanderer either lost control and the humans gain a cover/spy, or that turned coat and joined the violent humans?
I mean I would be mad too.
I think she kills like one person in the story? But I'm assuming it was a human with a gun, and again, she probably had PTSD.
And Wanda traffics like,,,, three of her own species? We'll call it even, that shii terrifying too.
But like, I'm not saying by the time we get to the book she was actually this UWU baby girl, she was a mean person, but damn, what I wouldn't give to see the journey.
And then on top of it all, Wanderer, this anto social old lady just? Up and dippped on them all? For real? Turned traitor and starts commiting,,, was it medical fraud, she was actually injured? It was definitely theft of medical supplies from a hospital though. And the cryotanks. And again the trafficking.
And sends her to another planet? Like, Earth was her home for better or worse, she was acclimated to a human body. She's gonna wake up in a body she doesn't recognize or, like see as herself, and wasn't expecting, that gonna cause body dismorphia/body horror trauma on top.
