Tag: El Goonish Shive

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“Mom.  You’re going to have some fucked up kid, and then you’re going to die of an OD before it’s even grown up.  It’s not fair that you leave some kid that’s more retarded than me, or some deformed freak for Brian to take care of.  Not fair on him, and it’s not fair on the kid to make them put up with the dick, either.”

Ouch.

“Fine,” her mother said, standing.  “I’ll get the papers myself.”

I should probably acknowledge that I’m not sure Aisha’s actually saying any of this for Celia’s sake so much as for her own. She wants to get it out, and since her mom can’t notice her unless she wants to be noticed, she can say it to her face without consequences – for good or bad.

Aisha sighed.  Was it cowardice that kept her from confronting her mother, or the knowledge backed by years of experience that it wouldn’t make a difference?

Bit of both, perhaps?

Maybe, if everything with the Nine worked out and Coil got control of the city, maybe she could get her mom some help, or report her to the police.

Hm, yeah, might work. For now, though, I’m sure the police have a lot to deal with.

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Lisa looked pensive.  I nudged her and asked, “You okay?”

I wonder if she remembers Imp when this sort of thing happens, or just knows about her.

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More importantly in this particular context, how much of what just happened

is she aware of?

“Yeah,” she replied.  Then she looked at Coil, “Hey, while you’re asking for suggestions, I have an idea?”

…is she about to help Imp out here by repeating the exact same idea while Grue doesn’t remember he has a sister? Using just Genesis rather than both Genesis and Imp?

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Following from tagging practices on my personal blog, I tag posts involving #food, mainly for the sake of people with eating disorders.

But… now that we have a confirmed cannibal in the cast, does that mean I should start using that tag on any post involving humans?

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Susan and Victoria could bond over their shared hobby: hitting people who anger them very hard with large blunt objects. (Not to mention, depending on the point in the timeline, the parallels with Ellen re: cute girl with an aura that may or may not make you bisexual …)

Hah, nice!

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For whatever reason, the things I’ve read/watched don’t overlap much with the things you’ve read/watched. However!, we have both read El Goonish Shive! Sooo.. any thoughts on EGS and Worm (similarities, characters who would get along, I dunno, etc.)?

Ooh, let’s see…

I think Ellen and Lisa might get along. They both have a positive attitude and a certain snarkiness to them, and I think they’d like that in each other. Nanase would probably be down with Lisa too, and the three of them could go have fun together. They may or may not approve of Lisa solving their Scooby-Doo detective cases immediately. :p

Damien, if he’s around in this crossover, might try to kill Lung to prove that he’s the one true god of fire. They’ve got very similar powers – pyrokinesis and regeneration, with a little extra on each side (Damien’s regen is much faster and he can fly; Lung has his draconic transformation) – but I think Lung would win once he got his claws and such out. If Lung defeated Damien non-lethally, Damien might blow himself up.

Grace’s favorite Brockton Bay cape might be Parian. She’d also probably get along with pre-Extermination Vista, not to mention Mouse Protector.

Tedd would be super interested in some of Bakuda’s work if they found out about it, specifically the bombs that mimic other people’s powers. They’d want to study them, and Tinkertech in general, in order to further their own magitech science back in Moperville. Tedd would probably get along swimmingly with Kid Win.

Susan and Justin would probably also like Tinkertech, but for very different reasons. Pew pew. Incidentally, Susan would not like Victoria.

Elliot might see the crossover as a good opportunity to be Cheerleadra, though that’s if he treats the crossover as something out of the ordinary at all. Also, past!Elliot might get in a fight with Sophia. His skills are quite physical (even Tamashii Gekido), so he’d probably lose if she used her power and weaponry.

Meanwhile, Principal Verrückt would be appalled at the lack of murals at Winslow High. Clearly this is why Brockton Bay is overrun by supervillains!

Plague 12.7

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Howdy! Welcome back to the liveblog! 🙂

Last time, Skitter did an excellent job organizing the relief efforts in the immediate wake of the Shattering in her territory, right up until Mannequin stopped by to unorganize them again. Even if he’s chased off now, he’s killed at least four people, probably more, including the paramedics, so he’s already put a serious spanner in the works for the relief efforts after he’s gone.

Now Skitter is pissed. Well aware that Mannequin’s power offers him a potentially even stronger advantage over her bugs than all the other enemies who were strongly defended against them had, she’s still challenging him to “make him regret” what he’s been doing.

I want to clarify that while I used this at the end of the last chapter:

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…that was just to represent Skitter’s attitude. I do not think it will actually end in death for Skitter or even Mannequin, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Mannequin takes out a couple more civilians while ignoring Skitter’s attacks.

One thing’s for sure: In order to have any chance of winning this (on her own, anyway, but backup ex machina here would be less acceptable than it was in Gestation, where it counted more as setup – if anyone’s going to help, it should probably be one of the civilians or Charlotte), Skitter is going to need to be clever. I’m sure she has what it takes to come up with an effective strategy here, though I’m not clever enough to think of one myself at the moment. It’s not like we didn’t know Skitter is smarter than me in many ways. 😛

I’m looking forward to seeing what she comes up with, so without further ado, let’s go play with our action figures!

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The only difference between then and now was that he was using his power to help and protect himself and himself only.

“Motherfucker.”  Even without intending to do it, I used my swarm to carry my voice.  His head craned around, as if to look at the swarming bugs who had just, for all intents and purposes, spoken.  Eventually his ‘face’ turned back to me.

Can I just say? I really like the swarm speech thing. It’s a super cool effect.

“I have no idea how the fuck I’m going to do it,” my voice was a low snarl, barely recognizable as my own beneath my anger and the noises of the swarm.  “But I’m going to make you regret that.”

Damn! Skitter’s fired up now!

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So fired up that she comes across as badass even while admitting her weakness to the enemy and the crowd. Nice.

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Given your interest in how stories handle magic, I’d recommend reading the serials Ra and Unsong. Magic is studied as a science in Ra, and it’s puns and wordplay and mass produced office work controlled by large companies in Unsong.

Sounds like bard magic dominates the world in Unsong. And, uh, office worker magic…? Anyway, sounds like fun!

As for Ra, I don’t think “magic is studied as a science” on its own is enough to get me interested in a work, but it is very appropriate to the post I made. I did basically conclude that if magic didn’t naturally work with human ideas, humans would use science to force it to do so to the best of our ability, because humanity as a whole just doesn’t give up on things like this.

A work that I think does neat things with magic is El Goonish Shive. It doesn’t do the sort of thing I was describing in my post – rather the opposite, in fact; EGS magic is explicitly designed to be convenient both to the author and to the characters. But it also has a will of its own, a nonphysical sort-of-entity in charge of how magic works, which doesn’t quite understand humanity because its only direct perception of people is through the magic they use and because it has trouble with subtlety. So while EGS magic is usually convenient and very rarely dangerous, there’s a) a reason it is the way it is (magic is sentient, sapient and trying) and b) a certain disconnect between magic and humanity’s ideas and behaviors.

Oh, and on top of that, there’s a race of ethereal beings (”immortals”) running around and giving people powers for their own varying purposes. Turns out there’s a lot of plot you can be at the root of even while restricted by law to “guide and empower”.

It also significantly features magitech and magic science, especially around one main character in particular.