Annotated 24-11
So Kur’Ik is somehow deputizing the majority of Peacemakers and Fightopians to work under her in this (with Syr’Nj’s authority and their shared cause implicitly backing her up, but still). And sure, a couple of them are logging out of this Zoom meeting early, but that’s mostly because they’re no good at deep reading. It’s not like Frigg and Sundar would do this because Syr’Nj told them to, either.
On the one hand, sure, funny. On the other, uhhh… it seems a bit early for Kur’Ik to go from starstruck assistant to library field commander. I mean, I would have expected her to have a hard time ordering E-Merl around, let alone folks like Gravedust. Not because Gravedust wouldn’t take the orders after Syr’Nj nodded at him, but because Kur’Ik seems like she’d be too awestruck by Syr’Nj’s near-peers to try.
We’ll just say that Syr’Nj knew what buttons to press to give Kur’Ik a huge booster shot of purpose and confidence. But if we had this to do over again, I think she shoulda struggled a bit more here. After all, wrestling with leadership is a series tradition.
I’m very experienced with the phenomenon of being a quiet and reserved person with confidence issues… suddenly coming alive and being extremely take-charge and competent when faced with something that falls into one of my tiny but powerful wheelhouses.
Yeah, her confidence doesn’t seem that unearned. It’s not like she doesn’t know her way around a library. She’s returned to her element.
Are you me??
Never took this page too seriously other than Kur’ik’s enthusiasm. Going by the expressions, most are humoring her with the exception of blunt instrument Frigg and creepy-serial-killer-smile Lectrus (maybe this was our fist hint? ) Think Render being so willing to off fellow adventurers before everyone made nice in the last chapter was a little more of a ‘what, wut?’ than Kur’ik trying to be serous while looking like a total nerd (which she is so totally makes sense) If this was suppose to be a big change for her character, could always chalk it up to working long hours, whatever wood elves drink for coffee.
And second reading… Sunder just seems to get more and more… I mean, did that dagger hit his brain?
Lectrus’ grin looks more like “kid in a candy store” than “creepy serial killer” to me.
Buttons? It’s right there in her bandoleer. Potions of purpose & confidence.
And maybe also of alacrity; they’re gonna need it for this job.
I think the scene works well. We know so little about Kur’ik before this moment. The only thing we do know is that she is an enthusiastic librarian who jumped at the chance to be an assistant to Syr’Nj. She has had no problem sitting among powerful and sometimes angry men.
She may be more familiar with tackling a book then swinging a sword, but she doesn’t strike me as meek.
I think it’s funnier this way. It’s a common trope that is useful to bring a secondary character into relevance rather quickly. It could be done more organically, yes, but this works and frees the narrative to spend its time in other more pressing matters.
“Thundertome”
goddamnit
Papercut-enduring? Count me out.
It’s funny because it’s unexpected.
It’s delightful because it’s great to see a shy person suddenly open up when you fall into their wheelhouse.
It’s refreshing because everyone else is just – so -angsty about leading.
I like it.