Bethany Plays: AW:DoR Chapter 21: Weeding

Ooh, a Lin map! And it looks like we're playing naval units today.

...You know, taking another look at this map, I notice something: This is going to be a Fog of War map, as it happens, but the properties that begin the map pre-owned by the yellow faction are already coloured in yellow.

So, what is it that Lin's got cooked up for us today?

...Well, it seems we've got to spend some time with these two loathsome creatures before we can get into that. Very well, let's hear it.

At the very least, Greyfield is upset with Caulder. Hopefully one of them kills the other and simplifies things for us.

Well, that answers a few questions there. It seems that Dr. Caulder is playing the role of the NRA's Dr. Morris. Although given what we know of the man, I highly doubt Caulder's lack of success is credited to the difficulty of the task.

Greyfield's interest in a cure is founded in a pragmatism so far removed from conventional morality that he has managed to eschew pragmatism to avoid it. While executing the infected is, indeed, a method of containing Creeping Derangea (the same way that weeding maintains a garden), it is the only upside to the tactic, with several downsides I don't feel bear mentioning. I'm assuming, if you have a functioning brain, you can come up with a list with more items on it than Greyfield has medals on your own.

This is clearly a man who wasn't trusted with anything before the meteors. If he was, he might recognise what Dr. Caulder did for Rubinelle back then.

If nothing else, the pattern recognition alone would be enough to keep Greyfield from questioning his credentials. His mortality, certainly. But this is a man with backup plans.

Caulder voices one of the problems with his "kill the infected" plan that most resembles a pragmatic argument that cares nothing for the lives of these men.

Namely, that there is now no visible evidence of the spread of Creeping Derangea- and no protections for carriers to not pass it on.

As much as the same is true of Caulder, Greyfield is no slouch. But this is less due to the ability to back up his bragging and more due to his hair-trigger temper meaning he can start firing at any time for any reason.

And if you had done yours, perhaps it would never have been a problem in the first place. Funny how you didn't jump to that conclusion, though.

Cute. If you plan to kill Caulder, do not give him advance notice.

Caulder decides to turn the tables and reveal he knows more than he lets on about why Greyfield is asking for a cure for the Green Thumb.

As much as Greyfield desperately hopes to deny it.

It seems that, for all his bluster about how the weak are destined to perish, reality was not willing to engage on his terms, and gave him an infection to show for it.

I do wonder who diagnosed him that wasn't Caulder. I imagine he was shot in the head for his efforts, though.

Yelling at your illness never worked for anyone.

The thing is, when you build your rhetoric on the idea that having the virus is a sign of weakness, your entire army is just waiting for the chance to reverse that on you. Whether out of genuine belief in the idea or being so damn sick of hearing it that it's just cathartic to do so, the end result is the same for Greyfield.

He won't need to order it. They'll do it.

Very funny of him to immediately switch to hanging as his preferred execution method, though.

He means that Greyfield's secret will not be shared with another soul. Whether that means it's safe for Greyfield that Caulder knows it is not relevant to this statement.

So, uh... you know how Advance Wars uses Days to denote the passage of in-game time in battle? Yeah, uh, this cure doesn't happen.

Not that we're suprised Caulder lies, but there's no payoff to it.

That remains a brave assumption.

Greyfield's selfishness taking precedent over his pragmatism, or what little of it he has. No concerns of bad reactions?

I neither think your men will believe it nor will this demonstrate anything of the sort. It will be a shame to see you die before the consequences of your actions come out, but you have other consequences of your actions to worry about.

Like, remember how I said the cure doesn't come up? This "masterpiece", in contrast to the cure, has its time to preparation measured in "days" because it'll be a gameplay mechanic, and yet it is implied this is going to be finished before the cure.

One might need to prepare to assume that, when Caulder said he was "hours away" from developing a cure, he meant more than 60,000 of them.

At least he's not trying to pretend he's a different kind of government official that has the powers of King, like some...

I think the only thing more worrying than Caulder having access to the Big Red Button is Greyfield having access to it.

I don't think we can assume Caulder neglects to mention what buttons to push, as funny as that would be.

This is typically considered a feature and not a bug. As dumb as it was to make the guy with the Big Red Button Caulder, giving the Big Red Button to a third party was objectively the correct thing to do with a Big Red Button.

"I will smite them with my mighty mightiness!"

I... think that's meant to be us? I know we're not traitors to him, but I forget if Greyfield calls us that because he expects unquestioning loyalty or if he's the kind of guy to go revisionist "they were always our enemies".

Fortunately, something other than Caulder is keeping Greyfield from pushing the Big Red Button.

Advance Wars usually likes having a few of these kinds of missions in its lineup- time limits. The Speed score will, of course, expect us to be significantly faster than 40 days.

Like one of Caulder's petulant children, Greyfield demands that reality bend itself backwards to let him push the Big Red Button.

We are not told how Caulder deals with this. It doesn't speed up the time limit.

(I mention this because there's one case in AW2 where a character gives an estimate for the time limit, their boss gives them a smaller one, and the game actually uses the smaller one. In that case, though, their boss did have an exact number to use for gameplay.

With Fog of War up, we'll have to take Lin's word on that. Well, we also get a number on the top screen.

Will being the one to pitch retreat, for a change. I'm sure we've dealt with huger. Waylon.

Lin does have a point here, little as she knows it. That clock may be overly generous, but it's still a clock.

Isabella pipes up with more of her "military secrets special interest", and gives us up-to-date information about the Caulder Missile repair. I don't think that one can be explained by pre-amnesia knowledge.

From the sounds of it, we're getting into nuke-adjacent territory with how it'll feel to be hit by the blast. Let's just hope we die quickly if we're hit.

Lin, for the first time since Brenner died, declares herself battlefield commander.

Before quickly remembering that, since Brenner's dead, she can't just declare it like that anymore.

Lin has mostly sat back and let Will feel all the feelings, but she had some of her own she was holding onto, and she realises that she's going to have to express them now if they're going to be let out at all.

She gives one last logical reason, but we all know now is not the time for that to be a factor.

But we're listening to Supreme Logician today, so we can't argue.

We haven't seen Greyfield board a CO unit yet, but Lin is quite correct- all these boats mean we're up against a naval commander, and we are going to have to play a naval game to win. So far, I haven't been encouraging on that front, have I?

Our map, for what little information we can glean about Greyfield's opening position from it. It's worth mentioning that the most important part of the maps will be the U-shape around the edges and the oceans just outside Greyfield's port. That land in the middle isn't worth traversing.

Greyfield begins with 21 units, although what they are and where they're deployed is anyone's guess.

Strangely, the Terms menu lists the time limit in the Victory condition, implying the map won't end when the Caulder Missiles strike. I've never got that far (surviving 40 days isn't exactly a trivial ask), but I'd assume it would be. It's not like Greyfield has demonstrated a desire not to bomb a place because his own units are there.

Greyfield has also established himself in the War Room, not that he's any more threatening in here.

Lin knows how to defuse the tension.

Where are your guards? Where are ours? Why has nobody shot you on sight?

Greyfield runs away, no less of a coward than Waylon. Neither of them felt like being the ones to give advice. Not that they'd know it from an old shoe.

Lin manages to make her delivering strategy sound like a threat. Because apparently she just makes anything sound like whatever she wants. Benefit of not expressing emotions, I guess.

The quintessential starting point. The best port to deploy from is on that island.

She says that, but honestly, I'm not sure why not. Were properties not hiding places in early development?

...I'm not saying they're not good, but why are seaplanes considered the unit of choice? Getting a carrier in position with a full load seems like a lot of extra work.

Well... yeah, definitely serious. Difference is, now it feels like people are going to die.

Lin, once again, addressing Will as if he's the one giving orders and not somebody else. Then again, this could also be her own men.

Anyway, speaking of Lin commanding, remember how I said this was the first time Lin took the field since Brenner died? This also means this is our first time seeing Lin's bio and specialties! Funny we're getting a brand new CO for a climactic battle.

Lin, befitting her narrative role, is DoR's take on Sonja from the Wars World games, except because COs don't really do "weaknesses", she actually feels good to play in any other situation. Her basic CO Zone gives her a similar boost to Jess, making her a generalist on factory-only maps- but honestly pretty terrible on this one. Her real boon is her CO Power Scout- when it says "hiding places", it means "forests and properties and so on." Yes, Lin will break the rules of Fog when she feels like it.

Meanwhile, Greyfield's back, and it's time to see what he can do if he loads up into a CO unit.

Eeyup, that's Captain Drake alright. The fact that navy typically sucks in AW has led to Greyfield branching out into seaplanes and copters, a fact that honestly just feels like more of a white flag than anything. Still, those defensive bonuses are nothing to scoff at. Supply Chain, meanwhile, is the only way for Rigs and Carriers to get more Mtl for building their Temp Ports and Seaplanes, respectively. A decent boast, but not valuable enough to be worth not doing anything else with his CO Power.

Bike going right to capturing that centre island. We need it done yesterday.

Submarines are going to be our most important opening unit. Their high vision plays well with Lin's strengths, and they also suck to fight in Fog of War.

Hopefully, Greyfield doesn't realise this.

Well, that Flare certainly wasn't impressive. Still, a unit is a unit.

These four cities are going to be a project I have to remember to do every turn.

The other infantry is being ferried to this island. Can't unload it this turn, though.

I'm not sure I'm ever going to get used to that. Especially with Flares having a similar menu for launching their flares.

Could be useful to make sure Greyfield hasn't already made his landing here.

I send this side's starting Mech to the middle, and build a recon for scanning purposes.

Time to see what he moves into view.

Is this our first time seeing a generic IDS Agent? Surprisingly, the generic sprite is female, for a change.

And no, they won't be reporting status updates every single day. This is just Greyfield's obligatory chance for turn 1 dialogue.

All... however many people. If there's anyone worth intimidating, it would sure be nice if they could lend a hand right now.

...Well, that's nothing worth writing down.

Looks like there's nothing here. Should be safe to start capturing immediately.

You know the drill when it comes to capturing stashes of property.

Target practice.

Ah, the direct forces are on their way.

Let's see how they react to this guy.

We can also see our first naval unit, although what its plans are are less clear.

Well, nothing we can do about it right now.

A Lander, too. I can only imagine what it's got loaded.

Also this guy, but he doesn't look like our problem yet.

Every single one of these units is concealed. This island is completely under my control.

I feel like I have plans to use that lander, but I haven't entirely developed them at this point anyway. I'm just building units that could be useful somewhere and deciding where that might be later.

Rockets. Those are going to suck to run into.

That, on the other hand, is therapeutic.

Greyfield gets his own opportunity to speak directly to us. He doesn't exactly use it well.

Greyfield decides that explaining his philosophy on the subject might get him somewhere, and promptly begins gorging on his own feet. There are a number of ways a burgeoning fascist might justify his obsession with the superiority of his own race. He just declares the quiet part aloud with no preamble.

He really thinks that agreeing with this position is not only reasonable, but natural.

Lin knows exactly what to think of this kind of bragging.

Oh, Lin knows exactly what's going on her tombstone. That's why she's gotta get out all her anger at the world now.

Amazing. Every word you just said was wrong. Half of them managed to be wrong in the context of the rest of your argument.

Lin tells him she's perfectly aware he uses aggression to mask his insecurities.

Now, see, I always remembered that Greyfield wasn't actually an admiral from this. In retrospect, it makes sense that he was an Admiral before the meteors. If he was inventing a new rank for himself, why would he choose Admiral and not, say, General?

No, what Greyfield has done is pretend that he is responsible for anything more complicated than making coffee for the real military minds of Rubinelle. We never do learn exactly which of Greyfield's ascribed deeds are truly his and which ones were someone else's. We can be confident that Greyfield has chosen to claim the ideas he thinks make him look cool, and also fairly certain that someone in Rubinelle actually did do his deeds.

The way Tasha talked about him does imply Greyfield was actually doing things for Lazuria to resent him about. Well, he was probably one of the enthusiastic ones about it.

Circle the words that Lin said that were false.

Just once, I want to see someone actually do that when they accuse someone they don't like of lying for describing the truth.

Yeah, I'm with you, Lin. Sometimes you just really need the idiots to shut up. Just because they keep saying it doesn't make it true, but it sure is annoying to have to keep listening to and rebutting it.

For once in Greyfield's miserable life, it's time he faced facts.

I thought that Middie was in range of the rockets, and button mashed a Wait here. It really does look like it, though...

These are the units that load up. Flare was a bit of a poor choice, but it's not like it was doing much here anyway...

Still, indirects will be greatly appreciated over here.

As will one of these.

Ooh, a carrier. Well, we know Greyfield is a commander who'll throw seaplanes at us, and it's a good idea not to deal with that.

...Hey, uh, wait, why do I know that carrier has a seaplane already on board? That shouldn't be a thing in Fog! (Turns out it's a change they made to DoR. It feels wrong.)

Well, the best solution to Carriers is Submarines. Bye bye!

...Oh. Well then. Have you ever just quietly gone "yeah, that APC is dead?" Yeah, that APC is dead.

I'm also worried about the sub, although it is worth mentioning that none of those ships have weapons that can hit dived submarines.

I use my ships to start getting rid of these landers to let my own units work in peace.

Although maybe I ought to have got that other sub closer to the battleships instead.

Well, we may or may not need more ships. Now we have them.

This infantry loads up on a gunboat, since I may need more of them elsewhere.

And this side gets an anti-tank ready to replace the rocket.

More tanks rolling down. That anti-tank is just what the doctor ordered.

Greyfield, like the absolute coward he is, runs all his battleships the hell away. Somehow completely in character, and the annoyance of having to shoot those ships down later is well and truly made up for by having that APC live to see another day.

More navy!

Moving this rocket back into the hiding spot.

And just generally making this a real chokepoint.

You ever feel like the devs intentionally put all these landing points just a bit too far away?

...What do you mean, this isn't a landing site?

There were a lotta battleships out there. We might need more subs.

He's helping!

Again the gunboat hides just out of range.

...Also that's the fuel light. Wish I had Black Boats in this game...

Ah well, this one's doing fine.

And now we have vision on this entire navy.

This time, I'm actively baiting them forward.

Well, I sure was successful at that. Although I do wish they actually hit the tank and not the cruiser.

"Boosts ground units and not vision in D2D."
"Yeah, but all the fighting is happening at sea!"

I think this is just the Sub's natural damage output, athough more CO Zone is always a plus.

Don't you just love how this infantry is completely safe.

The lander has arrived.

And the rocket is locked and loaded.

Kinda wish subs could more reliably oneshot these.

Although this is certainly a way to go about it. Let's not.

Tank decides to be used somewhere else.

So, I send the infantry in the gunboat here, replacing it with a mech. In retrospect, this decision cost me a turn and possibly more. I was planning on winning by HQ capture, but I hadn't put much thought into what tiles I was allowed to land with.

Gotta keep these subs supplied.

And using this port for defence. I think I also Joined. I'm not super attached to the cruisers.

Yup. There's the rocket about to be a massive pain in the rear.

Can't really do much about it, though, with that Mech in the way.

This chokepoint really isn't destined to last anyway.

Might as well get more units out of it.

I was wondering when we were getting some good old-fashioned "kill the APC!" from the AI.

This poor recon, sent to its death.

...Also Greyfield seems to have unloaded an infantry. I have other problems to deal with first, though.

Namely, he seems to have finally employed some manner of anti-submarine unit. That can't be accepted.

Still, at least he won't be able to see them. The battleships should probably go first.

Even the gunboat is helping!

Unfortunately, doesn't look like the last few boats had the same fortune.

Least I've got this.

Let's just deal with the battleship. That's the most important part.

I'd also rather this didn't do much land spotting.

Not sure where this is going, but go it shall.

Might want another APC over here, though.

General withdrawal to minimise casualties.

Aww, I was hoping this was an allowed interaction...

Gonna try not to lose this one the way I lost the last. Cruisers were always my worst naval unit.

I'm starting to worry about that rocket. Not much I can do about it when all my funds are going to the naval battle, though.

Hopefully this helps.

Well, that was to be expected. I've got two more, though.

This is far more encouraging a sight.

Gunboat doesn't take its chances.

And these two are swiftly dealt with.

This one went down with extreme prejudice.

Neat! First CO Zone expansion! That'll make it easier to build Scout, given the waters currently look pretty empty.

The most important feature of this map is our ability to sweep hidden properties. We'll keep these ports nice and shut down.

But I will want my units operating at full HP.

Now is the time to get those Carriers online. They'll help us actually storm that beach.

This Flare certainly won't from here.

...I don't know how that worked. Sonja could never have done it, at least.

The rest of our time is going to be spent loading up these landers.

War tank showed up. Didn't wind up doing much, though.

Taking another look at the enemy lines. Luckily, we're nice and out of range, but it's going to be hard to break in.

Especially without real directs.

Yeah, this isn't going to end that well. At least the rocket isn't moving closer.

Ah, there was the new boat.

Well, no matter what it is, it's not lasting long.

Flare's good for something, at least. It would be nice if it could be one tile north and west so I could Flare both ports, but that's a water tile.

...Rocket slacking on the job. Oh well, it's gone anyway.

This is going to cost us a bit of fuel. Again, wish I had Black Boats.

This carrier's also going to be taking its time.

I do get another Temp Port thanks to a second APC. It'll make refuelling quicker.

Although perhaps I should've built it closer to where my units are.

Over here, well...

Let's just say I'm not building the units I need for it.

This anti-tank's going to be one of my storming units.

Well, that's certainly a scary sight.

Still, gunboats just don't hold up under pressure.

Would be nice if I had something real for the cruiser, though.

Rocket's in the ruins. I also need to stop parking recons in range.

I can only hope this is as clever as it looks.

I've got a decent thing going here, assuming there aren't a gazillion units up north of here. If Greyfield's anything like me, a lot of his funds are tied up building units to be blown up by my subs.

These properties are finally done, too.

...That would be the second indirect.

And that was all Greyfield needed to utterly shatter this push.

Well, that's annoying. I'm going to need a new battleship.

At least this is in rocket range.

One sub refreshes, the other finishes off the cruiser.

And the Seaplanes have alighted.

There's that new Battleship I wanted.

Flare can't do that much for the landing, annoyingly.

I think most of these units aren't going to survive, but might as well give Greyfield a bloody nose to spare the rest.

Couldn't even destroy this one cleanly.

I'll gladly take this hiding place, though.

...You know, maybe I should've let Greyfield load this before blowing it up.

...This is certainly a time and a place to unload. I think my goal is to get Greyfield's units over on this side of port.

Although already unloading here? I think I needed to wait just one more turn, make sure the seaplanes could do some preliminary shooting.

Not that I see any yellow units to shoot at.

Nothing like a bit of time pressure to get you rushing.

Rockets just making my life miserable on two counts.

And there goes that hiding place.

Right. Now is a good time to pop Scout and reveal exactly what Greyfield is running on HQ defence.

That all? I can work with that.

The rocket is already gone!

I unload my other footsoldier, and this is when me changing the infantry for a mech comes back to bite me. An infantry could start capping HQ from here. The Mech needs an extra day to move into position.

...Oh. That... that's workable, I guess.

But we need to hold this position first.

Might want to get some more units ready to do so.

Over here, and... well, it's not as bad as I thought.

This side can do something similar, but hopefully less disastrous.

The infantry are going to be a bigger pain, but this sucks plenty. That Middie is spotting my inf.

At least the retreat is in motion.

This hurts, but I think wincon is inevitable so long as I play with half a brain.

And a battleship.

Wish these two could help.

The bike will make an excellent scout. AA, of course, he sees my own seaplanes.

It wishes.

The seaplanes are going to push the pressure forward.

And I have more units to deploy.

Right, don't build anything, Greyfield.

The subs have plenty of time to refuel now.

But I'm definitely going to cramp him.

Well, so much for that plan.

I win tomorrow.

All I need to do is make sure I don't get shot down while I'm waiting.

Starting with you.

These two are enjoying themselves.

And I've got this reinforced.

This was not necessary, but it was nice.

Where's the COs with +1 transport movement when you need them?

Greyfield is starting to make a push of his own, but it's too little, too late.

That was about to be expected, but I needed the Rocket to go down.

Last day, and there's always a few more shots to take.

...This is me realising that, if I took a day longer, those seaplanes were probably going down. They can't even reach the carrier. The seaplanes were exactly the right tool for the job we used them for, and I'll need to keep that in mind.

One last blow against the soldiers getting a bit too close to my forces.

It's time to put an end to this.

To the last, Greyfield blames everyone who was not him. And it is at this point that I raise two possibilities- either Greyfield never boarded himself, or he boarded a ground unit and went to the chokepoint.

(Given that there's a specific audio cue for boarding, I'd imagine I would have heard if it were the latter. It was probably the former. I don't think Greyfield's AI prevents him from boarding, but it's definitely in character.)

We finally did something about Greyfield, once and for all. I was getting tired of running.

And with score to spare. I'm surprised I didn't go below 100 on Technique, way I handled that chokepoint.

Lin, for what I think is the first time, uses her smiling portrait.

I didn't even realise she had one. Slash had never used it.

...I seem to have missed Greyfield's top screen. Oh well, this is also me only now noticing there's a page two on the bottom screen here. We've been missing plenty.

It's so cathartic hearing Greyfield be the one to give this order for a change. If only the man would understand the irony.

He never decides to notice he is the one responsible. If he was the kind of man to make that observation, he might not have lost to us.

He might also have never fought us in the first place, but perhaps that's a bit too much self-reflection to suggest he's capable of.

We've told him the truth over and over, and he's come no closer to acting on that information.

Lin and Greyfield come face to face, quite possibly for the first time, and this time, there is no veneer of allegiance, no fear of reprisal to keep Lin from saying what's on her mind.

It's time that Greyfield's ideology was put into practice. Starting with Greyfield himself.

Greyfield knows Brenner's weaknesses, and mistakenly believes they are shared by his entire unit. Not unfoundedly, given that his direct experience with non-Brenner members of the Wolves has been Will, who has decided to actively be Brenner 2.0.

Lin is not Brenner. Lin has never been Brenner.

I know precisely where they're going with this. But given Will's anger issues with Waylon last mission, I'm not entirely sure I agree with Lin that Will would actually exercise his virtues as the better man and do to Greyfield what Greyfield should have done to Forsythe when he had the chance.

But Lin? Yeah, not a shred of mercy to be found.

Why not? She has the gun, after all.

Did you ever assume Lin had her coping mechanisms in check? Maybe she did. Unlike Will, she was functional after Brenner's death. But that merely means she's capable of choosing when and where to deal with her emotions.

Even on a rational level, Greyfield's utter refusal to face reality and bend the world to his own makes him too dangerous to be allowed to operate as he has been. There are ways of taking that power from him without killing him, but we don't have the resources to enforce them. And unlike Waylon, Greyfield will always make a grab for power again.

Greyfield decides his last shot at life is to roll the dice and throw the ultimate standby line for killing villains. Unlike many such cases, Greyfield actually has an argument here. The reason we consider Greyfield to be such an evil character is because he committed this ultimate war crime, and are we really to allow ourselves the double standard of forgiving Lin for the same thing?

Lin pauses, just long enough to realise the same argument.

Before shooting anyway.

There is no question about it. That gunshot was the reason Days of Ruin made it to the blog. Lin follows in the footsteps of a general archetype of the cold tactician who gets things done and the specific archetype set up by Soren from the Fire Emblem Tellius games, but in order to engender audience sympathy for their cold personality, these tacticians have always believed in the right thing and always backed up the Ike/Brenner archetype they advise when they do the right thing.

Lin takes a different approach. Even before now, we have seen Lin actively take steps that go right past pragmatism to outright indifference to her own troops' lives, and her decision to make Will her boss was made entirely because she needed someone to keep her in check. Now that "the cold tactician" is an archetype that can engender sympathy on its own merits, Lin gets to dip her toes into the evils that good heroes will never follow her to. I don't think we are expected to pity Greyfield for being the victim of a war crime, and the game knows that, in the end, the audience will agree with Lin that Greyfield needed to die more than they'll be upset about that fact. But the fact remains- keeping to a moral code requires treating your opponents with the same dignity anyone else deserves. Lin holds no delusions that what she did was heroic. Only that it was necessary.

And isn't that the essence of the cold tactician?

While the Soren would one day evolve into Fodlan's Hubert, the writers of Days of Ruin weren't quite ready to push Lin that far. Lin's decision to shoot Greyfield is, right here, being depicted as being coloured by Lin's knowledge that her flowers are due to bloom and she won't have to live with whatever guilt she might feel for explicit murder.

Greyfield keeping his own infection under wraps is an excellent depiction of his own hypocrisy, but one does wonder... if Lin knew he had Creeping Derangea, might she have spared him and simply let the flowers do her dirty work? That option would require getting Dr. Morris to agree, given his Hippocratic Oath, and he definitely would lose sleep over it, but would Lin?

Anyway, that's enough of that, we've got to see the reactions to Greyfield being defeated back here.

And perhaps in better news, it turns out that Greyfield has discovered the same vaccine we did. Probably a Caulder thing, or it's based on simple materials. Still, I imagine Greyfield never gave this to anyone but himself. And maybe Waylon.

As a reminder, this vaccine is not a cure, but merely an extension of the time without flowers blooming. Forgive me, I'm not enough of a gardener to know if there's a botanical equivalent.

Will doesn't seem quite as enthused about things as Morris, though.

Dr. Morris is going to be trying his best to change that.

...We need someone better.

Please, listen to Isabella. I trust her with Will's mental health more than you.

Dr. Morris actually does listen to Isabella and let Will get some pressure off his chest.

You know, given the way I played, I think Will has a point. There was probably a way to not lose units in the chokepoint and seizing Greyfield's position.

Will takes a step back from things. Honestly, I'm not sure this is preventing everyone else from partying.

There's something mildly disconcerting about the fact the first thing Lin says on-screen after committing her war crime is ragging on Will. Business as usual with this woman.

I don't believe Will ever finds out what happened to Greyfield. I'm not sure how Lin assures him Greyfield's not a problem, but he's not the kind of guy to go digging.

Lin, you were quite clear on this. You defeated Greyfield.

...Honestly, that explains the casualties.

...You know, one of these days they'll show Isabella actually doing things other than her expodumping. I wouldn't really call those critical duties.

Lin finds an opportunity to use her smiling portrait in the story, and come up with something to praise Will for- he's given everyone a reason to try and push ahead into the brink.

Even Lin's acknowledging that Isabella hasn't actually done anything worth writing home about herself. I'm not sure I'd give Will the main credit, but given what happened back in Chapter 18, I don't think it's out of line.