Will Imp succeed in her espionage mission, or will she be captured or worse? Will Taylor get back to her territory in time to stop Mannequin? Does Jack Slash have a secret crush on Miss Militia?
We need answers, and fortunately,
Let’s read some Worm.
“Sam! Sam!” Celia’s voice was grating and nasal.
I’m pretty sure we don’t know a Celia – or at least don’t know that we know one – but do we know a Sam? I’m not really sure. I don’t think so, but it’s a common enough name that it ends up sounding familiar nonetheless.
I’m going to guess he’s a hero, though. Sam is a very heroic name.
Meanwhile Celia so far sounds like a somewhat annoying (to Sam) little girl. It would be entirely possible for this to be Bonesaw and another member of the Nine, but they seem to stick to their cape names (in the cases where there’s a difference) when talking to and about each other from what we’ve seen, with the exception of Jack reminding Mannequin about his old self. Besides, I feel like we’d have a description of Bonesaw’s voice earlier if this were her.
“I’m coming!” The heavyset man grumbled, as he made his way into the living room. Celia sat on the floor between the couch and the coffee table. The white of her t-shirt and panties was a stark contrast to her dark skin.
Definitely sounds like a kid, yeah.
Sam leered at the woman. She was good-looking for her age, slim, though her breasts sagged behind her shirt without the benefit of a bra.
…but apparently she’s not. Fair enough, I was basing that on almost nothing anyway.
I had to do something.
At least Skitter is the one here with a ranged power.
Calling on the bugs that had covered Lucy, I stirred up a cloud to grab Grue and Bitch’s attention, then pulled all of the bugs into the alleyway where Panacea and Mannequin were.
Wait, they were far enough away that they wouldn’t immediately notice Taylor getting pulled up by Mannequin, and/or hear him land?
The way I was hanging, with Manneqiun gripping my neck from the back, I had a vantage point to witness what came next. If my bugs weren’t enough of a signal to the others, Amy’s scream of pain was.
Fuck.
Mannequin caught up to her and plunged a knife through her hand, pinning it to the wall.
…am I the only one who’s reminded of stigmata here? Especially if it were to happen to the other hand too.
He left her like that, in enough pain that she couldn’t stand, but unable to drop to the ground because her hand was impaled. Turning, he faced the incoming stampede of Grue, Bitch and the four dogs.
STAMPEEEDE
While I struggled to escape, drawing my knife with my free hand while gripping the chain with the other, I sent my bugs in to assist. Same tactic as last time. My bugs drew out lines of silk and plastered them around him.
Let’s see how this goes. Taylor suggested that Mannequin would add countermeasures, and I doubt that line would even be there if she was going to just try this immediately and find out she was wrong.
I focused on his free hand and his legs, aiming to hamper his range of movement.
Something was different from last time. I wasn’t sure if I would have known just going by the naked eye. But I knew almost right away by the lengths of the silk I was drawing around him. His arms were bigger, and the weight of them was making his body hunch forward a fraction.
Both arms? I guess he added something to the one he kept too – he doesn’t seem the type to replace both arms just because he lost one of them.
I tried to scream, to call out a warning, but I couldn’t breathe to do it. I would have used my bugs to draw words, but the pair were moving too fast to read anything I threw their way.
Oh yeah, how is your oxygen supply doing?
I drove the knife at the hand that held me instead.
I’m not sure that’s going to do anything.
randomitemdrop: iguanamouth: anyway dont use any of these theyre not gonna work bonus reject design Item: cache of terrible weapons At least three of these, right in a row, remind me of Worm.
BANANA POWER, BANANA POWER, BANANA POWER
wait what?
uh
hi?
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Hi there! It’s time for some more Worm!
Last time, plans were laid, teammates were mixed, webs were spun and Imps were pissed off. Well, one at least.
This time, we may be focusing on getting Grue, Genesis and Bitch settled in or near the Hive, unless Wildbow decided what we saw at the end of the previous chapter was enough on that front. Hopefully there’ll also be some focus on getting to know Genesis. There’s also a decent chance we’ll be going on a tour of the nearby territories.
Alternatively, we might skip right ahead to Mannequin’s trap. There are eight Slaughterhouse testing rounds to get through unless something/someone interrupts the game, so we might see some faster pacing in order to get through it all.
The best way to find out is to jump in, so let’s go get ensnared by this next chapter of Worm!
(Using their ultra super powers, TATTLETALE, GLORY GIRL, and BITCH have dedicated their lives to FIGHTING CRIME and the FORCES. OF. EVIL!!!)
Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little Arc.
But Professor Wildbow accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction… Chemical Slaughterhouse!
Thus, ARC 13 OF WORM WAS BORN!
And it’s called…
Snare?
Interesting. In terms of its relation to bugs, that mainly makes me think of spiders and their webs. In a more (para)human context, that implies a trap of some kind, likely one that our protagonists are going to walk right into.
It’s also worth noting that we’re likely focusing on Mannequin and Cherish in this Arc, and Cherish’s power can be seen as her manipulating the webs of emotions and relations in people’s heads. She’s also been known to ensnare victims, like that one guy in her Interlude.
So, what are we in for this chapter?
Perhaps we’ll have Taylor going to check on Tattletale or her dad in person? Or maybe we’ll focus on her efforts to make things better in her territory?
Honestly, I really don’t know. First chapters of Arcs are almost as hard to speculate on as Interludes. I’m probably better off just jumping into it and seeing what’s up!
Arc 13, Snare. Let’s go. 🙂
My thoughts on BnHA are the exact same as yours. There is such a set up for something different and then it IMMEDIATELY plunges into generic shonen the first chance it gets. Sure, it deals well with character development, but that is only new TO SHONENS and people who mostly watch/read shonen. I REALLY tried to give it more chances though, but it just kept solving stuff without foreshadowing and there IS one “people who believe me give me power”-win that REALLY pisses me the fuck off. Dropped.
Yeah…
I don’t really want to come across as too harsh on the series. It’s decent for what it is, kept me binging for a little over a season, but it’s a bit disappointing after what the opening episodes seemed to be building up.
Apparently the original plan was to have Deku remain powerless and become a gadget hero, but the author couldn’t get it sold like that. A shame, honestly, I think the author would’ve been able to execute that very well.
“If you want a similar story about a powerless hero who stays powerless” you might also try Iris Zero, as long as we’re still talking about manga.
Noted! 🙂
I’m pretty sure there are already tons of stories with powerless heroes in a world where superpowers are a thing, or just heroes with very shitty powers who find ways to use them creatively (I recommend the book “Playing for Keeps” by Mur Lafferty if you like stories about shitty powers being used creatively). I’m not saying MHA is super original (though Loreweaver makes good points and I’ll be keeping an eye out for those themes) but “becoming a hero even though you’re powerless” isn’t either.
That is fair. I do think it’s a little more interesting, though.
And hey, guess what? Worm is arguably one of those stories about “heroes with very shitty powers who find ways to use them creatively”, at least borderline. In terms of raw power, bug control isn’t very strong (though it’s getting stronger) against most of Taylor’s enemies, but combining it with Taylor’s ingenuity and tactical skills (I’ve compared her to the leader of an army with good reason) makes it capable of taking down enemies like half-dragon Lung and Mannequin nonetheless.
She’s not the only one doing it, either. Skidmark, for instance, was fairly clever about how he applied his boost pads – a highlight being when he put it on his cape and used it defensively.
He wasn’t in the hallway. There wasn’t even debris from where he’d torn his way through yet another wall.
…huh. Maybe he’s working with someone who could help him escape?
She activated her power. Time seemed to slow down as she sped up. She snapped her head to look up and saw him in the middle of a leap over her head. He’d timed it perfectly, so he would be above her when she rounded the corner.
Damn, nice one. But with her power slowing down time for her (apparently tied to her speed? this might be inspired by relativity – maybe the speed of light is different for her or something), she might be able to react quickly enough.
Except she was faster, and she could hit harder than he could. Given a chance.
The momentum in her blows is affected by the slowed time because from an outside perspective, the blow is faster.
Her elbow caught him while he was still airborne, and unable to dodge. She slammed him into a wall, and followed up with a leaping kick while the effects of her power still coursed through her.
Sweet!
Madcap rebounded off of the wall as though he were made of rubber and ducked beneath her incoming kick.
Twisting around as he rose back to a standing position, he got a grip on her from behind in the same moment her foot hit the wall. Heaving, he hurled her down the length of the hallway.
TEAM JAMIE IS BLASTING DOWN THE HALL AGAAAAAAAAIN
Holding the head, I hauled back, pulling more chain from the neck. With one hard pull, I hauled half of his body in my direction, the exertion making every injury I had screaming in protest.
Another pull, and I dragged his body another half-foot back, but I got one or two feet of length from the neck-chain.
Suddenly an engine starts whirring, and a large, sharp propeller pops out the back of his torso and starts spinning rapidly. Around it, wheels show up too.
Skitter accidentally found out how to start Mannequin’s lawnmower mode.
Even with stuff gumming up the works, his chest clearly had stronger mechanisms inside it than the rest of his body did. The chain began slowly retracting.
I suppose that’s a natural result of it being larger, and the thing that pulls in most of his limbs.
Someone appeared behind me, and his hands gripped the chain, just a bit behind my own.
Ooh! A civilian deciding to help out?
It would be interesting if it turned out to be the patriarch, but that seems a bit far-fetched. For one thing, he has no obvious reason to come here, and for another, he’s shown no sign of such character development.
No, I think this is one of the civilians from the crowd.
Unless of course it’s Grue, but I’d imagine he’d be taking care of his own territory now, or of Tattletale, not randomly showing up in Skitter’s fight.
He added his strength to mine, and Mannequin’s body was dragged another two or three feet back.
TUG! OF! WAR!
TUG! OF! WAR!
TUG! OF! WAR!
Krixwell Liveblogs 