That was a pretty good one. As expected, it was not quite as interesting as the last one, but that said more about last chapter than this one, and this one was certainly not bad. Faultline’s Crew were pretty great in this, especially Newter, Gregor and Labyrinth. We also got to meet Shamrock, who was very cool.

In the end, things resolved peacefully between Lisa’s group and Newter, with every side except the Merchants pleased with the outcome. I quite liked that scene. It also provided us with a bunch more information about Upsilon, which I now know to be called Cauldron. It seems to be far more mercantile than I was expecting.

Judging by the cliff we ended on, next chapter will be about Taylor dealing with Charlotte knowing her identity, and bringing Bryce back to Sierra. That last part means more Skitter and Sierra interaction, which I’m looking forward to, but it also presumably means informing Sierra about what Bryce did to her (I consider Sierra a victim of Bryce’s actions)… Honestly, the only way to go about it that won’t get Sierra upset, however briefly, at Skitter is probably to have Bryce tell her himself, but I doubt he wants to.

No matter what, I expect upset Sierra.

So yeah. That’s all for tonight – see you next time!

This was a very interesting chapter. I hadn’t expected anything even remotely like this.

We learned a lot about the mysterious eldritch beings that appear to be the source of powers, which I’ve chosen to call tesseractids for now. They’re multidimensional, they can appear across multiple realities at once, and it seems they don’t always “die” like Karahindiba supposedly did when they bestow the powers. They are “like viruses, babies and gods at the same time”, suggesting they might reproduce via parahumans and don’t really know what they’re doing, but they’re also capable of planning and communication and may be aware of upcoming trigger events.

And apparently all existing parahumans can see them when a trigger event happens nearby, but not mundanes. The experience takes a psychic toll and often causes motion sickness, but those exposed to it quickly forget what happened unless their power helps them remember.

Very, very interesting revelations there. You may color me highly intrigued.

It’s also going to be interesting to see whether Lisa remembers anything.

At the end we also found out that Faultline’s Crew has arrived. Long time no see! I don’t think we’ve seen them since Interlude 5, actually, so I guess this is a very appropriate point for them to come back.

Taylor doesn’t know it, but they’re obviously after the vials of super juice. They’re gonna have to act fast to get ahold of the first one, though, before Doug drinks it.

And once they do act, using the element of surprise by the looks of it, things are not gonna be good. Especially considering they clearly don’t want any Merchants to escape the building and they’re currently counting Taylor and co. as Merchants.

Incidentally, Charlotte might think Taylor and Lisa are doing it at first.

So yeah! With this setup, next chapter looks like it’ll be interesting, but I highly doubt it’ll be as interesting as this one was, because damn.

See you next time!

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

There’s nothing really wrong with the chapter, but I personally didn’t really enjoy the in-depth exhibits of how awful the Merchants are all that much. It feels like… we get it. They’re awful people, horribly unsympathetic, rife with debauchery in every way. That had been fairly thoroughly established already. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be exhibits like this to be seen in this particular place, but

by the end of the second session, it ended up being grating. It felt like it was a bit much.

(I knew we were heading into this sort of territory, to some extent, ever since the idea of going to a Merchant arrangement first came up, but I thought Lisa would counterbalance it more than she has so far.)

But my third session with this chapter, this one, really salvaged it. There were three main scenes in that: talking to the rescued girl, talking to Bryce, and the beginning of the main event. All three were excellent: I loved Taylor’s outburst at the girl’s careless words and the juxtaposition of the girl’s bystanderism during Taylor’s trigger event with Taylor very pointedly overriding her group’s bystanderism to save the girl. I loved the twist that Bryce is a little, privileged shit who joined the Merchants without telling his sister. And I loved the way Upsilon and the Dealer are being brought into this by way of Skidmark having somehow gotten hold of super juice.

Huh, I suppose that’s why we established last chapter that Lisa knows about case 53.

So yeah: Bit of a mixed bag, markedly stronger in the latter half. My issues with the first half are highly subjective, though, so your mileage may vary.

Next chapter… I guess it’s in the Undersiders’ interests to get those vials before the brawl ends and the Merchants who win can drink them. Otherwise the Merchants, the Undersiders’ greatest enemy at the moment, become significantly stronger – plus five capes is nothing to scoff at.

It might be time for this to stop being a recon mission.

Wild idea: The escorts join the brawl (judging by how Skidmark’s power seems to work, it should be possible to enter willingly, though it might throw you into the air in the process) and fight for the price.

I don’t think that’s actually going to happen – a stealth mission to steal the prizes is probably better. Worth noting that they’ll presumably be guarded by the existing Merchant capes, though. Hmm, maybe a swarm of bugs could lift the vials or the cans?

However they choose to go about it, getting those vials away from the Merchants does seem like it should be top priority, at least. There’s also the matter of getting the rescued girl and maybe Bryce safely out of the building, though, which the two Undersiders might decide to do first.

See you next time!