That’s all the asks I got today – way fewer than I was expecting after the two days I postponed the last ask session by – but there’s one more thing:
I was also told that there’s a “detail [I’ve] missed that’s REALLY BIG” that Sharks was unsure whether to send me an ask about.
Judging by the fact that she didn’t send it to me, I guess she, well, decided not to send it, but I nonetheless wanted to acknowledge that I’m aware there’s something.
Re: Shatterbird vs the Crystal Gems – Wildbow has said that Shatterbird doesn’t make grasses which contain silicon explode because of (her version of) the Manton Effect. It wouldn’t surprise me if Gems are covered as well. (Although they’d still have a really hard time with her – remember that sand-controlling pillow?)
I suppose that’s fair. Although we’re once again back to whether it’s organic vs inorganic or alive vs dead, which seems to depend on either the person or the power (Weld is unaffected by powers that exclude either side of organic vs inorganic despite definitely being alive, so we know powers like that exist, but Faultline was able to cut dead wood but not living wood, both of which are organic) – in the former case, grass counts but Gems don’t.
But yeah, the Desert Glass is absolutely relevant, and Shatterbird’s sand control seems to be vastly more powerful.
(I actually tried to find a video of the Desert Glass fight to use in this post, but couldn’t find a good one.)
“How about Trainwreck, is he around now that the team he was undercover in has been pretty much obliterated?” Oh Krix. Look at that sentence and you should be able to connect the dots. Also if you search Jack’s interlude, we see Siberian go against Trainwreck. Pretty sure there is a mention of Siberian stepping away from the gutted power armor afterward too.
I mean, I did deliberately let the word “around” have a double meaning in that sentence. I was simultaneously asking whether he was in the room and whether he was even alive.
As for that last part, that’s fair. I guess I didn’t really put that together at the time, and forgot Trainwreck was mentioned. It seems I was focusing more on the glass shards.
Would you consider doing a meta liveblog once you finish? It wouldn’t need to be thorough or anything but seeing some reactions to the stuff you got either eerily right or hilariously wrong (or in some cases both at once) would amuse me.
I’m absolutely the type who’d naturally end up going back and rereading my own liveblog at the end and occasionally commenting on it on the blog, so sure, why not make that a little more official? Might help me get through the reread, too, like the liveblog is helping me get through Worm without doing my usual thing where I binge, lose interest for a while, binge, lose interest for a while, rinse and repeat.
This is shallow and unimportant, and not really worth talking about, but I’m doing it anyway because I’m a salty manga fan. As someone who finds MHA very overrated, I quite appreciate your perspective on it. I find that, in the way you described and in many more ways beyond that, it could have been unique but ends up playing into the tropes in a way that’s not inherently bad, but is just very standard, average, and kind of forgettable.
Yeah, that’s about how I feel about it. It’s not bad, for what it’s trying to be, but after the first couple episodes it’s not really trying to be anything particularly… special.
One of the sections in interlude 12b has been mislabelled as interlude 11b. The post that starts with: The pain didn’t stop, but she felt disconnected from it, now. She was calmer, focused. She felt as though she were adrift in a vast, empty space, aware of every part of her body, the wholeness of it, and nothing else.
Fixed, thanks!
The post was missing a reference tag, too, which I added while I was at it.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in the main chapter thoughts post:
Taylor’s being more reluctant than ever to acknowledge any of her own accomplishments as something positive. I think that will be something of a throughline in this Arc – hopefully she can come around a bit on that by the end.
This was a fairly good planning chapter. We got implicit confirmation that Coil is still looking out for his subordinates, a mix-and-split tactic that’s going to let us get to know Genesis a bit better, a bit of conflict between Grue and Imp that I think will be interesting going forward, and a look at the growth in Skitter’s ranks!
Meanwhile, Mannequin is sneaking around Taylor’s territory, and he doesn’t have much time to waste. Taylor suspects he’ll resort to a trap, and between the title Snare and biosphere being meant to contain things, I think she’s right. Perhaps we’ll see that take shape within the next two chapters.
Next time, however, the focus may be on getting the new temporary residents of the Hive situated, possibly going on a tour of the territories, and maybe showing more of Genesis’ personality. (We saw some of that this time, though not enough that I really commented on it – she seems fairly upbeat, though, which I like.)
So yeah! See you soon for the next chapter!
He set a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll make it.”
Speaking from the perspective of someone who had gone toe to toe with these guys, I wasn’t so convinced.
At least you won that. It was hard, and it’s definitely not going to be easy to make it through eight rounds, but you proved that it’s possible to beat them.
When we were done, we faced seventy-two hours of the same thing. We’d be that much more tired, that much more likely to make a mistake. Then we’d have to do it again. And again, and again. Eight rounds in total.
Ah, okay, she didn’t forget about that.
All in all, barring Bitch being eliminated or some time serious bonuses or penalties happening, it adds up to 23 days of nonstop terror.
From my altercation with Mannequin, I knew we wouldn’t make it through even the first few encounters without some loss, some injury or casualty. By the time the eighth round of testing rolled around, what kind of condition would we be in? What condition would my territory be in?
Almost certainly not a good one.
You’re probably much better off if you can end this before it gets that far.
I’d initially seen Tattletale’s deal with Jack as a good thing, a miniscule chance at success, with some drawbacks and negative points.
I didn’t, but Jack went for a more fair approach than I ever expected, so I’ve turned around on it somewhat. But maybe I was just seeing some of the problems Taylor didn’t at the time?
The more I dwelled on it, the more daunting it seemed.
“You okay?” Grue asked me.
“A little spooked,” I admitted.
The main benefit of the deal is that this will be less immediately intense and more based on stamina. Without it, the Nine would be testing on top of each other, whereas this adds structure and a bit of time for the candidates
to rest
between each test.
Well, there’s that and the Slaughterhouse Nine allegedly leaving the city if they lose, and leaving excess candidates alive.
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