No. That last one was probably okay. “You want anything? Breakfast? Coffee?”
Just as long as you don’t patronize him it’s probably fine.
So far so good.
“Coffee, please.”
I nodded, stood and rolled my shoulders. Outside of the fact that none of the sleep I’d picked up over the previous night had been in a bed, I felt recharged.
When was the last time she got proper restful sleep? At the end of Arc 11 proper?
Scrapes and bruises I’d only been dimly aware of were gone, as were the more obvious, attention-grabbing injuries.
Oh yeah, I suppose they went when Brian healed her.
That, in turn, made me think of the circumstances that had led to my good night’s sleep and healing job. It was bittersweet. Like a young child that was being forced to stand in a corner, feeling as low as she ever had, her stomach full with the entire birthday cake she’d just devoured.
This simile is further proof that Agatha Trunchbull should never have children of her own.
Okay. Still a little out of it.
Maybe you should go for a morning run to clear your head.
Btw, just to let you know, a lot of people stopped reading Worm because of this chapter, considered the darkest one so far. Why the people stopped reading? Because Evil won and Good (compared with Nine, Undersiders/Travelers con be considered “good’) lost and many people were disappointed, disgusted and disturbed. I hope you’re not going to stop, right?
Definitely not.
I mean, like another ask puts it,
Things are fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.
and what’s happened to Grue is very much an awful, dark fate that may be irreversible, but I don’t think Evil Has Won just yet.
This wasn’t the end of this particular part of the story, unless I have a surprise end-of-Arc waiting for me instead of 13.9 (that would feel wrong, I think), and there’s still time to turn this around. If not to a victory, then at least to a draw.
(Incidentally, a draw is exactly what happened after the chapter that I do feel is even darker than this one, not in concept for a particular scene or event so much as for the overall feel of the chapter: 8.3. I do realize I was affected by the slowed pace liveblogging causes during that one, but it does feel so thoroughly hopeless. Like a war zone.)
Also, I haven’t in a long time been under the impression that the Undersiders would be narratively immune to the horrible things that can happen in this story forever. (You may remember how I was very much prepared for Wildbow to potentially kill off one or more of them as early as Extermination.) So to me, what’s happening to Grue doesn’t so much feel like a “OH COD HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN TO ONE OF THE MAIN PROTAGONISTS” as a “oh hey, there we go, something like this was bound to happen sooner or later”.
Which is why it may not affect me as strongly as it maybe should, besides my usual tendency to take the gore in stride.
But in itself,
Is what happened to Grue the most horrifying scene in Worm so far? If not, what is?
this is certainly up there.
…along with what Taylor did to Clockblocker in Agitation. No, seriously, I haven’t just been playing that up for comedy, I genuinely find the idea of getting insects in every orifice and under the eyelids incredibly uncomfortable, even after the insect phobia I had when I first read that chapter was cured.
But hey, I’m admittedly biased on that one, and even then Grue is definitely worse off. At least for Clockblocker it was just for ten minutes or so, and his organs stayed where they were supposed to be.
I guess you could say that this scene was pretty… gruesome
To be fair, Taylor’s not actually one of the nominees. She’s not the one who was pinned down by Siberian and put on the spot by Burnscar. But the Nine haven’t exactly left everyone else alone, either.
“Screw that!” I jabbed a finger in her direction. “Maybe my life hasn’t sucked as much as yours did, but I’ve been there! I’ve been hounded every fucking day by people who only wanted to make me miserable!
Oh. Right.
That’s still a thing, and the Slaughterhouse Nine being compared to the bullies is still an apt parallel.
Every day, getting so tense that I’d feel like throwing up in the shower before leaving for school, and I’d have headaches before noon! I spent weeks hiding in the bathroom during lunch breaks because they wouldn’t fucking ease up on me!”
I still maintain there had to be better, more sanitary hiding places for that.
Last time, plans were laid, teammates were mixed, webs were spun and Imps were pissed off. Well, one at least.
This time, we may be focusing on getting Grue, Genesis and Bitch settled in or near the Hive, unless Wildbow decided what we saw at the end of the previous chapter was enough on that front. Hopefully there’ll also be some focus on getting to know Genesis. There’s also a decent chance we’ll be going on a tour of the nearby territories.
Alternatively, we might skip right ahead to Mannequin’s trap. There are eight Slaughterhouse testing rounds to get through unless something/someone interrupts the game, so we might see some faster pacing in order to get through it all.
The best way to find out is to jump in, so let’s go get ensnared by this next chapter of Worm!
“How set up is the building you guys were working on?”
“Mess is cleaned out, but we haven’t moved much in.”
I like how Skitter is talking as a leader in this section.
“That should be fine.”
“We ready?” Grue asked.
I turned to face him and Bitch. “Just about. Bitch, there’s a space set aside that we can use for your dogs. We’ll patrol through the various territories in an hour or so, stop by your territory and pick up some supplies for them, and you can bring your dogs here.”
Eyy, that’s something she might appreciate. Maybe. If we’re lucky. Probably not.
I had to resist adding an ‘if that’s okay’. Firmness would work best with her, even if it did carry the risk of provoking her.
True. And it’s not like, even with the firm tone you used, you told her to bring her dogs here. Just that she could.
“Fine.”
“Good,” Grue said. “Let’s go rest and eat. We can wait for Genesis and the other gear Coil’s dropping off.”
Hey, I know it’s a fair distance away from here, but I wonder how Fugly Bob’s is doing. Did it survive Leviathan? Was it out of range of the Shattering? Are their burgers as greasy as ever? This is me asking the important questions.
This is an… oddly cute sentence, actually. Just the way Jack refers to the Slaughterhouse Nine as his monsters. Sure, it’s probably just the fact that he’s in charge and can direct these people largely to his whim, but on some level it also feels like a term of endearment.
He watched them at their work and their play, noting all of the little things. He knew all too well that Shatterbird pretended civility, but she got as restless as Siberian when things got quiet, and she would look up from whatever book she read every thirty, fifteen or ten seconds, as if waiting for something to happen, craving it.
Boredom is a powerful force.
Siberian would begin to look at her group members in a hungry way. She didn’t need to eat, but she enjoyed the experience, wanted it the same way someone else might crave their morning coffee. Stimulation.
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