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

blackarrow · Dec 1, 2019

Hello, my dear friends. Too busy, with very little time for myself "sighs"

. So, last time, my heart cried tears of blood, all thanks to Wildbow and his sick imagination. Only someone like Wildbow can create such a horrible monster like Bonesaw and an absolute innocent victim like Riley and combine them in the same body. He basically created what Bonesaw always liked to create: a Frankenstein of a character. Sin and innocence in the same person. Evil and goodness in the same being. The triumph of a beast with a such a dark mind and the struggles of a trapped child inside the body of the beast. Bonesaw vs Riley. Who's gonna win? Of course I want Riley to win and take her life back from the monsters that stole it from her: Jack and Bonesaw. Bonesaw/Riley are one of the best and most fascinating Wildbow's characters, also the one with one of the most tragic backstories. A literally soul crushing backstory

. A sick, demented, tragic backstory and only I know how much I cried when and after I read it. Of course, now you know this too. I just want that everything will end well for Riley and she'll finally find her well-deserving happiness. Of course, doesn't mean that I'll ever forget and forgive all the shit that Bonesaw did, even if I want only what is good for Riley. Because, I can hate as much as I want the monster but still feel a deep pity for the poor child struggling to survive, right?
Alright, time for a new Arc. I think I understand the meaning of the name of the last Arc: Scarab. Wasn't the supposed name of Taylor's Passenger. Glaistig Uaine clearly said that the Passenger's name is Queen Administrator and I trust the "Mad" Fairy when it comes to her knowledge about Passengers. In Egyptian mythology, the scarab was a symbol for immortality and cycle of rebirth. S9 just cloned themselves, creating this cycle of rebirth and resurrection. Scarab was referring at what S9 did to themselves

. I was quite wrong with my prediction about the Arc's title but isn't a crime because I couldn't know the true meaning before finishing reading the Arc. The next Arc is called Sting. Weaver is going to sting everyone with her sting, like a heroic bee she's now. S9 clones have reasons to be afraid, eh? Hope this time I won't be wrong Sting 26.1

One of Rachel's dogs growled, long and loud, an alien, unsure sound.

The smell. Summer heat, the mingled scent of blood, shit and overripe bodies, with traces of other things in the wind. Caustic chemicals, ozone, smoke, burned flesh and plastic.

Welcome to Killington. Heart of the Green Mountains.

"They got the children too," Cozen whispered, as she averted her eyes from a mother who had died holding her child, both burned black. The only parts of their body that hadn't burned were patches of skin in the shapes of numbers. Two-fifty-four. Two-fifty-five.

Two of the Red Hands, Getaway and Rifle, had come along for the ride. They were sticking close by her, and formed a small contingent with Grue as a consequence. Getaway wore a cowl with a hood that peaked in the front, to the center of his mask. His costume had straight, clean lines, as though he'd modeled it after a car.

Of course they got children, I thought. I had to bite back a retort. Why was she here, if she wasn't ready for this?

But she wasn't a fighter. None of the Red Hands were, really. They were professional thieves. Break in, get out, sell the goods.

I glanced again at Cozen, saw her looking at me in turn. Catching me looking, really.

"What?" she asked.

You don't need to be here. You'll be happier in the long run if you aren't.

I led the way as our group rounded a corner, and saw the smouldering wreckage of the helicopter, smoke still streaming skyward.

The collision apparently hadn't been enough to topple the corpse that stood upright in the middle of the intersection, desiccated. A number was drawn on the mummy's chest in blood. Number thirty-six.

I could make out a tripwire strung between him and another corpse, a woman. She had apparently been shot execution style, propped upright on her knees. A number, again, had been drawn out in the midst of the blood spatter from the original wound. Number two-sixty-five.

The tripwire was almost obvious, coated in congealed blood.

This should be the most IRONIC NAME for a city I've ever heard. Killington. Killing+ to(w)n. No wonder why S9 Clones choose this town to proclaim their existence. Just look at its name. This should be a life lesson. Never name your town Killing if you don't want to have a band of cloned murderhobos with supernatural/alien powers as your unexpected guests

. They already committed atrocities. RIP poor Killington citizens. Oh, God, children...

Of course, S9 won't stay true to their name if they don't kill children. Don't be surprised, Cozen, they're capable of every atrocity you can possible imagine. Oh, poor Cozen, she's like a villain Cuff. She obviously hate seeing these horror, yet she was willing to help the heroes because she wanted to fight against this indescribable evil. Just like Cuff who hated fighting against Behemoth, yet she still did it. I guess that Grue is lucky to have this woman as his wife. She may be a villain, but she have her heart in the right place. She's a good human being. I like her

. I really like her, no matter what Weaver have to say about her. Well, Weaver, stop being jealous on this woman. She didn't stole your man. You lost him. You lost him from the moment when you decided to become a hero. Well, don't worry. You still have some possibilities left. Golem, Tecton? If you all will survive to Jackpocalypse, of course. Now isn't the right time for romance. Neither for jealousy. Understand, Weaver? Stop thinking bad about her. If she decided to help you and your team, despite not liking at all the situation and not being a killer, then she must be respected for her choice, not judged like: "you should not be here" or something between the lines. "sighs" Weaver, Weaver...

Red string, I thought. In Japanese superstition, it was the string that bound lovers.

The pieces suggested Crimson and Winter. Neither was Japanese, but the idea of mingling romantic imagery with violence in that way fit them. The red knight and the soldier.

I pointed to indicate. "Obvious tripwire here. Covered in blood. Connects to the two bodies and… I think claymores, at the base of that building over there. There are other tripwires around it. Look too hard at it, miss the others. I think there's a pressure plate, too. I'm not sure what to call that."

I led the way around the trap. I left a trail of dead bugs behind us as we made our way to the center, murdering them with larger bugs and mashing them into the ground. A path.

We circled around eight teenage girls, sitting in a circle, crowns of splintered wood nailed through their skulls.

I looked up. Number eight sat on the bulb of a street light, a long dress blowing in the wind, directly above the circle. Her crown was the tallest, and for her to be so rigid, there had to be a whole assortment of planks nailed to her.

"Nine Kings," I said.

"They've resurrected all of the old members. Cloned them," Revel said.

"Got a live one!" Imp called out, interrupting my thoughts. "…Kind of alive."

I turned to look. A fat man was shifting in a restless way, his chest rising and falling quickly in unsteady movements. One arm jerked.

"Or a trap," I responded. "I doubt he's in a state to fill us in on anything. We'll move on, wait for heroes to follow the path I'm marking. They'll handle medical care for wounded."

"That's fucked up," Rifle said. "We could at least put him out of his misery, then."

This city is doomed

. Nothing can safe Killington anymore, maybe only if they'll completely nuke it so nothing, except for smoke and ash, can remain behind. Either people are killed in absolute horrible ways, their dead bodies are turned into traps and the ones who are still alive are probably used as traps too. I don't think there are people left that can still be saved. I doubt that there are unhurt/SAFE survivors left. And I thought that Brockton Bay was hell on earth. I agree with Rifle, Cozen's man. The few survivors should be put out of their misery, because this is not life for them anymore, only an endless suffering until they'll eventually die

. I hate when innocents die but I hate more when they suffer without any escape. For the love of God, if you're human enough, fucking kill them and allow them to find their peace (of course, I don't think I'll ever personally kill an innocent if I'll find myself in this situation, even one in deep suffering, but I'll ask someone who's tough enough to do it, even beg them, because I know that death is much more better for these poor, unfortunate souls). Cozen is stronger that she probably know herself. To continue to walk deep inside the heart of that pure hell show true strength of heart and mind

.

"I'm not willing to get close enough to check," I said. "And I'm not willing foryou to get close either."

Then she stopped. The fat man deflated in an instant as a small collection of what looked like trilobites found their way out of his rear end. Slick with gore, they darted forward a short distance on their hundreds of little legs, then turned our way, bristling with spines. Tails trailed behind each of them, twice as long as the foot-long creatures, narrow, with stingers on the ends.

I could hear a hissing, but I wasn't sure if it was from the creatures or the way the spines rubbed against one another.

"Breed's power," I said. "They're mostly harmless, for now."

"For now," I answered Rifle. "They start off the size of a lemon, lurk in spots where they can get access to orifices or sites of injury, or like you see here, corpses. Inside beer bottles, in toilet bowls, bedcovers, on the underside of kitchen tables, even inside food. Then they burrow inside, wait until the target is still and quiet for an hour or two, paralyze the target, and emit pheromones to call others of their kind to them. They devour the target from the inside out, molt once or twice as they digest the fats and proteins they ate, then find a new target. It's a process that takes a week to two weeks, depending on the availability of food sources."

"They aren't a danger to us," I said. "Probably. They choose easier targets over harder ones, and there are enough corpses around here that we aren't worth the trouble. What we should worry about is the later stages. When they're about the size of a full-grown human being, they'll do two or three major molts with big physical changes, gaining some natural weapons, including a pellet-spit that kind of acts like a shotgun blast with fragments that dissolve into flesh-melting acid."

"Breed's creatures. Can you control them?" this from Revel, taking advantage of the stunned silence.

I glanced up at the body the things had invaded. I tailored my response so both Revel and the Undersiders could make sense of it. "I can't control those things, and I can't sense them either."

Breed's power is so cool in the most horrible way possible. He can create trilobites like creature than can grow as big as humans and kill their victims with flesh-melting acid. He's a Master, right? Really a horrible cool power for a Master who doesn't control humans. I'm very biased, I know, but most of the creepiest powers belong to Masters

. This is a sad truth. Breed and Nilbog will get along very well if they will ever get to know each other. Well, I'm still surprised that S9 never decided to visit Nilblog and try to recruit him. Maybe because Jack decided that Nilblog is too unstable even for them? Who knows, but the King of the Monsters Garden would have been an excellent addition to S9: powerful, scary, sadistic psychopath, doesn't give a fuck about human life, great imagination...truly a S9 material. I think that Jack just missed a HUGE opportunity.
I wonder how they'd have promoted Breed's power if he was a hero instead of a serial murderer. His power wouldn't be such a hero power material especially in the eyes of the public. His power is worse than Weaver's power. Weaver can control butterflies too and everyone like butterflies, but Breed is limited only at summoning flesh eating trilobites. I'm imagining Protectorate Director of public image trying hard to make his power more attractive to the public. Something like:
-This is Breed, he's a hero, a Master, and his power is to...summon tiny little creatures with many tiny little legs. They're very cute and fluffy, I personally guarantee it. As defense, they bite villains with their adorable little fangs...❤
People from everywhere: Awwwwwwwwww ❤.
Weaver: I would like to add something. They're trilobites that like to burrow inside living people or corpses or even in your food until they're big enough to spit acid and dissolve your skin till bone...
Half of people from everywhere: Yuuuuuuuuuuck 🤮.
The other half: furiously write endless Breed's fanfics.

"I don't know. Yeah, if your instincts tell you to go, then get going now," I said. I pointed at the ground around a hose. There was a puddle that had spread beneath the hose's opening. My bugs had died on contact with it. "Acid, not water. Don't walk in it. Rachel, watch your dogs."

"You don't think we can hold it together?" Cozen asked.

"I'm spooked," Imp said. "Can I go home and sit on the couch in my underwear, eating cake? I'll cross my ingers for you guys, if you want."

"It's her project," Grue said. "My orders are to follow her orders."

I could see how little she liked that.

But she maintained a professional demeanor. "Accepted. You realize we don't have to follow your orders?"

Grue nodded, silent.

"Everything Jack does is for effect. The same way a dog sort of raises its hackles to look bigger, tougher, or the way we used our reputation to seem more unstoppable than we were, Jack keys his actions for psychological effect. All of this is to scare, to drive us to hesitate when it comes to confronting him, push us to think of ways to avoid dealing with him instead of ways to catch up to him and beat his face in. Or, conversely, some personality types might get pushed to be reckless, to deal with him so he couldn't bother them anymore."

There was a voice from beneath the other tarp. A strangled scream.

"What was that?"

"A recording," I lied. Then I elaborated. "It's a trap. Two tarps, have to guess the right one. Guess the wrong one and you blow up. This one. Move the tarp."

"The tape's already in the machine, you can hit play to start it," the man sitting at the edge of the stairs said.

"Wait, Weaver, stop. Who was that?" Revel asked.

"Who?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"Look to your right."

"Here," the man said. "Let me get that for you."

"He's dangerous," Revel said.

I shook my head a little, releasing the man's wrist. "I appreciate the offer, sir, but let's be safe and make sure this isn't a trap."

I doubt that Cozen can't hold herself together as you suggest, Weaver. So far, she's holding together pretty well

. She doesn't have any problem. The problem is YOU, Weaver, precisely your jealousy. Its not the right time to treat your allies like shit because you're plagued by jealousy, Weaver, don't piss me off. You LEFT Grue not viceversa and its not fair to act like a super-possessive ex girlfriend who want for her former boyfriend to be forever alone only because he doesn't belong to her anymore. Its not fair neither nice towards him. Leave Cozen alone, she's a great woman in her own way and if you ever loved Grue, be HAPPY that he found his happiness. You know better than everyone all the shit he went through, you should see the happiness as something that Grue DESERVES and don't fight it. No, I don't think that Weaver is being pragmatic here. Cozen proved to be a strong woman in her own way and Weaver have no right to treat her as someone who can't handle the situation. This is jealousy talking through Weaver's mouth. Nothing but jealousy, baby

.
I don't trust the unknown guy who offered to help them. He must be a S9 member. Weird that Revel is the only one who believe that he's dangerous, everyone else have no problem with him, except for Weaver who's worried that he might be hurt by a trap. Revel talks with them through communications and she's aware that something about him in not right so his power doesn't affect the communications. Does he have the power to make people believe that he's harmless? That would be a very SCARY power for a S9 member to have. Imagine this guy being like the perfect killer, someone like Imp, but instead making himself unnoticeable, he wins people's trust. Imagine his poor victims being killed by someone they TRUST. This is the definition of the PURE HORROR, more horror than whatever Breed is doing with his trilobites pets

. WHERE THE FUCK IS TATLLETALE WHEN THEY NEED HER (hell, they always need Tattletale by their side, they can't do too much shit without her)? She'll instantly know what is wrong with this guy. Unless he affects her power too.

"Tattletale, are you there?" I asked.

"I am."

"Tattletale?" Revel asked. "Damn all of you. It doesn't matter. Listen, Taylor, Master and Stranger protocols are in effect. Your perceptions are altered, understand?"

I felt my heart quicken a little at that. "I understand."

"There is a person to your right. Not a teammate, former or current. I need you to kill that person, don't ask why, don't think too much about it. Draw your knife."

"I got this. Taylor, do me a favor, give the order to 'go dark'."

"Go dark," I said.

To my left, Grue surrounded himself in thick darkness.

A spray of blood leaped from the man's throat. We each stepped away, and I hurried forward to stop Rachel from backing into the other tarp. We watched in stunned silence as blood poured from the wound.

Imp appeared as she booted the bleeding man in the small of the back. He rolled down the stairs, leaving spatters and sprays of blood as he made his way down, and then collapsed in a pile of bodies. He started screaming, a gurgling sound.

Nice Guy, I thought. I'd badly underestimated the severity of his power. I'd known he would be in their roster, had kept it in mind throughout, even told myself to be ready for him, and then the moment we ran into him, well, he was another face in the crowd. The connection wasn't possible.

"Thank you, Tattletale," Revel said.

"All good."

Ok, I was right about this power of this FUCKER. He's a Master and Stranger. He can make people believe that he's harmless and NICE. He calls himself Nice Guy, after all. He's the kind of guy who will smile nicely, with convince you to become his friend then will kill you with the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP

. The worst kind of power. I already have problems trusting people and very few things scare me more than someone gaining my trust only to hurt me afterwards. I HATE this guy's power, I HATE IT, I HATE IT...If it wasn't for Tattletale, who saved their ass, almost everyone except for Golem would be dead, and nobody would have bat an eyelid because Nice Guy is THE MOTHERFUCKING NICEST GUY AROUND. Tattletale is a life savior and this is one of Worm's universal constant - nobody can argue against

. Grue's power was just as useful as it was when Coil made Undersiders believe that Skitter was a traitor. It showed Nice Guy true power giving them the occasion to kill him. I was wrong when I said that Damsel of Distress clone will be the first who'll die in her fight against the good guys. It was a Nice Guy instead who wasn't nice enough for Tattletale.
I so hate this guy's power "deeeeeeeeeeeeeeep sighs"

"What was he going to do?" Golem asked.

"Probably ask you all to stand there and stay still while he murdered each of you in turn," Tattletale said.

"Yay us," Imp said.

She got more powerful, I thought. She'd been able to speak while using her power. Nuances.

"Press play."

I hit the button.

"This message is intended for Theodore Anders. Kaiser's son. Stop the video here and go find him. Time is of the essence, I should say. How muchessence and time you have available depends on how incompetent you heroes are. Hurry now, I'll wait."

There was a pause, then Jack started speaking. "You missed the deadline, Theodore. Simple game of hide and seek, and you had two years to do it, to find and kill me. You failed."

"That pain you feel, that self loathing? The fear and dawning realization of what you've done? Capture that, Theodore Anders. Hold on to that feeling and use it, because I'm pulling your leg."

"If you fail to kill me, I disband the Nine."

"What?" Imp asked. "What?"

I frowned. Not what I expected.

"No. They're obedient and servile only when I require them to be. If you fail in your task, then I'll give them one last task, to kill the one thousand people we agreed to in the terms of our wager, and then I'll disband the group. They'll be free to run rampant, to do as they see fit. Wreak chaos. I'll take a vacation, sit back with a Mai Tai and watch the show."

"Fuck me," Tattletale said.

"Fuck," I echoed her, agreeing.

Well, fuck, Jack is not original at all. He copies famous fictional or real serial killers 😡. Jack the Ripper, Joker, now Jigsaw (setting traps, leaving video messages for his victims), this man have zero imagination, despite his brilliance. Disappointing "shakes her head". Jack, you're very smart, you hate to get bored, you love originality then...why the fuck you don't try to be original and create your own style instead of stealing other monsters' personal style?
I think is not such a bad idea to disband S9. Jack thinks that they'll be more savage if they'll be on their own but I don't think he's right. If they work alone, they'll be easily located (by Dragon who have eyes everywhere) and get killed. Yes, they'll kill probably tons of people, but acting under Jack's control make them more dangerous. If they're not coordinated by Jack's evil brilliance, most of them are just dumb brutes who can be easily eliminated. Jack is either very sure that his team can handle themselves if left alone -clearly a mistake to have such an overconfidence in his people (who, let's be honest, are not very bright- most of them

) or this is nothing but a scare tactic he's using in order to make Golem more desperate and hopeless. He's very, very good at manipulating people like this. Golem, this monster is just playing with you, thinking that you'll become too emotionally weak to defeat him. Man up, don't listen his poisoned words, find him and kill him with the first occasion. No hesitation, please. A single second of hesitation and you and everyone else are TOASTED. Because Jack never hesitates.

"Five days, Theodore. Noon on the twenty-fourth. I look forward to meeting you."

"The restrictions stand," I agreed. I explained for the benefit of the others. "We treat this as a Simurgh situation. Control feedback, control exposure. Anyone and everyone that potentially comes in contact with Jack could be a factor in Dinah's end of the world scenario. Powerful individuals are especially important in this. The more powerful they are, the more important it is to minimize or prevent contact."

"But what about the nearly-three-hundred lunatic psycho people with crazy powers that he's threatening to unleash on the world?"

"We'll deal with them," I said. "With your okay, Chevalier?"

He fell silent.

"Chicago and Brockton Bay teams."

"I was going to say-"

"Work with me here, and if we're all standing at the end, I'm yours. Whatever you want to use me for, however, it doesn't matter. If this blows over and the end of the world doesn't happen, like some think it won't, then the deal stands."

"Whatever you need," Chevalier said. "You realize we're pinning a lot on you?"

"On Golem more than me," I said. "We're going to cheat our way through this, bend every rule, but it all hinges on Golem being able to hold his own."

Golem turned around and walked away.

"Golem," I said.

Chevalier is too precious for this world ❤. He trusts Weaver, despite her not being exactly a goody-two shoes hero and he offers her his help. I'd fucking RIOT if Chevalier will die. He's one of the heroes that should survive no matter what. Well, surviving against all the odds is not something new for him. He already survived to two huge fuckers, Perdition and Behemoth, he WILL survive to these huge fuckers too

. He's a natural born survivor.
"takes a deep breath" Nice Guy's power is now in my top 3 of most hated powers. The first one is Mannequin's power (precisely how evil Alan decided to use his power as Mannequin), then Nice Guy's power then Heartbreaker's power. All these powers are related to my main fears: fear of mannequins, fear of being betrayed by people I trust and fear for being controlled by people

. Fuck this not very Nice Guy and his not very nice power. Now, everytime when a male hostage will miraculously survive, I'll believe that he's a Nice Guy. Well, Nice Guy can pretend that he's a random hero or villain too, helping against S9 and nobody will even ask themselves who the fuck is this random guy. Fuck Nice Guy and fuck his power. What kind of fucked up power Gray Boy have to make him more scary than Nice Guy because nothing should be more scary than this Master Stranger power?

He was already halfway down the stairs. He used the panels at his waist to form an even footpath, with hands turned at right angles, positioned where he could put his feet on them.

"Golem!" I called out. I handed my phone to Grue, then hurried after him.

"You care about the people who died, and you're thinking about them that way for a good reason. That's not putting you on a path to being like either of them."

"I hear you guys talking about it, and you're right there, in your element. This is something that you've been working on for a long time, and there's almost an excitement to you. Like you've been in a kind of stasis for the entire time I've known you, and only now are you really coming back to life."

"It's not like that," I said.

"You're his nemesis, Weaver. I'm the reason he's here, the reason these people died like this. But you're his counterpart, his mirror. You've got that same excitement Jack has, you think along the same lines, in strategy and counter-strategy. You thrive on conflict, just like he does. And I… I'm not like that."

"You're not to blame for them," I said. "The Nine would have killed anyways."

"I know. I get that. But I played a part in the sequence of events, and maybethese people wouldn't have been the ones to die if I hadn't made that wager with Jack… and I guess I think everyone else that cares has better things to do. You trained me, the others trained me. I- I guess I'm as ready as I could ever be. I'll fight when the time comes, wade through the gauntlet he sets in his wake and I'll succeed or fail. But I'm not a strategist, and these people need someone to mourn them. Let me be useful in my own way, right here, right now."

I couldn't articulate my thoughts.

I definitely agree with Golem. He reads Weaver so good, he's 100% right about her

. Weaver is so much like Jack, she's like a heroic version of Jack. Her personality is very similar in many ways with Jack's personality, the main difference between them is that Jack is a destructive monster and Taylor is a savior and a hero. But they both are: -very excited about conflict and violence (as Golem observed), ready anytime to jump into a fight and accept any challenge no matter how fucked up and dangerous is for them;
-they're both social darwinists, believing in survival of the fitest and the superiority of the strong over the weak. But with a difference: Jack wants to eliminate all the weak people so only the strong will survive (as he personally said), Taylor wants to protect the weak thinking that they can't protect themselves (see her reactions around Parian, Cuff, even Cozen -isn't only jealousy but also a natural need to protect Cozen). Since I'm a huge Homestuck trash, if Jack and Taylor were trolls, Taylor would be a beforus highblood troll (protect the weak trolls) and Jack would be an alternian hightblood troll (cull the weak trolls)

.
-they're both pretty cold utilitarianists but with another difference. Jack is ready to sacrifice anything for the greater good of HIMSELF. Taylor is ready to sacrifice anything for the greater good of other people.
-they both have brilliant minds and are excellent strategists.
-All in all, Taylor is the heroic Jack and Jack is the monster Taylor. The mirror images of what each other could have been if they were to choose different ways.
This Arc is already pretty good

. Golem have the challenge of his life ahead and only the training he received from the "good Jack", his intelligence and willpower can help him against the evil Jack.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Dec 8, 2019

Hello, my buddies. Time to see what kind of more horrors Killing-ton have prepared for our fearless heroes and villains (I googled Killington and, to my great surprise, I discovered that is a real city in US. A real city called like this doesn't sound very good to me and I pray that nothing bad will ever happen to this city and its citizens. But, again, there's another city in US called Hell and if everything is fine with this city then I should not be worried for Killington, right? After all, its not like our world have "people" like S9 traveling from city to city and wreaking havoc in their way, right? I'm curious to know how our Earth- an Earth where powers doesn't exist and parahumans are considered to be fictional characters- is called on Earth Bet or other Earths belonging to Wormverse. Does is have another hebrew letter like Gimel or Dalet or it is known only as Earth Prime or simply Earth? In Marvel universe our Earth is designed as Earth-1218 so it is numbered just like other parallel Earths. I'm very curious about this small, but important to me, detail

). Anyway, I have to admit that I have a deep respect and admiration for everyone (yes, including Cozen who isn't as weak as you believe her to be, Taylor "death glares") traveling through the ruins and terror of Killington with the mission to stop Jack. Everyone is so brave and strong, I wouldn't have not even half of their strength, even if I'll be as powerful as Eidolon+ Contessa+ Number Man. If I have their powers combined I'll still not go there because: I'm a fucking emotional coward who can't stand seeing people massacred everywhere, especially children, and no matter how much of a scary parahuman I'd be, I'll faint in the first minutes I'll step inside Killington

. Powers are not enough, one need strength of mind and soul to go there and face these horrors and still remain sane enough to remember their mission and continue to fight for humanity. I'm not like these HEROES (for example, I had numerous chances to visit Auschwitz and Chernobyl- they're very close to my country anyway- but I refused everytime because I knew that once I'll be there, the shadows of the atrocities/tragedy that happened there will torture me during my entire visit and a long time after that

. I know that I couldn't face them and leave them behind me once I'll go and return from there. So, better for me to stay away from these poisoned shadows than having them tormenting my life. My emotions are usually very strong and maybe this is one of the main reasons why I love the bravery of these characters so much: they have something that I don't have -they can keep their emotions under their control and not let them take the lead (Golem and Cozen seem more emotional type but even they are incredible strong given the circumstances). Hat's off to you, my strong girls and boys. Go and kick Jack and his Nightmares' ass

Sting 26.2

It started at the center of town, a rolling plume of fire, sparks and smoke that seemed to almost lurch skyward, in fits and starts. Each set of charges that went off pushed the flame up through the smoke of the ones that had come before.

Killington was officially gone, the buildings leveled, the bodies and bloodstains scoured from the earth.
Families wouldn't get to put their loved ones to rest the way they wanted, but that was on the Nine, not on us. There was no safe way to recover the bodies, to ensure that there weren't any traps or time delayed tricks in each and every one of the corpses. It also meant Breed's minions were torched before they reached an adult stage.

I bent down and began collecting the pieces of paper. I could feel the raised bumps on the pages as I brushed them free of specks of dirt and leaves. Each set of bumps corresponded with a letter or punctuation mark, which had been printed over the dots in thick, bold, letters.

I gathered the pages into file folders, then clipped them shut, stacking them on the patio chair. I made my way to the patio table, bending down to collect the pages as they made their way to me. The writing on these was different; the letters were drawn in thick, bold strokes, fat, almost as if I'd drawn them in marker. My notes: thoughts, things that needed clarification, ideas.

I was still getting organized when Defiant appeared, ascending the stairs on the far end of the porch.

The heroes are finally destroying and burning Killington. This is the best solution, as I already said. The city was beyond saving, there were probably very few survivors left and these survivors are either Nice Guys or too mutilated to ever be healed without a powerful healer like Amelia. I'm saying something kind of opposite to my principles, but better to kill these people than let them suffer until they'll die because of the sustained wounds (I'm more against prolonged suffering that simply death anyway). RIP, Killington citizens, you'll never be forgotten if the Jackapocalypse will be stopped

. They deserve a fucking monument dedicated to powerless victims of psychotic parahumans (NO, I'm not playing here the anti-parahuman card, far away from me this repugnable way of thinking, I'm just express my hate towards S9 and all the evil parahumans who prey on innocent powerless (parahumans or not because even parahumans can be powerless against these bastards) victims. Evil parahumans are just as bad as anyone else who's evil and have zero respect for human life. But the victims of S9 surely deserve a monument, just like the victims of Endbringers. They're all victims of different type of monsters

.
What the fuck Cauldron is doing in the meantime? Doesn't look like they are trying to help, not at all. I expected them to send at least Number Man, knowing that there are 9 Harbingers that represent a great danger for the heroes and villains involved in this war and Number Man should know his clones better than anyone else. Why Cauldron doesn't do anything yet? They probably expect Riley to betray Jack and give Contessa the control over S9 clones but so far, Riley still struggle against Bonesaw and doesn't seem like she's close to a victory against the monster that keep her prisoner inside her own mind. Bonesaw is still loyal to Jack and I really hate how Contessa doesn't do anything but wait and wait and wait and wait...How much she'll wait? If I didn't know that Cauldron (as bad as they're) want to save the world, then I can almost swear that they want Jack to win and destroy the world (this is how they seem like with their annoying lack of action and help). I still hold onto my (small) hope that they'll finally decide to help the good guys and they probably don't help now because they don't want to mess with Golem's personal fight and create the opportunity for Jack to kill the promised people (including Aster) in the name of Golem. They want to see if Golem can handle the challenge without external help. If he can't then they'll have to help, right? RIGHT

?
Meanwhile, in Cauldron's headquarters:
Contessa: This whole effort to stop the end of the world scenario made me so tired and bored. Especially bored.
Doctor Mother: Same here, my dear. Would you like to play poker while other people are sacrificing their lives to save our ass from total extermination?
Contessa: This is a...pretty good idea. But you know that I'll beat you again, Doctor.
Doctor Mother: I know, I know. I just want a little distraction while people are dying around us, Contessa. Not even our banker's habit to not wear pants can distract me anymore.
Contessa: Glad to help.
Well, at least, they're doing SOMETHING.

"Pyrotechnical's stuff?" I asked, distracting myself.

"And some of Dragon's. Are you ready to go?"

He walked beside me as we made our way down to where the craft had landed. His suit had been augmented and altered, and he now stood a foot and a half taller than he had when I'd first met him. Broad 'toes' on either side of his boots helped stabilize him, while his gloves ended in clawed gauntlets that extended a little beyond where his hands should be. His spear was longer, and both ends of the weapon were heavy with the devices he'd loaded into it.

On his forearms, shoulders and knees there were panels that were like narrow shields, each three or four feet long, each marked with designs like a dragon's wings, or with a dragon's face engraved on the front, mouth open, with red lights glowing from within. Wings on his back served less to let him fly and more to accentuate his movements, a more complex, bulkier system than I had with my flight pack. Then again, I was only a hundred and thirty pounds at five feet, ten inches in height, and Defiant must have weighed six hundred pounds, with all that armor.

I nodded. "But we don't want to stand back and wait when people could be hurt, or when every second that passes is a second that Jack could be making contact with that critical person. Causing a certain trigger event, saying the wrong thing to the wrong individual…"

"I spoke with Alcott," he said.

I drew in a breath, then sighed. "What does she say?"

"The numbers haven't changed dramatically. The window's closed, but not considerably, which suggests a lot of things."

"Okay," I said.

"Ninety-three point eight percent chance the world ends," Defiant said.

"Six point two percent chance we'll pull this off," I said.

"It remains tied to him. If we kill him in the next ninety hours, the chances vastly, vastly improve. Depending on how we kill him, it could mean reducing things to a mere twenty-two percent chance or a one percent chance."

"Every time I think about it, I can't help but think it's a trigger event," I said. "Someone getting a power that finally breaks something essential, or a power without the limits that keep other powers in check. But I don't want to think along those lines if it keeps me from seeing the obvious."

More interactions between Weaver and Defiant. Defiant have a short of flying pack now. Welp, now he went full Iron Man. Speaking about Defiant as Wormverse Iron Man, I think I have candidates to assemble a parahuman originals Avengers team, with a single exception: Thor. So, Defiant as Iron Man (with Dragon serving as his artificial intelligence F.R.I.D.A.Y.), Miss Militia as Captain America, Lung as evil Hulk (I kind of want to see a fight between someone whose power is fueled by conflict as Lung and someone whose power is fueled by rage as Hulk. Its almost impossible to predict who will be the winner but Lung have the problem that once he'll become strong enough to beat Hulk, his power will leave him and Hulk can retaliate easily

), Foil as Hawkeye, Contessa as Black Widow (both of them are badass assassins) but I have no idea about Thor. Any suggestion will be welcomed because I can't let my ideal parahuman Avengers team incomplete like this.
Either Jack will use Scion to end the world or he'll cause to someone such a shocking trigger event that they'll get a power strong enough to let them literally destroy the world. Since he can't do anything to Golem because he already have powers, what if Jack will use Aster for his demented plans? Aster must be now 2 years old, a toddler. They said that children who got powers are more powerful than adults, and we already saw this with Bonesaw and Vista. The younger they're, they're more vulnerable to their Passenger influence and more malleable, they become not only more powerful but more in synch with their Passenger. Aster is very, very young and if Jack will cause her a trigger event, she'll be unable to control her power and she'll probably be powerful enough to break the planet in half with a burst of energy or simply her mind

. What if Aster is the second scenario for the end of the world and this is what Jack wants when he challenged Golem? To scare the poor toddler so much that she'll trigger?
Golem will never forgive himself if this will happen even if it will not be technically his fault. Poor Golem, in this moment, being Golem is suffering

.

Each wore armor in gun-metal and black, with parallels to the standard PRT uniforms I was more familiar with.
Their helmets, however, had three eyeholes, with blue lenses glowing faintly from beneath. Two lenses for their eyes, a third for a camera. The armor was bulky, offering thick protection around the neck and joints, with a heavy pack on the back for both oxygen and for the computers they wore.

I could see Narwhal, standing off to one side, two of the Dragon's Teeth flanking her. Masamune wasn't present, but from what I knew of the guy, he wasn't even close to being a front-lines combatant. They'd recruited him from the ruined area of Japan, a somewhat crazed hermit, and gave him work in figuring out how to mass produce their stuff without the maintenance issues snowballing out of control, like tinker tech tended to do in large quantities.

I looked at the assembled capes. The Undersiders, two Wards teams, the Protectorate, the Guild. Clockblocker, Vista and Kid Win were in the other Wards team. A little older. Clockblocker had expanded his costume, adding some light power armor that seemed primarily focused on holding a heavy construction at his back. Vista, for her part, was a little taller, her hair longer, tied in a french braid that was clipped just in front of one shoulder. She was packing a heavier gun. Probably something Kid Win had made.

Passenger, I thought. Been a while, trying to figure out how to make peace with the fact that you're there, that you're affecting me somehow, taking control whenever I'm not in my own mind. I think we've made strides. I've sort of accepted that you're going to do what you're going to do, whether that helps me or hurts me.

So maybe, just maybe, you could help me out today. Whatever it is you do, whatever motivates you, I can continue to play along, but I need a bit of backup here.

All the lovable heroes are here. Clockblocker. Vista. Kid Win, who's hardly a kid anymore and (sadly for him) not very good at winning a fight. I think he should change his codename as Kid Tech or Tech Wizard (sounds even better once this kid will no longer be a kid

). Let's see how long he'll survive against what will be probable the last fight of his life. I like him and I want him to win and survive but...I'm not Wildbow (cause, if I'd be, all my favorite good guys will survive, lol).
Dragon's Teeth sound like they are pure badass. I don't know why, but everytime when I try to imagine them, I have the fucking stormtroopers appearing in my mind. Stormtroopers with black armors, yes, but still...those fucking assholes

.
I like how Weaver talks with her Passenger. Well, isn't exactly a dialogue because her Passenger can't obviously talk back, its more like a monologue than anything else, but is nice that she's so much in synch with the Queen Administrator and the alien doesn't try to strip her from her humanity as other Passengers are doing with their hosts, which shows how much her Passenger respects her. Yep, as I said before, each Passenger have their own personality, just like humans, and maybe they're Passengers who respect their hosts enough to work with them, instead of subjugating them. Weaver is a good host, conflictual enough to appease the royal Passenger, and the Queen doesn't probably need to control her or doesn't feel like its necessary. Or maybe she doesn't like to turn her host into a mindless zombie. I don't know about the other Passengers, but I know something about Queen Administrator. A Passenger who doesn't try to casually control her host (she took control only in exceptional causes, when she had to save Taylor's life) and treat her like a partner instead of a slave is on my liking. I like Queen Administrator so far

.
Btw, I developed a theory about why Passengers need human hosts. They want to feed from their negative energies they release everytime when they get involved in a conflict. This is the reason why Passengers prefer conflictual hosts (yes, I think they choose people who are already violent, depressed, antisocial, have severe mental problems, because these people usually release plenty of negative energy around them, and these baby alien need this energy as their every day food. They give these people powers so they can fight- knowing that these hosts can easily get angry and aggressive- and they absorb using their alien means the negative energy resulted after such a fight). No Passengers make their hosts more violent, I think, their hosts are already violent people and once they get powers they become even more violent people, appeasing the aliens. Real life, baby, we don't need someone to make us violent

. The violence is in our blood, in our mind, in our very flawed and brutal human nature. Now, if someone will give us permanently loaded guns, how many of us will resist the temptation to use them as we like? I will tell you, not many. We don't have these "guns" yet we still attack each other like we're wild animals in jungle. Fucking human nature (to be fair, humans have a lot of qualities too, but they're also flawed to the core).

A thick white mist lingered throughout an area. It was early in the morning, and that might have played a role, but there were no people. Even for a smaller city like Schenectady, that wasn't so usual. At nearly eight in the morning, there should have been people leaving for work, people running errands.

"We see you," The words were like a whisper, barely audible. "See you standing there. Oh, I do hope you're not Theodore. Tell me you aren't, because it means we get to play all we want."

"Screamer," I informed the others. Early Nine member, psychological warfare, pressure, distraction. Sound manipulation. Her power meant her voice didn't get quieter as it traveled great distances. That wasn't the full extent of-

"Mantis," I said, voicing the password, "Don't respond to her. It's what she wants. Take out Cherish ASAP, if she's here, Screamer after that."

"I'm hurt. I rate second after the new girl who barely lasted a month?"

I could feel the effect as my bugs entered the radius of Winter's power. She wasn't concentrating it, so it was mild at best. Slowing the movements of molecules, cutting down the ambient temperature, to the point that the moisture in the air froze. It also affected my bugs. Torpor.

For anyone within, it would include a mental torpor.

If the only members of the Nine who were present were Crimson, Winter, Cherish and Screamer, then this was a fight that involved attrition. Attacking Russia in the wintertime. Psychological warfare, emotional warfare, the effects of Winter's power… it meant that Winter's guns and Crimson's power were the only physical threats.

They were going easy on him at the outset.

"Let's ensure your friends aren't in a good state to mop up. We'll start with this Weaver. Why don't you cut off your toes, Weaver? Keep you from running after us."

I frowned.

"Oh, you've got an alternative? Something you can cut off or throw away? Yes. Let's put off the self-mutilation and have you throw that off the edge of a building."

Chances were good that she was in Cherish's company, getting information from the source.

Another city turned into hell by S9, Schenectady

. Another day of nightmares for our fearless good guys. I don't like this comparison with Russia because its scare me. We know that Russia is virtually invincible in its element (winter) and we have plenty of historical examples of dictators thinking that it was a good idea to attack Russia during winter then getting their ass kicked by pissed off russians. I really don't want this city infected with S9 elements to become as invincible as Russia, this is way I don't like this comparison. You have 5 days to win and find Jack, otherwise he'll release his monsters upon the world. I call it bluff- he won't do that because he knows that he'll be supremely fucked if he'll remain alone, without anyone to protect him (Jack's true power is in his people, without his people he's vulnerable, with all Bonesaw's safeguards and his personal power, he's vulnerable. He hates to be vulnerable. He likes to be strong. He'll not give up at what makes him strong for a stupid bet. Jack is the man who doesn't know when to give up. Just like Weaver

).
Screamer is already super-annoying with her voice manipulation and her attempt to make Weaver mutilate or even kill herself. She acts exactly like a bully and I'm convinced too that she works with Cherish. She couldn't know about Weaver's old suicidal tendencies since she never met her but Cherish knows thanks to their interactions and her power (besides, we know that the original Cherish had a habit to use her Master power to make people kill themselves). These bitches work together. What a fucked up combination or powers and personalities, cause Screamer's personality seems to not be very different compared with Cherish's personality. Weaver, be strong, don't let yourself be influenced by these monsters. Now you have plenty of reasons to want to live: for your teammates, your friends, your father, the whole world. Fuck, I'm not sure I like this Chapter as much as I liked the previous one. I came here to read about cool fights not supernatural bullying

. I had enough with bullying in the early Chapters (and my personal life) "siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighs".

"What if she tosses it, then walks into the mist?" Golem suggested.

No, not Golem. Her. Screamer. An easier suggestion to acknowledge if I thought it came from a teammate.

"Not buying it, huh?" he asked. She asked.

I want to kill myself.

My own voice, indistinguishable from the one in my head. Fuck me. She had a bead on me, now.

"Aw," Screamer whispered. "Golem's refusing my deal, and Cherish says you're not playing along with the rest of it, so I'm gonna have words with some of the others."

In the midst of a small duplex, there were two young women huddled together on an upper floor. There were computers arranged around them, and each was playing a different video. In some cases, it was the same video playing, just from a different point in time. Me in the lunchroom with Defiant and Dragon. The New Delhi Endbringer fight. Golem on the news with Campanile.

Cherish, why you don't go to your original and keep her company on the bottom of the ocean because all she have are the voices inside her head and she'll probably feel better about her fate if she have a blood sister with her down there

? I mean, this will be the best thing you can do and I'll be eternal grateful to you, have my promise. God, Regent sacrificed his life to save another life and his sister got to survive both as original and as clones. Isn't fair at all

. Seeing how awful Cherish clones are, I feel like I'm missing Regent so much. "sighs" now that you located them, the next reasonable step is to fucking kill them, right, Weaver? I would like to see Winter/Crimson as next enemies, they'll be much more fun that Screamer/Cherish, that's for sure. Anyone is more fun than Nice and helpful hostages or bitches that are trying to make people kill themselves.
Can't believe Screamer actually used Weaver's voice to convince her to become suicidal. That bitch is smart and she's pretty resourceful with her power. Unlucky for her, Weaver was strong enough to fight against the temptation, ultimately refusing to do what she "told herself" to do, despite being initially attracted by the idea. Weaver changed so much during these 2 years and can't say that I don't like (well, there are also parts about her that I dislike, I can't deny it)

.

My bugs had died inside the area of cold. The people inside wouldn't be doing much better. I had to send another batch in. This time, I knew the destination.

And all of that raised the question of what Winter and Crimson were doing. I scanned the building. Nothing on the top floor, or the next lowest. Further downstairs, a number of people were in the sway of Winter's power, their thoughts slowed to a crawl.

The basement of the same building. Winter, Crimson, and their hostages. Some would be the ones from Killington. Others were ones that had fallen into the sway of Winter's torpor. Crimson was feeding on them.

And a hand emerged from the center of the street, large enough that it could hold a car inside it. Crimson paused as he watched it appear.

Golem advanced to the edge of the roof and created more hands, trying to bind the villain to the street. An arm lock, a headlock…

Screamer and Cherish had to know what we were doing, yet they weren't moving. Cockiness?
No. They had to have an escape route.

Finally, evil Elsa and Crimson enter into action

. I mean...Winter and Crimson, that's it

. Now the fight is getting more interesting, no more fucking psychological warfare where a bitch uses her voice manipulation and another bitch uses her emotions control to fuck with people' minds and make them almost commit suicide. Oh, God, this nightmare ended and now I'm blessed to read about Winter freezing everything, including people's thoughts and Crimson feeding from them to power up. Yep, much more better than any Screamer, Cherish and Nice Guy. Yes, yes, yes, thousands of times yes

. Now I like this Chapter, yep. Crimson is such a beast, he's able to destroy Golem's stone hands like they're nothing for him. How many victims he absorbed in order to become so powerful? His power is very ugly, seem to need constantly victims to be strong enough to fight his foes, like a vampire who can't live without drinking the necessary blood. Fuck, I'd rather kill myself than have this power. Some powers are like curses for the parahumans but looks like Crimson is a psycho who isn't bothered at all about his power and the things he's doing with it

.
This city is another compromised city, eh? Dragon have to burn it to the ground after the good guys will finish their job of hunting and destroying S9 clones. Poor Dragon, she started as someone ready to sacrifice her armors to save a villain and now she burns entire cities

. But since she treats this whole disaster as Simurgh quarantine, its part of her program to isolate and destroy the contaminated parts, including whole cities. I was going to say that Defiant's modifications to her program made her like this then I remember that she killed the parahumans affected by Simurgh when she attacked Earth Aleph so its part of Richter's original programming. Poor Dragon though.

Crimson was three stories up the side of the building when Screamer used her namesake power. She could ensure that everyone within a mile's radius could hear her voice as if she was right next to them, and she used it now, producing a high-pitched, full volume scream, right in my ears. In Golem's ears. Everyone's ears.

Bugs flowed into Screamer's open mouth, much as they had with Alexandria.

Stinging bugs attacked Cherish, going for the eyes, nose and mouth. Screamer choked. Somewhere in the midst of it, they managed to give a signal. It wouldn't be Screamer. Cherish? Creating an emotional push?

Her dynamic with Crimson was one of synergy. She captured people so he could feed. He was the front line so she could safely attack from range. She slowed down opponents so he could advance. He was immune to her munitions fire, in large part.

Winter raised her grenade launcher and fired. Golem managed to vault himself away as he had earlier, a shallow movement that was forceful enough to nearly launch him off the building. He rolled on landing as the grenade disintegrated a corner of the building.

Wanton took hold of the bag and emptied it of its contents. Razor blades, caltrops, hooks and my threads joined the miniature maelstrom, and Crimson was slowly bound. He tore some free, but it found its way into his flesh again a moment later.

In that same moment, Chuckles made an appearance. He moved so fast it was almost as though he teleported, appearing beside the two girls. My bugs barely had time to make contact and try to get a sense of him before he was moving again, holding the two villains this time.

I didn't dare hope it would stay this simple. We still needed to find a way to narrow down Jack's location, killing him. He already had an advantage, wearing us down, costing us time, and he surely had some intel on us.

Crimson and Winter were very experienced warriors but they're finally defeated after the combined effort of everyone. Just two of them, they're still 8 more Crimsons and 8 more Winters in other cities. More doomed cities

. At least one Screamer and one Cherish were killed, but they're still 8 more of each. 8 more Nice Guys. Fuck

. And these aren't the toughest clones. Siberians, Crawlers, Manequins, they're the real challenges. At least they aren't 9 Bonesaws. Anyway, this clone wars is already very cool (except when Nice Guys and Cherishs take control over action), the second coolest clone wars after the one against Echidna's clones (so far, can't top that one but looks promising)

.
Nice and exciting Arc.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Dec 10, 2019

Ok, I found my new background image. This is so PERFECT. Exactly how I always imagined Bonesaw. The most innocent looking monster. This picture helped me to understand the meaning of Breadth and Depth, a meaning that I really didn't noticed. Perfect. I wonder if the Passenger's form is headcanon or canon cause it will be really cool if Passengers can modify their form after their hosts physical aspects, trying to look as similar with them as possible for these aliens. All in all, this piece of art is fabulous, I'm officially in love with it 😍.

CREDIT: Abyranss's Art Dump

D'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW (I hate myself for liking cute fanart of such repulsive mass murderers 😭. But I can't really help it)

CREDIT: Abyranss's Art Dump (THIS ARTIST IS SO GOOD, I SWEAR ❤)

All the Undersiders. All of them.

CREDIT: reddit.com: over 18?

All the Undersiders in their costumes this time. I swear, the most innocent Undersider is also the most creepy looking one with her mask one. Ladies and gentleman: Parian and her Mask of Nightmares

(her lover and lieutenant looks so freaking cool in comparison ❤)

CREDIT: reddit.com: over 18?

blackarrow · Dec 20, 2019

Hello, my friends. I'm very ready for another round of pure madness with S9 clones trying to screw our good guys in every way they can: mind control, voice control, emotions control, nice people, vampiric powers, you know, pretty normal stuff if you live on Earth Bet and you're trying to stop evil clones created after evil people from destroying the world

. So, we had Nice Guy, an example of what Breed's power can do, Scream and Cherish, Winter and Crimson and a mention of what S9 It ( better known as Chuckles in the context) can do. We still have a lot of clones of these guys left+ more guys that we still don't know too much about them+ the usual guys that we know but they'll be stronger because the'll be many. I'm sure that Jack will keep Harbingers and Gray Boy to be his last defenses because they're the strongest parahumans in his team. Harbingers have Number Man's OP powers and Gray Boy is S9 Boogeyman. Bonesaw and Hookwolf will be used as Jack's bodyguards in case if his last defenses will fall too. If you're interested to know my opinion about the old new S9 members and their powers so far, I already have a list starting with the scariest one and ending with the least scary and I'll explain my judgement:
-Nice Guy is the scariest one (nothing is more scary than someone winning your trust then backstabbing you. This is almost not even a power because in real life there are plenty of people skilled enough to make others trust them until they show their real face and intentions). Someone like Nice Guy can be scary even without having a superpower

.
-Screamer: she manipulates people using sounds and voices. Her power is scary because if she's paired with someone who know well enough a person then she can use her power to fuck with that respective person's mind and break them mentally/emotionally, like she almost did with Weaver. Plus she make people to lose their trust in each other

.
-Breed/Crimson: their powers are horrible, absolute disgusting and they always have to sacrifice other human beings so they can continue using their powers.
-Winter: her power is pretty dangerous but not as bad as Breed or Crimson. I mean, you can survive if your movements and thoughts are slowed down for a while if you are lucky to not have Crimson feeding from you.
This is my partial opinion about the old new S9 monsters. Lets see if the others who will appear in the next towns will change this list somehow. Anyway, I highly doubt that there's someone who'll top Nice Guy, not even Gray Boy with his PROBABLY time powers, no matter how frightening they must be Sting 26.3

"Hey, Weaver?"

I had to twist around to look at Crucible. We were in the hallway just outside a set of elevators, windows on one side, doors at either end of the hallway leading into offices. This was something of a waiting game, as Tecton and Revel got their teams into position to support Golem.

"I wanted to say thanks," Crucible said, "Appreciate the invite. Hundreds of superpowered lunatics, some of the scariest guys around, and that's not even the scariest part of all of this! But Chevalier's all, 'Weaver specifically asked if you'd help.' How the hell am I supposed to say no to him?"

"It's Chevalier. Important guy."

"-And you've got a thing for Weaver," the Ward I hadn't yet met said. It was a girl, flanked by five shadowy silhouettes of herself, who were sitting around her on the other side of the hallway. I'd read up on her, and I knew her as Toggle. The 'baby' of the team, it seemed, at fourteen. She held what looked like a mace, but it, along with the layered body armor she wore, had circles of light glowing in shifting colors.

"Clocksie," Clockblocker said, deadpan, "Has been the target of a lot of criticism, because he was in charge of the Wards at the time a lot of stuff went down. Some dingbats online speculated that I had a thing for Weaver, and it took off. The people online like to find stuff that fills in blanks, and there were a hell of a lot of blanks around the whole thing with Weaver defecting, and our pseudo-truce with the Undersiders."

Clockblocker ignored her. "-Except we barely even get to do that, because Tattletale's always a few steps ahead. Then, to top it all off, I hear about the Weaver-Clockblocker thing every single day, to the point that it's sad. Salt in a wound."

RIP Schenectady, another city completely destroyed because it couldn't be saved

. Next city, please. Welcome to the team, Toggle. Try not to die, ok? You're only 14, you're a kid. Her power reminds me of Crusader's power. She seems that she can summon shadow clones of herself and switch from one to another, making them tangible according to her choice or something like this. I'd like to see her power in action as soon as possible. But without her dying, ok?
Well, Clockblocker, I'm not like your rabid shipping fandom and I don't ship you with Weaver. Maybe only as friends but I don't personally think that you'll make a good couple. Besides, she already have 2 suitors, Tecton and Golem (again, not canon, but I really hope that one of them will win her heart...."slaps herself" Fuck, what I'm talking about? This is the END OF THE FREAKING WORLD, S9 Clones mutilate/torture/kill plenty of innocents, Dragon burns cities to the ground and all I care is about a girl and her harem of suitors. I deeply and shamefully apologize for my weird-ass mind 😭). Just one last thing: Dennis, be happy. I don't ship you with Taylor not now not ever. Be happy. That's it, end of discussion.
I have a strange theory (more like a comparison with other works). This whole moving from city to city to fight and defeat S9 Clones seem like a descent into Hell to me. With each city of horrors, the fights become more terrible, frightening, the enemies become stronger and more cruel and I'm more and more worried for the lives of the good guys (heroes, villains, I don't care, everyone who fight to stop S9 is a good guy in my books). Yes, I can go so far to compare this whole Arc with the parahuman version of Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. 9 circles of the Inferno and each circle more horrible than the last one (each city is more horrible than the last one). There are 9 clones of each member, except for Jack, Bonesaw and Gray Boy. Each S9 member is more dangerous than the previous ones. At the bottom of this infernal war, there's Jack. The last piece. The most important piece. At the bottom of Hell, there's Lucifer. The King of the Hell. The last Evil. The most important Evil. Jack is literal Satan, without any attempt to make a lame meme. Bet that there will be 9 cities, 9 challenges with Jack being the last and most important one. I know that my theory/comparison is one of the weirdest theories/comparison I had/I made about anything related to Worm but its a too much of an interesting and wacky theory/comparison to not express it here. Again, sorry for my tired mind

. Well, but there's a truth somewhere. The Hell moved from Brockton Bay over the whole earth. Nowhere will be safe for people who can't fight. Do you hear, Bonesaw? Eli won't be safe ANYWHERE. You still have time to change your damn mind, release Riley from her prison and allow her to fight Jack on her own terms. Its not too late.

Doors, windows, cracks, vents, all protected.

I could estimate seven apartments per floor. One on the ground floor, for the building manager. Assuming they weren't bachelor apartments, that suggested fifty-five to sixty people in total, trapped within, along with hostages and an unknown number and composition of the Nine.

"See, I don't think it's the wrong power in the wrong hands," Clockblocker said. "I think it's a joke. Humanity destroys itself, and all these powers, they just open the door to let it happen. It's not going to be some villain overlord or even a monster like Jack who does it. I'm more liable to believe the world ends because of some deluded, fat, pimply faced punk kid that lives off pizza and mountain dew. There's no damn point to it, but sometimes I look at the idiots, the selfish assholes and the maniacs that fill this world and I think that's all we deserve."

"Thank you," Clockblocker said. "For so eloquently demonstrating what I was saying about us deserving it."
"No problemo," Imp said.

"That doesn't exist, does it?" Toggle asked. "Case fifty-three porn?"

"Everything exists," Kid Win said.

Well, Clockblocker, I understand that you're tired, nervous, scared, you lost your hopes but I don't agree with the way you're thinking. You're so fatalistic that you can give a lesson or two to Vista herself. You sound like a very pessimistic asshole who hate humanity

. For every maniac that fill this world, there's a good and sane person. For every selfish asshole, there's a selfless hero. For every evil monster, there's a caring and compassionate human being. The world is not entirely black, there's plenty of white between the black spots. And some spots are even grey, just look at Weaver- she'a not the best hero but she's not the worst person either. You have to think at the good people in the world, these people deserve to be saved, to be protected, to be cherished. You have to fight for them, fight to preserve what is good and beautiful and innocent in your world. You can't lose hope because if you lose hope then you can say that your fight is over. There's no reason to continue fighting if not for hope and not for the goodness that still exist in people. I don't like how this young man is losing his hope. Well, I think Imp supports him not because she necessarily agree with him, but she's Imp and she likes the attention and she believes that if she's edgy as fuck then she gets the attention that she thinks she deserves (kinda funny how someone with Imp's power like attention). Plus, she always like to piss people off and she thinks that if she agrees with Clockblocker and the others do not then they'll be terrible pissed. Clockblocker, either abandon this fight, change your opinions or keep them for yourself. You'll only make others lose their hopes too. Losing hope is not good for their spirit. And remember that you still have a father that you love. You don't really believe that your father deserve to die too after everything you did to save him, right

?
Of course Case 53 porn (fuck Case 53, Irregulars sound so much better) exist. Anything that can be transformed into porn EXIST. For example, if you're really curious to see Irregular porn then you can give Imp a camera, send her to whatever place Faultline and her crew are staying now, and have her record whatever Gregor and Shamrock are doing in their bedroom. Don't worry, she'll be happy to do it, after all she spied on Taylor and HER OWN BROTHER, spying on Irregulars fucking their brains out will be piece of cake for her

. Then you'll have some Irregulars porn to watch in your free time between fights. And maybe Clockblocker will find a more interesting activity to take his mind away from stupid thoughts.

"More wholesome than you'd think," Foil said. "Playing into every stereotype ever, moving in before we'd even been on a date, but it's nice."

"Nice?" Clockblocker said. "Not what I expected. Not that I'm not happy for you, but-"

She shifted position, resting her head on Parian's shoulder. "It's… free. Pleasant. The times between the fights with the brain-shatteringly terrifying god-monsters, anyways. Cooking breakfast, having breakfast cooked for you, going on walks with the dogs, maybe a bit of bodyguard duty while Parian handles a meeting, whatev, picnic for lunch, patrol the territory, do stuff for my University course, whoever didn't cook breakfast makes dinner…"

"-they've got crazy good interior design, what with Parian and all," Imp finished. She made a smug little sound, like she was very pleased with herself.

Golem engaging. 3x Burnscar, 3x Shatterbird, 2x Winter, 1x Skinslip, 1x Psychosoma identified.

"We're going in blind. We suspect there's at least two Mannequins, but that's it. Mannequin specializes in indirect attacks. Catching people off guard, while being durable and flexible enough that he can escape from any situation that doesn't go his way. I hope the rest of you have read up on the other members of the Nine, past and present."

Vista used her power as we got closer. I could see a depression appearing in the wall, as if a giant, invisible finger were pressing into it.

A hole appeared, and a small explosion tore out through the space, opening the hole wider. We staggered, and some of our smaller members were even thrown to the ground.

Nice that Foil is happy with her new life as a villain and with her girlfriend. These girls DESERVE to be happy with each other

. Imp, crazy after attention as I said already. But she's funny so there's no problem for me. Imagine how much they'd have bothered everyone if Regent was still alive. The team they made together was pure fun. For me, of course, because their victims never found them to be very funny. "sighs" Regent...
This whole super sealed building remind me of Mannequin's work. Yes, this is Mannequin's work. Better said, 9 Mannequins' work. The good guys are basically trapped inside a maze of traps and things that can kill. Fuck, exactly what I wanted. Mannequins attacking inside their own playground. Fuck me, fuck S9, fuck Mannequin, fuck Simurgh, what I did to deserve this? WHAT? First city- Nice Guy. Second city- Screamer and Cherish. Third city- Mannequin's building. Wildbow is playing with my MAIN FEARS and THINGS THAT I HATE like they're nothing in his skilled hands. I generally love Wildbow but, in moments like this one, I feel like he pisses me off 🙀.
Btw, my best friend told me something very interesting about Jack's power. She confirmed my theory that Jack have a second power but she didn't told me what kind of power this monster possesses. She just told me that I'll never guess it. Maybe now but I'll still try. His second power seem the ability to influence parahumans to do what he wants, without even questioning their own actions (Bonesaw). Seem like a Master power to me. Knowing that Masters trigger when they feel alone and isolated and knowing that Jack was locked all alone into basement by his crazy parents who also lied him that the world ended, its very possible that he triggered with the first and second power (at the same time) because he was feeling alone and isolated from a "dying" world. But my question is why he couldn't control Number Man, when he was Harbinger and left him? Either Jack didn't really cared about Harbinger leaving despite his very useful power or Habinger was somehow immune to Jack's secondary power. Or Jack can only control weak minded parahumans (or parahumans who are too young to fight his control) and Harbinger's mind was too STRONG for him. Anyway, my theory about Jack's other power is that he have a limited control over parahumans, convincing them to help him, work for him or listen him. Thinkers probably are all immune to his power (he couldn't bring Tattletale under his control, he couldn't convince Harbinger to stay), as well as parahumans with strong mind/will (Weaver).

We were braced for the detonation this time. I kept bugs close to get a sense of what was going on. The moment there was a gap, the air rushed out, cold and wet, and was followed soon after by a crushing manifestation of a small iceberg.

"It's designed like that, to use air pressure and air flow and whatever else to keep bugs and debris out."

"Of course you know that," Imp said. "Because of the bugs."

This was a more refined use of her power. She drew on the exterior of the building, and created a depression, but the goal this time wasn't to create a hole. She extended the depression inward, but she fed enough of the surrounding material into it to keep the resulting walls intact.

It stopped, and she merged it into another wall. I couldn't see the wall, but I could sense it with my bugs. To my eyes, it was a black void, a hole too deep for my bugs to reach.

She paused, then began opening an experimental hole in the far wall. I pulled my bugs back to make it easier for her.

"Murder Rat," Grue said. "Three of her. I can… kind of sense what others are sensing around me, and there's a glimmer of something that might be a teleportation power. I don't trust myself to use it without any ability to sense where I'm going. Breeds… And… I can't even get a bead on this guy's powers."

A man, easily eight feet tall, muscular and broad-shouldered, sitting at a computer chair with one foot propped up on a desk. His chest was bare, his pants no doubt a normal size, but rendered skintight by his sheer mass, left unzipped. He was watching something violent on a laptop as he sat there. The hostages who weren't strung up with chains were in the room, cowering behind him as a full cluster. In the midst of them, there was something that looked like a coffin.

"Entering the fray. Looks like Mannequins, Murder Rats, Breeds and one Hatchet Face hybrid."

I was so caught up in it that I nearly missed it. A figure in the ducts.

We had to walk around in a semicircle before we found ourselves by the elevators and stairwells of the lobby.
The stairwell was framed by two bodies, hung by their feet. No wounds were visible.

I felt with my bugs, and I could sense warmth from them. Still alive.

Breed.

What were we even supposed to do with his victims?

Fuck, Mannequins in the ducts, their favorite method of attacking, looks like. Well, at least wasn't so bad like the first time when Coil was unlucky enough to be visited by the original Mannequin and I was unlucky enough to see that bastard in action. Good for Vista for being armed with something else besides her power. All parahumans should learn how to use fireguns and have these LIFE SAVIOR things with them all the time. Powers are not enough to protect them. If an enemy can't be affected by certain powers but is vulnerable to bullets then use the guns to fuck them up. If they're trapped in a situation where they can't use their powers, then a gun will be their guardian angel. I'm surprised that PRT never trained the parahumans into using fireguns (not for killing but for defending themselves; they can shoot their enemy in leg or hand, for example and they'll be still alive) and hand to hand combat. PRT SUCKS for thinking that if a parahuman have superpowers then nothing can hurt or kill them

. Bullshit, train your Wards/Protectorate like real soldiers, their powers alone won't save them from shitty situations like THIS ONE. But PRT sucked in many ways so...why I'm surprised? (btw Miss Militia must be NRA favorite superhero and the living symbol of the Second Amendment). Guns are cool if you know how and when to use them and Vista and Tattletale seem to understand it

.
The muscular man sitting in front of the laptop (Hatchet Face) must be watching CASE 53 PORN. Guys, you should leave him alone until he finishes his job. You just can't interrupt a man from doing his JOB? That will be rude. Even if he's an evil clone, he still have the right to finish his job

.
What you'e doing with Breed's victims? Kill them. Its the only solution. Hate when mercy killing become the last solution but I doubt that even someone like Scapegoat can save them.

She lashed out, striking, only her target was exposed skin, this time. Vista's face, Crucible's jaw. Bastard's shoulder.

And then she kicked the wall, drawing her shoulders together as she slid between Clockblocker's legs, her nose pointed at the gap in the railing.

Clockblocker shifted his foot to make contact with the long blades at her toes, touching her, and froze her in place.

"My face," Vista whispered.

"Put pressure on it," Crucible said. His own face was bleeding badly, but he didn't even seem to notice.

"It's going to take a long time to heal," Clockblocker said. "Pretty much guarantees a scar. But we stopped the bleeding, which is better than most get."

"We die," Imp said, with an odd cheerfulness. "Horribly, gruesomely. They'll break or sever our arms and legs and cap them with Mannequin's stuff so we don't bleed out, and then they'll let Breed's bugs devour us from the inside out."

I ship Clockblocker with Imp. They both have such a "positive" vision of life

. The difference is that Imp is funny. Clockblocker is more serious but they'll get along. I swear, if Clockblocker's power would have allowed him to keep his enemies frozen as much as he'd like, even for days or years, he'd have been one of the most powerful parahumans on earth: imagine him freezing Eidolon and keeping him like this for years. Maybe only Contessa (because of her precog power) and Number Man (too fast for Clockblocker) would have been stronger than a Clockblocker with unlimited freezing time but all others would have been screwed. Clockblocker had so much wasted potential (because of his Passenger that limited his power) just like Leet (the ability to be the potentially biggest and greatest Tinker in the world utterly screwed by his Passenger). Imagine Clockbloker and Leet having their abilities unrestricted. The actual Triumvirate would be JOKE compared with them. But I'm quite glad that Leet's Passenger likes to mess with him. Leet is NOT a nice person and he'd go all unstoppable mad scientist vs the world if his Passenger wasn't a jerk. Finally, a Passenger did something RIGHT

.
Vista's battle wounds: -the wounds she got after her fight with Hookwolf (and she survived to the mass-murderer nazi with the power to turn himself into almost unstoppable robotic monster wolf).
-the wounds she got after she was buried alive by Echidna (and she survived to Shatterbird, a serial killer with absolute control over sand and glass).
-Shadow Fucking Stalker pinned her to the floor yet she BURNED her with some very truthful words.
-Now a Murder Rat almost dissolved half of her face but she didn't even cried in pain and she continues to help others fighting.
VISTA IS THE NATURAL BORN SURVIVOR. NOBODY CAN PUT HER DOWN. NOBODY. I'll always refuse to believe that this girl can ever be defeated or killed. She's just the most hardcore parahuman that isn't the main character

.
Gosh, I hope that Ward's protagonist will be Vista. She's a Ward, she's unbeatable, she have a kick ass power, she's smart, brave, have a heart of a true hero, she'll be a protagonist that we need and deserve.

Mannequin would be fireproof, though. Even an extreme heat like Crucible could create wouldn't have an effect. Still, it meant one was contained.

Clockblocker threw out lines of silk, then froze them. The dog lunged, and the Mannequins were sandwiched between the dog and the silk.

One had landed on my shoulder. I tried to pull it free and failed, stabbed at the legs with my knife, only for it to fold them into its carapace. It lashed at the lens of my mask with its spike-tipped tail. It didn't penetrate, and rolled off my shoulder before I could get a hold on it.

The others weren't faring a lot better. Crucible shouted something incoherent as he used both hands to stop a softball sized creature from advancing on his mouth. Its millipede-like limbs left bloody tracks in his skin as it made excruciating progress towards the orifice.

It was a critical distraction as we were dealing with highly mobile foes. A Murder Rat leaped up to find a grip on the underside of the stairs we were standing on, then vaulted herself to one side and up, slipping between the bars and into our midst.

Clockblocker paused the most dangerous ones, closest to mouths, anuses and private parts, to ears and nostrils. We backed away as he freed us of the worst of them, and Crucible barred the path with his superheated forcefield.

"I'm not… I'm not useful," Toggle said.

"Different threats, you would be," Crucible said. "Fuck, this stings."

"Go home, Eidolon. You aren't a help here."

"I'm to take orders from the one who murdered Alexandria?"

I hope that Hatchet Face will finish doing his job before he will be killed by the good guys

.
Eidolon, you should not be there. Maybe Jack will find a way to control him and use him against his enemies. Imagine Eidolon in Jack's hands. Imagine Jack being the master over such limitless power. Nope, someone should give a ticket to nopetrain with the destination to nopeEarth

. More nope than having all the Mannequins left lurking in ducts. Eidolon, you should not call Weaver a murderer when you and your dear Alexandria probably murdered thousands of people while working for Cauldron for year. You hypocrite asshole. You and Alexandria are the real monsters not someone like Weaver, besides I'm sure you're responsible for Endbringers' existence (accidentally or not, you'll be still the biggest mass-murderer on the face of Earth Bet if my theory is true). Yet, you talk bullshit about Weaver who's only trying to protect people and warn you of a real bad situation. You're too blind to see that your presence there is not only not needed (the good guys can handle the situation pretty fine) but something bad will happen if someone so powerful like you decide to intervene in matters that should not present immediate interest for you. GO FUCKING AWAY, don't make me hate you like I hated Alexandria (the truth is, I already have plenty of reasons to hate you

).
Eidolon is obsessed with conflict and violence. I know that he wants to be useful but he's too much conflictual especially in bad timing situations (even some of the bad guys are less conflictual than him). A solid proof that his Passenger used his violent nature to create something so utterly destructive and aggressive like Endbringers.

"I'm here to help. That's all. Attacking me now would be like the violation of the Endbringer Truce."

"You're one of the biggest dangers, Eidolon. Jack's supposed to be the catalyst for an event, a great catastrophe. Are you honestly telling me that there's no danger here? That you're absolutely certain that you don't have a weakness he could capitalize on?"

Tyrant.

I recognized the other half of the pair. Hatchet Face and King together.

Untouchable. King's power took any physical harm he suffered and transferred it among his pawns. People he'd touched within the last twenty-four hours. Hatchet Face's power meant we couldn't even use abilities to circumvent it. Tyrant here had the enhanced strength each of the two had possessed, the enhanced durability.

"Are you saying you're blameless, little murderer?" Eidolon asked, just above us. "That you don't have a potential for evil?"

She shot Tyrant, and the bolt pierced his brain.

He collapsed onto his hands and knees, then staggered, starting to rise.

Another bolt through the spine.

A third through the heart.

I waited long moments before turning my attention to the crowd at the far end of the room. They were already moving, running like they could make their way downstairs and escape out the front doors.

I drew my knife, stepping into their path.

"Kept it a secret from you guys, kept it a secret from the public. You can do a lot with a solid forcefield bubble."

"Last chance, Nyx," I told the 'boy'. "Last words? Share a juicy tidbit?"

The 'boy' faded away. An illusion in an illusion. It was only a woman with pale red skin, overlarge black eyes and vents along her hairline, the back of her neck and down the backs of her arms. A fog seeped out from the holes. A small Cauldron emblem was tattooed on her face like a beauty mark.

"Nilbog," I said.

So many things happened in such a short time.
-Weaver convinced Eidolon to fly away but he's still a jerk who see himself as an absolute indispensable hero. Well, you're not indispensable, you jerk. Weaver showed you that they don't need you, especially when they have to fight someone like Jack who's so good at manipulating parahumans.
-Nyx have the power to create convincing illusions. Her power remind me of the power of a villain from X-Men, Mastermind. Two fucking jerks, both of them

. Crucible did good when he killed her. No evil clone should have their life spared. They're evil, murderous, demented, devoid of any humanity clones of some evil, murderous, demented, devoid of any humanity originals. Allow a clone to live and you're responsible for more hundreds of innocents killed by the respective clone

.
-I hate Breed's power but still not nearly as much as I hate Nice Guy and Screamer's powers.
-No power in the world can stop Foil from killing a bastard. Nobody is immune against Foil

. SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOD....that Foil is one of the nicest villains. Imagine Jack having someone like Foil. Any protection/power of the good guys would be a fucking joke for Foil.
-Tyrant wasn't only the Hatchet Face but a Frankenstein monster between Hatchet Face and King. Now we know King's power, kind of similar with Scapegoat's power. Scapegoat can transfer the wounds he took from the people he healed to other people through touching. King can transfer his wounds to other people that he already touched within the last 24 hours. Fuck, how in the hell Harbinger and Jacob managed to kill him? Yes, I know that Harbinger backstabbed him and Jacob gutted him and I think that King didn't touched any of them within the last 24 hours otherwise Harbinger would have been the one with a back wound and Jacob the one with his intestines outside. Cool power for a murderous villain to have. But not cool enough for Foil

.
-Crucible have a villainous power (burn people to death inside his forcefields). NOT A NICE POWER, HERO DUDE. But he's an example of a hero with an ugly power just like Mannequin is a villain with one of the most useful and beneficent powers. Not the powers matter but the person that is using them. Good guys can have the worst powers, bad guys can have the best powers. The powers are not evil or good. Their users are the ones who are either evil or good

.
-Jack is going to recruit Nilbog. I'm stuck between YAY and OH SHIT. YAY because I was right when I said that Jack made a big mistake for not recruiting Nilbog and now Jack is decided to correct it, OH SHIT because....oh shit. Well, its going to be pretty funny if Nilbog will be like: NO and attack S9 Clones, including Jack, but Jack have his own methods to convince people to join him or at least to consider the possibility.
-Next Chapter...welcome to Nilbog Hill? Good guys walking deeper into the Otherworld? I'll listen this during the whole reading and liveblogging

PERFECT for the mood.
Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Dec 21, 2019

AN ADORABLE VISTA FOR YOUR SOUL ❤

CREDIT: Gay idiot (u/Uberpigeon) - Reddit

AN EXCELLENT PORTRAYED SKITTER 🐝

CREDIT: Ari Ibarra (u/ariirf) - Reddit

BADASS TRIUMVIRATE DOING BADASS STUFF

CREDIT: christoefour (u/christoefour) - Reddit

THE MOST ACCURATE TOGGLE FANART

CREDIT: DrStalker
LOVE IT, MAN

blackarrow · Dec 25, 2019

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY WONDERFUL AND LOVELY READERS <3. MAY LOVE AND PROSPERITY FOLLOW YOU ALWAYS.

blackarrow · Jan 5, 2020

Hello, my friends, and happy New Year 2020. I was too damn busy with the whole Christmas and New Year stuff so not enough time for liveblogging Worm, but now I have more free time in my hands meaning more time for fresh updates. I'll start this year with an Interlude, looks like. I was more curious to see the meeting between the King of Horrors, Nilbog, and the Lord of Apocalypse, Jack, and how successful Jack will be at recruiting Nilbog in his team, but an Interlude is pretty ok too, I don't complain. Interludes are always good, even the ones about assholes and Cauldron (even if I don't like the central character(s), I still like how informative an Interlude can be, allowing me to see and learn things outside Taylor's limited perspective so I become pretty excited everytime when I discover a new Interlude). So, my best guess? Another Cauldron Interlude, which will be welcomed because I'm very curious to see how they managed to save the world once and from what kind of menace, I want to learn more about the mysterious Contessa and how in the hell she managed to get such an UNFAIR power( Cauldron power, natural trigger???) and yes, I'm interested to know more about Cauldron First Bitch too, Doctor (step)Mother- how did she came up with this diabolical idea of creating Cauldron, if she have powers or not (and if not then why not; if everyone around her is a parahuman why she refused to turn herself into a parahuman too? Or she was afraid to share the same fate as her VICTIMS?) Another characters that I'll be very interested about are Heartbreaker's kids. I'm actually getting tired demanding this Interlude and never getting it

. I'm going to eat my curiosity until the last crumbs if I'll be disappointed and never ever ask for it again.
Lets see if I'll start this year with assholes or with cool guys

Interlude 26 (Donation Bonus #1)

"Three Mannequins, three Murder Rats, three Breeds, a Nyx and a Tyrant taken out of action. Fifty hostages rescued. Jack's reported as being on a route to visit Nilbog. Information confirmed by Tattletale, but doesn't guarantee the clone wasn't misinformed."

"Thank you, Weaver."

Dragon's systems were already taking in the data. Two hundred and sixty-four individual maps that marked the possible locations of the Nine with colored highlights shifted. Eleven feeds went dark, their engines taking over calculations in other departments.

"Dragon," Chevalier's face appeared on a feed. One of the cameras on the PRT-issue phones, judging by the angle and resolution. "You've got the go-ahead from the commander-in-chief."

The words popped up. Cherie Vasil.

The Azazels relocated in an instant, firing every thruster to reposition themselves to hilltops and areas in the vicinity of the road. Long range cameras, infrared and electromagnetic resonance imaging gave Dragon eyes on the scene, verified what she was seeing twice over. No Nyx-crafted illusions fashioned of poisonous gas. No plastic surgery.

Seven Cherishes. Two Crawlers. A King. Forty hostages of unknown status, a bus driver.

A second stream hit his hostage, striking her out of his grasp and sending her flying straight into the first glob.
She was sandwiched within, safe.

"Ten more members of the Nine have been dealt with," Dragon reported the victory on every channel. "Seven Cherishes and two Crawlers deceased, one King captured. Will move to containment and interrogate shortly."

Ok, ok, I'm starting 2020 with a cool guy. Or better said: a cool gal. Or even BETTER SAID: a cool AI gal

. The second Dragon Interlude? My predictions are already dead and buried but at least I'm going to spend this Interlude reading about Dragon kicking serious S9 Clones' ass. Can't say that I'm disappointed, especially when Dragon is cleaning the streets using Cherishes and Crawlers' bodies as broom. Awesome. I like how she doesn't give them any chance to hurt the hostages, she actually saves hostages from them, she knows how to fight so no innocent will be hurt. Weaver and your Marry Band of Ass Kicking Heroes, see how you should deal with hostages? Save them not let them die just like that

(well, I know that it isn't their fault, they're doing whatever they can to save as many hostages as possible but most of them are mutilated beyond hope of salvation or they have Breed's pets nesting inside their bodies). Dragon is more lucky because the clones that she confronted didn't have enough time to mutilate their hostages. Interesting to see the fight against Crawler. Crawler still look like a human who slowly mutate into a monster in order to protect himself against Dragon's attacks. Now I understand his power better, the original Crawler turned into a monster as a form of adaptation to any other attack that could have threatened his life (he developed a monstrous skin to deflect aggressive attacks, he developed many eyes to better see his enemies, he got the ability to split acid to hurt his enemies, he got claws to be able to climb surfaces and so on. Its not like he wanted to physically turn into a monster- well, he was a monster at heart anyway, his power made him a physical monster as a very strange method of survival (if I have to compare him with a character from X-Men- my eternal obsession, sorry- he's like Darwin but Darwin's power allows him to remain human with the ability to adapt to any life threatening situation. But Crawler wasn't so lucky). His Passenger must be a smart asshole because it brings the monster inside of him at surface.
Crawler and his fucked up power aside, I don't like how Dragon captured a King. A living King. Not a good idea because King is not going to tell her anything about Jack. All the clones are very loyal to their masters and they'll prefer to die than betray him in any way. Nyx preferred to die instead of telling to the heroes where Jack is. They're created like this by Bonesaw who also have the remote control and will probably know if they'll betray and kill them before they'll actually do it. Well, if Dragon will be smart enough to remind King Clone that Jack was the one who killed his original that will probably change his opinion about Jack but...the remote control is still in Bonesaw's hands. King will not have enough time to help Dragon with information.

Saint closed his eyes as he listened to the congratulations, the affirmations and praise.

It was all hope mingled with horror, when he listened for what was beneath the surface. Minimal casualties. A few injuries – Vista and Crucible would be out of commission as Murder Rat's venom continued to widen their wounds, and Golem was being treated for a burn. One Dragon's Tooth had died, but the rest were holding positions, ready to support. Civilians were dying, but it wasprogress.

He opened his eyes to take in the whole of Dragon's work. Six widescreen monitors each tracked what she was doing with video images and white text on a black background. A slight movement of his foot on the trackpad in front of him shifted one of his cursors, changing the focus of the screens. He could see her directing the A.I. craft to more optimal locations, the related subroutines and tasks.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAT

? Wildbow is SAVAGE with his plot twists. He's officially M. Night Shyamalan of web literature. Yep. So, he made me believe that this is Dragon Interlude, I had a great moment seeing her kicking evil clones' ass, and now the whole POV changed to her worst enemy, Saint himself. You know, that hacker with an ugly cross tattoo on his face, who doesn't like Dragon and keep bothering her. Who is also one of Teacher's students. So, this is Dragon Interlude or Saint Interlude, I'm kind of confused at this moment. Well, Saint is watching Dragon on his monitors so I suppose that is HIS Interlude and what I saw till now was what Saint saw. Hmm, ok, I'm curious to know more about this Saint, why he doesn't like Dragon and stole suits from her and tried to sabotage her. Well, I can see his main reason, he probably doesn't trust AIs, not even a benevolent AI like Dragon and he's afraid that she'll go all evil over the world and doom or bring it under her control. His fear is not stupid neither illogical. Its a normal fear and this man just doesn't want to become a slave for an AI (even if he's already a slave for a Master but this is another story). A very realistic fear and I will understand him if this is his main reason to be so hostile towards Dragon but I just hope that he'll not try to sabotage her again- RIGHT IN THIS MOMENT- when she fights to save the world, because that will be a very illogical, idiotic and asshole move. Right now, Dragon is not someone dangerous, she actually fight against what is truly dangerous for the world. If she'll become dangerous after she'll deal with Jack then I will totally agree with any actions Saint or Colin will want to take against her (but I'm afraid that Colin will not do anything to stop her because he loves her. Yes, he's a hero but...the stupid things we're doing for love...

). But until then, all you should do is watch her kicking ass, Saint man. Kicking ass.
Who knows, maybe he'll even help her if he is a good boy who care to stop the end of the world. Should I have faith in Saint? Hmmm, its too early.

He didn't take his eyes off the screen, but when hands settled on his shoulders, he reached up to rest his own hand on one.

"Progress?" she asked. She rested her chin on his head, looking at the screens.

"Some, Mags," he responded. "Thanks for the coffee."

"Horrible stuff."

He shifted his foot, and once again, the screens changed their focus, the rest of the data shifting to miniature windows and moving to the periphery of the viewing area. The focus at the center was on the class-S threats.
The Endbringers were stable, all in a resting state.

Secondary focuses. Not the kind of targets that Dragon checked on with any regularity. Quarantine areas were silent and still. Canberra was sealed off under a dome, Madison was surrounded by walls. An area of wilderness in Alaska was marked off, but had no physical barriers to wall people away. There were no apparent issues in the vicinity of the interdimensional portals. Sleeper was, as far as anyone could identify anything about the threat,dormant. The Three Blasphemies were active, but the damage was being managed by the European capes. A temporary measure had been taken with Purity and her three year old daughter, with observation being provided for her by the PRT, and the feed showed her sitting on the couch in an apartment or hotel room, two very normal, plain looking people standing in the corner of the room with some PRT officers keeping their distance. No crises. Normal, as much as such could be normal.

And then there was Nilbog. The data focused around him. The city was quiet, and the roads leading into the city were being watched by satellite. Simulations, damage estimates and risk assessments were being run, old data being gathered, with essential data highlighted. It took her only a moment to put it into a format that was easily readable. An instant later, it was gone. He'd blinked, failing to look in the right spot, and had missed the moment the data had been emailed out. The file would inform everyone on the home team about who Nilbog was and how he operated.

"It could be that he intends to surround himself with a core group, with one of each previous member of the Nine, for a final showdown. Before he pulls out the big guns."

Dobrynja approached from the other end of the office. He was wearing his armor. He'd started out with the Wyvern suit, but now wore the Wyrmiston suit. It was based on the technology they'd recovered from a destroyed model, the one Dragon called Pythios. A wheel slowly rotated on his back.

"Everything does, from this side of the screen," Saint said. He stood, holding his coffee, "Adjusting for the time delay between what I'm seeing and what Dragon's doing, we've got six minutes more before Dragon intercepts Jack at the edge of Nilbog's territory. Twelve minutes until Golem and Weaver get there. They'll fight Jack, and somewhere in the midst of that, we may see the end of the world."

Saint is smart, despite not having any Tinker power. He understood Jack's plan to sacrifice most of his not very powerful clones in order to give the heroes enough hope that they can defeat him, then when they'll ever find him, he'll be surrounded by his most dangerous clones: Siberians, Gray Boy, Bonesaw, Nilbog (if he'll recruit him), Harbingers. Saint is a smart boy because he noticed something that not even the mighty Dragon noticed: Jack is playing with everyone. He waits until they'll be sure that they can defeat him to crush their hopes with his small army of UNFAIR powered clones. He doesn't care about Cherishes or Kings or even about Crawlers. They're not strong enough to protect him directly, when the time of final coundown for the end of the world will come. Good, Saint, good, what are you going to do now that you're aware of what Jack is planning? Perhaps you can contact Dragon and offer her your support? Come on, you seem like you want to help saving the world, why don't you team up with Dragon instead of being obsessed that she's not good? That wold be the smartest move

.
I'm glad that I get to know Saint's Dragonslayers. They're only two, Mag, who's also Saint's girlfriend and Dobrynja- judging by his name or codename, he must be russian. Both of them are smart and well prepared for the big fight. Sleeper is mentioned again, but no word about where he's, his intentions and his power. The Three Blasphemies were mentioned before, during Cauldron Meeting, when Doctor Mother said that she tried to locate them but she couldn't. I think they're a group of 3 very powerful and pretty evil/crazy/both parahumans (like Nilblog). I don't think that there's enough Worm left to develop these characters so I can imagine that they'll have a bigger role in Ward. Maybe they'll be the main villains.

"Trouble," Dobrynja said.

"Trouble?"

It was his face. As an aside, beyond all of the routines she was running to investigate the Nine, she was using the access she'd obtained to track him down.

The image she was using was of him at one of the meetings with the major players. It was soon joined by an image from surveillance camera. A camera image from three days earlier, showing him walking down the street in plainclothes.

From there, she had a location. A map like the one she'd used to find the Nine appeared, giving his likely locations. Another surveillance image popped up. It was of him, sitting with Mags at the coffee shop an hour away.

He felt a bit of a thrill as the duel began. This was the ultimate hunt, fighting an enemy that was bigger, smarter, faster. An enemy that couldn't truly die, because she wasn't truly alive.

"Ascalon," he said.

Dobrynja frowned. "The program? You can't do it now. Peoples lives are at stake. Even without this end of the world business."

"There's no other way? If you talk to Teacher, maybe-"

"Communications with Teacher are too slow," Saint replied.

That's not good. Hell, that's NOT GOOD AT ALL. Dragon somehow found Saint and his buddies' identities and location and Saint is afraid that she'll arrest him. And because he's afraid for his own freedom, he's going to use a special program- Ascalon, to probably shut her down or delete all her data. This is bad, bad, bad, bad, Saint

. Dragon fights to save the world, she's going to try to stop Jack from recruiting Nilblog and she'll be probably successful. And you want to sabotage her because she found you? Well, buddy, why you don't better help her defeat Jack and then she'll probably "forget" about you and let you free as a bird in the sky as gratitude for helping her? She's Dragon, she'll spare you if you're nice and helpful, you don't have to be aggressive and especially you don't have to be aggressive NOW, when there's not the right moment to attack Dragon. I agree with Dobrynja that if Saint will take action against Dragon, maybe he'll be the one who'll trigger the end of the world by allowing Jack to win (even if he doesn't actually have this intention). Saint, you may have good intentions but you're very selfish and stupid (technological wise he's incredible smart but life wise, he's just plain stupid). You care more about your freedom than allowing Dragon to save the world. Your mentality disgusts me. Don't do what you're planning to do, man, don't stop Dragon right now. Don't doom the world, please. I don't understand why Dobrynja thinks that talking to Teacher is a better idea

. Teacher is a criminal locked into a prison where the most dangerous parahumans criminals are usually locked. He's a criminal parahuman and a Master. Its written bad all over him. If I were in Saint's place, I'd rather prefer to go to jail than asking for someone like Teacher's help. Unless...Dobrynja is another one of Teacher's students, otherwise I can't explain his trust in Teacher. How many people Teacher can control at the same time? From what I understand, he must give people skills or enhance their powers first to get them under his control. He probably made Saint a better hacker than he was already and did the same with Dobrynja and Mag. I swear, making a deal with Teacher is like making a deal with Satan. Satan agrees to give you what your heart desires but he'll take everything else from you afterwards. No win for you

.
I love this Interlude. Its a BEAUTIFUL MESS. A group of apparently well-intentioned people will probably cause the end of the world because they're also too selfish and naive/stupid to take the right decisions at the right time. Kind of like Clovkblocker said: what if a mundane idiot will cause the Apocalypse? Will Saint be this mundane idiot? Will Apocalypse be triggered by a non-parahuman when everyone expect that parahumans will be responsible of it? Will Wildbow and Shyamalan become good friends over their common passion for mind-fucking twists? Lets see.

He glanced at Margaret. The woman leaned against the window just in front of the driver's seat on the small boat. She'd bundled up in a heavy jacket, but the way her arms were folded spoke of a different kind of discomfort.

Geoff only nodded. He climbed the ladder and half-sat, half-collapsed on the bench. He was slightly out of breath, and didn't volunteer anything.

The captain emerged from belowdeck.

"Sorry for the scare, Mischa," Geoff said.

"You are a bad man, Geoffrey," Mischa scolded him. The heavyset Russian took his seat behind the wheel of the small boat. "If you were still underwater, I would drive away and leave you to swim to shore."

It was packed with chips. A voice came from a speaker Geoff couldn't identify.

"My name is Andrew Richter, and if you are hearing this, I am dead."

"I am the most powerful tinker in the world, and I've managed to keep my name secret. People, both good and bad, would want to capture me and use me to their own ends. I prefer to remain free.

"They are my children, and as much as I harbor a kind of terror for what they could do, I love them and hope for great things from them. To keep their power from falling into the wrong hands, I have included a stipulation that a law enforcement officer must input a valid badge number into this device-"

The voice continued without pause. "-which must be input within three hours of the time this box was opened."

Saint's BACKSTORY. His real name is Geoffrey or Geoff, shorter. Dobrynja is Mischa and he's indeed russian and Mag is Margaret. Geoff found a message from Dragon's "father", Richter, where he was worried that his "daughter" will turn evil one day and he created the Ascalon's program to shut her down forever. No wonder why Geoff is so paranoiac if Dragon's own creator was afraid of what she might become. I understand him, I share the same paranoiac (or maybe not so very paranoiac) opinion about AIs. I know that Dragon is currently GOOD but who knows what will happen with her in the future? Not even Dinah can see so clearly in the future so only time will tell. Yes, Colin keeps her under control but he also loves her and even someone so cold and tough as Colin can become putty in the skillful hands of his girlfriend. I trust Colin's mind but I don't trust his heart. I think Geoff is right for being afraid for a future evil AI BUT he's not right for deciding to use the program right when she is fighting so hard to save the world. Incredible bad timing. The worst bad timing of all. Worst than Cody. At least Cody almost sacrificed a country for his selfishness but Geoff is ready to sacrifice the whole world. Congratulations, Geoff, if you'll deactivate Dragon when the world NEEDS her, then you'll be the worst. THE WORST. You'll make Cody appear like a smart and wise guy for attacking people fighting against Behemoth in the middle of the fight.

The father had feared his child was a monster, enough so that he'd left strangers a weapon to use against her in the event that she proved a danger to humanity.

Now, as Saint watched her reaching further and deeper than she ever had, searching much of America with millions of cameras, saw the machines she brought to the fore, he suspected the father had been right to.

The A.I. was dangerous. Richter's records made it clear. The wrong kind of corruption, involvement with the wrong kind of individual, willing to break the built-in restrictions…

"Convince me that this is wrong," he said. "Someone."

"She's a soldier on the battlefield," Mags said. "In a war we need to win."

"I don't want this to be about self-preservation," Mags said.

"It's not. It's about… there being only one man who can truly know what she is and what she could do. Tinkers are the only ones who can grasp their work, repair a critical flaw. Dragon isn't a generator that's going to explode and take out a small country if it's bumped in the wrong way. Not literally. She's something more dangerous."

Her voice cut off as more routines shut down. She closed her eyes.

The face disappeared.

"And the dragon is stopped," Mags said, her voice quiet.

"Rest her soul," Dobrynja said.

"You think she has a soul?" Saint asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yes. But that does not mean that the Dragon's reign does not need to end," Dobrynja said. "Too dangerous, as her maker said."

FUCK YOU, SAINT. FUCK YOU

. YOU DID THE WORST THING SOMEONE WHO ISN'T EVIL COULD DO. You doomed the whole world (I don't feel sad for Dragon's death because I'm sure that its not permanent- Defiant is skillful and smart enough to bring her back but I'm pissed because she could have stopped Jack from destroying the world because she can't do anything anymore because a fucking Saint decided that she'll become the most dangerous being in the world in 100 or 1000 years from now on and he had to stop her somehow). Saint, you could have worked with her, you could have helped her stop Jack and she'd have forget about arresting you, but nooooooooooooooo, your selfish nature decided that your freedom is more important than the lives of billions of people. Saint is not an evil person, he's actually a man who's trying to do what is the right thing to do, but he's selfish. Very selfish. Yes, someone can be a good person, yet selfish. He didn't even listened his friends and allies, Mags and Dobrynja, when they almost begged him to let Dragon alone

. Mags was very right when she said that they NEED Dragon but her boyfriend didn't give a fuck about her opinion, he only cared about himself. I swear, if I were the girlfriend of this guy, I would have knocked him out then tie him down until the world will be saved. I'd care more about the world's safety than his paranoia. Even if he'll hate me afterwards, I'd still do what is the most right thing to do. But Mags loved him too much to not let him do whatever he wanted, even if she was very much against his actions. She's the selfless half of their relationship. She accepts him even when she doesn't agree with him. She must love him very much. She's also a wise and nice woman. Too bad that she have such an ass of a boyfriend. Well, I think he loves her too, but he cares more about his own persona than anyone else

.
I wonder what other people think about Geoff. I think he's smart (at hackering), cautious and well-intentioned without resorting to Cauldron's atrocities or being a murderer (its not like he killed Dragon, come on, I'm absolute sure that she'll come back as long as her backup data and Colin's brilliant mind still exist) but he's also selfish, he doesn't care about his own allies' opinions, he's impulsive and utterly paranoiac. He reminds me of Krouse but at least poor Krouse had two big logical excuses: LOVE (more or less logical) and Simurgh. What kind of logical excuses Saint have besides his paranoia?

The cyborg opened communications to Dragon, but he didn't speak to her. "Saint. What have you done?"

"What her father asked me to do," Saint said.

"I'll kill you for this," the cyborg said. There was no emotion in his voice, and somehow that was more disturbing.

"A little extreme," Saint said.

"She was a hero! The woman I loved!"

"She did love me. She was a genuine person, a-"

"Don't enter," he said. "It's done. Sending the Azazels in will only spook Nilbog."

"So will Jack," Mags said.

The PRT records opened up. Permissions were accessed without difficulty.

Then the Birdcage opened. A self-contained world unto itself, a world containing people he'd made certain agreements with.

His access to the Birdcage was one with countless checks and balances. Dragon had put in one real barrier to entry for every one that she faced. Still, he was able to open a communication to Teacher. His own face transmitted to the screen. His tattoo flared to life, appearing from beneath the skin. The light pattern served as an unlock code, the cross-tattoo as a feeble mask.

This is our fight, Saint thought. Ours to win, ours to lose.

Colin: I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you reactivate Dragon, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you. -TAKEN 4: REVENGE OF THE NERDS (starring: Robert Downey Jr. as Colin/Defiant, Rami Malek as Geoffrey/Saint) Release Date: January 22, 2020. Don't miss it. Side note: the best actor I can see playing Colin is Robert Downey, can't be someone else

. As for Geoff, Rami Malek (Mr Robot's protagonist; I recommend this kick-ass TV series) is my best choice. He only need a cross tattoo on his face and he'll be perfect

.
So, Colin is going to kill Geoff if he'll ever find him. Well, I won't mind whatever Colin will do to him because even if Geoff is not a bad man, he did something so bad that not even hundreds of further good deeds will fix it. I just don't fucking care about his fate anymore. Geoff is like an inverse Phir Sē. The indian vigilante was ready to kill millions of people+ his daughter in order to save billions. But, when Weaver asked him to LISTEN her and follow her COMMAND and BEST JUDGEMENT, he actually listened her and allowed her to lead his actions. The result: his daughter+ millions of indians survived and Behemoth was injured

. Saint wanted only to stop potentially dangerous AI without killing a single human being. But, when his girlfriend and best buddy asked him to let Dragon alone because she was probably the only hope of humanity against Jack, he didn't even listened them and did what he wanted. The result: the whole world will be probably doomed even if Dinah said that the numbers of success increased (I'm sure is not permanent and everything will go to hell in a short time). Against his will, Saint probably helped Jack more than any of his people could do. Nice work breaking it, hero.
I also think that Saint was partially influenced by Teacher. Teacher wants to escape from Birdcage and probably....surely replace Jack as first world menace once Jack will be defeated. With Dragon in control he couldn't break free from Birdcage. But once Dragon was removed from equation and his student is in control, Teacher's chances to escape are bigger than ever. Its very possible that Teacher used his Master power on his student (now depends of how strong is his mental grip and how wade is the range), this serving as half of an excuse for Saint's horrible decision. Well, he was stupid enough for making the initial deal with Teacher (I mean, anyone making deals with Teacher while knowing that Teacher is evil and a Master must be dumber than the grass where the chicken poop

)+ his own paranoia and selfishness played an important role too.
Damn it, Saint. WHY YOU DIDN'T LISTENED YOUR GIRLFRIEND

?
The moral of this Interlude: Boys, always listen to your girlfriends. They're always right. If not, you'll cause the end of the world. Its a very legit warning

.
Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Jan 6, 2020

I have a very interesting theory about Passengers. Listen here, I think Passengers can see in the future and seeing in the future help them finding their perfect hosts to give them exactly what they want: conflict and violence. Why I think that they can see in the future? For various reasons. First, how they choose their hosts. I understand that their main criteria is the already prone to violence, traumatized or mentally ill people. They notice these people and decide to choose them as their hosts. But not all their hosts are conflictual people and Passengers need conflict in order to probably survive and reach the maturity. For example, Sabah, Amelia and Paige were non-conflictual, peaceful people. Sabah only wanted to have a normal life (even after she became a parahuman), Amelia hated to play hero role and be in general involved in any conflict and Paige only wanted to be a singer. But their assholes Passengers knew that these girls will never have peaceful lives. They probably knew that Amelia will end up destroying her sister and generating enough conflict for their needs or that Paige will mutilate a man or that Sabah will become a villain and will be dragged by her team in different conflicts. This is must be the reason for choosing such peaceful hosts, because they looked into future and they knew what Sabah, Paige and Amelia will become. Why Alan's Passenger allowed him to build a base on the Moon, knowing that this will be a good thing for humanity? Because it also knew that Simurgh will stop him and turn him into a monster (if she was indeed created by Eidolon, then Eidfolon's Passenger is responsible for her existence and the other Passengers must be ok with this deal. She causes most of world conflicts). Alan's Passenger was ok with having its host turning into a monster because Mannequin generated enough conflict to feed the alien. I'm convinced that Passengers have the power to see the future of their hosts and indirectly/directly influence it. They must the babies of the huge floating abstract space creatures if my theory about their origins is right. Their parents must have all their powers that the Passengers give to their hosts. They're like omnipotent aliens. Since precog powers are a thing then these aliens surely have these powers too. And since Passengers are babies, their powers must be equal with their parents' powers just not enough developed. I'm also sure that Scion is a matured floating abstract space creature who happened to take a human form. Why he listened to a mere human, Kevin, and agreed to help the humanity instead of using it for his own benefits? Maybe because he's a mentally ill alien, who forgot his own identity and believe himself to be human or because he's easily manipulated by anyone who want to manipulate him? Either way, its bad because if Scion will ever realize who he truly is or will be manipulate by the wrong person, then everything will be over. Back to the Passengers' hypothetical ability to see in the future of their hosts. What if Richter's Passenger allowed him to build Dragon only because it knew that Dragon will generate conflict, whatever will be her fault or not? What if Richter subconsciously knew about his Passenger's intentions and he decided to warn the humanity about Dragon representing a possible danger? Anything is possible, there must be an explanation why her own "father" feared that she'll turn into something bad or wrong. Usually, the creators are not afraid of their creations or they don't care about the consequences, but Richter was not only afraid but he was also worried about the impact that Dragon will make on the world. There were some question marks that need answers.
I sincerely apologize to Dragon and Scion's fans for being so paranoiac about them (I'm sure that Scion have plenty of fans too who see him as the Superman of this universe) but I usually like to try to find answers to so many question marks hanging around these complicated and mysterious beings. I like to analyze any new/old situation or new/old character that demand to be analyzed and I know that some people might feel offended about my analyze or my personal opinions but I want them to understand that I mean no harm and I respect their own opinions. I like Dragon but this doesn't mean that I should stop trying to understand her and the role she'll play in the story (I'm convinced that she'll continue to play her role thanks to Colin) whatever will be. So, sorry for being "mean" with your favorite characters but this is the role of a liveblog. Expressing my opinions about what I'm reading, showing my reactions, trying to analyze the characters and understand them if there's something to understand about them. Maybe Dragon will be forever good but doesn't hurt if I have some doubts and worries and try to understand why her father acted the why he acted and why his Passenger was ok with Dragon's creation

.

blackarrow · Jan 15, 2020

Hello, my friends. Ok, before I start this new chapter about (probably...CERTAINLY) Weaver's horrifying adventures in Nilbog Hill, especially now that she (and everyone else) can't count on Dragon's help, all "thanks" to a guy with an ugly face tattoo and an even uglier codename...FUCK YOU Saint , I'd like to tell you about how depressed and hopeless my best friend became because of the actual events in Ward (now, she isn't depressed in her normal life, she becomes depressed everytime when we talk about Worm because she remembers about Ward and never forget to tell me how awful and grim and hopeless the situation is there. I warned her to not spoil me anything and she respects my request but she still keep telling me how she wants to stop reading Ward for a while because she just can't get over how dark Ward currently is. I told her that can't be more grim than Worm (or at least where I'm now with reading

). Come on, we're talking here about the end of the world, an almost invincible monstrous psychopath, his equally monstrous army of clones, heroes taking down only the weaker clones so far, the strongest ones being still very hard to be defeated, Cauldron doesn't seem to do ANYTHING to help, Bonesaw still help Jack, despite having small attempts to turn her back to him in her Interlude, Nilbog -a S Class threat- will probably become Jack's new weapon and the most stupid and selfish hacker in the world just ruined one of humanity's few chances to stop Jack

. I fail to see a more grim situation that this one. But my friend still insisted that Ward is worse. I encouraged her to think more positively because I'm sure that everything will end on a hopeful note for the good guys

. I always believe in a good ending (or at worst, bittersweet one) no matter how dark a situation can become. Lets say that I'm exactly the opposite of Dennis. I'm like a bacon of hope to his grimdarkness 🤜 🕐.
Ok, lets see how many times I'm going to say: FUCK YOU SAINT. Cause I'm sure that I'm going to say it quite a lot, everytime when the heroes (and heroic villains) fail to stop Jack only because Dragon is not there to help them. Lets start with FUCK YOU Saint and continue with...reading the actual chapter Sting 26.4

Ellisburg loomed before me. A small town, surrounded by a massive wall. Ellisburg had been situated by a river, and the wall included a section of the waterway. The building that managed the flow of water was bigger than any structure within the walls, a filtration and guard system that ensured that nothing was making its way up or downstream from the small town.

I'd only been a toddler when the walls had first gone up. Outside of that bit of news, the Ellisburg situation wasn't one that came up a lot, yet it had somehow found traction in the public consciousness. It was something we all thought about from time to time, something that loomed as a possibility in everyone's mind.

Would today be the day the wrong person got too much power?

I'd manually piloted the craft back out of the field, and the A.I. had kicked in to handle the flight codes and necessary messages to air traffic control and nearby aircraft. When I'd input my destination for the second time, the craft mobilized.

But the silence, the strange blip in the A.I.'s direction, it left me uneasy.

Now, as we took a circuitous route around Ellisburg, to a field beside the large filtration and security building, I could see the Azazels, parked at the edges of the same location.

That was the point I felt alarmed.

"Ignore the Azazels. Listen. I've got a lot to handle and coordinate right now," Defiant said. Was there a tremor of emotion in his voice there? "Golem's on his way. Wait for backup. I'm sending Dragon's Teeth your way. Teams from across America are joining the fight now that the full situation is leaking. I'm putting some on containment and quarantine detail, make sure the Slaughterhouse Nine situation doesn't get beyond the areas the attacks are directed at. I'm going to send a few your way. Ten minutes."

Something happened.

FUCK YOU Saint. Good start. I'm sure that of Weaver will ever find out what Saint did to Dragon, she'll find him (faster than Defiant will do) and kill him with her own hands (or even better saying: with her thousands of her tiny claws and feet). She'll fuck him up exactly how he deserves for "killing" her adoptive mother. Yes, I feel like this will be one of the reasons for Weaver to want to end Geoff's sorry life. I feel like she started to see Dragon as someone slowly replacing her mother in her heart and life- well, their relationship wasn't exactly one of a mother-daughter, but Dragon was someone very close to Weaver (someone who understood her, supported her and was even affectionate with her- when she hugged Taylor and Taylor didn't say "no"

). Now she looked pretty worried for Dragon (she's also worried for the situation itself, but she's clearly not indifferent to Dragon's fate, I can safely say that she's worried for Dragon). She'll surely break Geoff's dick in very tiny pieces and make Margaret a very unhappy woman. Defiant didn't told her anything, maybe he's worried for her reaction if she knows the truth or he's completely convinced that he'll bring Dragon back and he doesn't want to make Weaver lost her shit in the middle of such important mission. I like his judgement

.
I'm 22 years old and I still don't have a driver licence and Weaver can pilot a Tinker made aircraft with amazing skills. I'm so fucking jealous on Weaver right now

. Her adoptive parents taught her some really cool stuff.

She'd pushed herself too far, something had gone wrong, and now Defiant faced losing the one person on this planet who could tolerate him for more than ten minutes at a time. No small wonder he was out of sorts.

"Defiant," I said. "I'm going in alone. Send Golem in after me if he wants to come, reinforcements can hang back or come with, depending on your judgement. I'll handle things on this end. You focus on what you need to. Focus on Dragon, focus on damage control."

It was uncharacteristic of him to thank me. A pleasantry. How upset was he?

Hey, passenger, I thought. Do me a favor. If I get taken out of action and you step up to fight, work on taking out Jack, alright?

My bugs stirred, moving further down the hall. It was so far from a conscious direction that I wondered for a second if the passenger had listened.

No. I'd tried hypnosis, I'd tried other things. Some in Mrs. Yamada's office, other times in the PRT's labs, after dark, off the record. Nothing brought the monster to the fore.

Within the city, the trees had been immaculately cut and trimmed, and the shapes were just as strange; trees that were perfectly round, cubes, cones. Where new trees were growing on lawns, as dense and close together as trees in an orchard might be, I could see heavy wires wound around them, guiding their growth into twists and curves. The art of bonsai taken to a bigger scale, cultivating each tree in form. Already, some of the largest ones were properly set up, meshing together with counterparts on the opposite sides of the street, forming lush, living wooden arches.

And then, as if to remind me that this wasn't friendly territory, there was a scarecrow in one garden. The clothes were brightly colored, the pose one of a dancing figure, but that wasn't the eerie thing about it. The head was a skeletal one, a dog's head stripped of all flesh, turned skyward with its mouth opened in joy. The hands that clutched the rake and watering can were held together by wire. A very small human hand.

Welcome to Nilbog Hill....I mean Ellisburg, Weaver. Hope you enjoy your staying

. Gosh, this look like a city from a dark fairy tale mixed with a place where your worst nightmares become reality. Nilbog is CLEARLY INSANE (like it wasn't clear enough in Piggot Interlude) and he seems to have a childish mind (pretty similar with Bonesaw with the difference that Bonesaw pretends to be childish but Nilbog seems to be a genuinely psychopatic man-child). That scarecrow is in particular disturbing, telling a lot about Nilbog's personality and mindset. That poor dog, used as body parts for the scarecrow...

If Bitch was there to see that thing, she'd have burned the whole place to the ground and risk to have Nilbog's monsters multiplying (because they multiply if they're exposed to fire or bombs if I remember correctly what I learned from Piggot Interlude; this is the only reason why nobody bombed this city of terrors) and spilling over into the nearest cities. Thanks God that Bitch isn't there. But, seriously, what Weaver is doing alone there? I know that she said that Gollem will arrive soon but still, she's currently alone and I doubt that she will be able to fight all Nilbog's creatures even with Gollem's help. At least 2 or 3 more heroes or allies villains should have accompanied her. This is a place where a whole team of professional Protectorate soldiers and parahumans got owned by a diabolical man-child and his monsters and only one human and a snake survived. What the hell Weaver can do alone? With all my respect for her lack of knowledge about what fear is, for her outstanding badassery and her ability to survive to any situation and any injury possible and impossible, she still can't kill all Nilbog's creations by herself

. In her shoes, I would have take with me the following: Foil (there's no non-Endbringer creature that she can't kill with her power), Golem (because he's Jack's foil), Vista (Vista will be very useful as a key to escape from this place if the situation becomes too grim) and keep in touch ALL THE TIME with Tattletale (because Tattletale is the best non-combatant ally). No way I'll go all alone like Weaver (well, with all my sincerity, I wouldn't go there not even if I'll have Eidolon+ Contessa's powers and a whole army of parahumans will follow me very close cause I'm a SHAMELESS COWARD like this

).
Back to the CREEPY scarecrow. It also have small arms like...the arms of a child

? Not surprised, Nilbog killed a whole city in order to replace its population with his fucked up walking nightmares. Knowing that he needs already existing flesh to create his monsters, I think he used the flesh of the murdered men, women and children and shaped it into his friends. Goodness. This monster and Jack surely DESERVE each other. They're both insane and equally bad. My only problem with their alliance is that if Nilbog becomes Jack's ally, Jack will be even more hard to be defeated. So, Nilbog has to die, whatever he accepts Jack's deal or not. He is extremely dangerous on his own (I don't care if he's insane and childish, he's a monster WHO KILLED CHILDREN to use their flesh for his creatures). Besides, one S-Class threat is a WIN for everyone. Fuck Nilbog. Fuck you too, Saint. Don't think that I forgot you.

A trap? I looked behind me to see if they were planning on walling me in, and came face to face with one of Nilbog's creations.

It hissed, its breath hot and reeking of bile. Fangs like a viper's parted, the distance between them great enough that it probably could have sunk some into the top of my head and the underside of my chin as it closed its mouth. I stepped back out of reach, then forced myself to stay still and wait.

The mouth closed, and I could see how the creature's head was smaller than mine. It wasn't more than four feet tall, covered in pale brown scales. The reptilian face could have been in a children's movie, if it wasn't for the eyes. They were dark, black, and cold.

It clung to the wall, its feet placed higher up than its hands, opposable toes gripping the frame that had been around the vault door. I noticed it was wearing white shorts, with one suspender strap over a shoulder. A taloned claw held a softball-sized chunk of the wall.

A girl, five or so feet tall, her face mottled with purple veins that spiraled across her perfectly round, puffy, hairless head. Her eyes were tiny and piggish, her fingers blunt, barely a half-inch long, her mouth too small for her face. She wore a sack that looked like it had been sewn to work around her oversized head. Her hand was on my knife.

The lizard boy had extended frills at his arms, neck, and the edges of his face, colorful, brilliant, and held out by a framework of needle-fine spines. His mouth hung open, viper's teeth revealed.

"I'd like to see Nilbog," I said.

Her friend emerged from a garage, lifting the door to lumber forth. He was big, fat, and moved on four limbs that each had opposable digits. His massive belly swung right and left as he loped, so distended and so close to the ground as it swung that I worried it would hit something and split open. His genitals were almost bigger than I was, and they were, along with his sensory organs, the only way I could really tell his front from his back.

The sensory organs consisted of slits running top to bottom from a ridge at one end of his body. There was no room for a brain, no eyes present.

This organ granted him enough awareness to approach, probably by way of scent, but it didn't give him the fine tuning he needed to find us, specifically. The round-headed creature approached him, took hold of a fistful of chest hair and led him my way.

I backed up a little as they approached, and received a hissed rebuke from lizard-boy.

I remained still. The safest course.

Desperate situations called for risks. This was my gamble.

"I have a gift for him," I said.

The alterations to the surroundings only grew more focused and extreme as I found my way to the center of Ellisburg. Building faces were covered in wild plant growth, and there wasn't a single building without more extreme modifications made to it. Glances indoors showed little more than barren exteriors with the floorboards pried up, or clusters of Nilbog's creatures lurking in the unlit gloom within.

So Jack was situating himself as someone subservient, even servile, so as not to challenge Nilbog's alpha status. He was playing nice, even.

If I tried the same, I'd only be working to catch up, to earn Nilbog's trust.

The creatures stepped out of the way as I made my way closer. Nilbog sat at the center of a long table, and two more tables extended from the ends to form a loose 'c' shape. Checked tablecloths in eye-gouging color contrasts covered each table. Jack sat at the end furthest me, and a man with white and black stripes sat beside him.

Bonesaw was only a short distance away, sitting on the shoulders of what looked like a flayed bear. The thing had claws two or three times the usual size, it's mouth yawning open like it had been broken.

Nilbog was immensely fat, easily four hundred pounds, and sat on a throne that had apparently been cobbled together from dismantled furniture. His face was covered with a paper mask. Other creatures sat on chairs to his left and right.

"A man with white and black stripes sat beside him"? So, a MALE SIBERIAN? One of Manton clone can project a male Siberian? Good, I'm very ok with that. Much better than projecting a naked woman in the image of Manton's own adult daughter. I mean, wtf

? I always believed that Siberian was one of the most fucked up thing because she was basically how Manton imagined his adult NAKED daughter (my father is convinced that Manton had some incestuous thoughts about his daughter, the reason why he projected her as a naked adult woman. I won't be surprised because Manton was crazy enough to be incestuous on top of being a murderer and a cannibal). So, this male Siberian projection is probably the boy that Manton never had and he wanted to have or Manton himself. Also, a NAKED MALE SIBERIAN

. I wonder if there's a fanart of him. I would like to see it. You know, for scientific purposes

.
Ok, I'm a simple woman, when I see a male Siberian, I expect Weaver to ruin his dick. I know that he's invincible everywhere, I'm just listening to my sinful instincts.
Male Siberian aside, looks like Jack already arrived and he was welcomed by the King Nilbog. Told you that these monsters deserve each other

. Knowing how manipulative and convincing Jack can be, I don't think that will be hard for him to convince Nilbog that if they become allies, the whole world will become a beautiful place. This is what I'm expecting Jack to promise to someone so troubled like Nilbog. The problem is that Nilbog will refuse to leave without his creatures because he truly love them. Jack have to take him and his "babies" and I think that he'll be very ok with the additional monsters (they listen to their King and their King will listen to Jack so only WIN for Jack). Come on, Bonesaw, stop your demented "father figure", backstab him just like he backstabbed his former boss. That would be a poetic justice

. I'm still hoping that Bonesaw have something prepared for Jack, something that will be highly unpleasant for him, but very pleasant and satisfactorily for me. Please.
I wonder what Weaver will say to Nilbog to convince him to not join Jack. If she'll become violent and attack Jack, that will mean for her instant death. First, there's a male Siberian and Manton is nowhere to be seen, second, Bonesaw is still by Jack' side, third, Jack is Nilbog's guest and I'm sure that Nilbog will not be very happy if a stranger will attack his guests. Weaver should play her cards very careful because if she makes a mistake, not even Gollem will save her. This is the time when diplomacy will probably win over brainless violence. Too bad that Weaver is better at fighting than at diplomacy.

The arrangement of the tables created an open space that could host their entertainment. I looked, then wished I hadn't. A bloated, coarse-looking creature lay on the ground, almost like a potato made of hair and flesh. Smaller things were busy carving gouges and holes into it.

The resulting wounds regenerated, but not before the smaller creatures inserted body parts into the openings, allowing the regenerated flesh to close tight but not close completely.

I averted my eyes from the scene, content with not letting my brain register which parts were being inserted and what they were doing after the fact.

"Another guest!" Nilbog cried out. He spoke like he had a bad accent, but it wasn't. He'd affected strange and overdramatic tones for so long that his voice had warped, and he'd had no ordinary people to hear or talk to and measure his voice against. "A friend of yours, sir Jack?"

I approached the row of chairs opposite Jack and the Siberian, and one of the critters hopped down, scurrying under to join the festivities in the center of the tables. I took the vacated chair and sat. I might have removed my mask, but I was all too aware of the silverware in front of Jack.

"A queen?"

"A queen. With that in mind, provided you give your permission, I'd like to offer you a gift. A… peace offering, to make up for the fact that I entered your territory uninvited."

"Of course, of course!" He was almost childlike, so easily moved by this promise of a gift, his mood changing so quickly. Guileless. He'd been surrounded by yes-men for more than a decade, with barely any human contact, his defenses were gone. "I forgave Jack the lack of an invitation, I'll extend you the same courtesy. This gift?"

"I'd feed your subjects," I said. "Protein. You need it to make more. To keep the ones you currently have in good health."

Literally nobody:

Not a single soul:

Weaver: I'm a queen. Now kneel, you motherfuckers.

Leaving my stupid jokes aside, that was a pretty good idea you had, Weaver. Pretend that you're a queen and you want to help a King like Nilbog feed his subjects with adequate food? This idea would have never crossed my mind, I admit it. I didn't expect Weaver to come up with such a good plan

. Now let's see how good Jack will be at convincing Nilbog that Weaver is bullshiting about her royal origins and she is the one who is the enemy, not him. Nilbog seems to be an idiot man-child who believe everything you're telling him. He lost his contact with reality probably from the moment when he triggered and got his powers. He started to live in his own reality, where he could kill entire cities to make room for his horrifying friends. The actual reality doesn't exist for him anymore. It was deleted from his mind. If an Endbringer will visit him, he will probably believe that is a weird looking dragon who either want to attack his Garden or look after a place to sleep

. No therapy in the world can save Jamie's extremely broken mind, but a bullet in his head will be efficient. Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, I kind of feel pity for you (you're too innocent in your craziness compared with the obviously evil and full in control of his actions Jack but still you killed a lot of innocents, you're a danger for everyone so...a mercy killing will only put you out of your misery and save lives). I'm a full believer in mercy killing when one can't save people from a fate worse than death or from themselves. I noticed some similarities between Nilbog and his monsters. That monster girl and the lizard boy were obviously children and they're both innocent and creepy as fuck. Just like their father: childish and creepy as fuck. They (and other monsters) are reflections of Jamie's disturbing mind and crippled personality+ perception of world/life. He creates his servants/children in his own twisted image

.
Jamie is similar (until a point) with Alessa (the main character from Silent Hill). They both are twisted monsters with incredible supernatural powers, they took over a city and they tormented the people with the nightmare monsters created by them. Jamie's monsters reflect his personality and mind, Alessa's monsters reflect her own and other people's worst nightmares. But the city destroyed by Jamie was not responsible for his broken mind/personality, the people didn't do anything to him and what he did to them was pure unjustified cruelty. But Alessa was tormented by Silent Hill's fucking crazy cultist citizens to the point that she was almost killed by them and had to live trapped in an endless suffering (I always saw Alessa as the most tragic video game villain. Her whole story make me tear up only when I'm thinking about it

). She was justified in her actions to torment other monsters, unlike Jamie. But, justification aside, there are some pretty visible parallels between them (Jamie also became homeless and very alone, the loneliness being an important factor of triggering and mental breakdown. In Alessa's case, the whole city was against her so she was obviously alone). Hmm, I wasn't exactly wrong when I called Ellisburg as Nilbog Hill

.

Earthworms, ants and pillbugs dug through the soil beneath the park, searching. Some of Nilbog's creatures were beneath the earth, ready to spring up and attack. Others were beneath, eating whatever they could find. In the midst of my search, I found something. Not Siberian's creator, but nearly as good.

Nilbog himself.

"And you left it, apparently. If you're truly a queen, you're a foolish one."

"I did leave it," I said, "Because I had to, to save it. I had to protect my subjects, to fight my people's enemies. I have not been as fortunate as you."

You're starved for real human contact, I thought. Or you wouldn't have let us join you at the table.

Jack spoke, "It's a question of whether you act now and preserve what you have for the future, or wait and let them come and kill you. They've been systematically seeking people like you, eliminating them. I could show you proof, given a chance."

"I was more powerful than you," I told him.

He snapped his head around to stare at me. To glare at me.

"No. He wants you to go to war against your neighbors. To break down the walls that keep you safe and fight people who are leaving you alone. He'll use you as a distraction, and then when everything is done, he'll come back and destroy your kingdom. And he'll do it in the cruelest, saddest ways you can imagine."

Yes, Queen Weaver, you tell him, yes. Nilbog, I fucking hate you (even if I also feel sorry for you), but you have to believe her. This Queen doesn't lie you. Jack is planning to destroy EVERYTHING, he doesn't give a crap about your horror tales kingdom, for him you're good only as a servant/partner until he'll reach his objective. No matter what he's telling you, don't trust one single word coming out from his stinking mouth

. He's evil and a liar, he's the human personification of Satan. If you're smart, Nilbog, ask one of your children to cut off Jack's tongue or sew his lips together- if he can't talk, he can't manipulate people (yes, Jack have Bonesaw and safeguards and Male Siberian but if Queen Weaver will find Manton clone with her bugs and manage to kill him, Jack will be left without his most powerful defense. Just he and Bonesaw against hundreds of Nilbog's creations, each with different power and each very loyal to their King. He won't stand a chance. He still have his primary power that allow him to stab and slash anyone with his knife, no matter where they're staying. But he can't fight against all these monsters,right? Besides, maybe Nilbog made them immune to conventional weapons

). Come on, oh, Queen of Insects, find Manton Clone and kill him. You have nothing to lose, there are no hostages or civilians around that you should be worried for, only monsters whose lives are important only for Nilbog. Well, there's still your own life in danger but....
I think I underestimated Nilbog's intelligence. He's not such a big idiot. Yes, he have a child mind, but he have a brilliant child mind. Look, he had the idea to hide himself underground and control from there a clone of himself (its impressive that he can create monsters very similar with human beings when he wants. His power is so versatile and virtually limited only by his imagination and raw materials). He was smart enough to not expose himself to strangers but I have a feeling that Bonesaw will tell the difference between his real body and the fake one because of her bio Tinker bullshit instant knowledge. This is the second time when I underestimated the intelligence of an evil villain. First time, I did it with Lung. I was wrong. Now, I just repeated the same mistake. Not good, not good at all

.

Nilbog raised his hands. "Angel on one shoulder that tells me one story…"

A placenta-like blob swelled in his hand.

"A devil on the other, telling me another."

Another blob appeared in the other hand.

Both burst, showering Nilbog in greasy slime. Two creatures gripped his forearms, looking more like flying monkeys than an angel and devil. They were roughly the size of babies, their faces feral, mouths filled with pirahna-like teeth. One had red hair, a red beard and gazelle-like horns, and the other had white hair and beard and a strange horn that formed an off-white halo above its head.

It did taste like cupcakes. I suspected it would have been less nauseating if it tasted like real vomit.

"I want to wipe the slate clean. Things have been going through the same motions for so long that there's a rut in the ground. You erased everything that wasn't worth keeping here, and replaced it with something better. With your garden."

"With that in mind, I'm reaching out to a like-minded soul. Someone who rejects the malignant, stagnant society and wants to grow something else in its place."

"Jack has no interest in growth," I said. "Only destruction."

Hiding in plain sight.

Plastic surgery, or even an outer suit, like the one Nilbog wore. He had to be dressed up in the skin of one of the monsters.

Smart, Bonesaw, fucking smart. As usual. Just like Nilbog was smart enough to use a clone as his "real" body, Bonesaw transformed Manton Clone in one of Nilbog's monsters, tricking him right at his home. I bet he'll be extremely angry if Queen Weaver will prove that Jack lied him. Its easy for her to prove. She can just tell him about the trick and he'll recognize the creatures created by him and see the fake one. But she must be prepared to attack Manton Clone right in the next moment, otherwise his Male Siberian will protect him. Man, I'm eating popcorn while I'm reading this Chapter. The best Chapter of this Arc so far

. Zero action but more tense than the whole action in the world. Our protagonist is trying to convince a monster to not let himself being manipulated by another monster to help him bringing the Apocalypse, while she takes dinner in their company, surrounded from all sides by Jack's monsters and Nilbog's monsters. Seems silly at the first glance, but its a very serious situation because the fate of the world depends of how succesfull Weaver will be to defeat Jack without resorting to immediate violence. A surprisingly very, very good scene. Probably on of the best in the whole Worm. I fucking LOVE it ❤.

"They do," Jack agreed. "Well, we could give you that youth. Bonesaw could grant you immortality."

"She could also enslave you to her will," I commented.

"I'd never," Bonesaw said. She shook her head, her curls flying, "No, I couldn't! I love these beautiful things he makes! To control him would mean I'd take that creativity away."

Golem.

He approached, taking off his helmet. He offered Nilbog a slight bow.

Golem...coming to the rescue

. Yes. YES, this is better and better. Now Weaver is not alone, she can coordinate her actions with Golem to stop Jack after she or Nilbog will take Manton Clone down. Golem, do what Queen Weaver did. Tell Nilbog that you're a king coming from a...Stone Kingdom. Yes, the King of the Stone Kingdom sounds so good for Golem. A Kingdom where everything is animated stone, including trees and animals, and King Golem have control over them in the same manner Nilbog have over his creations. Tell him, Golem, tell him everything you want, he's intelligent, but he's gullible. He'll believe everything you'll tell him

.
Yes, I trust Bonesaw when she said that she'll not control Nilbog. She loves creativity (lets say the dark side of creativity), not only her own but also the creativity of other people and if she'll enslave him, she'll instantly take away his creativity and she'll hate it. She and Jack are not planning to make Nilbog their slave, they want him to become their partner. Because he's very strong and if he'll do his stuff without being forced, he'll prove to be a very creative ally. What makes him so strong isn't the ability to create monsters but his creativity. One can create as many monsters as they want, but they will never have Nilbog's monsters sapience and superpowers/weapons. A non-creative Nilbog won't be such a useful asset.

"Or is the angel making false promises?" I asked. "There's no security. No comfort. You claim to care about your creations, but you'd go to war?"

"Were you happy, before any of us came here?"

"Yes. I can eat the most delicious foods, yet get every nutrient I need. I canfuck the most beautiful and exotic women you'd ever imagine, whenever I wish. Every need is provided for a hundred times over, and I'm surrounded by those who love me."

"Polka," Nilbog said. He reached out, and a female creature, no taller than three feet, hopped up onto the lap of the creature beside her king. She had a narrow face with a reptilian structure, with only four fangs at the very front, but smooth, humanlike skin. Her hair was white, her skin blue. She wore a toddler's clothes, a long, narrow tail lashing behind her. Nilbog stroked her hair.

"Bonesaw can fix that. I can grant you immortality. I can grant your creation that same gift," Jack said.

"I see it," Nilbog said. "I see it. Bossy, Patch, hold him!"

The Siberian was moving. Readying to pounce?

An instant before the Siberian made contact with the monster, Golem jammed his hand into his side, using his power, throwing the creator into the air with one thrusting hand. Siberian lunged, punching through the hand of soil to grab the creator's foot.

"You dare disturb the peace!?" Nilbog screamed the question. "Kill the queen! Kill the Golem-man!"
In that instant, Golem created two hands, throwing us back.

"Azazels, now!" I screamed, one finger pressed to my earbud. I pulled on the flight pack and then took off again.

"Where are the Azazels!" I shouted. The flying creatures were turning my way.

But Defiant had said they were unreliable. Dragon was out of commission.

And before I could say more, Jack's knife slash caught me across the chest, the cut severing the straps of my flight pack. I dropped from the sky, landing on one of those ramshackle, spiraling rooftops. Planks that had been poorly nailed in collapsed around me as I hit solid ground.

Your king is dying, I thought, my mouth moving and failing to form the sounds. There was only the barest whisper. I killed him, but if you could believe that Jack did it…

"Blame Jack," I said, through the swarm.

"Jack Slash has used us as a distraction to kill your king!"

Golem hollered the words at the top of his lungs. I felt a tension leave me. I might be fucked, but we'd limited the damage. They'd turn it inward.

The Siberian took hold of the umbilical cord and heaved, Jack maintaining contact with a hand on the Siberian's shoulder. Nilbog, still slowly dying of oxygen loss, was brought to the surface with a surprising ease.
Bonesaw wrapped her arms around the man. Frailer than his self on the surface,smaller.

I felt a moment's despair.

Foil? Someone who could stop Siberian?

Well....FUCK. Jack won

. The whole tension is now gone. The fucker won because....because another fucker decided that stopping Dragon is the best idea ever, he'll surely save the world with this idea 👎. Yep, FUCK YOU, SAINT, FUCK YOU, SAINT, FUCK YOU, SAINT. You're responsible for this mess. The whole mess. Dragon would have probably stopped Jack with Azazels. Saint said that he'll take over the Azazels and use them to help against Jack. He sucks big time because I'm sure that he have no idea how to pilot them or he isn't fast enough, otherwise he'd have helped Weaver and Golem. No, I'm not pissed because Jack won- AGAIN- even if I didn't expected Weaver and Golem to fail like this (I also think that kidnapping Nilbog is not a very good method to convince him to help, unless Bonesaw will brainwash him, which she'll probably do even if she promised that she'll not hurt his creativity. I'm starting to lose my hope in Bonesaw, this girl seems to not want to change even after she realized how much Jack hurt her; his control over her is still very strong

). I'm pissed because they had a chance to destroy Jack but Saint stole this chance from them because he wanted to show the world what a big hero he's. If stupidity was a fatal disease, Saint would have died in a matter of minutes

. Ok, now, guys, have fun fighting Nilbog's enraged creatures. They will not let you leave this city without avenging their King.
The question of the day: WHAT THE FUCK CAULDRON IS DOING

? They proved to be completely useless during all this war against Jack.
Meanwhile, in Cauldron Headquarters:
Doctor Mother: You beat me again. I should stop playing poker with you. I have zero chances to win when you're the other player.
Contessa: I'm sorry, Doctor. I just don't like to lose so I'm cheating everytime with my power.
Doctor Mother: Shouldn't we do something more productive?
Number Man, appearing out of nowhere: Ladies, do you need some entertainment? Allow me to entertain you by slowly taking my shirt off.
Doctor Mother, visibly appealed, starting to leave: I think I'm going to absolute ruin more unwilling people lives because I need more Case53s for my superarmy against future threads.
Number Man proceeds to take his shirt off: Just look at me, Doctor.
Doctor Mother: Fucking sprinting.
Contessa: I think...I will help people in their fight against the actual thread.
Number Man: Contesaaaaaaaaa.
Contessa: Path to Stay Away from Perverts.
Contessa is already on the battlefield, killing evil clones left and right.
And Number Man saved the day because he likes too much to get undressed. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay (I kind of wish for this scenario to happen. Only WIN in my books

).
Now I feel much better

.
Any fanart with Male Siberian? My scientific curiosity is killing me.

Good night and sleep well, my friends.

blackarrow · Jan 16, 2020

Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the KING OF STONE KINGDOM in all his ~~prettiness~~ greatness.
Oh, Theo, why do you have to be such a ~~pretty~~ badass boy?

CREDIT TO: Superwhitey (u/lavillastrangiatos) - Reddit

Moord Nag or she should be called the Goddess of Death, because she and her monster bring death everywhere where they're traveling. I never expected her Shadow Skull Pet to be so huge. I was under the impression that it was smaller. My friend told me that its name is Aasdier. Ok.

CREDIT TO: Drawings-of-a-madman - Hobbyist, Digital Artist | DeviantArt

What a beautiful perspective for the most powerful and scary Endbringer. I can almost hear her voice in my head ~~oh shit~~:
-I'm just admiring my property. Earth Bet looks so cool from here.

CREDIT TO: The Simurgh in orbit by LastCheer on DeviantArt

Bohu -The Mistress of Space

CREDIT TO: Worm -- Bohu by DerTodesbote on DeviantArt

I was right when I said that Colin and Dragon will be the best adoptive parents for Taylor

.

CREDIT TO:

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

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