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While Taylor was very brutal in her reaction, I can’t really feel sorry for Barker. Calling a supervillain a gendered slur to her face in the middle of her base was an enormously bad idea. Unlike non-powered women she has the power to punish him for it and isn’t bound by the social rules of proportionate response. He is just lucky she isn’t someone like Bakuda because then he would probably have died painfully instead.

Fair enough. I suppose I just didn’t really see it as him calling her that, just saying it to activate his power for demonstrative purposes, despite it literally blowing up in her face.

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Frech speaker here, lightning in french is éclair, which is pretty close to éclaire which is a baked good. Guess the family did try theme naming… they just didn’t do enough research.

I’m sure you’re gonna get 20 asks about this but I can’t resist being the obnoxious Frenchperson telling you that Éclair is not only a pastry, but also means lightning (without an e in either case, that is Wildbow’s mistake or the girl’s).

Oh, huh. Sounds like a very shocking pastry!

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George and Lennie are two characters in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. You should read it or watch it. (The same guy wrote The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.)

I believe “George and Lenny” is a reference to “Of Mice and Men”. I’m sure that the big-and-strong-but-mentally-challenged character in that book is named Lenny at the very least.

…ohh, those guys! I haven’t read or watched Of Mice and Men, but I have seen Overly Sarcastic Productions’ summary of it. Not that I would’ve made the connection if you hadn’t mentioned that Lennie is not just dumb but “mentally challenged”.

I’m glad Taylor seems to be wrong about this, because if she turned out to be more right than she bargained for in that comparison, it would not be pleasant for Biter down the line.

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Wait a minute.

I included Charlotte in the Wheel of Time crossover thing because I wanted someone from Worm to be able to channel the One Power subconsciously and only learn about it after ending up in Randland (this would be how they activated the portal stone), but didn’t want to give any of the Undersiders additional powers. In retrospect, though… I totally should’ve given it to Skitter.

I mean, who better to use a magic system themed after weaving than the spidery tailor?

End of Colony 15.1

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The Undersiders stick together! I honestly wasn’t entirely expecting that.

This was pretty good for a strategy meeting chapter. I very much appreciate that we’re finally making headway with Taylor and Rachel, and I quite enjoyed seeing Rachel’s reaction to Taylor making her a costume in spite of being told to fuck off. While I’m a little bit miffed we didn’t get to see the others’ immediate reactions, this was the one reaction that actually mattered and I’m glad we were allowed to witness it.

Those stairs are gonna be so worn out if they continue like this, though.

As for the actual strategy meeting part, that went quite smoothly. Alec decided to mess with everyone a bit – though he’s possibly more affected by the whole end of the world thing than he’d like to let on – but we got to a unanimous decision of “fuck Coil” fairly easily.

From there on out we got some strategy talk. It’s still not clear what exactly they’re planning, which is a good thing for their odds early on, but we’re playing secret chess and I’m very much here for it.

The ending line is a little bit iffy. It seemed to come almost out of nowhere, like Wildbow wasn’t entirely sure how to lead the dialogue into the line he had planned to end the chapter with, or wasn’t sure how to end the chapter, period. At least it’s a fairly good line.

Next chapter, we’re presumably beginning to put some of these plans into motion. We may also get more adventures in Taylor’s territory – I’m still fairly sure the chapter title is related to the territory in some way. Maybe Taylor will have to make the choice between her territory and Dinah by the end of the Arc, with her non-subterfuge activities in the Arc helping to build up how much Taylor cares about the territory a bit more?

Whatever the case may be, I’m sure it’ll be good. See you next time!

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“Well,” Alec said, chuckling a little, “At least we’ll have something to help pass the time while we wait for the world to end.”

Here he goes again. I’m not sure he’s being entirely honest about how he feels about the world ending anymore. He’s starting to sound like he’s repeating it to convince himself.

…oh, end of chapter. Sure, this works as an ending line too. Seems a little bit forced, maybe, but it works.

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“And me?” I asked, feeling a pang of alarm.

“He knows your weak points.  The gaps in your power, your dad, your identity, your morals.  You already know that.”

Right. That might be an issue.

I did, but hearing it said so clearly, it was one of those cases where having the details laid out in front of me didn’t make me feel more confident.

“So this is going to be a different kind of fight,” Brian mused.  “It’s about control and subterfuge.  If he figures out what we’re doing, if we clue him in, he’s probably better equipped than any of our past opponents when it comes to knowing how to deal with us.  If the city gets condemned, we’re boned.  And if Dinah gets her powers back, he’ll be impossible to beat.”

Dinah and Coil’s powers complement each other really damn well. She can tell him where his choices lead before he, uh, starts his free timeline demos.

Control and subterfuge. It’s a chess game against a chessmaster, and the key is to not let him realize he’s playing.

Which ties very well into his power’s weakness, which is surprise attacks that don’t give him time to split the timeline soon enough for one of his copies to succeed/survive. Don’t let him know he’s playing until it’s too late for him to win.

“That’s the gist of it.  Even I don’t know what he has planned for his endgame, here.  It’s looking pretty ugly, to be honest.”  Lisa counted off the points on her fingers.  “The Chosen will be gunning for us, Coil’s got a small army of pretty excellent, well-equipped soldiers at his disposal, he’s got some pretty fucking heavy hitters with the Travelers, the heroes are going to be going into overdrive to establish some sort of control and last but not least, he’s Coil.”

Things are gonna get wild.

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“What?” I cut in.

“It’s arguably more expensive to fix the problems here than it is to abandon the city entirely.  Depends on what the consensus is from the President and all the other folks in charge.”

“If that happens, what will Coil do?” Brian asked.

Probably not rule the city, huh.

“Leave.  Start over somewhere else, transporting any resources he can, leaving behind all liabilities.  He might bring some of you with him, offering some hefty bribes.  Somehow I don’t think he’ll bring Skitter.  Even my own currency is running pretty thin,” Lisa shrugged.

Alec in particular might be very, very useful to Coil.

Not sure why Lisa wouldn’t be, though. Even with Dinah and various other information sources, what she can do should be a huge boon.

“He can’t afford to lose you,” Brian said.  “You’re too dangerous as an enemy.”

Oh yeah, that too. Especially since he can’t control what she knows about him very well.

“Oh, I think he’s studied me enough to feel pretty confident he can off me if he wants to,” Lisa said. “Trick is making it a sure enough kill that there’s no chance of it backfiring on him.”

What? I don’t think it’s about ability to off you.

I suppose there is the risk of you setting up something to spread his information if he kills you.