{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/corrupt-combustion/villain-arc",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/corrupt-combustion/villain-arc",
  "publishedAt": "2024-04-15T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: foreword\n\nLike other rough drafts in this series, this post was written on\ndiscord, in the context of infodumping to someone who was pretty\nfluent in a lot of details of Corrupt Combustion that haven't been\narticulated in full posts yet.\n\nThis post in particular suffers from being in conversation with\ndetails of Uzi's background and arc that haven't yet been covered.\n\nCompression & Extraction, a recap written later,\nshould get you up to speed.\n\n:::\n\nFirst thought: early on, J tells N how to summon cerberu.sh, telling\nhim it's a \"One time use guaranteed win technique, so be sure to use\nit when you really need it.\"  So of course N's like, \"Ooh, thanks J,\nyou're awesome.\"  J just snorts.  \"Knock yourself out, stud~\"\n\nSo throughout the start of part one, when he gets in a tight spot he's\nlike \"With this whistle I summon---\" but gets interrupted every time.\n\nThen as we get near the climax of part one, N ends up in a fight with\nYeva, and Yeva sees him about to summon cerberu, and stops him.  Yeva\nexplains that it's a suicide technique.  This is probably where we get\nthe reveal how a Ten Doggos user with cerberu.sh was capable of\ndefeating a solver with branch prediction and pure func prog (just\nlike Yeva).  If N is that desperate to beat Yeva, there's no way he\ncan tame it.\n\nAll this culminates, of course, in Yeva's appealling to N to ditch his\nabusive leader and join the good guys, and N's like I cant leave V\nbehind, and she hates you guys.  And well... I think I only end up\nhurting workers.  It's too dangerous.\n\nBut why does N think this?\n\nThis segues into the real thing I spent this evening working out.\n\nWhich is the role Uzi plays in the plot in between \"Warpath to the\nCorpse Spire\" and \"The Citadel Incident\"\n\nSo one change I am considering (but I am a little unsure about) is\nclarifying the exact social status of Uzi and Doll before Plot™\nhappens\n\nIIRC, it's currently written as though they're two friendless loners\nwith no one to count on but each other.  And I like that, it's a good\nvibe.\n\nBut I think there could be cool thematic resonance if no, Doll is\nstill one of the popular kids — and Uzi sits with them.  Maybe it even\ngoes so far as, when they're bullying other kids, Uzi either joins in,\nor at least just is bystander.\n\nThe second change that I'm much more confident making — in the second\nprologue, when Uzi and Doll take on their first zombie?  Doll ignites\nher core there.  It adds to the significance of that event as CC's\ninciting incident.  Because once Doll has solver powers and Uzi\ndoesn't, the rift between them grows.\n\nMight be fun to have them hug before heading back to the outpost, and\nclosing the chapter on \"And that was the last time they hugged.\" or\nsomething, LOL.\n\nWe'd probably see it happen, them drifting apart, Uzi getting included\nless and less.  Eventually, the table turns, and Uzi becomes a\nbullying victim, Lizzy manipulating Doll into cutting ties via the\nmeans I explained a while back.^[Months later, I can find no record for\nthis.  I know a central notion was that Nori was stronger than Yeva\n--- what are you going to do when history repeats, Doll?  Something\nlike that.]\n\nBut even the other bullied drones don't really flock with her, because\nthey remember when she was standing with the hyenas hurling insults.\nSo she's ostracized from everyone.\n\nThen maybe there's some big prank, I havent figured out the details.\nwhat's important is that Uzi gets outside the bunker with several of\nher classmates she can't stand.  They're her protection; they all have\nignited cores.\n\nJ shows up and kills them.  Maybe she passes over Uzi because the\nworker's keeping her head down, hiding from her tormentors, and her\nlack of an active core means she doesn't register as a threat to J's\nsenses.\n\nBut Uzi goes after J.  Maybe it's gratitude, or maybe it's an ounce of\nlingering heroic urge, but Uzi confonts J.\n\nAnd J indulges Uzi, because the captain been researching Nori and\nplotting how to defeat her, so of course she knows about the savior's\ndaughter.  But what J actually says is that the wheel group lied to\nUzi: the disassembly drones were sent to Copper-9 to take down\nsolvers.  And if Uzi doesn't have an ignited core, why would J kill\nher?\n\nOh, here's an idea: Uzi's been working on a miniaturized version of\nher railgun, a little raygun.  She brandishes the prototype at J, but\nit's a bluff.  Still, before J leaves, she lets Uzi know where she can\nfind the parts she needs to improve the design.  Then she flies off.\n\n- - -\n\nUzi has to go back to the outpost, but next time she sneaks out, she\ngoes to the scrapyard, finds the part as promised — and J is there.\n\nLike this, an odd sort of comraderie grows between them.  J listens\nwhen Uzi complains about all of the wheel group initiates bullying\nher, how Doll abandoned her for Lizzy, how Nori neglects her in favor\nof Beau.  She's just so useless.\n\nBut J compliments her engineering, and she explains about their\nmission.  Those solver drones aren't better than her, they're\ncorrupted.  \"Why else would they be so hostile to a properly\nfunctioning drone?\"\n\nI'm not sure what the exact catalyst should be — Beau getting\naccolades and promotions?  Doll and Lizzy openly dating?  Yet another\nprank gone awfully right?\n\nWhat matters is that Uzi hits her breaking point, and runs away.  And\nin their many conversations, J had made it clear that her squad would\ntake her in.\n\nAnd once Uzi's moved in, J cares for her.  She gives Uzi a lab to do\nher tinkering in, and teaches her how to defend herself.  Uzi may not\nhave corrupted solver powers, but J's innate function lets her create\npowerful contracts — and it's through these contracts that Uzi gains a\nmeasure of power: J leases out some corruption, adds terms that grant\nUzi the right to execution certain function, etc.\n\nOne idea I have is that Uzi gets some not!shikigami to use.  J teachs\nher how to create/summon daemons?  (Perhaps with N's help, even?)\n\nOr maybe Uzi just tinkers with crowbots, and uses J's contracts to\nmake the crows extra powerful.  Granting super pecks, air slashes with\ntheir wings.\n\nAnd hell, Mei Mei's Bird Strike was a binding vow, wasn't it?  why not\ngive Uzi [Crow Strike]{.spell}?\n\n- - -\n\nOf course, as much as Uzi's life seems to improve living with the\nsquad, it's not great.  V starts off pretty hostile to Uzi until J\noutright orders her to stay in line and leave her alone.  But even\nthen, Uzi does combat training with V, and V can be a vicious sparring\npartner.\n\nAnd J herself... she's nice to Uzi, sometimes.  Then sometimes she'll\nget cold and distant, denying her worker any affection or attention\nuntil Uzi will do anything to get back in her good graces.  She makes\nUzi do paper work and menial labor, makes her follow rules and\npunishes her if she breaks them.\n\nThere's a bright spot, of course.  N is nice --- nicer than J --- and\nhe never makes demands or hurts her.  Pretty soon into her time at the\nspire, she grows closer to N than anyone.  The N/Uzi gravity is too\nstrong.\n\nSo close, that Uzi comes to genuinely trust him, and she tells him\nsecrets.  How she really feels about J, how she misses her home, and\nso on.  \"Promise not to tell?\"  But of course, J orders N to reveal\nher secrets, on pain of breaking contract.  He breaks Uzi's trust\ninstead.\n\nAnd when she hears what Uzi really thinks... J isn't mad.  Just\ndisappointed Uzi doesn't appreciate all she's done for her, everything\nshe's doing to help her.  After that, J is nicer — as if all Uzi ever\nhad to do was be open about how she felt.\n\nBut there's another, more pointed incident.  Remember how V tortured\nBeau?  You think that was a one off thing?  No, V brings back victims\nto torture all the time.  Uzi finds out, sooner or later, and is of\ncourse horrified to be reminded that yeah, disassembly drones are\nmonsters.\n\n(Perhaps before, she'd watched J kill a worker, making her \"DDs kill\nsolvers\" promise a lie — but J rationalizes how every worker she kills\nis corrupted, and Uzi's too broken and desperate for connection to not\nbelieve every lie.)\n\nAnyway, Uzi wants to help V's prisoners escape.\n\nAnd when she does, N is standing guard, with orders not to let anyone\nescape.  He confronts Uzi, and Uzi appeals to his heart.\n\nBut what can N do, really?  If he lets Uzi do this, then V will be mad\nat losing her toy, J will be mad for letting Uzi leave when she gave\norders for her to stay.  N will be punished, and Uzi will be punished.\n\nHe can't let her leave, it's what's best for both of them!\n\nUzi only hears the first reason.  He cares more about not making V\nupset than saving a guy from getting literally tortured.\n\nWhen J gets back, Uzi takes a chance.  All she had to do was tell J\nhow she felt, right?  So she does.\n\nAnd guess what?  J punishes V and N, and orders V to stop wasting\nresources on cruelty.  She pats Uzi's head, and thanks her for\nbringing this to her attention.\n\n- - -\n\nOf course, Uzi can't stay in the spire forever.  eventually she has\nenough contracts and crows and skill to be not be dead weight, and J\nstarts taking her on missions.\n\nBut first, I to take a detour and explain J's ultimate plan.\n\nYou see, J's sandbox excels in allowing her to create business deals.\nThus, she is the secret investor in the Anonymous Group, a new black\nhat terrorist collective who want to overthrow the wheel group and\nreshape solver society.\n\nJ gets Uzi to work with Anonymous on a few missions; besides fighting\nzombies and stealing/scavenging resources, they probably get bold\nenough to start attacking outposts, trouncing their solvers and\ntelling them to join Anonymous or die.\n\nAnyway, J is careful so that Uzi only ever ends up either purging\nzombies, or fighting solvers nonlethally.  She doesn't kill anyone.\n\nAnd when people do die, she can blame J or the other blackhats.  She\nholds on her to her sense of personal morality.\n\nAs things escalate, she probably has a run in with Beau, which is\nwhere the Anonymous association pays off — Uzi would have a villainous\nhood",
  "title": "Uzi's Villain Arc"
}