Let's read Worm and its sequel Ward by Wildbow (One chapter/every day)

Vayhle · Feb 13, 2019

That seems like BS to me, I followed others that did the same. If that is a new rule, why is it enforced now when it was fine for you from the beginning. I love re-reading while I watch your comments, this is a really bad change.

Vayhle · Feb 13, 2019

EmpressSquishette said:
[information=Official Staff Communication]I'm going to have to ask you to stop quoting so much. Quotes should be used for emphasis or reference, and should not incorporate large chunks of the original text.[/information]

This kind-of ruins the entire live-blog live-read, why is this changed now (others have done this in the past) and why is it being enforced for this read through all of the sudden? It's excellent following and rereading along with blackarrow, please don't make them stop/leave to actually do a live-blog.

LordYam · Feb 14, 2019

That is a little wierd. We've had liveblogs for a long time (hell bobtheninja and Doctor mod both did worm ones) so that this is happening now is confusing. Is there something we're missing

blackarrow · Feb 14, 2019

I received a response from the Staff and it looks like there's a new rule about not posting entire texts from the work of a still living author. So...I'm gonna respect this rule and I'll just quote few paragraphs (I'll choose careful which one) to highlight my immediate reactions or opinions about characters/actions. But a thing is certain. I'll still try my best to keep this liveblog as interesting and attractive as possible because I like it, I like what I'm doing, I adore this story and...maybe I'm not so badass as I pretend in my liveblog to be, maybe I'll endlessly piss myself if I'll ever accidentally travel in a parallel Earth full with dangers, maybe I'll survive to a zombie apocalypse only for a couple of hours (if I'm "lucky" enough), maybe I don't have enough cold blood to kill bad guys in reality (even if I'd like to dream of doing it and there will be zero repercussions/punishments for me), maybe I'm not such a great warrior and vigilante at heart but I know one thing with certain: that I'll NEVER EVER abandon people I love/I like/I feel good in their company/I feel like they're MY people. And...you're MY people, of course I don't even dream of abandoning you. I like you, I feel good in your company, I like this little fandom in general, and no freaking way I'm gonna stop this liveblog only because of a couple of rules. I'm innovative and I have pretty good ideas, I can do a good work with this liveblog while respecting the rules at the same time. As long as I have my people here with me and I like what I'm doing, nothing can bring me down. I'm Simurgh levels of unstoppable.
"hugs everyone" You get a hug, you get a hug, everyone get a hug from me.

Vayhle · Feb 15, 2019

blackarrow said:
I received a response from the Staff and it looks like there's a new rule about not posting entire texts from the work of a still living author. So...I'm gonna respect this rule and I'll just quote few paragraphs (I'll choose careful which one) to highlight my immediate reactions or opinions about characters/actions. But a thing is certain. I'll still try my best to keep this liveblog as interesting and attractive as possible because I like it, I like what I'm doing, I adore this story and...maybe I'm not so badass as I pretend in my liveblog to be, maybe I'll endlessly piss myself if I'll ever accidentally travel in a parallel Earth full with dangers, maybe I'll survive to a zombie apocalypse only for a couple of hours (if I'm "lucky" enough), maybe I don't have enough cold blood to kill bad guys in reality (even if I'd like to dream of doing it and there will be zero repercussions/punishments for me), maybe I'm not such a great warrior and vigilante at heart but I know one thing with certain: that I'll NEVER EVER abandon people I love/I like/I feel good in their company/I feel like they're MY people. And...you're MY people, of course I don't even dream of abandoning you. I like you, I feel good in your company, I like this little fandom in general, and no freaking way I'm gonna stop this liveblog only because of a couple of rules. I'm innovative and I have pretty good ideas, I can do a good work with this liveblog while respecting the rules at the same time. As long as I have my people here with me and I like what I'm doing, nothing can bring me down. I'm Simurgh levels of unstoppable.
"hugs everyone" You get a hug, you get a hug, everyone get a hug from me.

Is one thought to move to another site, one that is friendly to blogs / livereads? The concept of not allowing quoting is such nonsense, who knows what rules will get added as you go, and no matter what it spoils some of the fun. If moving somewhere that doesn't detract from the fun is possible i'd suggest it.

Scia · Feb 15, 2019

Vayhle said:
Is one thought to move to another site, one that is friendly to blogs / livereads? The concept of not allowing quoting is such nonsense, who knows what rules will get added as you go, and no matter what it spoils some of the fun. If moving somewhere that doesn't detract from the fun is possible i'd suggest it.

The rule is not "never quote anything" its about reproducing the whole of a work that is currently still under copyright. The HPL threads for example do not fall under that because the majority of his work is no longer under copyright.

Vayhle · Feb 15, 2019

Scia said:
The rule is not "never quote anything" its about reproducing the whole of a work that is currently still under copyright. The HPL threads for example do not fall under that because the majority of his work is no longer under copyright.

Have you removed previous blogs and threads that did this (guessing not)? And what lead to deciding to wait for this to be 21 arcs in to the story before dropping this rule on the blogger?

tumblr, wordpress, google docs are great options I've seen used for a more friendly experience, for blogging a live-read.

Scia · Feb 16, 2019

Vayhle said:
Have you removed previous blogs and threads that did this (guessing not)? And what lead to deciding to wait for this to be 21 arcs in to the story before dropping this rule on the blogger?

tumblr, wordpress, google docs are great options I've seen used for a more friendly experience, for blogging a live-read.

Well the main thread that did so on SV are Using HPL , as noted out of copyright, talking about Videos and them transcribing what they see instead of reproducing the content that they comment on.
A lets watch for example would then be a problem if they also posted links to the Episodes for example , in case of Jojo for example, or went to upload the file somewhere instead of using the offical avaible ones, in case of RWBY

Vayhle · Feb 16, 2019

Scia said:
Well the main thread that did so on SV are Using HPL , as noted out of copyright, talking about Videos and them transcribing what they see instead of reproducing the content that they comment on.
A lets watch for example would then be a problem if they also posted links to the Episodes for example , in case of Jojo for example, or went to upload the file somewhere instead of using the offical avaible ones, in case of RWBY

What about this thread? Let's Read Worm (Finished)
Looks like exactly the sort of concern you are expressing. Inspirational even. I still suggest moving this live-read to anywhere else except for here, not allowing quotes as they go makes this one heck of alot less fun to follow along.

blackarrow · Feb 16, 2019

Ok, my dear readers, with all these new rules, I figured out a way to continue this liveblog here (I can't abandon my people as I said ~~also I have no idea how to start a liveblog somewhere else "goes crying in a corner of shame"~~) but in a different format. You'll see and probably be pleasant surprised (or less pleasant surprised) by my idea. I'll liveblog the new Chapter tomorrow or monday. Until then, I want to try something rather silly ~~like a stupid waste of my time and your time~~. I don't know how many of you know about Homestuck/read it and are good with class-aspects but I'd like to try to put each important character in a class-aspect god tier. Doesn't matter if a certain class is exclusive male or female, all that matters is how much they're fitting it. If you have different suggestions/opinions or you know better than me then I welcome you to contradict me and express your own opinions. Please.
Alright, here we go:
Undersiders:
Skitter- PAGE OF MIND (at the beginning of the story she was pretty naive and lacking strategy when she tried to took Lung down by herself. Now she's not only one of the BEST strategists but she also equips her allies with enough intelligence to defeat their enemies. She started as a weak soldier only to evolve into a respectable general).
Tattletale- HEIR OF LIGHT (she's the knowledge personified. She reveals information left and right without being able to stop. She isn't very lucky, but she's almost like a beam of knowledge).
Grue- KNIGHT OF VOID (uses the nonexistence/shadows/darkness as a weapon to protect himself/his allies).
Imp- HEIR OF VOID (becomes the nonexistence itself. Since she can make people forget that she exists, she's basically the void/nothingness personified).
Bitch- MAID OF RAGE (she uses rage/negative emotions to create motivation and cooperation for her team- she let them use her dogs when they need, she's angry but always helpful when they need her help and she pisses others off but in a good sense of word- she made Skitter stronger and more fearless by constantly pissing her off/attacking her).
Regent- THIEF OF MIND or HEART (I don't know, he doesn't control mind or emotions, only bodies so I'm not sure how stealing people's intelligence or emotions/self and use it for himself fits him. Well, he can steal people's self/mind in a way, making them unable to have a control over their own body and decisions).

Heroes:
Vista -WITCH OF SPACE (the space is putty in her expert hands as she manipulates it how she wants, with only the Manton limitation).
Clockblocker- KNIGHT OF TIME (uses time as a weapon to protect himself/his allies).
Basically Vista and Clockblocker are Worm-verse Jade and Dave.
Panacea- WITCH OF LIFE (she can manipulate life with very little limits)
Dragon- PAGE OF HEART (started as an apparently emotionless AI, becomes more human than a lot of real humans. Uses her emotions/self to humanize Defiant)

Fuckers:
Jack Slash- PRINCE OF LIFE (is the destroyer of life and uses life for destruction- the whole cloning process)
Bonesaw -WITCH OF LIFE (manipulates life just like Panacea, with even less limits)
Heartbreaker- PRINCE OF HEART (destroys people's emotions/self, uses emotions to destroy people)
Nilbog -LORD OF LIFE (supremely dominates the life he creates in his "garden"city)
Coil was a LORD OF TIME (supremely dominated the timelines he created)

Miscellaneous:
Dinah- SEER OF DOOM (sees doom and death everytime when she uses her power).

This is all I can think for now. Any different opinion, suggestion, other characters?

ImperatorV · Feb 16, 2019

...Honestly, you're on point with a lot of those. Some alternative suggestions:

I'd definitely peg Taylor with a different class for reasons that include some spoilers, so I won't go into that.

Tattletale: Rogue of Light. She's very good at acquiring knowledge, often knowledge she's not supposed to have (hence stealing), and I think she does her best work when working for the benefit of others.

Jack Slash: Prince of Hope. His whole thing is destroying hope, corrupting people, and generally making the world a worse place to live.

Bonesaw: I'd put her as a Mage of Life just to avoid overlap with Panacea personally.

...This reminds me, I was thinking about writing a Worm/Homestuck crossover once (I've actually had several different ideas for such, one a quest and two fanfics). Never got around to it, as is typical for my writing projects.

blackarrow · Feb 19, 2019

Hello, my people. Welcome back to another wacky adventure in your favorite world of parahumans, alien parasites, monsters and mad people. Last time, Skitter took something from the leader of Fallen, namely...his eyes, so he can't control more people in the future to do his biding. And who knows...maybe he's now incapable to brainwash the other Fallen (if my theory that most of Fallen are under his control is right) and people will realize how much evil this guru did to them and will leave his cult. But I still have one regret...she only took his eyes, not his dick as well

. Shame on you, Skitter, you don't live up to your name lately. What kind of Destroyer of Dicks you''re if you let an incestuous asshole to escape only with his eyes being eaten by maggots and not with the other weapon of crime destroyed as well? Hmm, shame on you. I don't want to talk about Imp and Regent anymore because...its too disturbing to even think about. All I can say: bitches being crazy. Citrine is crazy after a violent and controlling man, Imp is crazy after another violent and controlling man. At least I'm happy that there's at least male counterpart: Valefor being crazy after the love of his life, the bad girl Simurgh (I can imagine a fanart with him getting married with her and he's the one wearing the wedding dress

). Too bad that Simurgh have a weakness for Tinkers and Valefor is not one of them. You poor asshole, nothing works like you want

.
Ok, time to see Skitter and her Merry Gang taking down Butcher as well. They can't kill her because her killer will be possessed by all her Passenger-personalities, so they have to do something to make her KILL HERSELF, but without directly controlling her. This should be the only solution to defeat Butcher. She's a maniac with a huge possibility to be also a cannibal (who knows how many people she killer for her dinner?) so only death should stop her from bringing more misery and suffering. I want to see ~~my sexy bad boy~~ Accord getting personally involved in this fight because he can find a solution for Butcher's demise. Plus, more on-screen Accord

Imago 21.4

I was in plainclothes, and they were clothes I wouldn't normally have worn, which was sort of the point. The idea was to be hidden in plain sight, as I walked in the midst of the crowds downtown. I'd removed my glasses and regretfully donned contact lenses, slathered on sunscreen and donned a white summer dress and sandals, along with a big, wide-brimmed sun hat that was incongruous enough to mark me as a possible tourist. Shopping bags and loosely braided hair helped complete the image.

Maybe the sun hat was conspicuous. The clouds were heavy overhead, and the wind was moving them across the sky at a decent pace. Hopefully it would brighten up.

So, is Taylor, in some feminine clothes, for the first time since Worm started. She's not Taylor the tomboy anymore, neither Skitter, the Warlady. She's Taylor the GIRL and looks like she isn't fully prepared for fight

(well, she's always prepared for fight, but this time not exactly fully prepared). Either we're not going to see Teeth being destroyed in this Chapter or Taylor will have to pull a difficult, but nice fight while dressed in a summer dress and wearing sandals

.

It would be so easy to get paranoid over the slightest things, if I let myself. Parahumans kind of opened a lot of doors on that front. There was no way to be on guard against every eventuality. Bystanders could have been manipulated by Valefor before we confronted him, cloth in store displays could be Parian's work, the mannequins some trap laid by, well, Mannequin. The ground, the wind, changes in temperature, shadows… anything could be a sign of incoming attack.

So, Valefor's mental orders can influence people over a certain period of time, even after he doesn't have his power anymore

? Well, that sounds downright SCARY, its possible that Fallen, after hearing what happened to their leader, will retaliate, following the order that he probably gave them (if I'll ever be hurt, attack the person(s) who hurt me and everyone they hold dear). Are we going to see this cult drowning Brockton Bay into an ocean of demonic chaos? Everything is possible with fuckers like Valefor and I won't be surprised if his Passenger will find ways to restore his power if he doesn't have a healer/bio-tinker in his "family". Like making him capable to control people without using his eyes, only his voice or his hand gestures. Because Passengers need their hosts to be active and if one of them can't use their powers anymore, they'll either leave their brains or IMPROVE them.
Are you afraid of Parian, Taylor? Are you serious? Parian is one of the few people that nobody should be afraid of (except for the fuckers who hurt her people). Also, she's your ally now

. But I can understand and SHARE your fear of a possible return of Mannequin. There's no Mannequin in my world, yet I'm out of breath everytime when I see a mannequin. Mannequins are the creepiest things that humanity ever created

. They're the stuff that all nightmares are made of. Your fear is motivated more than any other fear, given the fact that, in almost two years, there are going to be Mannequin clones roaming around the world. FUCK MY LIFE. FUCK YOUR LIFE, TAYLOR. FUCK OUR LIVES

.

Grue and Citrine were inside, both in costume. Citrine in her yellow evening gown and mask, adorned with her namesake gemstones for both jewelry and embellishments, a file folder tucked under one arm. Grue, for his part, was wreathed in darkness. They couldn't have been more different in appearance: sunshine and darkness.

But both, I knew, were professionals. I suspected they were very similar people.
A part of me felt like I should be jealous that the pair were keeping each other company. Except, rationally, I knew they weren't. Rationally, I knew there was no reason they'd be together, or even that they'd be attracted to one another. Citrine was pretty, but… I couldn't imagine she was Grue's type.

Your jealousy have no real base, Taylor. There's not a single thing going on between Citrine and Grue (oh, hi, Citrine, nice to see you again. Hope you're not going to break my bones for the second time. You can keep Accord for yourself, just give me your nice dress. Its my favorite color and look stunning

). Citrine is not interested in someone who doesn't think in every second at hundreds of ways to kill her, Grue isn't interested in girls, in general, Taylor being the only exception, Citrine is too classy for Grue and she seems to prefer men just as classy as her, Grue knows only businesses, pleasure comes last for him.
I think...I think I have a crazy plan: what if Grue will try to seduce Citrine, making her all hot and bothered with his bad boy charm, then after she'll gets undressed, Taylor will knock her out cold and I'll have all the time in the world to STEAL HER DRESS

. Please, Taylor, Grue, help me, please, I NEED that dress. I'll remain forever grateful to you two.
"gets hit across her head by Taylor- too jealous to see other woman naked in front of her boyfriend- with her sandal" Or maybe not...ouch....

More than you know, I thought. Tattletale was occupied with little more than an intense migraine. She'd pushed herself too far and was now paying for it.

"gives Tattletale warms blankets, painkillers and hugs" Aww, she used her power too much and now she have a migraine. What does it means? It means that, if Taylor decided to surrender to heroes, Tattletale will not know about her intentions and will not stop her by alerting the rest of the Undersiders. Taylor kind of used Tattletale's break from using her power in her advantage. Now nothing will stop her from doing what she's planning to do.

"Others of us are born with nothing. It is hard to get something when you don't have anything. You can't make money until you have money. The same applies to contacts, to success, to status. It's a chasm, and where you start is often very close to where you finish. The vast majority never even move from where they began. Of the few that do make it, many are so exhausted by the time they meet some success that they stop there. And others, a very small few, they make that drive for success, that need to climb becomes a part of themselves. They keep climbing, and when someone like Accord recognizes them and offers them another road to climb, they accept without reservation."

"Which are you?" Grue asked. "Did you start with power, or did you fight for it?"
Citrine smiled a little, looking over her shoulder at the tower. "I suspect Tattletale will tell you, if you're curious enough to ask."

Judging after her classy behavior and her civility, I suspect that Citrine comes from a very rich family, but she got bored with her perfect life (or maybe her parents treated her in the same way Lisa's father treated her) and ran away from home, being found by Accord and taken under his protection. He gave her Cauldron powers and she became his favorite Ambassador, being first and the most loyal one. Something like what Coil did to Tattletale, but Coil used Tattletale without caring a bit about her (or about anyone else but himself). Accord uses Citrine too, but he also cares about her in his own weird, sadistic, twisted way, he seems proud of her and he doesn't treat her like Coil used to do with his "pets". Citrine trusts and respect Accord so much, I'm starting to like their relationship, as complicated as it is

. No, I don't ship them for two reasons: I'm not a fan of too dominant/submissive relationships, being a person oriented towards more romantic and sweet love stories and Accord doesn't like romance, neither sex

. Either his power doesn't let him to enjoy these little pleasures of life or his natural personality. They'll never have a romantic future together. Maybe only in fanfics.

"More gravity, less gravity, more intense temperature variation, less intense temperature variation. Friction, light intensity, the progression of time… More possibilities than I can count, many so minor you wouldn't notice. But if someone powered is in the area, and I find the right attunement, as though I were searching a radio station, I can cut off their powers. If I'm exact enough, which never takes more than twenty or thirty seconds to narrow down, I can use my power to cancel out the filters that keep someone's powers in their control. I can also remove the filters that keep their power from affecting them."

"Turning their power against them," I said.
"Yes," Citrine said.
I could picture my bugs slipping from my control, gravitating towards me in response to my stress, biting and stinging, even devouring me, perpetuating the stress, pushing the cycle forward.
Or Grue… what would happen to him? Rendered blind and deaf by his own power, dampening his own abilities until they sputtered out, or creating a feedback loop by draining his own abilities, until he was overwhelmed?
"And Othello?" I asked.
"He has a mirror self," she said. "Who walks in a world very similar to this one. This self has a limited ability to affect our world, and can't be affected by us. Othello can push himself into that other world to bring his other self into ours, and vice versa. One leaves, the other enters. It looks very much like teleportation or invisibility. It isn't."

So, Othello have a doppelganger from another Earth, and this man works like some sort of human version of Siberian. I mean, looks like he's a human from another Earth but once Othello brings him on Earth Bet, he's immune to attacks but he can affect others. Othello can also switch with his doppelganger, entering in his mirror world. Ok, I wonder if he drank from the same Cauldron vial as Manton. Now his power gave me a pretty good idea about Circus possible secondary power: what if there are not two persons sharing a body between dimensions, civilian Circus boy have a costumed super-powered girl doppelganger in another world and when he wants to fight, he calls her, replacing himself with her. So, they have like two powers. Hmm, very good piece of information about Othello's powers, thank you, Cintrine. Now I think I understand better Circus, the person that not even Tattletale was capable to understand

.
Citrine's power(s) make her a LIVING HELL to fight against. She seems to be one of the most powerful parahumans who ever walked on Earth Bet. Not only that she's ~~a republican~~ Trump who can nullify others' powers (she reminds me of Pulse from X-Men/The Gifted with his ability to disrupt mutants' powers), but she can also TURN SOMEONE'S POWER AGAINST THEMSELVES

. Possible mentally command to their Passengers to attack their hosts. Citrine might give someone like Legend or Alexandria a run of their money if they're not aware of her power. Alexandria will be immune to her own powers if turned against her but a depowered Alexandria will not give a good impression. I'm honestly impressed by how powerful Citrine can be. I want to see her in a fight. Possible against Butcher. She can depower Butcher and kill her...but she'll still get the 14 Passenger personalities because a depowered Butcher still have her Passenger inside her brain and if Citrine kills her even if she's depowered, still counts as a personalities/powers transfer to her killer.
How in the hell they can kill Butcher? I'm kind of obsessed over this shit

.

It was a three-hundred page treatise, complete with binding at the spine and a gray cover printed with the simple words 'Brockton Bay: Crime and Public Safety'. I handed Grue the folder and the dossiers on the five recruits to the Ambassadors, keeping the tome. I paged through it, holding it so Grue could read alongside me.

It was less an essay than a technical manual. A step-by-step guide to bringing the city in order. Size eight font, bolded and centered headings, annotations, continually referring to other sections. It was readable, though, almost seductive in how it made it all sound so possible. The language was simple, clear, and unambiguous, as though it were outlining little more than how to build a bookshelf, without more than the occasional diagram. There were branching paths, too, clearly outlined, detailing the routes to be taken if something didn't work out. I could only assume that the bulk of the text was Accord's accounting of all the various possibilities.
No murder, nothing totalitarian. Not at a glance. It was merely a very involved analysis on Brockton Bay, the various criminal elements, the various players and how things could be brought into alignment.

Accord, the most I read about you and your totally INSANE but positive plans of making the world a better place to live in, the more I like you and I agree with your ideas, no matter how delusional and selfish they sound. He's against senseless murders (despite his brain or his power's subtle influence telling him otherwise), he doesn't want to be a dictator, all he wants is to put the world in order, eliminating the elements of disorder. Do you hear that from the hell where you're burning, Coil? This friend of yours is total different compared with how you're while alive

. He's not a dictator, neither a cold blooded/insane criminal (I'm sure that Accord killed people during his villainous activity because...this is what 90% villains are usually doing (among other things): KILL people who are staying on their way. The other 10% villains are the ones who KILL people who doesn't even stand in their way at all; but he doesn't necessarily feel like he have to kill innocents in order to create his idealistic world governed by order and perfection). While I still don't trust Accord and I know that he only care to bring order in the world because of his own obsession with order, I can admire his ideas and his ambition to put these ideas in practice as soon as possible

.
The only way I will like Accord less and less until I'll downright hate him is if one of these situations will gradually happen:
Accord: Doctor Mother, I brought you some children, including a baby. My power gave me a quick solution for your quest of creating very powerful parahumans. If a subject is very young, particularly a child, when you'll make them drink the vials, they'll be exponentially more powerful than if they're adults? Vista's example confirms my theory. A baby is even much more better for your purposes.
Doctor Mother: "simply stare and droll over the blessed possibility that she's going to make experiments on babies. She can't even contain her excitement" Why, thank you. This is...so kind and thoughtful of you, mr Accord.
OR

Tattletale: I know you're planning to kill me in exactly five minutes. The traps are already set, but you hesitate to use them. Yet. Why?
Accord: Because, Tattletale, I just wanted to see how much your power will fail you in the next 5 seconds.
Tattletale: I'm never wrong.
"she gets cut in two by a large hidden chainsaw coming out of the floor".
Accord: Never say never, my dear child. You said 5 minutes, but it was only a matter of seconds. Your power was such a mess. Its was necessary to eliminate this mess.

Accord would be an ABSOLUTE BASTARD if one of these situations will happen for real.

"Skeptical," I said. "Ever notice how every power gets turned to violent ends? Even the people with powers that could benefit humanity wind up losing it? Accord, Sphere, there's Parian on the smallest end of the scale…"

"And you think there's some ugly twist to this."
"Accord works out some scenario where it's possible to establish peace in Brockton Bay by exerting pressure in the right areas, promoting the right people, and allocating resources in the right way, but it turns out like a wish from a malevolent genie. It turns ugly, or there's some loophole. I think Tattletale should look at it. That's all. We need to be very careful."

Taylor, stop blaming EVERYTHING on powers. In Sphere's case, wasn't his power guilty for his change of personality/mind. Simurgh was the first to be blamed, then himself, because he couldn't get over his personal tragedy and decided to take a violent, dark, brutal and insane path instead of trying to recover and rebuilding his life (I understand that this is the most painful thing ever for a parent- to see their kids being killed- but this is still NOT an excuse for someone to turn evil and to ruin so many lives). His power never changed, he only choose to use it to destroy people, instead of saving them, like he did before the tragedy that occurred in his life. He turned himself into Mannequin, NOT his power. There's no need to be worried about Accord yet, as for Parian...I'm getting really pissed everytime that Skitter mentions Parian as someone to be worried about, even on the smallest end of the scale, despite knowing (and personally experienced) how peaceful and non-violent Parian really is

. Yet she still see Parian as a menace from the shadows of her cloth animals and she needs to be cautious around her because...who knows...maybe a cloth snake controlled by Parian will suddenly strangle Taylor and in this time Parian will give her the best evil laugh in the history of generic evil laughs. Taylor scares me -with her paranoia about Parian- more than an actual evil Parian

.

"I raised the idea of you maybe getting therapy," I said. "I could use it too, to be honest."

"Yeah," he said.
"Do you think, maybe, if you were in a better head space, you could handle the leadership thing better?"
"I don't know," he said. "Maybe."
"Would you be willing to try? I don't want to guilt you into it, but it'd give me a lot of peace of mind, knowing that you'd be there to keep things going."
"I'd be willing to try," he murmured, his voice a hollow echo from within his darkness. "But why are you being so fatalistic?"

Grue is going to be Yamada-ed which is always welcomed. He needed therapy even from the beginning of the story, since he was already traumatized by his drugged slut mother and his stepfathers. As the story developed, he suffered more and more traumas, gradually more violent and persistent so I'm really surprised that he didn't went nuts until now. He's a very strong person, that's for sure. But he still NEEDS Jessica Yamada in his life

. I'm glad that Taylor is supportive towards him again. Finally, they're alone (or maybe this is what they think), she doesn't need to be "strong" anymore. She can be "weak" for him, as any normal girlfriend

.

"Regent and Imp," I said, stopping when he turned his head my way.

A heavyhanded way of changing the subject.
"What about them?"
"They're together," I said. "I don't know if it's romantic, but… they're together."
"I'm aware," he said.
"It's a problem."
"It is," he agreed. "But there's nothing I can do about it."
"Rein them in?" I suggested.
"How? Aisha bucks at rules and restrictions. She'd use her power and run before I could talk to her more seriously. She was always one for flight more than fighting. Fitting that she got that power. Infuriating."
"Then talk to Regent."
"Not much better. He's never one to face confrontation, but he handles it differently. He doesn't run, he evades. He'd say or do whatever it took to stop me lecturing him, stop me from threatening him, and he'd go right back to what he was doing, in a different way, a different angle, so I'm less likely to catch on. And if I angered him, or upset him, he'd make me answer for it somehow."
"I don't think I've really seen him angry or upset."
"You don't," Grue said. "Because he doesn't show it. I don't think he even fully realizes it, that he feels that way. But his jokes get a bit more barbed, he pushes back a little harder when pushed. He makes dealing with him annoying or toxic in a thousand small ways, until you can't continue to press him. Then he uses that, goes right back to doing what he wanted to do. It's not worth the trouble. They're friends. I don't like it, but I can live with it."
"He controlled her."

Another trauma for your boyfriend, the knowledge that his sister have a thing for supernatural BDSM and he can't do nothing to stop this weird-ass relationship she and Regent have. Imp will run away and Regent will ignore him. Thank you, Taylor, for traumatizing him more

. At least you're honest with him and this thing kind of matters a lot. But still he's going to suffer more knowing that he failed to be a good and protective brother because he was unable to keep his sister away from dangerous people, just like his stepfathers were

.

But I couldn't bring myself to voice the thought aloud.

"Me either," Grue said, his voice quiet, in response to an answer I hadn't expressed with anything but my expression and body language.
I couldn't lie and say that the mental picture, the fantasy, was a real possibility. I couldn't see it unfolding the same way I could see a thriving Brockton Bay secured with equal measures of fear and fairness.
It had been busy, hard and violent, with too much to do. It was too easy to see how things could continue down that road.

As long as your God is Wildbow, you'll never ever be truly happy, my poor sympathetic villains

. He'll find ways to feed you with more unhappiness and pain until you'll realize that happiness is something more hard to reach than an important victory against Simurgh.
I still think that this story will have a good ending (or maybe a bittersweet one), but I'm not sure if Taylor or/and Brian will be included in this happy ending. Any of them (or both) might die, even with their apparent plot armor, or something even worse than death might wait for them. Or survive but with plenty of traumas that will give even to someone like Jessica a hard time to deal with them. But...happy...together? I personally wish them all the happiness in the world, but I'm powerless in a world ruled by God Wildbow

.

He lowered his head and kissed me with surprising tenderness.

I hated to do it, but I broke the kiss, pulled away a fraction. I murmured, "Besides the usual precautions."
"Mm," he murmured his agreement, an inarticulate, wordless sound that vibrated through his body and mine.

" casually sitting in front of them, Imp raises her smartphone, trying to catch on camera the hottest scenes between her brother and Taylor" Alec will love this little but very detailed video. Better than any porn we watched together. Ok, now take her clothes down, bro. Slowly, slowly...

Good night and sleep well, my friends.
Tell me if this new format of my liveblog works or its shitty. Please. I'll appreciate any opinion.

blackarrow · Feb 19, 2019

ImperatorV said:
...Honestly, you're on point with a lot of those. Some alternative suggestions:

I'd definitely peg Taylor with a different class for reasons that include some spoilers, so I won't go into that.

Tattletale: Rogue of Light. She's very good at acquiring knowledge, often knowledge she's not supposed to have (hence stealing), and I think she does her best work when working for the benefit of others.

Jack Slash: Prince of Hope. His whole thing is destroying hope, corrupting people, and generally making the world a worse place to live.

Bonesaw: I'd put her as a Mage of Life just to avoid overlap with Panacea personally.

...This reminds me, I was thinking about writing a Worm/Homestuck crossover once (I've actually had several different ideas for such, one a quest and two fanfics). Never got around to it, as is typical for my writing projects.

You're right about Tattletale. Rogue of Light suits her better than Heir of Light.
So, are you saying that Jack is basically Eridan? Hmm, I can see some similarities between these two. Both of them are HUGE NOOKSHIFFERS with genocidal dreams (at least Jack have more charisma than Eridan). Eridan is pretty similar with Krouse too. They both destroyed the women they love and ended up destroying themselves in the process (I was so satisfied when

Eridan got cut in half by my favorite troll because I hated him so much)

rafuki22 · Feb 19, 2019

blackarrow said:
I still think that this story will have a good ending

I don't think that.
In the end,will see your opinion of everything and everyone.

AmbarGriss · Feb 19, 2019

The format looks good for me.

blackarrow · Feb 23, 2019

Hello, young and restless souls and welcome to our Undersiders' operation: Let's kick some goddamn Teeth out. Too bad that Accord's Ambassadors will not get involved in this fight because I want to see Accord's brilliant mind working during a battle, I'm curious about the new recruits and Citrine's power is one of the most badass and ridiculous powerful power in the entire Worm setting (if she can nullify all her opponents' powers than just a single one at the same time, then she's Triumvirate level. If she can nullify the Triumvirate members' powers as well, then she's definitely Mary Sue of parahumans. I want to see Citrine in combat so much it hurts

. I don't like her very much, not even half as much as I like Accord, but I'm in love with her power- as long as she'll never use it against Undersiders, of course

). For a couple of nights, while I was in bed trying to sleep, I was thinking about some possibilities for our dear, dear villains to kill Butcher, without getting mind raped by her 13 personalities afterwards. I couldn't find any working possibility but I found 2 parahumans able to kill Butcher and not become a danger for everyone around them. One is locked in Birdcage and another one is "resting" on the bottom of the ocean. Glaistig Uaine and Cherish

. The crazy Fairy Queen can kill Butcher and collect her Passenger, but without having her personalities affect her because the personalities will still be trapped inside Butcher Avatar controlled by Glaistig Uaine. I can see Glaistig Uaine's power working like this (with the few information I have about this character): she kills someone/collect their Passenger believed by her to be a "fairy", create an Avatar body of the deceased parahuman, store it inside her power (just like Echidna stored people inside her stomachs), and when she needs to use the powers of her "fairies", she can simply order the Avatars/Passengers to use their powers- if she wants to use Bakuda's power, she will summon Bakuda Avatar and mentally tell her to use her power, just like Echidna did with her clones. I think that Glaistig Uaine's power is similar with Echidna, but she doesn't create clones only mental projections of the deceased persons that she have access at to thanks to the absorbed Passengers. Hope I got her power right

. Its a bit complicated, but NO POWER in this story is as complicated as the jerkass Coil's power was. Coil's power is the Queen of the most complicated, hard to understand and migraine-inducing powers ever created.
But Glaistig Uaine is in super-jail right now and I have a feeling that she won't help Undersiders to take the Teeth down if she was free. She's a killer, she's crazy and fanatical with her power, she'd have rather KILL EVERYONE only to have them turned into her precious "fairies" :lol.
Cherish might be the only hope. If Undersiders will attract Butcher close enough to the place next to the ocean where people kill themselves because of Cherish's depression aura, Butcher will kill herself, becoming too depressed to live. But Undersiders should stay away from the area, because they'll be in danger too. Only Butcher should step in the Depressive Hell and remain there until her life will become too meaningless for her

. Then, the personalities will go to Cherish and...I don't give a flying fuck if they'll torment her for eternity. Cherish deserves the worst things to happen to her, including THIS. The only thing that I'm afraid for the new powers might help her evade from the vital chamber she's locked in. I mean, if Bonesaw didn't cut off her arms and legs, letting only her torso and head inside (we don't know if Cherish still have her whole body or is just her head and torso inside, Wildbow probably allowed us to imagine different scenarios about Cherish's situation but I have a feeling that Bonesaw realized that Cherish's legs and arms were useless anyway/or occupied too much space so maybe she removed them), Cherish might use Butcher's super-strength to punch through the hard shell until it will crack and she'll be free. But since the ocean is BIG, she'll not survive more than one or two minutes, even if she'll be a hella fast swimmer

. She'll not be a danger for anyone so...Cherish is the best choice of taking Butcher down without collateral victims. Lets see if our dear villains will approve my idea Imago 21.5

My sundress was lying on the floor, a little worse for wear where I'd thrown it to the ground and used it to sweep much of the grit, plaster and sawdust from the spot where we'd laid down. I shook it, then called my swarm, let my bugs crawl up my body to sweep and brush my skin clean. The bugs made their way up the sides and back of my neck to my hair, then weaved through it as a mass, their bodies and mandibles helping to set it in order. Others progressed down my arms, making their way to the dress, doing much the same with the fabric.

I wanted him, damn it. Wanted to nourish every sense with him. The visual of him, the taste of his sweat when I kissed his skin, his smell, the bass of his voice and the little noises he made. The feel of him, warm, the way every part of him was firm without being unyielding.

Welp, Taylor got Disneyfied

. She went from the creepy, scary, merciless Brockton Bay villain and Warlady to a fairy tale princess, using bugs (replacing birds and mice here) to clean her, clean her clothes and make her feel pretty again. New paragraph, she'll start singing about her love story with her big, strong and black prince and her 1 second/day perfect life. You'll see. Just wait and see

.
Of course that your LUST for Brian will always be persistent, even after you just had sex with him. You know what they say, my dear bug princess: once you go black, you'll never go back

. In all of seriousness, this whole sex scene seem to me more like goodbye sex than casual sex. It gives me the impression that Taylor slept with Brian like she wanted to say goodbye to him because she decided to surrender to heroes, and she couldn't said it in words so she found another way to "say". She also wanted to have a nice memory- memory of lust and love for him- after she'll turn her back to Undersiders and her villainous life, so she probably considers what happened now between them as a precious memory that she'll never forget.

Loss. Disappointment. Relief.

Yep, this confirms my suspicion that the previous scene between her and Brian was a goodbye sex that Taylor wants to keep and treasure it as a precious memory for her when she'll be away from her boyfriend. Loss- the loss of Brian once she'll be no longer a villain or she'll cut her ties with Undersiders. Disappointment- because she feels disappointed by her choice but deep down she knows that is the best choice she can make given Dinah's advises and she's disappointed to lose the man who won her heart. Relief- because she have at least one good memory of him and this breakup wasn't so hard as she probably expected it to be. Alright, I think I got Taylor's inner feelings and motivations here

.
Poor Brian once he'll find the truth about his girlfriend's big plan...

I smiled just a little at the idea that I might get a Volkswagen Beetle. It'd be stupid, impractical, and it would be too obvious. A van would be better in every respect.

Volkswagen Beetle < < < Atlas. Atlas is the best mean of transport in the whole goddamn world. Better than monster dogs ride (sorry, Rachel) and infinite better than a Volkswagen Beetle (even if is a Beetle, is still a mundane car, meaning nothing compared with a giant flying hercule beetle

).
If Taylor will stay away from Atlas, he'll starve to death because she must be there to give him commands to eat, right? If she'll surrender to heroes, then how she will take care of Atlas? Atlas is condemned to die, right? No, I don't think I can handle this, I know that this shit will happen soon or later but...I'm going to suffer if my favorite pet will die

. Damn you, Amelia, for not giving him a bug digestive system and the ability to feed himself without any external help. I can forgive you for everything you did so far because I know that it wasn't exactly your fault, but I'll never forgive you for creating something so awesome and helpful and letting him die because he's so dependent of his rider's power (she actually didn't gave him any digestive system, he could have died in a couple of days if it wasn't for Grue). Amelia, this is your worst crime because it wasn't accidentally neither committed under a lot of mental stress and fatigue

(like Broken Victoria was).

My detour brought me around to what had become a makeshift memorial. There were flowers and the like forming a ring where a fence had been erected. In the center of the ring, an oval shape sat embedded in the ground. This was the area where we'd fought Leviathan. A time-distortion grenade had gone off, and three heroes had been trapped inside. Brockton Bay's own Dauntless among them.

The center of the bubble was as impenetrable as Clockblocker's power, while the effects were more nebulous around the edges. Dust and moisture were caught in the sphere, obscuring the contents, all moving a fraction of a glacial pace. There was a hand print at one point where someone had tried to touch it, shifting the dust and moisture, losing some skin in the process. In other spots, less respectful people had thrown things at the sphere. Pennies, sticks. That had stopped when others had tidied up the area and the flowers had started appearing here and there.

There had been talk of blanketing the entire thing in flower petals, so it wasn't a gray-brown egg with a neat pattern, but others wanted to leave it be, protecting it with a bubble or shelter so the rain and dust could clear away, and people who visited could see the three heroes as they were when they were caught within, in the midst of being thrown through the air, the very moment they effectively gave their lives for the sake of the city and the world.

I hope that someone will free these heroes/random people from the time bubbles but I still have some bad feelings about the consequences of people being freed. No, I'm not afraid for mundane people, if they're aware all this time while trapped inside these bubbles they'll be traumatized and scared for sure, but they'll not be a danger as big as parahumans trapped inside the bubbles might be once free. Imagine Dauntless and Alabaster spending days, weeks, months, maybe years inside the bubbles. They might be already traumatized, angry because they're tortured like this- this is a fate worse than death so anyone would be pissed if this shit will happen to them- and they might go nuts once freed and become violent, paranoiac, vengeful and use their powers to wreak havoc

. Yes, Dauntless is a hero, but he's still a human being who can be traumatized if he's tortured and exposed to a fate worse than death and...we don't know if he'll still feel like a hero once he'll be out of time bubble or he'll be like "fuck this world for not helping me sooner, I don't have any reasons to continue to protect these bastards. On the contrary...they let me root in hell, I'll give them their own hell."
Still I want to see people out of time bubbles...the consequences be damned. Because I'm a very curious bitch like this

.

Miss Militia shot the girl a warning look. "Parian invited us."

"Good," I said, glancing around me. The rain was still pattering down around me, and the street was damp, not flooded, but it wouldn't be good to offload my bags there. I ventured under the eaves and set the bags down in a dry spot. I folded my arms. "Give me your weapons."

Ok, some of my favorite heroes are visiting Taylor in her territory while she's out of costume (but they already know her identity so that's ok) and I don't think they want to arrest her. Maybe Flechette will be very fine with pinning Taylor down and arresting her but Miss Militia is a more calm and calculated person than our teenager hot blooded Striker

. Maybe she just wants to talk to Taylor and not trying to do anything to provoke Taylor to fight back. Especially since there are people in her territory (including children) and Miss Militia will not want to put their lives in danger. She's not Tagg, she's a good human being

.
Taylor, come on, you just can't ask Miss Militia to give you her weapon :lol. She'll just summon a new one in no time and you know this. Its like someone asks Taylor to get rid of the bugs crawling on her, hoping that this request will disarm her when she can bring back ten times more bugs in no time. Taylor, stop being so absurd and hilarious in serious moments like this one. Its not the right time for comedy gold...I can't stop laughing...ask Miss Militia to drop her gun....FUCKING GOLD :lol.

"You're upset," Miss Militia said. Before I could think of a retort, she added, "You deserve to be."

Miss Militia is very understanding, as usual. She feels genuinely sorry for what Tagg did, but she can't change a thing because she's not one of the big bosses of Protectorate. She also doesn't like that Alexandria betrayed every single hero principles by working for something like Cauldron, being directly involved in kidnappings and horrible experiments on people (possible even children "shudders") and not assuming her responsibility for these crimes and stepping down, just like Legend (who's not even half as guilty as her) did. Miss Militia doesn't agree with a lot of these awful things eating the Protectorate from inside out, but is not in her power to do something, to stop people like Tagg and Alexandria smearing the heroes' reputation and honorable intentions with their vicious and totally non-heroic actions

. She's like a simple office clerk in a world of highly-placed wolves. I just want to give this poor woman a well-deserved hug

.

"It's dangerous. Things are sensitive. There's only an eighteen percent chance of success in the upcoming fight if we face Behemoth. Twenty-nine percent if it's the Simurgh, with… a great deal more fallout after the fact. Without the Protectorate, chances drop to an even lower number than they are, and the damage gets worse."

People, you have some pretty awesome Tinkers working for heroes. Why Dragon doesn't try to come up with a Scion Sky Signal that can be observed from every single part of the world so Scion will see it as well and will know when an Endbringer attacks? He'll arrive just in time to fuck that Endbringer up, and right now he's willing to kill them

. Why wasting so many human resources when all you should do is to create a Signal for him and he'll know what to do? I'm disappointed that nobody got this idea, especially when they noticed that no parahuman can ever kill at least a single Endbringer, not even someone of Triumvirate level

.
Anyway, guess that NO- Signal for Scion side plot makes the story more dramatic and interesting

.
Dinah got involved again with her numbers, right? This girl must be really desperate to see Taylor becoming a hero so she keeps scaring people left and right with her doomed visions of future

.

"Because I got home and saw my family, and they said I was different,angrier. And they were right. Because I'm hearing about everything that's happening, all these secrets coming out, and I can't even look at my teammates without wondering if there's something nefarious about them. Because Parian was the one good thing I found in this city, and you recruitedher," Flechette said.

"That costume, it's like a slap in the face. Like, it wasn't obvious enough you corrupted her. You had to take the playfulness away? The joy?"

Shut up, Flachette, Taylor doesn't corrupt anyone and Parian is NOT corrupted. I know that you love her and you want to protect her and this is really sweet of you, but she's not evil, neither corrupted by villains. Yes, maybe she became a villains' ally, but she did that in order to protect her people, not because she enjoys being a villain. She's still the same good, nice Parian you know and you love, she didn't changed. At least, not that much. She's less playful and joyful because she had her people maimed by a little evil mad scientist, she went through a lot of shit during the last months, she saw so much ugliness and evilness that she can't be the same happy go lucky person, the bad experiences changed her in a way, made her more reserved, introverted and sad

. But not evil. The evilness around her didn't touched her soul, smearing it, fortunately. She's still your Parian, only more bitter and aware that there's not only happiness and beauty on this world. Don't blame Taylor for someone she isn't guilty of, Flechette, she already struggled a lot with her heavy conscience

.

"And until they work with us, they're going to be a bucking bull in a china shop," I said. "Strutting around and doing catastrophic damage to a delicate situation. Tagg said this is a war-"

I could see a look flash across Miss Militia's face.

I think it was much better if Taylor punched the hell out of Miss Militia than to tell her these words. Taylor just reminded Miss Militia of war, the most tragic moment of her life

. This woman is a war survivor even since she was just a child and Taylor reminded her of war. Ok, I can't blame Taylor, maybe not everyone know about Miss Militia's past but I still feel bad for the poor heroine. And to think that Miss Militia have to answer to Tagg, an ex-military man who probably did with others the same thing that the turkish soldiers did with Hannah and her pals is...like her personal Hell

.
This Chapter is tragic. I suddenly have so many feelings for Miss Militia and Parian. My poor, poor brave but unlucky girls

.

"And you can't keep pushing things like you have been. The degree of aggression you've been demonstrating, with the attack at the PRT head offices and Valefor, it tests our patience."

Miss Militia, wise and willing to reach an agreement with ethical villains as usual. That's so good, I fucking love this woman, I'll never stop loving and admiring her

.
But I don't agree with her opinion about Taylor's attack on Valefor. Taylor just took a monster out of the game, its not like she crippled an innocent bystander. Everything she did to Valefor was for the GOOD of heroes, citizens and some Fallen members who are probably not happy to be Valefor's puppets. She did something heroic and Miss Militia will realize this once the still controlled Fallen will start attacking the city to avenge their Master Guru. Then she'll be the one who'll want to kill Valefor with her own hands

.
Accord is a guardian angel compared with Valefor and Butcher. He's one of those villains that I- if I were a hero- will accept to collaborate with as long as he assures me that he always have people's best intentions in his mind and will never put civilians/heroes lives in danger (I like Accord, ok? I like him a little too much than I expected. If someone would have told me that I'm going to like Coil's friend, I'd have been like: are you stoned out of your mind? Devil's friends are my enemies. I'll never like someone who's basically devil's friend. But...this story is full with surprising twists and turns, especially when it comes to some characters. Hope that God Wildbow will not disappoint me with Accord

).

"I have more respect for you than you'd probably believe," I told her. "I hope it works."

Everyone in their right mind should respect Parian. If this girl (and Miss Militia) doesn't deserve all the respect then who else deserves it

?
Next time, Undersiders pulling out the rotten Teeth? Please.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Feb 23, 2019

rafuki22 said:
I don't think that.
In the end,will see your opinion of everything and everyone.

I will be ok with a bittersweet ending too as long as something GOOD happens. I don't care if is entirely good or half good or even one quarter good, I'm still going to like it

.

Nobody · Feb 23, 2019

blackarrow said:
Next time,

In case you hadn't heard Wildbow went back and changed a few lines earlier on in the story earlier today or yesterday so that Browbeat was killed by Leviathan during the fight instead of only being incapacitated way back near the beginning.

blackarrow · Feb 23, 2019

Nobody said:
In case you hadn't heard Wildbow went back and changed a few lines earlier on in the story earlier today or yesterday so that Browbeat was killed by Leviathan during the fight instead of only being incapacitated way back near the beginning.

Browbeat? The hero with short-range telekinesis powers who fought against Undersiders during Bank Robbery? Yes, I remember him but I didn't know this information. Well, better for him to be killed by Leviathan than trapped in a time bubble. At least he got to die like a hero, not suffering a fate worse than death (I still think that people trapped in time bubbles are aware of their situation and are slowly getting crazy with loneliness and helplessness. Just them with their minds).

Nobody · Feb 23, 2019

blackarrow said:
Browbeat? The hero with short-range telekinesis powers who fought against Undersiders during Bank Robbery? Yes, I remember him but I didn't know this information. Well, better for him to be killed by Leviathan than trapped in a time bubble. At least he got to die like a hero, not suffering a fate worse than death.

He wasn't one of the people trapped in a time bubble. Before he was mentioned as having left by Vista and Taylor thinks he joined another team when he makes a brief reappearance in the Echidna fight.

blackarrow · Feb 28, 2019

Hello, my friends and welcome to: Let's watch our friendly neighbors kicking some Teeth out

. My expectations that the battle between Undersiders+ Ambassadors ? and Teeth will happen during this Chapter are too damn high. I mean, Taylor is more and more decided to surrender to heroes especially after her out of costume meeting with Miss Militia and Flachette, whom she convinced to remain neutral to her actions against Teeth until the villains will be out of the picture. This sounds like: you let me deal with the rest of dangerous villains that still remained in this City on my own terms then I'll be yours without any opposition, but of course that Taylor didn't told them what she planned after she'll finally clean the City. They're going to have such a big surprise when Taylor will contact them, asking them to prepare a special cell for her (I'm absolute convinced that the final part of Taylor's part is her surrender and I'm trying to imagine heroes's faces when this event will finally happen. Most of them, they'll be more shocked than they're when they discovered that Triumvirate wasn't exactly composed of the most shining examples of heroes. I mean, the Big Bad Skitter coming at them in peace, with serious thoughts of accepting their punishments or demanding them to turn her into a bona fide heroine. The shock of shocks

).
But the Undersiders will be more shocked than the heroes themselves. Well, most of Undersiders, that's it. Lisa will blame herself because she wasn't able to see the signs of Taylor's plan and to prevent her from executing it, Alec will react in the same way he always react about mostly everything: not giving a single, minuscule, flying fuck, Brian will suffer a lot, will be very angry on Taylor, will hate her (for a while until he'll forgive her) for her decision and maybe will refuse any therapy that can help him get better, Aisha will be pissed because ~~she will not have any material for her Interracial Porn collection anymore~~ her brother suffers and will want nothing else but to find that "traitor bitch and slash her neck" and Rachel...Rachel will be more affected than anyone else, she'll see Taylor's gesture as a second betrayal, right after she started to trust her AGAIN, and I don't think she'll be able to endure being lied/manipulated again (or this is how she'll perceive Taylor's relationship with her). She'll either snap and start attacking innocent people/ heroes/her teammates or she'll refuse any human company, completely retreating in her own little world -consisting of only her person in the company of the only beings that will never disappoint her and will always be loyal to her because they don't know how to lie, manipulate or use someone for their own interest. I'm gonna feel very sorry for her, more than for all others

.
But I will never blame Taylor for choosing the right path for her, even if this path implies the betrayal of the only people who were her true friends. Because, while I despise so much even the notion of betrayal, I'm sure that she'll never really abandon them or do anything to hurt them more

Imago 21.6

The Undersiders were here. Minus Tattletale, we were all standing in the street a distance away from a squat building. Regent was off to one side, ready to trip up our enemy if they made a sudden appearance. Rachel hung back, corralling her forces, while the rest of us watched the building for any hint of trouble.

But Grue stood next to me. I appreciated his presence, his casualness in light of the way we'd effectively parted.
I could sense the Ambassadors. Citrine and Othello were there. So were four new recruits: Jacklight, Ligeia, Lizardtail and Codex. The fifth potential recruit hadn't been so lucky. The four of them stood off to one side, in the shelter of Citrine's power, listening as she gave instructions. The area around them was somehow faded in terms of the colors there, the area she was affecting looked as though I were viewing it through colorblind eyes that were capable of only seeing yellow. Water wicked off of them as though they were waterproof, leaving them utterly dry even in the wind and rain.

Yay for Ambassadors finally helping Undersiders and double yay for them all deciding to make Teeth's life in Brockton Bay a living hell

. They're going to show the Teeth the way out of Brockton Bay before they'll turn the City into their personal slaughterhouse (not be confused with our merry band of entertaining psychopaths

). Fucking cannibals, man. Even Butcher's codename suggest that their culinary preferences include human meat.
Ok, back to our new Ambassadors. We have our usual Citrine and Othello (hope they don't wear their usual costumes because they'll be pretty uncomfortable during the fight, especially for Citrine and other female Ambassadors. Plus, maybe I'll have the opportunity to steal her damn dress now

). So, we also have Jacklight (I think he throws little Jacklight pumpkins at his enemies, making them explode at will once they touch them. His mask probably imitate the well-known Halloween pumpkin), Ligeia is a mermaid in Greek mythology so maybe this Ambassador have water-based powers, Lizardtail (someone similar with Newter, with only probably the tail of a lizard, not the whole body -I wonder what he's doing with his tail pressed against Skitter, sounds like he is keeping her prisoner or he reminds her to not betray the Ambassadors because they're not a joke as they can fight back anytime) and Codex (their codename gives me the impression that they're a Thinker, acting like a source of battle information for their teammates). I guess the fifth member died after they took the vial or they're killed because they sucked at their new job. Well, there's no job without its risks

.
So, when Citrine uses her power, its effects are yellow? This woman have yellow dress and jewels, her codename is related to yellow and now her power's effects are also yellow? YELLOW IS THE NEW POWER. Hell, yeah. I'd love to use Citrine's power everytime when its raining or snowing. The most useful power for someone who HATE getting wet and cold

.

Inside the building, the Teeth were recuperating from a recent conflict with Miss Militia and the other heroes followed soon after by an attack from Parian's stuffed animals.

I'm surprised that the heroes attacked Teeth, taking Taylor's advises very in serious this time. But I'm not surprised that they didn't managed to defeat them, because, well, they're heroes and heroes should never win in a story dedicated to villains (more or less likable) UNLESS they're Skitter, of course

. I'm even more surprised that Parian was enough pissed to attack them too, but I appreciate her attempt to take them down after the heroes failed and I really hope that she'll become more and more badass and less peaceful (with people who doesn't deserve her peaceful intentions) as the story progresses. That will be a welcomed change in her personality. I like soft Parian a lot, but badass Parian is GOLD to me

.
I wonder why Accord isn't on the battlefield, but then I realize that he'll be basically useless in the middle of a fight. He's not a combat Thinker (my friend told me that there are such parahumans as combat Thinker- people whose intense and instantly knowledge about combat make them excellent fighters, better than any other non-powered excellent fighters. A combat Thinker is usual a nightmare to fight again), he'd be exactly like Tattletale- they don't have an offensive power or a power that can help them in an offensive way- all they have is their concealed weapons and their people, they'll be utterly fucked in a brutal combat if they don't have enough time to shoot people or slash them. Well, Tattletale was super-badass a couple of times, but she had some of her teammates helping her, she wasn't alone

. They're better at staying behind the battlefield and let others do their dirty deeds

.

"And… twenty minutes in, the rain's still pouring, the wind's still threatening to drop a house on our heads, and we're still not doing anything. I think our fearless leader needs to remember that some of us aren't as good at being imposing when we're drenched and standing around in the dark. She does that whole schtick where being gloomy and creepy only make her scarier. You know how scary I am with a wet shirt clinging to me?"

Regent have a great sense of humor, I have to admit despite not liking him as a person (to use nicer words than usual). But he never fails to make me laugh with his sarcastic humor :lol. He's like the super-annoying but funny sociopath that any respectable team of villains should have, otherwise they won't be respectable enough. Funny thing is that my father is a fan of Regent, he's his second favorite Undersider right after Tattletale (at least we both like Tattletale the most; she's too perfect for us to commit the SIN of not liking her

) - my father doesn't exactly like what Regent did/is doing (my father have a strong moral code that he'll never break not even if our world will plunge into anarchy, one day, and the laws will become a sweet memory) but he's fascinated by Regent's humor and power. Unlike me, my father have a sick fascination with Masters and he really, really wants a Master power for himself, so he can use only on people that he personally consider being the right ones to have a taste of his power (he have the same mindset as mine so there's nothing really surprising here) +he also wants to use these people so he can gain fame, power and money. He admires Marquis and wants to be almost exactly like him (MINUS killing innocent men and using his daughter for favors). Great, while I'd like to become an awesome Tinker vigilante (someone with Bonesaw's powers who'll show to some really horrible people what BODY HORROR NOTION means

), my adored father wants nothing mote but to become a feared, but ethical enough Master villain (with the power to turn certain people into his mindless zombie, without the possibility to revert back even after his death

). He even said that we two would make an excellent team. No shit, but he's a villain. A villain playing with people's minds like they're his personal toys. Man, this story made me question my sanity, my father's sanity, my life choices, my father live choices and reach the conclusion that my mother is the only SANE and truly compassionate member of this family

. WELP.

There was a drawback, though. Whatever they were, as solid and innumerable as they might have been, they were dumb, getting dumber every second they were alive. He was producing a living tide of bodies, but they weren't capable. They were good for little more than sheer body mass and violence.

By the time the first ones reached us, they were barely able to put one foot in front of the other. One reached me, swung a table leg at me in a wide, predictable swing. I caught it, twisted his arm, and pushed him into a Spree that was stumbling forward from behind him. They both fell, and neither seemed to have the wherewithal to climb to their feet before they were trampled underfoot.

Codex was a blaster-thinker hybrid. Tattletale had speculated that the woman caused permanent brain damage and memory loss , briefly augmenting her own processing power in exchange. The duplicates Spree was generating weren't gifted with much in the way of brains to begin with. Even a little damage was having devastating results.

Jacklight was launching forth the miniscule orbs of light, each growing as it traveled before stopping in mid-air. Each warped space around it, accelerated movement, enhanced the output of certain forms of energy.
Where one of his lights was set next to a wall, it redirected one running duplicate into a wall. Another, closer to the ground, swung a Spree that stepped over it into the ground face first.
It was Ligeia, though, who slowed down the enemy the most. She created water out of nothing, geysers of the stuff that drove the mob back and sent them sprawling.

Spree is like the super-dumb Multiple Man (X-Men). His clones are getting dumber and dumber with each multiplication. So, we have female Legion (X-Men) as Butcher, Beast Boy (Teen Titans) as Animos and Super-Dumb Multiple Man as Spree. Wildbow being a DC/Titans secret fanboy confirmed

.
Ambassadors aren't using too much diplomacy in their fight. Quite the contrary. They fight pretty dirty. Well, given the fact that diplomacy isn't always clean (there are a lot of dirty moves behind the diplomatic games), then is not something unusual to see these Ambassadors doing exactly what their non-powered counterparts are doing- kicking ass with diplomacy

. I like this villain group, not only their boss is awesome but the entire group is kick-ass (plus, as long as they're Undersiders' allies and don't cross some lines then I'm fine with them). Ligeia is a water summoner and bender. Gosh, I was pretty good at guessing her power. Jacklight launches orbs of light capable to warp space. I was also right about his power and I imagine these orbs being shaped like pumpkins. Codex have a freaking SCARY power. She's indeed a Thinker (I was right again "does a little victory dance"

) who become smarter as her victims become dumber (more than that, they get brain damage). She destroys their minds while improving her own mind. Codex is more freaky than all of the other Ambassadors together. Maybe she can use her power on Butcher- not kill her, but damaging her brains enough so she'll probably enter into vegetative state. In this way, a dreadful cannibal will be eliminated and Codex will not get her personalities because Butcher will not exactly die. Problem solved. I'm soooooooooo goooooooooooood. Accord, do you need another Ambassador

?

As Tattletale had warned Grue, she'd warned Citrine as well. Butcher's power was too dangerous to muck with. Grue risked absorbing the consciousness of the prior Butchers, and Citrine risked striking on the right 'attunement' and accidentally killing Butcher.

But Citrine was still a leader, didn't waste a moment. She gave the signal, shouted something I couldn't make out, and her followers opened fire. Jacklight and Codex lobbed their attacks towards Butcher, and the leader of the Teeth teleported away before either could do any real damage. Ligeia produced a geyser of water that sent duplicates flying ten or twelve feet in the air. Othello, for his part, was standing by, his hands in his pockets, his two-tone mask expressionless.

Which wasn't to say he wasn't contributing. Hemorrhagia was enduring an assault from an invisible, immaterial foe. I could feel him, feel the movement against my bugs, but the bugs didn't settle on him, simply passed through. He was only partially there, focusing on allowing certain aspects of himself, hisweapon, to affect our world.

Lizardtail's power pressed even harder against me. I could feel the edges of my injuries tingling, the wounds slowly knitting closed. Far slower than they should have been, given the earlier demonstration of Lizardtail's power. Either he was weaker, or her ability to inflict wounds that progressively gotworse over time was taking away from the power of his regeneration.

Love Othello' s mirror image/projection/doppelganger power. So, the Mirror Othello can't be seen (either he isn't a real person, only a Siberian like projection, or if he's indeed a real person, he's invisible to the people on Earth Bet due to some space/time shenanigans. He's not only invisible but he's also untouchable, nobody would have not even a slim chance to hurt him). Now I want to see a fight between Siberian and Mirror Othello and given the fact that there will be 10 Manton clones, I might have my wish comes true sooner than I expect. I'm sure that Ambassadors will help Undersiders (and heroes) to fight against S9 Army of Clones, because that will be something very similar with an Endbringer's attack. S9 Army of Clones will be equally dangerous with an Endbringer (except maybe for Simurgh) if not more dangerous and destructive (10 Siberians and 10 Crawlers? Even Leviathan will run like a bitch from them, not daring to look behind him

)
Lizardtail can heal wounds. So, this is the reason for having his tail pressed against Skitter. He was healing her, not threatening her.
Butcher is a pain in the ass to fight against. Codex can be the end for her, but she's too fast and too much of a good fighter in control of her powers for anyone to have a chance to hurt her. Cherish is the only solution left. If you can only have enough time to catch Butcher in a trap- like forcing her to approach to the Area of Despair, she'll end up killing herself and only Cherish will not be ok

.

The new villain slumped and fell, joined by the piece of my armor that had been shorn off. An arrow neatly penetrated her neck.

Oh, nooooooooo, Codex....The second most badass Ambassador (after Citrine) is fucking dead

. Killed by Butcher. Damn this Butcher bitch. RIP Codex, you did your best. A short time working for Accord, but you helped during your first and last fight and sacrificed your life to try to get rid of a fucked psycho like Butcher. Still I don't understand why Accord forces his female employers to fight whilst wearing dresses. I mean, isn't only uncomfortable during fight, but also a great disadvantage. They can't move as they wish (and is necessary for them) when trey're dressed like this. Why he doesn't allow them to wear a suit like Contessa is wearing when they're fighting? Look, Contessa is still elegant and feminine yet she kicks ass in black suit and fedora (I imagine Doctor Motherbitch's guard-dog looking like a pretty woman Man in Black, only with fedora and no huge-ass weapons

). Why Accord's ladies can't kick ass in pants, with or without fedora and still look cool while doing it? The many mysteries that Accord's mind is holding are deeper than Mariana Trench.

We'd reached the edge of the city. There were fewer buildings, fewer rooftops. Wet clumps of sand flew behind Bentley's feet as he dug deep to find traction.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Cherish solution is still in play. They're going to use Cherish to make Butcher kill herself? Awesome, I'm going to congratulate myself for thinking at this strategy for a whole week

. Cherish, Butcher, I'm sorry to announce that you'll be supreme fucked -especially Cherish because Butcher will be dead and there will be no more additional suffering for her. But I can't say the same about Cherish. Btw, I said "sorry"? Oh, it was just sarcasm, nothing else

. No sorry for a cannibalistic bitch and definitely no sorry for a dumb bitch who was cruel enough to FORCE PARENTS KILL THEIR OWN CHILDREN. Cherish is everything I hate to guts in a person (child abuser, child killer, emotionless psycho able to manipulate people's emotions, too dumb to live, sadistic and cruel monster, no different compared with her father :rage:

). EVERYTHING. She deserves her fate. How much she deserves her fate....

She was murmuring to herself now. Conversing under her breath with the voices in her head. She sounded oddly insistent, plaintive in a very childish manner.

When the weapon was formed, she glanced skyward, murmured something indistinct.
Then teleported a distance into the air, directly above the spike.
There was a wet sound, a pause.

"Guess my sister has one more kill under her belt," Regent commented. "Fourteen voices in Cherish's head to keep her company as she spends the next few centuries alone at the bottom of the bay."

RIH (Root in Hell) Butcher. This was the smartest way to make someone kill themselves and while I don't like seeing people being forced to commit suicide, Butcher is an exception

. There was no other way for her to die and not affect her killer and she wasn't an innocent person bullied to suicide.
Regent is MY VOICE and MY MIND during this scene. He expressed what I was thinking and how I was feeling about the fate of his sister that just got worse than it was previously (apparently not giving a single fuck but ~~not so~~ secretly enjoying). Well, I will still add my two cents: at least Cherish will not be alone at the bottom of the ocean. She have now 14 friends keeping her company

. She can talk with them about various ways to break/hurt/kill someone, she can tell them wonderful stories about S9 and about the short time spend in their company or about the time spend in her family's company. They can converse about so many neat psycho stuff, they'll never get bored and the personalities will probably hate her less when they'll realize how fucking similar they're all in many ways. See, I always look at the bright side of every single situation, no matter how grim it is. I'm just a positive, adorable ball of sunshine brightening up your day

.

"You said I should think about what people need from dogs. If I'm going to find them homes, the dogs need to be able to live with families."

…Not quite a leadership style I might have suggested, but the kid looked happy.

Rachel was on another couch, and the blue-eyed girl, the cook, was lying beside her, her back pressed to Rachel's front.

YAAAAAAAAAAY FOR PUPPY THERAPY FOR EVERYONE

. YOU GET A PUPPY, HE GETS A PUPPY, SHE GETS A PUPPY, EVERYONE GET A PUPPY. Puppies can bring smile even on the saddest faces and make the most depressed hearts sing in happiness

. They're one of God's gifts for humanity. Rachel EVOLVED so much from that detestable Bitch who scared and threatened a little girl only because she bothered Brutus (poor Brutus

) and used her dogs to violently chase away families from her territory to Big Sister Rachel who is doing pretty ok with the families in her territory and is especially nice with kids (as nice as she can be, but its a good start). Excellent evolution, Rachel, keeping going. You're already my second favorite Undersider, right after Lisa, all thanks to this part. Sorry, Brian, I know she took your spot, but Rachel is sweet with children and "quickly pulls a Battery (poor Jamie

)" I have a soft spot for anyone who happen to be sweet with children

.
Rachel is the most capable Undersider of not only surpassing herself, but also outshining, especially given her limited mindset and her unkind childhood.
Alec, if you'll take Rachel's example and start becoming a better version of yourself, then maybe I'll admire you too. Until then...at least you have my father's admiration

.

Tomorrow morning, I thought. I face off with Tagg and the rest of the PRT.

Translate: Tomorrow morning she's going to surrender to Tagg and the rest of the PRT. But NOT without a backup plan. Because Taylor will never do anything without at least one backup plan, to ensure her own safety and the safety of her teammates

.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

AmbarGriss · Feb 28, 2019

Hohoho. The good shit is about to start

blackarrow · Mar 1, 2019

AmbarGriss said:
Hohoho. The good shit is about to start

The "good shit" is usually translated in Worm as "everything goes straight to hell. Again." My mind and my body are ready

.

rafuki22 · Mar 1, 2019

blackarrow said:
The "good shit" is usually translated in Worm as "everything goes straight to hell. Again." My mind and my body are ready .

Nope.

blackarrow · Mar 7, 2019

Hello, my friends. Before I'll start this Chapter and see if our protagonist will surrender to heroes and if she'll have a plan in her mind previously of taking this life change decision, I want to tell you about something weird that happened to me a couple of days ago (an extraordinary coincidence, but don't ask me for something like: picture or GTFO, because I'm not crazy enough to take pictures of strangers passing by on the street, without their approval

). There was a very tall and well-built black man wearing a black shirt underneath his open jacket and on shirt it was written with big white letters: Darkness is my friend. Welp, I think that was a doppelganger of Brian, can't be anything else

. I wanted to stalk him for a bit while, but I decided that if he'll notice me I'll look like a creepy girl stalking random people on street and he might not like this so I went to my own businesses, but I couldn't stop thinking at him for the rest of my day. I'm aware that it was just a stupid coincidence, but do you know what would have been really, really scary? If I'd have called him Brian and he'd have answered me. I started to notice more and more Worm in my life: FUCKING MANNEQUINS in all the clothing stores, Brian "doppelganger", never mind a street called Alexandria or a store called Legends. -Worm, Worm everywhere- meme starts making more sense in my life

.
After blinding and depowering (for a while because I'm sure that his Passenger will find another way to manifest its/their power

) Fallen's leader and forcing Teeth's leader to commit suicide via ~~cherishing~~ exposing her to intense Aura of Despair and thousands of other negative feelings, all Taylor can do now is to go to Protectorate and hope that Dinah wasn't wrong when she advises her to change her perspective over her life (I was a bit scared that Cherish with her original power at maximum+ 14 more other powers, will become a menace like Echidna was if she'll escape from her pod, then I realized that she can't escape, no matter how hard she'll try. If she'll break her pod, she'll be instantly drowned; she can't teleport on long distances and even if one of her new powers allows her to heal, doesn't make her immortal or invulnerable to drowning. Besides, how much of her body was left behind? Maybe only a torso and a head or even worse: just a brain and few vital organs. After all, she's trapped in one of Mannequin's creations and we know that Mannequin transferred his brain and some organs to his new body. Maybe he did the same with Cherish too and there's no danger for this bitch to become another Human Endbringer

). Taylor said goodbye to Brian, to Rachel (who changed into a the best version of herself she could have hoped for) and I think that she needs to see Lisa for the last time before taking the decision. After all, Lisa is her BEST FRIEND and she can't use her power anyway so she won't be able to know about Taylor's plan. Taylor doesn't have reasons to be worried that someone will stop her

Imago 21.7

I grew aware of my surroundings, distinguishing dark gray shapes from an oppressive darkness. A desk sat in the middle of the room, shaped like a 'c', with a cushy computer chair in the middle. Four monitors were arranged at even intervals across the desk. Beyond them, three widescreen televisions were mounted on tripods. The walls and open spaces beyond the televisions, in turn, were filled with bulletin boards and whiteboards.

I glanced at my phone. The last text I'd received was still displayed on the main screen:

the nearest keyboard to entrance. don' wander and don't turn monitor on. type WQtksDH2.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEES, Taylor is going to meet Lisa

. She owes Lisa so freaking much, Lisa saved her when she was so close to commit an involuntary suicide and kind of modeled her into the person she's now (well, sometimes she did some pretty shitty things but NOT Lisa is responsible for Taylor's decisions regarding different situations).
Well, Taylor, welcome in the BASE of OPERATIONS of the human equivalent of NSA, FBI, CIA, MOSSAD, FSB, MI5, etc, etc

. Lisa can't actually stop from looking after information not even when her power is crippled by intense headaches. I don't know if I want to admire her efforts and ambition or to slap the living daylights out of her because she overworks herself like this. Maybe both.

The whiteboard held scrawlings of notes, musings and possibilities, some half-erased. Degree of involvement with Cauldron? Funding: is PRT siphoning official funds to pay for powers? Agenda?

I moved on to boards of a different color. The red bulletin boards and whiteboards with red writing: Brockton Bay. Potential threats: the Teeth, Red Handed, Heartbreaker, Lost Garden, Adepts, the Orchard, The Fallen.

Lisa is obsessed with Cauldron. Just be careful, Lisa, my dear Queen of Espionage, Cauldron is not something to joke about, neither to try to uncover/catch by yourself. They're some huge fuckers, but they're SMART, POWERFUL and RICH huge fuckers. They have Doormaker by their side who can teleport them between worlds before anyone will ever try to arrest them. They have Contessa who can beat the shit out of TEAMS of parahumans, without even losing her beloved fedora (I'm starting to be more convinced that Contessa is one of those combat Tinkers that my friend told me about, who can predict her opponents movements and instantly know how to avoid/dodge every attack and make her own attacks efficient as fuck. If this is her true power then this bitch will be very hard to fight against

), also we don't know what Number Man is capable of doing apart from super-boring super-calculate stuff

. Plus, Doctor Mother may or may not be a parahuman herself -maybe she pretends she doesn't have powers in order to not appear a very dangerous target for her enemies and when her defenses will fall, then she'll have to use her power, who might be the most powerful one of her group. So, Lisa, don't you dare to make me more worried for you than I'm already by trying to find about Cauldron more than they would allow someone to find. You're a mere mortal tackling some assholes who see themselves as Gods. You'll only fail to take them down even with your entire team and Ambassadors behind (besides Accord is their man so...) Wait until they'll start to weaken or you'll get more powerful allies

.
About the endless groups of villains that keep appearing in the City of Apocalypse like mushrooms after rain. I'll try my hand with each of them, see if I can guess their purposes and nature. Lost Garden is another religious villain group (besides Fallen) because I'm thinking at the Garden of Eden or is just Nilbog and his minions moving to Brockton Bay and trying to turn it into a new garden (I'd like if is Nilbog because he is an interesting villain, despite being over the top lunatic and having pure horror powers- I'm a fan of horror powers, btw, especially monsters creation

). Red Handed are ominous as hell (they either paint their hands with a red color, their powers have red effects or they just wash their hands in their enemies' blood), Adepts- another religious group?!?, the Orchard -Parahuman Greenpeace Terrorists ?? :lol Oh, we also have Heartbreaker as a potential threat. I was right about the fact that he will be a threat in the future. Fuck, I barely know this MONSTER yet I hate him more than I hate 99% of some truly heatable characters in this story. This tells a lot about Wildbow's genius capacity of writing a character- he makes you hate someone so much despite never getting a single paragraph with that character doing or saying something (a hate based only on what other characters are saying about him).

Adepts. Self professed magic users. One page of information, listing names and powers. Another page with the PRT's information on them: a series of codes and symbols I didn't quite follow, numbers inside colored circles, squares and diamonds. From what I could gather, they had a low threat level, moderate crime rate, moderate 'engagement' level, low activity level. Led by Epoch, a time traveler.

I put the folder away carefully, picked out another. Lost Garden. High threat level, low crime rate, low engagement level and moderate activity level. Leader, Barrow. A powerful shaker, similar to Labyrinth, only rather more single-minded in what he did. He couldn't leave the altered area he created around him, only extending it slowly to an area while letting it fade behind him, an effect described as 'a depression' with overgrowth extending into the surrounding neighborhood. Tattletale's own notes in the file suggested he was making slow but steady progress towards Brockton Bay, and that he had been since the portal appeared.
I flipped through the rest of the file. What kind of people gravitated towards someone like that? Apparently a lot of very young parahumans, boys and girls around Aisha's age, had gathered around the middle-aged Barrow. A little creepy, when I imagined that collection of capes and the resulting dynamic.

Gosh, Adepts are like the evil version of Myrddin (poor Worm Gandalf), they believe that they're wizards despite only having their powers because of some parasite aliens burrowing deep inside their brains and affecting some normal functions. Their boss is a time traveler, which isn't a good news because time powers are scary shit especially if they're controlled by villains. Imagine what this Epoch can do to someone if he wants to ruin their life. I wonder if he can also control the additional timelines that he invariably creates due to his time traveling. Time shenanigans are usually complicated stuff so everytime when I'm thinking at the whole possibilities, I'm starting to feel exactly how Lisa is feeling now- crippled under headaches

.
Lost Garden is not Nilbog plus his "children", but is something almost equally creepy. A dude with Labyrinth like powers, attracting kids in his cult? For what? My brain refuses to think at the full reasons behind this man's need to have such young adepts around him. Because I don't want to be creeped out more than I'm already

. But I can tell one thing: that the villains in this story are getting more and more disturbing with each new group being added to this apparently endless pile of evil and crazy people (and not disturbing in a - kill/mutilate everyone- or -bring the end of the world- sense but DISTURBING in a more close to reality way

).

It made a lot of sense. Tracking Jack's trail of destruction from the point he'd left the city, finding the point where Dinah couldn't or shouldn't be able to see, using them to narrow down possibilities.

Everything was arranged so it was in clear view: monitors, televisions, bulletin boards. Looking at the notes, the different colors, the disorder and the number of questions, it made me think of a kind of paranoid schizophrenia, seeing connections everywhere. Except she was right.

I still don't understand something. Why only Thinkers are affected by intense migraines and not Tinkers as well? I mean, both Thinkers and Tinkers belong to the only Classifications that receive informations from other Earths (if they want to know something related to their specialty, they can tell what they want and their Passengers start collecting information from all the other available Earths, transmitting the plans, solutions, blueprints, to their hosts, so the humans will know what to do. This is how I imagine their powers working: if Lisa want to know something about a certain person, her Passenger collects these informations and give her the whole database. If Defiant plans to build a plasma gun of mass- destruction, his Passenger will give him the smallest details of how to build the desired weapon. Bonesaw receives tons of informations about how to break, heal, change, mutilate, transform a human/animal body/brain, create viruses or even build mini-robots. I also imagine that they must develop an Mensa IQ- especially Tinkers- because their intelligence should be increased for it to accommodate with so many informations without the people completely breaking under so much mental exhaustion

). So, why Tinkers never experience the same migraines as Lisa, Accord and Dinah experience as Thinkers? Maybe the way they receive information is different from Thinkers, their brains are better adapted or we don't know yet how they feel after finishing complicated projects because we saw more from Thinkers's POV than from Tinkers?

"This setup… all of this is too much for you," I said. "You're trying to handle too much at once."

"Ironic," she mumbled, "Coming from you."

I took a seat on the edge of the desk. "You're bombarding yourself. You should try to tackle one thing at a time."

"Can't. I focus on one thing, I let others fall by the wayside. Too many bases to cover."

"Maybe you should let things fall by the wayside," I commented. "Is it so important to understand where powers come from? Isn't it enough to run the city, watch out for enemies, and maybe devote weekends to figuring out this business with Jack?"

"Wish I could use my power more," Lisa said, "Give you advice so you're going in with your eyes wide open."

But this was Lisa, temporarily bereft of her powers. A mere mortal.

She frowned. After a few seconds, she said, "Give 'em hell."

"Will do," I said. I approached her, then leaned down and wrapped my arms around her, while she was still sitting in the chair. One gesture, as if it could convey everything I couldn't say with words.

"Give 'em hell." If only you know what Taylor is planning behind your back, Lisa, if only you know...But she'll give hell to everyone, including to heroes, if they'll provoke her or not listen her, that's for sure

.
Aww, this goodbye meeting between these two was so damn informative and sweet, these girls have the best platonic relationship in the entire story. Every single gesture between them say more than thousands of words

.
I think I'll stop liveblogging Worm for a whole month if Lisa will tragically die

. I can bear (or barely bear) anything bad happening in this story (body horror, monsters with monster face, monsters with human face, horrifying experiments, atrocious tortures, villains with God complex, power- hungry villains, child abuse, the death of my favorite characters, even an Apocalypse with very few survivors) but have Lisa dying and my heart can't take this DRAMA. Yes, I'll still keep this liveblog -not even Lisa's death will make me abandon this story that I love so much- but I will need some time to recover from having my heart broken in pieces. I'm so very attached and emotional involved with her character that I almost feel like she's a real person and close friend of mine

.

I approached the PRT headquarters. Many of the bugs I'd infested the building with on my last visit were still there, and the occupants of the building had adjusted to them. Nobody gave a second thought to the bugs that made contact with them, unless it was to absently slap at a mosquito or brush an ant from their leg.

I could sense Tagg in his office, talking on the phone.

Miss Militia, Clockblocker, Flechette, Vista, and Crucible stared, eyes wide. Miss Militia's expression was one of concern, her eyebrows furrowed. She was still, compared to the PRT officers around me, who were shouting at me, asking questions I couldn't answer. I bowed my head and closed my eyes, as if I could find the same kind of refuge Tattletale had been seeking, find a stillness by shutting out the chaos of the outside world.

I'd said my goodbyes to my team, as much as I'd been able.

"I surrender."

Ok, she did what I was expecting from her to do even from the very start of this Arc. She surrendered to the bewildered heroes, offering them a decisive victory over her that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. She did what Dinah was expecting from her to do probably even from the day when she was saved and her tormentor was killed. Her decision was predictable, I have to admit, but what she's planning to do further, when she'll be arrested by heroes is an unknown to me

. She can either go to Birdcage (which will be awesome because I want to see her interactions with Amelia and her father and imagine when she'll meet Trickster and her nemesis...Lung. The whole prison will explode due to the sheer magnitude of their confrontation -the man who become stronger as the fight go on vs the girl who become better at improvisations and strategies as the fight go on :lol) or she'll become a Ward on probation (who'll give everyone some killing headaches with her constant refusal to play by the rules

).
Now I can only imagine what Piggot would have said about the ruthless and sinister warlady Skitter's surrender:
Piggot: Even with Skitter's unexpected surrender, the world is still an ugly place as long as parahumans still exist. Parahumans are the definition of everything that is ugly, corrupted and amoral in our world, they're literal Hitler and literal Satan and...
Everyone was staring at her like she was a fucking biggot. Which she was.

Now, how Tagg will react?
Tagg: With Skitter's surrender, now the world is a safe place for humans and parahumans alike. We finally captured this evil thug, we all did it, but the main victory is mine because I was the one who convinced her that her path in life was wrong and so hurtful towards all of the honorable and virtuous people. I just offered security and peace to people and their families and the possibility to live in a world without threats, damage, revolting injustice...
Everyone was staring at him like he's a fucking idiot. Which he is.

Anyway, despite her personal opinion about parahumans (an opinion that I'll never agree with because: I love parahumans even more than non-powered people and there are a lot of good parahumans around who fight for a better world or to just find their place in a world sometimes hostile to them), Piggot was a better person and a better Director than Tagg (I mean, I barely know Tagg, but the few scenes I saw with him are enough to cement my negative opinion about him and I don't think it will change anytime soon

).
We're going to see the consequences (for everyone who know her) of Taylor's decision next time.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

Let's read Worm and its sequel Ward by Wildbow (One chapter/every day)

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