Plague 12.8

I know the world can get ya down
Things don’t work out quite the way that you thought
Feeling like all your best days are done
Your fears and doubts are all you’ve got

But there’s a light, shining deep inside
Beneath those fears and doubts so just squash ‘em
And let it shine for all the world to see
That it is time, yeah, time to read Wo-orm!

Ah, ah, ah, ah – Wo-orm!
It’s time to read – this chapter!
Ah, ah, ah, ah – Wo-orm!
It’s time to read – this chapter!

Howdy!

Last time, Taylor broke a doll. Whoops!

This time, she’s probably going to be feeling the guilt of not having managed to save the four people Mannequin killed before she could stop him. But even with Taylor, it would be both difficult and excessive to fill an entire chapter with that, so other things are also going to happen. Which other things depends largely on where she’s headed now. Is she going off to her Hive? Seeking out Tattletale and/or Danny? Heading to a different part of her territory to help out there?

I think I’d prefer one of the first two options. The last one just sounds like it’d feel repetitive after 12.6.

No matter where she goes, it’s possible she’ll run into another Slaughterhouse member, though improbable. There’s only eight of them, and a big city. Effectively seven for this purpose, since we’re not running into Mannequin again so soon, and at least three of them are likely to not be anywhere near Skitter’s territory.

But yeah, much like Skitter right now, this chapter could go in a lot of different directions. I should probably just dive in and find out which one it takes!

I just found a wonderful random post generator and I love how the first thing it spat out at me can easily be interpreted as talking about Brockton Bay:

i gaze solemnly out of the car window. droplets of rain slide down and collect on its surface. the pigeon-grey sky is clouded over and thick with cold crisp moisture. i turn to you and say what we have both been thinking: i want to romanticize worm hell

For whatever reason, the things I’ve read/watched don’t overlap much with the things you’ve read/watched. However!, we have both read El Goonish Shive! Sooo.. any thoughts on EGS and Worm (similarities, characters who would get along, I dunno, etc.)?

Ooh, let’s see…

I think Ellen and Lisa might get along. They both have a positive attitude and a certain snarkiness to them, and I think they’d like that in each other. Nanase would probably be down with Lisa too, and the three of them could go have fun together. They may or may not approve of Lisa solving their Scooby-Doo detective cases immediately. :p

Damien, if he’s around in this crossover, might try to kill Lung to prove that he’s the one true god of fire. They’ve got very similar powers – pyrokinesis and regeneration, with a little extra on each side (Damien’s regen is much faster and he can fly; Lung has his draconic transformation) – but I think Lung would win once he got his claws and such out. If Lung defeated Damien non-lethally, Damien might blow himself up.

Grace’s favorite Brockton Bay cape might be Parian. She’d also probably get along with pre-Extermination Vista, not to mention Mouse Protector.

Tedd would be super interested in some of Bakuda’s work if they found out about it, specifically the bombs that mimic other people’s powers. They’d want to study them, and Tinkertech in general, in order to further their own magitech science back in Moperville. Tedd would probably get along swimmingly with Kid Win.

Susan and Justin would probably also like Tinkertech, but for very different reasons. Pew pew. Incidentally, Susan would not like Victoria.

Elliot might see the crossover as a good opportunity to be Cheerleadra, though that’s if he treats the crossover as something out of the ordinary at all. Also, past!Elliot might get in a fight with Sophia. His skills are quite physical (even Tamashii Gekido), so he’d probably lose if she used her power and weaponry.

Meanwhile, Principal Verrückt would be appalled at the lack of murals at Winslow High. Clearly this is why Brockton Bay is overrun by supervillains!

“mane six members” that’s unforgivable

Well… literally the entire fandom calls the six main adult characters of MLP:FiM that, so I guess there are a lot of people you can’t forgive. 😛

Passing the Mannequin fight feels kind of like a landmark for you, given that, like the bank robbery and the Leviathan fight, it’s one of the more popular battles in the serial.

Whoo!

Makes sense – it’s quite a good one!

The Mannequin fight is, for me, one of the most iconic Worm moments, showcasing Taylor’s resourcefulness and supreme badassery as few others. It may be that Wildbow agrees, because in one of his later stories (not in a shared universe with Worm) he included as Easter Egg a reference to a cheap novel called “Doll Man and the Revenge of the Swarm Queen”.

Niice. And yeah, this was a really good one.

For me, Lung round 2 is another really strong showing of her resourcefulness and clever tactics. These two battles stand together among the top few on that front.

As for badassery? Fuck yes.

I have a DnD story a lot like your decapitation one, but rather than cutting it off, I crushed a guy’s head by having my obese gnome monk jump off a building onto him. And the DM, who was also my roommate, had apparently spent hours planning that character. That was a good session.

What a way to go. Good job! :p

I love me some Cards Against Parahumanity. How could you not, when you have cards like “Armsmaster’s Excuse Generator” and “Weld’s Metal Penis”?

Hah! Sounds wonderful.

Yeah, someone has already made a Cards Against Humanity Worm expansion. Can’t really link it since it contains spoilers, even if they’re harder to understand due to being out of context.

Yeah, of course. Gonna be lots of spoilers in something like that.

There are a few Worm themed CAH decks already. It’s called Cards Against Parahumanity.

Also that’s a pretty good name, I like it. :p