Being the first place to ever get hit twice in a row as well as the site of one of their messiah's death? Brockton Bay is about to be Fallen holy land. Putting my chips down on Taylor attempting to infiltrate the Fallen. So far she's 1 and 1(?) on not getting major intimacies towards the Policy of groups she's "infiltrated", so 50/50 chance Taylor ends up becoming a Simurgh cultist. She did set her up with a bf after all. Also genuinely curious how Taylor is going to feel towards Valefor. Will her Nazi beliefs lead her to denigrating and hating him for being a femboy? Or is her desperation for new friends going to lead to the Taylor/Valefor rarepair? Will this lead to yet another entry into the "hilarious misunderstandings about Taylor's sexuality" album?
Also. Taylor just killed Behemoth. She's now one of the world's greatest heroes. The moment a reporter sticks a microphone in her face she'll have the biggest bully pulpit since Scion first appeared on the planet. She should totally use that once-in-a-lifetime chance to tell everyone to around blacks, never relax.
EDIT: If she publicly outs herself as Poltergeist and gives Jack Slash the credit for forging her into what she is in the wake of killing Behemoth, would that seal his soul price?
I love this post, it's a perfect yin-yang of right and wrong that manages to earn a cookie while being net 0 insightful.
Ooh! Now I want to try guessing the right parts.
Not certain on the Simurgh part, but if she does become a Simurgh cultist, it'd be more in the "I'm fucking scared of her" kind of way. She definitely wants revenge on Leviathan, but the Simurgh hasn't given her a reason to be killed, and every reason to be terrified, since Ziz is obviously paying close attention to her. I'd say if she does infiltrate the Fallen, it'd be to wipe out the Leviathan cultists, piss on the Behemoth cultists, and probably more or less go along with the Simurgh cultists like she went along with the nazis.
I think she'll be totally indifferent to Valefor's femboyness. Well, at least, not because of nazism and their hate of homosexuality or non-manly men. Maybe she'll hate him like she hated Theo, but somehow I doubt that. Probably, she'll just find his power interesting as another way to ensure that minions can't betray her. If there's one thing she'll never have enough of, it's ways to Master minions. I do NOT believe in a Taylor/Valefor pairing without her being Mastered, so far Taylor no longer sees other humans as even remotely deserving being noticed beyond their use for her goals (killing Leviathan and Jack). Even somethink like what happened with Ballistic is unlikely imo.
I don't know what's more likely between Taylor ensuring Valefor dies a gruesome death after trying to suborn her or one of her minions, Valefor becoming a minion himself (on a meta-level, he can't be a minion, at least not for long, he's a waaay too convenient way to gather further minions or to ensure other parahumans' cooperation), or something more complicated. Could be that, just as in canon, Aisha is the last shield against a Mastered Taylor. Would be really funny if Taylor gets Mastered by Valefor, Aisha goes dark to avoid being ordered to let Valefor Master her, Taylor happily goes along with the Fallen, learning all their powers and being mind-raped by Valefor, and ends up freed and a wreck after Aisha finds a way to free her with her new smarts after neutralizing all of Valefor's death-switches (at least those on Taylor). If that happens, I guess Shatterbird--sorry, Banshee--could find herself with a bullet between her eyes, since it's likely Valefor will want Taylor to order her to come and be Mastered and start acting nasty again. Although Regent could prevent Banshee to obey, which would maybe break Emptiness Endowment, which would still makes Banshee's life quite risky for a while.
Or, who knows, maybe Aisha doesn't manage not to be Mastered, and Taylor has to find another way to free herself. Like a convenient esoteric Brute/Master power with unclear activation conditions.
(I would actually love to see a Mastered Taylor arc. It's so rare! And there's so many cool and terrifying powers to collect in the Fallen. Especially given that, as ses said, BB is likely to be flooded in them. Hopefully they won't try to give Taylor children, as is Fallen policy with their captured female parahumans...)
Chances are, she can still be predicted by Contessa. So, she won't have the opportunity to send the PRT crashing on live TV. That goes double since she'll want to lay low for now, to avoid being smashed by a glory-hound Eidolon. However, I can definitely see her keeping this identity preciously in reserve until the next Endbringer battle or until she can utterly ruin the PRT with the same sadism Evil Taylor would feel to ruin Taylor. And what better place to do this than when Contessa can't predict her, in the next Endbringer battle? Bonus point if it's the Simurgh. Even more bonus points if she reveals Eidolon's link to the Endbringers (or at least the Simurgh) and people believe her.
Still, if she's reasonable, she'll probably wait until
after Leviathan is dead. She might need Eidolon's help to survive, after all, given what happened here. I can totally see her be casually racist on live TV, though.
Jack's soul price... I'd like to see how she could fulfill it. Merely saying she could only do it thanks to him doesn't feel like enough. Sure, his name might become associated with Behemoth's death, but it won't be
his crowning achievement, more something for which he's mentionned in passing. Ways to make sure he's associated to this victory is revealing she copied his powers (and EVERYONE will be after her head, no one wants another Fairy Queen), that she's Poltergeist (more or less the same effect), that Jack made her trigger (which doesn't give him much merit, since triggers and their results aren't controlled)... And after that, sure, he'd be loyal, but his power will still counter any order that results in endangering him, eating away at the loyalty in no time. Seems risky for no gain.
On another note, I wonder how her interactions with Panacea will change, now that she has her sister's appearance
and just delivered on her promise to go to the next Endbringer fight in a spectacular fashion.