Brian has a sister? I don't rememb... oh, Hi Aisa, forgot abo... what was i saying? yeah, as i said, Brian is a single child and i have no idea what you are talking about.What made lung a threat WAS March's annihilator effect. She blew away Joe's armor. She blew dust and tetra into his entire body.
Next update is an interlude, but if it's PHO I wouldn't mind them reacting to the PRTs statement saying March is dead. If it's a hero I wouldn't having them find her corpse either.
TBH she's not likely dead. I doubt she'd die with such little spectacle.
And joe not freaking out or reacting in any way to killing her implies that he doesn't think she's dead at the very least.
She's certainly seriously maimed though, so get ready for Coil + March
Taylor was in the middle of something, so danny is likely fine. Brian could be confused as to where his sister ran off to though. Lisa would be having a headache as she tried to process everything.
That would be pretty anticlimactic tbh.
Same, but I wonder what coil could manage to do, besides defend his territory.
I will say people are rightfully upset that Joe was not well prepared, but there is certainly some whinging involved lol.
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
Awesome chapter Lord, great work. One of the best battles I've read.
Shards supercharging their hosts explains a lot of the competence we've seen from Joe's enemies on this fic, and I feel a bit silly for not considering it myself. Joe is like a walking, talking treasure trove of information that just keeps getting better. I wasn't really considering things like S9 to be a threat to Joe when they do get into town, but supercharged Jack might actually do some damage, since he's already so in tune with his shard. Or not, since the forge scales faster than almost anything. Can't wait for the reactions from the public and other capes!
Shards supercharging their hosts explains a lot of the competence we've seen from Joe's enemies on this fic, and I feel a bit silly for not considering it myself. Joe is like a walking, talking treasure trove of information that just keeps getting better. I wasn't really considering things like S9 to be a threat to Joe when they do get into town, but supercharged Jack might actually do some damage, since he's already so in tune with his shard. Or not, since the forge scales faster than almost anything. Can't wait for the reactions from the public and other capes!
The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
Good point, he likely wouldn't notice.
I just realized, this will make people think Joe was always a Case 53, and had a way to reverse himself back to human with his tinkertech, which is why he was able to help Weld. It all fits together too neatly and also perfectly explains the transformation.
"His tech just failed and he reverted back to his true form! Oh wow, how could we have missed it, it's so obvious!"
Another perfect addition to the growing pile of misunderstandings that is Joe's cape persona
... Is it just me that is ticked off by how Oni Lee was faster than Apeiron? Before the confrontation wherein Apeiron almost dies, there was a narrative comment that he had automatic, lethal, systems engaged if Oni Lee(or March) showed up; Why they didn't shoot Oni Lee before he had time to even twitch - even less teleport - I have no idea, a broke my SOB a little bit. The fact that Oni Lee kept having a faster reaction speed than Apeiron broke my SOB further.
Other than Oni Lee's SOB breaking competence, I really enjoyed the chapter. Thanks.
Other than Oni Lee's SOB breaking competence, I really enjoyed the chapter. Thanks.
- Location
- Barquisimeto
Most think, 'if there isn't a body then isn't dead' forgetting that is basically a killing blow in all manners possible and way more lethal than what most got before enter into a coma. Is a Superman going ballistic against a mundane human in terms of physique, there wasn't needed to do anymore she didn't matter anymore as he go high in bloodlust at the other bastard.
I think that is a cathartic ending, Joe ended caring about Lung dead because of his Katsujiken perk but completely forgetting about March who he made a donut and left agonizing on the floor. I will find that fun even if March is still alive because the important part that in the end, she didn't matter enough.
Last edited:
The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
Weld already believed this, so they'll assume he undid his c53 treatment on himself to boost himself in the fight, since he was at Death's Door, and the dinosaur form was super strong.I just realized, this will make people think Joe was always a Case 53, and had a way to reverse himself back to human with his tinkertech, which is why he was able to help Weld. It all fits together too neatly and also perfectly explains the transformation.
"His tech just failed and he reverted back to his true form! Oh wow, how could we have missed it, it's so obvious!"
Another perfect addition to the growing pile of misunderstandings that is Joe's cape persona
I got a shit eating grin for the next 20 minutes lol
I think this was the real big issue I had with this chapter. The Sechen Range explanation was stretched a little bit over all, and quite a bit with Lee's speed.
Last edited:
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
Thesis: Brockton's Celestial Forge is a perfectly paced story with no structural flaws, poor writing decisions, or degenerate outcomes
Antithesis: The narrative's dedication to giving Joe "worthy opponents" slows story progression and makes his power growth feel meaningless
Synthesis: Brockton's Celestial Forge is a shonen anime popcorn fic, and that's very cool and sexy, actually,
Antithesis: The narrative's dedication to giving Joe "worthy opponents" slows story progression and makes his power growth feel meaningless
Synthesis: Brockton's Celestial Forge is a shonen anime popcorn fic, and that's very cool and sexy, actually,
- Location
- usa
I don't think Oni Lee and Marche are dead. Uber and Leet are allies with them and they have healing tech that could be carried around and Leet has a cult-like crush on Marche, so may have given Marche something. There's also Bakuda who has healing grenades that could get them up and running long enough for them to kidnap a healer, so Othala or Panacea may become targets. Given how annoyed Bakuda is at Marche at times, it's also possible that Marche will be waking up with a couple dozen explosives inside her.
I'm pretty sure Cauldron would be aware of the Flechette cluster trigger which would put Marche on their radar. Her power's demonstration against Aperion last chapter would probably further this interest. I could see her surviving.
As frustrating as her likely survival is, I mean, Aperion could have just had one of his drones finish her when he was fighting Lung, I don't think it's really in his character to do so. Yes, he thought about it, but thinking and actually being able to do it are very different things. Because it's a story, it's easy to be an armchair psychopath about things, but I don't think I could execute an injuried, helpless enemy, and I wouldn't expect Apeiron do it either. He's not Skitter.
Personally, I hope Marche joins the Wards or leaves Brockton. Preferably the former, because it would create more problems that Apeiron couldn't just brute force through. Her confronting him again on the streets would be so boring. She lost. She's outclassed. Stop wasting his time.
As frustrating as her likely survival is, I mean, Aperion could have just had one of his drones finish her when he was fighting Lung, I don't think it's really in his character to do so. Yes, he thought about it, but thinking and actually being able to do it are very different things. Because it's a story, it's easy to be an armchair psychopath about things, but I don't think I could execute an injuried, helpless enemy, and I wouldn't expect Apeiron do it either. He's not Skitter.
Personally, I hope Marche joins the Wards or leaves Brockton. Preferably the former, because it would create more problems that Apeiron couldn't just brute force through. Her confronting him again on the streets would be so boring. She lost. She's outclassed. Stop wasting his time.
Last edited:
The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
You have to consider the timeframe. March did all her shit live, and even if she told bakuda to come at X point to heal them all, she would be late, because she expected nothing of what Joe did this chapter after she stung him.
Lee can survive, but you have to consider the mental damage he is now dealing with, and you need to consider the maelstrom of dust March was left in, and the blow she was dealt.
She likely bled out to death while Dragon & Joe Holdo'ed lung, or is at deaths door.
U&L are nowhere near the city, they are on the road, so likely completely clueless.
THere is no time for march to be saved, so I say she is likely dead.
gunghoun
The Hero of Man (v2.0)
- Location
- America
I posted a criticism on FFN (where I started reading this) after the multi-chapter fight against Uber and Leet, about how this story had used up its trick of multiple power ups and comebacks in a single conflict against the worst possible choice of villains, making further ones meaningless and unengaging. Then I saw the length of this chapter, which is still covering the same conflict that started ages ago and I wasn't even hyped about it. Before word one, I already knew Joe was going to make no progress, people who were way below his league would keep outmatching him, and nothing of note would be accomplished.
I tried reading the chapter, I really did, but I quickly found myself just scrolling through page after page without a glance, then skimming a sentence or two and realizing no progress had been made and kept scrolling. Even the stuff I ended up missing was quickly confirmed by reading the reactions to the chapter.
It took over 40k words for Joe to beat nobody except for the most frequently chumped character in the fandom. The thousands of words slammed into otherwise interesting chapters for Joe to muse/wonder/angst about the implications of new powers, which have always been the weak point of the story (and side note, I used to think the story would benefit by having the words dedicated to Perk musing and Tinkering to not count towards the Forge), have now also been rendered completely pointless because they didn't pay off.
I find myself thinking of this chapter in terms of just dumb memes thrown at it to avoid processing the disappointment. Like personifying the Celestial Forge shard as a chuuni: "I will grow to be the most powerful Shard in existence! My host has become a demigod and has been trained at the forge by the Fey! All will fall before my might!" Other shards: "Cool story bro. With as much direct help as you give him, your host is still on par with fuckin' Leet." Or describing the fights as an endless series of *teleports behind you* "nothing personnel, kid" *teleports behind your teleport* "no u."
I just really hope this story can now go back to its strength, which is character interactions, rather than more focus on meaningless bigatons.
I tried reading the chapter, I really did, but I quickly found myself just scrolling through page after page without a glance, then skimming a sentence or two and realizing no progress had been made and kept scrolling. Even the stuff I ended up missing was quickly confirmed by reading the reactions to the chapter.
It took over 40k words for Joe to beat nobody except for the most frequently chumped character in the fandom. The thousands of words slammed into otherwise interesting chapters for Joe to muse/wonder/angst about the implications of new powers, which have always been the weak point of the story (and side note, I used to think the story would benefit by having the words dedicated to Perk musing and Tinkering to not count towards the Forge), have now also been rendered completely pointless because they didn't pay off.
I find myself thinking of this chapter in terms of just dumb memes thrown at it to avoid processing the disappointment. Like personifying the Celestial Forge shard as a chuuni: "I will grow to be the most powerful Shard in existence! My host has become a demigod and has been trained at the forge by the Fey! All will fall before my might!" Other shards: "Cool story bro. With as much direct help as you give him, your host is still on par with fuckin' Leet." Or describing the fights as an endless series of *teleports behind you* "nothing personnel, kid" *teleports behind your teleport* "no u."
I just really hope this story can now go back to its strength, which is character interactions, rather than more focus on meaningless bigatons.
What are you talking about? The Forge has scaled faster than precisely nothing.
Just a heads up, you suspend your disbelief. SOD. SOB is "son of a bitch."
She has just revealed herself to the world as the architect behind the ABB's hostage-slave recruitment drive which left a huge chunk of the northeast powerless after a massive terrorist attack. "Joins the Wards" would be an insanely stupid plot progression replacement for "guaranteed Birdcage sentence."
You. Ishtar not even finish it in time if you are going things other tan reading or you read slow.
Was she outed? No. Then she doesn't have to be recruited as Marche. Cauldron wants valuable capes alive. That mindset is canon.
The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
Joe can make decisions such as killing March due to the military memories from Mass Effect. Then again there is Katsujinken, but the likely killing blow was before he got that.
My hope is that with Lung gone, the rest will realize she is coocoo, besides Leet maybe, and March, now all alone, essentially tries to Kamikaze herself and Flechette, so they can live eternally in shardspace or whatever.
That would be harder for Joe to deal with, and his passenger knows how important Flechette is.
If cauldron wanted March, they would grab her and heal her, then convince her to help them if they could, not stick her in the wards.
This might alert them to the power of Sting before behemoth though, and since Flechette is gonna be here for Levi, they'll also see Sting's power then.
Last edited:
Oni Lee was staying hidden, and only his clones were breaking cover to attack. So, he didn't "show up" in a targetable manner for most of the fight.
An interesting question that's neither asked nor answered in Worm is can Oni Lee's clones teleport? Normally they just stay behind to attack or distract, but the ability to make even a single "jump" would allow him to queue up a half-dozen copies by "stuttering" forward in a series of rapid, short-distance 'ports, who then all simultaneously teleport into position around Apeiron, without putting the real Oni Lee at risk (other than needing to get rid of the board). It would also give the illusion of him having a higher Teleport-Per-Second rate, especially if it was being managed with careful timing.
AntaeusTheGiant
Child of Gaea
- Location
- Lawrence, KS
This just occurred to me... Aisha used her power on Apeiron. For long enouph to get him into the workshop. Did people forget he existed during this time? How did/will they explain that?
- Location
- Philippines
"IT'S A MASTER POWER, AS EXPECTED OF APEIRON, PANIIIIIIIC"
The Shallow
Shallow, Yet Deep
- Location
- Your Universe
- Pronouns
- She/They
Also with Beria & Ren, recordings of him will get corrupted, even if not that fast.
It will be a nightmare, and they'll probably conclude it's a stranger power, rather than any tech effect.
Of course, if Lethe was spotted, they will guess it's probably her power, since Apeiron doesn't have any powers not tech related as far as they can tell. Piggot Blinked works surprisingly good for this lol.
Subrosian_Smithy
endless
- Location
- Washington
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Hers
Man, all I can say past a certain point is that if you don't like the power scaling of BCF, you definitely wouldn't like my CF xianxia, lol
- Location
- Germany
Except that's not how his power works. Canonically, Oni Lee is a line-of-sight teleporter who, upon teleportation, leaves behind a shortlived cline of himself. Also, in canon his clones cannot teleport, otherwise his threat level would've been far greater in canon.
Meaning, that everytime a clone appears, Oni Lee just teleported away from that spot. And Joe has automated point-defense systems capable of intercepting missiles, meaning that it should be faster that Oni Lee's reaction speed.
In other words, Oni lee shouldn't be able to teleport fat enough to dodge Apeiron's attacks, unless he somehow developed a new thinker power allowing him to react faster than AI-controlled laser-turrets.
Khepri14
Thus kindly I scatter...
- Location
- Following the wind
As a long time lurker of this fic, I gotta say that Joe's tech improvements (and the constant geekery about how each one is revelatory) are basically sound and fury, signifying nothing. I kinda feel like you only had Lung killed off in a much-belated attempt to prove there's some actual improvement/bite behind Joe's tech and/or Joe himself (since we've gotten tons of words about how each new thing from the Forge builds upon the next and the like) since it's apparently achieved nothing to the people that are the actual problem(s) and are decidedly sub-superhuman/within human norms (In other words, less strong, slower, and aren't as boosted as Joe) and aren't of morphic anatomy and strength (Lung).
And I feel that the only reason you even killed off Lung is that you haven't put a lot of words towards Lung/Lung hasn't done much to affect the story unlike March/Oni Lee/Bakuda, so you felt comfortable in giving him the boot because of it. So it really fails to show that Joe's tech and/or Joe himself have actually made any improvements that have an actual bite because it either fails spectacularly against the true (and massively boosted) villains of the story* or anything Joe does against the villains is just somehow perfectly scaled to not really do much - if any - damage to them (Damage to the surroundings or their tech/minions is apparently fair game.) for all the hyped-up improvements about the tech.
The ABB "threat" has long since overstayed its welcome. If March isn't dead or dead soon, it makes me wonder if Lord is dragging it all out because there's nowhere to go after how much he's ramped up March/Bakuda/Oni Lee. Anything after will have to somehow be able to stand on whatever level Joe will be after this, at minimum. That is basically impossible for every character in Worm, even as things stand (and they only stand this way because Lord gave the villains plot armor that's almost on the level of a Mary Sue. I'm not sure if they qualify for the Villain Sue trope yet) because no hero/villain character in Worm is at this kind of level in canon. Sure, supposedly Leet's supposed to get his Game Grid thing going**, but if we're supposed to think that's going to do anything to Joe after everything with the ABB and all the power he's accumulated, then either that's a laugh*** or it's another point towards all of Joe's shit being hyped up uselessness.
Honestly, the best moments of this fic have been pretty much all Garment, Aisha, and/or Joe talking to someone like the guys from the gym (Seriously, even the therapist was good). The Forge geekery is nice at times and boring in others. But the fight scenes are honestly the worst bits of this fic simply because there's so much bullshit that Apeiron can do, whether lethal or non-lethal, that's miraculously negated within the fight scene(s) themselves for various reasons that it makes everything from the Forge feel worthless. Or, well, not worthless exactly but it makes it feel more like it's barely pulling Joe up to the level of other parahumans when everything about the Forge says it should be allowing him to surpass them. Which he kinda really isn't.
*But somehow works perfectly for anything that's not a fight or on the normals/anyone who is a tertiary character/threat in a fight.
**If that is supposed to be the next arc.
***If we're supposed to believe anyone in Worm outside maybe the Endbringers/Zion will be able to affect Joe after all this crap.
And I feel that the only reason you even killed off Lung is that you haven't put a lot of words towards Lung/Lung hasn't done much to affect the story unlike March/Oni Lee/Bakuda, so you felt comfortable in giving him the boot because of it. So it really fails to show that Joe's tech and/or Joe himself have actually made any improvements that have an actual bite because it either fails spectacularly against the true (and massively boosted) villains of the story* or anything Joe does against the villains is just somehow perfectly scaled to not really do much - if any - damage to them (Damage to the surroundings or their tech/minions is apparently fair game.) for all the hyped-up improvements about the tech.
The ABB "threat" has long since overstayed its welcome. If March isn't dead or dead soon, it makes me wonder if Lord is dragging it all out because there's nowhere to go after how much he's ramped up March/Bakuda/Oni Lee. Anything after will have to somehow be able to stand on whatever level Joe will be after this, at minimum. That is basically impossible for every character in Worm, even as things stand (and they only stand this way because Lord gave the villains plot armor that's almost on the level of a Mary Sue. I'm not sure if they qualify for the Villain Sue trope yet) because no hero/villain character in Worm is at this kind of level in canon. Sure, supposedly Leet's supposed to get his Game Grid thing going**, but if we're supposed to think that's going to do anything to Joe after everything with the ABB and all the power he's accumulated, then either that's a laugh*** or it's another point towards all of Joe's shit being hyped up uselessness.
Honestly, the best moments of this fic have been pretty much all Garment, Aisha, and/or Joe talking to someone like the guys from the gym (Seriously, even the therapist was good). The Forge geekery is nice at times and boring in others. But the fight scenes are honestly the worst bits of this fic simply because there's so much bullshit that Apeiron can do, whether lethal or non-lethal, that's miraculously negated within the fight scene(s) themselves for various reasons that it makes everything from the Forge feel worthless. Or, well, not worthless exactly but it makes it feel more like it's barely pulling Joe up to the level of other parahumans when everything about the Forge says it should be allowing him to surpass them. Which he kinda really isn't.
*But somehow works perfectly for anything that's not a fight or on the normals/anyone who is a tertiary character/threat in a fight.
**If that is supposed to be the next arc.
***If we're supposed to believe anyone in Worm outside maybe the Endbringers/Zion will be able to affect Joe after all this crap.
I think with Aisha's powers people will not remember that they forgot Apeiron. That sentence will make sense if you look long enough on it.
Also she said this:
So maybe her powers weaker when covering others.