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[RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil Book 3: Chapter 59: Anacrusis
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Author: u/Yes_This_Is_God *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/01/15/chapter-59-anacrusis/
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Score: 56
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Created: 2018-01-15T06:08:44
Post:
Comments:
u/NotACauldronAgent [+23] Probably (15 minutes later)
If the world refuses you your due, then declare war upon all the world.
Not quite the standard “If god is wrong we still have to be right” but pretty close. The crescendo approaches. Let’s see how long Diabolist can keep up.
u/ErraticErrata [+45] (54 minutes later)
You're more right than you know - amusingly enough, "Crescendo" is the title of the next chapter.
u/melmonella [+5] Tremble, o ye mighty, for a new age is upon you (14 hours later)
Ominous
u/ricree [+14] (an hour later)
I still don't expect this to end well at all for our protagonists. My current working theory is that they will win this battle after a difficult struggle, only to discover that Diabolist is already gone. She turns the weapon she creates not on Callow, but on Malicia herself. Thus plunging the empire into chaos on the eve of a Procer crusade.
u/None [+1] (a day later)
I was thinking Procer or the Tyrant shows up (Cat's back being to Procer ATM) but that makes sense too.
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+11] Father of Learning (31 minutes later)
Whelp, for the longest time I was a Cat/Archer shipper, but this has converted me. Cakram forever!
u/ricree [+18] (an hour later)
Only if she can find a way to grow some proper teeth.
u/None [+6] (9 hours later)
No, that really isn't their relationship. They're comrades, joined by self and story, close enough that the fragile ties of romance need not bind them closer.
...maybe a little bit of cuddling.
u/CeruleanTresses [+6] (13 hours later)
Exactly. It can be an intimate and meaningful relationship without being a romantic one.
u/Ibbot [+4] (an hour later)
I don't know about that. I see Hakram as like Captain in a lot of ways, and if Cat is like Black...
u/Taborask [+11] (14 hours later)
Just a reminder that we now also have our own subreddit as well for those who are interested
r/PracticalGuideToEvil
u/Ibbot [+3] (a day later)
We are now in the sidebar of this subreddit, so the link is always available.
u/CeruleanTresses [+9] (13 hours later)
These Hakram death flags are stressing me out. God damn it, Cat, you know how stories work. Don't you know better than to internally monologue about how he's the person you love most and losing him would hurt you more than anything?
u/leakycauldron [+1] Imperium of Man (a day later)
Hakram is more of a Captain than a Scribe imo. Wouldn't surprise me if Warlock orchestrated the death of the Adjutant.
u/haiku_fornification [+6] (2 hours later)
Fuck, that opening scene... that's the sort of stuff that makes this a great story rather than just a good one. Cat literally putting on a mantle of the queen. It seems like pulling out the sword from the stone is finally catching up to her.
I can't help but think everything is going too smoothly for the protagonists. On paper, it seems like they can't possibly lose, especially if you include Black and Warlock but I think Diabolist is playing a completely different game to what everyone expects. I predict that this will either be a defeat or a very costly victory for Cat.
u/ricree [+10] (3 hours later)
I gave my main prediction elsewhere in this thread, but here's another alternate that comes to mind:
At a crucial point in the battle, Diabolist will take control of Cat and force her to kill Black.
In a contest between Names, much depends on the weight of narrative and convention. When the story is set correctly, events have a way of bending to get the "correct" result. It is far from absolute, Black has spent much of his career carefully defying and manipulating this effect, but it does skew the odds heavily. And right now, narrative convention says that Squire should betray the Black Knight and usurp his place.
This isn't new, it has been commented on by a number of characters, Black included. We feel somewhat safe because we know Cat, and can see that she has zero desire to betray her mentor.
Diabolist, on the other hand, has no such compunction. We have seen her control even true fae princess before, and here Cat is with an explicit vulnerability to soul manipulation. There is a very real chance that this serves as forshadowing for this forced "betrayal".
u/haiku_fornification [+9] (3 hours later)
You're right in that Akua definitely plans to control Cat (why else gauge her power as a fae?) however it feels more like her opening hand rather than something that she expects to work. Basically everyone knows it's Cat's big weakness so I would expect a ton of contingencies on her part and a lot of other schemes on the part of Diabolist.
This is a wild prediction but I think Black is planning to die in this battle. He's made a heroic speech, his successor is ready to pick up where he left off and dying here would make him a martyr for the cause. Perhaps most importantly though, if he died fighting Akua the Calamities wouldn't focus on Cat but rather on her nemesis - or maybe even on Wasteland nobility at large.
u/CeruleanTresses [+3] (13 hours later)
I wouldn't call that a wild prediction. I think it's well supported by the scenes leading up to this, especially the fact that Black knows (or at least believes) that he's going to die very soon anyway.
u/TheEngineer923 [+3] (2 hours later)
So Cat being Queened and Abua saying "Too bad this ends with you kneeling."
Interesting.
u/um_m [+9] (8 hours later)
HOW DARE YOU!! Calling our Lady Ubua, Abua.
u/TheEngineer923 [+7] (8 hours later)
Ubua. Abua. Jabooyah. A walking corpse by any other name.
u/None [+1] (9 hours later)
Lady OH YEAH!
cue kool aid man
u/TheEngineer923 [+2] (13 hours later)
Calling it now, Black does not survive this fight and neither does Abua's father. Who kills who's first? That, is the million dollar question...
u/CeruleanTresses [+2] (13 hours later)
Black is definitely laden with death flags, but I don't think Hakram's out of the woods after that opening sequence.
u/ricree [+6] (a day later)
With the Woe having been so freshly named, I would be somewhat shocked if one of them died anytime soon.
Granted, that might be reason enough to go ahead and do it, but I don't think it's very likely by the end of this book.
u/CeruleanTresses [+1] (a day later)
That's a good point. It might be too soon. I feel like he's screwed eventually, though.
u/TheEngineer923 [+3] (14 hours later)
Well, Erratic said somewhere in the comments he doesn't really go in for that G.R.R shit where everybody you love dies for the drama. So we can probably rest easy that Hakram will live.
Probably.
Though if I find it hard to imagine that Akua doesn't see how central Hakram is to the 15th operations. Her spies would have undoubtedly found that information out and ferreted it back to her. I don't think he'll die, but I do think he's going to get Nauked.
u/GeeJo [+6] Custom Flair (18 hours later)
I don't think Names get Nauked.
Incapacitation means a Story trails off (unless they move on to a 'mentor' role). Death or Glory are the only options for a Villain.
Look at Tyrant - in-universe, he's got some kind of wasting disorder that would mean a slow and undignified death. But do you think that's how he's really going to go out?
u/TheEngineer923 [+2] (a day later)
I mean Nauked in the sense that the character is going to get fucked up, possibly to the point of death but being laid out for a couple of chapters (or months in Universe) also qualifies as getting Nauked. So the Tyrant WILL get Nauked too.
u/CeruleanTresses [+3] (15 hours later)
"You" meaning the audience or the characters? Because killing the person the protagonist loves most isn't really a G.R.R. thing so much as a fiction-in-general thing.
u/TheEngineer923 [+1] (15 hours later)
G.R.R is the most memorable perpetrator for me.
u/CeruleanTresses [+2] (15 hours later)
I thought what he was notorious for was killing characters the audience loves.
u/TheEngineer923 [+1] (a day later)
And the audience can't love a character that loves another character that the audience ALSO loves and kill said character that the character loves?
Those two things aren't mutually exclusive.
u/CeruleanTresses [+1] (a day later)
I'm not saying they are. I'm saying that I'm unclear on whether you're saying "the author said he's not going to kill everyone Cat loves for the drama," or "the author said he's not going to kill everyone the audience loves for the drama". This is a request for clarification on the ambiguous "you."
u/TheEngineer923 [+1] (a day later)
My apologies. The last one.
u/CeruleanTresses [+1] (a day later)
Ok cool, thanks! I was hoping it would be the first because I feel like Cat's attachment to Hakram is a greater threat to him than ours, but at least I'm reassured that beloved characters won't get offed left and right.