This was a very interesting chapter. I hadn’t expected anything even remotely like this.

We learned a lot about the mysterious eldritch beings that appear to be the source of powers, which I’ve chosen to call tesseractids for now. They’re multidimensional, they can appear across multiple realities at once, and it seems they don’t always “die” like Karahindiba supposedly did when they bestow the powers. They are “like viruses, babies and gods at the same time”, suggesting they might reproduce via parahumans and don’t really know what they’re doing, but they’re also capable of planning and communication and may be aware of upcoming trigger events.

And apparently all existing parahumans can see them when a trigger event happens nearby, but not mundanes. The experience takes a psychic toll and often causes motion sickness, but those exposed to it quickly forget what happened unless their power helps them remember.

Very, very interesting revelations there. You may color me highly intrigued.

It’s also going to be interesting to see whether Lisa remembers anything.

At the end we also found out that Faultline’s Crew has arrived. Long time no see! I don’t think we’ve seen them since Interlude 5, actually, so I guess this is a very appropriate point for them to come back.

Taylor doesn’t know it, but they’re obviously after the vials of super juice. They’re gonna have to act fast to get ahold of the first one, though, before Doug drinks it.

And once they do act, using the element of surprise by the looks of it, things are not gonna be good. Especially considering they clearly don’t want any Merchants to escape the building and they’re currently counting Taylor and co. as Merchants.

Incidentally, Charlotte might think Taylor and Lisa are doing it at first.

So yeah! With this setup, next chapter looks like it’ll be interesting, but I highly doubt it’ll be as interesting as this one was, because damn.

See you next time!