Krixwell Liveblogs

I covered my approach with a cloud of bugs and slow, quiet footsteps.  Nobody noticed me arrive.

Heh, stealth bug. Maybe she’ll sneak into the cloud of bugs surrounding the house, appearing in front of it as the bugs finish their job and clear out?

“Just a minute or two longer,” I said.  Charlotte and some of the family members jumped.

Hehe, or that. Her startling people is just as good as badassery, and the other thing I was hoping for.

“You,” a man who might have been the patriarch of one of the families pointed at me, “You did this!”

Yes. Yes she did.

You just don’t know what she’s doing, though.

“Yes,” I answered him.

“Is this some sort of game to you!?  We were prepared to leave, and you keep us from getting our things?  Add another infestation to the one that’s already there!?”

Yeeah, might want to tell this guy what you’re actually up to, Skitter.

“She’s just trying to help!” Charlotte said, with a tone like she wasn’t expecting to be listened to.  I got the impression she’d tried convincing him earlier.  I raised one hand to stop her.

Ah, so they did give more explanation than just “stand back, this could get nasty”. That’s good.

It was better if I handled this myself.

The man drew himself up a fraction, “No reply, huh?  I’d punch you right here, right now, if I thought you’d give me a fair, no-powers fight.”

I kinda like this guy, actually. He’s angry, sure, but from his perspective, he has good reason to be, and he doesn’t let it override his survival instincts. Well, too much. He’s still antagonizing a supervillain and well aware of it, but at least he has the sense to keep it non-physical from his side.

I wonder what Dragon thought of the news about Skitter’s allegedly benevolent reign.

The rats died at the hands of my bugs, thoroughly poisoned or envenomed, or even eaten alive by the ones that bit repeatedly and didn’t even bother to chew or swallow the flesh.

Are we sure this isn’t the Arc that should go by the title Extermination?

Speaking of Arc titles, I suppose it’s quite fitting that Taylor’s exterminating an infestation of rats in the first chapter of Plague. I highly doubt that’s going to be one of the main reasons for the title, but it’s a fun correlation.

I suppose it is possible that we’re dealing with a literal plague of disease and other issues in this Arc, focusing on Taylor’s efforts to rule her territory rather than on the Slaughterhouse plot. Or, more likely, there’ll be a balance of both things.

It wasn’t a fast job, as there were hundreds of the rodents and they were surprisingly tenacious. I wanted to be thorough.

Of course, now they’ll have hundreds of rat corpses in and around their house, unless Taylor takes measures to remove those. I’m not sure that’s much better.

It took me eight or so minutes to arrive, with the roundabout route I had to take to get from my lair to the beach and then back over toward the Docks.  A heavy cloud of bugs surrounded the house, and a group of eight people of different ages were clustered on the far side of the street, watching the scene like they were watching their house burn down.

“It’s a cleansing fire, okay? Or, uh, swarm.”

Did Sierra and Charlotte move on to the next houses on their round?

Sierra and Charlotte stood apart from the huddle, a short distance away.

Apparently not. Hi!

The compartment of armor at my back buzzed, and I reached back to retrieve my cell phone.  It was Grue:

can I come by?

Oh hey! Sorry, Taylor’s a little busy at the moment.

So is that just a social call or more important stuff?

I quickly replied:

On errand.  Don’t come to my place.  Meet me at Bayview and Clover.  Not too far from our old place.

This seems like a nice compromise.

It was only a moment before I got a reply:

got it. am already otw.  close.

So was he already out and went “hey, why don’t I visit Taylor on the way”, or was he already on his way to Taylor’s when he remembered that he should probably ask first?

So he was already on the way when he called?  I wasn’t sure what to think about that.  It suggested it was a social call with the assumption I would be okay with it, which I didn’t mind, but that didn’t really fit his personality.

Yeah, exactly.

I’m glad to see Taylor too give that some more thought, because it suggests I was onto something.

I suspect that something is Brian wanting to warn her about the Slaughterhouse Nine face to face.

More likely there was something that he wanted to discuss with me in person.

Yeah, sounds about right.

No wonder they wanted to leave.

“Tell them to step outside.  If they hesitate, warn them they might get hurt.  They won’t, but it’ll make them move.”

So what are you going to do? Chase out the rodents with painful bugs?

“Okay.”

I hung up, then hurried to pull on my costume, donning latex rubber socks before pulling on the leggings.  At the same time, I gathered a swarm near the rat house.

Oh, are you going out there yourself?

I began a systematic attack against the rodents there.  Bees, wasps, hornets, fire ants, regular ants, mosquitoes, biting flies and spiders gathered and began attacking the rats furthest from the house and began steadily working their way inward.

…but won’t that cause the rats to flee inward? Isn’t that the opposite of what you want?

Though it’s not like you’d want the rodents to spread to other houses, either.

Some rats fought or ran, but more bugs gathered each second.

I hurried out the door and took my shortcut through the false storm drain to the beach.  Drawing a host of bugs around myself, I headed toward the rat house with long strides.

Meanwhile, I’m not sure what Skitter will be able to do in person. Just show herself to establish her responsibility for the rats’ defeat?

“Yes, Charlotte?” I asked.

“Um,” she was taken back a little.

It was Charlotte after all! What a twist!

What’s up?

“There’s this place here with two families, and they’re in the middle of packing up to leave.  I thought you’d want to know, in case they were gone before we came back at noon to eat and tell you about it.”

Ahh. Yeah, that makes sense – Taylor bug-sensing a bunch of people leaving the area right after her minions stopped by might give her the wrong idea.

But then there’s another question: Are they leaving the area because of Skitter’s takeover? Or just joining the droves of people evacuating the city as a whole?

“That’s fine.  What’s the problem?”

“Rats.”

Aw, rats.

Of course.  The trash would offer a steady diet to vermin, and the flooding would deter many of their natural predators.  The rodent population had exploded, and it could easily be getting to the point where it was interfering with people’s daily lives.

It clearly is, if it’s actively driving them out of their homes.

“Their neighbors have the same problem?”

“We haven’t been able to get any of them to answer the door.”

Brockton Bay isn’t in a state that’s conducive to people trusting strangers knocking on their doors, especially ones wearing masks.

…try again in October?