8FOLD: Darkhorse # 8, "Be Courageous and Be Brave"

[Tom Russell]

On Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 1:01:14 AM UTC-4, Drew Perron wrote:
> On 6/26/2016 8:22 AM, Tom Russell wrote:

>   Originally, it was because while Kate was being chased for
> > violating the Fitzwalter Rule with her phasing belt, Rainshade was
> > violating it with a super-tech umbrella. Of course, that hatred was
> > based on a faulty assumption, as it wasn't a super-tech umbrella, but
> > merely a totem to channel her metamancy.
> 
> Ah, interesting. :o

To delve into this a little deeper, Rainshade was-- and outside of the other Daylighters, still is-- pretending that she had a "psionic link with umbrellas", and it was the half-assedness of her lie that pissed Kate off (compared to Bethany's own Fitzwalter-related lie that her powers were the result of genetic experimentation). This was touched on in slightly (only very slightly) more detail in JOURNEY INTO # 20.

Rainshade's defining characteristic up until now is that people don't like her, or at the very least, they don't want to associate with her (cf JOLT CITY # 19). We're going to see more things from her point of view down the road, but at the same time, there are reasons why people don't like her.


> >    Cal peers over the ledge and takes a deep breath. "Here lies Cal
> > Morgan, 6 July 1997 to 24 December 2014.
> 
> *instantly feels old* *goes to look up something for revenge on Tom* That's the 
> day Malingerer Lad and Teenfactor #6 came out! <3

Ugh. Low blow, Drew. Low blow. :-)

I will take a moment here to comment that this is another example of my tendency to give characters actual birthdates, and to eschew sliding timescale, and also to emphasize how young Cal (and Melody) are compared to, say, Bethany and Kate, who are 31 and 29 at this point in time. Derek, who was 18-19 throughout most of the run of JOLT CITY, is 27 in late 2014. Julie Ann Justice is pretty "old" for a superhero in 2014 at 36.

> >    She strolls over to the next ledge, and then immediately backpedals
> > away from the huge fricking spider crawling up the step with its
> > woolly mammoth legs. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back off. Go away. Go away
> > spider nobody loves you. Shoo-shoo-shoo."
> 
> Ah, one of the most beloved tropes of the Incredible Shrinking Person Who's 
> Still Figuring Out Their Gender Identity genre.

Is... is that really a thing? Because I'd hate to find out that someone else beat me to "shrinking as a metaphor for body/gender dysphoria".

> >    "In my defense, it was Valentine's Day, and she was kind of cute,
> > for a homicidal psychopath."
> >    "It's like I'm the responsible adult now," says Cal, dumbfounded.
> > "We have literally found a parallel earth where I'm the grown-up. The
> > multiverse really is full of infinite possibilities."
> 
> This is great. XD <3

Glad to be of service. :-)
 
> >    "Jesus," Cal grimaces. "But we can't just leave these people to
> > die! You can't. You can't put me above them. It's not fair to them."
> >    "But I can't ask you to--"
> >    "Nobody's asked me anything," snaps Cal. "Everything's just
> > happened to me! My whole life. But this time, I get to make a choice.
> > And I want to make the right choice. So let's do this."
> >    "Cal," says Melody, "if we don't go now, you're not going to get
> > larger ever again. You're only ever going to be the inch."
> >    "Then I'll be The Inch," says Cal.
> 
> HELL FUCKING YES.

Pretty much what I was going for. :-)