Tag: Parahumans

End of Buzz 7.10

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Well.

That was kinda anticlimactic. The boss encounter that half the arc was building up to boiled down to “hi we’re innocent and we know where Aster is so please don’t vaporize us or what’s left of the neighborhood okay”.

I mean, yeah, things were resolved, and we got some decent fights along the way – the fight against Night was pretty good – but even for a peaceful solution, it kinda felt too easy once they actually got to Purity.

Maybe it’s just me being too used to the pattern of each Arc having a proper boss fight (hell, even Insinuation had one, and that Arc wasn’t combat focused at all outside that one fight). I don’t know.

What I also don’t know at the moment is if the Arc proper ends here and the next chapter is an Interlude. I’m guessing we’re having a 7.11 as a wind-down and tie-up chapter. We kind of wound down a bit at the end of this chapter, but Tattle’s text doesn’t strike me as an end-of-Arc line.

Let’s take a look at the link…

/…/buzz-7-11/

Yup. 🙂

Maybe it’ll give us some insight into exactly what put Coil in a less friendly mood than last time we saw him, and/or maybe have Brian and Taylor talk to each other about what happened at the mall.

See you then!

Buzz 7.10

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I don’t wanna close my eyes
I don’t wanna fall asleep
‘Cause Night’ll kill me, babe,
and I don’t wanna die

Howdy, everyone! It’s Taylor time again!

Last time, Taylor & co. found their way to the Battle of Light, as I think I shall call this, and promptly got in a tussle with Rune, a powerful young telekinetic. Having narrowly escaped her on the hellhounds, they ran into Night and Fog (who may or may not be Rune’s parents), which means we’re in for a difficult battle – we’ve got a sentient cloud of fog and a Weeping Angel with enough sense to pack at least one flashbang.

Out of these two, I do think Fog will be harder to take out, but less of a threat on the offensive (not to be confused with being not a threat, though). The fortunate thing about fighting Night is that the Undersiders have 15 eyes on their side that can be used to keep her from using her power

(not counting insects, which seemingly don’t count – the dogs might also not count, bringing the total down to 10). That doesn’t mean she’s harmless when being watched, and we’ve already seen she has brought means to temporarily blind everyone at once, but it does theoretically help with the Undersiders’ chances of defeating her. Fog on the other hand… how do you hurt fog? With an electric fan?

Grue’s power is fairly useless – counterproductive, even – against Night unless used in creative ways. Fog can easily nullify Taylor’s power and Regent’s power probably doesn’t work on him (even if he were to have a nervous system as a cloud of fog, what would you have him do?). They’ve both had their secret identities revealed, so – much like with Panacea – Tattle would have to dig deeper… and they don’t seem much for conversation. Finally, Bitch is probably the best bet offensively against Night, but we’ve already seen her do bad things to some of the dogs.

Yeah, this battle probably won’t be easy.

Let’s go!

End of Buzz 7.9

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

This was a pretty decent chapter. We didn’t quite reach the Arc boss yet, and by the looks of it it’ll be at least another chapter before we do, but we did finally get to meet a bunch of characters, some of whom were name dropped all the way back in 3.11.

Next up: Flashbang. Except it’s not Flashbang, it’s a flashbang. It’s not even a flashbang thrown by someone on Flashbang’s side, but damn if it won’t flash and bang nonetheless. Flashbang should demand royalties.

Oh yeah, and the rest of the fight against Night and Fog. It most certainly won’t go as smoothly as Taylor’s optimistic plan would suggest, but we’ll see exactly how it works out next time.

See you then!

Buzz 7.9

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Salutations. We have travelled far enough in a positive direction along the temporal axis to reach the four-dimensional subsection of spacetime in which I, Krixwell, shall study installment 7.9 of the fictional narrative known as Worm, which is presented in the form of hypertext and transmitted to my screen over the World Wide Web, and report my findings in a similar form.

In the previous installment, a pair of the main characters encountered a collection of antagonists and proceeded to kick their asses. They subsequently met up with the remainder of the main protagonists, and began devising a plan to similarly kick the antagonists’ leader’s ass.

“Kicking ass” is a highly scientific term. Use in scientific journals whenever possible.

It is my hypothesis that the protagonists, under the current circumstances, will shortly locate the antagonist known as Kayden “Purity” Anders and attempt to exploit her so far unidentified weakness to cease her illegal, immoral and highly deadly activities. This may or may not involve initiating combat, although combat will likely occur one way or another.

Without further ado, let us initiate the experiment and please for the love of cod stop talking like this!

End of Buzz 7.8

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That was a pretty decent fight. Between oxygen tanksplosions and darkened knife attacks, Grue and Taylor used some neat tactics to deal with the three rather tough enemies they faced. Speaking of which, it’s pretty clear that the difficulty of the enemies in the story is increasing.

Next up is Purity, unless another random encounter gets in the way, which likely won’t happen. Tattle seems to have some time-sensitive knowledge that can help, but I don’t think we’re going to learn whatever it is until it’s already being used – the timing of the chapter ending and Tattle saying she’ll tell the others about it during an activity we’ve already skipped over once before seems perfect for an unspoken plan guarantee. So hopefully next time we’ll get to see that unspoken plan played out!

See you then!

Buzz 7.8

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Hello, students, and welcome to physical education class! I’m your new teacher, Krixwell Jace. Starting today, I’ll be running you ragged while relaxing in my bed with a computer on my lap, because I am a good, efficient teacher who is in no way a hypocritical slouch.

Last time I taught a class, Purity dropped every pretense of not being a murderous piece of shit after the government found out she’s a racist high-profile criminal not fit to raise a child. After some convincing of Brian, the Undersiders are on their way to attempt to stop what Purity thinks they started, but Brian and Taylor were intercepted by three of Purity’s subordinates. Now they’re forced to fight the tanky airbender, Stormtiger, and maybe also the other two, in order to escape.

Which is what this lesson be about, because I’m a strange teacher who picks up where he left off with another group. We might also cover meeting up with the rest of the Undersiders if we have time.

Strange, none of this sounds like normal P.E. syllabus content. It’s possible I don’t know how to do my job.

Anyway, I want everyone to run fifty laps around my liveblog, to Worm up!

End of Buzz 7.7

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Welcome to the combat section. 🙂

I’d say I was spot on with my prediction at the start of the chapter, which I feel is worth noting because that doesn’t happen all that often. 😛

Purity seems to be the Arc boss, which ought to be interesting, but first we need to deal with the first airbender (of the story), mister dog and sportsbug. More specifically, Taylor needs to deal with Stormtiger, seeing as his enhanced sense of smell and ability to push away the darkness makes Grue’s power somewhat ineffective against him.

Once Stormtiger is defeated or outmaneuvered, the two of them might be able to make a run for it, but I wouldn’t bet on it succeeding. Although… it’d be very difficult to take out Hookwolf with bugs. Taylor would have to strike while he’s not transformed, and during battle, I’m not sure that’s ever going to be the case. As such, the continuation of the plot might actually require either backup or escape. (Doesn’t mean Cricket can’t get in the way first, though.)

But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. See y’all next time for Taylor and Brian versus Stormtiger!

Buzz 7.7

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MORE DRAMA!!! MORE ROMANCE!!! MORE BLOODSHED!!!

Howdy! It’s time for some more Worm. 🙂

Last time, we watched an unfortunate outcome to Taylor’s confession to Brian. Now she has the heartbreak and awkwardness from that to deal with on top of everything else that’s going on in her life, which is kind of stacking up at the moment. Her confrontation with Danny (as well as the Decision) was yesterday, Sophia is pissed off to the point of brutal physical violence, the E88 are likely to come after her and the other Undersiders (though they seem to be taking it out more broadly, which I’m expecting more details about in this chapter), and now there’s this.

This chapter, we’ll probably start out with elaboration on the Empire’s answer to the email, which sounds like it involves widespread violence. If that’s something Brian and Taylor feel the need to go out and do something about, then we’re probably heading into the combat section of the Arc – otherwise, I’m (still) guessing something like that will come up later in this chapter, after a portion more about the heartbreak and awkwardness and what it’s like to stay at Brian’s apartment after the events of the previous chapter.

Whichever it is, it’s time to jump into it and find out!

End of Buzz 7.6

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Here lies Braylor
June 25, 2011 – February 4, 2012
Not a date at the mall

Okay, so this may have had an unfortunate outcome, but it was a damn good chapter. Between the fight in the bookstore, the confession, and the rejection, every part of this chapter was very well written.

I’m not going to say I’m happy with the outcome, but I’m glad Taylor actually managed to confess at all. That’s something I’ve struggled with in the past, ultimately letting my first crush slip away because I couldn’t work up the courage, so seeing Taylor getting past that hurdle in a realistic way is satisfying to me even if she wound up heartbroken as a result.

Next chapter, we’ll likely be taking a look at what form the Empire’s temper tantrum is taking, and address some of the lingering awkwardness and heartbreak between Taylor and Brian (but not remove it just yet). Also, my prediction from the beginning of this chapter, about a distress call or something similar near the end of 7.7 causing Brian and Taylor to end up fighting the Empire, still stands.

So… yeah! See you then!