You know, it makes a lot of sense that Caleb would be naturally suspicious of someone who has been through a lot and now wants to prevent anyone else falling victim to what she has suffered. It’s basically the opposite approach of what he does with his trauma and backstory. He is projecting, and Beau was perfectly justified in calling him out on that, if not very eloquent in doing so.

Also, it makes just as much sense that Beau would take offense to Caleb declaring himself the moral authority on this matter after she tried to get him to work against the system that abused him and broke him and he didn’t really seem to be into the idea. And due to what we know about the Cobalt Soul and Beau’s Secret Lesbian Fight Club, of course Beau would have an easier time to believe that people might actually be earnest in their intentions of working against organizations that harmed them etc.

Neither of them are wrong in this situation. Cali being on Caleb’s side doesn’t help with the actual issue that causes friction here, though, and that is indeed the fact that Caleb and Nott just do not communicate with the rest of the group, and then shove the others into situations they probably wouldn’t have agreed to be in.

They’re their own little sub-group in the group in a way the others just aren’t, and that breeds mistrust and leaves the others feeling like they’re constantly locked out of the loop. Technically they all came together as sub-groups, but Molly and Yasha split up and hang out with other people, Jester is open with everyone, and while Fjord and Beau usually hang back and snark about things, it’s not like they make their own secret plans or advertise the fact that they’d fuck the rest of the group over for the sake of one particular person. Caleb and Nott are just not very good as team players.

(And before we get into that again, Caleb is very good at casting buffs and helping the team in that way. They work well with the others in combat, until and unless they use secret commandos to do their own thing. Again. They’re good to work with in that regard, but the thing is, being team players in combat just helps their odds of survival as well as anyone else’s, and I really think that’s a different ball game entirely. Gameplay and Story Segregation, in a way.)

It’s not even that this particular instance was especially unreasonable of them, or anything. A lot more reasonable than stealing from the High Richter was, in any case. But when Caleb pulled out the bowl after the fact and told everyone, including the party he had called together to back him up against Cali potentially reacting poorly, to go along with a plan he had come up on his own without talking to anyone else about it first except for Nott. Which pulled out the rug from everyone else and forced them into a situation I don’t think any of them would have wanted to be in.

Just… Having a conversation before finding the bowl would have helped. Determining whether the group trusts Cali before assuming that no one did because Caleb himself didn’t would have helped. Just, determining a general group policy before counting on everyone else to back you up. That’s the poor communcation the others are upset about.

It’s just getting a bit annoying that this is the… Second drastic and fourth general occasion on which this has happened, and every single time Caleb could brush it off due to being, in a way, exonerated by circumstance. Stealing from the High Richter had no consequences because shit exploded afterwards anyhow. Originally keeping the loot to himself only got him a sexy wall-pinning moment with Molly because he came around afterwards. The entire situation with the Orb was resolved without a major fight because of Jester being who she is. And now Cali is on his side, and Caleb gets to tell himself that he has totally communicated his intentions with everyone, without addressing the fact that it miiiight have been a little late and also bad form.

I really hope they manage to address this sooner rather than later, in a way that Caleb understands and doesn’t get to talk and rationalize his way out of. Because this is getting tedious.

After 30 minutes of theorizing with @returnofismasm: Caleb and compadres were the first of many Black Widows the empire has raised in the 15-ish years since, and Trent and Ripley were lovers. Fight me.