#Chapter i11h

[krixwell-liveblogs]

By Pericardium.

Hah! Well, at least it’ll...

...tide her over.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

By lonsheep.

Where do I even begin? Let’s take this from the top, I suppose.

I’ve always been a fan of lonsheep’s square single-character portraits with the character’s signatures on them. I really like that format, and the art lonsheep puts in them is always great. These are no exception.

Battery looks very cool, and I love that it’s animated. That’s a very neat touch. :)

Then we have a knight and his angel. Seeing them together like this honestly helps sell me on the ship. I like the contrast between his imposing armor and her slender, angelic figure. RIP Gallant.

As for the colorful piece next to them, Sharks described it as a meme, but I’m afraid I don’t recognize it. I’m not entirely sure who that is, either - Faultline, perhaps? Whoever it is, and whatever the meme is, I quite like the colors here.

Then there’s what Sharks described as “another meme” (which I mention only because it makes it clear that it’s not a matter of confusion as to which piece that was about): Taylor dabbing on the haters. I love that, honestly - it’s pretty much exactly what she’s done, in spirit. :P

And finally, the Bay Bulletin. This one practically warrants a “where do I even start” of its own - there is so much to appreciate in this one.

From the calm a couple months before the storm, to Danny’s pet issue of the ferry being addressed, to the Valentine’s ad, to Dauntless rescuing a cat being prioritized over Dauntless rescuing his owner, to Danny being quoted as spokesman for the Dockworkers’ Union, to Kaiser’s company showing up as a sponsor for a ticket raffle, to Piggot’s fantastic dodging of the interviewer’s question (she’s practically saying “it would be out of character for me to give you a straight and honest answer to that”, which is great), to even the detail that the Bay Bulletin is apparently a very old newspaper (it’s at least 95 years old if it never came out multiple times a day)...

It just overall feels really genuine while tying into the setting and characters we’ve come to know and love, and it’s filled to the brim with nice touches. Good work!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

By sgcassidy.

I like the style here, with a single character on the right side in each image, acting as a sort of representative for the story whose title is in the background.

But I think my favorite part of this is Taylor’s badass pose and hair in the wind effect. She looks really cool there, looking forward at the remaining three quarters of the story that are still yet to come, the “W”, “O”, and “R”.

No, I realize that’s not what she’s looking at, but I’ve passed the quarter mark of the story, so I couldn’t resist. I do get the sense that she’s looking forward, ready to face the future, though.

Also is Brian making the title in the background out of his darkness? If that’s a conscious design choice, that’s a really neat touch.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Artists in order:

everwander, ImSkeptical, TaylorHebert, Morag Lewis, Sawitry, tomgizz, Atlan, Ymira, jellytier

Seriously, this fandom has so many great artists.

everwander’s character art is super cute. The little icons to represent each of them are a neat touch, too!

The style and detail of ImSkeptical’s piece reminds me of a video game. In fact, I’m not entirely sure it’s not a screenshot of redecorated NPCs from a game like Fallout or Skyrim (though the surroundings don’t seem to fit into Skyrim). Either way, though, it’s really cool!

TaylorHebert’s selfie is pretty neat. I like the “half-and-half” style of art to highlight dual identities or different sides of a character, and this is a well done example of that. :)

Morag Lewis’ Undersiders group piece is another cool and cute one. I especially like Taylor and Aisha here - Aisha’s got a great expression, and Taylor is very cute in this art style.

Sawitry hits me right in the fave with a really good Tattletale. I’m not sure what exactly she’s doing there with that rope, but it’s neat. I really like the colors too!

tomgizz’s rendition of Bakuda is certainly easier to take seriously than the outfit she showed up in in Shell. She looks awesome! I like the scribbly style.

Atlan’s Narwhal looks like a badass wingless crystal fairy of some sort, and I like that. She looks totally in control of whatever situation she’s in. I also like the blur effect.

And then there’s Ymira’s Tattletale. She’s super cute, and I hope she’s enjoying her reading. :)

And finally, we’ve got jellytier’s Burnscar. It’s a pretty nice design. I like the fact that her feet are covered in soot, which is something I didn’t think about but which makes a lot of sense.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

By liujuin.

Sharks: The spider's from a fic, not canon, which is why I'm not calling this spoilery.

I love these pieces. That spider is super cute! I also really like the poses, with Taylor seeming to lean forward a bit, Coil visibly scheming (the mug is a nice touch) and Tattletale being her usual confident and cheerful self. :)

[krixwell-liveblogs]

End of Interlude 11h

That was one hell of a chapter.

What’s not to love about this one, honestly? Amy finding out about Marquis, a fantastic premise and throughline with regards to Flashbang, the introduction of the best Slaughterhouse member, beautifully horrifying parahuman fusion experiments, a reveal of a secret that... I still don’t quite know how to feel about, accidental mind manipulation, and a painful falling out between sisters (and now lovers, sort of, I guess) just as it looked like they were about to mend their relationship...

Seriously. This was really, really, really good. A+ work, Wildbow.

Bonesaw was really good. By now you may have noticed that I like cheerful characters, and she definitely falls in that category. I don’t think she was ever described as not smiling, although I’d imagine it faltered a bit during the fight sequence with Flashbang. On top of the cheerfulness, she has a fantastic combination of awfulness and childishness, showing her young age much more than Vista or even Dinah while juxtaposing that with her tinkery tech savvy, horrifying biological experiments, overall brutality and intimate knowledge of powers and bodies and the way they intermingle. As far as I’m concerned, Wildbow really saved the best for last here, both in terms of Slaughterhouse members and in terms of chapters to meet them in.

Speaking of last, this was the last Interlude of Arc 11! Now all that’s left is Arc Thoughts and then it’s onward to Arc 12!

See ya!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

More explosions ripped through their living room as Mark continued to open fire, hurling the orbs with a ferocity that surprised Amy.  When Hack Job tried to block the shots with his bodies, Mark bounced them between Hack Job’s legs, off walls and off the ceiling.

Huh, not bad.

But seriously, is there a reason Hack Job hasn’t turned off Flashbang’s power yet? Is he unable to because of the fusion causing his powers to not work as well? We’ve seen they do work, but maybe not having full power prevents him from turning powerful people’s powers off.

Almost as if he could predict what his enemy would do, he lobbed one orb onto the couch.  It exploded a half-second after one of Hack Job’s duplicates appeared there.

Sweet!

And unless Hack Job is really quick with his teleportations or the fusion caused a significant change to how the power works, any damage dealt very soon after a duplicate appears will stick.

More duplicates charged from either direction, and Mark dropped a concussive orb at his feet, blasting himself and one of the duplicates in opposite directions.  He quickly got his footing and resumed the attack, fending off one duplicate that turned his attention to Amy, then going after Bonesaw.

Flashbang is being awesome and I love it.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Arc Thoughts: Infestation

(Mid-Arc Thoughts)

So! That’s all the members of the Slaughterhouse Nine accounted for!

Let’s take a look at the second half of Infestation, as well as Infestation as a whole!

A jumble of recap (part 2) and predictions, whoops

Part 2 of Infestation has been significantly less continuous than part 1, consisting of eight largely separate chapters following roughly the same format - a POV character is approached by a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine, the Fellowship member in most cases wanting the POV character to join the team.

Besides the introductions of upcoming antagonists, the most important chapters for the main perspective of the story outside the Interludes are definitely 11a and 11g. Because of the events of these chapters - or rather, the nominations leading to them - Rachel and Alec will both be targeted by the Slaughterhouse Nine in upcoming chapters, something that will likely cause all of the Undersiders to get involved even though they’ve been divided into their own territories. Notably, Rachel is willing to “see what this test is all about”, and is probably the Undersider most fit to actually succeed without help, so there is genuinely a risk that she might end up joining the enemy.

The only other nominees we saw who accepted the offer of becoming Slaughterhouse members were Oni Lee and Hookwolf. Oni didn’t work out, but I could see Hookwolf actually successfully becoming a member and then backstabbing the rest of the team.

Meanwhile, however, the Slaughterhouse Nine apparently don’t give a shit about whether you want to join them, even though they have a habit of showing enough courtesy to ask/warn the nominees. If you’ve been nominated, they’ll test you, no matter what, so Colin, Amy and Noelle (and by extension Coil) need to watch out as well.

Judgment

I think I was right to do Mid-Arc Thoughts. Part 2 of Infestation, the Interludes, could very easily have been a separate Arc. Sentinel and Parasite are more interconnected than Infestation proper and its Interludes. As a result, Arc 11 as a whole feels quite bisected, and it’s hard for me to think of it as a whole at all.

Part 1 was a pretty decent Taylor story about bystanderism and dealing with the infestation that was the Merchants, with the looming threat of the Slaughterhouse Nine being very much in the background. It had solid throughlines, bookends (Taylor waking up from a nightmare at the beginning, feeling optimistic about the same things at the end), and worldbuilding re: the Dandelions and Cauldron, and generally works excellently as a standalone Arc.

Part 2 was more formulaic, in a sense, but in a good way. It let me loosely know what to expect but still left room for each Interlude to do its own thing, and what they did was usually pretty good. There were some fantastic chapters in there, most notably Interlude 11h.

And while the Interludes were largely separate from each other, the formula and the minor pieces of continuity connecting the chapters - from small details like Coil acknowledging Leah’s death to bigger things like 11a and 11h taking place at the same time, or the mystery of the Newbie and what happened to Hatchet Face, or Oni Lee being taken in 11b and showing up again as part of Hack Job in 11h - made the sequence of Interludes feel like a whole rather than just... a set of events.

Overall, Arc 11 is very good, but I do feel it works better seen as two stories, two Arcs.

The Arc title

I don’t think this has changed much since the Mid-Arc Thoughts. Infestation still refers primarily to the Merchants. You could argue that it also covers the Slaughterhouse Nine, but I don’t think that fits anywhere near as well.

Prediction review

From Arc Thoughts: Parasite:

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.

She did appear, but not for this particular plotline.

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.

Two of them were specifically sought out by Slaughterhouse Nine members, and the rest are coming after those Undersiders to test them.

So yeah. They absolutely failed to stay away from the Slaughterhouse Nine, and it’s gonna get worse. :P

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 didn’t quite get to this point yet. This prediction’s gonna have to carry over to Arc 12.

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. :P

No luck there. Aisha is the one Undersider we didn’t see in this Arc at some point or other - almost like Wildbow forgot to include her... ;)

And now, predictions from the Mid-Arc Thoughts:

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.

Correct, besides the part about Jack Slash. Though he did show up in the first one to start after the gimmick of the Interludes had been confirmed.

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.)

I don’t know if this was the case - though the lack of “(Anniversary Bonus)” on Interlude 11a suggests it might’ve been, that tag was also missing from 11d and 11h. (I don’t know if that was by accident or to indicate that he would’ve done them even if he hadn’t decided to do an Interlude marathon to celebrate the anniversary. If it’s the latter, then why 11h rather than 11g?)

But if it was that way, it still makes a lot of sense that Siberian went first, with 11a being one of the two most important Interludes in the Arc. The parenthetical comment was caused by the assumption that Jack Slash’s Interlude would be most important, so while I was wrong about which one it’d be, I was correct about the underlying idea - that one of the most important Interludes would come first.

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?

Nope.

Also, given the marathon, I suspect these Interludes might each be a bit shorter than the average recent chapter.

I don’t know. They didn’t feel any shorter, at least. Maybe he wrote them in advance?

So yeah, whatever Wildbow has in store for me, I’m sure it’ll be good. If perhaps brutal. :)

That it was!

Predictions for Arc 12

I’ve kind of accidentally covered just about everything already, but let’s summarize:

We know that Bitch, Armmaster, Hookwolf, Noelle, Regent and Panacea are all now targets for Slaughterhouse testing. This might be lethal for some of them, as I doubt the Slaughterhouse members will hold back. However, I doubt we’re losing Bitch, Hookwolf or Regent - Bitch and Regent because plot armor and Hookwolf because he’s probably the most competent fighter out of all of them, besides maybe Armmaster, and better equipped defensively than anyone except maybe Noelle. Besides plot armor, it would be more interesting to have Bitch actually join the Slaughterhouse Nine and become an antagonist - at least temporarily - than to have her just die.

Other than that, a couple predictions from the end of Arc 10 remain active:

Dragon’s attempts to locate Taylor and communicate with her may come back in Arc 12. However, it might end up being a bit much to have that on top of the Slaughterhouse plot (though that didn’t stop us from learning about Dandelions in the middle of a Merchant brawl), so it’s possible that gets pushed back to Arc 13.

And, if someone attempts to kill Jack Slash, they will either fail, or do it too late.

But yeah, if I were to describe what I think Arc 12 will be like in one word, it’d have to be intense.

I am pretty curious to see how the Arc deals with the fact that there are other characters we care about who are going through the same thing as two of the Undersiders. Maybe we’ll have some Interludes to help out with that? Though it is worth noting that Wildbow seems to have a rule against using the same POV character for two Interludes (which is probably part of why Alec wasn’t the POV in 11g, besides Cherish’s power and personality being better illustrated from within her own head), so he’d have to show us the perspective of someone else close to the action. Perhaps even one of the attacking Slaughterhouse members, though that might be a tad redundant.

Primarily, though, I think we’ll be focusing on Taylor and the other Undersiders doing what they can to protect Alec, and maybe Rachel if she does eventually decide to tell the others anything.

So yeah. See you soon, as I dive into Arc 12!

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“When I was at the lowest point in my life, when the boy I thought I might marry someday was dead, were you secretly elated?  Were you happy Gallant died?”

Hm. This could go either way, depending on the balance between “no more competition” and “this is making the one I like miserable”.

I feel like Amy is the type to lean more towards the latter.

“No!  Vic- Victoria, I love you.  I wanted you to be happy with him.  I just… it hurt at the same time.”

Yeah. A classic tale of bittersweet acceptance of the target of affection being with another person.

Just, y’know, with a bit more adoption than usual.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Amy looked down at her feet.

“And most of all, you just leave dad to suffer, when you could have healed him?  You lash out at me, here, when I’m trying to mend fences and be your sister?”

Ouch.

You’re not doing a great job, Victoria, but that’s not entirely your fault.

“You want to know who I am?” Amy asked.  Her voice sounded hollow.  “I’m Marquis’s daughter.  Daughter of a supervillain.”

And there it is. She finally let out the fact that she found out who he was.

Also, hang on, wasn’t the fact that she was the daughter of a villain, not just which villain, part of what she was trying to hide in Agitation?

“Marquis?”

Amy nodded.

Evil guy, ‘bout yeah high, makes bones sprout from his fingertips?

“How did you find out?”

“Carol left some paper out.  I think it’s under my pillow, if you want to look for it.”

“You have his genes, but you’re Carol and Mark’s daughter,” Victoria replied, her voice firm.  “And they’re going to be worried.  Come home.”

See, that’s better. Now that Victoria has some information, she can actually figure out a good thing to say.

“They don’t care.  They don’t love me, not really.  Trust me, this is better for everyone.”

I think you’re very wrong about that, Amy. Especially about Mark.

“I love you,” Victoria said, stressing the ‘I’.  She dropped to the ground and stepped closer.

“Even if you are right, there’s still someone who wants you to stay.”

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“I’m sorry,” Amy said, “So sorry I didn’t help you sooner, that-”

Mark stopped her with a raised hand.  “Thank you.”

“It doesn’t matter how long it took. I’m just thankful you did it in the end. That’s all that’s important now.”

She didn’t deserve thanks.

I think she does. It took her a while, and unfortunately getting forced into it by a villain, but she got past her fears and helped him in the end. And while one might argue that she only did it because she was forced, she was intent on doing it right before that happened. Even if she does think she would’ve chickened out.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

She looked away.  Tears were welling out.  “No.”

Amy has a lot of thoughts that need venting right now. Hopefully she realizes that Mark is willing to let her vent to him without judgment.

At least I think he is. He seems like a good guy.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Everything else in the world seemed to drop away.  She pressed her forehead to his.  Everything biological was shaped in some way by what it had grown from and what had come before.  Rebuilding the damaged parts was a matter of tracing everything backwards.

Like making a model of an ancient city based on its ruins.

Some of the brain was impossible to restore to what it had once been, in the most damaged areas or places where it was the newest growths that were gone, but she could check everything in the surrounding area, use process of elimination and context to figure out what the damaged areas had tied to.

Makes sense.

She felt tears in her eyes.  She had told herself she would heal him and then leave the Dallon household.  Actually doing this, fixing him, taking that plunge, she knew she would probably never have found the courage if she hadn’t been pushed into it.

She did seem a lot more willing in that moment than I would’ve expected her to. In a world where Bonesaw didn’t show up in her living room, Amy getting cold feet about it wouldn’t be all that surprising.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“It’s not- don’t you understand?  I don’t want to hurt people.”

Might be bad to say this. Now that is the thing to “fix”.

Now she might ask Amy to inflict pure pain, which we just had it confirmed that she can do.

“But we can change that!  We’re not so different.  You know as well as I do that anything about anyone can be changed if you work hard enough.”

...true. Within reason, I mean. There are some limitations as to what it can be changed to.

“Then why don’t you change?  You could be good.”

Ooh, that’s an interesting angle to spin this. I like it.

“I like the other members of the Nine.  And I couldn’t make anything really amazing if I was following rules.  I want to make something even more amazing than Hack Job, Murder Rat or Pagoda.  Something you and I could only make together.  Can you imagine it?  You could use your power, and then we could make one superperson out of a hundred capes, and all of the powers would be full strength because you helped and we could use it to stop one of the Endbringers, and the whole world would be like, ‘Are we supposed to clap’?  Can you picture it?”  Bonesaw was getting so excited with her idea that she was almost breathless.

I’m getting Steven Universe flashbacks.

I do like this idea that Bonesaw is not following the rules just so her tinkerish accomplishments can be unlimited by society’s ideas of right and wrong.

The idea of pitting this capeamari up against an Endbringer is also pretty cool - especially because while the idea of taking out one of them is something most people would consider good, that’s juxtaposed with the means and the motive (it doesn’t sound like she wants to take out an Endbringer for the sake of saving lives so much as for the sake of showing off how awesome her paracluster is).

[krixwell-liveblogs]

“Murder Rat used to be a heroine, called herself the Mouse Protector.

Huh. Power to control mice and rats, perhaps? Or at least communicate with them?

In a similar vein to Taylor and the spiderbots, I’m imagining Mouse Protector using a computer without moving her hands other than to type, controlling the computer mouse with her mind.

Anyway, Mouse Protector is a somewhat silly name, but if you treat “mouse” as a metaphor for the small and helpless, then it becomes kind of evocative.

One of those capes who plays up the cheese, no pun intended.  Camped it up, acted dorky, used bad puns, so her enemies would be embarrassed to lose to her.

Pfft, like Spiderman. This is something I’ve previously commented on Worm not really doing, so it’s nice to know that there are capes in this world that actually are like this.

Ravager decided she’d had enough, asked the Nine to take Mouse Protector down.  So we took the job.  Beat Mouse Protector, and I took her to the operating table.

I’m beginning to understand why getting caught by the Nine is sometimes considered a fate worse than death.

The other Nine tracked down Ravager and collected her, too.  Just to make it clear that we don’t take orders.

...of course.

We aren’t errand boys or errand girls either.  Now Ravager gets to spend the rest of her life with the woman she hated, making up.”

Oddly poetic for talking about an inhuman Frankensteinian monstrosity.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Okay, so here’s what we know about the chronology of the Arc 11 Interludes so far:

11b (Jack) takes place before 11a (Siberian) and 11h (Bonesaw): Oni Lee was still a separate entity.

11a (Siberian) and 11h (Bonesaw) take place at the same time. In 11h, Glory Girl and Brandish go out to deal with the situation they arrive at in 11a.

11c (Burnscar) probably takes place after 11b (Jack), possibly after 11a and 11h. Burnscar alludes to Hatchet Face being “sort of” around, which was probably in reference to Bonesaw’s Hack Job.

11f (Crawler) takes place after 11e (Shatterbird). Coil receives news of the attack on the Chosen and the death of Leah the spy.

It seems like it’s probably mostly chronological, with the exceptions of 11b > 11a&h > 11c, but that’s still noteworthy because it’s the first time we’ve really seen unmarked but provably non-chronological presentation of the events in this story.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

My thoughts when I read that Bonesaw was five years younger than a high-school student: "Wait that puts her in Jr. High at the oldest and she's been at this for years OH GOD! What the hell psycho murderer elementary school event triggered her because holy shit that is messed up.

Yeeeah. She’s about twelve years old (Interlude 10b has Marquis saying that Amy would be 17), which makes her a little younger than Vista and the same age as Dinah.

Which suggests high power, too, if what was said about young triggerers in Agitation is true. For tinkers, high power is a vague term, but it can’t be easy to do the sort of things she does in only four hours when she’s taking her time.