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

Xexilf · Aug 13, 2019

blackarrow said:
Wow, he's like a God. I think he'd kick everyone's ass in Worm, except maybe for Endbringers and/or Scion 😀. Don't tell me that there are MORE POWERFUL guys than him in Fate because his power seems already...super-over powered. But, knowing japanese people and their crazy anime, its always a bigger fish in the ocean. Then, an even bigger fish and so on to infinity.

Yes. Kaleidoscope is one of the very few (maybe 5 or six in all) "true magic", which means "unique godlike power that breaks the normal rules of the world". Aquiring such is one of the main goal of all magi, but actually doing it sucessfully was compared to finding a single speck of jewel in a desert (hence 5 in history). Well, history of the current age 2000+ years ago was the "age of gods" were gods still existed, and high magic and crazy shit was way more common.

As for more powerful, discounting stuff like actual full on gods or TYPEs (embodiments of worlds, which crimson moon was of the moon)... not many . MAybe in theory the other true magicians, but two are dead, one is hidden (maybe), and the last is new at it, so shed probably be no match. Otherwise the only thing that comes to mind is possibly a spoiler, but a very widespread one at this point, and your unlikely to play grand order the normal way anyway.

Goetia, the collecitve embodiment of solomons 72 demon gods who possesed solomons corpse after his death. Set in motion some threethousand year plan to destroy human history, by binding himself to magical lineages to become active trough the ages, planting "holy grails" wish granting artifacts, at key points, to distort history and burn 3000 years of human civilization, so he could generate enough power to go back in time to the worlds genesis and recreate it, and humanity, in his image. All because Solomon had ordered them to protect humanity, but because of his own immortal, "perfect" and all powerful nature, he could not connect with humanity being flawed and decided he had to remake them perfectly from the beginning.

Or something like that.

blackarrow · Aug 13, 2019

AmbarGriss said:
Yes Contessa is a character. Now i want know what you think her shard's name is, since you already especulated about Taylor's shard.

Hmmmm...since I'm a HUGE fan of mythology, I can't think at something else but Fortuna, the roman goddess of luck. I don't care if her Passenger (or shard as you call it. So...they're called shards too? I didn't know that. 🤜 YOU for spoiling me 😾 ~~just joking~~) is male or female or anything they want to be, Fortuna seems like a very fitting name.

So: Fortuna for Contessa
Bloodstain for Jack
Scarab for Taylor
Lemniscate for Number Man
Herr Chirurg for Bonesaw
Eye of Providence for Lisa
BARK for Rachel
? for Aisha
Darkness is My Friend for Brian
Strings for Alec

I' m going to find names for others' Passengers and I'll tell you once I find new names 😀.

ImperatorV · Aug 13, 2019

...So. Those names.

One of those is, not correct, but will be very hilarious in retrospect when you get to a certain point in the story.

blackarrow · Aug 20, 2019

Hello, my people. A new Chapter, a new update, as you already know. Last update was pretty eventful. Tattletale and Chevalier's fate is still unknown (I know that Tattletale is alive but I don't know if she's still in the command center or she left to find help for Chevalier. I also know that she's a villain and Chevalier is a hero but Tatttletale is not the kind of person who'll let people die only because they're her theoretical enemies and she's usually very pragmatic: Chevalier is also the enemy of Behemoth and the enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing. Chevalier have the main command over all hero groups and I can see Tattletale- if she have a small chance to save him- doing anything in her power to keep him alive. They'll be fine, if I will keep telling myself this- even if the reality might be different- I will feel a little better and less stressed

).
Probably surprising for many of my readers who know about my personal feelings for Cauldron, I found the only Cauldron member that I can not only tolerate but I can also LIKE. Not "like" in that sense that I will suffer if she'll ever die or that I want to hug her everytime when I see her but "like" in the sense that she's a little much better than her teammates and she's also an OP badass- I enjoyed quite a lot watching her fight, especially when she's holding back enough so she won't hurt her adversaries. Well, Contessa, I appreciate what you did with heroes, but why you didn't the same thing with Faultline's Crew as well

? Why you had to hurt THAT BAD my favorite kind- hearted mercenaries? Maybe they reacted with excessive violence when she attacked them or she was too pissed because they're after Cauldron's ass, while heroes are more busy with fighting more mundane enemies like Behemoth. Only Contessa knows what was in her mind when she decided to make her response to Faultline's Crew so disproportionate compared with the one given to heroes (maybe because heroes had to stop Behemoth while mercenaries were only good at doing...their mercenary stuff?). Contessa also asked nicely Caldeon's future victims to follow her to their imminent nightmare instead of just kidnapping them, which is a slightly change in her modus operandi. Well, manipulation based on empty promises is just as bad but at least Contessa didn't used brute force for once. Poor naive people

...On short, Doctor Mother SUCKS, Number Man SUCKS but Contessa SUCKS LESS. Promising...
Enough with the Contessa's positive traits, lets go back to Behemoth Battle's Next Supervictims Crushed 24.3

His target: the command center. Our flying capes weren't working fast enough to clear the entire rooftop, and every shaker we had -every cape capable of putting up a forcefield or creating a portal, raising a barrier- was busy trying to slow down the brute. The Chicago Wards, or most of the Chicago Wards were among them.

Golem, to his credit, was going all out. Hands of stone and metal rose from the ground to shield defending capes and balk Behemoth's progress. I could make out Hoyden, leader or second in command of the Austin Wards. She wasn't on the front lines, but was defending the mid-line capes. It made sense with how her power worked, as her defensive powers provided more cover from attacks at greater ranges. She threw herself in the way of lightning bolts and stood between Behemoth and the wounded. When lightning struck her, detonations ripped out from the point of impact, seeming almost to short out the currents.

She began releasing spheres of light from the lantern, each larger than a human head, slow-moving but numerous. Their trajectories were unpredictable, some striking friendlies, others carrying forward towards Behemoth. Where they struck friendlies, they only exploded in brilliant showers of sparks. When they touched Behemoth, they sheared right into him, cutting two or three feet deep before flickering out.

While heroes are doing their best to keep Behemoth busy/save people, Weaver is looking after Tattletale. Of course, Tattletale is her best friend and key element for this Battle. I like how Dispatch uses his superspeed to save the injured and Revel, the heroic asian woman, fights Behemoth with lights summoned from her lantern (the lantern seems to be the conductor for her power, just like Myrddin's wooden staff was for the so called wizard. Some parahumans need their "magical wands" as conductors for their powers, and I see this as a weakness- take their toys away from them, they're SCREWED).
I have a new theory about Endbringers' apparition and purpose. Simurgh have Tinker powers, right? She can copy Tinkers technology and become as good as them, if not better. What if she copied a bio-Tinker's power and used the knowledge she accumulated to create Endbringers? What if Leviathan and Behemoth are her baby monsters

? She looks almost human, just like Scion, its a possibility that they belong to the same humanoid looking species, the other Endbringers are literal monsters and as Tattletale noticed, they're never truly alive, partially explaining Simurgh's Tinkering with them. I think that she can create more Endbringers and the only way for humanity to destroy them forever is to kill Simurgh, the brain behind their existence. Maybe humanity can't destroy her but Scion...well, yes, if he'll decide that saving a cat from a tree can wait but saving millions of people from Endbringers is something that CAN'T WAIT

. Simurgh's purpose? To destroy humanity but not fast. She's sadistic enough to play sadistic games with humanity and see how much they're willing to resist her. She can order her babies to blow up Earth Bet if she'd like but that would be too boring and less exciting for her cruel personality. She's a player with impressive imagination and the humanity is nothing but her play things. I like Wildbow's idea to create an alien different than the usual ones: not an alien who want to rule over humanity or destroy it fast but a sadistic one who like to play with humanity just like cat plays with the mouse before eating it

.

"Arbiter," I responded. One of Rime's underlings. The one with the social danger sense, forcefield and sonic beam. I supposed her forcefield wasn't quite large enough or versatile enough to offer a bridge down to the ground. "I've got other stuff I need to pay attention to. Don't suppose you speak French? Or Spanish?"

"Portuguese," she said. "And no, but give me a moment."

"I don't quite understand, there's a gap in translation, but he says he's pregnant with his dead teammates," she said. Her voice cut through the noise,
"They're asking for him to be rescued next."

Pregnant with dead teammates?

Suddenly the little faces on his armor seemed twice as creepy. I really hoped that was a tragically bad translation. Parahumans could be so fucked up sometimes.

"Thank you," I told her. "For helping keep this sane. If it comes down to it, and the cords don't hold, I'll lend you my flight pack. I can control it remotely."

"Give it to someone else before you give it to me," she said, without looking at me.

"You've done your duty. Go to your friend. Figure out what's going on," Arbiter said.

I stopped by Tattletale's bedside. I'd found her within instants of the temple falling in my range. Her lips moved as she recognized me, but no sound came out. My eyes moved to the tube sticking out of her throat.

"You really gotta stop doing this," I said.

Arbiter is so freaking heroic and nice

. Not only that she saved Weaver from a certain demise when she stopped Augustin Price with her forcefield but she prefers to be left behind so she can save more parahumans with Weaver's spider silk ziplines. She encouraged Weaver to go after Tattletale. Arbiter is going to climb high on the list of my favorite heroes if she'll continue being so awesome <3. She seems to be omnilingualist, learning portuguese in a matter of seconds. Learning another language so fast is one of the most useful powers and Arbiter already have this. Plus summoning defensive/offensive forcefields, another useful power.
Speaking about powers, that parahuman with the power to "remain pregnant with his dead teammates" have a CREEPY ASS power, no doubt

😰. The third most creepy power after Mannequin and Nilbog's stuff of living nightmares. Any power that let someone pregnant with ANYTHING is hellish creepy, I don't have enough words to describe how creepy it IS. What he's going to do with his dead teammates? Give birth to them? Like babies who'll grow up normally or like babies who develop into adults in a couple of minutes? They'll live something like...a second life? What about triggers, what about their powers? Wildbow, EXPLAIN this unsettling bullshit, please, I need to understand what kind of Horror Passenger this unfortunate parahuman got 🤢.
Tattletale is well, she'll have troubles speaking for a while but she's alive and this is all that matters. As long as she can write, then won't be hard for her to use her power, right? No, Weaver, she'll never stop doing what she's doing no matter how many assholes will try to stop her. This is Tattletale and if something will ever stop her that will be DEATH

. Well, DEATH death, not coming back as a "fairy" avatar or as a man's baby

.

Accord was dead? What did that spell for the Undersider-Ambassador alliance?

But she was already handing me the next piece of paper.

you go. find it. find his objective.

"Kismet, balance thinker," the Caucasian said. He wore a white robe with a hard, faceless mask that had only slits for the eyes.

"And the other two?"

"As far as I can tell, Fathom and Particulate. Best translations I can give. My Punjabi isn't strong."

"Their powers?" I asked, with a restrained patience.

"Displaces people or things to another dimension, filled with water, brings them back. Particulate's a dust tinker."

What the fuck is a dust tinker? Or a balance thinker, for that matter?

According to Tattletale, Behemoth have a target. I don't think he's after nuclear weapons since they can't hurt him. He's after a parahuman who CAN HURT HIM or a second Echidna. Leviathan wanted to release/be cloned by Echidna. Behemoth wants to be hurt by another powerful parahuman so he'll become unbeatable. He's acting like Crawler. I'm not sure how you can stop him from reaching his target, Weaver, but you can locate his target and bring them as far away as possible from Behemoth or hide them somewhere where the monster can't find them. But Behemoth seems like he can "feel" their presence as he's walking in their direction....Weaver have to be faster than Behemoth or somehow block his ability to find his target.
Balance Thinker is....someone like Accord? Keeping the world in balance and equilibrium? Well, his power must work a bit different because I noticed that there is no such thing as two powers being 100% similar. An example, New Wave have similar powers but with some noticeable differences between them. As for dust Tinker....use dust to build his stuff? Dust constructions?
Btw, my dad (who's one Arc ahead from where I'm with the story) warned me that there will be a character in this Arc (an indian parahuman) that I'm going to hate more than I already hate Cody and many other assholes. He hated HIM so much that he wanted to be a character in the story just to have to pleasure of strangling that man with his bare hands

. He called him a disgusting psychopath. I don't think is Kismet, he seems like a ok guy. He even thanked Weaver for her help and gave her the phone she was asking for. Alright, there's still more left of this Arc so...lets see if my father is right (he's usually right

).
I think that Undersider-Ambassador alliance will be stronger now that Accord is dead. Nobody will want to kill Tattletale anymore and they'll STRONGLY cooperate to protect Accord's plans and make them work and to find Fuck You Cody and teach him a thing or two about REVENGE 🤝 .

Rachel rescued one or two, though the heroes might have debated the nature of the rescue. Her dogs seized people in their mouths, running, dropping them at a safe distance, before moving in to retrieve more people. Some of the rescued individuals were left slowly climbing to their feet, no doubt bruised from the dog's teeth and dripping with drool.

Grace, using her strength to carry the wounded. Wanton was venturing into more dangerous ground with the safety of his telekinetic body, returning to human form to help the wounded and trapped, then retreating with the same form, moving on to the next person. Cuff was helping a tinker.

Damn tinkers. Their stuff was making life so complicated, now. Too many things to keep track of. Antigrav, propulsion, sensing things with my bugs, paying attention to what I was sensing with my bugs, coordinating people, with sectors for them to cover, and now tracking the stuff with the scanner.

Was there a whole undercity beneath New Delhi? Some kind of subterranean realm of corridors and rooms, large and small? Did the good and bad 'cold' capes accidentally dig into each other's corridors at any point? Collapse sections of each other's undercity?

We approached, and I could see a cape inside, or a parahuman, if 'cape' applied. He was disheveled, with dark circles under his eyes, his skin pale, his beard and hair bedraggled. His clothing, by contrast, was opulent, clean: a rich indigo robe, a sapphire set in a gold chain, a gold chain for a belt, and a golden sash.

And above him, the energy. There were two golden discs, and something almost alive seemed to crackle between them.

"It's Phir Sē," Kismet said, backing away.

"The glowing thing in the air or the person?" I asked.

"The person."

"Who's Phir See?" I asked.

"Sē. He's one of the reasons the American girl's PRT can exist," Kismet said. "When they talk about disbanding it, the PRT only reminds them that monsters like this lurk elsewhere."

Phir Sē seems to be the asshole that my father hates. What this asshole ever did? He's someone like Coil? Like Fuck You Cody? Like the human version of an Endbringer? Like Jack? Kismet called him a monster. I'm sure he have a GOOD REASON to call him like that. Maybe Phir Sē is Behemoth's target. He's too destructive and Behemoth wants to find him, make him attack him, but the attack will only empower Behemoth even more. Or Phir Sē have a weapon and Behemoth wants to take it away from him before he'll be shot. Either way, I don't like this. Its written BAD all over ☹.
Particulate creates guns/devices that can turn things to dust, apparently.
Ok, time to know this Phir Sē and get an answer at this question: why everyone, including the american Protectorate see him as a monster. They must have good reasons, right

?

"Thank you," I said, still wary. Everything about Kismet's reaction was telling me this guy was to be feared, so I had to step carefully. "Can I ask what that thing is?"

"A weapon," he said. "A… how do you Americans say it? Time bomb? Only this is joke."

"He makes portals," Kismet said. "Using them, he can send things back in time. Something goes in portal B, comes out of portal A a few minutes earlier. Or the other way around."

"I want this on Behemoth. Do great harm. Even kill."

He wasn't even turned all the way around when there was a flicker. A man appeared just in front of Kismet. A teleporter.

And his forearm extended through Kismet's chest.

Then he flickered, like a bad lightbulb, and he was gone, leaving only a gaping hole where the arm had been. Kismet collapsed, dead.

"I don't think many top the Endbringers," I said.

"You want to hit Behemoth with this… time bomb," I said. "But… I think that's what he wants. He's holding back. My thinker friend, she said so. He's taking more hits than he should, and I'm just now realizing he might be doing it because he wants to be ready for when you hit him with this. He'll push it out into the ground, or into the air."

"Yes. This is likely," Phir Sē said. "This is what he may want. I hoped for the Second or Third. This will have to do."

"They've tried this stuff before," I said. "Nukes, gigantic railguns, tricks with teleportation and portals. It doesn't work. You won't do anything except get a lot of people killed as collateral damage."

"Then New Delhi pay for my mistake," Phir Sē answered me. "I have daughter there. She join bright heroes, popular ones. She pay for my mistake, if she still lives. I live, down here, spend life mourning."

"Worth risking this city? Your daughter? The lives of the heroes here?"

"Yes. Is worth."

"No," I retorted.

...AND THEY HAVE GOOD REASONS. Phir Sē is a MONSTER

. He's one of the most repulsive monsters who pretend that they're good guys I had the displeasure to read about in this story

. Not only that his man killed Kismet who was a pretty nice guy, but he's very willing to SACRIFICE HIS OWN DAUGHTER IN ORDER TO DEFEAT BEHEMOTH. HE ISN'T EVEN SURE THAT HIS TIME BOMBS BULLSHIT CAN KILL THE ENDBRINGER YET HE'S READY TO SACRIFICE HIS DAUGHTER+ MILLIONS OF LIVES FOR A SINGLE MOMENT OF ILLUSORY SUCCESS

. Killing his own DAUGHTER is something worse than anything bad Armsmaster ever did, for the sake of comparison between these two. Armsmaster- for his personal glory- killed a couple of villains and a nazi boss. Phir Sē- for his personal glory- is ready to destroy a city populated by millions and have his daughter die as well. A man who'll sacrifice his family is someone truly despicable (this is the reason why I admired Brian's decision for not helping Dinah because he cared for his sister's wellbeing more- Brian put his family above strangers; as much as I wanted him to save Dinah, I had to agree with Brian

). Yes. I know that this sounds selfish as hell, but family/friends should matter more than anyone else. I love humans in general but between sacrificing millions of people and sacrificing my own family, I'll never LET MY OWN FAMILY DIE no matter how much I'll hate myself afterwards for allowing millions to die

.
Besides, Phir Sē will not only kill his daughter but let the whole New Delhi in ruins. Behemoth will still be alive and probably thankful to this bastard for making his work easier. Time bomb will do next to nothing to Behemoth because this is exactly what the monster wants to happen. He wants to be attacked with the bomb so he can absorb its energy inside his body. He EATS radiations and energy. Phir Sē will end up making Behemoth stronger. Phir Sē is Cody+ Armsmaster + Darwin Award's winner of the century in one single person

. His poor hero daughter, my heart suffers already for her unfortunate fate. Unless Weaver will do something to stop this CRAZINESS. Something like...kill him? The downside is that his bodyguard will kill her as well. He can teleport and bypass Manton effect. Not a good combination for Weaver.

The woman in the suit told me there were people with their own agendas. Monsters. This is one of them, and he thinks we're kindred spirits.

"I tell you because you are ruthless, Weaver. Do not stop me," he said. "I die, focus waver, time bomb explode. Aimless, no direction."

"Indiscriminate," I supplied a better word.

"Indiscriminate," Phir Sē echoed me. "India gone. You die, even down here."

I raised my head, staring up at the two golden discs and the current that seemed to run between them. I would have thought it would be brighter.

"Hero fall. We wait," he said. "When fight cannot be won, I strike."

Fuck, Weaver can't kill this fucker

. She can't let him hit Behemoth with his time bomb because a whole city will die and this is what Behemoth wants to happen, she can't kill him either because a whole country will die. All she can do is...let him do his thing. BULLSHIT. Weaver is not someone to lose to some stupid asshole

. She still have alternatives to stop him. Like, sabotage his work to the bomb (he needs some time to create a time bomb as far as I understand) or...send bugs with a message to Arbiter exactly when Phir Sē will release his bomb, ask her to summon a forcefield around the bomb, use the forcefield to compress the bomb until its destruction, before it will even reach Behemoth. Or Narwal- is Narwal there? Her forcefields are stronger and they bypass Manton effect. Weaver can ask Narwal to safely explode the bomb with some of her forcefields inside another forcefield. This is my two cents strategy, now lets see what kind of strategy Weaver will adopt

. Because this is a problem worse than what Cody did. Worse than Accord's death. Worse than Chevalier being injured or dead. Millions of lives will be wasted. The life of a heroine will be wasted and her OWN FATHER will pull the trigger

. Weaver, if you'll not stop this asshole, I'll never forgive you. That bomb should not hit Behemoth. Do whatever you want just not let the bomb hit its target or explode outside a protective forcefield.
With more monsters like Phir Sē roaming around and destroying lives, Cauldron seems a little bit sympathetic. At least they don't hurt people belonging to their own family. My God

....

Good night and sleep well, my friends

Xexilf · Aug 20, 2019

Im gonna say something controversial. Phir Se is a hero.

His execution can be heavily criticized, but in intent, i cant fault him, at all.
Im pretty sure hes not after glory for himself. Hes hidden and will stay hidden. What he thinks hes doing is taking a risk to kill an endbringer. Something that will kill far more in the long run.
So. Is this dumb? Maybe. Maybe he should hold off for levi, the endbringer who cant possibly turn this around. He definitely should communicate and coordinate and listen.

But your position? Is utter selfishness. Given a choice between killing one person they personally know, or a million strangers? Chosing the death of the million... understandable? Yes. Human? Very. Right? No. In fact, from a detached viewpoint, its vile. Everyone is someones friend/child/parent etc. so the choice is the suffering of millions of people vs the suffering of a few.

Its utterly disturbing to picture a situation where that would be necessary, (and the correct answer may be look for third path, and never ever jump to conclusions about whats necessary before trying everything else) but if such situations truly come up from time to time, which it seems they might in the darker parts of the wormverse, one persons approach dooms humanity, and one might save it. Guess who is you, and who is Phir Se.

-On rereading what i wrote, this may be a bit... aggressively worded, i dont want to call you evil or anything, but declaring that for someone else, whos clearly pained by the decision, (leaving aside how likely this is to work or not) chosing the personal sacrifice for the sake of millions of others, makes them the worst person in the world, while letting the millions die for maybe saving someone they personally know would be heroic... is utterly disturbing to read.

ImperatorV · Aug 20, 2019

Honestly, my problem with Phir Se's plan is that it's stupid. Behemoth can and will redirect this attack, Phir Se should have packed up and left, waited for the next Endbringer. Against Leviathan, this attack could deal tons of damage, or vaporize tidal waves, or otherwise contribute hugely. Against Ziz, you have to be careful because she could tinker up a counter, but in theory it can work. But throwing a huge energy attack, against Behemoth? Suicide. And suicide with a lot of collateral damage at that.

blackarrow · Aug 20, 2019

Xexilf said:
Im gonna say something controversial. Phir Se is a hero.

His execution can be heavily criticized, but in intent, i cant fault him, at all.
Im pretty sure hes not after glory for himself. Hes hidden and will stay hidden. What he thinks hes doing is taking a risk to kill an endbringer. Something that will kill far more in the long run.
So. Is this dumb? Maybe. Maybe he should hold off for levi, the endbringer who cant possibly turn this around. He definitely should communicate and coordinate and listen.

But your position? Is utter selfishness. Given a choice between killing one person they personally know, or a million strangers? Chosing the death of the million... understandable? Yes. Human? Very. Right? No. In fact, from a detached viewpoint, its vile. Everyone is someones friend/child/parent etc. so the choice is the suffering of millions of people vs the suffering of a few.

Its utterly disturbing to picture a situation where that would be necessary, (and the correct answer may be look for third path, and never ever jump to conclusions about whats necessary before trying everything else) but if such situations truly come up from time to time, which it seems they might in the darker parts of the wormverse, one persons approach dooms humanity, and one might save it. Guess who is you, and who is Phir Se.

-On rereading what i wrote, this may be a bit... aggressively worded, i dont want to call you evil or anything, but declaring that for someone else, whos clearly pained by the decision, (leaving aside how likely this is to work or not) chosing the personal sacrifice for the sake of millions of others, makes them the worst person in the world, while letting the millions die for maybe saving someone they personally know would be heroic... is utterly disturbing to read.

Sorry, but a man who's willing to sacrifice his own daughter+ millions of people for something that surely will not work (because you can't stop energy with more energy) is a MONSTER 🤬. Phir Sē is not a hero, he's a well meaning extremist and well meaning extremists are NOT heroes. He's someone with a stupid plan, willing to sacrifice a daughter to try to realize his stupid failure of a plan. He's ready to destroy a city only to see a single Endbringer getting killed. I'm convinced that behemoth will not die so all this human monster will do will be: kill a hero daughter and a whole city with millions of citizens. What he's doing is utter stupid and horrible. Maybe he loves his daughter, maybe he honestly feel sorry for what he'll do to her, but THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT THIS TO DO. He should not decide if she have to die for his stupid ideas. He's her father and a father should protect his children, not sentence them to death with his own hand. A parent (mother or father) should care about their children more than anything else. This is what my parents always told me. Phir Sē is SELFISH because he cares more about his dumb plan to "kill" an Endbringer than for his own child's life

.
My father told me that he'll sacrifice billions in order to save my life. I'll let billions to die to save my child if I'll ever be a mother. A child should be the most important person in a parent's life, not some strangers. This is my belief and I'll never ever give up at it.
Maybe I'll be a shitty hero but I'm sure as hell that I'll never risk the lives of my family/friends for other people.
For me Phir Sē is a criminal and even if his plan will be sabotaged by Weaver before he'll start killing people+ his DAUGHTER, he'll still remain nothing but a criminal. Why everyone call him a monster? Because...he's a monster, the human version of the real monster coming after his ass. He also murdered Kismet, a hero with good intentions. He's nothing but a CRIMINAL

.
I think his daughter would hate him if she'd know about his plans.
No, you weren't aggressive, you just expressed your opinion, I don't mind if you'll ever call me an "evil bitch" 😀. Call me whatever you like. You're free to express your opinion and see Phir Sē in a positive light. I don't mind. Just like I'm free to want him to be stopped and punished for his crimes. Maybe I'm selfish but I'm very honest with my opinion. Good, bad, don't care, I truly believe in them and I'm not afraid to express my thoughts. I'm a damn honest bitch, this is how I'm and I'll never change for anyone.

blackarrow · Aug 20, 2019

ImperatorV said:
Honestly, my problem with Phir Se's plan is that it's stupid. Behemoth can and will redirect this attack, Phir Se should have packed up and left, waited for the next Endbringer. Against Leviathan, this attack could deal tons of damage, or vaporize tidal waves, or otherwise contribute hugely. Against Ziz, you have to be careful because she could tinker up a counter, but in theory it can work. But throwing a huge energy attack, against Behemoth? Suicide. And suicide with a lot of collateral damage at that.

I agree with you. He's not only a criminal and a VERY BAD father but he's a stupid criminal. Behemoth will fight against energy with more energy. Energy attacks doesn't affect him. Maybe he actually want to be hit by the bomb so the accumulated energy will empower him. This criminal Phir Sē will only be successful to destroy New Delhi unless Weaver will come up with a GOOD plan. I think that putting the bomb inside a forcefield or even better...putting both Behemoth and the bomb inside a large forcefield (I wonder if Arbiter's forcefields are large enough to encompass such a large creature like Behemoth) will do wonders. The bomb will explode, will "hurt" Behemoth but no civilian will be affected by its explosion. So: Arbiter, Narwal, YangBan...these parahumans are the only ones who can summon forcefields. Did I forgot someone else? The former New Wave are not there and they're kind of disunited at this moment.
Right now all I care is to see Phir Sē's plan being changed/stopped/sabotaged , no matter how Weaver is planning to do this thing.

blackarrow · Aug 29, 2019

Hello, good friends. Last time, there was this new character- an indian VERY COLD parahuman with the power to open time portals and create time bombs. He's obsessed to kill Behemoth, no matter the risks and consequences, even if he had to sacrifice millions of people, including the life of his own hero daughter. But, this is ok for him as long as Behemoth will die

. Any sacrifice is not a big deal if the big bad monster will stop existing. Including killing his own daughter...not big deal. This is, my dears, what I call WELL MEANING EXTREMIST. The worst kind of hero and villain combined in a single person. Hero because their intentions are theoretically good and idealistic (Cauldron wants to protect the world against whatever future threats- Scion?, YangBan wants to protect China and its citizens, Phir Sē wants to save his own country), but the paths they're following and their methods are absolute wrong and villainous (Cauldron kidnaps, experiments on people and create numerous villains, YangBan kidnaps people, buy slaves and use brainwashing on its members and Phir Sē WANTS TO KILL MILLIONS of people just to kill a single monster even if he himself isn't sure if he can kill Behemoth). Well meaning extremists are the most broken heroic villains and hypocrite villainous heroes ever

. This is the main reason why I'm so disgusted by them. I'd rather take a HONEST monster like Jack Slash who admit that he's a monster and he's incapable of not doing evil over a well meaning extremist ANYTIME, who claim that they can save the world even if they have to sacrifice probably more lives than they actually save (the first well meaning extremist that taught me how people like him think and why I should hate them was Magneto- X-Men. That man, nothing but a criminal and a terrorist, did actually more evil than good to his own mutants that he wanted to protect against "evil" inferior humans. He created more mess in their lives than the actual anti-mutants humans did. He taught me that well meaning extremists end up creating more mess than fixing things and I should never trust and accept them

). I don't accept Phir Sē's plan either and I think that it will end bad for civilians and not so bad for Behemoth unless Weaver will find a way to stop it or change it.
Besides, I'll never like a father who's willing to kill his own daughter just to defeat a villain. As much of an asshole Tagg was and as much as he wanted to see villains being murdered/captured, he was very protective towards his daughters and tried his best to keep them away from his own war against villains. He was an ass and a bully but he was also a good father

. Alan the Lawyer loves Emma despite this girl being a BITCH with capital letters. Alan the Scientist's brilliant mind crashed when his children were killed- he completely changed himself because his children were no longer alive and his life was incredible empty and lost without them (among other reasons). Marquis is a cold blooded villain but he's a hero for his daughter

. Danny still love and accept Taylor despite knowing that she's not his little innocent girl anymore

. Look at these very flawed people being good fathers. Then look at Phir Sē trying to kill a monster with the price of his daughter's life. Look at this very flawed person being a very bad father. DISGUSTING Crushed 24.4

"Three days. We thought an Endbringer would attack soon, so I prepared, to be ready when the time came. Too early, I had to stop, restart. This time, he came, but I am weary. The talking, is good. Distracting without being dangerous. Continue, please."

"Yes," I said. I thought for a second, then made my argument. "And you know the power of having all of the information. The power of having a group that can communicate that information. Communication is key, and a group that doesn't even need to communicate because they function so well together is better yet."

"Let's communicate with them. With everyone. Half the screwed up crap I've seen, it's been because we're fighting between ourselves. The best achievements, the truly heroic stuff I've seen? It's been when we worked together. So let's maximize our chances."

"I have none left, after ten years. No faith. We are a wretched, petty species, and we have been given power to destroy ourselves with."

"I have done it, Weaver," Phir Sē told me. "My wife, my sons, years ago. A similar problem on a smaller scale. I can walk through minutes, I could have walked back to save them, but I let them die because it meant a monster would remain gone. What merit is a gamble, a sacrifice, if you stake things that matter nothing to you?"

FUCK THIS!!! This ASSHOLE already killed his wife and his sons for similar reasons

. Now he wants to kill his only daughter left. This monster should be arrested and send to Birdcage because he's a murderer. Too bad that he's indian citizen and Dragon have no authority over people who are not americans or canadians. This sucks. Meanwhile more people will die because of this asshole who can't think at other working plans that doesn't involve the death of his family or other civilians 👎. Maybe if he'll end up destroying New Delhi and the survivors will know what he did (they'll know once they'll watch Behemoth being attacked with his time bombs) the indian authorities will arrest him for crimes against humanity. Because this is what he's doing. He's not Kaiser with his people attacking non-white people neither Lung giving drugs to kids or Merchants with their prostitution and drug rings. He's a genocidal...well meaning extremist. This is not cops and robbers like Tattletale and later Weaver described the parahumans interactions, this is almost S9 level of bullshit. Phir Sē should get a kill order if he'll manage to destroy New Delhi 👌.
Weaver. DO. SOMETHING. Anything will be fine except for killing him, because the whole India will be gone. What she can do?
-Contact Arbiter (through her bugs) and ask her to summon a forcefield right when the bomb will hit Behemoth.
-Contact Narwal (if she's there) and ask her to summon her powerful forcefields around the bomb and Behemoth.
-Contact YangBan (if they're not looking after Fuck You Cody and if they're still willing to save India) and ask them the same thing.
-Contact Eidolon and see if he have a suitable power to stop this disaster before happening.
-Ask P Alexandria to punch the time bomb as high as HE can in the sky

.

He saw me looking, glanced at Phir Sē, who had his back turned, then looked back at me. His eyes flicked over in Phir Sē's direction, his intention clear.

He had a solution in mind. A way to disable the explosion and stop Phir Sē.

Without thinking, I hauled on it, pulling it off-target. The gun hit one screen, two feet to Phir Sē's right, at stomach level. It exploded into a swirling cloud of black dust.

"Sort of," I said, and I smiled a little in return, behind my mask. This guy was borderline unhinged, too much power in too unstable a package, and I almostliked him.

"Let me go. We work together with the heroes."

"The heroes will die in minutes. Before you arrive."

Well, at least Weaver was able to convince this asshole and BAD PARENT to give her few minutes to communicate with heroes and convince them to do some TEAM WORK so New Delhi will survive to the time bomb even if Behemoth will die or not. Why Phir Sē refused to work with heroes is beyond my power to understand him. You asshole, have you ever heard of team work? Why are you so fucking arrogant, believing that you ca solve everything ALONE? When Weaver was Skitter, not a hero but a villain, she was very willing to work with heroes for the good of everyone instead of doing stupid things by herself and putting lives in danger (well, there were moments when she did stupid things and put lives in danger but never as bad as Phir Sē). Allow Weaver to teach you one or two things about team work, Phir Sē

. Watch and learn and stop your crazy filicide tendencies.
Thank you, Weaver, for stopping Particulate from accidentally committing a genocide if he killed Phir Sē. You're an excellent planner. You tested him and noticed that he really wanted to do something more dumb than Fuck You Cody. At least, Phir Sē can show some goddamn gratitude. Not that this makes him less of an asshole, but Weaver have a chance to change his plan and prove that being a well meaning extremist and working alone is something that people should avoid if they want to win and keep their humanity at the same time

.
I'm still afraid of something: what if Phir Sē will suddenly fall asleep? He's awake for 3 days, he's tired and he never stopped planning his attack on Behemoth all this time. This is a scary thought. Weaver should keep bugs around him and have them biting and stinging him the first second he's falling asleep

.

Her portal was perhaps twenty feet across, circular, and cold water gushed out, as if forced by an incredible pressure.

It was the sort of defensive measure that you employed when there weren't any frontline combatants left. A desperate, violent one, like Sundancer's sun. My bugs found her ear, and I communicated as clearly as I could, "Run."

She didn't hear. Doggedly, she stood her ground, drenching Behemoth, widening the portal's radius. So hard to tell just how much, without losing bugs to the spray. Twenty five feet? Thirty?

"Run," I tried again. I muttered, "Run, Ligeia."

The portal closed, and Behemoth managed to claw his way back, simultaneously fending off Eidolon, the lighting growing stronger with every passing second.

He lurched, and dropped several feet, the ground shaking. The light show marked the geyser spraying up around his leg, apparently having sunken into a portal.

Close it, I thought. Sever it.

But she didn't. Not an option, it seemed.

I was on my way to catch up to them when Ligeia was struck down. A chance lightning bolt had struck her, just like that. Behemoth surged to his feet.
Lightning traced the arc of the water that still geysered up, less impressive with every passing second.

"I found what Behemoth wants," I told her. "Where's Rime?"

"Dead," Golem said. He carried a small child, and was falling behind,

"Prism, but she's injured," Grace said.

"Yellow bodysuit now," Golem said. "She stripped out of the dress when he pushed past the command center."

He flowed into my costume, and I could feel him against my skin, his body strangely cold and smooth. A lump of him stuck out over one shoulder. His head, not quite normal, not quite his specter form, had formed itself in my shoulderpad.

Ligeia, the mermaid Ambassador, died, but not before fighting Behamoth like a badass she was. RIP Ligeia. So, Ambassadors lost, in just one day, their boss and one of their members. They're villains who didn't hesitate not even for a second to fight Behemoth in order to protect innocent lives. Your boss was an asshole, but you're great guys, Ambassadors

. They quickly become my third favorite villain team. Citrine KNOWS BATTLEFIELD FASHION, unlike Accord. No more uncomfortable dress, YAAAAAAAY FOR BODYSUIT POWER

💪! Take that, Accord, Citrine is smarter and more pragmatic than you're and she'd make a better leader than you.
Rime, the ice hero, is also dead. RIP Rime

. You survived Number Man but not to Behemoth as well. Prism is injured, Grue is injured, Tattletale is injured, I still don't know about Chevalier's fate. The things are not so bright and hopeful but I trust Weaver that she'll do something about the time bomb bullshit. A number of heroes and civilians died but at least there aren't millions.
Weaver, you're lucky that Annex isn't a pervert and you're staring into a story not anime. Imagine having him comment about your boobs while he's inside your costume 😱. WORM SHOULD NEVER BECOME AN ANIME. WE DON'T NEED THIS SHIT HAPPENING IN THE WORST MOMENTS .

The Undersiders were there, fighting. Three stuffed goats and the dogs provided an added barricade for them to hide behind, while Foil was firing her needles. Regent held her quiver, handing her bolts to fire, while Imp lurked on the far side of the street, her back to the wall. Citrine was peering between two dogs, erecting a field of golden light near the Endbringer.

"Gah!" Regent cried out, as I landed, folding the wings back into place. "Jesus fuck!"

Right, I had two heads. "Out, Annex."

I could only hope he'd bounce back. To business. "Revel. American cape with sort of an Asian-themed costume, lantern. Where is she?"

"Zapped," Regent said.

Revel was in Dispatch's company, alongside a cape in white, with a starburst worked into his helmet, radiating from the eyeholes and the gap for his mouth.
She was lying down, using a piece of rubble for cover. She stirred as the ground rumbled, marking Behemoth's rapid footsteps. Not a run. It felt off, saying something like him was running. But a lope, like how a gorilla might move, that fit.

"A local cape has gathered up a whole mess of energy. Enough to wipe India off the map. He's planning to hit Behemoth with it, in two or three minutes."

"It won't work," Exalt said.

I found the Yàngbǎn and approached. They were reacting even before I'd landed, turning, hands raised to attack. There were twenty of them, or close to.

"English?" I asked the Yàngbǎn.

"The Yàngbǎn pulled an assassination attempt on Chevalier," Exalt told me.

Twenty Yàngbǎn members. Exalt. A dazed Revel. Dispatch. The Chicago Wards. The Undersiders. Citrine. Me.

Why couldn't the Yàngbǎn have helped like this sooner? From the very start of the fight? Damn people. Damn them all, for their idiocy and selfishness and their small-mindedness.

No wonder why so many non-parahumans (including some parahumans) believe that parahumans are weird. Because...THEY ARE WEIRD, this is the truth. Lol at Regent's reaction seeing Weaver having "two heads"

. Amazing how Wildbow can insert some humor and funny scenes in the middle of such gruesome battle. This is what I call TALENT 👍.
Chevalier is still alive

. Good, a good news compared with so many bad news I just received about the other fighters. Revel is ok too - you can't fight against her energy with more energy, Behemoth. Do you hear that too, Phir Sē? You will never stop a fire if you fight it with more fire, but you're not smart and well-meaning enough to get it. YangBan are going to help- only because they want to redeem themselves in the eyes of foreign heroes after what their Darwin winner member did to Chevalier. They're well meaning extremists/para-military, yes, and they're disturbing as fuck and I'll always hate them, but at least they're not genocidal terrorists like others

.
I already like Exalt. Even he realized that Phir Sē's plan is nothing but a dumb, partial selfish, small-minded, doomed to fail plan. Now, about my forcefields surrounding the time bomb like a sphere and have it explode inside them idea....Will be strong enough to keep the explosion inside and no break under so much pressure? Narwal and YangBan can create pretty strong forcefields but I can't see Narwal anywhere and YangBan's forcefields can still break, they are not invincible. What about Eidolon? Can he tells his core power to create something to keep the bomb inside and not let its energy resulted after explosion to affect what is outside? Weaver, try Eidolon, he's much better than Arbiter or YangBan

.

There was a yelp, and I could see Imp, all at once, sheltered by a wall that was shrinking in size with every second the blast continued. She held the Yàngbǎn member who'd strayed too far away from our main group in her arms.

He'd seen her. Sensed her. And now, behind a wall no more than three feet high, she had nowhere to run.

I pushed past Yàngbǎn members, unstrapping my flight pack, tearing at the parts that fed down to my gloves, to get it off. If I could get it to her…

The Endbringer switched to fire, and it passed through. It seemed to halve in intensity, but that was enough. I could hear Imp scream in alarm and fear.

Imp screamed again as he directed another wave of flame her way. It was a scream of pain this time.

OH, NO, OH, NO................HE'S GOING TO KILL MY IMP

. MY THIRD FAVORITE UNDERSIDER AND MY FAVORITE LITTLE NINJA ASSASSIN POLTERGEIST. You can't, Behemoth...you can't do it. Imp SHOULD LIVE, she should live and continue to scare people to death like the badass poltergeist she's and take care of the people in her territory and be the good and protective little sister for her brother and I'll continue to love and cherish her and watch her having fun with Regent on Weaver's expense and...No, I....I'm afraid to read further

. I don't want Imp to be the first Undersider who'll die. Yes, is much more better than Tattletale, but...she's just a kid. She's funny and nice and badass and annoying (sometimes) and...BEHEMOTH, stop noticing her, ok? She's not there, there is an empty place where she should be...nothing to see there....nothing....😰

"Fuck it," Regent said, his voice almost inaudible. He was looking at Imp.

"Regent," I said. When he rose to his feet, I raised my voice, "Regent!"

"Hey Shitcrumb!" Regent hollered, backing away from cover. "Easy-"

Behemoth dropped the flame attack. I could see Yàngbǎn members raising forcefields as he reached out, casting a bolt of lightning in Regent's direction. The forcefields did nothing, not even softening the blow in any measurable way.

Regent was snuffed out, dead.

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................REGENT DIED......................................................................................................................................IN IMP'S PLACE. HE GAVE HIS LIFE SO SHE'LL SURVIVE.......................................
I'm fucking shocked!!! I'm happy that Imp is alive but....Regent....I never liked him, for me he was nothing but a rapist and a human controlling Master. My least favorite Undersider. Everything about him was something that I disliked. His power, his personality, his behavior, his Classification, his...everything (except for his looks because he was a pretty boy...effeminate, but pretty. I also liked his sense of humor). Yes, this rapist and asshole SACRIFICED HIS OWN LIFE for someone else who wasn't himself. Did he redeemed himself? No. He did plenty of ugly stuff and I can't see this gesture as his supreme redemption. Did he changed my way of seeing him? Not exactly. But he saved Imp. He LOVED her in his own sociopathic way and he decided- in the heat of the moment- that her life is more worth than his life. He saved Imp and this is PRETTY HEROIC coming from someone like him (and from anyone else doing the same noble self-sacrificing gesture). Phir Sē is ready to sacrifice his daughter, Regent died for a friend. This is what I call HEROIC, what Regent did. Loving someone more than you love yourself....even if I doubt that Regent ever loved himself.
I....Good night, Regent. Rest in Peace, Alec. Bonne nuit, Jean Paul. Repose en Paix, Prince (I'll create a separate post including few words/fanart about Alec, after I'll finish with this Chapter. What a Chapter....)

She crouched by Regent, touched his throat.

She shouted something. A string of swear words, insults aimed at Regent.

"Come on!" I screamed the words at her. It took me a second to get the flight pack going again. I steered it, like a fish on dry land, towards her, as Rachel hauled me up onto a dog's back.

"Weaver," Phir Sē said, almost half a mile away, still in the room with the monitors, "If he advances any closer to me, I won't have any option but to strike.

"Sorry about your pal," Tecton said.

"Behemoth killed your friend," Tecton added.

"And Leviathan killed my dogs," Rachel said. "They both pay."

"Eidolon's power… he chooses what powers he gets?"

Told you...told you, Eidolon's power will help them. I'm such a good strategist, my problem is that I'm too emotive and I'd do something very stupid on battlefield BEFORE I'll save people with my quick strategic thinking

. Eidolon can trap Behemoth inside a forcefield then Phir Sē can hurl the bomb through his portals right inside Eidolon's forcefield surrounding Behemoth. Only Behemoth will be affected by the bomb if Eidolon's forcefields are strong enough to hold. Gosh, tell me that this plan is your plan too, Weaver. Distract the Endbringer's attention and allow Eidolon to do his thing just like Regent distracted his attention...I'm having tears in my eyes

. I didn't cried when Regent died but now...told you that I'm way too emotive for my own sake....
"wipes away more tears" Ok, time to kick this asshole's ass and turn him into a hole, without NOBODY ELSE DYING. I know that the bomb will be next to useless, but at least they can try. NOW that Weaver have a plan and Eidolon is here.
I like how Bitch have her priorities in the "right" order. First, her dogs, then her teammates. This adorable bitch...

"This'll work?" Imp asked. Her voice sounded more hollow than Grue's did when he used his power. I jumped a little to hear her suddenly speaking beside me.

The Endbringer moved his hands in anticipation of a clap, and Exalt used his power. Blades of wind, a hundred strikes in a moment, a thrust of telekinetically controlled air from across the city, rushing past Behemoth, making the Endbringer stumble. The clap arrested.

Eidolon caught Rachel with one arm, and extended the other towards Behemoth.

"Now," my bugs told Phir Sē, as the field surrounded the Endbringer, a forcefield, extending into the Earth, surrounding Behemoth on all sides, a cylinder.

Phir Sē's portal opened beneath Behemoth's feet, aimed upward, and a plume of light speared into the sky, consuming Behemoth, covering him.

Eidolon's power held. He'd had the situation explained, had been given time to let his power build up to full strength, and his passenger had supplied something with a durability on par with Clockblocker's ability. Inviolable.

Not quite Behemoth, but a skeleton, something like a skeleton. Emaciated, a black-red frame dripping with ichor, it had all of the key features, the basic underlying structure with the horns and the gaping mouth, the claws and the way the shoulders were broad enough to host his bulky frame, but a good eighty percent of him had been torn away, shredded. A skeleton covered in a veneer of meat.

Behemoth wasn't any weaker than he had been. Not in terms of what he could dish out. As much as he was wounded, he was healing. Even from where we stood, I could see him healing, flesh expanding, swelling, regenerating.

He was continuing to make his way towards Phir Sē, who had formed another portal, was gathering power for a second strike.

Behemoth was reduced to a skeleton but he can regenerate so is ok. I SAID THAT ITS NOT GOING TO WORK

. Phir Sē, you'll not have enough time to build enough energy for a second strike. You needed 3 days to build a city destroying bomb, you can't do NOTHING during the time that Behemoth needs to reach you. At least you probably realized that- if it wasn't for Weaver and her brilliant plan (OUR BRILLIANT PLAN

)- the entire city would have been annihilated. Your daughter and millions of people will probably survive and Behemoth will probably leave after he'll finish killing you. Or Scion will finally save the day. There's still hope, but not for you, Phir Sē. You're roasted. Unlike Regent, I'm not going to miss you. Bye, bye, you crazy fanatic.
Weaver saved the say (sort of), now the heroes (or better said, the survivors) should admit that she's on the right way to become on of the greatest heroes ever. But the true heroine here is Dinah. She created Weaver, after all. Behind every strong heroine there's an even stronger precog

.
Behemoth Skeleton vs the World- next round. Coming....soon.
Gosh, hope that I'm not going to cry after another Undersider

.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Aug 29, 2019

THE PRINCE WITHOUT A CROWN

Credit: DeviantArt

THE PUPPETEER WITHOUT "FEELINGS"

Credit: DeviantArt

THE GAMER PLAYING WITH YOUR OWN LIFE

Credit: DeviantArt

THE VICTIM WHO MADE OTHER VICTIMS

Credit: DeviantArt

.......THE BEST FRIEND SHE HAD

Credit: DeviantArt

HER HERO

Good night, sweet Prince.

Random Lurker · Aug 29, 2019

blackarrow said:
Crushed 24.4

I honestly don't know what to say about your hate for Phir Sē. He's a bad guy, yes, but I at least never felt that strongly about him. We never saw any context behind what he said he did, after all, but we do see how tired and exhausted he is.

Well,

perhaps one little exchange in the next chapter made me feel for him, a bit.

blackarrow · Aug 30, 2019

Random Lurker said:
I honestly don't know what to say about your hate for Phir Sē. He's a bad guy, yes, but I at least never felt that strongly about him. We never saw any context behind what he said he did, after all, but we do see how tired and exhausted he is.

Well,

perhaps one little exchange in the next chapter made me feel for him, a bit.

First: he's a well meaning extremist (I hate these people, just like I hate any kind of extremist. But these people, in particular, are the ones willing to sacrifice millions to save the world (or their country, their kind, etc), even if they're not sure how to save it- or if they can save it. They're the ones joggling with people's lives like its nothing for them because all they care is to reach their purposes, even if what they're doing might have disastrous consequences not just for people they sacrifice but also for the very people they're trying to save).
Second: he sacrificed a wife and two sons despite admitting that he could have saved them if he wanted. But he cared more about trying to kill an indestructible monster than protecting his family. He's also ok with sacrificing his daughter just to see Behemoth dead, despite his plan being so freaking stupid and crazy. Hate people who are so willing to sacrifice their family, no matter their reasons.
Third: he refused to communicate his plan to heroes (to indian heroes if he doesn't trust foreign heroes) or to villains (if he doesn't like heroes) and WORK with them to find a better use of his plan, better strategy and to reduce the deaths as much as possible. He worked alone and he agreed to let Weaver help him only because she was very convincing.
All in all, he reminds me of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. His obsession to kill Moby Dick doomed not only his whole crew but also himself. Phir Sē's obsession to kill Behemoth by HIMSELF alone, no matter the risks and methods, probably doomed him (if Behemoth will find him in the next Chapter) and almost doomed an entire city.
So, an obsessive well meaning extremist with stupid plans, who refused to work in team until it was almost too late and being ok with sacrificing his family is someone that I feel like hating him. I'm not sure if there's something that will make me change my opinion about him, he already crossed too many lines from my POV.
PS: we can hate or like fictional characters based on their actions and/or personalities (its up to our interpretation of their actions and/or their personalities and how much we agree or disagree with them). We can like someone like Joker as a character and person and not agree with his actions. Or some of us might LIKE Joxer's actions as well. Or some might like Joxer only as a character but hate him as a person and hate his actions. Or take X-Men as example. Some people agree with Magneto's extremist actions and appreciate him more than the idealistic peaceful Professor Xavier but others (like me) see him as nothing but a terrorist and appreciate Professor Xavier's ideas and actions. We all have different opinions even related to the same character

.

Xexilf · Aug 30, 2019

blackarrow said:
First: he's a well meaning extremist (I hate these people, just like I hate any kind of extremist. But these people, in particular, are the ones willing to sacrifice millions to save the world (or their country, their kind, etc), even if they're not sure how to save it- or if they can save it. They're the ones joggling with people's lives like its nothing for them because all they care is to reach their purposes, even if what they're doing might have disastrous consequences not just for people they sacrifice but also for the very people they're trying to save).
Second: he sacrificed a wife and two sons despite admitting that he could have saved them if he wanted. But he cared more about trying to kill an indestructible monster than protecting his family. He's also ok with sacrificing his daughter just to see Behemoth dead, despite his plan being so freaking stupid and crazy. Hate people who are so willing to sacrifice their family, no matter their reasons.

If im wandering away from the thread or going to far tell me, but i feel i must ask, isnt this a contradiction?

Phir Se has a lot to be criticised about (like wether what he did would accomplish his goals, and not communicating), but you seem contradictory here.
You say extremists who are willing to sacrifice millions to save something (like "their kind") are something you hate.
You also say that someone willing to sacrifice their family is something you always hate, no matter the reasons.

But...

Assuming the untenable situation of having to (or believing you have to) either sacrifice millions or sacrifice your family, it seems your standard cant be met at all. Because they are doing something which you declare is to be hated either way. Or is sacrificing millions suddenly ok, if its your family? Like saving the world like that is wrong, saving a nation like that is wrong, saving "their kind" like that is wrong, but saving a single person the personally know makes it suddenly right?

That seems both morally very questionable under pretty much any system, as well as possibly simply incoherent.

rafuki22 · Aug 30, 2019

blackarrow said:
First: he's a well meaning extremist (I hate these people, just like I hate any kind of extremist. But these people, in particular, are the ones willing to sacrifice millions to save the world (or their country, their kind, etc), even if they're not sure how to save it- or if they can save it. They're the ones joggling with people's lives like its nothing for them because all they care is to reach their purposes, even if what they're doing might have disastrous consequences not just for people they sacrifice but also for the very people they're trying to save).
Second: he sacrificed a wife and two sons despite admitting that he could have saved them if he wanted. But he cared more about trying to kill an indestructible monster than protecting his family. He's also ok with sacrificing his daughter just to see Behemoth dead, despite his plan being so freaking stupid and crazy. Hate people who are so willing to sacrifice their family, no matter their reasons.
Third: he refused to communicate his plan to heroes (to indian heroes if he doesn't trust foreign heroes) or to villains (if he doesn't like heroes) and WORK with them to find a better use of his plan, better strategy and to reduce the deaths as much as possible. He worked alone and he agreed to let Weaver help him only because she was very convincing.
All in all, he reminds me of Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. His obsession to kill Moby Dick doomed not only his whole crew but also himself. Phir Sē's obsession to kill Behemoth by HIMSELF alone, no matter the risks and methods, probably doomed him (if Behemoth will find him in the next Chapter) and almost doomed an entire city.
So, an obsessive well meaning extremist with stupid plans, who refused to work in team until it was almost too late and being ok with sacrificing his family is someone that I feel like hating him. I'm not sure if there's something that will make me change my opinion about him, he already crossed too many lines from my POV.
PS: we can hate or like fictional characters based on their actions and/or personalities (its up to our interpretation of their actions and/or their personalities and how much we agree or disagree with them). We can like someone like Joker as a character and person and not agree with his actions. Or some of us might LIKE Joxer's actions as well. Or some might like Joxer only as a character but hate him as a person and hate his actions. Or take X-Men as example. Some people agree with Magneto's extremist actions and appreciate him more than the idealistic peaceful Professor Xavier but others (like me) see him as nothing but a terrorist and appreciate Professor Xavier's ideas and actions. We all have different opinions even related to the same character .

By the way you speak,you also seem like a well-intentioned extremist.
You said that if you had the power you would take justice by your hand no matter what others think,so it sounds hypocritical.
Nor do I believe,and I don't want to assume,that you know what it is to make really difficult decisions where you don't win,no matter what you choose.
Something that extremists share,is that they do not consider themselves to be wrong,obviously they are the others who are wrong,right?
Also,what Xexilf said.

blackarrow · Aug 30, 2019

Xexilf said:
If im wandering away from the thread or going to far tell me, but i feel i must ask, isnt this a contradiction?

Phir Se has a lot to be criticised about (like wether what he did would accomplish his goals, and not communicating), but you seem contradictory here.
You say extremists who are willing to sacrifice millions to save something (like "their kind") are something you hate.
You also say that someone willing to sacrifice their family is something you always hate, no matter the reasons.

But...

Assuming the untenable situation of having to (or believing you have to) either sacrifice millions or sacrifice your family, it seems your standard cant be met at all. Because they are doing something which you declare is to be hated either way. Or is sacrificing millions suddenly ok, if its your family? Like saving the world like that is wrong, saving a nation like that is wrong, saving "their kind" like that is wrong, but saving a single person the personally know makes it suddenly right?

That seems both morally very questionable under pretty much any system, as well as possibly simply incoherent.

Yes, you read it right. Someone's family should come FIRST, before anything else. Yes, its something very selfish, but very human and understandable. I think almost every single person will put their family above anything (of course, how close their relationships are is something that matters too) when they'll be forced to make a choice. No, I'll NEVER personally kill other innocents for my family (killing innocents is something total wrong under any circumstance) but if I have to choose between let my family die to save others or let others die to save my family, I'm not going to think too much about what I'm going to choose. Take Brian as example. He refused to be involved in the Operation Save the Precog because he was afraid that Coil will hurt his sister. He admitted that Dinah's being Coil' slave was very wrong but he cared for his sister's safety more than for a stranger. In his place, I'd have done the same. I'd stay away from whatever plan Taylor have to save her (I'll not help her but neither stop her) and I'll act only if I have to protect my sister in case if Coil will decide to punish Taylor and the whole group for Taylor's actions. If I was Lisa- with no family that I care for- I'd have helped Taylor, of course.
Another example to illustrate how I think: my best friend asked me to choose between two different situations. Lets say that I have to capture a dangerous villain. Before I'll capture them, I know that there are two possible outcomes: A) The one where I first let the villain kills a lot of civilians (but my team- people who's also like my family- will survive) then I'll capture them and B) The one where I let the villain run away (but some of my team-family will die or suffer fate worse than death) but civilians will survive.
Do you know my answer? I'd choose A) Civilians will die (very unfortunately) but my team-family will survive and the villain will be defeated. I hate BOTH opinions but how can I sacrifice my team and let the villain escape (so they'll continue to do evil and possible complicate things even more for everyone)? I know that option B) seems to be better (no civilians will die) but A) means better on long term (the villain will be captured and my team will survive enough to defeat other villains who'll appear in the future). Long term effects: I save my team and I will save probably more civilians in the future than I sacrifice now.
I HATE MYSELF FOR THINKING LIKE THAT, but I put my family (be my blood family or my team friends) above everything else. I'll never forgive myself that I didn't choose B) but I hold onto the hope that things will get better for everyone on the long term and the sacrifices have not been in vain. I'm so sorry if I appear as someone heartless , I'm just trying to do what I can to protect people I love. Do you understand me better now (you don't have to agree with me, of course).

blackarrow · Aug 30, 2019

rafuki22 said:
By the way you speak,you also seem like a well-intentioned extremist.
You said that if you had the power you would take justice by your hand no matter what others think,so it sounds hypocritical.
Nor do I believe,and I don't want to assume,that you know what it is to make really difficult decisions where you don't win,no matter what you choose.
Something that extremists share,is that they do not consider themselves to be wrong,obviously they are the others who are wrong,right?
Also,what Xexilf said.

I'll take justice in my hands (if its possible) ONLY to punish some very bad guys. I'll never personally touch innocents under any circumstances. No, I will never become a totalitarian utilitarian (I'm not an utilitarian anyway) because I'll not sacrifice innocents in my crusade against bad guys (if you read my previous comment, you'll see that there's a single exceptionally exception for me to allow innocents to die- if I have to save people I care for and stop a villain that can do more harm in the future if they're allowed to escape). Except for this exceptionally exception, I'll be something like a vigilante protecting innocents and punishing assholes as best as I can. Not villains like Undersiders or Ambassadors (as long as they are not an immediate menace for civilians) but villains like S9, Merchants, ABB, E88. Imagine someone like Tagg mixed with Piggot but without Tagg's lack of common sense/assholery and Piggot's bigotry.

blackarrow · Sep 4, 2019

Hello, my friends. Last time, a time bomb exploded and a monster got turned into a skeleton. But this doesn't mean that he's close of dying, on the contrary. He keeps regenerating and kicking ass and kicking ass and regenerating like there's no tomorrow . Phir Sē, the one responsible for attacking Behemoth with the time bomb, will probably be the monster's first victim after this failed assassination attempt. Behemoth was severely injured by a mere human and he'll never accept this half-defeat. He'll go after the cold indian parahuman to teach him a lesson about messing with Kaijus

. Meanwhile, a lot of heroes/villains helping heroes were injured or killed, Weaver became (ever if nobody will recognize her like this) the heroine of New Delhi, saving the city from an impeding doom when she worked with Eidolon to stop the bomb from destroying the city and killing all its inhabitants and concentrating the explosion only on the beast and Scion still save cats from trees instead of doing more useful things...like saving humans from a monster. Btw, I googled Phir Sē (to see if this is his real name or his parahuman codename in hindi) and I got something like: 'Once Again'. So, his parahuman codename in hindi. Fits with his time powers. Ok, since everyone (hero, villain, monster) deserve to say something nice about them, INCLUDING well- intentioned extremists (for example: Coil was...a smart guy, Jack is...a smart guy, Skidmark was...a funny cunt, Emma is...a pretty bitch, Mannequin is...FUUUUUUUUUUCK, Heartbreaker is...FUCK THAT GUY, Sophia is...good at shooting people

), I'm going to say something nice about Phir Sē, before he'll die. Like an eulogize. First: he's incredible strong, almost Triumvirate levels. If he's capable to build a time bomb whose explosion crippled an Endbringer and was very close to completely annihilate a city, then he's a very powerful parahuman. Probably that, given enough time (and if Behemoth will not kill him now), he'll make a time bomb capable to destroy a whole continent and use to try to kill the other Endbringers- he'll never stop killing these pesky monsters even with the risk of blowing up the whole Earth

. Bakuda would have loved this guy (call it love at the first sight if you prefer) if she was alive and they'd have meet. A couple made in Heaven...of bombs and explosions. Second: he listened Weaver (in the last moment, but it still matters) and worked with her despite his annoying unwillingness to work with other people. The city was saved and Behemoth injured only because he allowed her to coordinate the whole operation in his place. Good choice, mr 'Once Again'. Enough with eulogize, lets get back to businesses Crushed 24.5

The fight with Leviathan in Brockton Bay had been a good day. We'd lost people, we'd lost good capes, but we'd more or less bounced back, made it three-quarters of the way back to where we needed to be, in a matter of months. There had been ugliness, infighting, a hell of a lot of doubt, but we'd started to make our way back to where we should be. It had been the lowest number of casualties we'd had in an Endbringer attack in years, not counting a few of the Simurgh attacks. A good day.

Tecton had pulled ahead of the group, and turned abruptly, skidding to a stop. Cuff's body was folded over the back of the bike, limp. The Yàngbǎn had two more bodies with them, as well. I'd taken my flight pack back from Imp, and was airborne as he raised a gauntlet to get my attention. I descended to meet him, and we were soon joined by Dispatch, and Exalt, who carried an unconscious Revel.

"He went underground," Eidolon informed us.

"He ran? It's over?"

I felt a pang of guilt, a swelling lump in my throat. I'd never really gotten to know Regent, not to the extent that I'd gotten to know the others. He hadn't really revealed much about himself, either. I'd reminisced before about the intimacy of friendships, about the sharing of vulnerabilities, allowing others to be close, exposing oneself to possible harm. I'd done it with Emma, back in the day, and I'd suffered for it. I'd allowed myself to form a kind of intimacy with the Undersiders, and it might well have been a reason we'd survived this far. Regent hadn't established that kind of intimacy with us.

Except maybe for Imp.

He'd hidden so much. I'd only glimpsed the seriously disordered personality that lurked beneath the outer image of the lazy, disaffected teenager, had only seen traces of that part of him that just didn't care that he could enslave a person's body and leave their mind as little more than a helpless observer. And beneath that aspect of himself, he'd had something else, something that had driven him to distract Behemoth so Imp might live.

My eyes fell on Eidolon. Was there a similarity to Regent? Lies, deception, a false face behind a false face behind a false face?

...but the most important thing that happened in the last Chapter: Alec died

. And not died like died in the fight or doing something stupid or trying to run away and leave everyone behind him. He died after he sacrificed his life for another human being. For his only friend he ever cared about, in his own way. Because I think that he CARED for Aisha (maybe it wasn't love like we know and feel for someone close to us, but something was there, Alec was capable of some feelings that only he knew and felt, feelings that made him took this extreme decision, preferring to die instead of allowing his friend to die. SOMETHING WAS THERE AND I'M SURE THAT MY AFFIRMATION IS NOT WRONG NEITHER TOO IDEALISTIC). Alec wasn't completely empty like he believed himself to be or lacking a heart like his sister lacked. He was a very troubled teen, a sociopath incapable of many human feelings but capable to love and cherish a single person in his own way- I can compare him with Number Man, who's also an extremely troubled sociopath but he still consider Jack a close friend of his despite their differences in opinions and actions and his departure from Jack's group. Even the worst sociopaths/psychopaths have someone or something to love, Jack and Heartbreaker loving the power they have over their groups, for example

. Alec, despite being a sociopath, a rapist and a criminal, loved Aisha and PROVED his love for her by making the supreme sacrifice. No, what he did doesn't redeem him in my eyes (I feel nothing but disgust for rapists to an absurd degree, even more than for mere criminals

) but...he did one of the most beautiful gestures someone can do and for this thing alone I'll always RESPECT and CHERISH his memory. I'll remember Alec not only as the first Undersider who died but also as the boy who saved his best friend paying the highest price one can ever pay

. Self- sacrifice is something that I always admire in a human being (hell, I admire Kaiser for his self-sacrifice and he was nothing but a scumbag).

The sound of the fighting stopped with a crash. Where was the motherfucker? I rose higher to check, but saw neither Behemoth nor the cape who'd been binding him. He'd burrowed.

It was quiet, all of a sudden, if not quite silent. The defending capes were spreading out, and were hovering in place or holding positions, rather than bombarding the landscape. The lightning and fire had stopped, and no shockwaves ripped through the city. The rumbling was intermittent, mild when it wasn't almost imperceptible. The ringing in my ears was louder than the ambient noise.

"He's underground. He may be coming for you," I informed him, speaking through my swarm.

"I assumed," Phir Sē responded. "Thank you."

"You need to leave, soon."

"I have a way out. I'll leave when trouble begins. Could you rid me of the bugs? When you leave them, they fly about me, and I cannot afford distractions."

I hesitated, then removed the bugs, shifting them to nearby rooms and corridors. I left only a pocket of them to communicate with. "Be safe."

"You as well, Weaver. Thank you, for the cooperation."

"Have you gained a bit of faith?"

"Faith gained in this, perhaps, faith lost in another."

"I know what you mean."

"Good bye. If we both live, perhaps we talk again, in a less dangerous time."

"Good bye," I responded.

Well, their last exchange of words was pretty ok. Now, Phir Sē, look in front of you. You'll see Weaver and you'll understand how a true heroine looks like. If you look behind you, you'll see Behemoth's opened mouth just waiting to taste you and you'll understand that Death is so close to you that you can touch it in matter of seconds. Bye, bye, Phir Sē, I quite enjoyed reading about you and your power, even if you pissed me off most of the time

. Now lets see what the others are doing and how the rest of Undersiders will cope with Regent's death. My best bets?
Aisha will suffer the most but she'll refuse to show it, instead she'll probably go after Heartbreaker and fucking kill him as punishment for destroying Alec's life (and I'll support her 100% even if is going to be difficult to kill a Master who can feel her presence based on her emotions and fuck with her emotions even before she'll realize that. I think she'll need additional help to take Heartbreaker down).
Lisa will hardly give a fuck (the only one that Lisa give a fuck about is Taylor and maybe Brian a little).
Rachel doesn't give a fuck ( naturally because Alec was a human being NOT a dog)
Brian will blame himself because he was injured and he wasn't there to help his teammates and being the leader that he wanted to be

.

"You okay?" Tecton asked, as he caught up with me. He held Cuff in his heavy armored hands, as though she were a small child.

"Saying goodbye to a self-professed madman. Is she okay?"

"She's breathing, but I can tell she's hurting."

Clockblocker had fallen. I looked for him in the crowd of injured. I didn't see him. Then again, I had my suspicions already. This only helped justify them.

"Skitter," Grue said, as I approached. Tattletale stood at his bedside, her phone in hand. There were no curtains here. No privacy. This was all improvised, care facilities hashed together with what the locals had on hand. He still wore his helmet, but he had his jacket off. He noted the arrival of the others.

"Regent's dead," Imp said.

I could see Grue go still.

"No, Grue," I told him. "You want to feel bad? That's allowed, but I forbid you from taking the actual blame for this."

"You can't do that," he said. His voice was hard. "I'm team leader, not you. I'm supposed to pick up the slack, remember? I'm supposed to manage these guys. So don't turn around and decide shit like this, when you left. I dropped the ball. I didn't move fast enough, I got hurt, and because of that, I wasn't there to help, to lead."

He sighed, heavy. "Fuck."

"Fuck," Imp echoed him.

"Fuck," Rachel followed, from the entrance to the room, as if we were toasting Regent in our own messed up way. Tattletale was nodding.

"Fuck," I agreed.

"Christ," Grue said. "What do you even say to that? How… how do you even pay your respects to a guy like him?"

"Yeah," Imp said, her voice small. "I'm going to fucking kill his dad for him."

Ha, Grue and Imp reacted just as I imagined them reacting. Grue blaming himself for Regent's death, Imp promising to kill that MONSTER of his father (it will be cool if Imp will convince his children to help her and each of them will take turns to torture their father before they'll kill him in a very detailed Interlude

). They're all Masters and they should be able to control humans just like their father is. However, I can imagine Heartbreaker being immune to his children's powers in the same manner Cherish and Regent were immune to each other power. Clearly Imp needs help in her mission to defeat this absolute despicable human Endbringer. I just don't know who might help her. Someone immune to Heartbreaker's power? I wonder if some of children are immune to his powers but they can affect him with their own powers. Afterwards, I imagine Imp taking his children under her protection and teach them how to live like normal people

. Well, she's not the best example of a social and role model person but she'll be the best protector of those poor children. Once Imp is motivated to protect someone, not even the devil himself will stop her. Imp with a family of little Masters is incredible scary, creepy and terrible

but Imp with a family of little children who deserve to have normal lives after such a long time of slavery is something truly wonderful and precious

. I support Imp killing Heartbreaker AND becoming a parent figure for his twisted, feral and sociopathic children.

There was a rumble, with a shaking that affected the whole structure. Something distant, beyond my power's range. A heavy crash. Somewhere in a northwesterly direction.

Phir Sē, I thought. Had that been his complex?

I lowered my voice "Rachel, maybe you can do me a favor?"

"Hm?"

I ordered my thoughts, then voiced them, "Grue and Tattletale are too injured to help out. I'm focused on other stuff, and Parian and Foil are looking after each other. Can you keep an eye on Imp?"

He tried again, earnest, "Okay, here's a cheat I learned in a leadership seminar. It's called active listening. Someone says something, a complaint, or a criticism, or they're excited about something that happened to them. For a lot of us, our instinct is to offer a solution, or expand on an idea, to fix oroffer something. The key is to think about how they're feeling, be receptive to that, and parrot it back to them. They just got a new car, and they're happy about it? A simple 'that's excellent' or 'you must be so proud' works. It leaves room for them to keep talking, to know you're listening. For your teammate who just lost someone she obviously cared about, just recognizing that she's upset and she's right to feel upset, that's enough."

I opened my mouth to say something, but I couldn't even begin to sum up how useless this advice was to Rachel in particular.

"That's retarded," Rachel told Tecton.

Yes, yes, Rachel is right

. Your advice is RETARDED. Sorry, Tecton, but your advice, while cool if addressed to a someone who isn't Rachel, is retarded for Rachel. She doesn't need something like that. She doesn't understand something like that. Want to convince her to take care of Imp? Then talk using her language:
'Yo, Bitch, your teammate needs someone to keep an eye on her. Want to help? Then treat her like you treat your dogs. You love your dogs, you take good care of them. Can't you do the same for Imp? Try to think at her like...she's your dog. Then everything will be so easy for you two.'
See, Tecton, isn't hard to talk bitch language

.
RIP, Phir Sē, you Triumvirate level madman.

I turned to her. "Rachel, did you ever have a dog with a deep attachment to another person or dog? Someone they lost, before they found their way to a shelter, or to you? Where they were still dealing, after the fact?"

She gave me a one-shouldered shrug.

"How would you treat that dog?" I asked.

"Basically, though? You'd just be there, right? Do that for Imp. Stay close, make sure she doesn't run off, as much as that's even possible with her, and give her the benefit of your company without intruding into her space. Make sure she has all of the basics, both in the near future and in the next few days."

"And just like a dog that's had a recent bad experience might snap, bark or growl, you need to understand that she might do the same. Only it'll probably take a different form. She'll swear a lot. She'll probably try to get a rise out of you, try to provoke you or someone else. That's how Imp growls."

"How was your advice better than mine?" Tecton asked. He sounded a touch offended.

"Skin's badly burned, but the burn didn't go much further than that. She'll have the most amazing scars, too. No serious internal or mental damage, as far as we can tell, but her muscles convulsed so badly they broke a bone."

The ground shuddered. Again, as before, the rumbling intensified.

Behemoth emerged with a plume of gray-brown smoke, and the landscapeshattered. It was Tecton's natural power, taken to an extreme. Fissures lanced out in every direction and disappeared into each horizon. Secondaryfissures crossed between each of the major ones, like the threads of a spider's web.

Weaver knows how to talk bitch

. Tecton is a slow learner but he's smart, he'll get used with bitch language (of course, if he'll survive long enough). Poor Cuff, poor idealistic and innocent heroine, her wounds look nasty even if they're not life threatening

. Behemoth, after he finished with Phir Sē, want to claim more victims, as revenge over his half-defeat, and now he attacks a temple full with injured and people dying. It looks like the less injured are trying to create a last stand against the monster even if their hopes that they'll hurt him more than a time bomb injured him are very low. Well, at least they try to stop him from killing all the heavily injured in the temple and even if they'll fail, their failure will not be completely in vain. People will remember them as the heroes who fought until the very last moments of their lives to protect the ones unable to protect themselves while facing a virtually impossible to kill monster

. But the hopes are not lost yet. No way Wilbow is going to kill all the Undersiders in a single Chapter, almost all the most important heroes and more important, the main character. Behemoth's attack will be stopped by the collective efforts of everyone or Scion will FINALLY bring the cat back into the loving arms of the generic crazy cat lady then will notice that people in India have a serious problem of some colossal proportions and is NOT A GIANT CAT IN A GIANT TREE

.

Behemoth emerged from the smoke. He was more robust than he had been, but that wasn't saying much. Seventy percent burned away, perhaps. The regeneration had slowed, but it was still functioning to a degree. He'd recuperated, built his strength, and he'd used the time to, what? Burrow through strategic areas? Had the distant rumbles been controlled detonations or collapses at key areas?

"Last stand!" a male cape I didn't know hollered the words, his voice ragged with fear and emotion.

Behemoth, three or four hundred feet away, responded to the shout with a lightning strike. Our capes were too slow to erect barriers, and the protection insufficient. Capes died. For the first time, I averted my eyes. I didn't want to know how bad the casualties were. Our numbers were too thin.

Eidolon landed to one side. The Triumvirate had often posed in that classic 'v' formation, with Legend in front, Alexandria to his left, Eidolon to the right, the lesser members in the wings, Eidolon was now apart from the rest of the group. His cape didn't billow, his posture was slightly slumped. He was tired, on his last legs.

That answered my question, I supposed. Pretender couldn't take over a corpse, but there was no reason for him to take over Alexandria if she was alive and well. Cauldron had collected Pretender, and they had him controlling her because she was no longer of any use to them on her own.

"Hold the line," Exalt called out. Other capes translated for him, echoing his words with only a few seconds of delay, in four or five different languages. "We defend until the ones inside can be evacuated, and then we leave. There's nothing left to protect here."

A thin heroism, but that was heroic, wasn't it? Protecting the wounded, defending the ones who'd put everything on the line to stop this monster.

Yep, the last stand. Until Behemoth will retreat, the injured will be evacuated or Scion will save the day. I still hold onto the hope that Scion will save the day

. I don't like him and I'm more and more convinced that he'll be turned evil but if there's someone who can kill an Endbringer without giving him any chance to regenerate, then Scion is our man. ~~Edward~~ Kevin Norton gave Scion clear directives: kill orders for Endbringers. Lets see how much Scion is willing to listen to his former master until the end. I still want to believe that this Arc will end well (yes, a shit load of victims and the first Undersider dying but most of our favorite heroes/villains will survive along with most of New Delhi's citizens

). Damn it, Worm is not a horror story, is a superhero story (with horror elements, yes, but still a very dark superhero story, not horror). Don't argue with me cause you'll lose. I have the best argument in my favor. The first Undersider who died is Regent. In horror stories/movies, one of the golden rules is that if you have a group where there is a black man, the one who always die first is...yes, the BLACK MAN. Brian is still alive so...this is not a horror story because it doesn't respect one of the golden rules of a horror story. And since is not a horror story, it can't have a bad ending. Gosh, my logic is flawless

.

My friend send me this picture with Alec casually puppetering Sophia. If the puppet wasn't Sophia, I'd have hated this pic so much despite the great talent behind it. But...is Sophia so everything is fine

.

Credit to: ArtLounge (u/ArtLounge) - Reddit

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Sep 4, 2019

Your immediate reaction when Alec died. What was your reaction? How did you feel? He was a major character so I had to ask this question. Besides, for my own curiosity

.

rafuki22 · Sep 4, 2019

blackarrow said:
Your immediate reaction when Alec died. What was your reaction? How did you feel? He was a major character so I had to ask this question. Besides, for my own curiosity .

I feelt the overwhelming feeling of nothing,with a piece of apathy and a little bit "...OH...".
Alec would be proud.

Random Lurker · Sep 4, 2019

blackarrow said:
Your immediate reaction when Alec died. What was your reaction? How did you feel? He was a major character so I had to ask this question. Besides, for my own curiosity .

Too long ago, so I'm not sure. So my reaction definitely wasn't a strong one, else I would've remembered clearly. But I do know, on thinking of it later, that I saw it as proof of how much he actually cared for Imp, despite being a sociopath.

Also, I know you hate Phir Se. To me, though, the exchanges about faith implies that something happened to him that made him lose faith in all humanity except himself. Taylor convinced him to risk it one last time, and the result - India not blown up, and Behemoth reduced to a skeleton but not dead - made him regain faith in humanity but lose faith in himself. Along with his words at the end, it sounded to me like someone who knew he was likely going to die but still playing like he would live through it, just so he could hold it together to his last moments.

While I can't approve of him, this is why I can't bring myself to hate him as fervently as you did.

ImperatorV · Sep 5, 2019

My reaction to Alec's death? At the time, maybe a little sad. Later though, when I thought about it for a bit, it hit me hard.

Remember, Alec can tell what the people he's mastered are feeling right? And once he's mastered someone, he can take control of them again easily any time they are in his range? Both established in the interlude where he's controlling Sophia. And we know he's controlled Imp in the past, probably as part of kinky sex shenanigans. So, in that moment when Aisha was trapped and dying, Alec would have known exactly how scared she was, exactly how much pain she was in. And decided to help her, knowing full well it would kill him. Alec doesn't make emotional decisions owing to a lack of said emotions, so there was nothing pushing him and making him act irrational in that moment. He just went through a thought process - Aisha's hurting, and terrified for her life, the only way to help her is to die, I guess I'll die then.

I'll also note that there were other people in that scene. Taylor, Yangban members, a couple of heroes. None of them sacrificed themselves. No, it was the sociopathic villain. Being more of a Martyr then the heroes. Good job showing up the good guys, Regent.

Birdsie · Sep 5, 2019

blackarrow said:
Your immediate reaction when Alec died. What was your reaction? How did you feel? He was a major character so I had to ask this question. Besides, for my own curiosity .

I had mixed feelings, really, but I was mostly sad. Not stricken with heartrending sadness. A part of it may have been the suddenness of the whole thing, but also, he wasn't a good person, definitely, but he wasn't as malicious and power-hungry as his father, and clearly resented him to some degree. His lax attitude also helped endear him a little to me, because I like that kind of free-spirited character. But the way he went out was nobler than most dead people can say for themselves.

I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that whoever he raped and hurt was a mistake of his formative years. Maybe it was, or maybe it wasn't, but you can see that despite his apathy and general lack of care for rules or other people, he cared about his teammates to some degree. He made Shadow Stalker flee with her tail between her legs for Taylor (granted, at little cost to himself,) but now he pretty much sacrificed himself for Imp, since he was likely aware that attracting Behemoth's undivided attention meant certain death. That makes him alright in my books.

Add on top of that what the poster above said about his power. The fact that it was an act of logic for him to sacrifice himself for Imp, that he saw a sort of 'value' in her means it was a noble deed in my eyes; I'd like to think that when he realized it was either her or him, he decided that if he was ever going to try being a hero/good person, then this was the moment.

Either way, mad respect for Regent.

blackarrow · Sep 5, 2019

rafuki22 said:
I feelt the overwhelming feeling of nothing,with a piece of apathy and a little bit "...OH...".
Alec would be proud.

When I said that you're pretty similar to Alec in terms of personality, I wasn't very wrong

. No, don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad to have a personality similar with Alec as long as everything is limited only to personality and not his actions too

. Btw, humor me a little, please, if you had Alec's power, what you'd do with it? Imagine yourself being a Master like Alec with the possibility to do anything you want and nobody have any idea of the power you possess. Your first actions?

blackarrow · Sep 5, 2019

Random Lurker said:
Too long ago, so I'm not sure. So my reaction definitely wasn't a strong one, else I would've remembered clearly. But I do know, on thinking of it later, that I saw it as proof of how much he actually cared for Imp, despite being a sociopath.

Also, I know you hate Phir Se. To me, though, the exchanges about faith implies that something happened to him that made him lose faith in all humanity except himself. Taylor convinced him to risk it one last time, and the result - India not blown up, and Behemoth reduced to a skeleton but not dead - made him regain faith in humanity but lose faith in himself. Along with his words at the end, it sounded to me like someone who knew he was likely going to die but still playing like he would live through it, just so he could hold it together to his last moments.

While I can't approve of him, this is why I can't bring myself to hate him as fervently as you did.

The way you're talking about him ALMOST make me feel sorry for him. Maybe...MAYBE I can feel a bit of sympathy for him (he only wanted to destroy Endbringers; he wasn't someone who manipulated or mind controlled people, he wasn't power-hungry, he wasn't Coil, neither Heartbreaker or Jack or Cauldron or Fuck You Cody- if I have to compare him with the worst of worst people) but my sympathy for him is no more than 5-10% if I'm being very generous. Because his methods were atrocious, because he's responsible of the death of his family's members, because he was willing to sacrifice his daughter and many other lives. For me, the actions of people like him are a big NO, utterly unforgivable and inexpiable. Maybe he wasn't exactly a monster but I don't hate only monsters as you probably observed. I hate/dislike people whose actions bother me quite a lot, even if they're not necessarily monsters (Tagg, Fuck You Cody, Emma are not monsters yet their actions made me hate them). Or, something completely different, Echidna was a monster yet I couldn't bring myself to hate her. I wanted her to die but not because I hated her. Or Amelia, she isn't a monster yet her last actions were downright HORRIBLE, but I can't hate her. She hurt a family member and I should hate her for this if I'm staying true to my beliefs but...I'm only mad at her, I want to scream at her, bitch slap her and force her to heal Victoria, but I don't hate her. I know that this screams like having selective opinions about characters but I'm not a perfect human being

.
Back to Phir Sē , if I think deeper, I'm convinced less that he's dead. He had a partner- a teleporter who killed Kismet and took Particulate with him. What if, in the last moment, the teleporter teleported him away from the area of Behemoth's killing aura and he survived? Please, don't tell me if he's dead or not, maybe this is not the last time I'm going to see this Time Master Madman

. I will repeat myself, even if I 90% hate him and 10% I sympathize him, I still find him a well written and compelling character and MAYBE I want to see more of him/hear more about him.
Yes, I understand that he lost faith in himself but I'm not sure why exactly. Because he started to regret what he did and he saw himself as a monster after Weaver worked her hardest to save so many lives or because he was pissed because he couldn't kill Behemoth? He wasn't very clear about his last thoughts.

blackarrow · Sep 5, 2019

ImperatorV said:
My reaction to Alec's death? At the time, maybe a little sad. Later though, when I thought about it for a bit, it hit me hard.

Remember, Alec can tell what the people he's mastered are feeling right? And once he's mastered someone, he can take control of them again easily any time they are in his range? Both established in the interlude where he's controlling Sophia. And we know he's controlled Imp in the past, probably as part of kinky sex shenanigans. So, in that moment when Aisha was trapped and dying, Alec would have known exactly how scared she was, exactly how much pain she was in. And decided to help her, knowing full well it would kill him. Alec doesn't make emotional decisions owing to a lack of said emotions, so there was nothing pushing him and making him act irrational in that moment. He just went through a thought process - Aisha's hurting, and terrified for her life, the only way to help her is to die, I guess I'll die then.

I'll also note that there were other people in that scene. Taylor, Yangban members, a couple of heroes. None of them sacrificed themselves. No, it was the sociopathic villain. Being more of a Martyr then the heroes. Good job showing up the good guys, Regent.

Gosh, I so LOVE your theory. You mad me cry again with your theory, mate. I will never forgive you for that, I hate crying so easily

. Yes, probably Alec took control of Aisha right before Behemoth was close to kill her and he experienced EVERYTHING that she experienced during those moments and he knew that only through his supreme sacrifice her pain and fear will stop. And since nobody was willing to commit the supreme sacrifice for Aisha, Alec was the only one left to become her Martyr (please, don't mention Yangban here, they only care about their Mother country, they won't sacrifice their lives not even for their own members- when one of them was injured they just abandoned them and Imp was the one who took them in her arms, trying to protect them: "There was a yelp, and I could see Imp, all at once, sheltered by a wall that was shrinking in size with every second the blast continued. She held the Yàngbǎn member who'd strayed too far away from our main group in her arms." They don't give a shit about their members, no way they'd sacrifice themselves for a non-chinese girl). Yep, in the end the sociopath villain proved himself more human than many sane heroes

.

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

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