“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…” He has read other liveblogs of Worm, so it’s definitely not out of the question. He’s probably at least aware of it, since it’s been posted in the subreddit.
Yeah! I got another ask after that comment that had a quote from Wildbow himself about my liveblog, so now I know for sure that he reads my liveblog, or at least did back when I was in Arc 3. 🙂
Its NOT Imp who controls Shadow Stalker. Regent is the one who controls her. He’s the one who always calls Taylor dork and back at the fight with Leviathan, he asked Tattletale if he can use his “secret weapon”. So, his secret weapon was the ability to control a human being ENTIRELY. You still don’t know Imp’s power.
*internally screaming* KRIX FOR FUCK’S SAKES
I particularly find it insane how off the mark you got in this entire chapter. You are usually so aware of some character traits, that it flabbergasted me when you missed entire syntax and foreshadowing hints throughout this chapter and ones before it. Its Regent. He has a “secret weapon”. He is the “most dangerous Master in town” the only member of the Undersiders worth watching out for. A true son of Heartbreaker, going by a different identity ever since he left home. He’s a body snatcher.
Sooo, Regent spent the last couple hours doing something to Sophia. Something that Sophia knew about from reading Regent’s file, and was completely terrified of, and something which Taylor was kind of uncomfortable with. Now at the end of the chapter we see Sophia acting exactly like Regent. Your conclusion from all of this is that IMP is controlling her???
Between Regent saying his secret weapon takes a long time to use, Piggot telling Weld that only one of the Undersiders’ Masters is of any real concern, Sophia not knowing Imp was with the Undersiders despite having access to what Piggot told Weld, Sophia freaking out when she realizes she’s helpless in front of Regent, and Sophia calling Taylor by Regent’s nickname for her right after laughing in the same cadence as him, why do you think it’s Imp and not Regent controlling Sophia at the end?
I know Shark is probably going to wait until you’ve figured it out before showing you this. Oh Krix… never change. Why would you even think it was Imp? I don’t know how Wildbow could have made things clearer. Shadow Stalker is mirroring Regent, same laugh, calling Taylor “dork”. It’s kinda nice to see you using that nogging of your to almost manage to figure out that you completely misinterpreted something though.
Okay so in my defense…
First of all, I did realize that it could be Regent controlling Sophia rather than Imp controlling both of them. It just took a little longer than it probably should – I caught on in the end of chapter post, which was literally the next post after “dork”.
Second, the chapter had been spending time on establishing Imp’s personality, and I was expecting to possibly find out her powers in that chapter, too. Mix that with my guess that the name reflected a penchant for mischief, and it’s not that far-fetched that if Imp’s power had been multiple-person body snatching, it could’ve been introduced in the form of Imp playing an ill-timed prank on everyone by taking control of Sophia. On top of all this, I had already suggested that body snatching could be a power of Imp’s.
Third, we’ve known Regent for a long time, and the only concrete thing I’m aware of that indicated he could be far more powerful than we knew was the whole “secret weapon” thing, which I had forgotten about.
Fourth, re: “most dangerous Master in town”, unless I’m missing something, that was first mentioned in 10.3, after we found out for sure that it was he who was controlling Shadow Stalker. Also, Piggot mentioned that only one of the Masters in the Undersiders was worth watching out for. At the time, it was entirely justified to think she was talking about Bitch or Skitter.
So yeah, I see how it might seem dumb in retrospect given the evidence that makes sense to you guys now, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to see something unprecedented happen and attribute it to the one whose power we don’t know yet rather than the one we’ve been following around ever since the end of Arc 2 and never seen anywhere near this level of power from.
To prevent my earlier ask from being blocked due to spoilers, I’ve split this into a second one. When Krix finishes this upcoming chapter, it may be a good time to remind him of Regent’s “secret weapon” mentioned in the Leviathan fight a couple of times (assuming he doesn’t remember it on his own). I missed that foreshadowing entirely on my first readthrough, and when reading through the blog I was really surprised to see WB dropping hints there.
Huh! I totally forgot about that.
Man, can you imagine if it had turned out Regent could take over Leviathan’s body…
Post 169522247914 is tagged “10.1” instead of “Chapter 10.1.” Sort of inconvenient if reading by chapter.
Fixed, thank you!
Yeah, it’s very helpful that you guys let me know when you discover errors like this, especially with the “#worm”, “#krixwell liveblogs”, “#arc X” and “#chapter X.Y” tags. It’s important to me that every post is included in the various chrono tags, except for some that won’t be much use archivally, like the #next posts.
(Relatedly, I’ve been thinking of changing my policy on Asks and chapter tags retroactively, which would involve me adding chapter tags to almost all the asks that don’t have them.)
So here’s a thought: When Imp’s power is in effect, does Grue forget about Aisha? Does he no longer know why he became a villain while Imp is doing her thing?
DRAMA! ACTION! Weird fetus cyborg thing??
This chapter had it all!
This was a good one, featuring a decent fight slash game of cat and mouse, betrayal, apparent plea for heel-face turn, sacrifice and weirdness.
It also set up some neat plotlines to go down, between the repercussions of Bitch trying to get Taylor arrested – whether the others believe Taylor or not (and they do have a solid lie detector on the team) – and Dragon trying to turn Taylor back to heroism and apparently intending to get in touch later.
Next time, Taylor’s probably got some choice words for Bitch. Also, we still need to get outta here – by the sound of it, the Protectorate has arrived, so might want to save the brunt of the arguing until you’re somewhere else. Doesn’t mean Bitch doesn’t deserve an immediate punching, though.
Until next time – sayonara!
Bitch.
…but apparently we don’t get to see that confrontation in this chapter.
So what the hell had I just seen?
Had that been someone who was physically affected by their powers? I wasn’t even sure if it was human.
A Horcrux, perhaps. Or maybe just an old Chinese person from Ranma ½. Seems about the right size, and then there’s the beak…
I had a growing, uneasy feeling that this wasn’t related to powers and trigger events in the conventional sense. I pushed it out of my mind. I had something more pressing to focus on.
…we did recently get an indication that such phenomena exist besides the Endbringers. I suppose that makes this a good time to introduce one such element, whatever the fuck it may be.
I set my foot on the bookcase, then stepped up and through the window to exit the building. I could see the others dispatching two members of the Protectorate.
Nice work, guys!
Tattletale hurried towards me, said something about the explosion, that she thought I’d be out by now. I barely registered it. My attention was on one person as I strode forward.
Bitch, right?
As hypocritical as it sounds after my reaction to Bitch’s outburst on the way in, this would be a good time to walk straight up and deliver a punch to the face.
It’s not the time, but still a good time.
It turned to look at me, then made a low mewling sound. The metal around it began to glow red-hot, then white-hot. Burns consumed the thing and the flesh changed to a charred black texture as the metal of the frame began to melt and dissolve.
I… think the mech just sacrificed its life?
And may have been a sort of cyborg??
Despite ostensibly being controlled remotely by Dragon???
Whatever had happened with the Dragonslayers, it seemed Dragon was dedicated to eliminating all traces of her work when her suits were damaged.
Heh, yeah, that makes sense.
But was that Dragon?
No. She’d seemed to know she was sacrificing her suit, but she’d also said she was going to get in contact with me in the future. I backed away, then ran for the window.
Yeah, this isn’t the Dragon you’re looking for.
Also, something that just occurred to me: How does Dragon expect to get in touch with Skitter?
I suppose when she’s this good with computers, she has her ways.
The vapor had melted enough foam that I could pull myself free and stand. I got five paces away before the whine ceased. A second later, lightning began to spill from the gun in overtime. Dragon’s body served to block the vast majority of it, but a few arcs slipped through the cracks in her body.
…are we sure she’s in there? Maybe she makes something resembling a nervous system enough to fool Regent’s power?
I guess we’ll find out if this breaks the mech apart.
The full meaning of her words struck me the moment the gun detonated. A large portion of her suit was destroyed, as was one of the limbs. Dragon fell to one side.
Ouch.
She’d saved me?
Regent had said Dragon was inside, piloting it, hadn’t he? I stepped closer, trying to see if she was okay.
I suppose maybe Dragon wasn’t so much deliberately letting Taylor go as she was aware of the chance that this would lead to her getting away?
And yeah, she saved you… kinda what heroes do, even when the people being saved are villains. Well, some heroes.
Regent was right. There was someone – something – in the suit of armor.
It looked like a fetus, the features were crude, barely humanoid in any sense of the word.
…huh.
Is this Dragon, deformed by her power? Or is it something she made, perhaps specifically to fool powers like Regent’s?
The eyes were half-formed, and it had no nose, only a beak-like mouth.
The head was half-again as large as the body below the neck. Wires wove in and out of orifices.
What the hell have you been doing, Dragon?
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