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

blackarrow · Mar 7, 2019

rafuki22 said:
Nope.

You don't know ME, man, you don't know me

. I'm a very stubborn and tough bitch, despite the appearances.

rafuki22 · Mar 7, 2019

blackarrow said:
You don't know ME, man, you don't know me . I'm a very stubborn and tough bitch, despite the appearances.

I don't know you,true.
But i know that you are not ready.

Random Lurker · Mar 7, 2019

blackarrow said:
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 ).

Did you ever watch any of the DC Animated Universe series?

A lot people described Piggot favorably as a white Amanda Waller: tough, pragmatic, dislikes/is suspicious of supers, keeps her head out of the clouds and her feet on the ground, understands grey morality, willing to compromise if needed but is still definitely not on the main characters' side (though that changed later).

In contrast, Tagg is more of a General Wade Eiling: just as tough as Waller, but inflexible and believes his own propaganda about right and wrong.

blackarrow · Mar 8, 2019

Random Lurker said:
Did you ever watch any of the DC Animated Universe series?

A lot people described Piggot favorably as a white Amanda Waller: tough, pragmatic, dislikes/is suspicious of supers, keeps her head out of the clouds and her feet on the ground, understands grey morality, willing to compromise if needed but is still definitely not on the main characters' side (though that changed later).

In contrast, Tagg is more of a General Wade Eiling: just as tough as Waller, but inflexible and believes his own propaganda about right and wrong.

I'm a HUGE fan of anything DC (comic books, animation, TV series, movies), though I like Marvel more and I surely noticed the similarities between Piggot and Amanda (the funny thing is that I like Piggot more than I ever liked Amanda) but I never noticed how similar is Tagg with Wade (probably because Tagg appeared in just two scenes, not enough for me to see how similar they're; gosh, I hate Wade so I won't be surprised if I'll end up hating Tagg just as much if no more (knowing how good Wildbow is to make you hate his villains). I mean, I personally believe in harsh punishments and vigilantism and I usually see the world in black and white rather than grey but I'll NEVER EVER put civilians' lives in danger like Tagg nonchalantly did. This and I'll be willing to work with villains like Undersiders if they can really help against a bigger threat than them controlling some territories).
When I said that Wildbow is a DC/Marvel fanboy, I wasn't wrong

.

blackarrow · Mar 13, 2019

Hello, my always curious friends. As always, one of your favorite livebloggers at her duty, which is me, ready to bring more Worm(s) in your lives, whatever you like or not

. Last time, Brockton Bay Protectorate managed to score a very important victory in their entire history of victories?, capturing the Queen of Boardwalk, without any collateral damages or loses by their side. FINALLY, the heroes won a clear and intelligent victory. Now, I'm sure that all of you are going to ask me: How drunk or high I'm right now?

Well, I'll spare you from asking the same question over and over again, by simply answering you: THIS IS WHAT Tagg will think after Taylor's surrender- that heroes finally won and this victory happened thanks to his brilliant strategy and restless war against bad guys- so I'm just saying what I'm SURE he'll say

. Kind of funny/sad how such a victory of heroes was possible only because a precog girl advised Taylor to surrender, implying that only this way the world will have more chances to survive to Jackapocalypse. Otherwise, they would have never managed to capture Taylor, because this is how things work for heroes in Worm: always be two steps behind villains

. So, from now on, Taylor can either become a Ward on probation (ironically, replacing Sophia), can be send to Birdcage (that would be my favorite scenario for her- I'm also sure that the prisoners from there will escape one day and that day is not very far away), or be secretly recruited by Alexandria to work for Cauldron -oh, Gosh, NO. This is the last thing I want to happen because: I DON'T LIKE Cauldron, I DON'T LIKE Alexandria anymore and while I can see Taylor accepting to work for these bastards if they assure her that what they're doing is important for the survival of humanity, I feel like working FOR these people is not exactly right for her, she deserves to do more awesome things than selling her intelligence and power to Cauldron

. Maybe, work WITH them when the time will come, if all the other heroes will accept this deal, but not work FOR them, this is the difference. Anyway, I don't think Taylor will be ok to work for people who might kidnap people from her territory and turn them into new Case 53 (because if they kidnap random people for their experiments, who'll stop them to probably kidnap Taylor's people? This is how Taylor or anyone else (with enough morals) in her place will think. You can't just trust someone willing to sacrifice innocents that they'll not sacrifice- on day- people you care for).
What we have here...a new Interlude. Ok, please be Bonesaw or Heartbreaker's family Interlude, please be Bonesaw or Heartbreaker's family Interlude. I mean, I want my little ~~adorable~~ bloodthirsty mad scientist ~~artist~~ Interlude- her backstory about her family (maybe her trigger) and how she met Jack. I don't want another Cauldron Interlude because...there are already a lot of Cauldron Interludes and, honestly, not only that I dislike Cauldron but I also find them pretty boring. S9 are FUN to read about: they're so ridiculous crazy and evil- I want them to perish in the most horrible ways possible BUT they're also so entertaining and fun to read that I can't wait to read more and more about them and want more and more to see them getting their comeuppance

. As for Cauldron, they're are other fuckers, yes, but not even 50% as entertaining as S9, they don't have humor, they don't talk about anything else but economics, businesses and the science behind their vials and they didn't even got involved in a fight to see how badass they can be (Contessa's fight was offscreen so this doesn't count)- well, even if they'll fight in the future I'll still not find them interesting enough once they stop fighting and start talking about booooooooooooring subjects. Maybe other readers find them interesting but all I can feel about them is general dislike and.... boredom. Not even an intense hate, like I feel about S9 or nazis. This is my opinion, don't shoot me. Its not like I criticize Wildbow's work, far away from me (his work is generally awesome and I only have few things to criticize but Cauldron being boring is not one of them), I just...this is how I feel about these villains, ok

?
The only parts about Cauldron that I find exciting enough are: Case 53s and the mystery behind their vials with powers (I still think that either they somehow captured an alien- like a Wormverse version of Roswell- and they're draining it from its powers OR Doctor Mother somehow communicate with aliens, convincing them to give her some of their powers that she keeps bottled in vials) Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus #1)

The Number Man swept one finger over the touchscreen display. Two point six billion dollars here, a hundred thousand dollars there.

Money was the blood of civilized society, its currents running through everything and everyone. Where money was insufficient, things withered. People starved, sickened and died, constructions eroded, even ideas perished. Where funds were plentiful, the same things blossomed with new life.
And money was, in the end, little more than the product of collective imagination. A slip of paper or a coin had no value beyond that of the material it was fashioned of. It only took on a life of its own when people as a whole collectively agreed that certain papers and coins were worth something.

....Speak of the devil and he shall appear...."siiiiiiiiiiiiiiights" Another Cauldron Interlude, this time...Number Man being at the center of attention. This dude who bullshit supercalculate EVERYTHING and take care of Cauldron's money. He's thinking about money, money, money. I have to listen to this song
in order to stay awake enough to finish this borefest (I pray that Number Man will NOT talk about money and economics for the rest of this Interlude cause I'll flip my shit if this will happen. I'd rather prefer to have Bonesaw torture me than to listen to this guy explaining how money RULES THE WORLD

). Other personality traits for his character besides his obsession with money? Pretty please. Hope he's a handsome nerd who's secretly a badass fighter in the same manner he's a talented and devoted accountant. Maybe my hopes for him are too damn high but who knows...

He armored himself in normalcy. He wore only a button-up shirt and thin-rimmed glasses, his blond hair cut into a short style that was easy to maintain. To anyone on the street, he wouldn't appear to be anything but a bookish middle-aged man.

Ok, we have a description of this Number Man. A blond nerd wearing glasses. Exactly how I imagined him to be- except for being blond. He's also described wearing ONLY a shirt and glasses, like...what a minute. NO PANTS

? Seriously, he doesn't wear pants? Why it said here: only a shirt and no mention about pants? Not a single mention about pants (well, I'm sure he must wear pants otherwise people will stare at him like he's crazy and lets not talk now about how embarrassed/flustered Contessa, Doctor Mother, Alexandria and Legend must feel around him if he's only in his underpants...or WORSE- no underpants at all :lol). But lets continue with this joke about him being pantless because I want to be entertained, ok

? Lets find funny shit in the most mundane things. I'm not sure I want to be in Contessa or Doctor Mother's place and have to work with this Number Man every single say while he walks almost half naked around. Especially if he's also drop dead gorgeous on top of everything, I'll be unable to do my work since my attention will be concentrated over more...convenient stuff

. These women are either too used with Number Man's oddities or they're some really tough bitches. I actually admire them for their STRONG will to keep up with their activities despite these...distractions.
In meantime, Legend seeing Number Man casually passing by: I have a husband that I love and I'm loyal to him...I have a husband and I can't never cheat on him not even with my thoughts. I have...Oh, God, please, help me...
Suddenly, Eidolon screaming at the impertinent accountant: Put some damn pants on, man.
The conclusion: Life is not always boring in Cauldron :lol.

The Elite, a villain group expanding a subtle control over the western seaboard of America, putting pressure on rogues to bring them under their thumb as performers, thinkers, designers and innovators. He could see the numbers, extrapolate from the data to gauge their rate of growth. They were developing too slowly to be useful, not developing fast enough to outpace the predicted end of the world. They'd reach Brockton Bay in about a year. There would be time to decide if countermeasures were needed in the meantime.

Gesellschaft, a nationalistic organization half a planet away from the Elite, was moving large funds in anticipation of a small war. Money was being laundered through cover operations and businesses, almost impossible to track, unless one was able to take in the bigger picture, to see the intent, the beginnings and endings of it. They were investing in transportation, and their fundings seemed to decline at the same time some notable arms dealers in Southern Europe found themselves richer by an equal amount. The Number Man flicked his way past a series of windows detailing the transaction amounts. Arms dealers who specialized in nuclear materials. This was pointing towards terrorism, and not on a small scale. Troubling, but the system would address them. The major hero group in Germany, the Meisters, would attend to the problem. It didn't warrant an expenditure of Cauldron's full resources, not when things were already on shaky ground.

He laid a trap, calculated to start falling into place when the gas was bought in the time window. The main accounts that the Gesellschaft used to manage their funds would be frozen by the time the meeting was underway. They'd likely find themselves at the meeting, the product delivered, but with no funds to pay for it.

Ok, still businesses, but this is an interesting stuff to read about. At first, I was under impression that Number Man wants to help Gesellschaft (the nazi large group that Night and Fog worked for before they accepted to be PURIFIED) by funding them while they're planning a nuclear terrorist attack, and I was like: WTF

! but I was wrong and he actually managed to sabotage their deal with the mass-destruction weapons dealers, funding them only to retreat the money afterwards and attract the attention of heroes over these genocidal bastards. Good, you're fucking good at this shit, Number Man, but I'm sure you didn't do it from the goodness of your heart, you must have ulterior motives for this checkmate at nazis little play of yours

. Anyway, I absolute agree with stopping a horrible nuclear attack, almost no matter the ulterior motives (except for planning to recruit them afterwards, of course. Those bastards deserve ONLY to serve as food for Leviathan and Behemoth, not as possible allies, not even for something like Cauldron. Even Cauldron should have their own principles after all, right?

)
Elite (probably similar with Ambassadors)- another villain group deciding to visit Brockton Bay, or rather known as the Heaven of Villains, you know, as tourists, nothing suspicious or threatening about them, everything is just fine. Just a small news in Brockton Bay newspapers, right under sport and weather sections :lol.
Number Man can see everything in numbers and calculations when he uses his power. He can ruin everyone' shit with the OP UNBEATABLE POWER of MATH. I can see him being an excellent COMBAT TINKER, if not the best one that Cauldron have. I imagine him bullshit super-calculate every step he takes to attack or defend himself, every step his enemy takes to attack or defend themselves, how to precisely and efficiently destroy his enemies by attacking their weak points, he can make the laws of physics his bitches without too much effort

. Yes, I can see him being badass in fight just like he's when he's playing with world's economics. A badass and very smart SUPER-NERD not liking to wear pants. Number Man seems to be the most interesting Cauldron member so far

.

The C.U.I. had bought a parahuman. Not so unusual. Higher rates, as of late, but then, the C.U.I. faced a slight chance of an Endbringer attack in coming weeks. They would want to bolster their forces, add parahumans to their peculiar team.

Tattletale had been actively separating herself from the Number Man, issuing new accounts to the Undersiders and her organization. Not so surprising. Eidolon had outed him, announcing the Number Man as a Cauldron-involved cape to a crowd.

The King's Men were in debt. Easy enough to manage an anonymous donation, keep them afloat for another two months.

In the meantime, they'd let things carry on like they were. Faultline would make contacts, she'd find like-minded individuals, and through her, Cauldron would uncover enemies, to be eliminated in one fell swoop.

No, this was a threat from within.

And exactly when I started to like Number Man only a little, he fucked everything up by being the one who alerted Cauldron about Faultline's little adventure of finding out who ruined her crew's lives and sending Contessa to give her a "warning". Of course, he could have give her the warning himself, and there would have been the same results, but I think that he would rather have others do his dirty work. Damn pervert fucker. Worse, he's more than ok to eliminate everyone that Faultline is going to contact, this sounds like he's a pretty amoral and rotten person. No different compared with Doctor Mother

. You're such a monster under that mask of a mundane geeky man, aren't you, Number Man? I bet he doesn't have anything against what Cauldron are the best at doing: experiments on humans. After all, someone who consider the money being the most important thing in the world is not exactly a very moral- grounded person, right

?
Glad that Tattletale decided to stop working with Number Man. She always seem to take the same decisions that I'll take myself if I were in her place. There's no safety in working with such people who can turn against you anytime

.
I remember that C.U.I. is basically China of Earth Bet and they're recruiting parahumans. Weird, they don't have too many native parahumans that they need to recruit/buy? from other places? And suddenly I want to know more about Bet chinese people and how they fight to stop worldwide threats from destroying their country (there's a thing I want to criticize about Wildbow's work: his tendency to put asian people in a non-favorable light

. Apart from Jessica and Lily, there aren't too many non-evil asian people. I have some chinese and japanese friends and there are all very ok people; while I don't like too much China's political system, I love this country for its people and rich and millennial culture. Hope that Bet China is not portrayed as a superpower obsessed with world conquest or an isolated military dictatorship).
King's Men makes me think at England. Everytime when I hear about King or Queen, UK is the first name of a country crossing my mind. Well, maybe I'm wrong and they're not heroes working for the King of UK, but villains working for an arrogant asshole calling himself King. Anyway, I'm curious about these new groups of villains/heroes and I hope that I'll have the occasion to see them in action in the near future.

When the Simurgh had attacked Madison, she'd copied Haywire's technology to open a gate to a building much like this one. A research facility. The portal had dumped the buildings, soil, plant life and all the residents into the city on Earth Bet, costing Cauldron a horrific amount. Even a stockpile of formulae had been lost.

In each cell was an occupant. Large metal plates engraved with numbers helped track who they were, matched to the numbers hidden in the right 'arm' of the tattoo that each subject received; a series of white dots that looked like nothing more than areas where the tattoo hadn't taken.

The cells on the right were new test subjects, lost and angry. He didn't hesitate as he walked past them. The angry words they spat in alien languages were nothing to him. Their glares and hatred less than that.

Their powers were only a small consideration. It was a rare parahuman that didn't try to move beyond the boundary of their cell. There was no forcefield to stop them. They inevitably ignored the warnings and gestures from those in neighboring cells, stepping free, or they used their power, teleporting free or lashing out at one of the staff. The Doctor, the Number Man, Contessa.

They learned after the first time.

Simurgh did actually something good (I bet that she isn't even aware of the good thing she did) fucking with Cauldron's resources and money and freeing some of their prisoners. With all their precogs and Thinkers, Cauldron still are NOTHING compared with the Mother of Endbringers, they're like clay in her hands. Not that I'm by this Endbringer's side, far away from me to cheer for an Endbringer, especially for Simurgh (yes, she's my favorite Endbringer, but I'll like her more if I'll see her buried under her tons of wings and feathers, gasping for a last breath while being merciless destroyed by Scion's restless golden beams

) , but I dislike Cauldron so much that every blow they take is positive in my eyes, no matter from which side it comes. Endbringers were never humans, they don't have morals, they should not care about humans, they don't have mercy or empathy like a human should have. They're "pardonable" if you think at them like some very intelligent animals who like to play with their pray but ultimately, they're still animals, lacking a human core. On the other hand, Cauldron are humans who should care for their human peers, yet they kidnap them and subject them to some horrifying treatment, without giving a fuck about how they feel, how they think, about their families/friends that probably are looking after them, that are devastated because they don't know anything about them anymore

. Look here, Number Man not giving a fuck about his prisoners. They're humans who treat their peers like animals (I still don't care about their reasons for doing the shitty things they're doing because, as I said and keep saying for new readers, as long as the methods are ethical wrong, no reasons can be excused

). Endbringers are animals who treat humans like their prey because this is all they know to do. Who is the most morally bankrupt here? This reminds me of Gunnerkrigg Court -I recommend reading this webcomic cause is one of the best mythological/fantasy webcomics and Tom Siddell is an excellent storyteller;

in this webcomic I usually HATE Anthony Carver (a father who treat his only daughter like shit only because he can't get past his personal drama...THEIR personal drama) more than I hate Loup (an all powerful amoral god who manipulate the shit out of the main character). Because I can't expect from an animal god to have the same morals as a human should have. And a human father who reject his own daughter and blame her for his wife's death is a total piece of crap.

Zero-twenty-three, with a placard beneath. 'Doormaker'.

Two-six-five. No name. The Number Man knew him well enough, regardless. He'd been too young a subject when he'd taken the formula, his brain too malleable for the required changes, too slow to form natural immunities and defenses. Not a problem with regular trigger events, as it was. The boy's eyes had burned out of his sockets as he'd tried to process the vast amount of information he was capable of perceiving. Even now as he was reaching his late teens, the boy's mind had never developed beyond the mental age of eight, and his eyes remained like twin ashtrays.

A partner to the Doormaker, capable of granting clairvoyance, seeing whole other worlds at once. It left most subjects incapacitated for a week after use, and it overrode any other perception powers.

Second floor basement. He stepped out of the stairwell and progressed down the main hallway. There were rows of cells to either side of him. Two thousand and forty-eight parahumans, each with a number, both on the wall of their cell and in their tattoo.

The faintest brush of air touched his left hand, so faint he might not have felt it while he was walking.

They got a name, more space, some quiet.
He paused. Again, a brush against his left hand.

"Damn," he said, meaning it.

It was on the fourth floor.

I have to stop calling Case 53s like this because I absolute hate this label applied to these people that are so sympathetic to me

. I think I'll start calling them Irregulars, just like Weld suggested in the rejected Shatterbird/Witness Interlude. Irregulars sounds good to me, makes them feel more like people than some...numbered cases.
Gosh, Wildbow really love to make Cauldron appears more shitty with each paragraph. These assholes refuse to provide their most loyal Irregulars with NORMAL ROOMS, instead they keep them in cells, despite the immense services that Doormaker and the POOR soul Clairvoyant are bringing them. They'd be so fucked without these two guys, everyone would be able to locate them and at least try to arrest them. They should offer these Irregulars luxury living conditions, not cells. As usual, Cauldron being nothing but ungrateful assholes

.
I swear, Cauldron kind of remind me of SCP Foundation, but with plenty of differences between them. SCP doesn't create "monsters" like Cauldron , they capture monsters to protect the whole society from them. SCP did more stuff than Cauldron ever did in order to protect people, they're also more ethical in their actions than Doctor Mother and her Not-So-Merry-Band-of-Boring-Assholes (yes, I can say that being a D-class person for SCP is a living nightmare for anyone but lets not forgot that D-class are usually criminals, rapists, trash of society, not innocent people kidnapped and experimented on. No big loss for anyone, neither the wrong thing to do when they're terminated

. Yes, some humanoid/sapient SCPs- even relatively harmless ones- are treated like shit and this is bad and sad but I'm not saying that SCP is an ethical organisation, I'm just saying that they're more ethical than Cauldron). Basically, Cauldron < SCP Foundation and there's a huge possibility that Wildbow is an avid reader of SCPs. This man is so damn cool

.
WTF, Number Man is accompanied by a...ghost? Ok, I'm sure that they're an invisible Irregular but I'm surprised that they're relatively free in comparison with the other ones. Either he trusts this Irregular too much or is not an Irregular, but another Cauldron's employee with some uncontrollable Stranger powers.

He took the stairs two at a time, moving with an uncharacteristic haste. He also spoke, more to himself than his companion. "There are others who are supposed to attend to these matters. Which suggests the escapee is smart, is strong enough to deal with them, or… as is more typical for the denizens of the fourth floor, interesting."

In typical cases, the agent seemed to momentarily reach out to search the entire world, many worlds for reference material, to seize on the subject's conception of a 'bird' or conception of 'movement', to build up an understanding of things that didn't exist in the agent's realm of experience.

As though it were penciled in the air, in thread-thin, elaborate notation, he could see the geometry and the numbers unfolding across the world around him, through the air.

He withdrew a pen from his pocket, spun it around one finger. The notation billowed around it, and through it, he could see the movement of the pen, the plotted trajectory, the velocity and rotation of it. The numbers clicked into place with a speed that made the rest of him, his very perceptions, seem like slow motion.

Here and there, there were incongruities. Painting an entirely different picture. His companion was here, near him. Bending the most fundamental rules. The Custodian.

That said, he pushed the door open.

Cauldron calls the aliens who create the Corona Pollentia in order to give powers to humans as Agents, but I kind of like more how Bonesaw calls them: Passengers. Passengers who "travel" between endless worlds to find the perfect hosts who can take them and help them reach their objectives. Agents seem too business like and less metaphorical and it happens to like metaphors more

.
So, Number Man's companion is an Irregular girl called Custodian. She seems to be permanently invisible (or maybe she's afraid of the Irregular who escaped and she's using her power) but Number Man can still "see" and "feel" her through numbers and geometry floating in the air. This is how he sees the world: as numbers, equations and geometry. Not sure if he can turn off his power or is always on. His mind works like a supercomputer, he 's almost like a machine trapped in a human body than an actual human. He's a combination between Tattletale (knows everything about everything with the power of MATH) and Accord (finds quick solutions at difficult problems)+ a supercomputer mind. If I wasn't certain that he got his power via Cauldron, then I could have bet that he triggered because...he wasn't good at math and everyone ridiculed him

. Then...BAM...he became the HUMAN-COMPUTER :lol. I find his power fascinating and now lets see how badass he can be in combat while trying to capture the fugitive Irregular. Honestly, I want the Irregular to kick Number Man's ass and run away

. I'm gonna cheer for the Irregular, of course, but I have a gut feeling that Number Man will win

. After all, this is his interlude.
Next time: Number Man vs the Escaped Irregular.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Mar 18, 2019

Hello, my lovelies. Welcome to the second part of Number Man Interlude, one of first Cauldron's main players who got his own Interlude. Honestly, so far, the only interesting part about this Number Man is his power- he's a very powerful Thinker who might be very well an equally powerful Combat Thinker, depends of how well he's going to do during the next fight when he'll try to stop an Irregular from escaping the facility. Number Man is my friend's favorite Cauldron's member and I usually like a lot badass nerd type of characters but I don't feel anything about this character other than intense dislike -he doesn't seem to have any morals as he doesn't give a fuck about what the people behind him are doing (he's also the one who's helping them doing what they're doing). Without him, they won't have the MONEY and RESOURCES necessary for their operations so he's an important member of their team, indispensable, I should add

.
Last time, I compared Cauldron with SCP, with SCP winning plenty of moral points in front of Cauldron, but I forgot to tell you something pretty funny about my first experience with SCP. Few years ago, someone recommended me to read SCP, telling me that everything written there is 100% real, without any doubts about their authenticity :lol. I was stupid enough to believe that person and the first SCP I've read about was Crawler's brother, SCP-682 - SCP Foundation, and I was like: holy shit, this creature must be an escaped experiment or, since he is sapient and can talk, maybe is an alien :lol. Then I started to read more and more SCPs and their credibility started to drop, especially when I reached some SCPs capable of bending physical laws or being literal sentient computers/toys. I was like: holy shit, nothing is real, they can't be real, I believe in aliens and illegal experiments but I don't believe all this bullshit I'm reading here. Besides, they couldn't tell the world about so many supernatural creatures/things captured by a secret organisation without risking being silenced by the respective organisation. Nobody was so recklessly brave. Yes, I was fooled once, but I'll never be fooled twice

.
Now, back to the fight Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus #1)

"We escape," three-zero-one-six said, his voice a rasp, heavily accented. "Together. I stop the spirit, you take-"

He stopped, turned to face the Number Man. The pair was separated by an expanse of a hundred feet, in an open area with a high ceiling, only the lighting around each standalone cell allowed them to see one another.

Gosh, this Irregular talks like he's basically two persons trapped in the same body, but in different dimensions/planes of existence, who can switch with each other

. Maybe is similar with Circus that I believe is composed of two people or like that hero(es) Zig-Zag who died in Leviathan Battle. Or maybe he's like Bonesaw's Frankie monster, Murder Rat, two persons messed together in the same body without anything extraordinary bizarre about them apart from SUPER-SCIENCE. Anyway, he's aware of the other person and they seem to cooperate. I think the "spirit" is the Custodian, thus confirming my idea that Number Man's companion is invisible. Yet, Irregular 3016 can see her or is aware of her existence. Let's see how Number Man will manage to stop this escape attempt.

"You'll miss," the Number Man said. "And I'll close in and strike you, using my pen and my hand. I can see the stress points of your body, clear as day. I can shatter your skull like a glass, and it would be an exceptionally painful way to die."

Ok, I'm convince now that Number Man is just as good as fighting just like he's with computers and economy. He's clearly a Combat Thinker and while he doesn't seen super-strong and doesn't have super-speed either, he's incredible agile and fast because he can bullshit supercalculate every single movement he can do in order to dodge the attacks of his adversary+ he can bullshit supercalculate every single attack coming from Irregular 3016. His power is pretty bullshit OP, but there are already a lot of OP powers in this world so I'm not surprised to see Number's Man's REAL power in action (maybe Contessa is just like him, that would be an explanation for her being so successful against Faultline's Crew). However, I'm pissed that these fuckers are so good at fighting and while I can see Skitter finding smart ways to score a win against them (at least against Number Man), that won't be a very easy feat because this man is also an excellent strategist and a very experienced killer (I can see him as a killer because of how chill he's while talking about murdering the Irregular with enough cold blood to fill up the entire facility), knowing how to kill someone using a...pen

. Skitter fought against ridiculous powerful parahumans like Lung and Mannequin, but these guys SUCKED in terms of strategy, they probably never heard that being smart in a fight is just as important- if not more important- than being strong. While Number Man is a ridiculous powerful parahumans+ a strategist almost or as good as Skitter+ he have zero morals about killing people. You know what? I want to see these two parahumans fighting one against each other

. Skitter will finally have a not so easy to defeat adversary and I'd like to see with what incredible smart solutions she'll come to defeat Number Man. So far, the only combatants that Skitter was unable to defeat in a one-to-one fight were Leviathan (UNDERSTANDABLE) and Jack (also understandable because this psychopath have years of fighting and killing tons heroes and other villains and mundane people. I think he kills people in his sleep too, while sleepwalking, he just can't help himself

). Maybe Number Man will be the third one or the result will be a tie, I don't know. I just want this fight to EXIST.

"Reyner died. This… it's a purgatory."

"Ah," the Number Man replied. "Morals."

Another delusion perpetuated by society. Useful, valuable, much like commerce, but still a delusion. It only served its purpose so long as it was more constructive than not adhering to those beliefs, but people often lost sight of the fact, made it out to be something it wasn't.

He'd suddenly lost a great deal of interest in this conversation.

"I have a family. A wife and children."

"I told you. You died when you came here. You left them some time ago."

"No. There was never a chance you might escape."

Number Man is either delusional as hell, he's a psychopath or he just like to mess with the poor Reyner that he just defeated

. I think that he's a psycho who doesn't actually believe the bullshit that he's talking about (Reyner being dead and in purgatory all this time) he just wants to torment him further and play tricks with his already fragile mind, and he's also a delusional asshole who really believe himself to be the savior of mankind. I'm disgusted by this Number Man, he's making fun of his victims right after he took them away from their families and destroyed their lives

. Poor Reyner (my theory that he's two people in one was proved to be false because he's apparently just a single person. But I don't understand why he was talking about himself like he was two people not one before his fight with Number Man. Weird). This poor man's wife and children must be looking for him, sad how one moment their father was perfectly okay and they enjoyed his company and the next moment he's a "monster" trapped without escape in an facility from another Earth, in the process to be brainwashed and forever forget his identity and his family. A fate worse than death that he doesn't deserve, I think it was better if Number Man would have killed him instead of letting him live like that. But in order to mercy kill someone you need to have MORALS, a notion that is so alien for Number Man that he's even disgusted by it and pretend to not exist for real. Well, I'm disgusted by you just as much you're disgusted by the "delusion" of morals, Number Man. You're a despicable psychopath. Smart, badass, even polite enough, but still a despicable psychopath

. Your whole purposes are greater delusions than the idea of having morals. I think I hate this guy more than Doctor Mother. At least, she's more pleasant than him and not so crazy, as far as I know

.

The Doctor frowned. "It would mean less voluntary subjects."

"Very likely."
The Doctor frowned.

The Doctor frowned. "And we're behind schedule, even if we ignore that. I'd hoped to use Shatterbird or Siberian."

"Skitter turned herself in."

They'd lost Coil, had lost Hero, and the Triumvirate had dissolved. They were in the process of losing the Protectorate. Everything they'd put together, falling apart over time.

I'm not sure if Doctor Mother doesn't like Number Man's idea to kidnap more people for their experiments because she developed a bit of conscience in the meantime, starting to feel guilty for what they're doing to the poor people OR she's afraid that if they'll continue with their illegal activities they'll attract more unwanted attention over them, risking to have the whole world against them, everyone joining their forces to stop them, just like they're doing with Endbringers. I'm not sure if this woman have a conscience or she's just cautious and doesn't want to have her work destroyed more than is already. Because she's aware that Cauldron suffered losses after losses lately and she probably just wants to reduce the next loses as much as possible. From Triumvirate, only Alexandria and Eidolon remained by her side, Legend being too disgusted to continue to help her, all of the Irregulars in Wards and Protectorate decided to make their own team, there's a goddamn portal in the middle of Brockton Bay and if Tinkers will discover how to create/open more portals, then Cauldron might be in danger to be discovered wherever they're hiding

. As for their IDOL, Coil, he was the one who fucked them up, starting the whole chain of loses. He was the one who released Echidna so he's 90% responsible for everything that Cauldron have to face now. Skitter bears 10% of responsibility because she provoked Coil, but I think Coil would have still fucked Cauldron's plans even without Skitter's meddling. At least, Coil did something good in his cursed life

.
You lost Shatterbird and Manton? Ha ha ha, I'm laughing at your losses :lol. You're pissed because you lost two mass-murderers psychopaths BUT thousands over thousands of people are happy because these mass-murderers fucking died and there won't be more victims on their killing list anymore

. I'm by those thousands over thousands of people's side, just to let you know, Mad Doctor Mother and Number Amoral Man.
Looks like Dinah doesn't support/want to help Cauldron because she send Skitter to heroes rather than sending her to Cauldron. Cauldron WANTS Skitter to do their dirty job, but Dinah just decided against (I'm sure that Dinah's many ways of future showed her Cauldron's plans too but maybe she didn't liked them so he took a different decision. She either doesn't like to use wrong methods even for the best purposes which it will be AMAZING and the RIGHT thing to always do, she saw that Cauldron are doomed to fail no matter what they'll try to do and she doesn't have any hopes left for them or she just doesn't like the fact that they're kidnapping and enslaving people, this reminding her of the times where she was kidnapped and enslaved

). I definitely agree with Dinah for not giving a fuck about Cauldron, no matter her reasons, and this decision of hers make me really appreciate her.
I still don't get how they manage to kidnap so many people. I know that they took Newter when he was injured on battlefield but all the others? Only Newter was mentioned to be injured, its kind of tragic-funny to imagine that they opened portals in random houses and kidnapped the first persons they saw, taking them away from their families through the portals. Now I have this imagine of a father and husband sitting at table with his family, taking their dinner then a whole portal opens right in the middle of the table and Contessa climbs out from it, smiles to the wife and kids and then grabs the poor man and drags him after her through the portal

. Both awkward and tragic as fuck. But knowing Cauldron, who hate to have people pay attention on them, they probably kidnap their victims when they sleep in their beds, in the middle of the night, or they follow them in some isolated places, making sure that they're no witnesses around. There's no explanation for how the whole kidnap system works so I think everyone is free to make their own scenario in their mind

.

Jacob carefully stepped around the expanding pool of blood. He crouched by the body, then grinned.

The other face wasn't smiling at all. It was grim, a stark opposite, just as their hair colors were nearly opposites.
We're nearly opposites in more than hair color.
"He can die after all," Jacob mused.

I'm worried he'll get up all of a sudden, even with his guts hanging out and half his blood on the ground.

Jacob stretched, and wet blood ran down his arm as he raised it over his head. He still held the murder weapon. One of the murder weapons. It had been a shared effort.

Ok, time for Number Man's BACKSTORY. When he was a teenager, his real name was Jacob and he practiced killing people with a partner of his. He was a murderer, a psycho, nothing surprising here. He's still a murderer, he just choose office work instead of field work. But now that Doctor Mother ordered him to go back to field work...LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR

. Ironical that he have a biblical name, Jacob, the father of the twelve founders of the twelve tribes of Israel, basically the Patriarch of Israelits (if you're surprised how I know this detail despite being an atheist, as I said many times, you should know that I've read Bible, Coran and Tanakh - the hebrew Bible because...I was just curious to see how people of different religions interpret their beliefs also the stories there were more like mythology for me than anything else and I'm very fascinated by anything related to mythology

). Getting a little religious here, Wildbow, eh? Also, while Jacob is enthusiastic with his murder, his partner doesn't seem to be too happy because he believes that their victim will get up. Maybe is a parahuman with regeneration power? I guess Jacob bullshit supercalculated how to apply the best killing hits to this person they killed to be sure that he'll die for certain, despite any power he might have. But he's still suspicious that the man is dead for real. Maybe if you try to cut off his head he'll certainly die? Everyone will die if you cut off their heads, I think. I don't know, I'm just a random witness at your murder and I'm trying to give you my humble and amateur opinion

.

"But you feel it, don't you? The rush?"

"Yes," Harbinger said.
"Forget the stupid names and spandex. Tell me your heart isn't pounding, that you've never felt more alive than this."

Gosh, this is shocking

. If this is what I believe that is then is shocking and will clarify a lot about Number Man's past. I was under impression that Jacob is Number Man but he is someone else actually. Harbinger is the Number Man or better said, WAS the Number Man before this guy changed Jacob's team with Doctor Mother's team. Jacob DOESN'T TALK like Number Man, he talks like someone I know very, very well

. A big fucker, one of the biggest fuckers of Earth Bet and probably countless other Earths. I remember that Harbinger was a member of S9 that Bonesaw is going to clone. As for Jacob...do you really think I can't recognize you by your unmistakable way of TALKING, JACK

? Of course I recognize you but its pretty odd that you changed your Jacob name into Jack. YES, Jacob is Jack, I'm sure about this even without scrolling further down. I was wrong first time but I can't be wrong this time. Only Jack can talk like this and only Jack can be so excited to murder someone in cold blood

. Fuck, Number Man was a S9. I'm not surprised because he's clearly a psycho and judging by the fact that almost every single S9 member was/is a psycho- except maybe for Hookwolf the Babies Killer, who was a nazi before being subtle manipulated to serve Jack and Burnscar- who was more like a fucked up woman who killed people to "cure" her severe depression rather than a psycho- Number Man/Harbinger isn't a very sane person either. Cauldron fucking recruited an ex- S9 member. They recruited a serial killer. WHY I'M NOT SURPRISED AT ALL? We're talking about Cauldron here. They'd work even with Hitler's clone if he'll be willing to help them.

"Jack," Jacob said. He kicked King's body again. "Fuck it. He always called me Jacob, practically purring.

His little killer in training. As if I could match up to his Gray Boy. I want to be more than that. Get out from under his shadow."
"Okay… Jack."

I'm so very happy when I'm right about something

. Hello, Jack, you fucker, it was pretty easy to recognize you, btw. I think that even Scion will have troubles with S9 Army of Clones. Siberians, Crawlers, FUCKING Mannequins, Harbingers with the power to make MATH their bitch and so on...When he'll see them, Scion will rather be like- while talking in his mind: I remember that I have some kitties to save from a tree. This is more important than anything else right now. Bye, humans "flies away faster than the speed of light"

. Well, I'm exaggerating a little, but, seriously...who's gonna take down these guys once the cloning process will be over? Even if they're at half of their originals' powers, they're 10 of everyone, batshit crazy and Jack is excellent at leading them. I think that the heroes+ the villains who'll eventually help them will find Echidna's Battle something like child play compared with this HELL.
Speaking about Scion, now everything is more clear for me about what will happen in the future with Jack and Scion. Jack's real name is Jacob. Jacob was the "father" of Israel. Scion or rather Zion is the synonym for the biblical Israel. Jacob's people made the Land of Israel their home. Jacob/Jack will take control over Scion/Zion, making him his world destruction weapon. This is foreshadowing as fuck and I was hoping that Wildbow will not go in this direction because its too predictable but I think now that he'll GO in this direction (unless he'll use some very good twists to change the direction

). I will be ok with this predictable end of the world, of course, but I still hope that Wildbow will have some surprises for me, given his obviously love for twists and turns and making this story pretty unpredictable even when it appears to be predictable

.
Wildbow went full religious on us but I think that he went more for an actual..."DECONSTRUCTION" OF RELIGION than anything else. Jack/Jacob have a biblical name but he's a sadistic psychopath who'll probably turn a benevolent alien/"deity" into a homicidal one, showing people that their savior became a mass murderer controlled by a mere mortal. Then we have Fallen, a religious group praying to Endbringers, the monsters who prey on humanity. These apocalyptic monsters are basically Gods for Fallen. Hell is already located on Earth, with Brockton Bay at its capital, Heaven doesn't even exist, not in the sky where giant aliens are floating unruffled neither on Earth. Man, I'm curious to know how a religious person sees Worm, with its depiction of religion. So, if there are religious people here, can you tell me your POV, if you don't mind? If you don't want, then its ok for me, I was just asking nothing else

.

"You want to fight?" Jack asked. The smile had dropped from his face.

The look in his eyes… hungry.

So, they killed King, who was the leader of S9 before Jack taking over. I remember that Jack ordered Bonesaw to create only a single clone for King and Grey Boy. Grey Boy because is too dangerous and uncontrollable. I can't actually wait to get to know this psycho who's probably a child by Bonesaw's age or maybe a little older. Another evil child but if is a child for real then he must be REALLY FUCKED UP if everyone seem to be fascinated/afraid by him. Maybe even more FUCKED UP than Bonesaw herself. And we know how Bonesaw is. I think I'll be fascinated with his character because there's something fascinating in a twisted way with evil children. Their innocence appropriate to their age mixed with their insane minds/evilness is a CREEPY combination, yet a darkly charming one. I don't know, I'm just fascinated by children, even evil ones

.
King was a Master since they're talking about "mind control" here:

"We could lie," Jacob said. "Tell them he used mind control."

No wonder why this bastard called himself King. An arrogant Master who saw himself as a king lording over his more or less mind controlled people. Well, this fucker deserved to die so this is the first time when I agree with Jack over a murder

. Too bad that we're going to have a clone of him. The only positive thing I can say here is that: at least is not another Tinker

.

The Number Man set the costume down. He picked up the knife. The same one he'd used to stab King in the back, buying Jack time to open the man's stomach.

The Number Man was working to save lives, and he killed as a matter of kindness. Jack considered killing a matter of fact, and any life he spared was only for his own twisted ends.

In a roundabout way, he used his power for killing, for destruction. Jack had been gifted with a power that was good only for killing, but the Number Man harbored a suspicion that Jack was more than that.

Some were well vested in mechanical details, drawing a great deal from it to fabricate their work. Others had little idea about the technical aspects of what they created, relying more on instinct and creativity, relying more on their agents to draw up an idea of how their work would function.

Was Jack, perhaps, in particular sync with his agent in mindset?

I wonder how Jack and Number Man were able to resist King's mind control long enough to get their upper hand over him and kill him. But maybe he trusted them too much to use his power on them all the time besides the attack was a backstabbing executed by Number Man, something that King wasn't probably expecting at. He didn't had time to fight back. Number Man admits that Jack is a monster but he sees himself as a lives savior, despite not being very different compared with Jack either. They're both monsters, Number Man is just too delusional to admit the sad reality

. At least this nerdy psychopath still consider Jack his friend so he's capable of limited emotions, too bad that the only person he cares about is...Jack.
Interesting little detail about my favorite Classification. I think that the hard-working and really smart Tinkers are/were: Defiant, Bonesaw, Dragon, Kid Win, Mannequin, Blasto, Tecton -the Chicago Wards cool Tinker that I still hope that I'm going to see him again in this story because I liked him quite a lot

.
The lazy Tinkers who let their Passenger do almost all the work for them are/were: Bakuda, Leet, Squealer, Chariot.
Anyway, lazy or hard-working, all of them should be someone that nobody in their right mind should EVER cross

.
So, Number Man believes that Jack is in a very good relationship with his Passenger and his Passenger is a psycho just like him? I won't be surprised if this is true. Nobody understands BETTER a psycho than another psycho :lol.
Finally, I finished this Interlude. Despite being about Cauldron/one of its main people, I found it to be very interesting and full with little details that I didn't noticed until now, precious information and tons of foreshadowing. The only character(s) that I didn't intense disliked/straight up hated here were Reyner and Number Man's POWER. Yep. I actually love his power

.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

Nobody · Mar 18, 2019

blackarrow said:
I remember that Jack ordered Bonesaw to create only a single clone for King and Grey Boy.

Its been awhile since I read Worm but I believe it was only Grey Boy he said that about.

Xexilf · Mar 18, 2019

Also, i dont think we have proof that King had any real mind control ability. They just thought about claiming that to get away from what they did.

Birdsie · Mar 18, 2019

I think you're seriously drawing Number Man as way worse than he actually is. Don't get me wrong, he is a really bad person, but not quite the outright psycho you say he is, at least not in my eyes.

In my opinion, he was trying to put it into perspective. From the family's and world's perspective, Reyner is dead and gone. The person he used to be doesn't exist. There is only a test subject left, there in the Cauldron lab, in a purgatory, awaiting what comes next. Also I'm not sure I remember well, but I think Number Man did offer to kill him, or kill him quickly, or something like that. Or I may be remembering wrong, which is probable. And he doesn't seem to be disgusted by morals either, just largely apathetic towards them, otherwise he'd be sneering and treating moralistic people like scum.

He seems to be more concerned with society, with its delusions of money, happiness, satisfaction, and agreements and concepts like friendship or morality, which, in his eyes, humans use as a polite front for maintaining order and having life make sense. Which, in a way, is funny, since, when you squint, that's almost like him trying to mathematize human psychology, literally. So, even if it's morally bankrupt, I think we can both agree it's fitting for "The Number Man."

Anyway, I'm not trying to say he's not a bad person, just saying you've really blown him out of proportion in that segment. Either way, I've really enjoyed the review.

SlainDragon · Mar 19, 2019

Numberman is more of a Sociopath than a Pyschopath. He doesn't enjoy killing people, he just doesn't care about it.

blackarrow · Mar 19, 2019

Nobody said:
Its been awhile since I read Worm but I believe it was only Grey Boy he said that about.

Yes. I looked back when Jack told Bonesaw to clone everyone else, except for himself, her and Grey Boy. Yep, sadly, we're going to have 10 King, like there weren't enough crazy superpowered assholes

. 10 hypothetical Masters. I'm starting to believe that I wasn't really joking when I said that even Scion will have second thoughts before fighting them :lol.

blackarrow · Mar 19, 2019

Xexilf said:
Also, i dont think we have proof that King had any real mind control ability. They just thought about claiming that to get away from what they did.

Ok, thanks. I just thought that Jack was telling the truth since I don't know about King's powers. But I'm still convinced that he was a Master, otherwise he wouldn't have called himself King. Well, we have Marquis and we had Kaiser who are not Masters though, despite their codenames. But I choose to believe that King was a Master because if Jack was talking about convincing others that King used mind control (no other power but mind control) then the others must know that he had some Master abilities, not necessary mind control but something close to. My two cents analyze

.

blackarrow · Mar 19, 2019

SlainDragon said:
Numberman is more of a Sociopath than a Pyschopath. He doesn't enjoy killing people, he just doesn't care about it.

Sociopaths are just as bad as Psychopaths, if not worse. They don't have any empathy, mercy, moral qualms, conscience, nothing from what a normal person have. They could kill their whole family without flicking a muscle or ever feeling bad for what they did. I'm actually more afraid of sociopaths than psychopaths. Most psychopaths serial killers I've read about have families that they genuinely love despite committing atrocious acts on other people. I remember reading about a psychopath who killed and raped (in this order) blonde women and his wife declared that he was the best husband and the most attentive dad for their kids. She was very shocked that her husband was capable of such monstrosity. So, there are psychopaths capable of human emotions but they're too sick and depraved to stop themselves from killing other people. But sociopaths? They can't feel anything for anyone but themselves. They only care about themselves (some of them don't even care about themselves, like Alec) and they're capable of some really fucked up atrocities just to prove their point, whatever it is. Or if they get bored enough and want to...spice their life. Alec is not so bad because he allied himself with Undersiders and they have a relative ok influence on him. But imagine the same Alec working for S9. Fucking nightmare. On the other side, another sociopath, Cherish, considered S9 being her new family. And look how she behaved, look how she toyed with people's lives without giving a fuck. She even planned to betray her new family and get them under her control. Until she got her own comeuppance, of course.
I really, really hope that not all Hearbreaker's kids are sociopaths or even if they're, maybe some of them can at least pretend to act like normal people and try to adjust to a normal behavior once they'll be probably free from their father's influence.
There are some well-adjusted sociopaths in real life, I'm sure about and I have all my respect for them trying to act like normal people and not hurt people left and right (maybe because they're afraid of what society must think about them if they're violent or they genuinely want to be normal- despite not being normal- but at least they try). But most of them are people that you have to keep plenty of distance away from them if you love your life. I never meet a sociopath in my work (I'm working with children coming from abusive families/institutionalized children and most of them have some serious troubles

) but I hope that I'll never cross my path with one. Cause I just don't know how to communicate with these people without enraging them or making them uninterested in our discussion/meeting. I'm not exactly Jessica, neither someone brave enough to face a sociopath without feeling like I'm walking on eggshells with them. Plus, despite not having most of human feelings, they're still very capable of hate and revenge. If you anger one, not even devil himself can save you from his revenge, especially if they make from getting revenge on you a purpose in their life. They'll never ever forgive you neither stop from fucking you up. Well adjusted sociopaths probably are not that bad because they can control themselves but...its better to not enrage them either.

Birdsie · Mar 19, 2019

blackarrow said:
They could kill their whole family without flicking a muscle or ever feeling bad for what they did

Not really. Sociopaths don't have that degree of detachment, but psychopaths do. You seem to have mixed up the two terms somehow. Either way, a sociopath and psychopath still feel emotion and attachment, just differently. A sociopath would still be sad and grieving if his family died. A psychopath would be more annoyed that he has been inconvenienced with such an event.

SlainDragon · Mar 19, 2019

blackarrow said:
Sociopaths are just as bad as Psychopaths, if not worse.

I definitely have to disagree with this. A sociopath will only kill someone if they need to, or if it benefits them. A Psychopath will kill someone just for the enjoyment of it.

blackarrow · Mar 19, 2019

Birdsie said:
Not really. Sociopaths don't have that degree of detachment, but psychopaths do. You seem to have mixed up the two terms somehow. Either way, a sociopath and psychopath still feel emotion and attachment, just differently. A sociopath would still be sad and grieving if his family died. A psychopath would be more annoyed that he has been inconvenienced with such an event.

Right, I mixed up the two antisocial personality disorders, even if they're- let's be honest here- pretty similar in many aspects. I study now (and do voluntary work) to become a child and family social worker. I think I should start studying, in particular, child psychology, in order to know how to interact with troubled children (I know a scary number of kids with serious behavioral troubles) but usually there are psychologists who take care of them, isn't my field of competence (at least, not so early and while being a volunteer). I want to understand these poor children better and try to help them, in the limits of my professional capabilities. My mother always tell me that I'm not good for this work because I'm too emotive (I always cry when I'm alone after a day of work with these children; I can barely control myself not to cry during my job or not to beat the living daylights of some really abusive assholes of parents that I had the displeasure to meet face to face. I'm an emotional mess like this as probably most of my readers already noticed from my very honest- about my feelings and my ideas- liveblog). My father always tell me to do whatever my heart tells me to do so...even if I think that my mother is RIGHT, I think that being a social worker is a challenge for me to become a better and stronger person in the future and making this world a little better place for its most innocent inhabitants, besides animals- the children.
Number Man is a cold and amoral sociopath (and also a bit of a psycho, this is my opinion) who is- despite all his bad traits- still capable to care for another human being who's not himself: Jack. He obviously still consider Jack his friend despite being aware that Jack is a monster who doesn't care about anyone else but his passion for killing, destruction, bringing as much misery as possible and having people do whatever he tells them to do after he reduced them to his playthings. Number Man was friend with literal Satan and he misses their friendship. I can actually imagine Number Man GRIEVING when Jack will eventually die, puzzling the hell out of everyone around him. If he'll survive until then, of course

.

blackarrow · Mar 19, 2019

Birdsie said:
I think you're seriously drawing Number Man as way worse than he actually is. Don't get me wrong, he is a really bad person, but not quite the outright psycho you say he is, at least not in my eyes.

In my opinion, he was trying to put it into perspective. From the family's and world's perspective, Reyner is dead and gone. The person he used to be doesn't exist. There is only a test subject left, there in the Cauldron lab, in a purgatory, awaiting what comes next. Also I'm not sure I remember well, but I think Number Man did offer to kill him, or kill him quickly, or something like that. Or I may be remembering wrong, which is probable. And he doesn't seem to be disgusted by morals either, just largely apathetic towards them, otherwise he'd be sneering and treating moralistic people like scum.

He seems to be more concerned with society, with its delusions of money, happiness, satisfaction, and agreements and concepts like friendship or morality, which, in his eyes, humans use as a polite front for maintaining order and having life make sense. Which, in a way, is funny, since, when you squint, that's almost like him trying to mathematize human psychology, literally. So, even if it's morally bankrupt, I think we can both agree it's fitting for "The Number Man."

Anyway, I'm not trying to say he's not a bad person, just saying you've really blown him out of proportion in that segment. Either way, I've really enjoyed the review.

Ok, despite my intense dislike for this man, I looked better at the few things that would make him and his actions a little more (but not too much) understandable and look what I found:
1) His antisocial personality disorder (sociopathy) : not his fault that he was born like that. His brains are wired differently compared with a normal and sane human being. He's amoral and insensible at others' suffering (when he convinced Doctor Mother to continue human experiments, she frowned: fear of repercussions now that people know about them? qualms of conscience? I don't know exactly why she frowned but she frowned while Number Man clearly didn't give not even a 0,2% of fucks).
2) The influence of his Passenger over is behavior: I think he's partially influenced by his Passenger, this influence making him see people as simple statistics/numbers that are important for his objectives rather than human beings with their own lives and feelings. Its kind of clear that this is how he sees people, he even see the numbers in a literal sense of word. He also sees only the mathematics/abstract part of humans behavior and interactions (as you mentioned) because he's unable to understand these complicated (for him) relationships so he "simplifies" them according to his own capacity of understanding (he reminds me of Bitch here who see human relationship from the perspective of...a dog. But, unlike Number Man, who always remained the same, she's much more better now. Like 30% better now and the percentages are keep growing

).
3) He's so fucking cold because...he doesn't wear pants. So, since his feet are always cold, especially given that most of Cauldron building seem to be metallic, his soul and mind are cold as well. The coldness always expand to every angle of a human's body and mind

.
4) He's a pretty cool villain, despite being Shatterbird levels of BORING+ 10% more boredom when he doesn't use his power.
5) He makes Doctor Mother, one of my least 10 favorite characters in this story, seem almost SYMPATHETIC compared with him, which say a lot

.
6) There are INFINITE powers around but only a few are as awesome and original as his power.
7) Can't wait for his path to INTERSECT with Skitter's path. Hope they'll fight and their fight will be memorable.

Basically, he's an interesting villain, but I won't feel sorry at all for him if (when) he'll be subtracted from the story. We have enough amoral assholes to keep adding more.

PS: he said that he'll kill Reyner if he'll continue to attack him/try to escape. He never actually wanted to mercy kill him, despite his statement that he kills with "kindness". Well, this "kindness" might be a PROBLEM that not even he knows how to solve it.

Ok, I think I'm counting one or two math puns here, somewhere

. Damn it, Number Man, you're REALly infecting me, aren't you? And since I HATE math, this is kind of scary

.

blackarrow · Mar 19, 2019

SlainDragon said:
I definitely have to disagree with this. A sociopath will only kill someone if they need to, or if it benefits them. A Psychopath will kill someone just for the enjoyment of it.

Ok, fine, sociopaths are less bad than psychopaths, but they're still capable of murder mentally unstable people that you should avoid as much as you can or not become their enemy if you can't really avoid them. There are also pretty ok sociopaths like Alec (I personally find him to be the most agreeable sociopath so far in the story but I don't think I'll want to spend 5 minutes with him alone

)

blackarrow · Mar 24, 2019

Hello, my friends. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: If you want to learn more about psychopaths and sociopaths and the small differences between them, then come to my liveblog and I'll guarantee that you'll learn a lot about recognizing a psychopath from a sociopath and viceversa

. IMPORTANT REAL LIFE LESSONS. Ok, before I'll be banned for free ad, I'm gonna stop for now

. Looks like there's another Interlude right after Number Man one. Well, hope its about a much more pleasant person than that insufferable nerdy sociopath Number Man, who was not pleasant at all. Well, maybe some readers like him as a person, but I can certainly tell that I don't like him at all. On the contrary, he's almost everything I dislike in a person. Plus, he works for Cauldron, being actually one of the leaders (now, I'm more and more convinced that Doctor Mother is not the only person in charge there, Number Man might hold the same power as her in this organization if he can convince her to continue with their FUCKED UP illegal experiments and she seems to listen him so quickly. This and he's the one with all their money and resources and strategies. Without him, Cauldron will fall like a very unstable castle of cards

). But, everyone have their right to like or dislike or be indifferent to a certain character. This new Interlude might be about Doctor Mother or Contessa, just to continue the collection of Interludes about REALly insufferable characters, especially when we're talking about Cauldron people

. Its like these people have a competition between them over who is the most insufferable and evil compared with others. I won't be surprised if Doctor Mother will prove herself to be worse than Number Man in her Interlude or Contessa will be the REAL bitch in her Interlude. Interesting how Cauldron stopped to be so much borefest to me, maybe because its people never stop to make me dislike them even more than I already disliked them everytime when I find new details and information about them and their plans :lol. I guess that disliking someone more with each of their apparition is exactly the opposite thing of being bored with the respective character(s).
I even have a cool title for the team made by Doctor Mother, Contessa and Number Man: NOBLE SCIENTIFIC TRIUMVIRATE. No, there's nothing noble about these people (well, you can say that their purpose to save the world- if this is their purpose- is noble, but every single step they're taking towards this purpose is the exactly opposite of noble. And, in the end, their noble purpose doesn't matter anymore if their steps are so heavily tained

), but I couldn't find a better attribute for Contessa's codename; Doctor Mother is "scientific" and Number Man is, of course, the "Triumvirate" part. Right, enough with babbling, lets go with this brand new Interlude.
Btw, before I'll start, I have a dedication for Cauldron, from the bottom of my heart:
PLAN
(P+L)(A+N)
PA+PN+LA+LN
Your plan has been foiled!

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.....
I swear, Number Man INFECTED me. Now I can't stop the torrent of math puns everytime when I'm mentioning this asshole. Fuck you, Number Man, fuck you to INFINITY and beyond

.

Worm in a single phrase:
Why will we never run out of jerks?
Because they always multiply.

~~Number~~ Man, I'm getting out of my hand... Interlude 21

How did the others do it? They entered into a room and people respectedthem.

Sabah walked through her territory, a black, bipedal unicorn just behind her.

Sabah is Parian, right? Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, a Parian Interlude right after Number Man Interlude, from a sociopathic fucker to one of the most pleasant characters. Good, good, I'm going to savor each moment of this Interlude, that's for sure

. Ok, we have Sabah trying to be a villain and failing miserably, I'm sure about. She's not made to be a villain, not even a sympathetic one. Sympathetic villains are still villains and no matter how cool they're and how much we like them, they can still steal, threaten, lie, torture, terrify, kill, be absolute jerks if they're provoked and get revenge on people who wronged them. Tattletale is a good person at core, but she still use her power to fuck with people's mind, to steal from them or bring them down without any hesitation, Grue is a nice guy but he'll beat the crap out of people who threaten him, his sister or his teammates, even going so far to kill them. Bitch is our adorable dog lady but...a lot of people that she personally mutilated will never find her adorable. Skitter is someone who care a lot about her people, her teammates and her father, but she did (and surely she will continue to do) some pretty awful things, besides the obvious good ones. Faultline Crew are the best family and every individual is a nice person, but they're still mercenaries who'll probably work even for the worst people if they're paid well enough (plus they're not afraid to be brutal and violent in their job). My point is that, as much as we like them for their good heart, hidden depths and friendly behavior, lets not forget that sympathetic villains are still capable of doing some ugly things because...they're ultimately villains, duh

.
But Parian is NOT a villain, no matter how much she's trying to be one. Flachette? Yes, I can see Flachette becoming a sympathetic villain -just to be together with the girl that she loves and probably being disgusted by the whole Protectorate's dark secrets she found about- because while being a kind-hearted girl, she's also reckless and violent and she have no qualms to hurt people if she considers being necessary. But not Parian, there's not a single bad bone in her body. She's such a failure of a villain, a failure that I find quite adorably enjoyable

. Keep going with your efforts, Sabah, keep being the Dark Parian that you really suck at being. At least, your new costume is DARK enough

.

Was it that she'd inherited territory that Bitch had controlled, once? Territory where people had been afraid to go outside for fear of being attacked by dogs? She'd tried to make it clear she wasn't that kind of leader, had tried to emulate Skitter, even, but it hadn't worked. Gifts she'd brought in were rejected outright, or taken wordlessly, as if people thought she owed them something for being in charge. She'd saved people from the Teeth… saved them from extortion, threats.

Not even a thank-you.

She's trying to be like Skitter? Ha ha ha ha ha, my poor naive baby :lol. You'll never be not even half as Skitter, and I'm not referring at the good things that Skitter did because I'm sure that you can do as much good as she did, but at Skitter being a scary leader, using fear to terrorize her enemies and some really sadistic strategies to fuck them up, using fear to even make her own people and teammates listen her, ultimately becoming like a twisted good version of Bakuda. While Sabah is capable to brutally attack someone when she's angry enough (Bonesaw would have been so fucked without her UNFAIR Tinker advantages back when Sabah's "animated" dinosaur stomped her), I just can't see her pulling out a Skitter and scaring the living daylights of other villains or attacking a hero and bringing them very close to death or filling someone's eyes with "living" stuffed maggots, not even if its absolute necessary for her to act like this. This is how I'm seeing Sabah, as someone ready to do everything to protect her loved ones, including murder, but incapable to be randomly cruel, merciless or scary

.
As for "Not even a thank-you " despite her doing so much for people in her new territory, this phrase reminds me of a very cool scene in X-Men Apocalypse

where Quicksilver managed to save everyone' s ass from the exploding mansion in like 5 seconds but nobody ever said a single "thank you" to him. Bunch of ungrateful assholes.

So, Sabah, don't feel sad "hugs", some people are really ungrateful assholes. You have all my gratitude for being such a great and lovable character and person

.

High school had been hard because she'd immigrated from Basra with her family.

Being a girl in a male-dominated field, she'd drawn attention from one student.

She tried a clear 'no', and it didn't work. He'd gone away for a few days, then came back, making another casual hint about them maybe going out.

She tried a harsh no, laced with all the anger and frustration she'd been feeling, and she got labeled a 'bitch'.

The other students, friends or acquaintances of her would-be-paramour, wound up hearing and turned on her.
Her schoolwork started to suffer, because she didn't have the study groups, nobody willing to work with her on projects and presentations.

Her father's terminal heart attack had been another straw on the camel's back. Alone, it was nothing, but in combination with everything else… Sabah had triggered on what was only one in a long string of nights spent alone, stewing in frustration, fear and anger in her dorm room. She'd glimpsed something bigger, something that was beyond her recall now, and she'd gained her powers.

It hadn't lasted long, that motivation. Even before Leviathan came and dashed the college to pieces, she'd had doubts about whether it was what she was meant to do.

Even before the Slaughterhouse Nine had killed her mom, her aunt, her cousin, and her roommate, she'd been feeling hopeless, desperate.

Sabah's backstory is HEARBREAKING

. She's from Iraq and she immigrated in US, hoping that she'll find a better life there, away from the war (now I wonder if there is an Iraq War going on on Earth Bet. World Trade Center Attack ever happened in this world? I'm going so far to imagine some parahumans US soldiers fighting against parahumans terrorists and Iraq being destroyed with Tinker made superweapons. Fucking wars, man, fucking wars; wars are in the top 3 of things that I hate the most, no matter who started the war and for what reason

). But instead of finding a better life, she found only jerks and monsters (both literally and figuratively). That boy was a huge piece of shit for not accepting a refuse, even Greg was pretty ok when Taylor rejected him. Leviathan and his "human" versions, S9, ruined her life beyond any fixing. Still, she didn't lost her mind, she didn't turned evil, she didn't start hating the world world for failing her. She remained the same sweet and peaceful person she always was. She's more bitter which is more than understandable, but she's good and strong and sweet

. If I try to put myself in her shoes, I can say that I'm not nearly as half as strong as she and I'd have either go crazy (crazier than I'm already) or make a life purpose from hunting S9 down and getting revenge for my family even if I'd probably fail and get killed.
She puts herself down so much, she's self-deprecating and I feel so sorry for her. If the last Interlude was about a sociopath asshole who can get as much money as he wants anytime but doesn't have any idea from where he can buy some DAMN PANTS for himself and I don't give a πece of crap about him, this Interlude is about someone that I love and her story and personal struggles made me already tear up. Parian is so fucking precious, can't stop hugging her "hugs"

.

Flechette:

Skitter showed up at PRT office and turned self in. They taking her to cell right now.

The heroes seemed as confused about this as Sabah was.

The reply was almost immediate:

Tt:I know. come 2 meet place from other nite asap. First floor.

Here comes the BOMB

. The Undersiders found about about Skitter's decision to finally give heroes a victory, after interminable failures. Everyone is surprised as I predicted and not only heroes. I'm sure that Undersiders and Ambassadors must be surprised as well and I can see Accord planning to kill Skitter for what he will probably perceive as being a betrayal (its very possible that he imagines that Skitter will tell heroes everything she knows about his Ambassadors and his plans- Citrine gave her Accord's plans with his own ACCORD and he knows that she already read them). I'm afraid for Bitch's reaction the most, as I predicted before, Tattletale will probably blame herself for not "seeing the obvious signs", Grue will be angry, Imp will be angry because Grue will be angry, Regent will not care, but Bitch...Bitch will feel like a loyal dog who was abandoned by her master without any word or explanation - she won't believe at first that Skitter "betrayed" them, she'll be in denial hoping that Skitter might have hidden plans that nobody but her know about them then she'll be so angry that she'll probably engage in doing some pretty violent things, realizing that Skitter indeed "betrayed" them, just like she wanted to do when she became a member of their team.
Bitch will be the most hurt and my heart will break again for the second time in this Interlude

.

And once the construction was formed, a shell that trapped the telekinetic energy within until it was heavy, she could move it as a collective whole.

She wasn't good at this. Navigating the streets, where they were congested with cars, or making her way through the areas where there was construction, littered with obstacles and pitfalls. At being a cape, at being an important cape.

Grue entered, and he was a storm of darkness, to the point that his body wasn't even visible.

"I kept it a secret because she asked me to and she's doing this because she thinks it's going to fix more things than it breaks," Tattletale said. She shifted position with care, as though every movement was painful. Even after she stopped, Parian could see her clenching her jaw, as if staving off waves of pain.

"There's two major issues we have to deal with," Tattletale said. "Accord is going to be one. The other is-

Bitch.

Yes, yes, Tattletale, Accord and Bitch are your biggest problems right now. Accord is not someone who would take lightly what he'll perceive as being a "betrayal" and not get revenge on the "traitor", Bitch is not someone who'll accept the "betrayal" and just continue to live as nothing happened. I was so right about Grue being very angry but I didn't expected for Tattletale to actually KNOW something about Skitter's plans, despite being in a very difficult situation because of her intense headaches (I so hate everytime when Tattletale is in pain. I hate anyone or anything causing her pain, even if we're talking here about her own power "hugs". Ok, I feel in the mood to hug anyone. Now, who wants, besides Tattletale and Parian, my irresistible hugs? They're free and they're irresistible

). Damn it, Tattletale is powerful even with her crippled power. Impressive.
More explanation about Parian's power that it wasn't really necessary for me because I understand her power perfectly. She have one of the most easy to understand powers, just fill up threads and materials with enough telekinesis energy to keep them together in the shape of moving animals, giving the impression that they're alive. In fact, I can understand pretty easy plenty of powers in this universe because Wildbow is very good at describing them and show how they work (plus I have years and years of comic books/movies/cartoons experience with superhero world and superpowers in general

) but even I have to admit that I had lots of troubles understanding Coil and Eidolon powers. Coil's power was the most headaches inducing power that Wildbow ever thought about and I was under impression that Eidolon could choose from his billions of powers which 3 powers he could use at a time until I got explained that he could only tell his Passenger what he'd like to do in a certain situation and his Passenger is the one who choose powers for him. Well, Eidolon is pretty OP but not entirely OP. My best friend told me that she had troubles understanding Coil, Number Man and Cody powers. Well, Number Man and Cody powers are pretty easy to understand if you pay enough attention but Coil...I think that not many readers got it until other readers who got it explained in details

.

The wolf cub was comparatively small. Adorable. Adorable and capable of turning into a murder machine the size of a pony.

Parian felt her heart rate pick up as Bitch approached, felt that sense ofdanger peak as they briefly made eye contact, before the girl moved on.

"Fuck it," Regent said, "I'll say it. Skitter's at the PRT headquarters."

"So? We break her out."

"She went there on purpose," Regent said, almost offhandedly. Carelessly.

"She makes plans," Bitch said. "She's smart like that. I'm not. I don't try to understand what she's doing."

Tattletale, nearly incapacitated. Grue, with his darkness a virtual storm around him. Regent and Imp, standing back, together. And Bitch. Stock still, radiating something more than tension. Restrained aggression, even.

"It doesn't mean anything," Bitch said, and her voice was harder. "It's a plan."

What did I said? Bitch is in denial right now, trying to convince herself that what Skitter did was a plan of hers, and nothing else (I personally think that Skitter have her own plans regarding her surrendering, but she also seemed genuinely prepared to listen Dinah by heart). She refuses to believe that Skitter abandoned them, hoping that once her plan will be successful, she'll return back to them as quickly as possible. Exactly like a loyal dog keeping high hopes that the master will return

. My poor heart breaks everytime when I hear Bitch not seeing herself as intelligent when the truth is that: she's one of the most intelligent non- Skitter, Non-Thinkers and non-Tinkers characters in the whole story. Being intelligent doesn't necessary mean that one should be excellent at making plans like Skitter is or playing chess with enemies like Tattletale does or manipulating equally crazy people into listening you without them questioning their blind loyalty like Jack does, or ruling in secret, for YEARS, a powerful organisation, without being discovered, arrested and jailed for your crimes, like Doctor Mother was very capable of doing. Bitch is intelligent because she can read people better than even Tattletale can do, she's intelligent because she was pretty good at making some plans that not even Skitter was thinking at, she's intelligent because, despite having zero social skills, she was still able to create her own social ties with people around her and get their respect, without necessarily maiming or scaring them, she's intelligent and capable to survive in every situation, no matter how difficult the respective situation is for her. She was a child who only helped herself and survived through her own powers (not just her supernatural power, but her mental and emotional strength as well). Bitch is intelligent and competent and I'll fight fangs and claws with anyone who'll say otherwise, including Bitch herself

.
I like the description of Bastard. He's like a wolf version of Bonesaw. We can say the same thing about Bonesaw without changing the context too much: Adorable. Adorable and capable of killing thousands over thousands of people with thousands over thousands of different plagues and viruses. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay....The most adorable things in Worm are usually the most fucked up things

. Except Parian, who's scared shirtless by Bitch. Awww.

Loyalty, Parian thought. Misguided loyalty, blinding Bitch to the truth, but loyalty nonetheless.

"It's important," Bitch growled. "You're supposed to be her friends, and you're talking about her like she's gone."

The pitbull seemed to take her cue, and began growling steadily. He was still growing, his body straining against the chain harness he wore.

Bitch is one damn loyal bitch, this is more than obvious. She also doesn't hesitate to be angry on the other Undersiders for believing that Skitter left them forever. I like how her anger influences her power- the more she's angry, the most she's using her power on her dogs, making them grow without probably even realizing this. She's using her power almost instinctively and I bet she'll be surprised once she'll realize that her dogs became hellhounds while she was trying to find excuses for Skitter's gesture in front of everyone. Parian is surprising good at reading Bitch, but Bitch is a pretty simple person so is not that hard to see her hidden depths, since there aren't exactly so "hidden"

.

"…Possibly literally," Grue said. "Accord?"

"I called him just after Regent and Imp showed," Tattletale said. "He'll be here at nine thirty, on the dot. Would have mentioned sooner, but we got caught up in talking."

"Granted," Grue said. He sighed, "God, I'm not up to this. Damn her to hell."

There was no reply from the group.

How many members of this group were voicing silent agreement? Parian shifted her weight nervously. How many people here had taken a life? All of them? Most?

"Accord," Tattletale said.

"Undersiders," Accord said.

Hope that Undersiders had enough time to clean up the lair before Accord's arrival. All they need now is to piss him off more than Skitter already pissed him off. So, hide yo unwashed plates, hide yo scattered clothes and leftovers cause Accord will go into a murderous rage if he'll see any of them

. Also, Tattletale really need to keep her mouth shut, restrain herself as best as she could from angering Accord further with her sometimes unnecessary babbling. The last thing I want now to happen is a spontaneous fight between Ambassadors and Undersiders.
Well, Parian, calm down, sweetie, not all the Undersiders are cold blooded criminals. Most important, they only killed (except for Regent and Bitch) in self defense when they fought against some really nasty people or to permanently stop the same nasty people from continuing to be a menace for them and non-nasty people. Besides, you tried to kill Bonesaw, remember

? Sometimes, murder is really necessary and I'll never judge a criminal if they have some pretty solid motives (kill people I personally dislike is one of the motives

)/they don't kill innocents or cause the death of good heroes (attention: I specified GOOD heroes, because we know that there are some nasty corrupted heroes still roaming around who just doesn't know when to RESIGN from their position of power "throws a glance at mrs Rebecca Costa-Brown")
Back to Accord, there is something that bothers me for a while. My suspicions that Accord might not be the ok villain that he appears to be. Lets be clear: I don't trust him, I see him as a lunatic man who became villain in order to...save the world, but not because he cares about people, but because the world is in such disorder that he can't tolerate anymore, but I also find him pretty fine, I share his pain and I understand him at a fundamental level. But I can't shake away the feeling that he was involved in Dinah's kidnapping. I mean, we know he was Coil's bestie =Coil needed something to help him achieve the absolute power over Brockton Bay, something besides his U+T allies =Coil needed a SOLUTION; Accord is very good at finding solutions and he probably heard about Dinah talking at her school about her power (he was in Boston in the meantime but he was also in contact with Number Man and since Number Man knows everything about everything like a Tattletale on steroids...

), Accord told Coil about Dinah or arranged her kidnapping, explaining Coil how to put his plan in execution in a flawless manner and...VOILA, Accord might be involved in Dinah's torment just as much as Coil, though not directly. I want so much to be wrong because I don't want to be disappointed and have my sympathy for Accord turn into pure repugnance. But if its true, then may God have mercy of Accord's soul if he'll be killed because I'm surely I won't have any.
We're going to see what Accord have to say to Undersiders next time.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Mar 25, 2019

I'm going to talk for a bit about Jack's close relationship with his Passenger because this is a very interesting detail about this psycho man-bitch. But, before I'll start any rambling about my piss poor theory, lets imagine Jack being captured by heroes :lol (this shit sounds more UNREALISTIC than any shit I've ever seen happening in Worm and I'd rather believe that Weld becomes a mass murderer and fall in love with Contessa who will share his love without any objections than the heroes...capturing Jack

lol:lol

-I don't have enough emoticons to express the fun I have now) and have Jessica try to help him. I can see the conversation between them going like this:
Jessica: Your real name was Jacob, according to your personal files. May I ask why...
Jack, all relaxed and smiles: Well, madam, when someone have Jack the Ripper, the famous artist who painted the londonese streets with the blood of prostitutes, as his idol, then isn't hard to understand why he decided to take this name as his actual name.
Jessica, shrugging: What kind of hobbies do you have, Jack, what do you like to do?
Jack, smiling in the most charming way he can muster: I like to kill, mutilate people in the most horrible ways someone can think at, convince others to mutilate and kill people and...that's all. I also like when some of them beg for mercy from me despite knowing that they won't find anything else but dread and agony.
Jessica: You seem like a very interesting man. Maybe I...
Jack: Are you going to help me escape so I can finally end the world?
Jessica, smiling in return: No. I'm going to cure you, to make you a better person.
Jack: ...........................
Well, classical Jessica, nothing new to see here

.

Jack have a special relationship with his Passenger as Number Man correctly observed (I think that Number Man have a pretty good relationship with his Passenger too and I can't stop imagining his Passenger shaped like...INFINITY SYMBOL for some reasons). I think there are only a couple of parahumans who are very close to their Passengers (I'm not counting here Echidna, who was basically drowned by her Passenger until almost nothing remained from her humanity at the end of the Battle. Or people more or less influenced by their Passengers like: Bitch, Miss Militia, Labyrinth, Accord, some of the Irregulars and so on). I'm referring at people who are not really manipulated by their Passengers but they work very close with them, like they're best partners for life

. Skitter is one of them, because her power can work even when she's unconscious so I guess that her Passenger takes the command when she's incapable to act. Plus her Passenger always seem to work very well with her, they're like in synch without Skitter being controlled/drowned by her Passenger when she's awake. Yes, she have suicide tendencies, just like bugs usually have, but now I realized that its not because of her Passenger's influence, but because of intense bullying she was exposed at. A lot of bullying victims think at suicide (involuntarily or not) and Skitter is not different either

. Her suicidal tendencies are in synch with her inner desire to help/save people no matter how hard she have to fight. Not her Passenger pushes her to suicide, but her traumatized mind/reckless/brave nature. Her Passenger actually help her to survive no matter what, protecting her when she can't protect herself for various reasons

. I can imagine her Passenger being shaped (if they can take different shapes) like a scarab beetle (because scarabs were very important in the egyptian mythology, one of the main Gods there being represented as a scarab-heated man and..I'm a sucker for mythology) and I'll call it Scarab. Her Passenger is a...good guy...or girl...or an IT, whatever

.
Now, Jack Slash's Passenger. I imagine it shaped like a blood stain called....Bloody. Just like Scarab with Skitter, Bloody works very well with Jack, helping him to understand better the other parahumans and control some of them (I noticed that Jack is very good at manipulating other parahumans without necessarily mind/emotion controlling them). Maybe Bloody is very good at reading other Passengers and see their weaknesses then it transmits the informations to Jack (without Jack being necessarily aware of the help he's getting from his Passenger) and Jack knows how to manipulate people based on the weaknesses of their Passengers- he can exploit these weaknesses and if the respective parahumans are also weak/crazy/too traumatized to fight back, then he can manipulate them. He almost manipulated Amelia in her moments of weakness and he tried to manipulate Skitter too when she couldn't discern her friends from her enemies. Bloody exploits the weakness of a Passenger and Jack exploits the weakness of a parahuman (its a possibility that Jack is also a Thinker, besides being a Blaster. Because he knows too much about parahumans' weak points and mindset, his apparently inexplicable knowledge make me think at a Thinker second Classification). Jack wants nothing else but to destroy and kill, Blood is more than happy to help him destroy and kill. Bloody must be a psycho just like its host. Probably this is the reason why it choose someone like Jack as his host and not someone else. Most likely Jack was crazy before his trigger moment and Bloody found the perfect host in its search for a host. I'm sure that Passengers and the adult aliens (I see Passengers as babies, ok?) must have their own personalities just like any sapient being. Hell, even animals have their own personalities and some of them mental illnesses, despite not being sapient. Aliens must have different personalities and Bloody is like a baby alien version of Jack.
Now I'm eager to read an Interlude dedicated to Passengers

. I'm curious and fascinated to see how this exceptionally talented author will see the world through the eyes of baby aliens. Or maybe an adult alien. He already did it once with Brutus and that Interlude is still one of the BEST INTERLUDES ever (I read it 4 times since then

). Aliens are more complicated than animals but I think that this kind of special Interlude won't be too difficult for Wildbow, given his inexhaustible imagination

.
Ok, these's something smelling like its BURNING here. Crap, its my brain

. I have to stop now, too many mindfuckery theories going in my mind all at once. Enough is enough. Good night.
HEADCANON for Jack: He changed his name in Jack to honor the memory of his IDOL, Jack the Ripper

. His other idols are Charles Manson and Ted Bundy.

ImperatorV · Mar 25, 2019

Passengers are really interesting, and what they are and where they come from will become very important in the closing arcs of Worm. Also Ward so far seems to have the relationship between passengers and humans as a big theme.

AmbarGriss · Mar 25, 2019

Do you think that the Fairy Queen is in synch with her passager or controlled by it?

blackarrow · Mar 26, 2019

AmbarGriss said:
Do you think that the Fairy Queen is in synch with her passager or controlled by it?

Well, I don't know too many details about Glaistig Uaine (I'm very interested to know more about her but...since most of the Interludes are about Cauldron "siiiiiiiiiiiiighs" and not about MORE INTERESTING and FASCINATING for ME subjects like: prisoners in Birdcage- I want to see what Amelia and Marquis are doing and to get to know people like Lustrum, Teacher, Rab Lat, String Theory and few others I can't remember their codenames right now; S9; Heartbreaker's family; more Nilbog...I guess I have to eat my curiosity for now and continue with Cauldron half borefest until I'll probably get what I want...at the end of Worm

). But, using the few informations I have about her, I think that both possibilities are viable. Look how I see her situation:

-FIRST POSSIBILITY- BEING CONTROLLED BY HER PASSENGER: She's obviously crazy but maybe her Passenger was the one who drove her crazy. When she's talking, she's talking on a multitude of voice that I interpret being the collective voices of all the avatars of the deceased that she absorbed (in reality- Passengers with memories and powers of the deceased parahumans just like in Butcher's case). Her Passenger gave her the power to absorb all the Passengers and she absorbed so many that she lost her OWN IDENTITY, becoming crazy and seeing herself as a Queen of Fairies and the other Passengers being as her Fairies. Just like Echidna started to lose her identity, seeing herself more like a monster than a human and the clones nothing more than her servants with the purpose to help her getting revenge on the world that caused her so much pain. I can say that Glaistig Uaine have now something similar with schizophrenia, but in reality its just her Passenger (holding other Passengers basically prisoners) messing up with her in a way that her original mind is gone or almost gone, being replaced by a community of minds- hive mind- that she interprets as being HERS

.

-SECOND POSSIBILITY- BEING NATURALLY CRAZY AND IN SYNCH WITH HER PASSENGER: Maybe she was already crazy- schizophrenia- then she triggered and given her mental issue she honestly believe that she's not a parahuman but a Fairy Queen and the Passengers from the deceased parahumans that she absorbs alongside with their hosts' memories are just...fairies. She lives in her own twisted, insane "fairy tale" just like Nilbog lives as a king in his garden (Nilbog was confirmed being nuts before triggering if I'm not wrong). Lol, I'm starting to think that Glaistig Uaine and Nilbog will make such a CUTE NIGHTMARE couple together

. The HORROR KING and his delicate FAIRY QUEEN (why such interesting characters have such a short screen time??? Not fair

). This crazy lady works very well with her Passenger, believing it to be another fairy, maybe her most powerful fairy who give her enough power to collect the other fairies for her army of fairies that she's to use in what she calls "the last war".
Glaistig Uaine /Bonesaw Interlude. Just tell me that such Interludes exist, please

.

AmbarGriss · Mar 26, 2019

Also I think its interisting that you gave names to the Passagers of Skitter and Jack. Because they actually have their own cannonical names in the story.

legendshoelaces · Mar 26, 2019

AmbarGriss - this is a violation of the spoiler policy. Yes, I know it doesn't seem like a spoiler to you, but there's a reason the spoiler policy is as strict as it is - to prevent this kind of semi-spoily hinting. Please stop.

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

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Oblivion Sempiternum Daemonis

Birdsie

Sharp Talons Cleave The Worthy

SlainDragon

blackarrow

blackarrow

blackarrow

Birdsie

Sharp Talons Cleave The Worthy

SlainDragon

blackarrow

blackarrow

blackarrow

blackarrow

blackarrow

ImperatorV

The Laughing One

AmbarGriss

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

blackarrow

AmbarGriss

Totally not four rats in a trench coat

legendshoelaces

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