Wormverse ideas, recs, and fic discussion thread 1

[Segev]

Eh... There's no denying that Sophia's mind is seriously fucked up, and she's not remotely likeable, but there's a difference between that and "I'm going to premeditatedly murder Hebert because screw long term planning or the fact that I've only ever killed criminals before".

Click to shrink...

Usually, when I've seen it, she's at the point of "Taylor Hebert ruined my life BECAUSE she doesn't know her place; I have to destroy her to fix it." Which is in line with her canon thought process. And she probably wouldn't have been too shaken if Taylor had died in the locker, either. Not unless Taylor had the gall to have her death be a catalyst for the PRT actually investigating her activities and finding out about it.

 

[Night]

You realize that Purity didn't join the Empire right before she married Kaiser, yes?

Click to shrink...

You realize that what you're quoting doesn't actually describe any of that? You can make assumptions all you like (starting with "top enforcer"; Purity doesn't have proper mindset for the job you're describing, which that conversation demonstrates well). She's E88; yes. She's a cape; yes. She has probably done things, but we don't know what kind of things. Kaiser is exactly the kind of person that would put a Blaster 8 in a trophy case as an ode to his personal power.

And if she had been regularly engaged to her full potential, then a kill order would have been issued long ago. Criminal capes don't regularly go to the mats in terms of their destructive potential. Even memetic escalation Taylor went to the max exactly once.

 

[The Laurent]

You realize that what you're quoting doesn't actually describe any of that? You can make assumptions all you like (starting with "top enforcer"; Purity doesn't have proper mindset for the job you're describing, which that conversation demonstrates well). She's E88; yes. She's a cape; yes. She has probably done things, but we don't know what kind of things. Kaiser is exactly the kind of person that would put a Blaster 8 in a trophy case as an ode to his personal power.

And if she had been regularly engaged to her full potential, then a kill order would have been issued long ago. Criminal capes don't regularly go to the mats in terms of their destructive potential. Even memetic escalation Taylor went to the max exactly once.

Click to shrink...

We have canonical evidence that this isn't the case. It means her driving Lung off. Which means that maybe, if you're trying to white-wash her, you have her be the heavy artillery who never ever gets involved with anything sketchy at all, whatsoever. But at that point, you kinda ARE whitewashing?

Also, there's this:

"Purity was promoted to Kaiser's second in command in the same week that Kayden Russel took Max's hand in marriage to become Kayden Anders."

There's no way being second-in-command of a gang that deals in drugs DOESN'T involve doing horrible shit. If not personally, than administrating horrible shit.

 

[Night]

We have canonical evidence that this isn't the case.

Click to shrink...

Kaiser chose his second-in-command based on being the person who he had worked the most and succeeded the most in turning into an extension of his own will, going by what Purity said about their relationship. That...doesn't actually contradict me, and given Kaiser's megalomania, doesn't prove she had any real power or control either. To use an appropriate example, nobody would argue that Rudolf Hess was anything more than a pale extension of Adolf Hitler. That doesn't speak well of Hess, but it also means he doesn't have much responsibility in either sense of the word.

(Actually the relationship between Hess and Hitler has more than a few parallels, only when Hess broke away he managed to get arrested and imprisoned by the Brits and so Hitler couldn't talk him back into service.)

 

[arromdee]

indeed an that even tinkertech would not work on the moon, ziz is in orbit though so it might be a little further for EBs or not if they don't have power saving mode like shards.

Click to shrink...

Wildbow's official explanation for how Tinkers work is along different lines and implies that Tinker devices are real technology, just unrproducible because there are details nobody can understand. So they should work on the moon.

 

[KindaLazy]

You realize that what you're quoting doesn't actually describe any of that? You can make assumptions all you like (starting with "top enforcer"; Purity doesn't have proper mindset for the job you're describing, which that conversation demonstrates well). She's E88; yes. She's a cape; yes. She has probably done things, but we don't know what kind of things. Kaiser is exactly the kind of person that would put a Blaster 8 in a trophy case as an ode to his personal power.

And if she had been regularly engaged to her full potential, then a kill order would have been issued long ago. Criminal capes don't regularly go to the mats in terms of their destructive potential. Even memetic escalation Taylor went to the max exactly once.

Click to shrink...

Really? Do you think killing is the only possible thing she could have done as a member of a gang of Neo-Nazis over the years? No property damage, no driving those she deemed "less civilized" from their homes? Just existing was a big, glowing reminder that the city isn't safe for anyone who doesn't meet the Empire's criteria.

And no, just killing a few people doesn't get you a kill order. Hookwolf and Lung come to mind as examples. Ones a brutal psychopathic Nazi and the other wiped out several opposing gangs and hey, no kill order on either one.

Also:

People with differences," Justin said. "Faggots, gimps, mongoloids. Kaiser got that. I talked to him one on one, and he had the right ideas. He gotthat America is ours, that they're polluting it over time, letting these people in. But he was too focused on the big picture, and he was working with the Gesellschaft, which was way too big picture for my tastes. Still, birds of a feather. I worked under him because I wasn't about to find others elsewhere, and I didn't feel like going it alone. Then he introduced me to Purity."

Theo glanced at his onetime stepmother.

"And I think we're more in sync, Kayden and I," Justin said. "If Kaiser was the visionary, the guy on top, the guy with the dream, working to achieve something over decades, then Purity's the detective working the streets. And that's the kind of simple thinking I can get behind."

Click to shrink...

Purity's idea of working the streets looks like:

Breaking her usual patrol route, she headed straight to the northern part of the city and investigated the Docks. It was empty of ABB members, aside from two Korean girls were taking a break from turning tricks near the ferry, talking to their aged, fat, matronly pimp. Kayden resisted the urge to take action and run them off, resisted grilling them for information. She had done that last night with a group of dealers, and accomplished little to nothing.

The ABB was still active. Even with their boss gone, they were more organized than they had been under Lung's influence. But her interrogations had failed to get any details on why. Even broken arms and legs hadn't hurt or scared the thugs enough to get them talking about what was going on.

Click to shrink...

That is Purity's modus operandi. No guilt, no mercy. Just brutally carrying out her self-appointed duties, which coincidentally bear a remarkable resemblance to what she'd be doing for the Empire if she'd been an enforcer.

 

[Segev]

"Purity became Kaiser's second-in-command when Kayden married Max Anders" says more about the figurehead/puppet nature of the second-in-command position than it does about the position's responsibility and authority over the seedier aspects of the gang.

Not to say she didn't administer such things in Max's name, at his order. But given how the whole experience drove her AWAY from an organization she'd been part of for 10 years... suggesting this was something that shows how depraved she is doesn't hold as much water as an argument that it showed her how far she'd fallen and made her want to start climbing back up.

 

[Reveen]

She's usually given a redemption thing before these happen in a story. You can't complain about whitewashing actions that never actually happened as far as the story you're reading is concerned. The Purity of that story's world isn't the Purity who did those things. And probably never will be.

Click to shrink...

Lol, what the fuck?

It's pretty obvious from how she acts during that incident that this isn't her first time turning random innocent people into chunky salsa, the idea that she's some dewey eyed ingenue ready to be redeemed until that exact moment is patently ridiculous.

"You took the most important thing in the world from me," her voice was without affect, flat. "Until she is returned, this doesn't stop. I will take this city apart until I find you or you come to stop me. My subordinates will murder anyone, everyone, until the matter is settled. I don't care if they are genetically pure or not. If they haven't allied with us already, they missed their chance."

She bent down to take the camera. While the image swayed wildly, Purity spoke, "Night, Fog. Demonstrate."

The camera steadied, fixed on a man and a woman in gray and black costumes, respectively, featuring cowls and cloaks. Behind and to the side of them was an unnaturally pale and white haired young man.

The man in gray evaporated into a rolling cloud of white-gray fog, moving toward the camera. Purity took flight, moving up and above the scene, keeping the camera focused on the cameraman. As the camera rose and the view of the scene expanded, I could see Crusader off to one side, leaning against a wall with his arms folded.

As the mist enveloped the cameraman, Night strode forward, disappearing into it. The timing of what happened was wrong, too soon after she entered the fog. There was a ragged scream, and then blood sprayed out of the mist to paint the surrounding road in dozens upon dozens of long splashes of crimson.

The fog moved as though it had a mind of its own, congealing into the man once more. When he had fully pulled himself together again, there were only a few spatters of blood six or so paces from where the body had fallen, and Night, standing in the middle of the road. No body, no clothes, no blood remained where the fog had passed.

Click to shrink...

So basically...



And... again. It's kinda crazy how Purity is the one of the most prominent villain girls people seem to fixate on as redeemable. Like, you got Imp, you got Squealer, you got Circus (insofar as 'girl' applies to Circus), you got motherfucking Mockshow who was rad as shit. But no, clear room for the fucking psycho Neo-Nazi and the creepy-ass biotech surgeon... thing.

 

[NemoMarx]

Like, you got Imp

Click to shrink...

Wait what? What about Imp needs redeeming? She's a villain but she's about as moral as any Undersider, and she seems like something of a hero in her epilogue.

I want more Circus and Mockshow redemption though, yes. Or just either being on screen at all, really.

 

[Segev]

And... again. It's kinda crazy how Purity is the one of the most prominent villain girls people seem to fixate on as redeemable. Like, you got Imp, you got Squealer, you got Circus (insofar as 'girl' applies to Circus), you got motherfucking Mockshow who was rad as shit. But no, clear room for the fucking psycho Neo-Nazi and the creepy-ass biotech surgeon... thing.

Click to shrink...

You...miss the point of that scene.

Danny Hebert triggering on Taylor being kidnapped would do much the same. And he'd turn the Dockworkers into his gang to do it.

This is a "flip out and rage" moment for Purity, not a signal that she's a cold-hearted killer under anything approaching business-as-usual circumstances.

Note, not justifying it. Not saying it's right. But it's Mama Bear behavior, not behavior that proves she not only became irredeemable at that moment, but that she always was.

 

[The Laurent]

Wait what? What about Imp needs redeeming? She's a villain but she's about as moral as any Undersider, and she seems like something of a hero in her epilogue.

I want more Circus and Mockshow redemption though, yes. Or just either being on screen at all, really.

Click to shrink...

I keep on just not having the mental/narrative room for Circus? Other than when I specifically plot for them (ala Skitter Studies).

Like, they'd sorta fit with Split, at least in terms of the thematics and so on, but I'm not really sure how I'd use them without it being this, like, side-quest thing? And one thing you don't want to have in your writing is sections that feel like, "Side-Quests."

There's a reason that the plot summary for RPGs doesn't include that one time you collected 100 goldfish to fill an aquarium for a crazy collector.

 

[Reveen]

This is a "flip out and rage" moment for Purity, not a signal that she's a cold-hearted killer under anything approaching business-as-usual circumstances.

Click to shrink...

No.

People may sometimes "flip out" and beat the fuck out of someone with a ready blunt object, or blow them away with a nearby gun. People don't "flip out" and calmly order their subordinates to turn completely uninvolved people into blood fountains, that's something that requires a good deal of experience ordering people to murder other people for spurious reasons. Keep in mind that Aster was taken by social services, not the fuckin' Skaven or something, it should be obvious to Purity that her daughter will be okay.

Even if it is a flip out and rage moment for her it's certainly a bigger flip out and rage moment than we see with any other character in the entire story, heavily compounded by her collected nature during it. That kind of crazy needs a straight IV of horse tranquilizers 24/7 and a padded room, not a love-redemption story.

Wait what? What about Imp needs redeeming? She's a villain but she's about as moral as any Undersider, and she seems like something of a hero in her epilogue.

Click to shrink...

I'm talking in terms of pro-hero lame-o logic where redemption is a thing that's required, honestly. Like, I'd happily take fic after fic of Imp and Mockshow beating the crap out of cops and tipping over the Popemobile.

 

[Kaiya]

No.

People may sometimes "flip out" and beat the fuck out of someone with a ready blunt object, or blow them away with a nearby gun. People don't "flip out" and calmly order their subordinates to turn completely uninvolved people into blood fountains, that's something that requires a good deal of experience ordering people to murder other people for spurious reasons. Keep in mind that Aster was taken by social services, not the fuckin' Skaven or something, it should be obvious to Purity that her daughter will be okay.

Even if it is a flip out and rage moment for her it's certainly a bigger flip out and rage moment than we see with any other character in the entire story, heavily compounded by her collected nature during it. That kind of crazy needs a straight IV of horse tranquilizers 24/7 and a padded room, not a love-redemption story.



I'm talking in terms of pro-hero lame-o logic where redemption is a thing that's required, honestly. Like, I'd happily take fic after fic of Imp and Mockshow beating the crap out of cops and tipping over the Popemobile.

Click to shrink...

"pro hero lame-o logic" um. There's a lot wrong with this. "Violent" doesn't mean "crazy". "Evil" doesn't mean crazy. "Selfish person" doesn't mean crazy. When your kid has been taken, them being okay is honestly irrelevant to the fact that someone took your kid. Someone you love more than life, and desperately want to have back. Aster's treatment is irrelevant in the face of "Someone stole my child" "I have the power to get her back" "How dare they take my child".

She went into major mommy mode. That doesn't mean 'padded room'. It means "Incredibly dangerous gang enforcer who loves her daughter more than life itself had her daughter taken from her". That isn't crazy, that's bog standard human.

You have a very strange idea of like...how humans work.

 

[Segev]

No.

People may sometimes "flip out" and beat the fuck out of someone with a ready blunt object, or blow them away with a nearby gun. People don't "flip out" and calmly order their subordinates to turn completely uninvolved people into blood fountains, that's something that requires a good deal of experience ordering people to murder other people for spurious reasons. Keep in mind that Aster was taken by social services, not the fuckin' Skaven or something, it should be obvious to Purity that her daughter will be okay.

Even if it is a flip out and rage moment for her it's certainly a bigger flip out and rage moment than we see with any other character in the entire story, heavily compounded by her collected nature during it. That kind of crazy needs a straight IV of horse tranquilizers 24/7 and a padded room, not a love-redemption story.



I'm talking in terms of pro-hero lame-o logic where redemption is a thing that's required, honestly. Like, I'd happily take fic after fic of Imp and Mockshow beating the crap out of cops and tipping over the Popemobile.

Click to shrink...

"pro hero lame-o logic" um. There's a lot wrong with this. "Violent" doesn't mean "crazy". "Evil" doesn't mean crazy. "Selfish person" doesn't mean crazy. When your kid has been taken, them being okay is honestly irrelevant to the fact that someone took your kid. Someone you love more than life, and desperately want to have back. Aster's treatment is irrelevant in the face of "Someone stole my child" "I have the power to get her back" "How dare they take my child".

She went into major mommy mode. That doesn't mean 'padded room'. It means "Incredibly dangerous gang enforcer who loves her daughter more than life itself had her daughter taken from her". That isn't crazy, that's bog standard human.

You have a very strange idea of like...how humans work.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, you don't think Danny Hebert would have ordered such a thing if he thought it would save Taylor from a danger he knew she was in?

Besides, Taylor herself engaged in similar behavior as retaliation against what she thought was the murder of her friends. Yes, smaller-scale, more focused, but Taylor had the perpetrators to hand. Purity did not. Purity probably, based on her motivations, would have focused like a laser (pun intended) on the ones who had her daughter if she knew where they were and how to get to them.

 

[The Laurent]

Yeah, you don't think Danny Hebert would have ordered such a thing if he thought it would save Taylor from a danger he knew she was in?

Besides, Taylor herself engaged in similar behavior as retaliation against what she thought was the murder of her friends. Yes, smaller-scale, more focused, but Taylor had the perpetrators to hand. Purity did not. Purity probably, based on her motivations, would have focused like a laser (pun intended) on the ones who had her daughter if she knew where they were and how to get to them.

Click to shrink...

She casually mentions breaking people's arms in an attempt to get information out of them. Before any of this happened. I mean, besides not actually being a good interrogation technique, it also shows, you know, a certain mindset? Especially since, unlike GG, she doesn't have the excuse of thinking that there's someone who's going to fix her mess for her, undo the broken bones/etc.

 

[Segev]

She casually mentions breaking people's arms in an attempt to get information out of them. Before any of this happened. I mean, besides not actually being a good interrogation technique, it also shows, you know, a certain mindset? Especially since, unlike GG, she doesn't have the excuse of thinking that there's someone who's going to fix her mess for her.

Click to shrink...

She used to break arms to enforce a gang's villainous will. This means she can never have a redemption arc. Is that what you're saying? Arm-breaking is irredeemable?


The reason Purity is so often chosen as a prime candidate for redemption is that she shows signs of wanting to pursue it. That's...really it. It doesn't take whitewashing to send her down a redemption arc. The fact that she shows she wants to be a better person means she's already seeking the path towards it.

 

[Night]

Really? Do you think killing is the only possible thing she could have done as a member of a gang of Neo-Nazis over the years?

Click to shrink...

Do you think that those things would be remotely comparable on the sliding scale of fucked-up shit to going out and blowing up a black neighborhood? This is a thing she could do. This is a thing she is not willing to do. If she were the monster with no human feelings you're trying to say she is, the her relationship with Kaiser would be impossible; he wouldn't have been able to cultivate or control her the way he did.

And no, just killing a few people doesn't get you a kill order. Hookwolf and Lung come to mind as examples. Ones a brutal psychopathic Nazi and the other wiped out several opposing gangs and hey, no kill order on either one.

Click to shrink...

It's a good thing you're lying then about my argument then! If Purity was doing one tenth of what she was actually capable of, the Triumvirate would have dropped by to hand her her head and either kill her or put her in the Birdcage a long time ago. We saw her trash dozens of buildings when she threw a fit. Say she just blows up a couple a day; Brockton Bay will cease to exist pretty quick unless she's stopped and the death count will be in the hundreds. You haven't engaged with that argument. You haven't disproved it.

Black Kaze wandered killing anyone she met, and she doesn't have a tenth the raw firepower Purity does, and that earned her a trip to the Birdcage. Jack Slash isn't as capable of going to Cast Mass Death levels as Purity is, but using his abilities to the fullest got him a kill order. If Purity were regularly going all out, she would have killed hundreds of people, and probably be dead or imprisoned long before the story started. We know this because we've seen her go all out.

That is Purity's modus operandi. No guilt, no mercy. Just brutally carrying out her self-appointed duties, which coincidentally bear a remarkable resemblance to what she'd be doing for the Empire if she'd been an enforcer.

Click to shrink...

What's fascinating about this is you think it indicates some kind of grand brutality or is particularly different from, say, Batman. Batman breaks a fuckload of arms. Here, she's just talking about chasing them a little bit, or maybe cornering one and talking tough, as far as we can tell.

And yet you pronounce this to be the most brutal, terrible thing, and it's not even clear she's thinking of actually hurting someone!

 

[Reveen]

"Violent" doesn't mean "crazy". "Evil" doesn't mean crazy. "Selfish person" doesn't mean crazy.

Click to shrink...

Imagine for a second that I'm some random schlub who just had his children taken away by social services, and my response to this is to set off a bigass bomb in front of a government building, then jump out of a car and start blowing random people away with a shotgun screaming at them to give my kids back.

I would hope that your response to this is to call me a crazy psycho, and not just an angry parent. Like, you kinda have some seriously overblown ideas of maternal instinct. I don't think its so strong as to overpower "hey, maybe don't murder random ass people?"

Aster's treatment is irrelevant in the face of "Someone stole my child" "I have the power to get her back" "How dare they take my child"

Click to shrink...

All that's required for a normal person to overcome those impulses is to stop, calm the balls down, and think about. Most people who have their children kidnapped go to the cops, they don't go fuckin' John Rambo.

Purity's behaviour points to someone who is a. acclimated to extreme violence and likely enjoys it, b. someone with a massive superiority complex where she's entitled to intimidate society with her power, y'know, a fascist and c. doesn't give a shit about consequences.

 

[The Laurent]

She used to break arms to enforce a gang's villainous will. This means she can never have a redemption arc. Is that what you're saying? Arm-breaking is irredeemable?


The reason Purity is so often chosen as a prime candidate for redemption is that she shows signs of wanting to pursue it. That's...really it. It doesn't take whitewashing to send her down a redemption arc. The fact that she shows she wants to be a better person means she's already seeking the path towards it.

Click to shrink...

No, I mean she breaks arms as a supposed hero!

"Breaking her usual patrol route, she headed straight to the northern part of the city and investigated the Docks. It was empty of ABB members, aside from two Korean girls were taking a break from turning tricks near the ferry, talking to their aged, fat, matronly pimp. Kayden resisted the urge to take action and run them off, resisted grilling them for information. She had done that last night with a group of dealers, and accomplished little to nothing.

The ABB was still active. Even with their boss gone, they were more organized than they had been under Lung's influence. But her interrogations had failed to get any details on why. Even broken arms and legs hadn't hurt or scared the thugs enough to get them talking about what was going on."

Her first instinct when confronted with the problem of, "I don't know what's going on" is: "Better start breaking people's arms and legs."

******

Note, are there people who do that and then get better? Sure, maybe. But consider this: this is Purity when she's trying to be a hero, when she's turning over a new leaf. She doesn't even think twice about it. She just does this kind of shit.

What's fascinating about this is you think it indicates some kind of grand brutality or is particularly different from, say, Batman. Batman breaks a fuckload of arms. Here, she's just talking about chasing them a little bit, or maybe cornering one and talking tough, as far as we can tell.

And yet you pronounce this to be the most brutal, terrible thing, and it's not even clear she's thinking of actually hurting someone!

Click to shrink...

Real life Batman would be a fucking terrifying asshole.

Edit: Also, literally what? You're making up bullshit. The text plainly states that she wasn't THINKING of doing things, but reflecting on things she'd done.

"Breaking her usual patrol route, she headed straight to the northern part of the city and investigated the Docks. It was empty of ABB members, aside from two Korean girls were taking a break from turning tricks near the ferry, talking to their aged, fat, matronly pimp. Kayden resisted the urge to take action and run them off, resisted grilling them for information. She had done that last night with a group of dealers, and accomplished little to nothing.

The ABB was still active. Even with their boss gone, they were more organized than they had been under Lung's influence. But her interrogations had failed to get any details on why. Even broken arms and legs hadn't hurt or scared the thugs enough to get them talking about what was going on."

*****

Like, this was actually a debatable point until you started openly lying to support your conclusion.

 

[Night]

Her first instinct when confronted with the problem of, "I don't know what's going on" is: "Better start breaking people's arms and legs."

Click to shrink...

Uh, this is a pretty clear misinterpretation. The fact the sentence says even indicates it was a later than "first instinct" thing. "Even my first instinct doesn't work!" said exactly no one ever.

 

[The Laurent]

Uh, this is a pretty clear misinterpretation. The fact the sentence says even indicates it was a later than "first instinct" thing.

Click to shrink...

Um, what? Stop lying.

Also, are you going to explain why you're lying?

Night: "She totally just scared them and chased them around a little."

The Text:

""Breaking her usual patrol route, she headed straight to the northern part of the city and investigated the Docks. It was empty of ABB members, aside from two Korean girls were taking a break from turning tricks near the ferry, talking to their aged, fat, matronly pimp. Kayden resisted the urge to take action and run them off, resisted grilling them for information. She had done that last night with a group of dealers, and accomplished little to nothing.

The ABB was still active. Even with their boss gone, they were more organized than they had been under Lung's influence. But her interrogations had failed to get any details on why. Even broken arms and legs hadn't hurt or scared the thugs enough to get them talking about what was going on."

******

It's active bullshit Whitewashing to claim that this sentence does not mean she broke arms and legs as part of her "interrogations."

Edit: Oh, I get it. You're nitpicking. It wasn't her first instinct in this particular case, but it occurred to her and she DID IT. It was something that she does. She doesn't regret it at any point in the narrative.

 

[Night]

Stop lying.

Click to shrink...

Only when you do.

Her first instinct when confronted with the problem of, "I don't know what's going on" is: "Better start breaking people's arms and legs."

Click to shrink...

That is a thing you said. It is clearly wrong because you are stating that Purity went directly to breaking limbs when the passage you are quoting describes it as her last resort, (the "even this didn't work") not her first instinct.

I never disputed that she didn't do it. I did dispute that she was going to do it in that particular situation, particularly because, as she thinks, it doesn't work.

You have completely ignored that in favor of something I never said.

 

[NemoMarx]

Uh, this is a pretty clear misinterpretation. The fact the sentence says even indicates it was a later than "first instinct" thing.

Click to shrink...

Well, first instinct after her interrogations failed. She doesn't try to convince them that she'll keep them safe if they tell her things, or bribe them, or whatever. Her escalation seems to have gone from intimidating them with powers to actually harming them for answers really quickly. And it's not like she had a personal motivation here?

 

[Segev]

"I want to be a hero, to make up for the wicked things I've done."

"I'll start by thwarting bad guys. Um, to avoid awkwardness, I'll target non-Empire bad guys."

"Well, this is kind-of like what I was doing when I fought for the Empire, so maybe I should use the same tactics?"

She hasn't yet gotten to the part where she figures out why heroes don't do the Shadow Stalker thing.

Though you are right about a possible double standard; I've seen works that try to redeem Purity but condemn Glory Girl as the scum of the Earth. That said, again: GG wants to be a hero but doesn't show any awareness that she has a problem; Purity shows desire to be redeemed. To seek redemption. You may not realize just how powerful and important that is to anybody being redeemable. That desire and awareness that it's needed.

Her WANTING to do better means that reaching out to HELP her do better is more likely to work. To be welcomed, or at least accepted. To not result in a vindictive tantrum that you'd dare question her morality. This makes it far more tempting to try to help her achieve redemption.

 

[Night]

Well, first instinct after her interrogations failed.

Click to shrink...

We know she got to breaking arms and legs, probably as an endgame, but we don't really know where she started after simple questions failed. (Probably started at passive intimidation just by being Purity, escalated to active power use on nearby inanimate objections, then roughing them up without breaking anything, then breaking arms and legs...though given what we're told of Purity's physical appearance I kind of wonder how she achieved that. Kayden Anders isn't usually described as the sort of person who can go hand-to-hand with thugs and bust them up. Maybe she picked them up and dropped them?)