happy midnight everyone I am unwell about qcellbit here’s the essay
I’d argue one of qcellbit’s most defining character traits is his inability to stay passive in a situation. The first thing he did on the island was try to solve the mystery of why they were there so they could escape, and then that shifted to investigating and fighting the federation when it became clear they were a threat to him and his family. A problem comes up, and he takes it upon himself to find a solution.
And that trait has consequences. If he knows a problem exists, he can’t just leave it alone. A lot of the time, he isn’t addressing problems to solve an end game moral goal, or really any goal at all. The idea of a puzzle existing is enough of a reason to try and solve it. It’s just how he operates. He needs to know, and understand, at any cost. Which has fucked him over, time and time again. He’s played directly into the hands of his enemies because he can’t just leave an unsolved mystery alone.
Looking back, I don’t think ambitious is the right word, but he’s been very consistently motivated. Goal oriented. He’s ended up in leadership positions many times, because he doesn’t wait for other people to address problems. He doesn’t rely on others much at all. He’s consistently put himself in tough positions that he wouldn’t put anyone else into, taken risks with his own life and safety so other people won’t. It’s like a very simple flowchart: if I don’t do it, no one will. And if they do, they shouldn’t have had to. It doesn’t even cross his mind that he shouldn’t have to either, because the mission always comes before his personal wellbeing. His life is very low on his list of priorities. He doesn’t think he’s worth much, he doesn’t think people really care about him.
I don’t think that particular mess of insecurity started when he remembered his past, but it definitely didn’t help. His past actions served as more motivation to justify self sacrificial tendencies that already existed. Maybe people care about him now, but if they knew what he was really like, they wouldn’t stay. And he wouldn’t expect them to. More reason for him to be the one to put himself in danger, because he believes it wouldn’t be a loss. It might even be a good thing. Interestingly enough, the concept of simply not putting himself in these situations never even enters the equation. He’s completely convinced that someone has to act. Inaction is not an option.
We’ve seen it most in situations where inaction is demanded of him, first, during the abueloier situation when he tried figuring out necromancy during the period when roier asked for time. And then, most recently when the eggs were missing, and he began killing federation workers. Morality didn’t matter because he already considered himself permanently a monster for his past actions, so returning to violence wouldn’t stain him further. With no answers and no path forward, he took it on himself to make one, because the other option was continue to do nothing; which again, is simply not an option to him.
So what happens when such an active character is confronted with a situation where he personally can do nothing? Where his very inability to act is thrown back in his face? Well, his first instinct is always to try and find a way to act anyway, like in the examples above. The next step is absolute and utter despair. qcellbit isn’t in the business of giving up, almost by definition. It’s almost physically impossible for him. This is a character that’s built his entire sense of self around how useful he is to the cause he is working towards. You put him in a situation where he is truly useless, and he falls apart. Which brings us to where we are now.
It’s been a long road to get here. There have been a lot of small defeats that have led to the despair that seems to passively leak out from qcellbit. The employee of the month spectacle was absolutely devastating to his psyche. And then he got up and immediately started trying to trick the feds again, because he couldn’t just do nothing. He never really got over it, though, he just moved on, because how he feels has never been a priority. The eggs disappear, it’s the same story. He tries, and he tries some more, and none of it works. He learns he has a sister and they lived on the island, making him question if there was ever a point in fighting to leave. He gets the smallest victory over the feds during the mini me event and feels nothing. Because it’s been so drilled in that nothing he do will change anything or have any effect. There’s nothing he can do. And if there’s nothing he can do, then what’s the point of any of it? He has to become the person that can do something, at any cost. It’s the only use he feels he has. Purgatory happens, it’s out of his control and he can do nothing, so he becomes what his team needs. He has to do SOMETHING useful. And at the end of it all, he watches his egg presumably die anyway. So what’s the point of him? qcellbit with no goals, no objective, is exactly what we saw coming out of purgatory and in the tenuously canon purgatory 2 scenes. He doesn’t know how to live for himself.
And now we’re back to quesadilla island. And his egg is back and roier is (as far as he knows) back. And he’s empty. He sees cucurucho and he feels nothing. He has nothing to fight for, nothing to investigate, he’s convinced everyone he loves, everyone who is his literal reason for living was genuinely better off without him. Maybe purgatory was him at his lowest, but we’re still basically there. This is not a character that’s doing better. This is a guy who’s plateaued just above rock bottom and needs to rebuild his sense of self from the ground up.
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