Howdy! It’s that time again!

Last time, Taylor made her way home to make sure her dad would be okay when the Shattering hit, and made arrangements to save as many other people as she could along the way. She sort of succeeded at the first part, though more because of what she did in 11.1 than what she did in 12.5.

But now Coil wants her to prioritize her territory next. It’s time to take a look at what sort of carnage Shatterbird has made out of the people Skitter swore to protect.

Hopefully Charlotte’s warning managed to spread and save a share of the people there, if that’s even where she was when Taylor called, but it’s also possible that people didn’t believe her.

In retrospect, this is probably exactly why the Slaughterhouse Nine chose right now as the time to let Shatterbird go through with the Shattering of Brockton Bay. Most of the nominees and people who might be around when they were warned would be away from their territories in order to attend the Lake Heroic meeting, many of them not going back in time to take measures to protect their territories from the attack.

…oh jeez, I wonder how Bitch is reacting to what just happened. If she’s realized that her base, full of dogs, probably got hit too. Though that’s on the edge of town furthest away from where Shatterbird roughly seems to be, so maybe the song didn’t reach it. They did say it would reach most of the city, not all of it.

Anyway, yeah. Skitter’s territory, massive carnage, painted crystal red, though maybe not as much as it could’ve been if things went well for Charlotte. That’s pretty much what I’m predicting for this one.

Let’s jump in and take a look!

Ahoj všichni a vraťte se do další kapitoly Worm!

…

*ahem*

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another chapter of Worm!

So – last chapter, the Undersiders and Travelers discussed strategy and board games, but their temporary conclusion that they should attempt to capture and control one of the Nine through indirect confrontation seems to have been rendered irrelevant for now by the fact that half the enemy team appeared at the figurative doorstep of the meeting. Whoops!

I believe the Slaughterhouse Nine are done simply talking. It’s time for testing to begin, and the Undersiders have two of the nominees in their ranks (though they only know about one of them for now). Tellingly, the two members who picked those nominees are among the four who showed up.

The Undersiders – specifically Tattletale – almost found out about Bitch’s betrayal at the end of the last chapter. Tattletale might actually have, but immediately gotten distracted by what came after that: “Bitch’s new dog is a wolf > she got the wolf from Siberian > Siberian is here > so are three other Slaughterhouse members > shit oh fuck”. But regardless of whether she did, there’s a decent chance something the Slaughterhouse members say or do in this chapter will tip the Undertravelers off on this front, leading to internal conflict after this immediate situation has been dealt with (if it goes well enough).

Some of the foes in this situation are quite powerful, especially Siberian. Unless the Undertravelers are quite lucky and the Slaughterhouse members do just want to talk, they’re in quite a bit of trouble, but at least they’re together. Well, except for Trickster, who is downstairs and doesn’t know what’s happening yet, and Genesis, who is recovering at Coil’s base. They’ve got numbers on their side, if nothing else.

But there’s also a middle ground: I suspect there’s more to testing than just plain fighting, at least with some of the testers. What sort of trials might Jack, Siberian, Bonesaw and Cherish have come up with for Regent and Bitch? I don’t really know (Cherish might have something about letting go of your emotional attachments to people outside the team?), but I’m interested to find out.

So without further dawdling:

Shit. Oh fuck. Let’s go.

So, with the intro theme out of the way… Howdy, everyone! Krixwell here, back to liveblog another chapter of Worm!

Last time, the third truce meeting (I’m counting Extermination) in the story went right down the crapper for the Undersiders and Travelers, thanks to some clever group manipulation by Hookwolf. Now the Undersiders are in the precarious position of being excluded from the truce, which means not only do they not have the other teams’ direct support in the event of the Slaughterhouse attacking them, but they also have to deal with the potential for one or more of the allied parties (especially Fenrir’s Chosen) keeping up their attacks on Undertraveler territories without repercussions for breaking the truce, on top of preparing for the Slaughterhouse without getting to cooperate with the other groups.

Coil, being in on the alliance, might be able to help by feeding the Undertravelers information, but other than that, they’re largely left to fend for themselves. All they have is each other, which I think might lead to some Undersider-Traveler bonding.

And on top of everything, the Undersiders have a potential betrayal brewing in their midst.

Yeeeeah. Things are not stacked in their favor.

This chapter, I expect they’ll be heading off to discuss how they’ll deal with this mess. Maybe the Travelers will be included in the discussion, too. Maybe we’ll also see one of the Nine again at the end of the chapter, though it might be too early.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in and figure out what the hell we do now!

Villains and slaughters and meetings, oh my!

Howdy! Krixwell here, back again for more Worm. 🙂

Last time, Taylor took care of a rat infestation and learned that Alec has been nominated for the Slaughterhouse Nine, along with others, and that Hookwolf has called in to a villain meeting.

This ought to be interesting. My predictions haven’t really changed since the end of the last chapter: In short, Hookwolf taking the initiative, Kaiser being gone and Skidmark being more socially powerful may cause some interesting differences between this meeting and the one in Hive. Oh, and any lingering conflict there might be between the E44s. Also, the fact that tensions are higher between Coil and each of the E44s than they were between Coil and E88 at the time of the first meeting, though I’m sure Coil will remain as affably evil as ever.

Maybe we’ll meet some new villains too, like we did in 5.1? 5.1 introduced some of my favorite characters outside the Undersiders – maybe this chapter could repeat that feat?

Incidentally, it’d be kinda fun if a hero with a personal stake in the Slaughterhouse situation somehow found out about this meeting and decided to attend. Maybe not Armmaster, since he’s under house arrest and probably still recovering from Mannequin’s attack, but perhaps Panacea? I’d be much more interested to see her than Army anyway.

Without further ado, let’s see how this goes!