Tag: Parahumans

Parasite 10.5

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

Woah, another chapter!

I finished the end-of-chapter post for 10.4 a few minutes ago, but given that 10.4 seems to have been on the shorter side, I’m barreling straight on through to 10.5! I’ll probably not finish it tonight, but let’s get started on it now anyway. 🙂

So, as I just finished writing, the Undersiders are in a bit of a pickle, being up against Weld, Dragon’s mech and soon the local Protectorate, while Bitch’s dogs are down and Grue is frozen for who knows how much longer.

Yeeah, let’s hope Regent’s control over Shadow Stalker can come in handy here, and that the mysterious horned girl keeps helping them.

Let’s go!

End of Parasite 10.4

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10-24.

This was a neat little chapter. Dragon did less with her access to the building than I had expected, opting to simply delay the Undersiders, but then she went and sent one of her mechs after the Undersiders got out – allegedly showing up in person. (I’m not convinced until Taylor sees her body or we get an Interlude confirming that she was actually there.) Now the Undersiders are up against Weld, Dragon and, soon enough, more of the Protectorate.

Next time, the Undersiders will have to figure out… what do? They really need to live up to their reputation as masters of the getaway right now.

So… yeah! See you next chapter!

Parasite 10.4

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“Officer Krixwell, please prepare to read another chapter of the Worm arc Parasite.”

“10-4.”

“Yes, that one.”

“10-4.”

“…”

“10-79.”

“Do you even know what that one means?”

Howdy, everyone! It’s time for some more Worm!

Last time, we had a good battle between the Undersiders, a puppeteered Shadow Stalker and some horned girl on one side and the remaining Wards on the other, which the Undersiders won… but their file shenanigans were interrupted by Dragon. I don’t know exactly what she can do from wherever she is (if she is anywhere), but I wouldn’t underestimate her.

I don’t have much in terms of predictions for how this is going to go, except that the Undersiders will somehow get out of this situation successfully. Tattletale might be the key to this, as a skilled manipulator with a knack for knowing stuff about people going up against an enemy who is not physically present and hides just about everything about herself behind a virtual representation.

Imp might also be useful here, but that depends a lot on whether or not her power has a range. If it only affects those physically present, it’s not going to work on Dragon. That said, she does have other powers according to Taylor (though they may be minor ones, like Flechette’s understanding of angles, which I originally interpreted as a side effect of her main power).

So yeah. Without further ado, let’s jump in and 10-51!

End of Parasite 10.3

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This was a good chapter, though some parts were kinda forgettable.

Nah, I’m kidding. It was overall a good battle and I love someone’s power, though I can’t for the life of me remember whose.

And then Dragon. Welp. I don’t know what all she can do remotely, but I wouldn’t underestimate her. One thing I guess she could do is send remote-controlled mechs into the building, but this is her filesystem we’re trying to copy, and she probably had a hand in designing a fair bit of the equipment around here. I’m guessing she can do a lot more.

By the way, I don’t think we’re ever going to actually see Dragon in person. It seems like her gimmick that she always, always, is remote and computery. She didn’t even show up to the Endbringer battle in person, as far as we know.

In fact, the only evidence we have that she isn’t completely virtual is that she’s supposedly the one building mechs and Birdcage security measures and such.

Anyway, next time, lets face the cold wrath of the Dragon. See you then!

Parasite 10.3

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Hello, test subjects. My name is Jerry.

I’ll skip the rest of the pleasantries and get to the point. You have been gathered here so we can study effects on the mind, other body parts and/or out-of-body parts, caused by reading the text commentary produced by the being known as “the Krixwell” when it is fed the web serial Worm.

Unscrupulous Science Incorporated does not guarantee nor care about your safety in this experiment. We’re required to inform you of that for legal reasons, though to be quite honest we don’t really give a shit about that either. I just wanted to see your reactions. And no, you can’t back out now.

In order to fully understand “the Krixwell”’s commentary, here’s a recap of the situation at the point “the Krixwell” is at in the text. (Martha, don’t forget that only one of the groups is supposed to get this recap. We need to test whether or not understanding the situation makes a difference, especially to the frequency of spontaneous ocular tentacle growth.) Right, so at this point the sympathetic villains known as “the Undersiders” have just been detected attempting to infiltrate the local youngster superhero team, “the Wards”. All six “Undersiders” are restrained, but one of them, “Regent”, is currently controlling the body of the “Ward” known as “Shadow Stalker” or “Sophia”, and the powers of the “Undersider” known as “Imp” are currently unknown to “the Krixwell”.

“The Krixwell” appears to believe that this chapter will feature a battle between “the Undersiders” and “the Wards”, and/or reveal the powers of “Imp”. It thinks “the Undersiders” are generally at a disadvantage, and the powers of “Imp” will be critical to their eventual success.

That is all you need to know. You may now direct your attention to your screens, and we’ll let “the Krixwell” do the rest of the talking. Good luck.

End of Parasite 10.2

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This was a very good chapter! We got to watch Taylor humbling herself and asking to rejoin the Undersiders, explaining the situation and… possibly meeting Imp, even if she didn’t find out about that yet and it hasn’t been confirmed.

Then we got step three of Project Parasite, whatever that might be working towards, which worked out perfectly. This is really Regent’s time to shine, that much is clear! Unfortunately it kind of fell apart on step four because Weld is a smart guy.

So now the Wards are aware of the shenanigans in play, and we’re probably getting into a fight next chapter, in which the Undersiders are largely at a disadvantage, but we still don’t know what Imp’s powers are… it’s probably time to find out next time.

Hm. My standing guess is the super vague “something mischievious”, but maybe her powerset is kind of like the D&D cantrip Thaumaturgy, a compilation of a bunch of minor powers that all tieflings start with? Or maybe pyrokinesis is one of her powers… I mean, hellish associations and all.

I really don’t know. We’ll have to see next time. ‘Til then!

Parasite 10.2

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

Everybody do the flop!

Alright, now that our faces have been tenderized a bit, we’re all ready to read some Worm!

So, last chapter we got to learn a bit about Imp and see the resurfacing of one of Regent’s darker sides. Then one of them, probably Imp but possibly Regent, played a prank by controlling Sophia’s body to faux attack Taylor.

Today, we’ll almost certainly find out for certain which one it was. If it was Imp, we’ll probably learn a bit more about her power, too.

But if it was Regent… One possibility is that this was the entire reason for the torture in the first place. The thing that could take minutes or hours depending on Shadow Stalker. Regent’s power is to control bodies on a small scale, an impulse here and an impulse there, but maybe breaking down someone’s mind through torture allows him to take full control because they’ll have a harder time fighting it?

I think it’s time to jump in and find out. 🙂

End of Parasite 10.1

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She totally gotcha, Taylor.

This was a nice chapter. Kind of relaxed up until that last bit, despite Sophia’s screams in the background, and we got to know Imp a bit – she’s restless, she’s a bit dramatic, she’s either somewhat disinterested or likes to feign that, and she is, predictably enough, mischievious. I like her.

That little trick she played at the end there – or at least I assume that’s what’s going on, it technically hasn’t been confirmed yet… y’know, Regent does have a habit of calling Taylor “dork”, and his power involves controlling other people’s bodies, just not to this extent. I suppose it’s possible that torturing Sophia somehow unlocked stronger aspects of his power??

But on the other hand, it’s the perfect timing to show off Imp’s power, and I did bring up the possibility of this being it before the prank happened.

Hm. Shit, now I’m unsure.

Anyway, that little trick either Imp or Regent played at the end there was kind of disruptive, and I doubt Grue is going to like it (maybe not Taylor either), but it seems like the kind of thing they could all have a good laugh about later. 🙂

So yeah, next time we’ll hopefully collapse the wave function on Schrödinger’s prankster and maybe see some results of the torture. Sheesh, that sounds like a terrible thing to look forward to. “Oh hi guys, I’m Krixwell and I hope to see results of t o r t u r e, doesn’t that sound nice?”

See you next time!

Parasite 10.1

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

Howdy! It’s time to continue my journey through Worm!

Judging by the fact that I was asked to do the Arc Thoughts after the last chapter, it seems we’re skipping the between-Arc Interlude we’re used to by now and moving straight into Arc 10. Double digits!

Let’s turn the page and find out what this Arc is called…

Parasite. Nice.

I suppose it was really only a question of time before that name showed up. Not quite as much so as Buzz, but still.

So, what does this mean? By definition, parasitism is a kind of symbiosis that benefits one of the organisms and is detrimental to the other… Sounds kind of like the situation Shadow Stalker has with the Wards, which benefits her by keeping her out of jail. Though I suppose you could argue that it’s not so much a parasitic relationship with the Wards as a mutualistic relation between Shadow Stalker and Piggot. Shadow Stalker is kept out of jail, and Piggot gets her little PR boost.

The second person I think of when I hear the word Parasite is Kaiser, who benefited from his subordinates’ help and broke many of those same people psychologically in the process. But Kaiser’s dead, so I seriously doubt that’s what we’re talking about here.

Another possibility is that this has to do with Chariot, whose intention appears to be to become an information-gathering parasite in the Wards.

And finally, since I have no idea what she’s like yet, I can’t discount the idea of it having to do with Imp. Exactly how, I don’t know.

As for chapter 10.1, I’m fairly sure it’s finally time to find out what Taylor and the Undersiders have been up to, who Imp is, and what they intend to do with Shadow Stalker. Although maybe that’s too much for one chapter? At the very least I think we’ll find out one of those things, probably starting with the last one.

So yeah. Without further ado, let’s start louse-combing! Uh, I mean, read Worm!

End of Sentinel 9.6

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

They’re back, bichesss!

This was a pretty good chapter. Shadow Stalker is even worse than I thought. She’s straight up a serial murderer, even while in the Wards.

The Undersiders, on the other hand, are great and I am very pleased to see them again. And we’ve got a mysterious new one, named Imp… I’m looking forward to getting to know her.

We’re definitely not in for a Chariot chapter now. At this point, we’re almost certainly either continuing with Shadow Stalker or moving to Taylor or Imp as the POV character, possibly getting into Interlude territory now that we’ve gone through all the Wards.

I don’t know exactly what the Undersiders plan to do with their new captive, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be pleasant for one miss Sophia Hess.

See you next time!