#chapter 15.7

(submitted by sharedvi)

Ahahaha!

widdle cwocky-wocky wants to fweezy-weezy the buggie-wuggies?

Spooky scary Skitter Sends shivers down your spine Shrieking bugs will shock your soul Sting your eyes tonight

Spooky scary Skitter Speaks with such a buzz You'll shake and shudder in surprise When you hear these swarm clones fuss

We're so sorry Skitter You're so misunderstood You only want to socialize But I don't think we should

'Cause spooky scary Skitter Shouts startling shrilly screams She'll sneak from her hive and cocoon And just won't leave you be!

Spirits paranatural Are shy, whats all the fuss But bags of bugs seem so unsafe It's semi-serious!

Spooky scary Skitter Is silly all the same She'll smile and scrabble slowly by And drive you so insane!

I winced as the grinding resumed, this time inside my shoulder socket.  A makeshift rigging inside the cavity caught the metal shavings, while Bryce held the tube to suction the metal shavings out.  So far, no assassination attempts.  Good.

That does tend to be a good thing.

“I don’t know what to do,” Parian admitted.  “This is… seeing it makes me wish I’d done something like it.”

“I’m not going to push you towards one choice or another.”

“I know.  You made that clear when you gave me the money with no strings attached.”

:)

“Look,” I said.  “I know Flechette was saying my perspective is warped, but I think the system… you know, society, it’s like a series of rules and expectations that we established under some general expectations.  But recent events have made it pretty clear that those expectations, those assumptions, they might not apply.”

Ah, we’re getting into parahuman-vs-mundane territory?

He wasn’t wrong.  As validating as it was for Sierra to stick up for me, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt at the idea that these circumstances werebecause of capes.  Hell, if I hadn’t provoked the Nine by humiliating Mannequin then this district wouldn’t have come under fire by Burnscar.

Don’t forget that the Nine were after Rachel too, though Burnscar only took that here because she wanted to protect her teammate and Rachel happened to be there.

There was Dolltown too, and my complicity there.  I was personally at fault when it came to some of the damage that had been done across the city.

The guilt pile doesn’t stop from getting taller.

“You want a better reason?” she asked.  She stepped close and pulled him down to hiss words in his ear.

I wonder if she’s telling him about Barker. Ooh, or Yan & co.

She wasn’t being as quiet as she seemed to think she was, trying to hide her words from me and the kids.  “…they attacked me and Char… mauled them…  Mannequin…”

The first thing is definitely about Yan & co., but it looks like she’s telling him more.

I shifted positions, and Sierra must have seen it, because she lowered her voice to an inaudible hush as she finished.

Rattling off a list of the things she’d seen me do.  Reasons that gave her cause to be spooked if her brother was mouthing off to me.

I’ll try to get in a session tomorrow night, but failing that, Thursday morning should also be available. See you soon!

True.

But why?

Honestly, that’s the worst thing, especially if the climax is a multi-parter and you catch up between them. I’ve had that happen to me with Gravity Falls and, more recently, the season 2 finale of Miraculous Ladybug. It sucks, especially with the way some shows’ release frequency start petering out as time goes by.

(There were three months between parts two and three of the Gravity Falls series finale. I fortunately only had to sit through about one of those, if I remember correctly. And don’t get me started on Steven Universe, though at least Cartoon Network has the decency to air mini-arcs of that together before leaving us hanging for half a year.)

This was nice.

I’m generally not a huge fan of the medical attention scenes in Worm, but all the other things going on in this chapter made it worthwhile.

I like Brooks. He can be a li’l shit from time to time, but he keeps it serious when it comes to his medical work, and I respect that. And even in his less serious moments, he’s still a lot more bearable than Bryce.

Speaking of the true li’l shit in the room, I very much enjoyed the scene of Sierra worrying about Skitter lashing out against him. It’s always nice to get a look at how others view Skitter, and in this case, we get to see Taylor herself get reminded of how scary she’s become even to the one who once said she was surprisingly human.

At the same time we also got Taylor realizing just how many lives she’s at the center of right now, how many people are working under her to make the territory a better place. Nice touch.

And then there’s Parian coming around to hear Skitter out.

Wait a minute...

“I know.  You made that clear when you gave me the money with no strings attached.”

...says the girl with power over strings. This is like Taylor saying something is bugging her. :p

Anyway, Parian’s visit helped provide a little more insight into Taylor’s perspective on parahumans vs. mundanes and the social structure of the post-Scion world. And I’m down with letting her run Dolltown as her territory, secretly cooperating with the Undertravelers. Let’s hope Coil is too.