Uzi's Villain Arc

::: foreword Like other rough drafts in this series, this post was written on discord, in the context of infodumping to someone who was pretty fluent in a lot of details of Corrupt Combustion that haven't been articulated in full posts yet. This post in particular suffers from being in conversation with details of Uzi's background and arc that haven't yet been covered. Compression & Extraction, a recap written later, should get you up to speed. ::: First thought: early on, J tells N how to summon cerberu.sh, telling him it's a "One time use guaranteed win technique, so be sure to use it when you really need it." So of course N's like, "Ooh, thanks J, you're awesome." J just snorts. "Knock yourself out, stud~" So throughout the start of part one, when he gets in a tight spot he's like "With this whistle I summon---" but gets interrupted every time. Then as we get near the climax of part one, N ends up in a fight with Yeva, and Yeva sees him about to summon cerberu, and stops him. Yeva explains that it's a suicide technique. This is probably where we get the reveal how a Ten Doggos user with cerberu.sh was capable of defeating a solver with branch prediction and pure func prog (just like Yeva). If N is that desperate to beat Yeva, there's no way he can tame it. All this culminates, of course, in Yeva's appealling to N to ditch his abusive leader and join the good guys, and N's like I cant leave V behind, and she hates you guys. And well... I think I only end up hurting workers. It's too dangerous. But why does N think this? This segues into the real thing I spent this evening working out. Which is the role Uzi plays in the plot in between "Warpath to the Corpse Spire" and "The Citadel Incident" So one change I am considering (but I am a little unsure about) is clarifying the exact social status of Uzi and Doll before Plot™ happens IIRC, it's currently written as though they're two friendless loners with no one to count on but each other. And I like that, it's a good vibe. But I think there could be cool thematic resonance if no, Doll is still one of the popular kids — and Uzi sits with them. Maybe it even goes so far as, when they're bullying other kids, Uzi either joins in, or at least just is bystander. The second change that I'm much more confident making — in the second prologue, when Uzi and Doll take on their first zombie? Doll ignites her core there. It adds to the significance of that event as CC's inciting incident. Because once Doll has solver powers and Uzi doesn't, the rift between them grows. Might be fun to have them hug before heading back to the outpost, and closing the chapter on "And that was the last time they hugged." or something, LOL. We'd probably see it happen, them drifting apart, Uzi getting included less and less. Eventually, the table turns, and Uzi becomes a bullying victim, Lizzy manipulating Doll into cutting ties via the means I explained a while back.^[Months later, I can find no record for this. I know a central notion was that Nori was stronger than Yeva --- what are you going to do when history repeats, Doll? Something like that.] But even the other bullied drones don't really flock with her, because they remember when she was standing with the hyenas hurling insults. So she's ostracized from everyone. Then maybe there's some big prank, I havent figured out the details. what's important is that Uzi gets outside the bunker with several of her classmates she can't stand. They're her protection; they all have ignited cores. J shows up and kills them. Maybe she passes over Uzi because the worker's keeping her head down, hiding from her tormentors, and her lack of an active core means she doesn't register as a threat to J's senses. But Uzi goes after J. Maybe it's gratitude, or maybe it's an ounce of lingering heroic urge, but Uzi confonts J. And J indulges Uzi, because the captain been researching Nori and plotting how to defeat her, so of course she knows about the savior's daughter. But what J actually says is that the wheel group lied to Uzi: the disassembly drones were sent to Copper-9 to take down solvers. And if Uzi doesn't have an ignited core, why would J kill her? Oh, here's an idea: Uzi's been working on a miniaturized version of her railgun, a little raygun. She brandishes the prototype at J, but it's a bluff. Still, before J leaves, she lets Uzi know where she can find the parts she needs to improve the design. Then she flies off. - - - Uzi has to go back to the outpost, but next time she sneaks out, she goes to the scrapyard, finds the part as promised — and J is there. Like this, an odd sort of comraderie grows between them. J listens when Uzi complains about all of the wheel group initiates bullying her, how Doll abandoned her for Lizzy, how Nori neglects her in favor of Beau. She's just so useless. But J compliments her engineering, and she explains about their mission. Those solver drones aren't better than her, they're corrupted. "Why else would they be so hostile to a properly functioning drone?" I'm not sure what the exact catalyst should be — Beau getting accolades and promotions? Doll and Lizzy openly dating? Yet another prank gone awfully right? What matters is that Uzi hits her breaking point, and runs away. And in their many conversations, J had made it clear that her squad would take her in. And once Uzi's moved in, J cares for her. She gives Uzi a lab to do her tinkering in, and teaches her how to defend herself. Uzi may not have corrupted solver powers, but J's innate function lets her create powerful contracts — and it's through these contracts that Uzi gains a measure of power: J leases out some corruption, adds terms that grant Uzi the right to execution certain function, etc. One idea I have is that Uzi gets some not!shikigami to use. J teachs her how to create/summon daemons? (Perhaps with N's help, even?) Or maybe Uzi just tinkers with crowbots, and uses J's contracts to make the crows extra powerful. Granting super pecks, air slashes with their wings. And hell, Mei Mei's Bird Strike was a binding vow, wasn't it? why not give Uzi [Crow Strike]{.spell}? - - - Of course, as much as Uzi's life seems to improve living with the squad, it's not great. V starts off pretty hostile to Uzi until J outright orders her to stay in line and leave her alone. But even then, Uzi does combat training with V, and V can be a vicious sparring partner. And J herself... she's nice to Uzi, sometimes. Then sometimes she'll get cold and distant, denying her worker any affection or attention until Uzi will do anything to get back in her good graces. She makes Uzi do paper work and menial labor, makes her follow rules and punishes her if she breaks them. There's a bright spot, of course. N is nice --- nicer than J --- and he never makes demands or hurts her. Pretty soon into her time at the spire, she grows closer to N than anyone. The N/Uzi gravity is too strong. So close, that Uzi comes to genuinely trust him, and she tells him secrets. How she really feels about J, how she misses her home, and so on. "Promise not to tell?" But of course, J orders N to reveal her secrets, on pain of breaking contract. He breaks Uzi's trust instead. And when she hears what Uzi really thinks... J isn't mad. Just disappointed Uzi doesn't appreciate all she's done for her, everything she's doing to help her. After that, J is nicer — as if all Uzi ever had to do was be open about how she felt. But there's another, more pointed incident. Remember how V tortured Beau? You think that was a one off thing? No, V brings back victims to torture all the time. Uzi finds out, sooner or later, and is of course horrified to be reminded that yeah, disassembly drones are monsters. (Perhaps before, she'd watched J kill a worker, making her "DDs kill solvers" promise a lie — but J rationalizes how every worker she kills is corrupted, and Uzi's too broken and desperate for connection to not believe every lie.) Anyway, Uzi wants to help V's prisoners escape. And when she does, N is standing guard, with orders not to let anyone escape. He confronts Uzi, and Uzi appeals to his heart. But what can N do, really? If he lets Uzi do this, then V will be mad at losing her toy, J will be mad for letting Uzi leave when she gave orders for her to stay. N will be punished, and Uzi will be punished. He can't let her leave, it's what's best for both of them! Uzi only hears the first reason. He cares more about not making V upset than saving a guy from getting literally tortured. When J gets back, Uzi takes a chance. All she had to do was tell J how she felt, right? So she does. And guess what? J punishes V and N, and orders V to stop wasting resources on cruelty. She pats Uzi's head, and thanks her for bringing this to her attention. - - - Of course, Uzi can't stay in the spire forever. eventually she has enough contracts and crows and skill to be not be dead weight, and J starts taking her on missions. But first, I to take a detour and explain J's ultimate plan. You see, J's sandbox excels in allowing her to create business deals. Thus, she is the secret investor in the Anonymous Group, a new black hat terrorist collective who want to overthrow the wheel group and reshape solver society. J gets Uzi to work with Anonymous on a few missions; besides fighting zombies and stealing/scavenging resources, they probably get bold enough to start attacking outposts, trouncing their solvers and telling them to join Anonymous or die. Anyway, J is careful so that Uzi only ever ends up either purging zombies, or fighting solvers nonlethally. She doesn't kill anyone. And when people do die, she can blame J or the other blackhats. She holds on her to her sense of personal morality. As things escalate, she probably has a run in with Beau, which is where the Anonymous association pays off — Uzi would have a villainous hood