[Hereafter] Interlude C.2: Coiling Serpent
Added 2025-02-22 14:15:59 +0000 UTCYes, that's who this interlude is going to be from. I know some people were hoping for Jackie, but I'm afraid that this really was the only spot I could put this, so this is where it had to go.
You might notice, the America teaser I posted several weeks back took dialogue straight from this interlude. That wasn't an accident. There's so much loaded into this chapter that I'll be utterly shocked if anyone manages to suss it all out.
Go treasure hunting, guys and girls.
EDIT: Moving down all the way. 4/5/25
Comments
Yeah...I'm pretty sure that this Coil isn't Thomas Calvert. Right now, my money is either on Danny, having faked his death, or Lisa, having taken over Coil's operation.
s22132
2025-03-14 23:51:33 +0000 UTCThird option: Lisa killed Thomas and took over as Coil. (Given the way Coil handled things, it’s quite possible for someone else to take his place and pretend to be him, kind of like how Tali took over as Shadow Broker in Mass Effect) Given the date when Taylor died, it casts doubt on the first possibility.
V01D
2025-03-05 18:41:28 +0000 UTCGiven Celtic mythology, I don’t think that really means much for it being a Heterosexual seduction. All the things you pointed out in your stand alone comment wouldn’t really fit Thomas. (For one, he basically ALWAYS had Split Timelines active)
V01D
2025-03-05 18:36:38 +0000 UTCSo, to recap. 1) Coil is a person who is familiar to someone with Taylor's appearance. 2) Coil has some emotional significance to this 'someone' 3) This emotional significance is quite firmly in the negative side of the spectrum. Bonus) Coil hasn't mentioned anything about his parahuman power.
KD
2025-03-05 16:58:08 +0000 UTCCoil actually implies that Medb could seduce him due to her legend as a 'femme fatale'. So I doubt it's Lisa.
KD
2025-03-05 16:54:13 +0000 UTCThere actually *is* a snake motif. Somehow, it never gets mentioned in the interlude, but it's there, and it's very prominent. I'm actually painting, like, half of the characters in this scene, and I designed the zipper on the costume to follow the snake pattern to give it that little bit of extra flair.
Caractacus
2025-03-01 21:59:18 +0000 UTCSo, two primary possibilities I see. The first is that Local Taylor managed to do something interesting in this singularity, problematic enough that Coil had her killed or is simply wary to let her live. The other is that she died, and Skitter was summoned as a Heroic Spirit, hence Taylor being "too old". She then had big issues with the idea of Coil being in charge, so things got bloody.
Raphael Mort
2025-02-23 09:48:38 +0000 UTCI hate him so much
Fiona
2025-02-23 09:47:58 +0000 UTCI mean, speaking as one in pretty much the exact same hair color situation as Taylor, brunette has always been used to refer to both black AND brown hair. Taylor, having black hair, would have always been referred to as a brunette because she is one. Presumably the assumption there is that black hair is actually just extremely dark brown hair?
SilverShadows
2025-02-22 23:39:11 +0000 UTCSeems like alt-Taylor did more than just die at the hands of Lung if Coil's nervous about her.
NotSoAwesme .
2025-02-22 20:39:14 +0000 UTCIt's not a distinction I'm interested in making. While terms like "pinkette" or "bluette" or "blackette" may not necessarily be incorrect, they feel a little clunky to me. Like they're made up because people want to be pedantic and "technically correct." In everyday life, most people - as I do - probably wouldn't get into the nitty gritty of the exact shade of a person's hair unless they wanted to be really specific for whatever reason. Every shade of red would fall under "redhead." Every shade of blond would just be "blonde," with maybe a few qualifiers like "dirty blonde" or "platinum blonde." Similarly, everything darker - from medium brown to straight black - would simply get lumped under the label "brunette." Tohsaka Rin has a bit of the opposite problem: everyone says her hair is black, but her earliest depictions and most of her current depictions are still a shade of dark brown. Ironically, Morii Shizuki is the only one to ever draw her in official artwork as having black hair - and as Ishtar, at that. In that vein, when a single word is wanted, I have and will continue to call Taylor a brunette, and only when greater detail is called for will I add a qualifier like, "So dark a brown that it looked black" or anything along those lines. No offense intended. I've just heard this enough times now that I wanted to get that off my chest.
Caractacus
2025-02-22 16:18:21 +0000 UTCLoved this chapter and it seems like we're definitely not joining coil, not because of the twins moral outrage but instead it seems he has some insight on just what kind of being Taylor is. However I'm not gonna talk about any of that and instead I am going to focus on the brown haired comment. Because in this chapter the slim leggy brunette comment is made and it seems to implied being a reference to Taylor? Later on in the chapter we get a reference to current Taylor with long dark hair. And I wondered why the difference? by combing through chapters and Wikipedia reference points and reconfirmed that Taylor does have black hair with one exception. After the events of gold morning after everything she's done Taylor has changed her looks cut her hair short and it's now brown. So by that metric if Taylor suddenly need to not look like Taylor one of the things she might do is change her hair and dye it. So one of two things have happened first is that I have gone insane over what is a relatively minor mixup with a characters look the author simply made a mistake and I should learn to move on, option two is that Marie was right and Taylor should have dug up that grave to check!!!
the pyro stick figure 76
2025-02-22 15:18:59 +0000 UTCThe fact that Coil is only referred to by name (and the interaction with the PRT), as well as the reaction to Taylor, makes me suspect that it’s actually Lisa in the costume. For clarity’s sake - The costume is described as “form fitting black”, no mention of the snake motif on it, and if it WAS Thomas in there he would’ve installed himself as PRT director. And no mention of any concern/interaction/history/etc. with Caldreon. The biggest thing is the lack of mention of using the Splitting Timeline power, or anything similar! (The fact that he’s actually simulating the timelines would make the Singularity much more disruptive to it compared to Lisa’s! Even moreso if it wasn’t just simulated, given the metaphysics involved with Singularities…) And then there’s getting Brian custody of Aisha - that’s not something Thomas would’ve done.
V01D
2025-02-22 15:15:58 +0000 UTCWell, well, well. Let’s see how this game between Taylor and Coil plays out.
Noah Andrulis
2025-02-22 14:26:56 +0000 UTC
