#very sick at start - farm crazy disorganized

[pastafossa]

Confirmation of life. Moderate improvement in symptoms. Period cramps came in with a steel chair, but that's temporary.

In the meantime, the only game I've had the energy or brainspace to play is Stardew Valley, and my sick af ass has been blearily showing the family my farm like

[journeysintowebcomics]

Worm Liveblog #15

UPDATE 15: The Unexpected Obstacle

Last time it was decided this was a good time for some backstory talk. Taylor’s was very unpleasant – that’s an understatement – and it’s unlikely everyone else’s stories are going to be any better. It’s bound to be tough to read, but here I’m going to do it. Onwards!

It’s Brian’s turn and he’s going to tell his backstory during the way back. He’s the son of divorced parents, they divorced when he was thirteen. His sister, Aisha, went to live with the mother, and they stayed in contact. The day when Brian got powers was when Aisha sent a text pleading for help, he immediately went to the mother’s house to see what was going on. I gave her a hug, picked her up and started to leave.  A man I didn’t recognize got in my way.  My mom’s new boyfriend. You see where this is going?

It all does point that this man is the cause for that text, the mother is shrinking back, clear signs of fear. That’s enough for Brian, he did mention he knew how to fight thanks to his boxer father. Long story short: that man got a serious battering, to the point where Brian’s hands were very injured. And that’s when he saw his powers. Hm...

...you know; it wasn’t as bad as I had braced myself for this to be. Sure, it was unpleasant, and Brian’s description about how he felt nothing through all this is chilling, but it was nothing like I thought it’d be. Leaving that aside, I don’t see much of a link between the situation and his powers, so I guess I was wrong about how I thought that was.

“Um, I can’t think of a nice way to put this, but why aren’t you in jail, after thrashing that guy?” Hey, I don’t mean to throw cold water on anything, but you only have Brian’s word here, Taylor! For all you know this may have gone beyond a thrashing. Then again, there’s no reason for Taylor to look for information supporting this, and it’s unlikely she’d find some, anyways. You know who I think could know? Lisa. But she wouldn’t reveal if Brian lied, so that’s a moot point.

“It was a close call, but the guy I beat up had violated the terms of his probation by not going to his narcotics anonymous meetings and Aisha backed me up as far as us saying, well, it was well deserved.  He came across as the bad guy more than I did.  He got six months in jail, I got three months of community service.”

Nevermind, chances are I was wrong! Boy that was embarrassing for me. That’s the peril of typing while I read, sometimes my thoughts are refuted not too long after having done them! Brian nets himself some good guy points by stating his motivation for being a criminal here is because he needs money to be Aisha’s guardian. The benefactor is cooperating for that, the manager of a company is paying checks and giving Brian’s money a legitimate look. Just how powerful is this benefactor? Heck, are we sure this manager isn’t the benefactor? Unlikely, but who knows.

Taylor thinks it’s a noble motivation – I agree – Brian says it’s not because he wants to be noble, it’s because family comes before everything – and I agree with that too. I knew I’d like Brian!

And that was the end of Brian’s backstory tale. It was...wait for it...enlightening. Hah! But yeah, Brian does have sympathetic motives. Now Taylor tries to change the topic to Brian’s purchases. He wants to make his apartment homely and upgrade his costume, requesting Taylor’s services. I wonder if everyone would be comfortable with wearing a costume made of spider silk and bug exoskeletons?

Alec is a sane person and is hoping the thought of tens of thousands of black widow spiders living just under the loft isn’t feasible. Too bad, Alec! Embrace the spiders!

Dammit, Alec, why do you do this to me. “I don’t want tens of thousands of spiders just lurking below me, making spider noises and climbing upstairs to crawl on me while I sleep.” Of course, being the curious person I was, I consulted Google. Guess what.

That’s the very first result. Screw you, Alec! I didn’t ask for this information! Then again, the thought of Alec all antsy because the area under the loft is filled with thousands of horny spiders making noises is kind of funny. Too bad it’s black widow spiders and not purring wolf spiders.

It struck me that I was thinking seriously about putting together some high quality costumes for villains.  I wasn’t sure how I felt on the subject. It means that you’re contributing to the team in productive ways, making it even less likely that she’ll betray them. To be frank, at this point I find it extremely unlikely she will.

Turns out spending what ‘s bound to be weeks or maybe months of working on costumes isn’t something Taylor isn’t excited to do, not even when she’s offered cash for this service. It doesn’t stop her from making some vague plans on how she’d set the spider farm, so at least she’s willing to make the effort.

Rachel isn’t in the loft, only two of the dogs are there. Could she have gone ahead to scout and ensure the delivery of the money would go alright? While Brian decides to call Rachel, everyone else goes to prepare for the ordeal. Taylor found something in her room, a gift from Bryan. It’s a dragonfly in amber, and she loves it, she truly likes it! She even gives him a hug. “Hey!” a voice from behind me startled the wits out of me, “No romance in the workplace!”

...huh. Is that so, Mr. Wildbow? It wouldn’t be unheard of that the author would take the time to insert romance in the story, but it hadn’t seemed to me like Worm would have any. Brian and Taylor...sure, why not. It could work. It’s still way too early to say for sure, but there could be the start of something here. I’m pretty sure things like romance would be the last thing in these characters’ mind throughout Worm, though, given the, hm, several warnings I have received about how grim stuff will be the deeper I get.

And then the story takes a swerve with the grace of a novice driver. One moment they’re smiling and giving hugs, the next Brian says something is wrong and they need to go check the money immediately. That was very sudden! Like it’d be in real life, but still, that’s some strong mood whiplash. I’ll be surprised if Rachel was caught or is in trouble, she didn’t seem to me the type that’d let that happen to her. That’s for the next chapter, which I’ll start now.

You know, I think I’m picking up already on how Mr. Wildbow’s writing style is. Every time they arrive to a place there’ll be a couple paragraphs of the way to that place, then a description, then how it ties to the city or to society, and then the plot continues. I haven’t read many authors who take the time to do this, usually authors tend to only do a couple paragraphs to make the setting, but Mr. Wildbow goes beyond that and builds upon the world. Look at that:

We descended into the maze.  Each storage locker was only about ten feet by ten feet across, but there were hundreds of them, each one joined to the one beside it, organized into disorganized rows of ten or twenty brick shacks.  It was a common enough sight; places like this were scattered all over Brockton Bay. Decades ago, as unemployment rates skyrocketed, people had started using the storage lockers as a place to live. Some enterprising individuals had caught on and storage blocks much like this one had appeared in the place of dilapidated warehouses and parking lots.  It was, in an off the books sort of way, the lowest budget living accommodations you could find, a way for people who’d had apartments and homes of their own to keep their most cherished possessions and sleep on a bed at night.

But things turned sour.  These storage facilities became drug dens, gathering places for gangs and areas where the crazies would congregate.  Epidemics of the flu and strep throat had swept through these ‘neighborhoods’ of closely packed, unwashed and malnourished groups of people, and left people dead in their wake.  Some who didn’t die to sickness were knifed for their belongings or starved, and corpses were left to rot behind the closed doors of their rented storage lockers. In the end, the city cracked down, and the lockers fell out of favor.  By then, the local industry had crashed enough that the homeless and destitute were able migrate to the abandoned warehouses, factories and apartment blocks to squat there instead.  The same general problems were still there, of course, but at least things weren’t so densely packed into a volatile situation.

That left these sprawls of storage lockers scattered over the city, particularly in the Docks.  They were largely unused, now, just row upon row of identical sheds with faded or illegible numbers painted on the doors, each with a corrugated steel roof bolted securely on top, slanted just enough that people wouldn’t be able to comfortably walk or sleep on top of them.

It’s rather easy to imagine how the place looks like. I like this style of writing.

So, the plot. The team starts searching for the locker where they had left the money, soon finding the right one and opening the door. As expected: the money is gone. I have to wonder...could the boss himself or someone under his command have taken it? It depends on how exactly the Undersiders were going to deliver the money to him, I always imagined somebody under the boss’ payroll would pick it up.

Regent immediately jumps to conclusions, blaming a certain someone who isn’t here. My eyebrows went up, “You think it was Bitch?  Would she just take the money and run?” Without two of her dogs? No way! Tattetale quickly destroys such accusation by stating Heckpuppy wasn’t the one to take the money. It was a villain cape – “More than one.  And they’re still here.” Could it be one I have seen yet or be a new one? And why would they stay here? Looking for a fight, perhaps? Holding Heckpuppy hostage, as difficult as that sounds?

The villains are familiar names: Uber and Leet. I hadn’t thought they’d appear at any point, I always thought they’d be those two names that’d pop up from time to time just for the sake of mentioning them. Not the most intimidating duo, from what I have heard of them.

They were standing with one leg higher than the other, to keep from sliding off the angled roof, and both were wearing identical costumes.  The costumes sported blue man-leotards with broad belts cinched around their waists, skintight white sleeve and leggings.  Their hoods were elastic, clinging to their heads so they left only a window for the face, and each sported a single white antenna.  Of all colors, their gloves, boots and the balls at the top of their antennae were bubblegum pink.  Their faces were obscured by oversize goggles with dark lenses.

...okay, I’d like to make a formal request. Please send me someone’s fan illustration of these two, because...honestly, right now? The mental image I have of them right now is anything but intimidating. Here, allow me to make a general image of it, which I’m sure is completely inaccurate, hahaha

It’s missing the white sleeves but still...it would still look silly. There must be something I’m getting wrong here.

Tattetale isn’t intimidated by the green-screen-actor costumes, greeting them with no worry in her tone, while Taylor looks for a camera these two villains use to transmit their shenanigans to the public. Why’d they do that? Hm...anyways, I guess that explains why they’d stick around. Taking the money and running away would be boring for the public to watch. If they bother to set up a flying camera around to broadcast everything, of course they’d try to make it interesting to watch. They’re performers – villains and criminals, but performers nonetheless.

Skitter is petty and messes with the camera, much to the villains’ annoyance. Nobody here is taking these two seriously, nobody is worried, Regent is even jeering at the awful costumes.

Leet and Über glared at him.  Their entire schtick was a video game theme.  With every escapade, they picked a different video game or series, designing their costumes and crimes around it.  One day it would be Leet in a Mario costume throwing fireballs while Über was dressed up as Bowser, the two of them breaking into a mint to collect ‘coins’. Then a week later, they would have a Grand Theft Auto theme, and they would be driving through the city in a souped up car, ripping off the ABB and beating up hookers.

You have no idea how relieved I am those leotards aren’t their regular costumes.

Uber tries to say something to try to counter Regent’s mocking words, but he doesn’t have the time to do that before Regent makes him lose his footing and fall face first onto the pavement. Everything that’s happening is piling more and more on these two being anything but intimidating. Then again, they captured Heckpuppy, that’s not simple. They’re a menace to a fault.

Grue is in no mood to play around, immediately asking for the money. It’s confirmed that yeah, they have Heckpuppy, so it’s official: If we don’t get a decisive victory here, our reputation is fucked.” He’s not wrong about that, not only their defeat would be broadcasted to thousands of people, they also would have lost against Uber and Leet. They’re villains, yeah, but until now I have no reason to think they’re respected in this city.

The plan is simple: fight and leave Leet in a state to be interrogated. “I’m game,” I answered. Wow. You totally did that on purpose, Skitter. She’s excited about the thought of fighting them, after all, this isn’t like the bank robbery or like fighting heroes. These two are villains, and since she still considers herself a fledgling hero...yeah.

I think I’ll leave the fight for the next time. I don’t expect it to take more than one or two chapters, unless these two really have a trick up their sleeve.

Comment time. It seems somebody in the comments guessed what the theme of this fight is. I had no idea, to be honest. Bomberman? Now that I think about it...yeah, that fits. So they do have a trick up their sleeves! My interest and expectations for this fight have increased.

Next update: three updates