He heard a scraping noise, then the sound once more.  He couldn’t say where it came from.

Hm. Could we be dealing with Crawler?

He opened an instant message window on his computer and sent a message:

To whom? Dragon?

It might be interesting to hear from Dragon again in this Interlude, but I doubt we’d learn anything about her quest to find and talk to Taylor. That’s not something I think she’d tell Colin about at this point, I think.

PHQ.Armsmaster:  You have a sec?

Guild.Dragon:  Reading the most monotonous data on seismic activity and Behemoth’s possible movements.  Ugly code.  Distract me, I beg you.

Heh.

It’s interesting that Dragon appears to be considered a member of the Guild before a member of the Protectorate, at least as far as internal IM handles goes.

PHQ.Armsmaster:  Hearing something.  Can you listen in?

Oh, yeah, that’s a good idea.

Colin looked up from his computer.

Oh shit, now this is an interesting POV character to pick. Our disgraced, house arrested Vriska with the power to make MicroMachines happen and have awesome tabletop races against his girlfriend in Canada!

So if we’ve got Colin as the POV, which Slaughterhouse member are we most likely to run into? Mannequin, perhaps? They’re both tinkers, and Colin’s body armors are, uh, very vaguely related to body modification. Also, Mannequin might find Colin’s microtech useful.

That is, if Colin is the attempted recruit. It’s entirely possible that he just happens to get involved in a separate Protectorate encounter with a member of the Fellowship in spite of his house arrest.

Ears peeled, he turned his head to the left and waited.  Clink.  He turned his head the other way, in the hopes of pinpointing the source.

I don’t remember, did this room have windows? Maybe someone’s throwing pebbles at one.

Possibly while flying. Wasn’t this high up?

There was a faint tapping sound.

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”

A clink of something hard on metal or glass.

A beak, perhaps?

It came again, a second later. 

Sir, or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you.

Oh, huh, apparently Interlude 11d doesn’t have the “(Anniversary Bonus)” in the header.

I guess for any sharp readers who remembered that, me including it in the intro post might’ve been an early sign that something wasn’t quite right. On top of the date, of course.

Interlude 11d (Anniversary Bonus)

krixwell-liveblogs:

It’s that time again! Let’s meet our fourth Slaughterhouse member.

So, who do we have left…

  • Bonesaw
  • Mannequin
  • Shatterbird
  • Crawler
  • Hatchet Face
  • a thus far unnamed female newbie

I feel like going with the newbie this time would be a good way to create some continuity between this and the last chapter, similar to Siberian being brought up by Burnscar and possibly Jack (though now that I remember the existence of Crawler, chances are they’re the implied human-eater). That said, it also feels a little early?

Besides, it’s entirely possible we won’t get a chapter about the newbie at all (and Hatchet Face takes that spotlight slot), and we’ll have to learn about her through the Undersiders when they’re surprised by her existence on the enemy team.

If we’re not meeting the newbie or Hatchet Face this time, maybe… Shatterbird? Just a random guess, really.

Whomever we’re meeting today, though, I’m sure it’ll be good. Let’s just jump right into it!

…for real this time!

krixwell-liveblogs:

Any speculations about the power of the new member? You know she can track people from Burnscar’s description, but what form do you think that takes?

Hm. If not for the Slaughterhouse affiliation, the idea of teleporting to someone no matter where they are would be a neat way to have this, but most likely it’s something more violent. What I just described but with automatic telefrag (i.e. teleporting into people wherever they are) sounds a bit less like “finding people”…

I don’t know. Whatever it is, it sounds like distance is hardly an issue, so I doubt it’s something like smelling blood, but I’m running out of ideas.

Maybe it’s a remote Master ability that, presumably among other things, allows her to perceive through someone’s senses?

Depending on what the other things are, that might be a bit too powerful, though.

krixwell-liveblogs:

image

Tumblr is very functional

Ahaha, good job, Tumblr.

“#it’s not like this in the mobile app on my end #might be an ios thing”

Welp, never mind. I don’t know what changed – the app didn’t update recently – but now it’s like this for me too.

At least it’s still doing its job of making it clear what’s source text and what’s commentary.

Sharks: There’s a few “get better soon” notes! ❤

Thank you to everyone who sent these!

I’m currently feeling great, except for the cough that still hasn’t gone away. The medicine did wonders.

🙂