Three Types of Art

[meditions142]

I enjoy writing Adelaide, though I sometimes worry she can come off as overly callous and unsympathetic. She's not evil like some of my other characters, but she engages in illegal activities on a regular basis (as both her job and, to a lesser extent, for the thrill of it), and her snarky comments to the women she mugs can be a bit cutting. So I try to balance that out by occasionally showing her more sympathetic side - particularly in the way she cares for Duke.

I definitely don't view her as callous. It is clear she has no problem rendering women unconscious, taking their uniforms and leaving them tied up but all uniform thieves have to do that.

The one thing I notice about her is that she seems to enjoy overpowering women and rendering them unconscious. Both before the attacks on Lacie and Gracie you mention she feels a feeling of anticipation. She clearly enjoys what she about to do to them. You also mention "Adelaide always loved how calm and serene women looked after she mugged them for their clothes." It does seem on some level Adelaide gets a aroused out of what she does.

[tirepanted3]

Adelaide definitely enjoys the art of infiltration, including mugging women for their uniforms. I'd say it's less a prospect of arousal, at least consciously, than it is her enjoying the thrill of the danger. She likes living on the edge and taking risks - hence her choice of occupation as a fixer-for-hire and occasional cat burglar.

Morally, she's something of an antiheroine, but certainly fun to write.

[meditions142]

Knockout powder appears to be an underused tactic of uniform thieves. It's a useful one, though, as Adelaide demonstrated. I expect this won't be the last time she uses it.

Definitely looking forward to seeing the knockout powder used some more. I assume the powder has some kind of drug in it. Or is it something else?

It is also fun that here Adelaide used it on the janitress. Presumably, since it was new and she wanted to test it she choice to use it on a target other than a guard as a guard might fight back or raise the alarm if it it didn't work.

Since later she was going to use it on a guard I assume she now feels safe using it on guards as she knows it works.

Would love to see a guard or two get knocked out with it in future stories. There is something really cool about scenes of blowing some powder in a woman's face and putting her to sleep.

[tirepanted3]

I think the knockout powder is the powdered version of a knockout drug or other chemical. Though only Adelaide knows for sure.

Good point about her choice of first knockout powder victim. It's helpful to start small when using new knockout techniques, and with due respect to janitresses, they're a bit less threatening to the average infiltrator than security guards (even the dumb guards who seem to frequent these museums).

Without giving away anything, you may see Adelaide employing this technique again soon...

[rufusluciusivan]

Not much to say about this short story - or, to be more accurate, the things I want to say are pretty similar to my comment on the previous short story of yours. Characters and plot differ, but the general goal are the same: short stories with a quick efficient plot that expand the universe and set things up for more to come. Just like in the previous story, I like the idea that Hargrove's subplot is taking place in the background and the main characters only see glimpses of it.

The heists themselves were classic and straightforward. The whole 'being betrayed by your employer'-trope was done well. Always nice when a story that looks straightforward still has a bit of a twist. Plus, I smell some foreshadowing for one upcoming main antagonist...

I remember Adelaide from Strange Bedfellows. Never been a fan of the character, didn't change much. She did her job as a protagonist, but as far as I'm concerned this story was carried by its narration and its themes. The idea of "old" uniform stealers feeling they're growing old and/or they have to move on because times are changing is interesting. I think it could be featured more. Like several of your good ideas, it uses the fact your saga is a long runner to its advantage. Last time we heard of Adelaide was in 2022 if I recall well, so the whole theme of growing older and seeing the world change around you works even better...

And speaking of the narration, my favorite comment must have been the "Lacie" / lacy joke. Also, Lacie, Gracie, Stacie... I'm noticing a pattern here. Maybe the unnamed watchwoman of Night THREE was called Tracie...

[tirepanted3]

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, I'm getting into the rhythm of these shorter and more efficient stories, although I can't help feeling like the lure of longer stories will pull me back in eventually.

Definitely some foreshadowing near the end of this one. I couldn't resist a twist, though I was worried it would come off as too out-of-nowhere, since we spend the bulk of the story following Adelaide's perspective. Then again, characters being betrayed by other characters seems to happen quite frequently in these stories...

I know Adelaide has been a polarizing character in the past, but it's been a while since I spotlighted her ("Strange Bedfellows" was in 2021 - how time flies) and I remain invested in her character growth. The idea of her getting "old" was meant to be something of a throwaway joke, although it does have potential. She's from the "old guard" of uniform stealers, and is probably resentful of this new crop of uniform stealing delinquents, who treat the activity as more a fad than anything.

The funny thing about the similarly-named guards was that when I originally conceived this story, there was supposed to be more of a connection between these guards (possibly connected to their names). However, I couldn't figure out a way to make that aspect work within the story, so I just left it as is and put more of the focus on the heists themselves. Still, I do think it's amusing detail, particularly the "lacy" bit.

Incidentally, your comment is well-timed, as I'm almost finished my next short story; hopefully it will be posted in a few days.

[rufusluciusivan]

Incidentally, your comment is well-timed, as I'm almost finished my next short story; hopefully it will be posted in a few days.

Perfect timing then. I was thinking of asking if there was already a release date for the next story...

2021... Time sure does fly...

[tirepanted3]

Yes, I was originally aiming to have the next story published a couple of weeks ago, but work got in the way, and I decided it was better not to rush the writing. I would love to post more of these stories than I usually do, but I also want to make sure they come out right, which means they always end up taking more time than I expect. But I'd prefer to post 10 good chapters a year instead of 50 bad ones.

And yes, I was surprised to see how long it's been since some of those earlier stories. It's been over seven years since the first "Spacesuit" story began. That somehow doesn't seem possible.

[darth chlorophorm 2]

Great story, TP3.
You're quite creative and go into so much detail.

[tirepanted3]

Thanks, Darth. It gets increasingly tough to keep these stories fresh, so I'm glad people are still enjoying them.