Hm. Does “terminus” refer to the ends of a line? That would make sense, given the apparent etymology of the word.
And in that case, does that mean the past does not exist?
Category: argh krix fix your categories
But there was more to it. There were faint sounds, for one thing, and they weren’t just two-dimensional. Just the opposite – they were each a fully realized world, and each was continuous, like a slideshow or film reel that extended vast distances forward and backward from any of the scenes of focus.
I suppose this metaphor, if taken with any sort of literalness, requires at least five-dimensional vision.
Things got even more complicated when each of the slideshow reels forked out and branched as they moved further away. The only thing stopping them were the terminus points.
“Further away”, in this case, appears to be along the temporal axis. Let’s upgrade that to six-dimensional vision, then.
What’s a terminus point? I feel like that’s a math/geometry term I’ve heard at some point, but I don’t know what it means.
The first terminus wasn’t complicated. The now, the present. It moved inexorably, steadily forward, consuming the individual realities as they ceased to be the future and became the now.
Again, “forward” appears to be temporally.
So if one terminus point is “now”, then I guess the terminus points are where the branches convene? In that case, is one of the more complicated terminus points the arrival of the apocalyptic threat 2-15 years from now? And is that local to the Wormverse only?
The other terminus was somewhat more ominous. Every branch ended at some point, some sooner than others.
…you’re right, that’s ominous. A branch ending, in this context, would mean the end of a timeline, and if all branches of a universe end, the end of that universe.
If each of the tens of trillions of universes were like pictures, then they were organized into a mosaic, constantly rearranging itself and shuffling.
Ooh, are we getting multiverse cosmology lore?
Also, who would know stuff about this, besides a new character? Dinah?
…I guess Professor Haywire wouldn’t technically be a new character, but I highly doubt that’s whom we’re following. Even besides them being a super minor character who’s been mentioned exactly once so far, in passing, I don’t think they’re in Brockton Bay.
Then again, that didn’t stop up from following Rainbow Dash. ;p
Anyway, let’s take a moment to think about flexibility, love and trust what’s actually being said here. So the universes’ relative positions and borders are constantly shuffling? Except we also know that a hole between two realities can be sustained over an extended period without suddenly being a hole into a different reality, or tearing open from the universes moving in different directions. So I don’t think this is quite that physical, at least not in a conventional, euclidean sense.
Taken in as a whole, it was a muddle. Depending on how it shuffled, sometimes patterns emerged. A predominant color, perhaps, or lots of scenes that were blurs of motion and activity.
Parallels between the universes.
I really like this metaphor so far.
Hm. Could we be seeing the perspective of a dandelion? That sounds a bit intense. Also, if that’s the case, I highly doubt the POV character is about to be invited to the Slaughterhouse Nine. :p
Interlude 11f (Anniversary Bonus)
Howdy! Krixwell here, back for another chapter of Worm!
Five Slaughterhouse members down, three to go. I’m guessing we’ll be meeting the Newbie last (unless Hatchet Face takes her spot) so we’re probably in for either Crawler or Bonesaw today. I’m hoping for Bonesaw, because crazy and unpredictable sounds like fun right now, but I’d be down with the creepy crawlies too.
As for who Bonesaw might want to recruit… Panacea sounds like a weird but plausible option, if I’m right about Bonesaw having a specialty in medical equipment and thus probably also a medical background. We’ve established that Panacea’s power can be used offensively, too, and she is the daughter of a known bigshot criminal – those things might appeal to the Slaughterhouse as well.
But yeah, if Panacea is an attempted recruit, I don’t think it’ll work, unless she is forced like Hookwolf was (and I doubt that’s happening in two chapters in a row). Panacea has a spiteful, slightly darker side, and might be tempted by the prospect of dropping the exhaustion that comes with her responsibilities, but I think at the core, she’s a very good person who cares about fulfilling those responsibilities at the expense of her own health.
Incidentally, if Amy is Bonesaw’s attempted nominee, she’s likely to be the POV character for whichever one of these Interludes is about Bonesaw. Perhaps we’ll learn something about those secrets of hers that would wreck her relationships if they came out.
(Crawler, on the other hand, might go for Night, as I’ve previously speculated.)
So yeah! Without further ado, let’s jump in and see what happens!
And that’s all the asks! I was going to try to go through the fanart I received today as well, but I got nearly eighty images. I think I’m better off splitting that up between the next few chapters and moving on to today’s liveblogging session for now.
Jormungandr is actually an alternate in-story name for Leviathan, like how the nurse in arc 8 said Hadhayosh instead of Behemoth.
Oh, really? I suppose that makes sense with how he’s a sea monster, and Jörmungandr is by all means an “end-bringer” in Norse mythology, alongside Fenrir. I wonder if Fenrir might similarly be used as a name for Behemoth?
Also, I suppose that means Kaiser can be Thor in the extended metaphor after all, except a less successful one considering Thor actually managed to slay Jörmungandr before keeling over himself.
…can you imagine if Arc 8 had ended with Kaiser killing Leviathan and then dying himself? That would be one hell of a base breaker, I think.
I wonder if there’s a Baldr somewhere in this. The closest I can think of is Purity, as Baldr was a god of light, but Purity isn’t invincible as far as I’ve gathered, and Baldr died long before Ragnarök.
Don’t know if someone else has already mentioned this, but I’m pretty sure Wildbow mentioned in a Reddit post that Rollo actually was either a wolf or a coyote puppy, so it makes sense that Rachel’s power would work better on undomesticated species of dog. That’s what it was originally meant for.
Someone did mention that, yeah. 🙂
It’s a pretty neat background detail.
“I wonder what happens if they both succeed. Do they duke it out over the open spot?” If they both succeed, there’s a possibility that they’ve opened up more spots.
I suppose that’s true.
If that were to happen, we’d have Bitch and Hookwolf trying to be on the same team. That ought to cause some sparks.
“A sword age, an axe age. A wind age, a wolf age.” Those exact words are taken from an english translation of the Prophecy of the Völva, specifically the part where she describes the state of humanity immediately before Ragnarok. In that poem they refer to the same age. Shatterbird is making a direct reference to the mythology Hookwolf named his group after.
“A sword age, an axe age. A wind age, a wolf age.“ These are in fact describing the same age – the run-up to Ragnarok – in a quote from passage 45 of the Voluspa or Poetic Edda. Wikisource has the Icelandic text, which I have the impression is closest to the original Old Norse: "skeggjöld, skálmöld / skildir ‘ru klofnir / vindöld, vargöld / áðr veröld steypisk”. (Yeah, Shatterbird swapped the positions of the axe and the sword.)
I think Shatterbird is referring the Fimbulwinter, the three years of uninterrupted winter preceding Ragnarok. I even think I saw it once separated in three winters, one of them being of wolves and the last one being of blades. If the other one is associated with wind her comment would make sense. Then again I last saw that years ago, so I might be completely wrong and remembering things incorrectly.
“Sword and axe make sense, but wind? Also, are these in order, or describing the same age? I can’t really tell.” I believe this is a famous quote from the Norse sagas, describing Ragnarok
Oh!
I know a fair bit of Norse mythology, but I haven’t actually read all that much of the source material. That’s not really a good excuse, though, considering I recently tried to fix that and ended up reading specifically Völuspá (which, for the record, is only the first poem in the Poetic Edda, not an equivalent name for it).
I do suppose it may have been a different translation… Actually, let me look up the passage in the translation I read:
46. Hard is it in the world, great whoredom, an axe age, a sword age, shields shall be cloven, a wind age, a wolf age, ere the world sinks.
Ah, yeah, there it is. Neat!
A glass cannon. She literally shoots glass. Wildbow loves playing with tropes.
Hehe, clearly 😛
In retrospect, maybe I should’ve seen this coming after the Girlfriend in Canada.
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