Barker or Biter would be the ones to whine about the task first.
Subordinates, got it.
Well, at least Barker’s bark is probably worse than his bite.
They had powers. They had expected to be in charge, to be her lieutenants.
Except that role went to dogs, didn’t it.
The looks on their faces when she’d given them their tasks had made her day.
Hehe, at least she’s enjoying herself.
Nothing like putting someone in their place.
Yeah.
It wasn’t that she wouldn’t take care of herself. She would, just like she took care of her dogs. Just as she groomed each of them twice a week or more, she would tend to herself.
Just not in the ways, or with the frequency, expected from a human being?
But what did some scruff on her legs matter when she was treading down flooded streets or caked in mud up to her knees half the time anyways?
…fair point.
What did some body odor mean, if she didn’t even like the people who were around to be offended by it?
Hehe. I can’t argue.
Barker, Biter and the others would be at the locations she had assigned them. She had given them the most menial of tasks. Grooming the dogs, feeding the dogs, picking up shit, checking the dogs for sores, cuts, ear infections and ticks like she’d showed them.
I’m sure they’re loving that.
She had a good number of dogs in her care, now. Most had been taken from kennels that hadn’t been in a state to help the animals since Leviathan attacked.
Oh yeah, I’m sure there are a lot of those now.
She was eagerly anticipating the moment someone complained.
You mean out of your subordinates, or out of the people at the kennels?
She could feel the heat of his body underneath her, the rippling movements of his muscles as he ran. She could smell him, like dog breath and the coppery tang of blood, that faint sweet smell of meat on the verge of going bad.
Ew.
She could smell herself, her body odor. She hadn’t washed in two days, but she liked her own smell.
…fair enough.
Did Brian and the others make sure you washed up when you were all living together?
She liked that her belongings and her place all smelled like her.
The stench is her most powerful ward against enemy infiltrations.
His enthusiasm was infectious. She bared her teeth in a wide grin, then whooped, adding her voice to the cacophony.
Niice.
She hopped up his side, gripping ridges of hard muscle and bony growths so she could throw one leg over his other shoulder. A spike of bone scratched her upper thigh, beneath her skirt, but she didn’t care. It was nothing.
Ow.
Also, I never really pictured Rachel as the type to wear skirts for some reason. Fair enough.
“Go, Bentley!” She urged him. He surged forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.
So what are we doing? Claiming territory? Chasing Fenrir’s Chosen out of it?
I don’t remember if it’s been stated yet, but I have no doubt Rachel will be dealing with Fenrir’s Chosen like Taylor had to deal with the Merchants. Hookwolf is just too perfect as a rival to Rachel for that not to be the case.
It’s still a possibility that we’re getting Interludes for every Fellowship member but Jack Slash, but I doubt that.
Also, I guess those were the hellhounds howling? They’re certainly bigger than your average dog.
A howl tore through the air.
AWOOOOOOO
Are we dealing with Hookwolf?
It wasn’t the howl one would expect from a dog. It was ragged, with a guttural undertone that hinted at the size of the one doing the howling.
Like someone a bit bigger than a dog… like a wolf?
Before the howl had even finished, more took up the cry in answer. A second howl, then a third. More joining in, all at once. Seven or eight.
Hm. Did Hookwolf instruct his subordinates to do this sort of thing along with him, or are we dealing with actual wolves here?
Bentley raised his head and joined them, his tail wagging on his undersized hindquarters, almost prancing on the spot in his excitement.
!
Is this. A Rachel. Lindt. Inter–
…Lindterlude?
I mean, my first though was another doggo Interlude, but it’s not written like one, so the next most reasonable assumption is that this is the perspective of someone who’d be paying attention to Bentley.
Water splashed around paws as wide around as bike tires as he landed, spraying Bitch.
Hiya!
Yeah, it seems this is, in fact, a Lindterlude! Nice.
WOO PARTY TIME
Howdy! It’s time to celebrate the first year of Worm with eight consecutive Interludes! And hey, this is my five thousandth post on this blog, so there’s that too. 😛
So, what are we in for in Interlude 11a? I think I’ve made my predictions on that clear – chances are we’re in for Jack Slash, or one of the other members of the Fellowship of the Meat (in which case I’ll be expecting Jack in Interlude 11h). If we don’t get either, though… I’ll probably be fucked as far as predicting who we’ll be checking on in each Interlude goes.
If we are meeting the Slaughterhouse in this half-Arc, we’re probably getting some brutal behavior.
Without further ado… let’s get this party started!
Alright, so we’re halfway through Arc 11, and done with the regular chapters for the Arc – coming up is a series of a whopping eight Interludes. I’m going to be making another Arc Thoughts post after those.
For now, let’s take a look at the first half of Infestation. 🙂
Recap
Infestation so far has largely been a story about guilt and bystanderism. We opened with Taylor having nightmares involving various things she’s feeling guilty over, and learned about how hard she’s pushing herself to do things, both to keep herself occupied and not thinking about her various guilts, and to make (quite possibly fruitless, because Coil is a manipulative fucker) progress on fixing one of the things she feels responsible for.
Then she went out and ran into another of her guilts, Danny. I’m glad to see him again, though I’m concerned he might get killed by the Slaughterhouse Nine in the near future. The two of them had a much needed, if somewhat awkward, conversation, their first one since 6.9. 🙂
Further, in Taylor’s quest to do things, she did a thing and claimed her territory, declaring war on basically everyone standing in her way. Oh, and establishing her benevolent rule, of course. This got her in contact with Sierra Kiley, who needed help – determined to prove herself to Coil, to her subjects and to herself, and to not have another unfortunate child on her conscience, she agreed to help retrieve Bryce Kiley and spent the rest of the half-Arc pursuing that goal with all her might.
Along the way, a fit of anti-bystanderism caused Taylor to save Charlotte, a Merchant victim who ironically happened to have been a bystander for Taylor’s trigger event. (For added irony, if Charlotte had actually helped Taylor back then, she might not have been saved from the Merchants now. Then again, if the Protectorate were right, Leviathan might not have attacked in that timeline anyway.) This led to an interesting examination of how Taylor views bystanderism, and it really helped to put into context some of Taylor’s strongest heroic urges and guilt complexes.
Then, after a brief but very interesting Dandelion intermission and the end of The Great “Skidmark is a Dick to His Flock” Brawl of 2011, Taylor & co. ironically ended up as unwilling bystanders as Faultline’s Crew beat up the Merchants and stole back their super juice and papers from Cauldron, though not before Taylor and Lisa could learn a bit about it.
Finally, Taylor hired Charlotte and Sierra, made up with Brian and ended the half-Arc on a high note, feeling like she accomplished enough for the day and things were looking better. It’s a very nice counterposition to the literally nightmarish opening of the Arc.
And also quite a bit of tempting fate.
Judgment
This Arc so far has had a decent storyline, with some very interesting elements scattered into it and making the Arc overall a lot more exciting than it would’ve been otherwise. The Dandelions showing up was incredibly unexpected and what we learned was very interesting, and the same goes for everything involving Cauldron.
Other than that, I quite like Sierra and Taylor’s dynamic and hope to be seeing a fair bit of that in the future.
Overall, I quite like this!
The Arc title
This has been fairly obvious since we learned of the Merchants’ relevance to the Arc. They are the infestation being cleared out.
However, I suppose it might also refer to the infestation of negative thoughts and guilt in Taylor’s brain, which was also quite important. That hasn’t quite been eradicated, but the events of this Arc do seem to have helped so far.
Prediction review
So what do we have coming up?
As mentioned earlier in the post, this Arc ended with Dragon finding out Taylor’s identity and starting a search for her. I don’t think that’s a plot that’s going to be left dormant for too long, so there’s a good chance Dragon will play a role in Arc 11, or maybe Arc 12.
Meanwhile, the Undersiders will need to try to stay away from the Slaughterhouse Nine. They will fail, that much I’m certain of, but whether they’ll fail in the next Arc or later remains to be seen. When it happens, though… well, there’s little reason to hold back against Jack Slash in particular. But even if someone does try to kill him, I think they’ll fail. I could see the story’s climax happening in two years, but I highly doubt we’ll be skipping ahead enough for it to happen in fifteen.
We might also learn more about Imp/Aisha (though with the reveal that Imp was Aisha, that’s become less of pressing matter since we’ve had a chapter getting to know Aisha as a civilian before) and how she ended up on the team… I wish I could see Brian’s face the moment Aisha probably told him straight that she has powers now and she knows about the Undersiders. 😛
Literally none of this has come up yet. I guess some of these predictions are going to carry over to Arc 12.
Predictions for the Arc 11 Interludes
Given the number of Interludes, my main prediction is that these Interludes are for the Slaughterhouse Nine, starting or more likely ending with Jack Slash. Eight members, eight Interludes.
Knowing that the Interludes were done for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary of Gestation 1.1, the number might just be the result of 1 regular Interlude plus 7 bonus Interludes for the week of celebration, but that seems too perfect for Wildbow not to use that for the Fellowship even if that was the case. (If this is how it shook out, I do feel like that slightly increases the chances of Jack Slash going first, though that depends on when Wildbow got the idea for the week-long marathon of Interludes.)
That said, I could still be wrong. If the Interludes aren’t for the Slaughterhouse Nine, I don’t have a clue who they’d be for. Maybe some of the other villains in town? Maybe one of the Wards or Protectorate members as they learn of the Merchants’ collapse? Perhaps even a short check-in on Dragon’s progress in finding Taylor?
Also, given the marathon, I suspect these Interludes might each be a bit shorter than the average recent chapter.
So yeah, whatever Wildbow has in store for me, I’m sure it’ll be good. If perhaps brutal. 🙂
See you soon for the first Interlude of the marathon!
Oh look, another phrase for a certain miss Mcabee to be quite careful with.
Re your immediate reaction to 11.8’s last line “And then the next paragraph we learn the Slaughterhouse just went public or something like that?” Scroll down slowly and carefully to read only the first four comments in the thread for this chapter…
Alright, let’s take a look!
Draz on June 12, 2012 at 00:19 said:
First! Also, that sounds like an invitation to something monumentally horrible to happen.
Hah, yeah. The end of 11.8 may be a high note, but it does still carry a strong sense of tempting fate.
Ahaha, the authorial smile and nod…
Draz on June 12, 2012 at 00:21 said:
“everything just might work out.” – Which translates into: In what way may we kick Taylor’s puppy this week?
Careful, I don’t think Rachel would like that.
MadNinja on June 12, 2012 at 02:42 said:
You would think by now that Taylor would have learned to stop saying stuff like that.
I was half expecting Wildbow to chime in again with another smiley face.
Have we really seen Taylor with this sort of optimism before, though? If anything, it seems like whatever is going to snap her out of it is going to drag her back to her existing worldview.
Unless of course it’s particularly bad, such as the Slaughterhouse Nine killing Danny. That’s definitely a thing that might happen, and if it does… Taylor definitely ain’t gonna like it.
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