Your third session for 13.9 is mistagged. 😛
Hehe. 😛
Context for archival readers since I’ve deleted the relevant posts: I originally ended the second session right before the final line of the chapter (I was aware there wasn’t much left, but I had to go). Later the same day I came back and finished up the chapter, tagging the two additional posts as session 2 even though I’d ended that session, then deleted the end-of-session post.
Now that Krix has invoked the term “whale,” can you tell him that everyone calls them “space whales?”
Hah, nice!
Next up: Asks tomorrow, chapter Tuesday. Subject to change depending on how things go tomorrow and Tuesday as I start working at a different store.
This was pretty good, though I could see it being controversial for giving Brian a bunch of new powers that were super convenient for the situation, almost out of the blue.
It is convenient, but in a way that matches my theories for how trigger events work. There were quite a lot of the powers – which is a little more iffy and might cause misguided accusations of Brian being a Mary Sue – but that was pointed out by Taylor and will likely be addressed further, so I’m not too worried about that.
Bonesaw was somewhat less on the funny side this time than I was hoping she might be (I was prepared for the fact that this might be the case since it was a very serious situation), but she still had her moments. Such a precious little monster.
She also didn’t get anywhere near as far into fucking up the Undertravelers’ bodies as I was expecting. That’s a good thing for the Undertravelers, of course, though I was actually kind of hoping for more on that front too, mainly for the character development as they deal with the consequences? However, the exposition on how powers and brains interface, the Dandelion scene and especially Brian’s powerup make up for it.
In other status quo news, Burnscar is dead (and less importantly, Hack Job, though that might be something I’d missed from a couple chapters back). That means there’s a second open spot in the Nine, signalling that the nomination game plot is likely getting moved away from in favor of taking out the Nine gradually.
That’s probably a good thing to do. If they just took out Jack, I do think the Nine would fall apart (though Siberian and Bonesaw would probably stick together), but I’m not sure the six or seven remaining Nine running around Brockton Bay individually is that much better.
Next chapter: The wind-down, I think. First they need to get out of here and fetch Regent and Bitch (Regent can let Genesis know she should dissolve via Shatterbird), though. We’ll likely learn more about Brian’s state, either from him or from Tattletale, and maybe hear Imp’s story from the horse’s mouth.
See you then!
Even compared to being in Bonesaw’s clutches, I felt more helpless as ever.
This is a good ending line, but I’m quite distracted by the use of “as” instead of “than”.
Alright, I’m back!
Darkness boiled out of his skin, a thin layer. It moved slower than it had before, thicker, more like tendrils sliding against one another than smoke. Just like the arm he had across his chest, gripping his elbow for stability, it was a kind of barrier, armor or a wall erected against the world. He walked slowly.
Hey, don’t make yourself a cocoon, you already went through one metamorphosis today. If not a literal one.
Nobody complained, despite the proximity of our enemies and the fact that the darkness he’d spread out had to have alerted Hookwolf’s contingent about our existence.
What, and the giant swarms of bugs heading towards this place wouldn’t?
Were there just not that many bugs here?
I watched Brian as I walked behind him. I’d just been paralyzed, about to receive involuntary brain surgery. Now, in a much different way and for different reasons than before, I was again unable to offer him a hand. I couldn’t even talk to him without being afraid I’d say the wrong thing.
Probably best to let him be for a bit.
I stopped. He was on all fours, his head hung, his cheeks wet with tears.
I reached out for him, but a hand seized my wrist. Tattletale. She shook her head at me.
Hm. What knowest thou, oh oracle?
While I backed off, Tattletale reached for Imp, whispered something in her ear.
Imp bent down and took off her mask. In a voice far gentler than any I’d heard from her before, she said, “Hey. Big brother? Let’s get out of here.”
I guess he needs to hear her to get out of the trigger event mindset?
Brian nodded, mute.
Aisha could approach him, but I couldn’t?
I’m sure Lisa has her reasons.
He stood, refusing Imp’s offer for help in standing. He clutched one elbow with one hand, the arm dangling; it wasn’t an injury, I was pretty sure.
Maybe a side effect of what just happened?
He’d healed the worst of it. It was something else, some kind of security in the posture or something like that.
Oh, right, that posture.
It’s super commonly used to show nervousness, but I suppose it makes sense for it to provide a sense of security in general.
“Come on,” he said, his voice hoarse, “Don’t have long. I- Damn it!”
What do you mean you don’t have long? Is this a temporary power boost?
His darkness flowed out from his skin, heavier than I’d ever seen it, slow to expand, but it seemed to generate itself. It slithered through me yet again. Slithered through my bugs.
I wonder, if Taylor were to be outside the darkness but the bugs were in it, would it interfere with her control of those bugs?
It was minutes before the darkness dissipated. When it did, Tattletale was standing. Parian was standing on the other side of the room, eyes wide.
Huh, now he’s healing through the darkness?
The three Travellers were huddled together.
“What the hell was that?” I asked. “Brian, hey-”
You okay, Brian?
Let’s hope this didn’t burn out what life he had left, right after it spent a lot of his energy pulling him together.
I clenched my fist, struggled into a standing position. Brian hurried to Aisha’s side, grabbing her.
I guess he’s going in the order of who was closest to him, but I still feel like the shippers might’ve latched onto the fact that he healed Taylor before Aisha.
Four new powers?
Apparently so!
I hadn’t heard about anything like this.
Yeah, sheesh. We knew double trigger events might be a thing that could happen, but the most we’d heard of it potentially accomplishing was getting rid of the Manton effect. It’s dangerously close to being a deus ex machina (if it hasn’t already crossed that line), especially with it solving every problem the Undertravelers had in this situation. I could see this being controversial when it originally came out.
I still like it, though. It feels more like the introduction of an interesting new concept than a hack job of a solution after Wildbow wrote his characters into a corner.
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