2023 June 27
While the first Null Paradox book and first two music albums focused on the relationship and adventures of Gertrude & Grace, the second book tells the tale of Victoria & Seth and their tumultuous relationship.
It also brings to light more of how The Bully plays into the overall story. He seemingly has a role in everyone’s life–the psychological torturer of Gertrude, a business partner of Seth’s, and a strange relationship with Annabelle.
Null Paradox | The Bully
The Bully is a complex character who operates under the guise of pretense and deception.
Seth has ordered him to embark on a quest to find Victoria, Seth’s love, who has ghosted him.
But he also has a personal agenda with Victoria, so he tolerates Seth’s order because he believes that she has a crucial understanding of why Seth is waging what The Bully considers to be a misguided war.
Utilizing his expertise in psychological torture, honed through years of trial and error, The Bully sees it as a means to extract crucial information efficiently.
But after encountering Annabelle, another of Seth’s employees, he recognizes that she also has ulterior motives for staying within Seth’s sphere of influence. More concerning, she has unintentionally reignited the ethical implications of his methods–a dilemma within himself that he thought he had successfully set aside a long time ago.
Here’s the tricky part | Zero, One, and Two
The Gertrude, Grace, Victoria, and Seth that you read about are technically the primary ones. I’ve appended the suffix One to their names to reduce the confusion. For example, the universe in which Gertrude & Grace is set is the primary universe which includes the character of Victoria One. The adjacent universe has a Victoria Two. And so on, for all of them.
But the version of The Bully you read about in Gertrude & Grace features The Bully Two. In other words, The Bully Two interacts with Victoria One, and The Bully Three interacts with Victoria Two.
There’s a Disconnect
Seth Two is aware of Seth One and, to some extent, vice versa; he’s ahead of most people in this respect.
But while The Bully Two understands significantly more about the multiverse than just about anyone, he’s unable to locate The Bully One. This disconnect is one of his primary motivations for many of his actions because he suspects his inability to find The Bully One and communicate with him has been brought about intentionally.
A Problem
Annabelle couldn’t have picked a worse time to dredge up The Bully’s age-old question about the moral complexities of his actions and his forgotten need to reconcile the means and the ends.
The Bully needs to extract crucial information efficiently, especially now with Seth’s ongoing war becoming more heated. Instead, he feels the slightest bit of self-doubt for the first time in ages.
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