Source material: Worm, Agitation 3.11
Originally blogged: June 9, 2017
Last time on Worm: fight fight fight fight WHACK
This time: Danger! Action! Porcupines!
WORM.
It’s time for more Worm! Last time, Kid Win proved to pose quite a challenge, but more importantly, one of the hostages has knocked out Taylor! Now where are we going from here?
I think the chapter is going to open with Taylor waking up in a considerably more… bound state than before, but there are any number of ways this could develop. Is the rogue hostage just interested in saving the other hostages and herself, or does she happen to have something against Taylor in particular? Is she a parahuman in civilian guise? How will the situation play out if Tattletale comes back, or another Undersider? Did Tattle know something like this would happen if she left?
The short answer is I don’t know, so let’s find out!
I crashed into the office chair behind me and both the chair and I toppled to the ground. The armor of my mask had taken the worst of the hit, but it still hurt as much as anything I’d ever experienced.
I guess it didn’t quite knock her out.
The girl glowered at me from behind her mop of frizzy brown hair. In her hands she was gripping a fire extinguisher.
Ow. Those are pretty strong clobbering tools if you can lift them practically enough.
Behind her, past the lights that were flickering across my field of vision, I could see the hostages streaming upstairs. It was disorienting, because the bugs I’d left on them were telling me they were still in the corner of the lobby, staying still.
Wait, what? That’s odd. Does glower girl have the ability to mess with people’s senses, including the bug sense?
Either way, I think we’ve found the culprit behind the headaches.
I could feel one spider shift slightly as the person it was riding exhaled, then shuddered a little, even as I saw that same person stumbling and nearly falling on the stairs in their haste to get away.
On the other hand, it could be something similar to Oni Lee’s power, except applied to others instead of herself. Creating lifelike clones in the place of the original person and moving the original.
Obviously another option would be that the escaping hostages are an illusion, but then the intention becomes more questionable. Hm… Maybe she’s trying to make Taylor send the spiders after the illusive hostages, freeing the real ones?
I reached for the bugs, tried to tell one to move, and everything went wrong.
Oh boy.
There were no words the words to describe it, exactly. It was like feedback. If my brain had been a computer, I got the feeling I’d only be getting hundreds or thousands of error messages popping up across the screen. It was painful, too, just compounding until it felt like my brain was being used as a punching bag.
Exception in thread main: java.lang.NullPointerException at taylor.Brain.main(BugPower.java:31)
…programmer speak for “there isn’t anything there to control, what are you talking about, time to crash”.
That might not be what’s going on here, though. Maybe Glower Girl can also mess with bugs’ minds or something, making them act like the hostages are there and blocking Taylor’s control?
I pressed my hand to my head, wincing at the pain, and it wasn’t just from being bludgeoned with a fire extinguisher. The headache was at near-migraine levels now, and I desperately wanted to tear off my mask and try to throw up, if only to relieve of the nausea that was welling up. I was getting an idea of why I’d been feeling so off.
I don’t blame Taylor for being relatively late to that realization. She does have a splitting headache and other things to think about, after all. Also this is happening way faster than I’m reading it.
“What the fuck did you do?” I asked the girl.
“You don’t need to know that.” She swung the fire extinguisher over her head at me, and I scrambled out of the way, grabbing the edge of a table to haul myself to my feet as I did it.
I mean, that’s just good tactics on Glower Girl’s part. She has a clear advantage from Taylor not knowing what her power is.
She didn’t chase me. Instead, she reached into her jacket pocket and retrieved a cell phone. She started to punch a number into the keypad with one hand, the other holding the fire extinguisher. Her eyes were trained on me.
She doesn’t seem concerned about Taylor attacking her, which suggests some degree of confidence that Taylor won’t be able to harm her significantly.
So who is she calling? Maybe someone from New Wave?
There was no way I was going to let her make that phone call, whoever she was dialing. I went on the offense, lunging towards her as I reached into the armored compartment at my back and retrieved the extendable baton. I pulled the trigger and flicked it out to one side.
Plot twist, we’re in the RWBYverse and the baton doubles as a machine gun.
Eighteen inches of black painted alloy with a weighted tip snapped out from the foam-grip handle.
Long, hard, easily held in one hand, something softer at the bottom, with a weighted tip… Good job, Taylor, you’re using possibly the only weapon with more phallic connotations than a sword (though guns are also a strong contender).
Her eyes widened as I swung the baton,
“oh shit that’s a dick”
but she had the presence of mind to drop the phone and heft the fire extinguisher up to block the attack. Her grip on the fire extinguisher wasn’t good enough for her to keep hold of it, so it clattered to the ground. She backed away rather than risk trying to pick it up again.
You should probably assume that the enemy is still capable of attacking you. Even if you’re wrong, it’s safer that way.
…y’know, come to think of it, the baton would be even more phallic if it did double as a machine gun.
The girl retreated as I advanced towards her. I stopped when I was standing over her cell phone. I collapsed and sheathed my baton, then bent down and retrieved the fire extinguisher. I smashed the phone with the butt end of it.
“Shit. I liked that phone,” she muttered.
Hehe.
You made a mistake, though, Taylor: You should’ve taken a second to check if there was a contact name showing up on the screen. I’m guessing there wasn’t, given that Glower Girl was dialing rather than going into contacts, but there could’ve been one showing up as a suggestion. Even if the suggestion wasn’t whom she was trying to dial, it could’ve given you valuable insight into whom this girl works with.
“Shut up,” I retorted, the pain making my voice strained, harder edged, “What the fuck did you do to me?” I pressed the heel of my free hand against my forehead, as if the pressure could help stave off the pain.
“I… don’t think I’ll tell you.”
I’m guessing withholding the information might help the effectiveness of the ploy, even if it’s just by buying time. At this moment, this girl is in less and less of a position to refuse to tell Taylor, but she’s still unwilling to.
“Who the fuck are you, and who were you trying to call?”
“Actually, it was a text, not a call, and it went through,” she said. Then she smiled at me.
Oh shit!
(Told you she should’ve looked…)
At the same moment I uttered the word ‘Who’, one of the windows at the side of the bank shattered.
Kinda figured this would happen – that smile was perfectly timed for a dramatic entrance.
A blur of white and gold slammed into the center of the lobby hard enough to send fragments of marble tile skittering over the floor to my feet, halfway across the room.
Hi there! That’s a nice color scheme, black and blue tend to go well together. 🙂
Now who are you?
The figure straightened, dusted herself off and turned to glare at me.
!!
Is it Glory Girl? I think it’s Glory Girl! If it’s Glory Girl then hell yes it’s Glory Girl
Almost casually, she backhanded the marble and oak table to her left that held all of the withdrawal and deposit slips. With that lazy swing of her arm, she annihilated the table, doing so much damage to it that nobody would ever be putting it together again.
Damn! This bank (and/or New Wave) better have good insurance.
It’s humiliating to admit, but I nearly wet myself. I’m not sure my reaction would have been much different if she didn’t have a power that made her flat out terrifying. Literally, that’s what her power did.
HELL. YES. IT’S. GLORY GIRL!
It sure didn’t take Glory Girl long to arrive. Was she Karlsson, I wonder?
Had I done something heinous in a past life, to deserve going up against Lung on my first time out in costume, and Glory Girl on my second?
Your luck on these missions could certainly use a bit of a boost.
“Hey sis,” Glory Girl tilted her head to one side, to look at the brown haired girl, “You okay?”
The girl, who could be none other than Amy Dallon, Panacea when she was in costume, offered Glory Girl a beaming smile, “I am now.”
😀
If you couldn’t tell, I’m quite pleased with this development.
Of course Panacea could inflict the headaches. Still not sure exactly how she made Taylor’s bug power malfunction so badly, but we’ve established that most of the powers in Worm are quite biological in nature, so I guess it makes sense that the power and the brain’s way of interacting with it would be considered within Panacea’s domain.
Which obviously makes her incredibly powerful against parahumans.
Glory Girl’s sister had been among the hostages. Damn it. At least I knew who she was now. She could heal with a touch, and if what she’d done to my powers was any indication, that wasn’t the full extent of her abilities.
Yeah, it seems to go both ways.
Glory Girl and Panacea were celebrities, even if Panacea had generally avoided the spotlight as of late. They were among the most famous of the local heroes, arguably among the most powerful of the kid capes, they were pissed at me, and I was stuck in a room with them.
And my powers weren’t working.
Your luck on these missions could certainly use a bit of a boost.
Glory Girl stepped towards me, and I scrambled for Panacea. She scrabbled for a grip at my costume, trying to grab at my glove, then at my mask, but the moment I drew my knife, both she and Glory Girl went absolutely still.
Hm. Are they simply recognizing the deadliness of the weapon?
I grabbed Panacea’s chin and maneuvered so I was standing behind her, my knife pressed to her throat.
This… is actually a pretty difficult threat to combat with what we know of these two’s powersets. Of course Taylor wouldn’t intentionally go through with it (unless some ridiculous rationalization came into play), but they don’t know that.
Panacea’s power is relatively slow-working. She could maybe inflict some kind of injury to Taylor’s hand or her ability to keep the grip on her knife, but it would take a while, and there’s no telling where the knife would fall.
Glory Girl could maybe make Taylor even more afraid of her, but you don’t want to give someone with a knife against your sister’s throat shaky hands. Plus, Glory Girl doesn’t know how fear would affect Taylor yet – for all she knows it could make Taylor more “trigger” happy with the knife.
Glory Girl also seems to have the “standard Alexandria package”, which is probably her best bet, but as far as she knows, Taylor might slit her sister’s throat (intentionally or otherwise) if she so much as makes a move for it.
Ironically, in this situation caused by taking Panacea as a hostage, taking Panacea as a hostage again actually seems like a solid tactic!
“Count yourself lucky, bug bitch, that your costume covers your entire body,” Panacea murmured to me, “Or I’d maybe give you a heart attack. Or cancer.”
Huh, it’s interesting that that would affect her power.
I swallowed hard. I wasn’t counting myself as particularly lucky at this point.
Hehe.
“It seems we have a stalemate,” Glory Girl said.
“True,” I replied.
“So are we just going to stand around here until reinforcements arrive for one side or the other, tip the scales in someone’s favor?”
Who would arrive first, anyway? Tattle said she’d be right back, but the Wards are putting up a pretty good fight and there’s a good chance they’d come crashing in first. Also, what would Tattle even do against Glory Girl and Panacea?
Grue and Regent are busy fighting outside, not knowing there are problems inside, and Bitch is down.
Hmm.
And then there’s Browbeat, whom we still haven’t actually seen since the lineup.
But yeah, I don’t think the stalemate’s going to end this way.
“I could live with that. Last I saw, my side was winning.”
True that. Things may easily have changed already, though.
“I helped Aegis out of a jam on my way in, so he’s keeping your little friends busy.
And Clockblocker ought to be up by now, though again, I don’t know if he’ll be in any mental condition to fight.
You should also know that the Protectorate is on their way from a wine and dine with Brockton Bay’s finest at the Augustus Country Club. Can’t speak for them, but I know I’d be royally pissed if some little snots dragged me away from a chance to have the club’s chocolate mousse.”
The stakes keep getting higher! Good writing, that.
Panacea made a little laugh, “It is good, isn’t it?” then in a lower voice, she whispered to me, “What if I fucked up your taste buds, you little terrorist? You threaten the lives of innocents, I can go that far. I can do anything with your biology. Make everything you eat taste like bile. Or maybe I’ll just make you fat. Morbidly, disgustingly fat.”
Panacea can apparently be pretty cruel against those she thinks deserves it. And it’s not like fucking up Taylor’s taste buds or making her fat would get her in trouble with her superiors like Glory Girl’s antics in Interlude 2 (the real one) would. Probably.
“You can shut up now,” I tightened my grip and pressed the knife a fraction harder against her throat. Between the stress of the moment, the pounding headache and the fact that fucking Glory Girl was standing not fifty feet away, I didn’t need little sister distracting me with nightmarish imagery.
Okay, scary thoughts of unfortunate permanent consequences, sure, but “nightmarish”? Taylor, I know you have some problems with your own self-image, but I don’t think being “morbidly, disgustingly fat” should qualify as “nightmarish imagery”.
Glory Girl spoke up, “It’s not just the Protectorate, either. You just took a member of New Wave hostage, threatened her life. There’s a pretty damn good chance my mom, dad, aunt, uncle and cousins will be showing up, too.
More evidence for New Wave being a family-run team… The specific relations suggest that it’s not just a case of “on this team we’re all one happy family” but more literally, many of them are in the same family. Amy being adopted seemed to be noteworthy, and I’m guessing that’s not usually the case.
If New Wave (or at least a sizable portion of it) are indeed a biological family, that has some interesting implications for the nature of parahuman powers: It suggests a sort of heredity to either the powers or the potential of getting them. I’m leaning towards the latter, because while I don’t remember what Brandish’s (Glory Girl’s mom’s) power was (if it was indeed stated), I don’t think it was the same as Glory Girl’s.
Brandish, Flashbang, Lady Photon, Manpower, Laserdream, Shielder… how are you going to manage, then?”
Brandish, as I just stated, I don’t recall the power of. I don’t really see what the name could refer to either.
Flashbang and Lady Photon both seem tied to light. Laserdream too, but in a somewhat different way. If I were to guess just from the names, Flashbang and Lady Photon are either siblings or husband and wife. I have a feeling she’s listing them in the same order as the relations, though, which would make Flashbang Glory Girl’s dad and Lady Photon her presumably paternal aunt.
Manpower would then be the uncle. Maybe a bruiser type, like Browbeat?
Laserdream and Shielder are most likely children of Lady Photon and Manpower. That would imply light-based powers for at least two siblings and one child of one of them, so maybe there is a sort of heredity to how the powers work too?
Glory Girl is pretty flashy…
Also, if most of New Wave has light-based powers, the name takes on a double meaning with lightwaves. Neat!
Fuck. I had no reply to that. I kept my mouth shut. I was barely able to focus, now, as my head throbbed. My vision was wavering around the edges, and my grip on my bugs was virtually gone. Most had freed themselves from my influence entirely, and were buzzing around the light fixtures or crawling for darkness. It was all I could do to stay standing and keep my hands steady.
Let’s be real, at this point you barely seem able to do that.
“Drop the knife and surrender, and I’ll make sure you get leniency.”
“I’ve read up on the law enough that I know you don’t have the power to make any deals,” I said, “No go.”
“Okay. Then I guess we wait.”
So, uh
If the heroes don’t have the power to make deals like that, why were you trying to get one from Armsmaster?
Then again, unlike Glory Girl, he’s the leader of a local team of a state-driven organization, so the rules might be different for him.
A few long moments passed.
Glory Girl turned her attention to her sister, “I wanted to go to the mall for lunch, but noooo,” Glory Girl said, “You needed to go to the bank.”
Oh fuck yes, banter between these two as they wait
Did I mention I like them? I really like them.
“It was either going to the bank or wind up broke for that double date you’re forcing me into.”
“Ames, the guy I’m setting you up with is a sixteen year old millionaire. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect him to foot the bill for dinner and a movie.”
“Could you two please shut up?” I growled.
No no, Taylor, this is great
I get that you have a headache, but please
“Do they have to? It’s all very informative,” Tattletale joked as she sidled into the room. She hoisted herself up to the edge of one of the teller’s stations, then greeted Glory Girl, “Hey Glory Hole.”
Ahaha! If there’s one character that could make this whole thing even better, it was Tattletale.
And she calls Victoria “Glory Hole”, I love it.
Glory Girl’s face twitched.
“Hey, Tattletale,” I called out, my voice a touch strained, “Not that I’m not glad to see you, but could you avoid antagonizing Alexandria Junior?”
“Eh. You seem to have things under control. Why not set the bugs on the prom queen?”
“Prom queen?” Glory Girl asked.
Pfft, I just love how nonchalant Tattle is being.
“Um,” I cut in, before either of them could say something that started a fight, “First of all, she’s invincible. Second, again, bad idea to irritate someone who can swing a schoolbus like a baseball bat. Third, my hostage here did something to fuck up my powers.”
You’d think Tattle’s power would tell her that, but I guess not.
“That last bit sucks,” Tattletale sympathized. Then she took a closer look at Panacea, “Shit. Amy Dallon? Grue is going to kill me, for missing that. You look different than you did when you were showing up in the news. Are you wearing your hair differently?”
Oh my cod Tattle, you’re being so unhelpful right now and I love it
Of course it does raise questions about your allegiances, but still.
“Tattletale,” I interjected, again, “Less small talk, more problem solving. Glory Girl said the Protectorate and maybe New Wave are en route.”
Tattletale glanced at Glory Girl, then frowned, “She’s not lying. Let’s start with problem three, since you’re not looking so hot. Your powers aren’t working?”
There we go.
“Can’t control my bugs, got a major headache.”
“Think I know why. Let me fix that for you,” Tattletale said. She hopped down from the teller’s station and started to walk towards me and Panacea.
…how?? Knocking Panacea unconscious?
“Don’t move,” Glory Girl warned.
“Or what?” Tattletale whirled to face the girl, smiling, “You’ll beat me up? You can’t do anything while my teammate has a knife to your sister’s throat. Sit. Stay. Good girl.”
She has a point there, and Taylor has one too. Y’know, on the knife.
Glory Girl glowered at Tattletale, but she didn’t move.
“I think it would be better if you stayed back,” I warned her, “You get in Panacea’s reach, she’ll touch you and give you a stroke or something.”
Maybe she was bluffing about being able to do that kind of thing quickly enough for it to matter?
“Can she? Sure. Will she? Definitely not. She’s all bark, no bite.”
Ah, right. Just like Taylor wouldn’t actually slit Panacea’s throat (intentionally) without heavy rationalization.
“Try me,” Panacea taunted. I reasserted my grip and reminded her of the knife against her throat.
“I’d really prefer to avoid tempting fate,” I said, carefully.
“Fine, fine,” Tattletale said, raising her hands in a placating gesture. She walked over to the branch manager’s desk and opened a drawer.
Maybe you’re getting tired of me saying it, but Tattle being so calm is beautiful.
“You pull a gun out of that drawer,” Glory Girl threatened, “And I’ll fucking break you.”
“Enough with the threats you can’t follow up on. It’s not a gun,” Tattletale grinned, raising her hands again. A keychain dangled from her left thumb.
I dunno, Tattle, that looks a lot like a tommy gun to me.
“Keys,” Glory Girl said.
“The keys of manager Jeffry Clayton. Type A personality, totally. Control freak. The kind of guy who loves to have absolute control over a meeting.”
“First of all, who cares? Second, how do you know this?”
We know the answer to the latter, but yeah… what does this have to do with anything?
“Come on,” Tattletale smiled, folding her arms, “Villain 101. You don’t give info to the hero in a gloating monologue.”
“Right,” Glory Girl agreed, “Always worth a try.”
Hehe.
“I’ll tell you anyways.”
Ooh, interesting. Why is Tattle suddenly willing to share?
Glory Girl raised an eyebrow.
“No reason not to. Actually in my advantage to let you know. I’m psychic. I read his mind when we had him hostage, like I’m reading yours right now,” the lie was so smooth I almost believed it.
Because she’s lying. I see.
Then again, Tattle does technically have that ability, sort of.
A flash of red caught my attention. The red dot from a laser pointer settled on the hood of Panacea’s jacket.
Two seconds later, a lion jumps through one of the intact windows.
I looked at Tattletale, and saw that while she had her arms folded, she was holding a laser pointer that was attached to the keychain. I watched Tattletale draw a lazy circle around the spot she’d pointed to, on Panacea’s jacket.
What is she doing? Hm.
“Bullshit,” Glory Girl said, “The brainpower you’d need to interpret and decode someone’s unique neural patterns would need a head five times the usual size to contain it all. True psychics can’t exist.”
This does make a lot of sense. They say the brain isn’t smart enough to understand itself, after all.
“Ooh, someone’s taking Parahumans 101 at the university. Your parents pull some strings, got you into a university course before you were done high school?”
“I think you already know the answer, I’m just not buying that you read my mind to get it.”
Glory Girl does seem to be catching on to Tattle’s power.
(For archival reference, in case it matters later: There was a 4.5-hour pause at this point in the chapter.)
“Why is it so hard to believe? Legend can shoot lasers from his hands, lasers that turn corners.
Heh, that’s actually pretty handy. So many offensive powers and weapons have the limitation that things can get in their way.
…no pun intended.
Clockblocker and Vista can mess with the fundamental forces of space and time. Kaiser can create metal from thin air.
Kaiser – isn’t that the leader of Empire Eighty-Eight?
Creating metal seems like a power you’d have to get pretty creative – dammit, no pun intended – with to use in battles, but of course it depends a lot on how much control you have over it.
Conservation of mass, conservation of energy, basic laws of our universe get broken by capes all the time. All of that is possible, but I can’t peek into your brain?”
Tattle does have a pretty solid point.
Tattletale was still focusing the laser pointer on Panacea’s hood. Since I was the only person in a position to see it, it could only be for my benefit.
Hm, what is it Tattle is trying to tell Taylor? To remove Panacea’s hood or something?
I pulled the hood back, investigated the interior and found nothing. But on the nape of her neck, I spotted one of my black widow spiders.
Ooh! But can you command it?
I pulled it off her gently, and felt the pain in my head worsen with the contact, the movement. Either by impulse or by reflex as I flinched at the pain, I crushed it between my fingers.
…never mind.
Immediately, the pain in my head dropped to a fraction of what it had been. The relief was so intense it was almost euphoric. I still didn’t fully grasp what Panacea done, but I was getting a good picture of it.
So, uh… was the black widow essentially functioning as a conduit for Panacea’s influence on Taylor?
She’d somehow sensed what I was doing to control the spider, then altered things so the spider wasn’t sending me the right information.
Interesting! And that’s the kind of thing that, with other senses, would cause dizziness and headaches. Not to mention how destructive misinformation can be to a plan in the first place.
Again the story displays a theme of “knowledge is power”.
A continuous loop of the wrong information, like when thieves in the movies spliced a video camera feed to repeat the same segment over and over. Either by accident or design, it had exponentially increased the interference every time my power reached for the arachnids in question. All building up to a metaphorical short circuit of my power.
Which is how it eventually got to the point where it interfered with the other hostages’ spiders, unless Panacea altered those too directly. The way those still sent information indicating shuddering and such fits nicely into the “spliced footage” analogy.
I could barely fathom the subtleties and delicacy that would have required to set up.
Yeah, gotta give her props for that one. Well played, Panacea.
“Glory Gi-” Panacea began to speak, but I tightened my grip, and she closed her mouth.
“Shhhh,” I hissed at her.
“Scholars say you’re wrong.”
Ah, and that’s why Tattle’s having this conversation with Glory Girl – the psychic ruse was a distaction!
Tattletale grinned, “Scholars want me to be wrong, and their research reflects that. Telepathy scares the everloving crap out of people, especially since the only suspected telepath out there is-”
Who? Who is it?
And yeah, telepathy and mind control are some of the scariest powers for people who value their own privacy and free will, which I think most people do.
“The Simurgh,” Glory Girl finished for her.
…
That’s a… gross-sounding name, not gonna lie. Though it could just refer to someone who got bored of playing The Sims.
Jokes aside, the use of the definite article is interesting. Not even Scion got that treatment, and his name is an actual improper noun. The Simurgh sounds like either a title for someone of especially high ranking (of some sort), or the name of a monstrous being. Possibly both. Hell, for all I know, The Simurgh could be the source of the parahuman powers, an enormous beast with godlike (or demonlike) power!
“Right. And when a fucking Endbringer is your precedent,
…At this point I have to wonder if the Endbringers are straight-up Lovecraftian monstrosities.
people get spooked, just like you’re spooked right now, at the idea that there’s someone standing in front of you who can find your deepest darkest secrets and tell the world.”
And the fact of the matter is, psychic or not, there is.
Tattletale was pointing to Panacea’s upper arm now. It took me two tries to murder the spider. Before I’d finished, Tattletale was directing me to the final one, which I’d stashed on Panacea’s ankle. I killed it by jabbing at it with my toe. The headache was completely gone a second later.
Killing spiders: a surprisingly good painkiller. Recommended by nine out of ten doctors, do not use if pregnant or drunk.
“Which is why you call yourself Tattletale, I see,” Glory Girl was saying,
It’s quite a fitting name.
“But you’re a retard.
Hi there, 2011.
We’re part of New Wave. We have no secrets. That’s the whole fucking point of our team.
Yeah right you don’t. Everyone has secrets, even from their closest kin. Such as the numerous times you’ve used excessive force and then had Panacea heal the victim so you wouldn’t get in trouble – does the rest of New Wave know about that? I think not.
Heroes with no secret identities, no secrets, full disclosure, total accountability.”
Which you’ve been evading.
“For the record,” Tattletale said, her voice very smooth and calm, “I fucking hate it when people call me stupid.”
Not being stupid, and I don’t mean just in the sense of lacking knowledge, is kind of her thing.
“Yet here the two of you are, and neither of you have powers that work against either of us. All you’ve got is a knife, and if you use it, you both die in the most painful way I think I can get away with.”
That’s a fair assessment, really. Although considering who the victim would be, that would kind of reduce what she could get away with…
Can Panacea heal corpses? I mean, not resurrecting them, just removing the damages? Back when we were discussing whether or not it would make sense for powers to be able to revive someone, someone pointed out the fact that the body is a self-sustaining system and you’d need to reactivate a lot of subsystems at once, but I’m thinking that maybe Panacea might be able to heal up the subsystems even after the overarching system is no longer self-sustaining…
I guess it would depend on the limits of the healing power – does it only work on organic systems? Or does it only work on living organic systems? And what defines “living” for the purposes of the power?
See, this is part of why I like the idea of a magic system that doesn’t follow human definitions and ideas.
“Oh honey, now who’s being stupid? I’ve got the most powerful weapon of all,“ Tattletale purred, smiling wickedly, “Information.”
Knowledge. Is. Power.
End of Agitation 3.10
I can’t say I expected the chapter to end on that note.
Remember the “last time”/”this time” gag at the beginning of the chapter, and how I was like “This time: Action! Danger! Porcupines!”?
Well, I sure was wrong about that, for the most part. I didn’t even see a single porcupine!
We did get some action at the beginning, but once the stalemate came into place, things calmed way down. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great time, though! Panacea, Glory Girl and Tattletale are all great characters, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the strangely calm standstill that covered most of the chapter.
This chapter acts as a great example of Tattletale in action against another parahuman without her being in a straight-up battle (yet? we might be getting into that next chapter), and repeatedly reinforces the ongoing theme of “knowledge is power”.
We also got some interesting insights about the nature of parahumans, both through the part about Glory Girl’s family and the argument about whether or not psychics could exist. Granted, some of those insights come in the form of more questions, but that’s still valuable.
All in all, a great chapter! We seem to be on a roll with those 😀
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[…] Respectively, I assume. Let’s see, how does this match up with my previous speculations about the family tree? Krixwell from 3.11 said [here]: […]
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