#i11gp2

[krixwell-liveblogs]

People here were so deliciously fucked up.

Worm summarized in seven words.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Scout: Velocity

Soldier: Miss Militia

Pyro: Lung

Demoman: Bakuda

Heavy: Skitter

Engineer: Kid Win

Medic: Panacea

Sniper: Flechette

Spy: Regent

[krixwell-liveblogs]

For nearly a minute, they engaged in a tug of war over the three subjects.

Another thing about this: Is there actual hostility here, or is it just a semi-friendly sibling rivalry, testing their powers? If one of them did actually win out, would they then stop the attack?

“Seems we have a stalemate,” she said, finally.

Yep, looks like it.

“Did the dirty old man send you?” Alec asked.

Time to move on to the important stuff.

She shook her head, “Daddy?  I went my own way.  After a bit.”

Please... It’s only been 10 hours since Sharks made me look at this cursed screenshot:

It’s too soon for more of the word “Daddy” right now, in the unironic fatherly sense or otherwise.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“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-liveblogs]

This kind of situation, ordinary citizens were doing things they’d never even have considered before.  Stealing, hurting their neighbors, bartering things they once considered precious for clothing, food, toilet paper and other essentials.

Some of them even jaywalk!

Emotions were raw, far closer to the surface, easier to manipulate.

Oh yeah, I suppose this is wonderful for your power.

Her music cut off.  She checked the phone.  An alert on the screen notified her that the battery was dying.

Damn, that sucks.

She swore.  No more time to waste.  She dialed a number, but didn’t hold the phone up to her ear.  Good.  Now she had fifteen minutes.

Did you set up a bomb somewhere to start ticking down when you called it? Or maybe there’s someone waiting for you to alert them but who doesn’t need to talk to you for more information.

It seems like Newbie has an objective here, but what?

[krixwell-liveblogs]

She’d had her doubts about coming to Brockton Bay.  It had been a turn off to know that areas lacked power, that still more areas lacked working plumbing.

It’s not a particularly inviting place these days, by first world standards.

But Burnscar and Bonesaw had both been excited to come, and Jack Slash had bent to Bonesaw’s wishes, pushing for the group to come this way.

We already know Burnscar had other reasons than just violence and abuse of a post-Endbringer situation to want to go to Brockton Bay. Could the same be the case with Bonesaw?

Crawler, Mannequin and Siberian had seemed fairly indifferent.

Sounds about right.

Not that Crawler or Mannequin showed much emotion.

Yeah, and I’d imagine Siberian isn’t all that interested in cities, besides the sheer amount of prey.

She’d thought she had an ally in Shatterbird, at least, but the woman hated her, and the uptight bitch had gone along with the plans to visit Brockton Bay just to ruin her day.

Hah! I kinda doubt how accurate that is, but...

Wait.

Nope, it’s probably at least mostly accurate. If there’s anyone around here who would know for sure exactly how others feel about her, it’s the girl who can listen to people’s emotions and accurately identify their targets.

So why does Shatterbird hate the Newbie? Does it have something to do with not having been the one to recruit her? Or maybe it’s just a conflict of personality, like Shatterbird not caring for Newbie’s more casual attitude.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

One of the men fell to his knees.  His hands were clenched at his sides.  Beads of sweat rolled down the faces of the other two, tears appearing in their eyes.

...is he making them do that, or did she successfully overload them?

“While I’m doing this, you can’t tell them to attack me.”

...okay?

“Unless I’ve gotten stronger over the past few years,” Alec answered.

Ah, it’s a matter of Cherie figuring that even if her influence can’t make them attack Alec or break the control entirely, it can make it harder for him to control them.

The man who was still standing reached for a knife and started walking towards Cherish.

And by the looks of it, she’s wrong.

She hit the knife wielder with fear and indecision, saw him stop.

It’s kind of interesting how this is working. We’ve got direct body control, contested by indirect mind control in a way that just slightly bypasses his body control through automatic, subconscious reactions.