Conversely Dear Zachikova, the fish lady with the gore robe emerging from a pile of fleshy briney guts is NOT AT ALL SUS, she is NOT MIND CONTROLLING YOU and you should DEFINITELY FUCK HER lmao. I do like how blunt Zachikova's narration is about her attractions and lack thereof. She is extremely, deeply unconcerned about fucking the newly-formed fish lady. Took a lot of restraint not to fuck her on the floor of the hangar though, I never had Zachikova pegged for "too horny to live, will be subsumed by a sexy sea creature"... uncritical support though, lol. I like Arbitrator I and her aid in the ascent of the Brigand is extremely cool, the whole Omenseers thing fucks really hard.

During that same ascent, Yana finally gets over her hangups with EMOTIONAL SUPPORT CATGIRL AALIYAH, WHO GETS YOU THROUGH SUDDEN ASCENT! Everything from the point Ulyana realises that Arbitrator I is the dancer fish to the point where she calls for damage assessment is rad.

Meanwhile onboard the Antenora, I really did expect Norn to just beat the absolute living shit out of Gertrude, repeatedly, viciously. I woulda critically supported her, even! But the way she sees Emperor Konstantin in Gertrude, how she feels like a failure of a mentor, how she grants forgiveness to her, and the way she considers all of this as she stares at her own clenched fist while time is stopped? Again it's a stellar moment for her. Norn always seems like she's just rampaging around manipulating and murdering motherfuckers to take her bottomless anger out, but there's so much going on with her internally. Her complicated feelings about the Emperor, her shrouded mysterious past with the Sunlight Foundation, her bond with Adelheid. She is an absolutely fucking superb villian. If evil lady bad, why sympathetic and complex and fascinating??? I cannot fathom her motivations and I desperately want to know.

Out of the Loser Gang, Selene sees the most immediate change, having been schooled by some funny gay autist.

Selene was speechless. Not just at the doctor's manic behaviour, but at her own foolishness.

She had pumped a lot of psynadium during her confrontation with that girl-

Sonya Shalikova.

To think she had ti go this far to try to outmatch her and even so-

And as a result Sonya has a rival now, finally!! Selene deserves to feel like a pathetic untermensch or whatever the fuck, what a nerd lol. What credibility did she have?

But aside from ubermensch here getting dunked on, I learned a lot about her inner workings. When Selene asks questions about Who She Is, Why She Was Born, What She Is Meant For, I realise finally that she has fundamentally misunderstood the concept of purpose in life.

She asserts that natal humans are born with innate destinies, in families, states, ethnicities and such. She asserts that even Katarrans have a born purpose, but that she has nothing as a blank-slate person, and asks how to attain a destiny if not born with it. She is so myopically focused on PURPOSE that she cannot envision making her own. A character flaw of sorts. She desperately wants to be told her purpose, and knows not what she would do with herself if given freedom. Norn, who lives in spite of her grand stated purposes, strikes a fascinating contrast.

I'll be real, chat, Unjust Depths is really picking up. Its leads are gaining in complexity and the pacing is tighter than a guitar string. Already good and only keeps getting better.