Attack!
Oh, or she just wanted to wait a paragraph break before saying it, letting the word stand alone to emphasize how short and to the point it is. Fair enough.
So if she’s relying on her subconscious… well, we’ve seen how that works. If she’s subconsciously commanding the bugs and then blacks out, they’ll follow her command continuously.
Let’s hope she managed to convey who the target is, though.
I could see the open door of the refrigerator out of the corner of my eye, but couldn’t turn my head to get a better look. Brian could see us from where he hung.
*waves awkwardly*
I didn’t want to go down without a fight. I couldn’t give specific directions to my bugs, but if I tried, maybe I could give one.
Yes, try that. Although it feels too early in the chapter for it to work, especially with being her first plan. This seems like the kind of chapter that requires a failed attempt and/or an extended time of helplessness.
Maybe, just maybe, I could rely on my subconscious to guide them, even if my conscious mind wasn’t up to it.
This is a good plan. If it were later in the chapter I’d be about as certain it was going to work, at least partially, as I am now that it won’t.
I suppose it’s possible that it could work slowly, over the course of almost the entire chapter.
I controlled my breathing, in then out, and gave the order.
Are we not going to find out right now what she asked the bugs to do? Alright, in that case, we’re almost certainly looking at a slow-working order that will come into play later on and successfully help Taylor and co. escape. In the meantime, we’ll be getting more personally acquainted with Bonesaw’s brand of terror.
This sounds like fun to me!
She drew a pair of forceps from beneath her dress, another two pairs of forceps were retrieved, joining the first.
Oh, so that’s how you spell that.
“And the back bone connected to the… knee bone. And the knee bone connected to the… hand bone.”
Sounds like a wonderful existence.
Has anyone made fanart of the being her song describes?
I was scared. I could admit that. I could barely think straight, I couldn’t move, and whatever she’d dosed me with was rendering me unable to use my power. It was there, it wasn’t like what Panacea had done; it hadn’t shut it down entirely.
Better hope you’re somehow resistant to drugs and venoms/poisons so it wears off before it’s meant to.
I could sense what my bugs did, and I could maybe give them crude instructions, but I couldn’t do anything even remotely complicated or delicate.
Hm, that’s more than I was expecting. Good, you may be able to do something uncomplicated and indelicate. Brute force it.
But yeah, that’s probably not the solution here, not on its own.
“And the neck bone connected to the-” She rocked her head to either side as she finished, “Head bone.”
So is she doing this on purpose? Singing the connections incorrectly, I mean? She’s getting some of them right, so I get the feeling that she’s just gotten used to odd connections to the point where she just sings it like that because she has no sense of it being incorrect anymore.
“With the shoulder bone connected to the,” she paused, “Hip bone…”
Dem bones, dem bones, dem – dry bones! 😀
…so I just looked at the Wikipedia page for the song (to make sure I was remembering the English lyrics right) and found out that it’s originally about a biblical scene (Ezekiel 37:1-14), and the full original lyrics carry a necromantic vibe even when you don’t separate it from the context that it’d be the Christian god doing the resurrections in question. That’s… darker than expected and super fitting for Bonesaw.
Also, in the second half of the song, the bones are disconnected, which bodes about as much ill for the Undertravelers as connecting them strangely.
Speaking of which I only just realized what Bonesaw was connecting. 😛
Who is she working on?
Bonesaw sang to herself as she drew a scalpel from her sleeve, investigated it, then laid it on the counter.
Ah, alright, just preparing.
“And the hip bone connected to the… back bone.”
That one’s actually in the song, except backwards.
Still, though, just with the shoulder-hip connection, this is already someone who’d probably not be very happy with their life.
By the way, intro posts take a while to write. We’re back to a sunny blue sky now.
There’s a lightning storm outside. Let’s read some Worm.
So! Last time, shit went downhill harder than a cross between a bicycle and a sailboat with a strong wind on its side.
Shit obviously doesn’t belong down there, so now Taylor and co. need to figure out a way to beat their paralysis before Bonesaw fucks them up too much, and ideally to convince her to fix one mr. Brian “living freezer room” Laborn, so they can transport the shit back uphill.
Yeeeah, this ain’t gonna be easy. The wind and the hill are against the sailcycle now, and it’s intent on picking the vehicle apart and reshaping it into something completely different, like a biboat.
My extensive use of this analogy may or may not have something to do with me having just been out biking against strong wind.
As for more specific predictions, I’ll defer to Pastwell:
The situation reminds me a lot of when Bakuda got her hands on the Undersiders, with our protagonists being paralyzed at the mercy of a crazed villain who intends to fuck with their bodies. The stakes are higher, though, because of how Bonesaw does things, and this time, I don’t think they’re coming out with just a concussion.
I do think at least three of them are going to make it out of this situation alive, not counting Grue, but there’s little chance this isn’t going to lead to permanent changes for at least one or two of the protagonists, unless they somehow manage to convince Bonesaw to fix things without using that to her advantage.
Which, incidentally, is the only way we could get Grue home.
Regent
isare out there still, but he has no reason to believe something’s wrong inside yet, so I doubt he’s going to be coming to their rescue. I suppose it’s possible that a stray light blast from Purity could cause an opening for the Undertravelers somehow.I’m guessing there’s either one or two chapters left in this Arc (not counting Interludes). The next one’s probably going to be horrifying and hilarious and I’m very much looking forward to it.
(See also this ask about whether Grue will live or not and a couple more long-term things. TLDR: His chances are really bad.)
In hindsight, I’m going to up the minimum survival number to four or five. And that’s still not counting Grue, so if he does survive, he doesn’t count against that.
Other than that, I don’t really have any other solid predictions. I just want to move on and see what creative way Taylor gets out of this one.
Let’s go!
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