“Formidable” is the first story in Gleanings. It was written by Neal Shusterman.
Plot[]
After Scythe Curie is ordained, she is having trouble seeing herself as anything other than Susan. When she goes to conclave, she talks to Scythe Vonnegut. She learns about the problems with politicians. The Scythes debate whether or not it is a MidMerican or EastMerican problem, being that Washington is an EastMerican city. Scythe Curie offers her opinion, which is that it is MidMerica's problem because the politicians are claiming authority over them. It caused her to get noticed.
After conclave, she went back to her house, which was not yet Fallingwater. She gleaned two joggers who were gossiping, but immediately regrets it. Curie watched the news while taking a bath and learned that President Hinton wanted to destroy Thunderhead cerebral nodes. She knew the Thunderhead could stop it, but she decided to glean him anyway. When she did go to Washington, she made her way past the guards and found President Hinton and his cabinet in a bunker. She talked to him before gleaning all of them. Curie announced what she had done afterward, sparking a trend of Scythes gleaning mortal age leaders. After going to winter conclave, she gained the nickname Little Miss Murder and cemented her place in post-mortal history.
Characters[]
Appeared[]
- Scythe Curie
- Scythe Faraday
- Young man from the crowd who could drive a nonautonomous off-grid stick shift car.
- Scythe Vonnegut
- Scythe Douglass
- High Blade Ginsburg
- Scythe Streisand
- Sierra
- Debora
- President Hinton
- Members of the president's cabinet
Mentioned[]
- Scythe Curie's Tonist parents
- Taylor Vega
- Toosdai Riggle
- 3 Scythe Armstrongs