“No way,” Jennifer said. She dropped into one of the felt-covered chairs at the far end of the room.
See, I know what “felt-covered” means, but part of my brain can only imagine a pile of plain wooden chairs covered in fifteen green men in colorful hats.
Homestuck, man. Once you’re infected you can’t escape it.
Aisha had to hop out of the way so she didn’t get sat on.
!!!
YES
Now this is someone I’d much rather read an Interlude about!
She watched the dialogue between her mother, her mother’s boyfriend of the week and her mother’s new friend with a dispassionate expression.
Oh, huh. So we did kind of know Celia already, and a part of the Laborn family had ties to the Merchants.
This is… less surprising than it probably should be.
Seeing this scene, she didn’t really feel much. A little disappointment.
“You’re too old to be pregnant,” Sam commented. She kicked him again.
Hmm.
Does she not want to tell him the real reason she’s abstaining, or is this just Sam exaggerating her age as a burn?
“Not that old!”
Jennifer emerged from the washroom and stopped in the doorway, staring at the scene.
Hello!
“I didn’t think you’d actually use any of the stuff.”
“Jen, hon,” Celia said, “We’ve got enough to go around. Even if we only sold half, we’d be made in the shade for five or ten years.”
Ah, alright, definitely some trade planned. I feel more confident in the former Merchant suggestion now.
“And you just took it?”
“Leaders of the Merchants got killed, everyone else decided to run off with what they could carry of the stockpiles. Sam and I decided to play it smart. Sam got his truck, and I guarded the stash from the other assholes. Paid off.”
She cut open a plastic wrapped block of powder and shook a small amount of the powder onto the coffee table.
*goes to fetch his bag of “tw: drugs” tags*
So are these people just random, kinda awful mundane civilians of Brockton Bay? I’m suspecting that the “fatass friend” is going to be the most important character here.
…actually, it wouldn’t surprise me too much right now if these were former Merchants.
She used the laminated card to cut it into lines, a set on each side of the table, with none in front of her.
Monsters Inc would give you a better time.
“You’re not having any?”
“I told you. I’m pregnant.”
Oh?
Honestly, I think this is more interesting because of what it says about Sam and Celia’s relationship than about the pregnancy itself. Celia is clearly familiar with Sam, but it sounds like he only just learned about this pregnancy (either that or Celia has had to point to her pregnancy as a reason for abstinence before). Add that to Sam’s statement about the friend using Celia’s bathroom rather than their, and it’s pretty clear that he’s a (probably infrequent, if it’s not the first time) visitor of some description.
“You said you were five minutes ago, asswipe. Takes you five minutes to find your wallet?”
I’m not sure I like Celia very much so far.
“Needed to piss. Your fatass friend was in your bathroom, so I pissed in your sink.”
I’m even less sure I like Sam.
Friend, huh. Anyone we know?
Celia kicked under the coffee table to strike his shin.
Sam just smiled and stepped back. “Kidding. I went off the fire escape.”
Right, because public urination is better than in a private sink.
“That’s not any better!”
“It’s all water and shit down there. Any place that doesn’t smell like hot garbage smells like a toilet.
Before reading this part, I considered going into how I could understand it if it were into the ocean or something but I doubted there would be an ocean on the same side as a fire escape, so I was surprised by the water excuse. Until I remembered the state of Brockton Bay streets.
Still, though, I do think the sink would be marginally better.
Here. Stop bitching.” He threw a plastic movie rental card at her.
…alright, let’s rent Monsters Inc, that’s a good one.
I’m pretty sure we don’t know a Celia – or at least don’t know that we know one – but do we know a Sam? I’m not really sure. I don’t think so, but it’s a common enough name that it ends up sounding familiar nonetheless.
I’m going to guess he’s a hero, though. Sam is a very heroic name.
Meanwhile Celia so far sounds like a somewhat annoying (to Sam) little girl. It would be entirely possible for this to be Bonesaw and another member of the Nine, but they seem to stick to their cape names (in the cases where there’s a difference) when talking to and about each other from what we’ve seen, with the exception of Jack reminding Mannequin about his old self. Besides, I feel like we’d have a description of Bonesaw’s voice earlier if this were her.
“I’m coming!” The heavyset man grumbled, as he made his way into the living room. Celia sat on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. The white of her t-shirt and panties was a stark contrast to her dark skin.
Definitely sounds like a kid, yeah.
Sam leered at the woman. She was good-looking for her age, slim, though her breasts sagged behind her shirt without the benefit of a bra.
…but apparently she’s not. Fair enough, I was basing that on almost nothing anyway.
A look into Mannequin’s… wherever he keeps his think pan, perhaps? Maybe we’re about to see what he’s up to in Skitter’s territory before Skitter does, and get some insight into how his senses work?
(I still suspect one of them is temperature, but it’s definitely not just that. He’s able to read Scrabble pieces, after all.)
Or maybe we’re taking a break from Skitter and co. to check on Hookwolf’s side or the southern Undertravelers? Unless we follow someone outside the group who interact with them, the latter would have to be from a Traveler’s perspective, since Tattletale and Regent have both had Interludes already. In that case we’d probably end up finding out more about the Travelers’ secrets too.
Or, perhaps, we’ll be following someone entirely new. Ooh, or Sierra or Charlotte – I’m still hoping for an Interlude like that.
By the way, ChromaCurves’ pony Bonesaw design reminds me that just a couple weeks ago, MLP:FiM introduced a cutesy filly, Cozy Glow, who I honestly think could fit the part for Bonesaw in terms of appearance (though she’s not blonde). Not as well as Chroma’s design, of course, but still.
And hey, parts of the fandom seem to think she’s secretly evil, so that’s a thing. Though I suspect if she is, she’s more like Cherish or Tattletale than Bonesaw – after all, one of the reasons people think she might be evil is that her cutie mark, a chess rook, seems to be in playing others.
(For some reason, I ran into technical difficulties trying to post this as a photo post, so let’s try it like this. Might be more practical to read too? Feedback on whether I should stick to this format for fanart commentary would be appreciated.)
evaexe: This piece nicely depicts one of the best things about Bonesaw: even with a bunch of blood around her, clearly spilled by her while doing awful things, she’s adorbs.
Endless_Assault: Man, it’s good to see that smile again. I really like the pose and coloration here, too.
ArtLounge: The adorableness streak continues with a little chibi Vista! Wait, is she… is she dabbing, to the best of her chibi ability (chibility)? Either way, this is cute.
…is she actually chibi or did she accidentally warp the space around her own head…
ArtofLariz: Damn, Aisha looks amazing here. Badass and beautiful! Give her some years and she might become a true femme fatale.
More ArtofLariz: Skitter certainly isn’t slacking on the badassery either. This might be the most badass image I’ve seen that involves a ladybug, which is saying something considering I’m in the fandom for a show with a ladybug-themed badass as one of the main leads.
Blastweave: It took me a moment to understand what I was looking at, but it turned out the answer was “something very cool”. Oh, and Dragon vs. Leviathan. It’s a visually busy piece, but that fits very well with the chaos of the scene it’s depicting. The rooftop Tattletale in the background is a nice touch.
diangu246: Don’t litter, folks – if you leave large sheets of plastic out in nature, wild Scions can get stuck in them! Jokes aside, though, this is a really good-looking piece. I love the lighting and the somewhat somber expression, in particular. 🙂
RespicePostTe: The artists of this fandom seem to be really good at making the girls look cute (when appropriate). This is no exception – between the pose, expression and pretty, bright colors, it’s hard to remember that this is a girl who regularly gets people to kill themselves.
ChromaCurves: Ooh, I think I’ve heard of this piece before – back after Interlude 11h, someone mentioned that there were more pieces like this one by ChromaCurves (that were still spoilery – I suppose Crawler was the only reason that was still the case for this one).
This doesn’t disappoint. All the Ponyhouse Nine designs look quite fitting! But where’s Pinkie Pie?
Crawler doesn’t look particularly like a pony – to be fair, the original doesn’t look much like a human either – but I appreciate how he’s got components from various species in the MLP universe. The first thing I noticed was the changeling queen horn, but he’s also got the axolotl-like cheek things from Spike (seriously, why can’t I find art of Spike as an axolotl? axolotls are great), a pegasus wing, eye effects similar to King Sombra, at least one pony ear, and transparent spike-like things on his head that I’m sure I’ve seen somewhere in MLP but can’t place. There might be more I’m not noticing too. This is a neat design!
So yeah! The Worm artists continue to be excellent. Keep up the good work! 😀
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