In Insinuation 2.6 Taylor compares Regent’s and Bieber’s looks.

Ahaha, right, that was it!

Let’s see…

The smaller and younger of the two guys – about my age – was undoubtedly Regent.  I recognized the mop of black curls.  He was a good looking guy, but not in a way that would make me say he was handsome.  He was pretty, with a triangular face, light blue eyes and full lips pulled into a bit of a scowl.  I pegged him as having French or Italian heritage. I could see where he would have girls all over him, but I couldn’t say I was interested, myself.  The pretty boys – Leonardo Decaprio, Marcus Firth, Justin Beiber, Johnny Depp – had never done it for me.

Ah, yes, there we have it. With the same misspelling of Bieber’s name, too – that’s why blog search missed it, I suppose, since I didn’t think to search for “Beiber”.

Re: Weld and social situations. In 9.3, we are in Clockblocker’s head, and he didn’t like Weld. It seems like the things he says and does are awkward or annoying because the POV character didn’t like him (yet). Vista seems to respect Weld, so he seems more personable in 9.5.

True that. Gotta watch out for the biases caused by POVs.

Here’s an interesting thing that was pointed out in a different readthrough: The chapters in this arc were loosely based on the five stages of grief. Weld’s chapter represents Denial about how bad things really are. Clockblocker’s chapter represents Anger. Kid Win’s is Bargaining, in the sense that his chapter is focused on “what could I do differently to prevent bad things from happening?” Vista’s represents Depression.

And Shadow Stalker’s is Acceptance of what happened (in her own weird, twisted way). The only one that doesn’t quite fit is Flechette, but you could interpret her chapter as being about being disconnected and looking for connection, which isn’t officially a stage of grief but still kind of fits with the theme. (This last one was pointed out by Wildbow himself in a reddit thread for that readthrough.)

Ooh, that’s a really neat point. And it’s fitting that Flechette is the odd one out, as a temporary member with no personal connection to the main two people being grieved in this Arc and the city pre-Leviathan.

Also, with that last bit about Wildbow commenting on a readthrough, I can’t help but wonder if he’s aware of my liveblog, or even reads it… That’s a somewhat… scary? thought? But I’d also be honored… I don’t know, really, how to feel about it. I do know that if I’d written a work that got liveblogs of it, I’d be reading them, though.

So, Wildbow, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re enjoying the ride. I certainly am, and that’s all thanks to you! I’m sorry for doubting you from time to time – every time I’ve done so in the past, you’ve proven me wrong.

Yes spider is related to spindle but it is way less obvious, since the English language dropped the -n- and kept the -d- when referring to the animal. But dropped the -d- and and kept the -n- when referring to the activity. So you end up with the tool: “spindle”, the animal: “spider” and the activity “spinning”. Most Germanic languages ( I’m going to use German as an example) dropped the -d- when referring to both the animal and the activity: Spindel, Spinne und Spinnen.

Ah, nice!

“Incidentally, how do you guys feel about autistic Weld?” I don’t think he is. His trouble meshing with the Wards team isn’t really because of poor social skills, it’s because he’s unprepared for how bad things are (and a bit of bad luck). We’ve already been told he’s immensely popular with the public. That has to have included meet ‘n greets.

Yeah, that’s a good point. Also, he showed himself in 9.5 to be far better at this stuff once he’d actually gotten settled in a bit.

There’s probably far more gang members in the ABB than were actually present in Gestation, given how they like to forcibly recruit any Asian people they come across. Even more if you count the random students being forced in at school.

Ah, yeah, fair enough. We do know that went up when Bakuda took charge and the ABB got a lot more forceful about that recruitment than they already were, though.

The competing names for Skitter/Clockblocker are Tick Tock and Clockroach.

Re: “Time Flies could work as a ship name for Clockblocker/Skitter.” Sorry, the one and only best name for this ship is Clockroach.

Those are both fantastic. 😛

“I’d be hard pressed to find an actual first name that sounds more patronizing to address someone by than Missy.” I work with someone named Missy. It’s just another name.

Oh yeah, there’s nothing wrong with the name itself. It’s just that it’s a normal name that happens to sound exactly like a term of address that Vista probably wouldn’t appreciate to be called if it wasn’t her name.

This ain’t the first time the Beebs has been mentioned in the story

Oh yeah, now that you mention it, didn’t Taylor’s narration mention him at some point early on?

Blog search doesn’t find it, but it does tend to be especially unreliable with the early parts of the story for some reason.

“Can I just say? This scene would be kinda uncomfortable in any sort of video format, even with respectful camera angles.” Another liveblogger straight up skipped reading/commenting on that section.

Skipping is not something I’d do, especially while liveblogging, but I can absolutely see why someone might decide to under these conditions.