Coyote's Gambit

[whosit]

Back in the Fangs of Summertime, Reynardine confronted Coyote, asking what trick he was trying to pull. There's not much to go on, but I can't help wondering what insight everyone else might have on it. The obvious plan was to infect the Court with the viral seeds left by Ysengrin, but that's far below Coyote's ability.

He could not have staged the whole thing to make contact with Renard... while he MIGHT have been able to hear the conversation between the possessed Robot and Antimony, it is highly unlikely.

The only representative of the forest present was slain by Eglamore's super-ultra-glowy Vorpal Sword of +20 damage, unless the Tic-Toc Birds are an invention of Coyote's which he never told anyone about (I wouldn't put it past him, honestly). If he IS in charge of the Tic-Tocs, it would explain their rescue of Annie and why they dunked her, instead of dropping her on dry land (I imagine he would find it amusing). However, Coyote spoke of Renard's closeness to Antimony as "a surprise." Since Coyote does not lie, I can only assume this means he had no knowledge of any of this, before the meeting with the Court.

It IS possible that, by having the seeds probed by the Court, he may have hoped to glean some small amount of intelligence, before ties to the Wood were severed. Or perhaps he had planned on making contact with the Surma (not knowing her dead), inviting her to the Wood and then giving her the Coyote Tooth.

That weapon being a part of Coyote, he could use it to spy on the Court, assuming that Surma kept it secret from the Court (quite likely, as they would have confiscated it). That assumption is even better, now, because Annie is inexperienced and her loyalty to the Court is on the wane, thanks to the revelation of Diego's relic.


But espionage could not be Coyote's only goal, especially in risking the security of so valuable a thing as the Coyote Tooth. Could he animate it, to do his will, within Gunnerkrigg Court, perhaps? Or did he intend it to establish a connection between him and the medium that would sway her to his side?

It's possible that the blade's only intended purpose was to help protect Annie, Obviously, Coyote means no harm to Annie... he may not be emotionally attached to her in the way that Renard is, but he DOES care for her, as the daughter of Surma and a child of promising attributes. But while Coyote may be good-natured, he is not necessarily an altruist. True, he genuinely seeks to better Reynardine, but is this behavior typical of The Trickster?

[warrl]

The legends of Coyote are always of a neutral to benevolent trickster - he does not seek to harm others. (For a vicious trickster, look to - or, better yet, avoid - Loki.)

The victims of Coyote's pranks are inconvenienced or embarrassed, as Ysengrim was when C. shoved Annie out into the clearing during dinner. They are not injured. If they have sufficient wit, there is often a lesson they can learn to their long-term benefit.

So I would say that his behavior in this comic is entirely in character.

And Annie's blade is not valuable - to Coyote. He replaced his tooth with a rock he picked up off the ground. That doesn't mean he doesn't have annoying plans for it of course, and it's rare that he gives such a powerful artifact to a human.

But if he merely wanted it to gather information for him, he could have caused a tiny being to exist and hide in her clothes without her even being aware of it. The sword will probably end up hanging in one location (Annie's room) most of the time, so he could eavesdrop on her but not much else - and if it goes missing, she'd notice. A tiny being that she doesn't even know exists would be free to roam.

So I think that his most likely intent with the sword is that Annie will be able to defend herself and will appreciate the gift (and thus like him better than might otherwise be the case).

[violet]

Jun 11, 2010 22:20:28 GMT whosit said:

It's possible that the blade's only intended purpose was to help protect Annie, Obviously, Coyote means no harm to Annie... he may not be emotionally attached to her in the way that Renard is, but he DOES care for her, as the daughter of Surma and a child of promising attributes.

Probably, when Annie does use it, it will protect her.

It will also do something else.

[whosit]

Hm... good point, warrl. However, I would argue that the blade does entail some risk for Coyote... if the Court got a hold of it, what might they do with it? I imagine there would be a way to affect Coyote through it, or even use it against him, if they got hold of it.
No assumptions on the Court meeting, though?

Do something else? Like what, violet?

[Mezzaphor]

My theory about ch 14 (which I've posted before, way back in the depths of the Wild Speculation thread) is that Coyote didn't have any particular plan. It was Ysengrin whose grand scheme was to drop those seeds inside the Court. He was operating behind Coyote's back (or at least thought he was), hence why he bothered to kill the two fairies who saw him burying the Tic-Toc.

This leads us back to the question of what he meant the seeds to do, and I don't have a definite answer for that. But given how antagonistic Y is towards the Court, espionage or something worse would make perfect sense.

[todd]

What I'd really like to know about the parley is why Ysengrin specifically blamed the sweater on Anthony Carver. Since the sweater was clearly part of the school uniform, it meant that someone from the Court had been in the Wood near the dead Tic-Toc, which Ysengrin could interpret as Court skullduggery without crediting it to any specific member. Whatever his scheme was, it backfired dramatically thanks to his mention of Anthony.

[whosit]

Well, the sweater DID have the name "A. Carver" on it. How was Ysengrin to know it WASN'T Anthony? They don't know enough about human clothing (at present) to tell adult and juvenile clothing apart, very well.
I agree about his attempt to place the blame. It did not go very well, at all.

[Mezzaphor]

Well, my theory was that Ysengrin wanted that particular backfire to happen. Since he would be escorted to and from the meeting, and since he would be the center of attention at the meeting, the only way Y could have planned to drop those seeds without them being noticed would be to duck out of the meeting. How then can he leave without arousing too much suspicion? Fake a hissy fit and storm out of the meeting. What pretext could he use for his fake outrage? Make a deliberately spurious accusation against the Court, and pretend to be angry when they deny it.

What kind of accusation would work for this purpose without everyone thinking Y a complete idiot for bringing it up? Well, there was an incident with a student falling off a bridge and a dead Tic-Toc -- Why not plant the Tic-Toc and blame the whole thing on a completely different student?* Brilliant!

It would have worked, too, if that student who did fall off the bridge hadn't been at the meeting to shoot down his story in a way that he completely hadn't planned for. Hence, that thing where Y dropped the seeds while trying to skewer Antimony was a last-ditch plan that he came up with on the spot.

*My reasoning for thinking that Y knew which student was involved in the bridge incident is based on the fact that he arrived in the gorge right after Annie left, which strikes me as too convenient to have been chance. Y must have been watching and waiting for Annie to leave.

[cheddarius]

The Coyote Tooth is a blade with etheric powers that makes it so sharp it cuts atomic bonds with no loss of momentum. When Annie uses it, she will cut the very earth, fall in, keep cutting the earth around her as she falls, soar out the other side, and then land on Mars, where Coyote's secret etheric research station is located. There he has a special magnetic containment boom that will seize the blade and contain it safely. Afterwards, he will extract Annie's DNA in order to extrapolate a clone Surma. He already has Annie's dad's DNA (he kidnapped him earlier, explaining his disappearance), so it should be simple. Then, he will use the Surmas to make a gigantic photon cannon powered by British accents and obliterate Neptune for giggles.

[Casey]

Though technically, all he'd really have to do to obliterate Neptune is put his arms around it until it appeared to be right in front of Annie, and then have her pinch it between her thumb and forefinger.

[cheddarius]

He finds this way more amusing.

Anyway, I have an idea. This sword is really, really sharp, right? If it was that sharp, it would probably slice through any ordinary scabbard if you jiggled it. The scabbard has to be very tough to withstand the sword... Antimony could use it as a stave or shield or something, to block another sword. It would really only work once or twice, but it'd be a good save.

[whosit]

I like your Ysengrin argument, Mezzaphor. That's a good point.

Since the scabbard is a part of the tooth, I imagine the only sword that could damage it would probably be James' glowing sword. Mere steel isn't much of a weapon against something of Coyote's.

To be honest with you, if I was Coyote, and I abducted Anthony Carver, I'd dress him up as a clown, take over his body and make him run pant-less through the Court, wearing his underwear on his head. But that's just me.

Cloning Surma sounds a bit dark for Coyote, t'be honest with you. Re-animating her, he might try, but, in light of what many of his greater schemes have produced, that could wind up being worse than letting her do her thing in the spirit world, or whatever passes for it, in the Gunnerverse.

[cheddarius]

Um... it was a joke. One of the ways you could tell is the "cannon powered by British accents"...

[violet]

Jun 12, 2010 17:39:07 GMT cheddarius said:

This sword is really, really sharp, right?

Cutting the earth doesn't require a particularly sharp blade, really.

Even if it is very sharp, it's probably more “sharp enough to cut the very earth and maybe an ocean or two,” and less, “sharp like a dia-coated monoatomic blade.”

[cheddarius]

Well, I assumed that it meant "cut through solid rock like butter". I mean, I can cut soil with a plastic spoon, so of course he doesn't mean that, or else it would be a very silly proof of the blade's prowess.

Hmmmm... actually, Coyote never lies, right? He could be deliberately phrasing the thing so that it seemed epic but actually was terrible, like Boxbot, in order to trick Annie into thinking she had a good blade. Can't imagine why, though.

[whosit]

Sorry... I thought I'd read the post well, but I must've set my blindspot on the "british accent" part, there. Coyote DOES say it's the keenest blade she would ever find. When he says "very earth," I think of the canyon that separates the Court and the Wood. If that's not cutting the very earth, I don't know what is.

I love his and Annie's faces, when he hands it to her, though... he's all like, "And for being such a good girl, here! A piece of my head! Enjoy!"
Meanwhile, Annie's reaction is what I would expect if you handed someone a loop of intestines. "EEEEWWWWWwwww!"

Hahahaha, love it....

[cheddarius]

He cut that bit with his paw, though. So it's not the same blade that cut the canyon. He could be saying that it could cut that canyon, but I'm not really seeing any evidence to suggest that...