#newter worm

[faultlinescrew]

Man I missed drawing my favourite little guys so much

[numbersareimaginary]

you know i had to do it to em

(edited from this post on Reddit)

[jimmycarterghostland]

I finished reading Tangle 6.1 of Worm. Currently reading Tangle 6.2. I shouldn't be, but I am. I'm supposed to be reading three chapters of Worm per day, but 6.2 is my fourth chapter for the day.

Sorry if anyone was wondering what happened to my daily live reading of Worm posts. I went through a brief phase of discouragement and wasn't sure if I should even continue doing these posts. But I'm here now, and there's probably some people out there who are enjoying my posts about Worm. I couldn't let you fine people down. I deleted some posts recently, and didn't give my thoughts about the last couple. (EDIT: the last couple chapters of Worm that I read, I meant to say)

I like Gregor the Snail. And Newter is awesome too. It didn't take me long to like him.

My reaction when I read that Newter was alive and well:

Gregor's interlude was great. It's crazy how Wildbow can make the reader like certain characters very quickly. I would love to see a lot more of Gregor, Newter, Faultine, and Labyrinth. That subplot about the U symbol and Shamrock was intriguing. It makes me wish Worm was more like the A Song of Ice and Fire books, where a bunch of narrators get around the same number of chapters as each other. Instead of how Worm currently is, where Taylor narrates probably 90% of the novel. I love Taylor, but that Gregor interlude made me want to see a lot more of him, and Shamrock, and the U symbol mystery. Intriguing stuff.

I loved it when Gregor choked Faultline out of nowhere. There was no hint that he was going to do that. I love how Wildbow does this. How he would sometimes have something happen without warning, like when Taylor hit Emma. Though Gregor choking Faultline out of nowhere like that was unintentionally funny. When it happened, though, I was wondering if Gregor was one of those fictional characters who go into random uncontrollable rages against their will. But, no, he choked out his boss to help her(it makes sense in context).

When Labyrinth was mentioned being in that insane asylum, it reminded me of that mission in the videogame Fallout 4, where you have to go this insane asylum. I loved that mission. I know Worm is a novel, but sometimes it reminds me of games I played, or movies I've seen, etc. I love it.

My reaction when Gregor appeared in Tangle 6.1:

Also, I can't visualize while reading anymore. But I'm really enjoying Worm. I had assumed I wouldn't be able to enjoy reading anything anymore, since I can't visualize in my head while reading, but Worm is proving me wrong. I can still find joy in reading. Thanks, Wildbow.

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

oh, you mean the team with the lizard man?

[hottakehoulihan]

Pick a fandom you like and know

For real! Pick a fandom. It's more fun if you do it now. Ready? All picked? ... Oh shit you've isekai'd into it. Sorry. You're already on your way. It's your new home. I hope you can get a toothbrush there, because you didn't have time to pack. Bon voyage. Decision time! As you're trapped in the time-and-space tunnel, you get a choice: What character from that fandom do you want to have be your mutual friend who will have (as long as you don't go too far) interest in staying your friend and spending time with you when possible?

[rox-reads]

“sucks for all of us, doesnt it?” says guy who cant touch anyone directly because if he did they would risk overdosing, talking about a girl who likely has brain damage “uh... sure” says girl who sometimes gets sensory overload 

[the-one-and-only-overlass]

just had the thought that newter is orange tf2 scout. am i wrong.

[lakesbian]

attention everyone we have reached my personal favorite Line in worm

I stepped toward Sundancer and offered a hand to help her up.  She flinched away. Oh.  My hands were bloody.  I dropped the offered hand to my side. “Let’s go,” I suggested.

there are a lot of good Lines in worm, and while i will acknowledge that many of them are sort of objectively more powerful culminating moments than this one, this one is still My Personal Favorite. Oh. My hands were bloody.

it's been obvious through the early arcs that taylor has a lot of repressed anger: she beats the shit out of rachel, even after being bitten. she outright admits to the other undersiders that she hasn't taken subtle revenge on the trio at school because she's afraid she would take it too far/it would obviously be her. she is, initially, unnerved by violence: she's a bit scared by the gun present in the loft, it creeps her out that brian knows every way to break a person's body, she feels guilt about the idea of any civilians being hurt during the bank robbery. but she still beat up rachel, and she still shoves bugs up the wards' noses during the robbery, and she still gleefully rides rachel's dog and laughs and hollers from the joy and the adrenaline rush of victory afterwards.

the expression of this repressed anger thru violence escalates further when her concussion leads her to slapping emma in the mall. in the principal's office, when it's clear that nothing she or her dad says will garner help with the bullying, she shouts and slaps papers off the table and asks what would happen if she brought a knife to school. after she and her dad leave the meeting, she calls lisa:

“Hey.  How did it go?” I couldn’t find the words for a reply. “That bad?” “Yeah.” “What do you need?” “I want to hit someone.”

lisa invites her to a raid on the ABB so she can do that, and it's soo. Sooo Very. to watch how she cuts loose on it. she's so angry rachel notices it in how she's standing, and she's still confused about how rachel noticed. she's a confident leader when the fight goes crisis mode, she responds to rachel bucking against her orders by consistently shouting at rachel to "NOT fuck with me right now," she acts nigh-suicidally aggressive during her fight with lung, and she snarls "don't fucking underestimate me" when she takes him out using a caterpillar dipped in newter's blood.

all of this happens in relatively subtle increments. she doesn't notice how she progressively becomes comfortable expressing herself and taking charge instead of withdrawing or acting insecurely during the course of the mission. she doesn't notice that she's not horrified by dealing with newter's wound or seeing the sniper's broken leg. back in unmasked society, she was forced to consider how many of her aggressive actions were the result of the concussion loosening her impulse control--here, she repeatedly yells at bitch without a second thought. it's a place where her violence and anger isn't only acceptable but necessary. the circumstances normalize her outbursts and comfort with violence to her, leaving her blind to how alienated and dissociated and repressed and traumatized and furious and just Fucked Up she has to be to face down lung and then dig his eyes out.

when she says that she "doesn't believe in eye for an eye," in arc 4 alec asks her why the fuck she's a supervillain. his implicit assertion is clear: being a villain is, for him, about taking your revenge for being hurt out on whoever you can manage or justify, even if they're not the person who originally hurt you. and taylor thinks she's not doing that. but hey: she goes beyond just "hitting someone" and into literally taking lung's eyes as a culmination of the cathartic violence she's been engaging in as recompense for how she was mistreated earlier.

and the person who serves as a more "normal" reference point for how far taylor just escalated is sundancer: horrified by the idea of having to use her sun to hurt people, shocked by how casually violent taylor has been, flinching away from taylor when she turns to sundancer after committing that violence & tries to offer sundancer help.

because, oh. her hands are bloody. she hadn't even noticed how bloody they were getting, but they are.

deeply evocative one-line reminder of how taylor has changed in these first five arcs, without even noticing. and the best part is that, while the imagery of "oh. my hands were bloody" does convey that change in an incredibly brief and powerful way, the fact that taylor is saying it still means even she hasn't really realized. she thinks it's mainly just about the superficial, literal blood on her hands, and not the metaphorical blood on her hands that sundancer is disturbed by. it's good.

[skitter-queen]

How to Beat Lung in Worm

Most veteran Worm players will agree that Lung (specifically, the second fight against him in Chapter 5) is one of the hardest fights in the entire game. The monstrous dragon represents a seriously steep difficulty spike, and has ended the runs of more players than any other boss other than the true endgame fights. But with some clever tactics and a bit of forward thinking, you can wriggle your way past this obstacle and onto the next section of the early game.

Phase 1

As far as Worm bosses go, Lung's first phase is actually fairly tame, owing to his power allowing him to "scale" up, pun intended, over time. Many players are therefore tempted to rush through the easy phase as quickly as possible, but this is actually a mistake; this is the ideal time to take advantage of his relatively low damage and lack of ranged attacks to prepare for the next part of the fight. Gather your bugs, keep your hit points up, and make sure to locate the puddle of Hallucinogenic Slime (it usually spawns on the upper floors of the complex, but this may depend on the choices you made with Newter earlier on): you'll need it soon.

Phase 2

This is where things get really hard. Once you've dealt enough damage to Lung, he will power up, attacking faster, harder, and with way more fire. Running away is no longer an option, and his regeneration makes it seriously difficult to keep his health in check. If that wasn't enough, this is also when Lung will start laying his combat eggs, one of his most iconic and notorious capabilities. Fans of the original Worm book have praised this inclusion for its careful adherence to the source material (noting the particular detail on the in-game cloaca model); most players of the Worm game, however, cry out in wails of gamer rage as newer, smaller Lungs spew forth from combat egg after combat egg until their hapless Taylor dies like the miserable little bug she is.

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 11 thoughts (pre-interludes):

Taylor's dad sees his daughter for the first time since she ran away. Since the fucking Endbringer attack! And literally says the line "“I need to go handle this" about a fucking work thing. No Danny. You do not NEED TO HANDLE THIS. God damn. It is fucking hard to be a co-parent for Taylor when I'm the only one doing any parenting!

Speaking of parenting - Taylor, you really should get some therapy. That was a pretty detailed level of fucked up nightmare you had. I love you and just want you to take care of yourself.

Skitter just like "all right, for day 1 I'm going to gain complete fucking control over my territory and establish myself as an unkillable bug goddess". And then she worries if she is doing enough!

Seriously though, letting that guy stab her and counting on her costume to block the knife? Fucking baller move. Also stupidly risky. So pretty much on point for my wonderful but stress inducing bug daughter.

And then she just sits in her chair drinking tea while she destroys two groups of Merchants? Doesn't just beat them, but absolutely terrorizes them. Lights one of them on fire with their own matches! WITH BUGS! I love her so much.

She also gained two minions as a side bonus to controlling her territory. And ensured their loyalty and dedication to her.

For real. Sierra would take a bullet. She'd die for Taylor. But Charlotte? Charlotte would kill for Taylor.

The speech Taylor gave Charlotte when giving her the options "leave town" or "work for me" was so well done! Came across as incredibly fair so Charlotte couldn't complain, but also just tied her in a little bundle all nice and neat. Set her up to want to work for you. Very nicely done. Taylor clearly has been learning from Lisa.

We're just pretty much giving up on that whole secret identity thing huh? It just started cascading out of control quite quickly. I don't expect Taylor and Skitter to be different people for much longer.

Lisa and Taylor went to a party together! A shitty villain party that was dangerous and almost killed them. But villain prom is villain prom. GAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

Just a number of good Chatterbug (Smugbug) moments here.

Lisa has a MURDER WALL! AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I love her so fucking much and I will just sit in there with her working on the murder wall for hours. (She isn't trying to solve a murder so I know it isn't technically a murder wall, but it's a murder wall cause that's the best name.)

Fucking Bryce. Sure went through a lot of trouble for that asshole.

Skidmark just doing a thunderdome up in here. Some people use their powers for cool things and others build a fence.

Also really not seeming to do great for loyalty. Like ya you get a cape or two out of it but it left everyone in your gang not trusting anyone else.

I love everyone in Faultline's crew. Newter was my favorite but Shamrock may have beaten him out. I always loved Domino and Shamrock gives the same vibe.

Newter got a few good Nightcrawler like moments here too which was fun (grabbing things with his tail, talking to people from weird perches).

God DAMN Labyrinth is powerful. Like I knew she was but getting to see it. Holy shit. That was so fucking cool. Literal goddess of reality right here.

I'm really excited to learn more about Cauldron and the superhero in a can stuff. Very Weapon X with the memory wiping and such. (I'm just really on an X-men comparison thought process right now I guess)

Taylor "I'm not a skilled combatant" Hebert over here as she dual wields knives and successfully fights off multiple people, most bigger than her, while specifically using non-lethal attacks on them. Taylor that isn't what "not skilled" means!

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CHILD, STOP GETTING HIT IN THE HEAD! I WORRY!

Seeing the trigger event thing was really cool. I don't think the fact that any cape near a trigger event appears to almost pass out has been mentioned before. Obviously in universe know one would know anything beyond them appearing to stumble, but still. And we got to see more of the higher dimension beings. We in Flatland now.

Oh god there is so much more I think I'm missing huge amounts. AHHH!!!

Oh, this is important. While describing Mush Taylor says "He bore a resemblance to a particular pink skinned, scrawny goblin of a creature from those fantasy movies." That open endedness of that context made me decide she must be talking about The Goblin King in Labyrinth. David Bowie. But to keep things simple, since it might seem like she is talking about Gollum, I decided that on Earth Bet David Bowie played Gollum in the Lord of the Rings movies. This is canon as far as I am concerned.

That does also mean Mush looks at least a little bit like David Bowie.

[faultlinescrew]

Might as well put a few of my hcs here: mostly just members of faultines crew (labyrinth, newter, spitfire), bc they rlly do live in my head rent free

[trans-queen-administrator]

Taylor is so remarkably good at coordinating capes and figuring out who's specific powers she needs to use together to win, and it's amazing how she gets better and better at it throughout Worm and stays relevant far above her weight class through this skill. I'd say the first time I noticed this was during the second Lung fight, when she was completely helpless when the other capes she was with went down but she managed to incapacitate Lung by dabbing a caterpillar corpse in Newter juice and sneaking it into his eye, but it doesn't really get to be a really common thing until far later in the story.

The Echidna fight is where this skill truly shines for the first time. She's useless offensively and can't go more than like 50 feet from Scapegoat, but she still manages and coordinates countless capes with arrows and warnings and directions with her bugs, capping it all off by having Clockblocker freeze her string to bifurcate Noelle. She's just as useless in the Behemoth fight, but she uses the Chicago wards to make a lightning rod and then uses a combination of Phir Se, Eidolon, Bitch, and Foil to fuck up an endbringer more than anyone else ever has or will. Her time in the wards, against the S9K, even at the oil rig fight at the start of gold morning, every single time she's unable to drown the opponent in bugs she figures out the exact optimal combination of powers to take them out. And at some point, her friends and enemies start wondering if their powers would be used better by her. Tattletale says she knows Skitter would use hers better if I recall correctly, and how many people start thinking the same after she pulls this stuff time and time again?

And then she becomes Khepri, and it's the perfect culmination of this theme because she CAN use everyone's powers now, she can coordinate and search for combinations and be the administrator she's so excellent at being. She uses Foil and Ballistic together, coordinates every tinker to collaborate on a giant fucking gun, and has a ton of changers, Labyrinth, and the most obscure guy in existence Oliver torment him. She could never do any of this alone, not that she's a pushover, but she's just absolutely inspiring in the way that she uses others for help and brings out their true potential together.

So what I'm saying here is that Taylor is strong because she has the power of friendship and teamwork on her side.

[scarfgirl]

Newter of faultlines crew (it was fun trying out some nightcrawler/spiderman poses for the greased lightning drug lizard ) from the web novel 'worm' by wildbow

[operator-report]

Which worm character do you think would be most likely to listen to shoegaze?

gonna give this one to my girl labyrinth because i think she would dig the vibes. i think she gravitates towards the mellower stuff rather than really aggressive distortion because she's chill like that. newter and elle smoke weed and listen to slowdive together i know this in my heart

[v1leblood]

here's a list of what parahumans characters i would fuck & here's a copy in case you accidentally throw the first one in the garbage

bc i told shakertwelve i would do this like a year ago

pleasepleasepleasepl: ashley I II & III, bakuda, bianca, cherie, carol, canary, contessa, ciara, noelle, sveta, engel, genesis, jessica yamada, crystal, love lost, marquis, the simurgh, victoria

yes: accord, alexandria, amy, taylors mom, assault, black kaze, blasto, burnscar, bluestocking, circus, citrine, crawler, danny, dr mother, dragon, eidolon, piggot, etna, mark dallon, foil, forrest, fume hood, glenn chambers, ingenue if she wasnt racist, labyrinth, sarah pelham, lisa, lord of loss, LUNG, march, matryoshka, miss militia, moord nag, moose, mouse protector, myrddin, narwhal, NATALIE, nix, nyx, nursery, parian, PHIR SE, quinn calle, rachel, revel, shamrock, shatterbird, the siberian if she was a real girl, sidepiece, slician, solarstare, mannequin, string theory, velvet, darnall

maybe: ballistic, brian, chevalier, defiant, kenzie's mom, kevin norton, uber, nailbiter, nilbog, operator red, snag, squealer, marissa, switch hitter, trickster, trophy wife, ursa aurora

no: disjoint, faultline, gregor, jack slash, king, kingdom come, legend, leet, manpower, newter, cody, prancer, satyr, sierra, skidmark, teacher

under no circumstances: any and all nazis, coil, acidbath, alan barnes, anelace, beast of burden, heartbreaker, mama mathers, saint

ward ages for everyone alive in ward, probably missing a bunch of characters bc im going by the parahumans wiki character list, omitted a few characters at my own discretion bc taylor might be a week past 18 or whatever by the end of worm but it still makes me uncomfortable + there's characters that have names and technically appear but are so nothing that they're not worth listing

[ltasideblog]

I had a dream about a new worm arc where they were in the water? Most of the time? And Taylor had to choose who she found the most attractive out of everyone (she chose.. like. Genuinely I think she chose an endbringer) and then she got brought into a group of government people trying to take the endbringers down?? And the group was ran by a shifter/tinker??? And when Brian was asked the same question. He chose like. Newter or something. Idk this post means nothing