Prey 14.5

A comfortable chair, computer on my lap, music getting pumped into my ears, bombs primed to grievously harm characters I like… It’s time to read some Worm. 😀

So, last chapter, Taylor and co. started a daring escape from the PRT’s blast zone, during which Taylor acquired a really cool steed (whom I’ll be calling Bailey until we get an actual name for him).

Now, they need to make sure they actually are or quickly get out of it as the bombings start. This chapter might continue and amplify the intensity from the previous chapter if they didn’t make it all the way out yet (or Piggot calls for the bombers to target the escaping Undertravelers, though that’d be harder to excuse on the PR and governmental fronts).

Alternatively, we might be getting the Undertravelers reporting to the Protectorate (maybe even directly to Piggot) that we lived, bitches, and/or more development on Amy.

Or all of the above. When liveblogging, you can’t dismiss the possibility that it can be motherfucking BOTH THINGS.

I worry for Amy’s life. She’s currently not equipped to move anywhere near as fast as the Undertravelers, and they’ve passed her, so if they’re still in the blast zone, so is she. I’ve been getting the impression from asks (more vibes than actual outright spoilers) that she does not become a villain or a permanent aid to the Undertravelers. There are plenty of other reasons for that available, but maybe this is why.

Without further ado, let’s dodge some bombs!

I

drew out words with my bugs, on a surface of wall where Regent would be able to see.  ‘Evacuate.’

He ran his fingers through the bugs.  After a moment’s thought, I gathered them into a square, organized by rank and file.  It took me two tries, but I managed to make them move to form letters, then regroup.

What’s with the square army? I could see that being the start of forming a map to show him which way to go (though arrows would probably be better)…

Oh, now I get it. It’s an easy starting point for moving them into letter forms quickly.

He dragged his fingertip through the bugs to spell out a reply.  ‘Can’t.  We run we can’t keep crawler down’.

A keyboard. This is neat.

Also I know it’s just a result of how Wildbow decided to format this, but I like the slight implication that Regent somehow capitalized the starts of each sentence but not Crawler’s name. That kind of typing… quirk, if you will, carrying through implies that Taylor included a shift key or a caps set, and Regent bothered to use it. :p

‘We’re coming,’ I wrote to him.

“Let’s go!”  I called out.  Tattletale turned in her seat and kicked Bentley to get him going.  Grue did the same for Sirius.

It was worth a shot.

LHC and I got to talking about The Baby Is You and it turned into… well, this. So to recap: Victoria, Amy’s lab-daddy and best friend, has to help Amy out after Amy makes herself pregnant with a child that is also Victoria. They sing a song as Amy reveals this to Victoria. Then Bonesaw shows […]

“Amy,” I spoke.

She startled as if I’d slapped her.  Everyone’s eyes turned to her.

“Oh right, we saved someone.”

“You okay?”  I asked.

“No, I’m not okay.”  Her head trembled a little as she turned to glance at the others.

Very, very understandable.

First she was living in a shelter, then she got assaulted by Mannequin last time she talked to these people, then Burnscar probably approached her if she had time to before her death, then she got chased by fucking Siberian for who knows how long, then that frantic nightmare turned dark and buggy and even more frantic, and now she has to deal with having been saved by villains and the way that ties in with her hangups about her own hero/villain status.

Yeeah, she’s not having a good time.

She returned her attention to me.  “She bit off my fingers.”

And yeah, that’s no fun either.

Grue, your turn, whether you like it or not.

“I’m sorry,” I said.  I raised my hands to show her I wasn’t armed.  “We tried to get to you as fast as we could.”

i came as fast as i could

i’m serious, i’m a serious actor, voice actor, v.a.

indubitably, i will embiggen my words less so you can understand what the fuck i’m saying–

So I’ve got LumiRadio playing Homestuck music to me as I blog, and right now, while I’m reading about Siberian and her challenge, they’re playing a song from a fan album named “Running For Eons”.

End of Prey 14.1

Huh. I suppose Siberian is the prey now. Among others. Honestly I think everyone is prey in this Arc.

This was a very nice chapter. It started out quite casually with a cozy breakfast and adorable shipping fuel, neatly segued into Cherish trying to manipulate the Undersiders, and gave us the revelation that Siberian has a vulnerable male body for the Undersiders (and probably the Travelers) to go after. We also got a scene of Rachel taking the initiative to understand Taylor for once, which was nice.

Even as the tone got a little darker, he content less breakfast-centric, and Cherish’s attempts at manipulation sent off icky vibes, the chapter stayed pretty casual right up to the end, which I appreciate. It’s a calm between the storms, and hoo boy we’re in for a storm.

This isn’t going to be anywhere near as easy as “show up nearby, find Siberidude (Dudeberian? Siberiman.) with the bugs, off them and go home”. There’s got to be complications, and I’d say the monochrome Siberian counts as a big one. Her prey might also cause trouble in his own way. Please tell me he’s not trying to fight her head on…

He’s trying to fight her head on, isn’t he.

Come on, Colin. She’s very close to an Endbringer in melee power, and you’ve already used up aaaaaaaall the luck against one of those. It didn’t work out for you then.

Anyway, this ought to be a wild ride, and I’m looking forward to it. See you soon!

Now, where we we… Ah, yes, Jirector Jemily Piggot had just discovered that Colin Icarus “Armsmaster” Serket might be acting like an idiot again.

Might. It’s possible that he just wants to be prepared in case it comes to blows and he can’t escape.

Possible, but not bloody likely.

While I’m at it, here, have another one. Meet Armor Gadget, the disgraced former leader of the Ponyville Protectorate, codename Hoofsmaster. (The manestyle on the right is less accurate to how I headcanon his hair and more accurate to how vriska he is.)

It’s like the world’s gone mad, and I’m the only sane person left.

You might not be entirely wrong about that.

So who’d feel like this? I’m thinking Sundancer.

Director Emily Piggot finished the last

Oh! I guess we’re following right on from Skitter’s message, and talking about PR a fair bit.

Emily, huh?

Remember that whole thing with “JPIGGOT”, back in Parasite? Back then, I was informed that the J was likely an error born from Wildbow not having finished naming her yet (which also told me that we would be finding out her actual first name sooner or later).

I’d like to suggest a compromise: She writes and thinks of her name as Emily, but her parents were jerks so legally, it’s spelled with a silent J at the beginning – Jemily Piggot – and that’s what the PRT used to determine her username back when she didn’t have the authority to object. She doesn’t like that spelling, but she never got around to having it legally changed.

of her coffee and paused to survey the enormity of the task that lay ahead of her.  The scale of it could be measured in paperwork.  Piles of it.

Everyone’s favorite thing!

Sometimes two feet high, the stacks of paper were arranged in rows and columns on every available surface, including the top of her coffee maker and the floor around her desk.

For the previous quote, I was looking for an image from Homestuck that I thought was something like this, but it seems I misremembered, because this is the best I found:

image

and that’s really not that much for the comically overworked aesthetic.

There were stacks of stapled pages, each topped with a weight to protect it from the gusts and breezes that flowed through the open window frames.

Oh man, yeah, even just one of these piles getting caught by the wind would be a disaster.