You’re not accounting for the relative Carrie factors. Taylor could resist temptation and keep herself from using her power on her abusers, but to what extent can we expect dogs to do the same? That said, I don’t think it would stop dog abuse entirely. That would just be unrealistic.
(By the way, that last post does not count for “looks up a word” on the bingo. Other than the exact duration of Julius Caesar’s reign, that was all stuff I already knew.)
Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Far more than “Heil Christ”, at least. “Kaiser” is the German word for “emperor”, and does have it’s origins in the name “Caesar”, which in its original Latin would be pronounced similarly (KYE-sar rather than English SEE-sar – compare with the German pronunciation of “Kaiser”, KYE-ser). Julius Caesar himself never officially […]
Tom is actually much more analogous to Draco Malfoy than bottle man is, by the way. Kid from supremacist family, tasked with proving himself by killing someone and trying to work up the courage to do so…
Bottle man, however, was the one who said “Kaiser will hear about this!”, though, so he’s the one who gets to be nicknamed after Malfoy. Them’s the breaks!
Bonding between Rachel and Taylor is kind of quiet and lowkey, but it’s still bonding. And this chapter had quite a bit of excellent Rachel-Taylor bonding. Taylor is beginning to understand Rachel better, and Rachel is beginning to respect Taylor more. It’s great on both ends. 🙂
And then there’s the encounter with Tom, Draco Bottlefoy and the other skinheads. Rachel showed her more level-headed side, which was cool, and then Taylor became a bug monster and scared the E88ers away, which was awesome.
…hm. We never did get an explanation for 83. Maybe it’s something one could look up, or maybe I’ll learn about it later in the story. We’ll see, I guess!
Next time, we’ll probably get to know what Brian has to say about what happened here, whether it’s through Taylor’s narration or actually getting to see the scene starting immediately after Taylor filled him in on what happened. Other than that, though, I have no idea what’s up next. The end of this chapter does seem like the end of Rachel-Taylor bonding time for now, though maybe I’m mistaken.
So… yeah. See you then!
I looked over my shoulder in the direction the skinheads had retreated.
“I’ll help,” I decided aloud. “I said I would, and you might need backup if they decide to come back in force.” Besides, I’d texted Brian to come, and he’d need a proper recap of what had gone on.
Yeah, better stick around.
She only whistled twice for her dogs to follow her back inside, glancing back to see they were still following. She looked at me, and I wasn’t entirely sure, but I thought maybe she didn’t look as angry as she usually did.
Development! 😀
She shook her head.
“I mean, maybe if I hadn’t come out, it wouldn’t have gotten violent.”
“He was working up the courage to shoot me,” she spoke. “It’s fine.”
Yeah, it might be a bit harder to get yourself to shoot an actual human than a humanoid mass of bugs, but he was getting close.
“What are you going to do?”
“What?”
“I mean, they’re going to come again. Maybe soon. Depending on what they say or who they complain to, there might be people with powers the next time around.”
“I’ll manage.”
Seems like an excellent time to accept help. Worth noting that Taylor is talking like it’s not really being offered – maybe she’s adjusting to the knowledge that Rachel would take that offer as an implication that she’s not capable of dealing with this herself.
Which… she might not be able to, but still.
“I know this is your space, I think it’s perfect, but maybe you should consider moving somewhere-”
Nah, she’s not backing down.
She gave me a hard look. “Do you want to get hit today?”
Hehe. Yeah, that was the wrong thing to say.
I shut my mouth.
“I’m going inside to pick up the shit. You can help, or you can go back. Doesn’t matter to me.”
As in the literal shit? The stuff she asked Taylor to pick up last chapter?
The two of them picking up the shit side by side like Taylor said last chapter would be a pretty good way to end this chapter, to be honest. It would be symbolic of the development of a certain respect between them that wasn’t there last time picking up the shit was discussed.
“Leave!” Bitch shouted.
Tom, still mindless with pain and fear, jumped at that command. He tried to pull himself to his feet and failed, falling to the ground again with a ragged scream.
😀
When he reached out, imploring his friends for help, the skin of his hands and face were almost completely covered in bugs and blood. It did a lot to help spook the rest into a retreat. Most of them fled.
Let me guess – bottle man stayed?
The bottle man cautiously moved forward to Tom’s side. I didn’t move from where I stood/crouched as he bent down to help Tom stand and limp away.
Did he walk away with the limping Tom, or did he help Tom stand up and then Tom limped away on his own as bottle man stayed behind?
“Fuck,” Bitch muttered.
“I’m sorry,” I said, “I hope I didn’t do anything wrong by stepping in.”
The former, then. It’s over… for now. As silly as it sounds, Kaiser will hear about this – and then there’s a good chance shit hits the fan. Or at least starts flying in slow motion towards it.
I left some of my bugs on and around Tom as I moved away from him. He screamed frantically and struggled to crawl away.
So to recap, this person (I’m not sure Tom can tell it’s a girl) made entirely of bugs enveloped Tom, stabbed him from the inside of their body, and left part of said body on him…
yeah, Tom is having a bad day.
It was more brutal an approach than I might have liked, but as I interpreted it, any effect I generated by injuring him like this, would hopefully prevent others from joining the fight, and would lead to less people getting hurt in the long run.
Yeah. That said, I’d feel no sympathy for Tom or any of the others (except maybe the twelve-year-old, who quite possibly doesn’t fully understand what’s going on) if Taylor were to hurt them more.
I didn’t like Kaiser’s followers, I had zero respect for them, but I didn’t want to see them torn apart by Bitch’s dogs.
That’s fair, though.
“This territory is ours,” Bitch growled at them, as people backed away. Brutus, Judas and Angelica were larger now, their skin split with bloody spikes of bone sticking out of the gaps. “Leave.”
“Kaiser will hear about this!” the bottle man shouted.
This was a really cool moment… and then bottle man went and reminded me of Draco Malfoy and suddenly it’s a lot sillier 😛
Still cool, though.
“Shoot, boy!” The man tightened his grip Tom’s shoulder.
Not gonna help if he keeps aiming for the “chest”…
The teenager obeyed, firing thrice more into the swarm, aiming too high to hit me. Two more shots struck where my chest would have been. The third passed through my fake ‘head’.
Getting colder, Tom, much like your blood.
Tom, his eyes wide in alarm, decided to change targets. He swung his arm to my right to point his handgun at Bitch.
…not good. Bullets aren’t going to pass through her… well, not without hurting her on the way, at least.
I lunged forward, drawing the knife and swinging it in one motion. I stabbed Tom in the thigh, as Bitch simultaneously evaded to one side. Through a combination of my attack, Tom having to adjust his aim and Bitch’s movements, the shot went astray.
Niice.
As Tom fell over, I collapsed the swarm on top of him. Avoiding touching him directly, I pulled the gun from his hand, retrieved my knife, and stabbed the point of the knife down on his palm to eliminate any possibility of him retaliating or grabbing for his weapon.
By not touching him directly, she keeps up the illusion that she doesn’t have a more physical body underneath the bugs.
On an impulse, I drew the knife across his forehead.
Hm. Okay, then.
According to Brian, cuts to the forehead were rarely serious, but they bled enough to looklike they were.
Ah, I see – another piece of intimidation without actually doing serious harm.
It was a fact that people that staged fights often played up, and a technique boxers used to blind their opponents with blood in the eyes.
Interesting. 🙂
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