bugsonthemind

[bugsonthemind]

Woolie Madden: Listen, we don't talk about the cape scene in Quebec for a reason, and you all know it.

[bugsonthemind]

Can't believe you're like, a scientist. I thought you were a drug dealer.

So, funny story on what my job was before scientist...

[bugsonthemind]

fact check: rated FALSE by true victoria dallon fans

Vicky does NOT have sex

[bugsonthemind]

Saul is a pretty normal guy, all things considered. He’s a quiet type, into fitness, with few close friends. One thing he does have, though, is a boyfriend, though they keep their relationship on the private end on account of his boyfriend also being a villain in the cape scene. Not a particularly important one, but present nonetheless. A few months after Saul moves in arguments start; then the abuse, from which he has no recourse. Only worsening this is that while his boyfriend is a brute with physically enhanced strength, Saul looks substantially stronger and more fit than his boyfriend, making any claim of abuse he could make only easier to redirect onto him. This culminates after a particularly bad argument, where his boyfriend beats him bloody and leaves him sobbing on the floor, utterly helpless and unable to even stand through the pain. Trigger.

Gimme some OC Trigger events and I’ll see about generating their powers for ya

(Make sure to include their personality please)

[bugsonthemind]

The problem is that in spite of it all (and because of it all) Worm is good.

i know i’ve read it twice but i think the hyperfixation is fading so can anyone please tell me if worm is actually even good or what

[bugsonthemind]

im blasting electromagnetic waves into your home btw

[bugsonthemind]

Every day I think, "I could embarrass this man in ways that no one else could," and decide not to because 1) you could easily do the same to me and 2) I am a perfect moral actor.

There should be a study based on how many of my online friends start off super nice and polite and 🥺

And then in a month they are bullying me and talking about wanting to put me in the dryer (affectionate).

It’s probably my fault somehow

[bugsonthemind]

Nah the bloodthirsty here is entirely rational I think.

Feminine Rachel Lindt with a snatched waist can’t hurt me. She’s not real. I’m safe. 

[bugsonthemind]

Honestly, I’m just not sure why he’s like that. It just doesn’t seem like a thing worth getting so up in arms about - people have been reading stories in ways contrary to the author’s intent since time began.

im re-reading worth the candle and i had this silly thought:

i feel the main difference between wildbow and alexander wales is that wales would be more than happy to write a quick vignette exploring what if joon was trans just for shits and giggles whereas i feel wildbow barely tolerates the lesbian undersiders headcannons only because he knows he would get in trouble is he were ever to say anything against it

[bugsonthemind]

It technically could, but that could probably be circumvented if the lines of the cross were long enough to give it a closer resemblance to the Flag of England than the Red Cross, no?

sorry wormblr, it's time for amy dallon discourse again. That's right, the age old question: is her costume a violation of the geneva convention

[bugsonthemind]

Faultline is a criminal mercenary who puts a premium on payment above other things. She might be down with it.

Is there any parahumans character who would have gotten into crypto? Besides Uber and Leet I mean.

Lisa's probably run a few investment scams promising blockchain-backed play-to-earn game development but she prolly wouldn't have touched the actual tech.

I could imagine Rain being weirdly credulous about crypto having non-speculative uses. Being raised in an apocalypse cult might prime you for the whole "this can be an actually usable currency without government backing" pitch. But even that wouldn't be the same as being "into" crypto in the post-boom investor way.

Krouse and Cody both seem like valid options here but both of them had too much going on to cultivate an OpenSeas wallet.

I feel like there's an obvious pick here I'm missing.

[bugsonthemind]

My sincere headcanon is that Brian, in spite of his desperate efforts to be Normal, is still a metalhead. He works out, he dresses like that as a cape, he's a metalhead. I can feel it in my bones. I know he's listening to Slayer.

[bugsonthemind]

Recently recalled my only memorable Worm dream. In it, I logged on to Discord to find a bunch of my friends freaking out because apparently Wildbow had reworked the entirety of Worm basically overnight. Logically, I went to read it. And what would you know, he did. The plot was mostly the same, with a few minor edits, up until the Alec interlude. After the Alec interlude, there was... more Alec interlude. The next chapter was also from his perspective. And the next chapter. And the one after that. In fact, the entirety of Worm except for the interludes up until Alec's death was from Alec's perspective while none of the plot details changed. A lot of it centered on his weird disconnectedness from even the people closest to him and society at large, and also the weird intensity of his relationship with Aisha. Towards the end in particular he started getting increasingly introspective and philosophical about it, to the point where a bit before the Behemoth fight it felt like he was on the edge of some kind of breakthrough as a person. This was bizarre, but also very well-written to the point that it almost felt like an even exchange if it weren't for the fact that we were losing so much Taylor content in the process. And the story just resumed as normal after the Behemoth fight.

Also there was a scene that opened with him and Aisha using Shatterbird like footrest. Like it was mentioned in the first paragraph that they were both using her as a footrest and then like, for the rest of the opening of that chapter they were just. Casually shooting the shit. While using her like a footrest. And then they realized they had to leave and go somewhere else. And they presumably just leave Shatterbird there alone. Still posed like a footrest. People were furiously debating the meaning of this in basically every corner of the fandom, primarily on the points of 1) whether this was Alec's fetish 2) why Aisha was going along with it and 3) whether it was Wildbow's fetish. Points in favor of it not being Alec's fetish were primarily his offhanded mentions of how Heartbreaker used women as props, and people pointed to that as seeing the whole footrest thing as a non-sexual replication of seeing the sexual abuse and humiliation of women on a regular basis as a child. Points against it being Wildbow's fetish were that after the initial mention in the scene, Shatterbird was essentially ignored - literally treated like set dressing. Points for were essentially that same point repeated with a more accusatory tone. Everything regarding Aisha was inconclusive. I woke up a bit after reading past the Behemoth interlude and catching up with the discourse.

[bugsonthemind]

Also, the only line I remember actually reading - in my brain it looked more like a movie but it was reading - was the line "Up north his best expressions made him look like he was imitating missing posters." With the implicative value being that most of his mannerisms were copied from his or Heartbreaker's victims.

Recently recalled my only memorable Worm dream. In it, I logged on to Discord to find a bunch of my friends freaking out because apparently Wildbow had reworked the entirety of Worm basically overnight. Logically, I went to read it. And what would you know, he did. The plot was mostly the same, with a few minor edits, up until the Alec interlude. After the Alec interlude, there was... more Alec interlude. The next chapter was also from his perspective. And the next chapter. And the one after that. In fact, the entirety of Worm except for the interludes up until Alec's death was from Alec's perspective while none of the plot details changed. A lot of it centered on his weird disconnectedness from even the people closest to him and society at large, and also the weird intensity of his relationship with Aisha. Towards the end in particular he started getting increasingly introspective and philosophical about it, to the point where a bit before the Behemoth fight it felt like he was on the edge of some kind of breakthrough as a person. This was bizarre, but also very well-written to the point that it almost felt like an even exchange if it weren't for the fact that we were losing so much Taylor content in the process. And the story just resumed as normal after the Behemoth fight.

Also there was a scene that opened with him and Aisha using Shatterbird like footrest. Like it was mentioned in the first paragraph that they were both using her as a footrest and then like, for the rest of the opening of that chapter they were just. Casually shooting the shit. While using her like a footrest. And then they realized they had to leave and go somewhere else. And they presumably just leave Shatterbird there alone. Still posed like a footrest. People were furiously debating the meaning of this in basically every corner of the fandom, primarily on the points of 1) whether this was Alec's fetish 2) why Aisha was going along with it and 3) whether it was Wildbow's fetish. Points in favor of it not being Alec's fetish were primarily his offhanded mentions of how Heartbreaker used women as props, and people pointed to that as seeing the whole footrest thing as a non-sexual replication of seeing the sexual abuse and humiliation of women on a regular basis as a child. Points against it being Wildbow's fetish were that after the initial mention in the scene, Shatterbird was essentially ignored - literally treated like set dressing. Points for were essentially that same point repeated with a more accusatory tone. Everything regarding Aisha was inconclusive. I woke up a bit after reading past the Behemoth interlude and catching up with the discourse.

[bugsonthemind]

Many, though not all, of my dreams involve online discourse. Normally they’re centered on me and they’re nightmares though.

Recently recalled my only memorable Worm dream. In it, I logged on to Discord to find a bunch of my friends freaking out because apparently Wildbow had reworked the entirety of Worm basically overnight. Logically, I went to read it. And what would you know, he did. The plot was mostly the same, with a few minor edits, up until the Alec interlude. After the Alec interlude, there was... more Alec interlude. The next chapter was also from his perspective. And the next chapter. And the one after that. In fact, the entirety of Worm except for the interludes up until Alec's death was from Alec's perspective while none of the plot details changed. A lot of it centered on his weird disconnectedness from even the people closest to him and society at large, and also the weird intensity of his relationship with Aisha. Towards the end in particular he started getting increasingly introspective and philosophical about it, to the point where a bit before the Behemoth fight it felt like he was on the edge of some kind of breakthrough as a person. This was bizarre, but also very well-written to the point that it almost felt like an even exchange if it weren't for the fact that we were losing so much Taylor content in the process. And the story just resumed as normal after the Behemoth fight.

Also there was a scene that opened with him and Aisha using Shatterbird like footrest. Like it was mentioned in the first paragraph that they were both using her as a footrest and then like, for the rest of the opening of that chapter they were just. Casually shooting the shit. While using her like a footrest. And then they realized they had to leave and go somewhere else. And they presumably just leave Shatterbird there alone. Still posed like a footrest. People were furiously debating the meaning of this in basically every corner of the fandom, primarily on the points of 1) whether this was Alec's fetish 2) why Aisha was going along with it and 3) whether it was Wildbow's fetish. Points in favor of it not being Alec's fetish were primarily his offhanded mentions of how Heartbreaker used women as props, and people pointed to that as seeing the whole footrest thing as a non-sexual replication of seeing the sexual abuse and humiliation of women on a regular basis as a child. Points against it being Wildbow's fetish were that after the initial mention in the scene, Shatterbird was essentially ignored - literally treated like set dressing. Points for were essentially that same point repeated with a more accusatory tone. Everything regarding Aisha was inconclusive. I woke up a bit after reading past the Behemoth interlude and catching up with the discourse.

[bugsonthemind]

Recently recalled my only memorable Worm dream. In it, I logged on to Discord to find a bunch of my friends freaking out because apparently Wildbow had reworked the entirety of Worm basically overnight. Logically, I went to read it. And what would you know, he did. The plot was mostly the same, with a few minor edits, up until the Alec interlude. After the Alec interlude, there was... more Alec interlude. The next chapter was also from his perspective. And the next chapter. And the one after that. In fact, the entirety of Worm except for the interludes up until Alec's death was from Alec's perspective while none of the plot details changed. A lot of it centered on his weird disconnectedness from even the people closest to him and society at large, and also the weird intensity of his relationship with Aisha. Towards the end in particular he started getting increasingly introspective and philosophical about it, to the point where a bit before the Behemoth fight it felt like he was on the edge of some kind of breakthrough as a person. This was bizarre, but also very well-written to the point that it almost felt like an even exchange if it weren't for the fact that we were losing so much Taylor content in the process. And the story just resumed as normal after the Behemoth fight.

Also there was a scene that opened with him and Aisha using Shatterbird like footrest. Like it was mentioned in the first paragraph that they were both using her as a footrest and then like, for the rest of the opening of that chapter they were just. Casually shooting the shit. While using her like a footrest. And then they realized they had to leave and go somewhere else. And they presumably just leave Shatterbird there alone. Still posed like a footrest. People were furiously debating the meaning of this in basically every corner of the fandom, primarily on the points of 1) whether this was Alec's fetish 2) why Aisha was going along with it and 3) whether it was Wildbow's fetish. Points in favor of it not being Alec's fetish were primarily his offhanded mentions of how Heartbreaker used women as props, and people pointed to that as seeing the whole footrest thing as a non-sexual replication of seeing the sexual abuse and humiliation of women on a regular basis as a child. Points against it being Wildbow's fetish were that after the initial mention in the scene, Shatterbird was essentially ignored - literally treated like set dressing. Points for were essentially that same point repeated with a more accusatory tone. Everything regarding Aisha was inconclusive. I woke up a bit after reading past the Behemoth interlude and catching up with the discourse.

[bugsonthemind]

I feel like Crucible has to be up there, no? The guy would be a menace if he wasn't a hero. Actually, speaking of heroes - I think Gallant and Glory Girl's emotion powers are a bit underrated here. Like, we put Rachel freaking out after getting hit by Gallant on her having a weird brain, sure, but consider that combining physical trauma with a sudden jerk to your emotions to, per se, a feeling of sudden calm or passivity would be absolutely fucked. I think Victoria at some point talks about how she and Gallant would have discussions about how some people have counter-intuitive reactions to emotion powers, again pointing to weird psychology / psychiatry, but if you think about that it really feels like a blind spot from her - of course people have counter-intuitive reactions to your mind control powers, they don't like being mind controlled and as soon as they slip it a little they swing in the other direction to compensate.

What’s a scary power in Worm or Ward that you feel isn’t talked about enough?