Tag: Worm

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

They didn’t budge.

Thought so.

“Cut it out, Cherie,” Alec said, “I’m controlling them.”

And, much like he was vaguely aware of Shadow Stalker’s emotions due to the ways the body tried to react to them but couldn’t, he can tell that she’s doing this.

“If I remember right, you lose control if they’re hit by enough emotion,” she smiled.  She turned up the intensity.

That is very interesting.

Has to take a lot, though. Sophia was quite intensely emotional under Regent’s control, what with her solar anger and mortal fear, and she didn’t break loose.

“If I’m farther away.  Seriously, stop.  It’s irritating.”

Oh yeah, I suppose it makes sense that the distance factor makes a difference for that.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

“If we’re changing our names, I’m going by Cherish.  I wanted to make an entrance.”

Not a bad name!

Also, yeah, that’s… quite the entrance.

“Man.”

“You’ll find others.”

That’s… not really the issue here.

“Fuck,” he sighed.

She reached for the three people who stood between her and her brother, manipulated their emotions towards Alec.  Filled them with suspicion, paranoia, hate.

Why? You seem on relatively amicable terms, so why suddenly try to make people attack him?

Is it just to check whether or not he’s controlling them?

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

“Alec,” she smiled.  “Still sounds French.  I approve, little brother.”

It does?

I guess I don’t know much about French names, really.

Also, hey, confirmation! 🙂

“Cherie,” he ran his fingers through his hair. “What the fuck?”

Is he just using that in the sense of “dear” in French, or is that actually her name?

I’m inclined to think the latter. “Dear” is not really something I’d expect Alec to address someone as in any language, and it’s not in italics like the French “Ça va?” earlier.

Also that’s a very valid question. Cherie just killed six of Alec’s soldiers for pretty much no reason. Based on how calm Alec is acting, she probably would’ve gotten in without too much trouble if she’d just asked the soldiers at the door to tell Alec she was there.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

“Jean-paul.  Ça va?”

Jean-paul. Seriously?

Fair enough, I guess.

Maybe Nikos didn’t care and let Alec’s mother name her child, and she had French ancestry?

Then again, Newbie is not just calling Alec by a French name, she’s also talking to him in French. Maybe that’s just a humorous greeting, a poke at his name, but it might mean they’ve been raised with some French. That could still be from the harem, I suppose, but it’s also possible that I’ve misjudged where the name Nikos Vasil would come from (Greece).

“It’s Alec now.  Regent in costume.”

Alec what, though? Jean-paul Vasil before, Alec ??? now.

I mean, I called that he’d changed his civilian name a long time ago, but I’ve never learned what his surname is these days, whether it’s still Vasil (doubtful) or not.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

So is Newbie going to address Alec as “Hijack”, if she doesn’t go for his civilian name?

Incidentally, it wouldn’t surprise me if the civilian name she knows isn’t the one he currently uses either.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

She tried the front door and stepped inside.  The inside was nicer than the outside, watertight, heavily reinforced.  A feminine looking teenaged boy with a mop of dark curls stood at the other side of the building.  He had two men and a woman guarding him.

CALLED IT

Hiya, Alec, what’s up?

I mean, besides being visited by a girl who just made your soldiers kill themselves.

Also, is Alec controlling the men and the woman? And if he is, would all of him feel the effects of Newbie messing with his puppets’ emotions and be forced to act on them, or would they be mostly immune to tricks like the suicide switch because no matter how much Newbie might make them want to do something, they don’t have any control over their body to do it with?

Based on how things went with Shadow Stalker, I’m inclined to think the latter.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

She didn’t wait for them to step outside.  She did the same thing she’d done to the guards stationed outside, crushing them with despair, overwhelming them with loathing and paranoia.

It’s handy when your power’s range goes through walls.

It was only slightly faster than it had been here.  Here, there had been an enemy for the soldiers to focus their negative energies on, to distract them.

Huh. I had expected it to be the other way around since the people inside didn’t have her literally telling them what to do about it, but I suppose it makes sense that this would have a larger impact.

It was surprising how important that could be.

Yeah.

Nearly a minute passed before the fourth gunshot sounded, marking the death of the last soldier here.

From an inside perspective – like the non-soldiers’ – this must be terrifying.

Krixwell JaceLeave a comment

It wasn’t immediate, but their willpower wasn’t enough to stave off some of the strongest and most agonizing emotions they would have felt in their lives.  It was quick when their composure cracked, the guns flying to mouth and temple to fire.

Damn.

She could sense the others inside the building, alarmed at the gunshots, moving toward the front.

Oh yeah, maybe not the best move to make them do it so noisily? But on the other hand, Newbie doesn’t seem to be the type for stealth.

Four more soldiers and four others who stayed back.  Not soldiers.

Hmm, interesting.

If we are at Alec’s base, which is still quite unclear, then… has he gone back to his old habit of having some people to control, now that he’s not living with all the other Undersiders anymore?