‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 707

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Lot's of talking now, but no one is getting what they want.

36 Comments

Yup. I wouldn’t lift a finger to do anything without knowing why do I have to do that either.

And, of course, Bandit can’t tell Danni the whole truth because who knows how she’s going to react.

What a mess, what a mess…

If I were Bandit, this is what I would say:
(with the goals of (1) getting Danni on my side, (2) getting Danni to go out and calm Kleya down, (3) not reveal too much about myself, (4) not reveal too much about Kleya’s identity, and (5) be kinda fast about it.

Bandit: “So, you know how that program lets me control the attacks so you can dodge them? She must’ve seen the code that was loading and recognized it, and mistakenly assumed I was trying to set you up to fail – because that’s what it was used for in the past. To help you, she instinctively changed it a little to make it more fair, but then she noticed that I noticed, and now she’s probably freaking out, afraid that I’m going to accuse her of being a hacker. I just want to talk with her to tell her there’s nothing to worry about, but I think you’re the only one she’ll listen to. So please hurry?”

…and then ad-lib based on Danni’s reactions.

Or just go “Well… our families know each otehr and I think we both just realized that.. So please just make sure shes ok. she might be freaking out over water under the bridge..”

I’m getting aggravated impatience from the last panel, with maybe a touch of frustrated resignation.

Last panel… big stakes and she’s wasting time, Kat could go offline or destroy the game at any moment. What’s worse, he knows explaining will lead to many more questions and a lot more wasted time. So, aggravation and annoyance sound right. Seems they are both feeling the same thing… though a bit more anger on her side. ^_^

“I want the truth.”
“You can’t handle the truth!”

This should be fun.

I think you got the emotion right in the last panel. I see at as Bandit having a bit of a frustrated “ugh” moment. I assume it is a combination of some exasperation with Danni for not just doing it, recognition that a full explanation would take far longer than he has to get the message to Kat, and worry that if he says the wrong thing in his explanation it might result in Danni hating Kat and/or himself, which would make Danni become opposed to helping.

That’s the face I make whenever a kid I’m supervising decides they didn’t listen to or understand what I said when I tell them to not to do something and they do it anyway and try tell me that they didn’t do it and that I’m the liar 🙂

Going for an eye-roll-inducing frustration? An “I really don’t have time for this, but I guess I’d better make time” expression?

I think you nailed it!

My read is…
“Why does she have to do this now?”
+ “She’s forcing me to tell her, but that is terrible in every way.”
+ “Lying could backfire horribly. Third option third option third option…”
= “Errr… rrrgh. Why me! Why now! Why anything!”

“OK, fine, she is actually the super-hacker everyone blames for ending the world (and some for flipping the Earth’s magnetic field), but the fact I’m still alive proves she’s actually reformed & has slightly come out of hiding. I don’t know why, but she seems to be desperate to be seen as a Hero……Danni?”

*Danni seems to be standing still with a dumbfounded look on her face, however looking at the code reveals she’s just past out then had a heart attack from learning all this…*

Honestly, it’s not that hard to hand-wave. “She’s a reformed hacker, I’m trying to help her stay hidden, she can help us but you have to calm her down.“

Except that most of the world is still strongly in the “Kill all hackers on sight” category.

Right, which would hopefully keep Danni from running her mouth off later. It gives *some* of the seriousness of the situation without going into the terrifying, mind-breaking depths.

The last panel’s emotions convey annoyance and aggravation to me. Is that what you were trying to convey?

Looks like it to me… Bandit is known for being a jerk and she warned him not to scare her off and he still did. Wouldn’t you be a bit aggravated and annoyed? He ruined a good plan to try to get Kat out of her box and just as it was getting fun! 🙂

Jake has a grenade.
Jake didn’t pull the pin.

For Jake to get what he wants the best thing I think he could do at this point is to just suddenly abruptly logout just like Kat did.

That way his abrupt and complete change of attitude about how he behaves may shock Danni into asking Kat about it. He has already given Danni the critical information that Kat needs to hear.

If Bandit/Jake tries to explain what’s going on he will be outing the Secret life of Kat. That wont gain him anything that he badly wants there.

Danni knows Bandit is powerful and possibly influential. The fact that he responds in the way I suggest may give her a clue on how to handle it. Admittedly she says she’s not very good with people however she is at least twice as old as either of the other two in actual chronological age and experience. The only problem that Jake has is it if she asks anyone else there’s going to be a lot of questions that he doesn’t want to answer.

So possibly before logging out and this is the debatable part if he were to say something along the lines of what happens on the server doesn’t go any further. Or something along those lines and hopefully Kat will realize she is being given an opportunity because she knows that Bandit is controlled by Jake.

I think if he immediately logged out without further explanation, and Danni did tell Kat about it, that Kat would assume that he had logged out to inform Tenka and start the search. If he doesn’t explain enough to Danni to convince Danni that he really does want to help her, even knowing who she is, then Kat will probably continue to assume the worst. As such, I see that option as almost guaranteeing that Kat would vanish, and then maybe join as a new character again.

I’m gonna love what next reaction Bandit tries to do…

ok Bandit, tell her everything without telling her anything.
Annnnnd GO!

actually this should be somewhat easy to get around if he gives her JUST enough and pushes Kat’s desire for privacy. Luckily Danni’s not nosey.
Something like “Kat and I used to be friends but she had a falling out with her family and might think I took their side.”

I entirely sympathize with Dani, but there is no time for that conversation.

“Part of being on her side is that I can’t tell you what this is about unless she okays it.”

“Also, it’s a long story.”

Alternatively, go for the nuclear option:

“She’s my long-lost girlfriend.”

Whelp, so much for “Control” in “Controlled Environment Testing”. :p

“There’s no time!” *logs her out forcefully*

How about go with the truth… “This isn’t my secret to tell… I’m sorry… but if you care about her, go after her NOW”

Hmm does he tell her or simply say “she’s an old friend and we didn’t part on the best of terms, she’s also afraid I might do something and may go into hiding now”. Could mention she’s a hacker and that this was training for her too, but fail to mention that she’s THE hacker.

Guess we’ll figure out which it goes way soon enough. I’d love to have them both know about her… though I can’t see Danni taking it easily.

So Danni won’t do what he asks unless Bandit explains, but explaining right now will not only take too long, doing so could be seen as a betrayal of Kleya’s trust (giving away her secrets), which would undermine the whole “I’m on her side!” claim, which he really doesn’t want to do so he doesn’t want to explain, so Danni won’t do what he asks . . .
His brain is stuck in a Loop of Doom.

I love Danni, she’s brilliantly no nonsense and gets the others actually moving and talking to each other. She’s also got a great perspective on all the nonsense given her background.

“Tell Kat that I really am keeping her secret. Um… even from you.”

That seems like a pretty good explanation in this situation. (Too bad he won’t use it.)

So many wonderful answers, but I like yours the best. Although Alexander’s second option was a very close second!

Are you sure he won’t use it? Rather than panicking, he seems to be annoyed at Danni. So I think we might see a rational response instead of a desperate info dump.

Ahhh, not actually sure you do.

“I can’t fix this because of what I know. You can, because of what you don’t. Now go save the world without knowing why or how!” *Kicks her out*

I think you nailed the emotion in the last panel.
‘G-d da*****, if people would just do what I say *immediately* so many problems would be solved and maybe we wouldn’t all die.’

I like Danni, she don’t take no guff.

If you were going for annoyed and frustrated, nailed it!

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 707