Looks like there’s still a fair bit left, and it’s past 1 AM, so I think it’s time to stop for the night. See you tomorrow!
(Chrono link for chapter 9.4, part 1)
(Chrono links for chapter 9.3, since I did 9.3p2 and 9.4p1 back to back. Note also that I answered some asks between parts 1 and 2 of 9.3.)
Weld spoke, disturbing him from his thoughts, “I just got a message. PRT is on their way. We head back now.”
Oh right, I forgot they were still here, in the corpse house. I kinda got lost in Kid’s thoughts too.
Hearing the unenthusiastic replies of his teammates, Kid Win realized that the rest of the team wasn’t in any better of a mood than he was. Losing had a way of doing that.
Yeah, that’s fair.
Please don’t blame yourself for the others feeling bad, though. 😦
Strangely comforting.
Not exactly where I thought that might go, but I can see it. Misery loves company.
■
Scene change!
He wasn’t the worst hero ever, he knew that. He had things he could do. He could let the worries and the dozens of unfinished projects alone, most days. That changed when his team got thrashed.
Oof. Sounds like a motivating force at best, but at worst… let’s just say ADHDers are prone to depression.
Thoughts like that had been plaguing him since the Endbringer event a week ago. He couldn’t shake the notion that he was in the running for the weakest member of the team.
To be fair, there’s not that much competition for that title anymore.
The notion that he was dumb, second-rate. That this loss, here, was his fault, because he had dropped the ball.
Poor Kid.
The people of this city deserve a better hero, a more focused one.
Ouch.
So, uh…
I’m quite convinced Wildbow has AD(H)D now. That, or knows people who do and consulted them thoroughly. Because this is all damn accurate and covers ADHD problems you don’t usually see in fiction. I am very grateful to him for this representation.
His Alternator Cannon was the real gem. It had been the result of a medication the PRT’s doctor had prescribed, which he’d been forced to stop after two weeks when he began to get increasingly dizzy, anxious and nauseous.
Sorry, dude, but it really does sound like you legitimately have ADD.
While he’d been taking the pills, he’d been focused, had a glimpse, maybe, of what he could do if it weren’t for his distractibility and daydreaming. When Piggy had spoken of destroying the thing, the mere thought had been crushing.
Oof, yeah. That would hurt a lot.
Then Leviathan had destroyed it for real, maybe the only truly brilliant thing he’d be able to make.
For fuck’s sake, Leviathan!
I’m counting this as a death, like with the Boardwalk and the Protectorate HQ. This gets a #dang it timmy.
Rest in piece, Alternator Cannon, a.k.a.
“Tiro Finale”.
He harbored fears it might even the only brilliant thing he’d ever be able to make.
😦
There were exceptions. He’d finished bigger projects. His hoverboard, driven by the idea of how awesome it would be to fly. Even then, it had been a chore. Monumentally stupid of him to dismantle it. The idea and motivation driving the action had been good: he was graduating the Wards in a little while, he’d be expected to change his name and adjust his methods, because an adult calling himself Kid Win was lame.
Heh, true. Any thoughts on what you’ll call yourself later? Mister Win? Adult Win? Dude
Victory? Guy Fieri?
He’d had an idea about a harness with a floating array of turrets that could fire different munitions depending on what gun he holstered in the main slot.
Ooh, that sounds awesome.
Self adjusting and adaptive the way his Alternator Cannon was. Except he’d gotten frustrated at a snag in the testing, put it down to take a break and hadn’t picked it up again in six days.
Relatable.
Also I still like the name Tiro Finale better than Alternator Cannon. 😉
His hoverboard had effectively been destroyed for no reason, when it might have made the difference in getting the Travelers into custody.
What a shame. 😦
So when a Tinker finds out what their special talent is, do they get it branded on the sides of their buttcheeks?
The PRT staff insisted he was exceptional with antigrav and guns, had it even marked in his file, but he knew it wasn’t so true. He finished his guns because they were simple, in their own way.
I see. They don’t take too long to make, so he stays on task long enough to do it?
It was easy enough to take three half-finished gun projects and mash them together. Create something with multiple settings, even.
Take three half-finished gun projects, mash them together, and get 1.5 guns in one.
As far as he was aware, he was the only Tinker in the PRT’s records that didn’t have a defined specialty, gimmick or trick.
Huh. Maybe that means he hasn’t found his thing yet, and would turn out to be even better at tinkering once he did so.
He was increasingly worried that his special talent as a tinker was being able to occasionally make something despite his learning disability. Which would suck, if it were true.
Ouch, yeah.
The dyscalculia was something concrete that he couldn’t deny or explain away. He couldn’t keep numbers in his head, couldn’t make the most basic intuitive leaps or connections with them.
That’s fair, dyscalculia is a lot more concrete and clearly defined than ADHD.
All of that had been before he got his powers. Nothing had changed, except that now he could visualize something, instinctively know how he could put it together.
Huh, cool!
His disability or disabilities put him a step behind the rest. His daydreaming was worse, because his thoughts were so damn interesting, now.
Ahaha, yeah, if I had the same power, I’d probably be spending loads of time thinking up new inventions too. Lots of useless or silly ones, I’d imagine.
He couldn’t take reliable measurements without using computers to do it. Couldn’t finish half his projects without feeling compelled to move on to something else.
Relatable as fuck. The last sentence, I mean.
It took a minute to check that none of them had suffered any permanent damage. After some debate, they moved the bodies to a more secure, dry spot, inside the building.
Good call.
Wait, there are dry spots in this city?
Glory Girl managed to make her way back two minutes after the Travelers were gone,
Sheesh, she must’ve gone far.
helped with the last body that still hung on the wall. By the time they were done, the rain was pouring down.
Y’know, over the course of Arcs 8 and 9… Water just does not have a good reputation right now.
Kid Win stared down at the corpses, an ugly feeling in his gut.
Any thoughts on who’s behind this?
He was dumb, easily distracted, prone to leaving his projects unfinished, and it was moments like this that this knowledge hit him particularly hard. His dad had made him get tested, and the doctors had labeled him with ADD and dyscalculia.
Eyyy! Canon, explicit ADD representation that so far seems well-handled! I can get behind this.
(I’m also still convinced that Greg has ADHD, and he was well-handled too, even if Taylor didn’t exactly appreciate him.)
He held to the opinion that the ADD diagnosis was way overused – he liked to think that he was just a daydreamer, prone to getting lost in his thoughts.
Eh, fair enough.
But seriously, if I see indications that Wildbow himself thinks ADD diagnoses are illegitimate more often than not, I will take back that “well-handled”. We’re trivialized enough as it is.
Kid Win fired a salvo at the retreating villains, grazed Ballistic. Sundancer turned, directing her orb between their groups. She dropped it into the water. Massive clouds of heated steam rose where the orb met water, obscuring the battlefield.
On one hand, that’s a bit unfortunate for the Wards, but on another hand, Trickster relies on line of sight, so this messes with his power a lot, even if he does get up.
By the time it cleared, the villains were gone.
Goodbye!
Travelers 1-0 Wards
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