#13.6p1

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Regent sounded remarkably calm given the situation.

“She’s my sister.  If anyone has a right to get sentimental, it’s me, and I’m saying it’s okay to off her,” he finished.

That really does say a lot. If there’s anyone here who’s gonna know what she’s like, it’s Regent.

“I-”  Ballistic broke off.

I shifted my attention to the Nine.  Jack, Siberian and Bonesaw were moving past the yellow lines.  And Cherish… Cherish was turning to look in Grue and Ballistic’s direction.

“Are you gonna off me or not?”

I could see her almost bounce in place as she got her feet under her and started sprinting, her mouth opening.

Oh, so she really did only just notice?

Or did she only just realize she was the first target?

It’s entirely possible that Ballistic’s sentimentality is the whole reason she just noticed him.

“Cover blown!” I shouted into the walkie-talkie.  Taking my finger off the button, I called out,  “Trickster, Sundancer!”

It’s go time!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Who?” Trickster asked.

“Sadie.  From seventh grade.”

Wildbow continues to heavily imply that the Travelers go way back.

But yeah, sounds like it’s genuinely just a case of similar appearances.

“Nope,” Trickster replied.  “Not in the slightest.  Your head’s fucking with you.  Get the job done.”

I suppose that’s also possible.

“But-”

Trickster’s voice was as hard as I’d ever heard it.  “Now.  Remember the deal we made.  Our promise to each other and to Noelle.  Don’t fuck this up.”

I would love to know what that promise was and how it plays into this situation. Alas, that is probably a matter for another day.

Ballistic hesitated.  Through the scope of my binoculars, I could see him holding the foot-ball sized warhead in his hands.  “She’s a human being, someone with feelings, and tastes and-”

That she is.

She’s also a fucked up mass-murderer.

Regent was the one who cut him off this time, “And she’s someone that has forced parents to mutilate and kill their kids and she made them enjoy it.  Then she left them to live with the aftermath.”

Fucking hell, Cherish.

If you want a full redemption you’ve got so much to atone for.

That’s not really how Worm tends to go, though. Her self-interested betrayal may prove critical to beating the Nine, but she’s probably not heading for a redemption.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

He’s supposed to handle Cherish.  I glanced at the Nine.  No sign of anything from her.

Ah, fuck, that’s pretty critical, at least as far as Taylor knows.

She was standing apart from the rest of the group, her arms folded.

“You gonna smite the others yet or what?”

“She looks like someone I used to know,” Ballistic said, as if that was some kind of answer.

Oh, huh.

I wonder if he actually did know her specifically at some point. The Travelers used to be nomadic, so it’s entirely possible that he’s met Cherie Vasil before she came to Brockton Bay.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

The strategy was mine, but Grue was more comfortable than I was as a battlefield commander.  I was okay with him taking charge here.  Preferred it.

Yeah, that’s fair.

Taylor’s a tactician, a good leader of an army, but she’s not a commander.

I raised my binoculars.  Seven members of the Nine were strolling down the street.  Jack, Bonesaw and Siberian were at the head of the group, and Jack was using his knife to try to cut down anyone he saw who didn’t get under cover fast enough.

Just doing some casual roadside murder on their walk, no big deal.

It was almost an idle amusement, rather than some mission or task he’d undertaken.  Most escaped, and he didn’t go to any particular effort to chase them down, as though he were conserving his strength.

It’s probably like a car game for him. You know, the kind children play to alleviate boredom during long car rides, except instead of “punch buggy”, it’s “cut human”.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Each of us were a little over a thousand feet away from the Nine, three city blocks, give or take.

So a little over 300 meters. I’m not great with distances in general, but feet and meters are more intuitive to me than American city blocks (which is a more frequently used unit in Worm). This line actually helps me get more of a sense of how big one of those actually is. Conveniently, if a thousand feet is about three city blocks, then a city block is roughly a nice round 100 meters.

It meant my allies were out of range of my powers.  It was a drawback, but I hoped it would balance out.

Oh yeah, that might be an issue. When doubled, her power reaches about six blocks, and her closest allies are more than four blocks away right now (if we interpret “left of” and “right of” the Nine as being directly left/right).

“They’re moving with purpose,” Tattletale sounded over the walkie-talkie.

There she is!

Purpose, you say. They do seem to have a sort of formation going, even if they seem kind of casual about it.

Trickster was sending her ongoing video with a camera and directional microphone.

It’s not as fancy as the planned setup, but it’s a beginning.

“I think they’re heading to Dolltown.”

“Dolltown?”

I suppose that must be Parian’s area. I like the name.

Damn, her creations wouldn’t stand much of a chance on their own, even against Jack alone. Then again, she did put them up against Leviathan to some effect, so maybe I’m underestimating them.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Hey,” Sundancer said from beside me, “Ten or so seconds until we lose them behind that building over there.”

Better move.

A quick check confirmed she was right.  The direction their group was traveling would take them out of sight.  I picked up the walkie-talkie, “Moving forward.  You guys have eyes on them?”

“Moving forward.” made me think of chess, and by extension shogi. I suppose that only makes sense given how those games are inspired by war tactics.

“Yeah,” Grue reported.  That would be our second squad.

Oh yeah, by the way, I like that Sundancer is in Taylor’s squad.

Although it does increase my suspicion that we’ll be seeing more of her reluctance to kill on purpose.

I suspect each squad has at least one or two of the heavy-hitters.

More specifically, I’m going to guess that Ballistic is with Grue, even if there are more squads than just these two, just because they feel kind of similar, like they’ve got almost the same... energy? I don’t fully know what I mean by any of that, but they do.

“Yep,” Trickster said, from the third.

Ah, yeah, makes sense he’d get to lead one.

By the way, are they all equipped with the sort of equipment Lisa suggested getting them at the meeting early in the Arc, so she and Oliver can monitor things from behind the scenes? That would be neat, though I suppose they haven’t had much time to actually get that stuff set up yet.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

I turned my attention back to Cherish.  Shatterbird was saying something to her, her lips moving in the rhythms of speech beneath the glass beak/visor that covered the upper half of her face.  She was using her hands to punctuate her words.  Cherish didn’t respond.

It’s probably nothing nice. Shatterbird didn’t like Cherish even before Cherish turned out to be planning

and frankly, she’s kind of a bitch.

From the length of Shatterbird’s speech, I took it to be some kind of monologue or lecture.

Hmm. Cherish didn’t get caught trying to make that deal with Imp, did she?

Not that Shatterbird wouldn’t already be inclined to do this just from her previous offense. Also, if Cherish got caught, she’d probably be dead or worse already.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Snare 13.6

Howdy, everyworm! Krixwell here for another chapter!

So, what all happened last time? Ah yes, Taylor and Rachel had a remarkably open conversation that may have been a breakthrough in their relationship, we got some details on Genesis’ power and limitations, and Taylor pitched her plan for attacking the Nine.

Which I suppose is what we’ll be doing today! Taylor has a plan that we’re not being told (that’s good, it increases the likelihood of success on a meta-level), and by the way these things usually go, it’s time to execute that plan. This is “then I told them what we’d be trying to do” being shown instead of told, by way of seguing into them actually trying to do it.

So, how is this going to go?

In a word, “well”. I don’t really have a clue what Taylor’s plan is besides “attack, no holds barred” - though I hope it involves the shogi tactic, which I think was set up too well in the original planning chapter to be completely dropped - but since we as the audience don’t know what it is, either the plan needs to be successful, or it needs to be spelled out what went wrong and what was supposed to happen, and the former is usually better writing. Thus, the Unspoken Plan Guarantee. That said, complications will still likely arise by the end of the chapter, after most of the plan has worked out.

So yeah, without further ado, let’s tango!