“Back when you were either a hero or not a hero, I suppose.” *Spits off the back porch while sitting in an old creaky rocker.* I tell you what boy, I miss those good old days when the heroes were heroes and the villains were villains.
These days, in this story, it’s not that easy anymore… whippersnappers.
“Yes, I’m absolutely implying corporations in the U.S. have way more power over the government than is healthy. At least that’s how it looks from over here.” It looks that way from the inside too, but as long as 27% of the population is convinced that any alternative would inevitably lead to bread lines, Death Panels, the thousand-year reign of the Antichrist, and (worst of all) fluoridated water, the rest of us will just have to suffer while evils are sufferable.
Dammit, people.
Since our PoV character for this chapter is Weld, that adds a new dimension to the jokes about metal detectors he was glad not to have to endure.
Hah, yeah! That line makes a lot more sense now.
…I wonder if Hookwolf had trouble getting through airport security pre-Buzz. Unlike Weld, his metal biology isn’t immediately apparent on sight, and he presumably used to have a secret identity (wait, did he wear any sort of mask when we last saw him? I don’t remember, but that was also after his identity went public anyway). He couldn’t exactly reveal his secret to the security staff, either, being a known murderous villain.
“There’s people going fucking crazy out there, and you’re talking training.” This reminded me of Allen Iverson’s rant about basketball practice. It’s on YouTube, and you should look it up. (I’d link it, but I don’t know how asks handle links.)
“we talkin’ about practice, man”
Hah, yeah, I can absolutely see why the line reminds you of this. 😛
(For the record, Tumblr won’t let you send anything it recognizes as a link through an ask. However, sending links with the dots replaced with spaces or asterisks is not uncommon. Also, submissions do allow links.)
For the record, the 12 classifications in Weld’s rhyme are currently all that the PRT recognizes for classifying Parahumans. There were previously more, but apparently, over time, they were collapsed into the other classes to simplify things. “Shifter” is the most recent collapsed category, having been combined only slightly before the events of Worm’s first chapter; anyone previously classed as a “Shifter” is now rated as a “Changer”. The paperwork’s just not all up to date yet.
Ahh, I see, that makes sense.
Ay’eskay’es!
rural worm culture is fantasizing about living in a city with public transportation because you
i just realized i typed worm culture instead of gay culture. this post is cancled
Next liveblog: Friday or Saturday, methinks.
And thus ends the first non-Interlude chapter without Taylor in it. (Although Director Piggot may have been alluding to her at one point.)
We finally got to know Weld, which was fun! I had been looking forward to that, and what I found did not disappoint – he’s a very nice guy, with refreshing optimism, even if he did make a pretty big faux pas in not reading the room or researching the people he was replacing. I hope we get to see more of his experience as the new leader of the Brockton Bay Wards.
And it’s entirely possible that this Arc will stick to that topic. Nothing against her, but I’m okay with taking a break from Taylor for a while to follow a different POV.
Taylor may have been the primary POV character for eight Arcs, but it’s become increasingly clear that it’s hard to call her a main character, especially over the course of these last two Arcs. This story, so far, doesn’t have a main character. It’s a story not about a character, but about society at large, which we’ve so far happened to be seeing through the eyes of one Taylor “Skitter” Hebert.
(Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do want to see what she’s up to later.)
So, next chapter… we might be going back to Taylor and presumably seeing the things I predicted for this chapter (whether her plan involves the Undersiders, what her plan actually is), or we might be sticking with Weld to see how he tries to rectify this awkwardness he’s created.
Or, hell, what if this Arc involves checking in on multiple groups of Sentinels, one per chapter? That’d be a neat gimmick, though I think I’d prefer sticking with Weld.
Either way, see you next time!
Then she turned away and walked back to the cubicles. She was halfway there when he saw her rub at one cheek with the back of her hand.
😥
“I… I just got here,” Weld said, helplessly.
I just got told by a pre-teen, he thought.
“Shit,” he swore under his breath.
Sounds about right.
He found a chair in front of the computer and dropped the stack of file folders on the nearest flat surface. He plucked the file folder off the top of the stack, opened it and began studying.
Time to do your research.
