Chapter 45-3: Distorted Truths

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

I understand that Scratch's behavior as a survivor and a toughened, hardened and strong woman roots in the fate she had. And I feel very sorry for her that she was forced to follow that dark road.
But I am not willing to accept this as an explanation, justification, or simply general reason for any behavior of her. The killing of Charly? Taking Kalani's child hostage in order to force him to do things he wouldn't have done? Twisting words in anyones mouth and to distort the sense of their talkings just to get a better position? Her vile attempt to make Angel speak in her favor, and then by failing with her attempts simply to kill him? And then the torture of Burt, just because she wanted to know where Pegs is? Except for the confrontation with Durai none of these things have to do with the struggle of her survival or can be linked back to her fate. What she did (and still does) is making everyone and everything responsible for her situation without caring for the correct links. She crosses lines as she likes, and almost everything she does is only about herself, her self-pity, lust for revenge, murder, deceit. There are only very few moments in which she has shown a different side. And I would have loved to see more of it to change my mind. But even though she somehow "helped" Lizzy, and although she seems to keep to some very basic core-ideas of working together with a few other survivors, she really is just that: evil. And I don't see anything that could justify, explain, or excuse it. Some time in the past she disconnected from most values, and she sticks with her ways not accepting that there could be others who have just the same right to survive and live their own lives.

As for Kalani: Granted. I only understand, why he did what he did. And I totally agree with Kalani, when he has said that a father would do anything to save his child. That does not make anything he did right; and here, too, there is no excuse or justification for him being a rat and adding a lot to the deep jeopardy the Tower-people got into; but people should remember: basically it was Saul's crazyness that lead to the fall of the Tower, and only very few voices have criticized that. Anyway: Kalani's deeds were the deeds of desperation. And you cannot blame him alone for doing so without considering Scratch's part in it. After all she made him her tool; and if he had not complied, Hannah would have been dead even earlier, and maybe he, too. Why? Because Scratch behaves like that. Because Scratch is an evil bitch. If she does not get what she wants, she puts people into deep misery - this happened with Charly, with Durai, Angel with direct murdering, and indirectly with most other folks around.

I guess we will disagree about this forever.

That does not matter.

And yet I agree with you that living by double-standards is way too common.

And yeah, you don't need to tell me that you don't care about likes and shit; I know you don't care. You simply did not get my point, which is: don't put everyone into the same pot, when it is obvious that the opinions vary a lot more than your postings imply. It is not "all", just maybe "some" or "many", depending on what exact topic you refer to.

Best wishes!
Liam

Hi there, just a short reply. I would like to add the one exception to the rule: Scratch really cared for Latch. He was her constant. Secondly, without her skill- as well as predominantly her mindset, she would be pretty be pretty much dead by now. Does this make her less evil? No. But, putting morality aside, she just happens to be an extremist blueprint for Darwin's theory in a post-apocalyptic world.

[Storm]

Nope. I just have the first and the second version of #46-3. Both are about 22:05 long. I downloaded the files from Feedburner - as usual. So, maybe, Storm's issues might have occurred with one of the other feeds?

I got it from http://werealive.libsyn.com/rss... I have no clue why my file was like that, but well... Maybe it's my podcatcher doing funny Things.......

[Zombiekiller100]

As I have said before I do not trust Tardust one inch! He has survived so far only by mixing half truths with lies, he would not have survived in prison or with the Mallers afterwards. He has given Riley and Burt a 3 hour run around without any success in finding Scratch and Co., they have been very patient with him and are correct to suspect that he is hiding information, since info is power. I thought B & R should have threatened Tardust with using him as Zombiebait, that would loosen his tongue for sure! They could make him run behind their truck to work up a sweat and pull him in at the last moment, he would sing like a canary, haha, no physical torture, only psychological.
Scratch is a psychopath, having no feelings for others and acting solely in her own interests. One can test young children psychologically and establish their psychopathic tendencies. Is it nature or nurture? Probably a mixture, but not everyone who has experienced terrible life events becomes warped and revengeful. We don't know that much of her background as per previous posts, but her behavioral tendencies are well established and the only way to protect normal preZA society from her would be prison or an asylum.
What hold does Ink have over Skittles? I agree that the link must be Radon Labs. I don't think he was a test subject as it would be very difficult to test genetically modifying drugs on humans without going through the ethics committee and loads of legislation, unless it was being done secretly like Porton Down chemical test on healthy British Soldiers who were not told at all what they were being exposed to and many suffered terrible long term health consequences. I don't think he met Ink in prison. don't think Skittles was a scientist at Radon but knew what Ink was doing and therefore holds the secret to stopping him. His mind is clearly very muddled and CJ had to remind him of causing the invasion of Dunbar to ensure his help.

[Witch_Doctor]

From reading all of the other posts, I'm beginning suspect that I'm the only one who thought that Riley was going to go all Mata Hari on Tardust.

We all know that Burt and Riley are looking for Scratch. However, has anyone put much thought into the end game? What happens when they find her? Tell her off? Steal her panties and run them up a flag pole? Shove her into the mud? Roll up their sleeves, make a fist and say, "Why I outta!"?, Wedgies and titty twisters?

Perhaps something more brutal, such as locking her in a Colony prison, using her as zombie bait or killing her on the spot. Exactly what is everyone expecting to happen when she is caught?

Supposed they captured Scratch in bed with Tardust? She doesn't put up a fight. What would they do to her as a defenseless captive? It's a No-Brainer to kill her if she's currently threatening your life.

How does this relate to torturing Tardust? That depends on how you view killing vs torture. What would they do to Tardust, or any other Maller, if they found all of the Mallers together, around a campfire making smores? "OK guy's, she's dead now. Run along and stay out of trouble this time."

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

From reading all of the other posts, I'm beginning suspect that I'm the only one who thought that Riley was going to go all Mata Hari on Tardust.

"My name's Pussy Galore" - "I must be dreaming!"

WD, you have not been informed, have you? We will indeed get our musical episode in the end.

The Scratch story arc will be therefor be concluded by this song:

[Litmaster]

Hmm, I don't like that idea. Morality shouldn't take a backseat, when things go wrong. IT is what keep us more human then other. If you need to bend your morality to match the world then you are just slave of that world.

I wasn't saying that anyone would like this idea, I was just saying that's how it is. There is nothing like adversity to bring out people's true character. I feel that most of us live our lives with a higher sense of our own goodness than we actually live, so if a person is somewhat selfish, for example, then that selfishness is going to manifest much more plainly in the world of the Zompocalypse than in our current situation.

By the way, I don't see there being any clean line between 'my morality' and the world that I live in; each influences the other, to varying degrees, and changes over time. Slavery, for example, was seen as part of the natural order of things by a good number of people centuries ago, but is largely despised as an immoral practice by most today. The world is continually influencing our sense of morality, so in that sense you are already a 'slave' to this world...

[Witch_Doctor]

I'm digging this discussion y'all.

[Litmaster]

We all know that Burt and Riley are looking for Scratch. However, has anyone put much thought into the end game? What happens when they find her? Tell her off? Steal her panties and run them up a flag pole? Shove her into the mud? Roll up their sleeves, make a fist and say, "Why I outta!"?, Wedgies and titty twisters?

Now this is just me, but I'ma thinking that they'd be killin' 'er once they caught her. I agree with your sentiment--it's not as if waterboarding Tardust is the equivalent of wanton violence against an innocent civilian: this fucker DID attack the Tower with all the rest of the Mallers, and the truck bomb that he designed was instumental in bringing it down. He is as responsible as anyone for the death of Angel and all the other redshirts killed at the tower that day.

[Osiris]

As I have said before I do not trust Tardust one inch! He has survived so far only by mixing half truths with lies, he would not have survived in prison or with the Mallers afterwards. He has given Riley and Burt a 3 hour run around without any success in finding Scratch and Co., they have been very patient with him and are correct to suspect that he is hiding information, since info is power. I thought B & R should have threatened Tardust with using him as Zombiebait, that would loosen his tongue for sure! They could make him run behind their truck to work up a sweat and pull him in at the last moment, he would sing like a canary, haha, no physical torture, only psychological.
Scratch is a psychopath, having no feelings for others and acting solely in her own interests. One can test young children psychologically and establish their psychopathic tendencies. Is it nature or nurture? Probably a mixture, but not everyone who has experienced terrible life events becomes warped and revengeful. We don't know that much of her background as per previous posts, but her behavioral tendencies are well established and the only way to protect normal preZA society from her would be prison or an asylum.
What hold does Ink have over Skittles? I agree that the link must be Radon Labs. I don't think he was a test subject as it would be very difficult to test genetically modifying drugs on humans without going through the ethics committee and loads of legislation, unless it was being done secretly like Porton Down chemical test on healthy British Soldiers who were not told at all what they were being exposed to and many suffered terrible long term health consequences. I don't think he met Ink in prison. don't think Skittles was a scientist at Radon but knew what Ink was doing and therefore holds the secret to stopping him. His mind is clearly very muddled and CJ had to remind him of causing the invasion of Dunbar to ensure his help.

I believe this to be a wholly incorrect diagnosis. Scratch displays sociopathic tendencies, not psychopathic. The biggest factor being she understands the difference between right and wrong (rape, protecting unborn children, empathy for child-bearing women, etc), she simply chooses to ignore it and follow her own code and compass--which is indicative of the sociopath. She's far, far from a psychopath.

[7oddisdead]

Now this is just me, but I'ma thinking that they'd be killin' 'er once they caught her. I agree with your sentiment--it's not as if waterboarding Tardust is the equivalent of wanton violence against an innocent civilian: this fucker DID attack the Tower with all the rest of the Mallers, and the truck bomb that he designed was instumental in bringing it down. He is as responsible as anyone for the death of Angel and all the other redshirts killed at the tower that day.

while entirely true. Does the effects of the post-apocalyptic situation not also change how you should deal with prisoners of war?(and lets face it, that's what phillip is).

pre-z day, a soldier from an opposing force taken would be held accountable for the actions of his side. Even though, he was simply following orders. The insight we have as to tars involvement and his morale character are not things our "good guys" are really privy to. What you do not hear firsthand does not affect your judgment -or at least it shouldnt-

in the current scenario, what's more important? Revenge for fallen comrades, or increasing your own survival rate? From everything we have heard...thats exactly why they found Phillip to begin with. In a group of 100 mallers, his survival rate was 100:1. Now, with it being only four, and scratch still obsessed with her revenge....whats that make it? 3:1??? By those odds id strike out on my own as well. Still blows my mind that people don't believe him. We were given the small vignette with he and scratch for just this reason. No part of his character says "I'm loyal to the end boss! Count on me!"

but back on topic. Knowing what they do of him...does his insight help the group? That's a decidng factor for me...if you talk shit about me and I never hear it, it never happened..simple as that.

I should add....yes, they see scratch...shoot to kill. No talking, no questions. Her agenda is clear, its simply protecting others, possibly on both sides, from further death.