I recall seeing someone else say that Glisten is smarter than Rodger, but I propose a different idea for the Detective Gang dynamic, comprised of Glisten, Rodger, Teagan, Brightney, and, of course, Toodles. This is a long one, but. It's a long one. Hopefully not too long.
Glisten is spur-intelligent. If you're getting chased down by a scary guy in a costume in an old abandoned factory, Glisten's gonna be the guy to pour soap on the floor, tie a bag of feathers to the ceiling, and place a barrel at the end of the hallway and trap the guy. He could get you out of a puzzle room in 10 minutes tops. He's quick-on-his-feet kind of intelligent, every situation comes with a new plan.
Rodger, on the hand, is analytical-intelligent, he's better at over-arching mysteries. Set up the cork board with a thousand red strings, three days, a pound of coffee, and a total disregard for sleep and he'll tie a paper clip, a spare shoe lace, and a window broken from the inside to the old abandoned factory on the other side of town. He'll guess the twist ending of every piece of mystery media you show him.
Teagan is socially-intelligent. She has connections, and entrances into many powerful people's lives, and she knows how to dance around social situations. She'll make anyone slip up, just for a second too long, and hound them on it until they bend too far and break. She hears paper clip, spare shoe lace, broken window, and abandoned factory and knows the old baron has a longstanding grudge on a retired muckraker who exposed his factory's lack of safety regulations and got it shut down.
Brightney is trivia-intelligent. She's read a thousand books and knows a thousand things, she's just not yet experienced enough to put it all together. Not as fast as Glisten, not as invested as Rodger, not as collected as Teagan, but she always has the specific information you need. A ridiculously specific type of knot to tie that bag of feathers to the ceiling? She knows it. Gotta skedaddle to the abandoned factory to catch the guy in the act? Brightney knows a guy. The exact placement of a barrel for someone to slip into perfectly? She worked out a math problem like that just last night. Glisten comes up with the plans, but Brightney is why they work.
Toodles, to top it all off, is imaginatively-intelligent. She hears all the facts and spins a tale, with excellent storytelling as an added bonus. Even if she's not told all the facts, because she's a kid, or even understand it, because she's a kid, she'll still connect the paperclip to stolen filings, the shoelace to a scuffle, and the broken window to a careful entrance but a careless exit. She'll mention something completely revolutionary offhandedly like it's obvious and reframe the entire case. Rodger connects the mystery, Teagan connects the narrative, but Toodles connects the scenes.
-Whatnot
oh this is soPEAK!!!!!!! i love the idea that they're all smart in different ways
-COS
