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Plague 12.7

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Howdy! Welcome back to the liveblog! 🙂

Last time, Skitter did an excellent job organizing the relief efforts in the immediate wake of the Shattering in her territory, right up until Mannequin stopped by to unorganize them again. Even if he’s chased off now, he’s killed at least four people, probably more, including the paramedics, so he’s already put a serious spanner in the works for the relief efforts after he’s gone.

Now Skitter is pissed. Well aware that Mannequin’s power offers him a potentially even stronger advantage over her bugs than all the other enemies who were strongly defended against them had, she’s still challenging him to “make him regret” what he’s been doing.

I want to clarify that while I used this at the end of the last chapter:

image

…that was just to represent Skitter’s attitude. I do not think it will actually end in death for Skitter or even Mannequin, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Mannequin takes out a couple more civilians while ignoring Skitter’s attacks.

One thing’s for sure: In order to have any chance of winning this (on her own, anyway, but backup ex machina here would be less acceptable than it was in Gestation, where it counted more as setup – if anyone’s going to help, it should probably be one of the civilians or Charlotte), Skitter is going to need to be clever. I’m sure she has what it takes to come up with an effective strategy here, though I’m not clever enough to think of one myself at the moment. It’s not like we didn’t know Skitter is smarter than me in many ways. 😛

I’m looking forward to seeing what she comes up with, so without further ado, let’s go play with our action figures!

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In an alternative universe, bonesaw is known as franken fran

Ahaha, looks about right!

This manga seems like a lot of fun, I think I might read it. 🙂

And hey, look who else makes an appearance:

It’s Buzz 7.3 Skitter!

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Hundreds of people at a time.

It dawned on me as worked through each bedroom in each apartment: I doubted there were five other people in the world, cape or not, who could multi-task like I was.

Heh, yeah, Taylor can be pretty damn efficient that way. I suppose the massive extent to which she can do it at this point does point to it being a part of the power.

It had to be a side-benefit of my power.  My consciousness divided a hundred ways, problem solving, performing complex tasks for a hundred different scenarios at once.

Almost like she’s a hivemind with the swarm, huh.

Once each person was awake, I had to warn them.  But that wasn’t simple – apartments without power didn’t have light, either.

Ah, right.

Got any fireflies in there?

For many, I could put the bugs on the window and spell out words with their silhouettes, but there were people with blinds and curtains that would obscure that.

See, this is one of those cases where if I’d been reading my own comments as part of the audience, I’d be quoting this:

TC: can’t it be motherfuckin
TC: BOTH THINGS.

It’s incredible how often this is applicable when following along with a liveblog, honestly.

I forced myself to use the bug’s sensory inputs, to seek out the biggest patches of light and warmth in each room where a person was being woken up, so the bugs could cluster in those spots and hopefully be seen.

Ooh, following up on that plot thread from 12.3 in a very constructive way, nice!

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A couple friends sent these images in our Discord server:

…and since I was already in a headspace set on “Worm and image editing”, I couldn’t help myself.

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And then he turned to leave.

I looked down at Tattletale.  Her eyes were closed.  My hands felt like two blocks of stone where I had them pressed to her injury; rigid, heavy, unable to move.

See ya, Jack.

So, let’s see what we can do for Tattletale and/or the people of Skittertopia. Is Doctor Cleese available?

“I don’t know what to do,” I said, barely audible to myself.  I looked up at Grue and said, louder, “I don’t know what to do.”

He didn’t have an answer for me, but he bent down to check on Tattletale.

So, if forced to choose… would Taylor go for helping Tattletale, or the people of her territory?

On one hand, Taylor is genuinely concerned about the safety of the many. On the other hand, the person bleeding out before her is her best friend. And the trolley is on its way,

I honestly have no idea, except that I don’t think Tattletale is going to die here. So with that in mind, I guess she’s going to focus on Tattletale, or not have to make the choice thanks to the fact that there are other people around her who can take Tattle to Dr. Q while Taylor heads off to warn as many people of Brockton Bay as she possibly can, in and out of her territory.

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I felt Tattletale move.  Her hand was fumbling at her belt.  Was she going for the gun in the largest pouch?  No.  A pouch near there, just as long, but thinner.

Hmm…?

Removing something made of glass, maybe?

“Sundancer,” I hissed, “Help her.”

Sundancer did.  There were pens in the pouch.

Right.

“Help her find the paper,” I said.  Jack and his team had wrapped up and were walking away.

Ahh, I see, a message. I suppose she can’t exactly use her face to talk right now.

It was a notepad barely larger than a pad of post-its.  Tattletale took the pen that Sundancer held for her, clasping it in a closed fist.  She scrawled out one word.  ‘Deal’.

…what? Deal… with it? Make a deal?

Then she looked up at me, her eyes wide.

“No,” I whispered.  “We have to get you help, and I have to go warn-”

Oh, could she tell what dilemma Taylor was in?

Also that better not be “deal” as in “deal the finishing blow”. Probably better ways to write that, though.

She stabbed at me with the pen and clenched her teeth against the back of my hand, which must have caused her incredible pain.  I wasn’t sure if it was her pain and mine, but Cherish turned and gestured for Jack, who was already walking way, to stop.

She might’ve also sensed the despair caused by the dilemma.

“A deal,” I called out, “I don’t-”

Sundancer had ripped off the first sheet, and Tattletale was writing the next message.

What do you have in mind here, Tattle? This better be good, you’re not exactly in prime condition to be doing this if you don’t think it’s important.

I swallowed, “She wants to know what happens if… if more than one person is left at the end.”

Oh yeah, that’s a question I asked a while back. Askers told me in that scenario, there’d probably been opened another slot during the tests, but that can’t always be the case.

“We pit them against one another,” Jack said.

Ah. Well, that makes sense. That was how I initially thought the whole thing was going to go.

The next word- I could barely make it out.  ‘Game’.

Deal… game… what, are you challenging the reaper or something?

“She, um.  I think she wants to play a game?”

image

You’re welcome.

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“Which leaves Cherish and Bonesaw,” Grue said.  “We’ll have to trust Regent to give us the details on Cherish.”

Regent nodded and tapped his finger against his chin, “My sister.  I don’t know if you could call her a third bishop or a knight.  Long range on her power, gets stronger as she gets closer.  Affects your emotions and as far as I’m aware, there’s no way to defend against it or to take cover.

I mean, a bishop and a rook aren’t all that different, really, though a rook has more access to the board and is usually better defensively.

If she decides she wants to hurt you or make you hurt yourself, she can find you and she’ll make it happen.”

Yeeah, she’s pretty scary.

“But she has no special defences,” Grue cut in.  “She’s vulnerable to pretty much any knife, gun or power we can hit her with.”

That’s the one part where the idea of putting her as a rook falls apart, but the rook isn’t all that much more defended than the bishop, really. The idea that rooks are tough defensively is just fluff.

“Can we gang up on her?” Sundancer asked.

“She can affect multiple people at once,” Regent said.  “So it’s not that easy.”

Trouble, that.

“That means we have to beat her at her own game,” Trickster mused, “Track her, beat her in long-range warfare.”

CARGO CONTAINER SNIPE

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“He has nine powers on his team,” Hookwolf responded.  “Ideology isn’t important.”

That’s fair. We need all the powers we can get against the Slaughterhouse.

“He doesn’t have an ideology.  He’s just an idiot.”

Faultline going for the kill with every word she speaks.

“Enough of that,” Hookwolf snarled, his voice hard with a sudden anger.  “We don’t fight amongst ourselves.  Not on neutral ground.  Both of you shut the fuck up.”

Yeah, good. ORDER IN THE COURT!

Faultline shook her head and leaned over to whisper something to Shamrock.  The Merchants settled themselves on the side of the roof opposite our group.  Skidmark gave Grue the evil eye.

Oh? …ohh, is he still annoyed that Grue got to sit at the table last time and he didn’t?

Was he still resentful over what had happened at the last meeting?  Being denied a seat at the table?

Well, this time you’re in luck, Skidmark: There’s no table!

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“Good luck,” I told them, grabbing two black clipboards with attached notepads and handing them over.  “Come back around noon, we’ll eat, and you can give me an update on how things are going.”

Have fun!

“Will do,” Sierra replied.

My minions moved on to their morning’s tasks.  I headed back upstairs and finally let myself breathe.

Minions… I still think “drones” would be a fitting title, but I guess that would explain the salary.