Annotated 5-20
[Looney Tunes SFX]
I think Bandit’s refusal here was the wrong call. Sure, the average ordinary person would probably balk at truth serum as a condition of new employment, just as the average ordinary person would not want to work with someone who had stolen from them. But here as in Syr’Nj’s case on the last page, it seems like we missed an opportunity to let our characters be extraordinary.
“Honest gnomish thief” is how we described Bandit during loud convention pitches for years, as we pointed to her picture on the Volume 1 cover. Wouldn’t it be a more interesting proof of that honesty to have her accept the serum without a second thought? It’s not like she DOES have any lies to tell these guys, and it’d shift Syr’Nj’s opinion of her drastically.
Granted, Bandit does want to keep some secrets, like exactly how she knew about the Peacemaker initiative. It’s not clear from the text whether this sort of truth serum would make her blab all her secrets or just prevent her from lying, though from what Syr’Nj says, I’d lean toward the latter. But there is the fact that Bandit may not trust Syr’Nj’s words at this point. “How do I know this ain’t some slow-actin’ poison that’ll require an an’idote?” But still…
John Maynard Keynes, what do you think?
“I should have drunk more champagne” (attributed).
See, that’s what I’m saying! Keynes should have drunk the thing. Thanks, John!
I love this kind of annotation. It’s hard to re-experience your own work. You’ve changed, and grown, and your tastes have evolved. Your skill is greater (presumably).
I grew up reading every book from cover to cover, loving the forewords, the after, and whatever the author wanted to share… usually about how hard it was to figure out X or why they eventually agreed with their editor about Y. It’s usually fascinating to see the work that goes into things.
Maybe it’s just me, but if I were Bandit, I’d avoid this serum like the plague, too.
Trusting no one is not a good way to gain trust, true – but Bandit didn’t get to be so good at what she does by being the first to go from having zero trust in relative strangers, to 100% “put that shit in my veins right now thanks” levels of trust in them.
And that point about her not knowing the serum isn’t poison also works the other way around; if she knows who they are, and if Syr didn’t invent that serum herself (or if she did, but shared the formula with anyone), then odds are good that Bandit has done enough homework on the elf to have a good idea of what she’s capable of, too. If nothing else, she’s still got reason to believe Syr may want revenge for the hat, and she at least knows the field medics she was a member of don’t screw around.
Unlike the Gastonian Leisure Squad.
I agree. Had Bandit taken the serum, I’d had far less confidence in her judgement for awhile. If anything, I think Syr’Nj offering up a voluntary injection in the course of a discussion as being a bit out of character.
I take it y’all know this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0nERTFo-Sk
Why *does* she want to keep it a secret? It’s not like “I eavesdropped on your conversation with Ardaic” is likely to make them distrust her more than they already do.
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Just got one myself.
“aborted connection with secure-ds.serving-sys.com because it was infected with HTML:Dropbox-B”
Group “We don’t trust you.”
Bandit “I know where Frigg is.”
Group “Seems legit.”
It’s the difference between a vague promise of ‘help’ they may or may not actually need (and which, even if they do need it, they may not recognize they need), to the offer of specific intel they desperately want. It’s not about ‘trust’ so much as ‘lack of better options’–in international diplomacy, it’s called realpolitik.
– Oscar Wilde on quotes attributed to John Maynard Keynes
Oops, double-quotes not intended.