I think you are still underestimating Siberian. Remember that Leviathan hit Alexandria directly several times during his arc, but all that happened was that she got knocked around with no actual injuries. When Siberian hit Alexandria with a glancing blow, her eye-socket shattered as effortlessly as anything else Siberian attacks. Leviathan also got knocked down by Alexandria, while Siberian no-sells her attacks. Leviathan is only more dangerous because he is harder to dodge and hit more people.

Yeah, sheesh.

Monochrome Siberian really is not to be trifled with, and while it’s certainly not as ridiculously powerful, I’m not sure their real body is as defenseless as it might seem.

Oh, and re: “Leviathan also got knocked down by Alexandria” – that was awesome. Let’s have a moment of appreciation for the woman who wrestled an Endbringer and survived.

“I forgot Aisha” Of course.

Yeah. 😛

Introducing Imp to the team late and without us getting to see her joining the team was the best thing that could happen with a character with her power. It makes it so much easier for the reader to forget her while listing the Undersiders in their head, at least for a while, and as such she easily slips out much like she does for the people around her. It immerses the reader in the way her power affects people!

So, what’s your best guess as to who picked which page number in 14.1? Also, any speculations on what this big secret that’s worthy of the 325 is? Remember that’s pretty close to “someone here would kill you and the rest would be okay with it” level. What do you think someone in the Undertravelers might be hiding that’s bad?

Well, I was pretty sure the 26 was Aisha, but it seems she’s snuck out at some point.

I suppose it could’ve been someone else who didn’t cooperate (such as Bitch), but I feel like Lisa would’ve probably prompted the person in a way Taylor would’ve heard.

Another possibility is that Lisa herself didn’t participate, I suppose. Which would raise the question of why. She seemed more than fine going through with talking to Cherish, so I doubt it’s that she has her own 300+ she didn’t want to let people know about.

Anyway, to the question. Let’s assume Aisha fucked off for some reason (or just remained unnoticeable during literature club) and look at the rest of them.

  • 26: Bitch, who seems to have the least interest in secrecy besides Imp. She doesn’t even keep her identity secret, and I feel like that’s saying something about her general approach to such things.

  • 122, 140, 141, 155: By process of elimination, Grue, Sundancer, Ballistic and Genesis, in no particular order. (Though it might be something like that one.)
  • 160: Confirmed Skitter.
  • 175: Tattletale, perhaps. She may not have a 300+, but I’ve been getting the sense that she has Secrets™ recently.
  • 222: Confirmed Regent.
  • The big 325: All signs point to Trickster. Especially considering he pretty much answered Tattletale’s question about the Travelers being fine with the Undersiders finding out stuff but not the other Travelers – heavily implied to be specifically about the 325 – all alone.

I’m thinking the 325 probably has something big to do with the Travelers’ backstory. It’s very possible that Trickster (or whoever else has this one) is personally responsible for getting them all in trouble – possibly with Cauldron – but hasn’t told them, maybe even deliberately letting the common threat keep them together so he’d have allies that could protect him.

Alternatively, it might have to do with Noelle. I believe there have been implications that Trickster feels guilty / Noelle might blame him to some extent. Maybe the 325 is that yes, it is his fault? He doesn’t seem to act like he’s hiding that he actually knows the cause, though, and he’d probably be able to trust Coil with that information.

Hey Krix – count how many numbers were listed when the book pages were read off. Then count how many people should have been in the room. 

…fuck.

Aisha, what are you doing this time?

“Slå på ring …"—Is this Norwegian hot potato or something? I understood most of the words, but I have no idea what it actually means.

I put a short explanation in the tags of that post, but I can’t blame anyone for missing that.

You’re on sort of the right track, but it’s not hot potato, it’s a Norwegian variant of duck duck goose.

Strike on ring, strike on ring
Strike whoever you want
Strike your boy-/girlfriend* if you want
The one you strike, you strike so hard, so hard, so hard…

The ring in question is the one the players sit in. One player walks around the ring as the people in it sing this. They repeat the bit that means “so hard” until the person on the outside hits someone in the back, who then has to get up and try to catch the first person before they make it around and sit down in the newly opened spot.

image

So technically, this is a children’s song about violence. Fun!

Any new thoughts on the Siberian Bonesaw relationship?

Ehh. I guess this means Siberian’s affection for Bonesaw might count as paternal rather than maternal, but beyond that…

I mean, when it comes to the other option, this changes just about nothing. It’d be just as pedophilic if Siberian had a vagina as if they had a dick. (Incidentally, she apparently doesn’t, unless manifesting genitals takes more power for some reason.) The one thing it does change is whether they’d be able to make Bonesaw pregnant.

This does make me think, though – does Bonesaw know? Has she installed her protections on Siberian’s real body?

Also, I suppose there is the more wholesome possibility that Siberian actually is Bonesaw’s biological parent. I don’t see a connection between their powers, though, so I doubt it.

Oh yeah, one more prediction for Prey: I suspect one or more of the minor protagonists is/are going to die to Siberian, or at least get mauled. Maybe even one of the major protagonists. This would mirror the Case 01 video, perhaps even closely.

krixwell-liveblogs:

It’s true that Earth Bet has a little less homophobia than our world (a lot thanks to Legend himself) but there are states where gay marriage was legal even in our world at the time the story is set. Remember that the US does a lot on the state level so looking at national level policies can be misleading.

WoG is that Legend being openly gay as a top hero helped a lot with these issues, which would probably include gay marriage being made legal sooner, though things still aren’t perfect and homophobia still exist.

Huh, that’s pretty neat!

And yeah, of course it’s not going to be perfect. This is still Worm, after all. 😛

Krix please consider what the psychological impact of having your organs and nerves methodically torn out and draped across a room would be.

Throughout your read I was having my doubts but now I am a little bit more sure. I think you are underplaying just HOW MUCH trauma Brian went through. Its not just the hours of literally impossible inhuman torture, but being made to watch as your whole team/family member you consider highly get caught, then starting surgery on one, and proceeding to decide to just torch them as you can’t do anything to stop it. Going on an emotional tirade is the least to be expected

Yeeah, fucking hell, he needs all the hugs. Honestly, he’s handling it surprisingly well.

I do have a tendency to underplay this kind of thing, that’s true, though I think some of what probably came across as underplaying was more me trying to consider all the possibilities. I repeatedly mentioned how his change could be a result of his new power and didn’t make it clear enough that I thought that this and way more would be justified as simply a result of the trauma.

In fact, I don’t think I would’ve liked it as much if it had turned out it was his new power doing it. It would diminish the impact of his trauma in much the same way it seemed like I was doing by suggesting that could be the case. I just felt the need to acknowledge the possibility.

“Cupcakes is quite brutal even by Worm standards…” -Krixwell, 2 April 2018 Can you appreciate the cackling from Worm fans at this line (and your liveblog of Cupcakes in general), knowing this arc was coming up?

Pfft. Yeah, now that you mention it, the Undertravelers being in Bonesaw’s clutches was quite reminiscent of Cupcakes, even if it didn’t go anywhere near as far, and Brian’s… condition… was similar to something you might find in Cupcakes fanart or Fluttershy’s shed.