‘Hmm. Maybe she got romantically involved with someone bad or something?’ I think you’re forgetting that she was rescued while ‘on display’ for Merchants. It’s highly likely that something awful happened before that point, or else she was traumatized by the experience regardless.

[Homestuck]

TC: can’t it be motherfuckin
TC: BOTH THINGS

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As soon as Krix finishes Interlude 14.5, his readers would like to remind him of Gestation 1.3, where he said, “The Protectorate is a superhero team confirmed!…I probably sounded rather silly when I theorized about them being a sinister big brother type organization running a dystopian society or something, didn’t I. :P”

Hah! Yeah, that did actually come to my mind after I finished that session, though I forgot to mention it.

They’re not quite that, but their affiliation with Cauldron certainly brings related connotations to mind. 😛

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[The quote in the ask below is from one of the postponement posts between sessions 2 and 3 of Interlude 14a. The context was that time had gotten away from me while I was playing Minecraft because of this ADD trait.]

“It’s hard to stop doing things I enjoy, even in order to start doing other things I enjoy.” My heart jumped up in my throat because I thought you were about to say you’re ending the liveblog.

Ahaha, wow, sorry about that. In retrospect, I can absolutely see how that could sound like “it really pains me to do this but it is time to stop doing the blog because I’ve found something else I’d like to do” at first.

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I must admit, when I’m looking for a pun in “teaching llamas to spit fire” on a Worm blog, rap lyrics is not where my mind goes.

Where does it… oh!

“Pay attention now, Spitfire. This,” *points at a crude blackboard drawing using a stick* “is a llama.”

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Hey remember when back in his interlude Kid Win was like “I suck, the only reason I’m good at guns is because they’re easy, I can jsut take three half finished projects and mash them together. Can even make multiple settings that way. Gosh if only I could figure out what my specialisation is” ? Gotta love that subtle foreshadowing.

Hah, nice!

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I was SO SURE the guy you linked a video of in your Stories of Norway post was some lost skit I missed from Joe Pera, one of the most unsettling and yet funny comedy character I know watch?v=Fm1RvzfPRh0

Hah, yeah, I can see the resemblance. Though the Ylvis brothers (the guys behind The Fox – through the miracles of styling, that’s Vegard Ylvisåker playing the man with the cup, architect Tor Kraft) are generally a bit more snappy with their humor than this guy.

Incidentally, the real Tor Kraft looks like this (on the right):

(Though this image was taken six years after the events of this scene from Stories From Norway.)

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So, is Legend the only good adult hero in Worm so far and do you think he is a better person than Taylor?

Battery was also pretty good.

I think Legend might be a slightly better person than Taylor, though Taylor herself would probably not agree with the “slightly”. I put a lot of stock on intentions, and Legend so far has only had pure intentions of wanting to make the world better with his presence and help people out. Meanwhile Taylor has had mostly good intentions but definitely had to make some shady decisions on her path.

Including the Decision – that was her deciding to go down a path of villainy for her own benefit (in the friendship department). The Decision was sympathetic and narratively satisfying, but I wouldn’t say it was morally good. But even so she did have some good intentions there too, what with Coil’s promises of a better Brockton Bay.

The “slightly” comes from our knowledge of the two. We know more about Taylor’s path, the decisions she’s had to make along the way, her intentions behind those decisions. Chances are Legend has had to make some of those himself, that we don’t know about yet, and maybe never will. So I think they probably come out as about even, short of some big secrets in Legend’s backstory.

Taylor, as mentioned, would probably disagree, because her philosophy is consequence-based. Failing to protect people, or causing unforeseen consequences that harm people, are morally bad in her eyes, and she’s done that a lot. I’m sure Legend too has had such days, but we don’t know about them yet, so it’d just be guesswork and extrapolation if I were to base this on that.

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What are you talking about? Blindness and lasers are a good combo in the leauge of super reduntant heroes 99% of the time (see superredundant.com/?comic=076-same-but-different), its just that the story follows the 1% where they aren’t.

[League of Super Redundant Heroes comic]

Master Lazer Stallion: I have gathered all you Lazer Stallions here to deal with an imminent threat to the multiverse.
Master Lazer Stallion: Cosmus has escaped from his galactic prison and is now once again ready to consume all realities.

Master Lazer Stallion: But if any of you feel that you aren’t up to the task, you’re free to return home.
Lazer Pony: Hey! I might not have proven myself as “awesome” as the rest of the Stallions, but that’s because I’m blind!

Offscreen Lazer Stallion 1: So am I.
Offscreen Lazer Stallion 2: Yeah, me too.
Offscreen Lazer Stallion 3: I think we all are!
Offscreen Lazer Stallion 4: I’m blind and in a wheelchair!

Ohh, right, that’s a good point!

You hear that, guys? You should totally go out shooting lasers blindly. It’ll make you the top hero in the multiverse.

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You do not remember correctly. Kid Win’s age has not yet been stated. However, he’s a little younger than Taylor.

Oh. Alright!

I guess I was thinking of Gallant or Clockblocker.

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May I point you towards Hero Cats of Stellar City?

Uh, sure. *googles*

Seems pretty neat! I think I’d like Rocco most. :3

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So obviously we don’t get to know the mystery woman’s deal yet, but care to guess which singular power would be enough to deal with/delay the whole Triumvirate?

Maybe a selective AoE time-slowing ability? Except the woman seemed nervous, afraid she wouldn’t be able to take them on, suggesting she might not be able to get out in time herself.

Let’s see, what do we have among the Triumvirate… We’ve got flight/lasers/regen, flight/invulnerability/memory, flight/anything.

It could be a form of power canceling, but we’ve already had that power with Hatchet Face, so it’d need a new twist on it.

Ooh, here’s a fun one: Her power isn’t all that strong, she’s just a taxiporter, able to quickly teleport the Triumvirate and herself to somewhere else in or out of the Cauldron compound, allowing the Doctor to escape. Her nervousness might be over the consequences of doing that for her.

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Legend and his fellows were already established as top heroes when Siberian first showed up. If he had a Nemesis, it wasn’t Siberian.

Right, good point.

I think, to the extent I actually remembered how the Nemesis program worked at all, I may have had it backwards.

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We have heard about The Number Man before, in a context that might explain some influence if Legend know of that other job of his. From 6.8 when the Undersiders met Coil face to face for the first time, “And before I forget, I arranged individual accounts for each of you with a supervillain banker by the name of The Number Man, as paying for tonight’s job in bills, naturally, was unfeasible.”

Oh! Yeah, it did seem vaguely familiar.

So this means Cauldron has (indirect?) ties to Coil and the Undersiders as well, even if the latter don’t know it. Interesting.

I suppose The Number Man – and by extension Cauldron, depending on how tightly he works with/for them – has the option of freezing the accounts of many supervillains at once if they feel the need to some day.

I also suppose The Number Man has a hand in making sure the payments to Cauldron aren’t trackable.

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Congrats of finishing (what is considered by some) the book 2 of Worm!

Oh, this was the end? Well then. I… kinda wish this ask had been held until I knew what Colony was about, actually. I suppose that means Colony is going to be an Interlude Arc.

Anyway, thanks!

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> Would this third reality Legend is suggesting the Case 53s come from perhaps be Earth-Bet? Our world?

Are you thinking of Earth Aleph (revealed in 3.4 to have Star Wars prequels)?

Yes. Yes I was.

Some asks have called the Wormverse Earth-Bet, as a counterpart to Earth-Aleph, and I mixed them up. Whoops!

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Since it didn’t show up in any of the wrap up chapters to Arc 14, any thoughts on how the aftermath of the Amy/Victoria plotline is going to play out? Where do you see those two characters going from here? Do you think either of them will be able to go back to their old lives after this is all over?

Victoria maybe, but not quite. It wouldn’t be her old life because Amy would be gone, not to mention the possibility of lasting physical and mental effects of Amy’s healing. And then there’s New Wave shutting down and Victoria joining the Wards instead… yeah, no, things won’t be the same. She’s also likely to keep hating Amy. I don’t think all of that hate was redirected love like Amy suggested, and I don’t think Amy healing the mental change is going to make her feel much more positively about the situation.

And yeah, I don’t think Amy’s going to stick around with Victoria after that, or try to face her family. She’s probably intent on trying to get a private sector job like she told Taylor, though I’m not sure how well that’s going to go.

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Because of our story focus on Brockton Bay we kinda get into this reader bubble that everything has to happen there as I’ve seen you have fallen into any times. What do you see the world being like, knowing what you know now, that the world was predicted to end in 20-something or so years, that the US has the biggest most regulated hero group in the world, the ENE region we are in being a big hub for them, and knowing 3rd world countries have more capes?

…oh. Fuck. Unregulated militias of parahumans, end time prophets, cults supporting the Endbringers, parahuman terrorism, parahuman warfare… things are probably not looking good out there, huh.

Also, re: the reader bubble – it’s true I’ve focused a lot on Brockton Bay, right down to suggesting that this already terribly broken city is going to get attacked by two more Endbringers and still have people living in it. I don’t think it’s so much because of the focus on Brockton Bay, though, as the focus on Taylor. Apart from Interludes and Interlude Arcs, everything we see is currently through the lens of Taylor “Skitter” Hebert. Anything we’re supposed to experience outside of those exceptions will need to be experienced by Taylor, which means it needs to happen somewhere Taylor is. (Taylor hearing about events from elsewhere while she’s in Brockton Bay counts. She’s experiencing hearing about that.)

If the Endbringers won’t come to Taylor, Taylor will have to go to the Endbringers. Or we’ll have to switch main POV characters.