#15.7p3

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Spooky scary Skitter Sends shivers down your spine Shrieking bugs will shock your soul Sting your eyes tonight

Spooky scary Skitter Speaks with such a buzz You'll shake and shudder in surprise When you hear these swarm clones fuss

We're so sorry Skitter You're so misunderstood You only want to socialize But I don't think we should

'Cause spooky scary Skitter Shouts startling shrilly screams She'll sneak from her hive and cocoon And just won't leave you be!

Spirits paranatural Are shy, whats all the fuss But bags of bugs seem so unsafe It's semi-serious!

Spooky scary Skitter Is silly all the same She'll smile and scrabble slowly by And drive you so insane!

Sticks and stones will break your bones They seldom let you snooze Spooky scary Skitter Will wake you with a buzz!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

End of Colony 15.7

This was nice.

I’m generally not a huge fan of the medical attention scenes in Worm, but all the other things going on in this chapter made it worthwhile.

I like Brooks. He can be a li’l shit from time to time, but he keeps it serious when it comes to his medical work, and I respect that. And even in his less serious moments, he’s still a lot more bearable than Bryce.

Speaking of the true li’l shit in the room, I very much enjoyed the scene of Sierra worrying about Skitter lashing out against him. It’s always nice to get a look at how others view Skitter, and in this case, we get to see Taylor herself get reminded of how scary she’s become even to the one who once said she was surprisingly human.

At the same time we also got Taylor realizing just how many lives she’s at the center of right now, how many people are working under her to make the territory a better place. Nice touch.

And then there’s Parian coming around to hear Skitter out.

Wait a minute...

“I know.  You made that clear when you gave me the money with no strings attached.”

...says the girl with power over strings. This is like Taylor saying something is bugging her. :p

Anyway, Parian’s visit helped provide a little more insight into Taylor’s perspective on parahumans vs. mundanes and the social structure of the post-Scion world. And I’m down with letting her run Dolltown as her territory, secretly cooperating with the Undertravelers. Let’s hope Coil is too.

I suppose next chapter it’s time for the mayor mission, unless talking to Coil about Parian somehow results in a full chapter’s worth of events. See you then!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Brooks was finishing stitching up the incision in my shoulder.  I already had two pieces of scrap spider silk at the ready – one to cover the hole in my costume and another to serve as a sling until my shoulder was stronger.

Sweet!

If I adjusted my cape, I could cover the arm so the injury wasn’t too obvious.  I stood from the chair and stretched, then reached for my cell phone.

“I can live with that,” I told her, speaking through my swarm-clone.  I clicked through my contact list and called the man who was plotting to kill me.

Yeah, he kinda needs to know what Taylor’s been up to here.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

I moved my clone’s ‘head’ and followed a group of kids who were running away from my lair, carrying six-packs of water bottles.

I briefly misread that as “I removed my clone’s ‘head’”. That’s a great way to further mentally scar the poor kids who might not realize that’s not actually Skitter.

“And later?”

“I don’t know.”

We walked in silence, past a bonfire where scrap wood was being burned.  Brooks and Bryce, meanwhile, set to shoving my arm back into its socket.  All of the ambient pain disappeared in an instant.

Shoulder: “AAAAAAAAAaaaa...ahh?” Shoulder, to Brain: “...never mind, I’m fine now. All is where it should be.”

Parian needed the money, she needed the assurance that she could help the people she’d failed.  I understood that.

“I can offer you one last compromise,” I said.

I’m listening.

“What?”

“I can’t guarantee it’ll work, I can’t say if anyone else will accept the proposal, and I don’t know what’s going to happen long-term, but we don’t have to call you a member of our team.  We don’t have to call you a villain.”

I’m not sure it’s what you call her she cares about.

“But I’d take territory for myself anyways?”

“Yes.”

“Others would call me a villain, just because I wasn’t fighting you guys.  They’d know I was cooperating with you.”

Yeah, probably.

“Not necessarily.  Maybe the people in charge, the Protectorate and Wards, maybe they’d understand it, but the people on the ground level wouldn’t.”

“The media would out me.”

“I think we control the media.  Or enough to throw some doubt into the mix.  The rules are pretty simple.  You take territory, you hold it, and you ensure that there’s no crime or parahumans operating there without your consent.”

Pretty much what she was already doing before Ballistic came along.

...does Coil control the media?

“And Flechette-”

“I don’t know her.  I can’t say how she’ll react, but maybe if you explain nicely, maybe if you frame it right, you could convince her it’s for the greater good.  So long as she convinced the other heroes to leave your territory alone, let you enforce the law there all by yourself, you wouldn’t have to fight them.”

Hm. Might work. Lots of moving pieces, though.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Because of us?  Capes?”

“Yeah.  At the end of the day, barring some extreme examples like powerful dictators, there’s always the fact that any bad person who doesn’t have powers can be killed with a gun, a knife, or even a good punch in the right place.

It surprises me that Taylor agrees that capes are the reason such assumptions don’t necessarily apply. Did I misunderstand her? Did she not mean that they don’t necessarily apply because it’s not always human nature to play into those expectations?

That’s not the case with us parahumans.  The balance of power is pretty damned off-kilter.  Things aren’t fair.”

I see. That does make a lot of sense.

“Are you making that imbalance better or worse?”

“I’m… addressing the problem.  I’m saying there’s no point to trying to hold on to the old status quo when it’s based on a foundation that no longer exists.”

So you’re a revolutionary, is that what you’re saying?

This all seems to tie back to that moment we had recently where Taylor came dangerously close to expressing parahuman supremacist views in her narration. I think I see what she meant now: She thinks that parahumans are superior in power, and it’s not fair on the mundanes.

This, interestingly enough, makes Taylor a parahuman parallel to Piggot.

“So you’re going to take over the city.”

“Yes.  Because at least for right now, I can give these people what they need.”

At this point it kinda looks like Taylor plans to continue the takeover when Coil has been dealt with, essentially replacing his megalomaniacal takeover with a benevolent one. She’s still somewhat limited by her power’s range, but it’s not like she needs every part of her territory to be in range at all times.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

*fighting game announcer voice* “FINISH IT.”

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Oh, one last thing: Mentioning “post-Scion” got me thinking about Scion’s death, since that was a possible misinterpretation of what I was saying. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that he’s going to be very visibly killed by the final threat early on, illustrating its power and bringing down morale in one fell swoop.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“And if she didn’t-”

“That’s up to her.  Or you.”

She stared around my territory.  It wasn’t pretty, there was still devastation everywhere, but things were getting better.  It was maybe the only place in the city where things were improving as fast as they were.  We weren’t taking two steps forward and one step back.  It was all forward momentum.  Not even a week had passed, admittedly, but it was progress.  And it was apparent.

:D

You’re doing good work, Taylor.

“I don’t think I could accept if Flechette doesn’t agree.”

Go discuss it with your girlfriend then, and come back to Skitter with a reply?

“Okay.”  The alternative was unspoken.  If she does…

“I hate you,” Parian said, and it was answer enough.

Hehe.

That would’ve been a good ending line (though one that doesn’t set up the next chapter), but it looks like there’s still a little bit more.