This was a better chapter than I expected, honestly.

I was expecting a lot more moping than we got, and I think it’s a good thing that I was wrong. There’s only so much wallowing in guilt we can get before it gets stale.

The chapter still noticeably touched on the issue of Taylor not viewing the Mannequin fight as a success and more heavily on the subject of Dinah, but in a better way. Skitter finally opened up about the latter to someone whose perspective might help her to deal with this more healthily if she’ll just listen to him, and she’s seeing positive consequences of the former.

Regarding the latter, I think it’s nice to see that the swarm is growing now. I really like that Wildbow brought in some former ABB members for this, and Taylor’s plan to make the territory more livable for more people is very good.

Next chapter… is Interlude 12. That was the end of the Arc! As usual with Interludes, it’s very difficult for me to speculate on what we’ll be getting, but I’m hoping for either Sierra or Charlotte’s perspective.

So yeah! See you soon!

That was an alright chapter. Not super exciting until Mannequin showed up, but sometimes we gotta take a moment to deal with this kind of thing. Taylor’s story isn’t all about the battles and deadly situations.

Skitter did really well dealing with the crowd in this chapter. While I did find myself with not too much to comment on at times, it was neat to see Skitter take charge so effectively, once she actually got people to listen to her.

I still really like Charlotte’s role in this chapter. The way she stepped forward to help Skitter get the crowd to join in on helping was a real power move, and shows a bit of character development as she stepped forward as an example against bystanderism, the exact thing Taylor chewed her out for after she stood up against bystanderism for Charlotte’s sake.

Mannequin showing up did help the chapter become more interesting at the end, though it was primarily setting up the next chapter.

So, next chapter, it’s bug girl versus bug-blocker. Well, that can only go well, right?

Okay, but seriously, it’s not like Taylor hasn’t been up against enemies who are mostly immune to her bugs before. She’ll probably think of something good to get around it! 🙂

See you then!

Alright, so they did come to talk. We still got some action, though, what with… Tattletale… being… grievously injured… yeeeah. That’s not good, though I’m sure she’ll live at this point.

This was a fairly interesting one. We learned about the Slaughterhouse’s tests, got a little further characterization of Cherish, Bonesaw and Jack (and a confirmation that Siberian is a cannibal), and brokered a deal that I’m not entirely sure was a good idea, even before the Nine lay down their demands.

Bonesaw remains the best Slaughterhouse member. She’s so adorrible and I love that.

Trickster’s in for a surprise when he finds out what everyone else has been up to.

So, next chapter: It’s a race against time – Taylor has less than 30 minutes to warn the people she cares about of Shatterbird’s incoming glass nuke, primarily including the citizens of her territory and her dad. In the latter case, she doesn’t seem to have given thought to how she’d warn him without cluing him in on the fact that she has connections who could actually genuinely tell, but of course that’s not as important right now as keeping him alive.

As for warning the citizens, I’m fairly sure she’s going to use bugs to direct them away from any glass she can find, either via text or via actively chasing them away from the glass – time is of the essence, after all. She might also cover the windows in bugs to block the glass and slow it down.

Somehow getting the Endbringer sirens going might help by getting people all over the city to evactuate to the shelters, but it might also create a panic, and no one’s actually manning the shelters and making sure the evacuation goes smoothly. Plus, there’s probably not enough time to do something like that, let alone to let people evacuate, and Shatterbird might decide hurrying up her plan is necessary if people all over town start moving away from where they can see and feel it.

Whatever happens, though? Unless it covers a shorter span of time than I’m expecting, next chapter’s gonna have a heck of a body count (though mostly offscreen). Quite likely a much bigger one than Extermination as a whole.

See you then!

Well, that was unexpected, even though I actually predicted it at the start of the chapter. Huh.

I guess the testing is about to begin.

This was a pretty solid tactics chapter. I especially liked the whole board game analogy – that helped to spice things up a bit. I also like the idea they eventually ended up at, capturing a Slaughterhouse member and having Regent take control. That ought to be interesting.

Before they can do that, though, they have to deal with the fact that Siberian and Cherish have brought friends to their location, presumably for the sake of the testing of Bitch and Regent. We’ve got the king, the queen, a cardinal (combined bishop/knight) and a (loose) cannon… yeeah, this is not ideal for the Undertravelers.

Unless of course they’re just here to talk. But let’s be real – they’ve done enough of that in the Interludes. It’s time for some action.

This is not an exit. But it’s time for me to take my leave – see you next chapter!

Well, that could’ve gone at least 6% better.

Hookwolf had a strong showing here, flexing his group manipulation skills against the Undersiders and Travelers. After hypocritically chastising Faultline and Skidmark for arguing on neutral ground, he expertly turned the conversation to be about the Undertraveler takeover and spun that into a reason to limit their involvement and attempt to get them to leave their territories undefended.

Now they’re outside the alliance that has been formed, and most of that alliance harbors animosity for the Undersiders. Well played, Hookwolf.

Next time, the Undersiders and maybe the Travelers will have to figure out what the hell they do now. Do they attempt to join in on the fights against the Slaughterhouse (not that they need to go out and find them), or avoid the Empire Mercoiline altogether while managing their territories?

I think I’ll leave my speculation at that for now, because I really fucked up by doing this chapter in one piece, and need to go sleep.

Until next time – good morning!

That was a fairly strong opening chapter for the Arc. We got to watch Taylor do pest control and rock the benevolent ruler role, had an interesting discussion with Brian about Coil’s acceptance of Taylor’s way of ruling her territory, and then got to the Slaughterhouse developments fairly quickly. It looks like we’re in for a third truce, which I’m absolutely down for.

Seriously, I really should’ve thought of that. I know I’m not that great at predictions most of the time, but this is downright embarrassing.

But yeah, I think we’re in for an interesting Arc.

Next chapter, it’s meeting time! It’s going to be interesting to see how different it’ll be from the one in Hive. Most notably, Hookwolf taking the initiative, suggesting he might take charge rather than Coil. Something tells me the mediation of the meeting will be a little more aggressive this time around.

And then there’s Skidmark, who’s much more powerful in a social sense this time. Last time he was a pathetic whelp, easily dismissed by the big shots, especially Kaiser. This time, he’s a pathetic whelp with a following. Kaiser isn’t here and Skidmark belongs at the table, but Hookwolf, a fellow racist, is in charge and Skidmark just suffered an embarrassing defeat, so he might find himself just as excluded as last time. Though Hookwolf at least seems more inclined to stay professional than Kaiser was, and might not act on his racism.

Skidmark did get set up in this chapter as one to watch, though. That might be a red herring, or just something that made it in because of the Undersiders’ conceptions of him. But it’s possible that the caped Skidmark wouldn’t take getting excluded as well as he did last time, so it might be worth keeping an eye on him either way. That is, if he shows up.

So yeah! I’m looking forward to this. See you next time!