Tag: Parahumans

Prey 14.3

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Howdy! Krixwell here, ready for some more bloggage!

So, how are we doing this… *turns page*

Prey 14.3. Alright, no Interlude, which means we’re probably starting off with the group we’ve been following arriving at the scene of the other group’s battle a little later than Siberian.

Before I go on to speculate further on how this will go, I do feel the need to note that I find this following reaction, to me mentioning that the low amount of asks increased the chance of me having a chapter session today, vaguely suspicious:

I might be reading too much into things, but it makes me feel like there’s something in this chapter that you guys have been waiting for me to reach. Color me intrigued.

Anyway, Siberian’s going to make a mess of things, as it seems the Undertravelers didn’t plan for this. I’m sure they had cooked up something decent (though it’s at short notice and they’re only half the team) for dealing with the four others, but Siberian throws a white-and-black-striped spanner in those works.

Which means the Undertravelers need to regroup and recover from the damage she’s doing, while also keeping Amy safe. Maybe the group we’ve been following could send Amy with a couple of their number and one of the dogs, back to Grue’s base? After she heals Taylor’s leg, of course.

Also, let’s not give the other members of the Nine too little credit. They’re all still significant threats too, though I doubt we’re getting stuck in Bonesaw’s grasp again. If the focus shifts to anyone other than Siberian in this Arc, it’s probably Crawler.

So yeah. Without further ado, let’s get into this brawl!

Actually, one last thing: I suppose it is possible that this chapter will focus on the immediate dealing with Amy and such before we go over to the others (or on the way there), but I’m still sure that at some point, assuming they do go there, we’ll see them arrive late to the mess Siberian is making.

Okay, now we can begin!

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End of Prey 14.2

This was quite solid! Siberian was kept at bay for the most part, but the sense that she was a big threat was nicely kept up throughout the chapter. 🙂

I was bamboozled, but I’m not complaining. I’m all for more Amy (to a much larger extent than more Colin), and while she didn’t get the chance to do much besides run and hide, the third thing she ended up doing could lead to some excellent developments: She had to trust Skitter and let herself be saved by other villains. I wonder how that’s going to make her feel when it comes to her hangups about heroism and villainy, but first and foremost I’m hoping it’ll lead to more amycable relations between Amy and the Undersiders and, through that, more Amy.

Next chapter, we need to keep Siberian from fucking up the other half of the Undertravelers. I’m interested in how this will be presented. We’re definitely not just going to make a phone call and wait to hear how things went, so we’re probably looking at either a) the group we’ve been following arriving at the scene at the beginning of the chapter with Siberian already making a mess of their plans (especially anything that targets Bonesaw), or b) an Interlude from the perspective of someone on that scene before and after Siberian’s arrival. Probably a Traveler if that’s the case, though it is worth noting that Trickster and Sundancer are out of the running since they’re in the wrong group. Genesis, perhaps? Ballistic would be nice too, but Genesis’ power would be more interesting to get a first-person description of.

Of course, there’s also the rest of the Nine to watch out for.

So yeah, that ought to be fun. See you next time!

Prey 14.2

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Howdy!

So, last chapter we figured out where Siberian is, and whom she’s mostly likely chasing. Let’s hope his idiocy takes time to kick in and he stays on the run for some time.

Well, idiocy might be the wrong word. Armsmaster is prideful, but he’s not a complete idiot. He probably has a plan, just not one that’s as likely to succeed as he thinks. And he might be ungrateful to the Undertravelers for messing with that plan.

That is if it doesn’t turn out I’ve been bamboozled. Or b-amy-boozled. :p

As for Siberian, I suspect they’ll be far harder to take out than the Undertravelers expected. The best tactic would be a surprise attack on their real body, but I think that would fail (possibly because Bonesaw has protected the real body against things like Taylor’s bugs), alert Siberian to their attackers, and cause the monochrome body to come to the real body’s defense.

Incidentally, this surprise attack is apparently supposed to be done by Taylor, who half-heartedly said she’d be able to deal with it at the end of the last chapter, so we’ll be running into the question of whether or not Taylor can bring herself to directly kill someone, even when the person in question is a monster.

So yeah… Let’s go hunting!

End of Prey 14.1

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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!

Prey 14.1

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Another day, another chapter, another Arc! Howdy! It’s time to read some Worm!

Previously, this would be where I’d speculate on the Arc title, but I already did that for this one. I’ll probably be moving it to the Arc Thoughts in the future anyway, splitting the “next Arc speculations” section into pre and post reading the title.

So with that out of the way, I guess I should speculate on the specific chapter, huh?

First chapters in Arcs are almost as difficult to speculate on as Interludes, but at least I have a decent idea what I think the Arc is going to be about (though there’s probably way more to it than just “Siberian’s turn and probably Traveler backstory”), so that’s something.

I don’t think we’ll be jumping straight into Siberian’s hunt, though I don’t think we’re going to dawdle either. It is very possible that we’ll get one of the other remaining Nine’s turn first (probably Bonesaw in spite of her, ahem, handicap – devoting half an Arc to defeating her properly would follow on nicely from Snare, Jack’s supposed to go last though he might make an exception because of Bonesaw’s little problem, and there’s no way we’re dealing with Siberian and Crawler), too, transitioning into Siberian being the major threat in the latter half.

Of course, all of that might be complicated by the ongoing assaults on the Nine.

Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent. What I meant to go on to say is that we might start off with a lower-action chapter as Taylor attempts to deal with the mess Mannequin and Burnscar left in her territory and perhaps tries to make sense of what she and Brian want to be to each other.

So yeah, let’s have a look at what Prey has to offer!

Arc Thoughts: Snare

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The Arc in which Taylor Hebert looks at the long-term plot that was set up in Plague and says “fuck that let’s do this my way”.

Much like Plague, Snare feels a bit less self-contained than pre-Leviathan Arcs, being the third (counting the Arc 11 Interludes) part of the larger Slaughterhouse story arc. Interestingly, it all but throws out the formula that was set up for these Arcs, not as a result of bad writing, but of good. Actually adhering to that formula would be a bit too predictable after a while, what with how many tester rounds there were originally supposed to be, and watching Taylor go “fuck that” in this Arc was quite satisfying.

Also satisfying were the encounters with the Nine. We had four or five of them in this Arc, depending how you count. That’s a high density of awesome fights for an Arc of ten chapters and two Interludes!

I was right that we’d be focusing on fighting two Slaughterhouse members in particular over the course of this Arc, but I was wrong about who’d be the second. Twice. Because while Burnscar took over for Cherish, she was not actually in the spotlight anywhere near as much as Mannequin and Bonesaw.

Mannequin added a new weapon to his arsenal and came for a rematch with Skitter. That move kinda blew up in his face, but it was very cool.

Later, Bonesaw gave us one of the more gruesome sights in the story, with Grue having been unpacked to figure out where his power came from. She continued to be great as she almost managed to remove Taylor’s brain temporarily. Best antagonist right here.

On the protagonists’ side, I really like what was done with Imp in this Arc. She finally got to have significant relevance to the plot (beyond being Grue’s reason to fight), by getting in touch with Cherish and making it so the latter didn’t alert the other Nine to the incoming attack. It was also nice to see the conflict between her and Grue regarding her wanting to contribute vs. Grue wanting her to be safe. I like how that tied in with both of Grue’s trigger events, with her getting in trouble that he couldn’t help her out of, and the way that mirrors what he was feeling for Taylor.

Oh yeah, and Grue x Taylor is back! I wasn’t expecting that, but I can appreciate it. Like I’ve mentioned, I’m not entirely back on board yet, but depending how things develop from here, it might happen quite easily.

Grue’s second trigger event… I’m not gonna lie, it feels very close to a deus ex machina. But it’s pretty damn cool, and I’m excited about the opportunities. I’m also curious about the true power of whoever Grue stole the monochrome copy from if that thing – which pulverized Burnscar’s head – was just a fraction of the power.

And finally, Interlude 13 set up the Protectorate as another major enemy in the upcoming Arcs. With Piggot in the lead, they’re planning on a massive dick move against the villains of Brockton Bay. (Which I guess I somehow partially predicted by accident in my SU/Worm crossover crackfic??) When the Nine are dealt with, the pressure will still be on for the Undertravelers, now from the PRT. And then there’s Hookwolf’s small army, which might also be a threat for them further down the line.

Overall, Snare was a really, really good Arc with non-stop action and satisfying twists and turns. 🙂

The Arc title

It was immediately apparent to me that “Snare” would relate to traps, and sure enough, half the chapters in the Arc contain the words “trap” and/or “trapped” (there’s also a bit of “strapped”, but that doesn’t count), and Mannequin’s cloud of gas acted as one when the battle started.

It also refers to the situation the Undertravelers ended up in at the end, ensnared and paralyzed by Bonesaw. They were as helpless as flies in a spider’s web until Grue had his second trigger event.

Prediction review

Last time, I let some of the predictions I had for Plague roll over:

We know that Bitch, Armmaster, Hookwolf, Noelle, Regent and Panacea are all now targets for Slaughterhouse testing. This might be lethal for some of them, as I doubt the Slaughterhouse members will hold back. However, I doubt we’re losing Bitch, Hookwolf or Regent – Bitch and Regent because plot armor and Hookwolf because he’s probably the most competent fighter out of all of them, besides maybe Armmaster, and better equipped defensively than anyone except maybe Noelle. Besides plot armor, it would be more interesting to have Bitch actually join the Slaughterhouse Nine and become an antagonist – at least temporarily – than to have her just die.

Turns out Bitch doesn’t, in fact, want to join them. Fair enough!

And, if someone attempts to kill Jack Slash, they will either fail, or do it too late. 

Well, there were a couple failed attempts this Arc, so I suppose it’s holding true for now. But yeah, this prediction stays.

I am pretty curious to see how [Plague] deals with the fact that there are other characters we care about who are going through the same thing as two of the Undersiders. Maybe we’ll have some Interludes to help out with that? Though it is worth noting that Wildbow seems to have a rule against using the same POV character for two Interludes (which is probably part of why Alec wasn’t the POV in 11g, besides Cherish’s power and personality being better illustrated from within her own head), so he’d have to show us the perspective of someone else close to the action. Perhaps even one of the attacking Slaughterhouse members, though that might be a tad redundant.

So far, the other groups targeted have been backgrounded except where they interact with the Undertravelers. We did get a look at what Amy’s been up to, which was neat, but it was not via and Interlude.

Man, the general thoughts section of this post is quite long and

still

there were things I forgot to talk about. This Arc was dense.

Primarily, though, I think we’ll be focusing on Taylor and the other Undersiders doing what they can to protect Alec, and maybe Rachel if she does eventually decide to tell the others anything.

Rachel’s secret did come out sooner than expected, though not much has been done with that yet due to more pressing concerns. But yeah, protecting Alec and Rachel is explicitly part of Tattletale’s game, so this too is going to carry over.

This Arc did a bit more with Rachel than Plague did, giving us confirmation that she doesn’t actually want to be part of the Nine, as well as some excellent development of her relationship with Taylor. It didn’t focus all that much on protecting her and Alec, though.

And then there’s what I had to say about Arc 13 last time:

At this point, I think the nomination game is going to take at least a few more Arcs to finish. In Arc 13, though, the game’s definitely afoot.

If we’re doing two nomination turns per Arc, we’ve got Mannequin and Cherish in the spotlight of the next Arc, with Mannequin specifically being tasked to deal with Skitter. A doll in search of revenge and a sister who might be in no particular hurry to help her candidate succeed even if it does make her look better. And they’re both super deadly.

Yeah, things are kicking off now.

It kicked off hard. But as I mentioned earlier in this post, I was wrong about the pairing, although Cherish was still relevant.

Predictions for Arc 14

Due to an accident while writing the End of Interlude 13 post yesterday, I know the title, or original title if it has been changed, of Arc 14: Prey.

Who’s the prey, exactly? After hearing Piggot’s plan, I’m inclined to think it’s both the local villains and the Slaughterhouse Nine. The Nine are at the bottom of the parahuman food chain for a change, being hunted by the Undertravelers and the Protectorate, but the PRT is also hunting the Undertravelers and other local villains.

I suppose there’s still civilians under the Nine on the overall food chain, but the Nine have already been preying on them quite a lot, so that shouldn’t be enough for an Arc title.

…oh. Oh, right.

I was already going to predict that Siberian was going to be in the spotlight next Arc, because of the focus she got in Interlude 13. Of course that ties in with the title Prey. She’s probably the next tester, which means the nominees are going to be her prey.

That doesn’t invalidate the other interpretation, though. I’m inclined to think both are correct.

So is the next Arc going to give the spotlight to only Siberian, among the Nine? The Nine’s numbers have been reduced enough that Wildbow can do that now, especially if they continue being reduced.

I don’t think the Undertravelers are going to let up on their ongoing assault against the Nine, but Taylor might start being a tad more cautious thanks to Grue’s input. Maybe that’s what ends up saving them from the Protectorate’s explosive backstab?

And finally, I think there’s a good chance we’ll finally learn what the Travelers’ deal is. Hell, if my theories on that are anywhere near right, that might even be another reason for the title.

So… yeah! Snare was very, very good, and I’m looking forward to what Wildbow has in store for me next. See you in Prey!

End of Interlude 13

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Well, that was interesting. Certainly less PR-focused than I was expecting.

We got some insight into what makes Jirector Jemily Piggot tick, though her apparent distaste for parahumans ultimately stayed more implicit than I thought it would.

Siberian is likely in the spotlight next Arc, I think, given her importance in the Case 01 scene. It was neat to see a bit of the original four-person Protectorate in action, and hear Alexandria speak. I think I’ll like her if she gets to speak in the future.

We learned about Legend’s orientation, which I had been spoiled about, and more importantly the fact that he’s happily married or partnered and has adopted a son! Regardless of the genders involved, this is so far the purest ship we’ve had since the needle gals. 🙂

Skitter’s message arrived, but she might’ve been unlucky with who made the plan for the attack she invited them into making. Piggot turned scary at the very end with her plan to cluster Bakuda bomb the villains of Brockton Bay when they come to help against the Nine. Holy fuck, Piggot.

Next up… I don’t actually know if there’s another Interlude here, or if it’s Arc Thoughts. Hang on, people who don’t actually need to hang on because I’m posting this and the next paragraph together.

Fuck, I tried to check the link of the next chapter for the word “Interlude” without looking at it and almost succeeded. I should’ve gone for my original plan of asking Sharks or LHC (since Sharks seems to have gone to bed) after all. But I didn’t, and now I know the title of the next Arc, unless it’s been changed like seemed to be the case with Sentinel.

Prey. A title that could refer to a lot of people right now.

I’ll have to speculate more on that in the Arc Thoughts post tomorrow. Honestly, I’ve thought about moving the Arc title speculation to those posts anyway.

Oh yeah, Arc Thoughts tomorrow.

This post is breaking down fast. So yeah, see you soon for that!

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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.)