Dude, you promised that you’ll have a new chapter today. How many days are you going to postpone the new chapter? \

I don’t know when “today” was when you sent it, but… I didn’t promise anything. My #next posts are intended as information about when I intend to liveblog (or, back when I was in school, when I’d be able to), with no guarantees.

Either way, this is kind of rude. I completely get the desire for further reactions – I follow a lot of liveblogs myself – but please keep in mind that I’m doing this exclusively for your enjoyment and mine, spending a lot of effort per session. I actually do this relatively frequently these days.

I think I have the right to reschedule every so often, but if it really bothers people, I could always go back to not scheduling in the first place.

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The Merchants can be as unlikeable as Taylor wants, she can be as gruesome as some people who fought in that ring, but whatever happens or has happened, she still stood idly by, watching a dying man crawl as he bleeds to death. No one walks right out of an experience like this the same way they were before.

Yeah, that’s true.

I know I was pretty harsh on the guy, but for all my talk, I don’t think I’d be able to do the same thing Taylor did if I were in her shoes.

There’s a lot I wouldn’t be able to do in Taylor’s shoes.

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You seem to have been confused a couple of times by Labyrinth’s teammates being exempted from her power, despite having stated at the beginning of the chapter when you were describing her power that she can exempt people from it?

Basically what happened was that Faultline not being exempt confused me because I would’ve expected her to be, and since I was already somewhat unsure about the specifics of Labyrinth’s power, it caused me to question whether that was actually a thing in the first place (then again, that much was pretty clear in Hive). Fortunately, Gregor helped set things right.

Relatedly, one of the other asks I just got provides a good explanation for why Faultline wasn’t exempt (besides what I eventually settled on, that being able to slice through Labyrinth’s constructs was more useful to her in combat than them not being real to her):

Most of Faultlines Crew slid down from the ceiling on columns labyrinth made. Their descent would have been a lot faster if the poles hadn’t existed for thrm

This is a very good point. And as for why Labyrinth didn’t just remotely exempt the Crew from her power after that:

In 5.7, Labyrinth doesn’t make her power unable to affect Skitter until she touches her, so presumably Labyrinth needs to be touching someone to make them immune.

Which I was probably in response to me suggesting Labyrinth might’ve been toggling it on and off for Oni to make him repeatedly fall. I guess he was just tripping because of the movement of the columns up and down.

And, uh, tripping in a different way because Labyrinth.

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The redhead in Faultline’s Crew is Shamrock, mentioned in Gregor’s interlude.

Yep! As I mentioned, I had forgotten about her, but once her name was mentioned, it all came back to me. 🙂

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Oh my gosh! All the EGS references! I love El Goonish Shive and so, so wish it was more well known. Despite being into homestuck for a while, El Goonish Shive is far and away my favorite webcomic ever. I wish there was a liveblog of that somewhere…

Yeah, you wouldn’t guess it based on the beginning, but El Goonish Shive is really damn good. Here’s a good post about why, though there are of course spoilers.

(As you may have noticed, I’m currently rereading it for the explicit purpose of filling up my reactions folder. Excellent reaction images are all over the place.)

(#after egs i’ll probably do the same with paranatural and summerteen romance)

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Do you think anyone we know could’ve bought their powers from Cauldron?

Hm… it’s possible. It sounds like most Cauldron powers cause severe physical bodily changes, unless they managed to overcome that and that’s indeed what they mean by Deviations. Anyway, it’s the strongest clue I have to work with.

We only know a few people with that sort of thing going on, and the main ones that come to mind are confirmed to be either dropped off with amnesia in relation to Nemesis, or escapees like… hang on. Shamrock was a test subject, and she didn’t seem to be a “monster”. I guess, unless her bodily changes were things that wouldn’t be particularly visible, that’s evidence suggesting Cauldron is capable of non-monstrous powers. That may still have been what determined which 4/5 Subjects ended up released, too.

The contract made it sound like Deviations happen for psychological reasons, allowing them to test whether it’s likely to happen. So I guess due to their openness about this with their clients, Deviations would be less common in people who have bought the product than with test subjects.

Anyway, to get back to the speculation on who might’ve bought their powers: Maybe Siberian?

Ooh… or perhaps the Travelers. Maybe that’s what’s happening to Noelle, for that matter. Maybe a Deviation doesn’t necessarily happen immediately?

Then again, I already commented on Cauldron apparently being sort of upfront about Deviations, so if that were the case, wouldn’t Noelle and the Travelers know what the cause might be? Hm.

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Also, here comes a thought: What if the Endbringers are the result of Cauldron attempting to test on animals and it going horribly wrong?

It’s a bit out there as far as theories go, and I’m not sure how likely I think it is, but it’s crazy enough that it just might work.

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There’s a TV Tropes reference that I make whenever I see a kismesissitude blooming in my media view: “Aw, look, they really do loathe each other.” (I had that thought at the climax of “The LEGO Batman Movie”, which I think stands as a shining example of all four quadrants.)

I am convinced there must’ve been Homestucks involved in the making of that movie. The way it portrays the relationship between Joker and Batman makes it a fantastic hate story from start to finish. 🙂

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I love the symbol for Cauldron because it works in different orientations. Depending on which way it’s facing, it could be a C, an omega, or, well, a cauldron.

Hah, yeah! Or, as I ended up interpreting it – a Latin Ʊpsilon 😉

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Well, you’re now ahead of Nick in Worm.

Nice! 😀

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The eight interludes are coming up soon. If it’s about the Slaughterhouse 9, what order do you think they’ll show up in? If it isn’t about them, which characters do you think they’ll be about? Or maybe all eight interludes are from one perspective?

All I’m really sure about is that if it is from the perspective of the Fellowship of the Meat, we’re probably saving Jack Slash for last, due to the mystery surrounding his role in the apocalypse. Either that or he’s first – either way, we’re probably not going to be following him in the middle.

If it isn’t from their perspective, I have no damn clue. I’ve always been shit at predicting which characters are coming up in Interludes, and now we’re getting eight? This ain’t gonna be a good series of chapters for predictions, methinks.

All eight of them being from one perspective is an idea I hadn’t considered. If that’s the case, there’s someone Wildbow wants us to really get to know, who’s got something plot-important to do that takes practically an entire Arc. I’m not sure who that would be – a new character, perhaps?

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Sharks: Someone asked me if you want to give your Arc Thoughts before the interludes, because the interludes are, well. Interludes. Not connected. Just for after 11.8

I think this is a good idea, especially if the Interludes are disconnected. Honestly, when there’s this many of them, I don’t know why they’re not a separate Arc like Sentinel. Maybe that will become more clear once I’ve actually read them, though.

So then here’s the plan: I’ll do Arc Thoughts for Arc 11 after 11.8, read the Interludes and then do another round of Arc Thoughts, treating the Interludes as a sort of “Arc 11½”. I’ll still keep in mind the Interludes were supposed to be part of this Arc, though, and also discuss the impact the Interludes have on Arc 11 as a whole in the Arc 11½ thoughts, if applicable.