Tag: chapter 12.8

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

My injuries and the general aches from running barefoot and fighting Mannequin had all melded together into one giant, stiff bruise.

This is how the name Bruce came to be. “Hi, I’m a bruise.”

It would be easier to name the parts of me that didn’t hurt.  My chest was the worst, each of my breaths drawing a stab of pain from the lowermost ribs of the right side of my body.

No wonder. She kept getting knocked back by hits to the chests, if I’m not mistaken.

It took me two tries to get up from my bed and stand.

Ow.

A quick investigation showed that bruises had spread across my abdomen, yellow and blue.

This reminds me of the aftermath of Hive.

Some careful prodding showed that the tissues beneath the bruises weren’t rigid or particularly tender.  That meant there was no serious internal bleeding, if I was remembering right.

Well, that’s good at least.

If this kept up, I was going to need another go at the first aid courses, to refresh my memory on the particulars and brush up on my skills.  February felt so very long ago.

A lot has happened since then, yeah.

So much had happened in the last few months.

Yes, Taylor, I already said that. :p

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

I hadn’t actually slept in for a long, long time.

…the conversation I was in during the minutes before I scrolled down to read this sentence:

image

(I’m “Member of the Midnight Crew” in this screenshot.)

It was not the start I wanted for my day. 

Ah, right. Taylor’s in the mindset where sleeping in is not a luxury, but a failure.

So it turns out we’re not following right on from the end of the last chapter. Due to the amount of immediate continuity between chapters recently, I didn’t actually consider that possibility.

I guess that means she went back to the Hive to recover.

I’d been too tired to sleep, I hadn’t been able to get my thoughts to slow down, and I hadn’t been able to resist just one more check of my territory to ensure people were safe and sound.

Checking if people are okay is Taylor’s version of checking her phone in bed.

I don’t know if that’s funny or just sad.

Compounding it all were my injuries, which did an excellent job of jolting me from the twilight of almost-sleep any time I moved the wrong way or shifted position.  When daylight had started to stream in through the slits in the metal shutters, I’d pulled a pillow over my head and tried to get just a few hours more.

I guess she must’ve managed it eventually, because at this point it doesn’t sound like she slept in.

If I wound up having to face down Mannequin or any other members of the Nine, I’d need to be well rested.  Running on two or three hours of sleep would get me killed.

…that’s probably true, yes.

It sure didn’t feel like the added sleep I got made any difference.

I think sometimes it’s worse to get a short sleep than a very short or no sleep, due to the sleep getting interrupted before it can properly end. Like turning off a computer without a soft shutdown, but for the sleep cycle.

Plague 12.8

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

I know the world can get ya down
Things don’t work out quite the way that you thought
Feeling like all your best days are done
Your fears and doubts are all you’ve got

But there’s a light, shining deep inside
Beneath those fears and doubts so just squash ‘em
And let it shine for all the world to see
That it is time, yeah, time to read Wo-orm!

Ah, ah, ah, ah – Wo-orm!
It’s time to read – this chapter!
Ah, ah, ah, ah – Wo-orm!
It’s time to read – this chapter!

…

Howdy!

Last time, Taylor broke a doll. Whoops!

This time, she’s probably going to be feeling the guilt of not having managed to save the four people Mannequin killed before she could stop him. But even with Taylor, it would be both difficult and excessive to fill an entire chapter with that, so other things are also going to happen. Which other things depends largely on where she’s headed now. Is she going off to her Hive? Seeking out Tattletale and/or Danny? Heading to a different part of her territory to help out there?

I think I’d prefer one of the first two options. The last one just sounds like it’d feel repetitive after 12.6.

No matter where she goes, it’s possible she’ll run into another Slaughterhouse member, though improbable. There’s only eight of them, and a big city. Effectively seven for this purpose, since we’re not running into Mannequin again so soon, and at least three of them are likely to not be anywhere near Skitter’s territory.

But yeah, much like Skitter right now, this chapter could go in a lot of different directions. I should probably just dive in and find out which one it takes!