#worm shell

So this is like, a pain bomb? Like instead of melting you or turning you into sand it just makes everything hurt? That's. Man. Fucking Bakuda, that's nuts.

Honestly I think there was some deliberate fun had in defining what kinds of things could be done with Tinker explosives, and I'm glad Wildbow had fun playing with that but also owwwww

This is creative! And horrifying

God she's so fucking vicious, she's really good at the whole "villain" thing for real

@victoriadallonfan said on Discord that a point of contrast between facing down Glory Girl and facing down Bakuda is that like, against GG Taylor is able to think to herself "oh holy shit she's terrifying," but here Taylor doesn't even have the time or breath to acknowledge it, it's just been shock and horror and the animal need to escape death, and it's a really good insight into how these fights are already escalating

Ahh, I see Bakuda is making one of the classic blunders: underestimating Taylor Hebert where she can hear you

God, I can only imagine how fucked up it must be to hear your voice sound so weak

Meanwhile, time to bully the antagonist about fucking up at college

...I wonder how many fights in this story are gonna come down to head games and psychological warfare instead of pure combat? If you can't beat em, bully em into a nervous breakdown? That probably wouldn't work against an Endbringer but who the fuck knows right

(Obviously the people who've finished this novel know, but shh)

Fuck, I keep getting distracted by the Bomberman costume but it's not even silly anymore, it's just absurd, she's still so fucking scary

I hope to fucking god we never see Bakuda's 227, this sounds fucking heinous

And she loves it too, she thinks it's the funniest shit she's ever pulled

What the fuck happened to you, Bakuda? How much of this is you before you got powers and how much of this is because you can make enough bombs to level a city? Did you get here on your own, or did someone fail you too?

Imagine you have your enemies on the ropes and one of them, sprawled out on the ground and wracked with full-body pain, manages to stab you in the fucking foot and cut off the toes you needed to activate your inventions. Like obviously it hurts like a motherfucker and your plans are ruined but also how the fuck did she know to do that? Was it luck? Did she figure out how you were activating the bombs? How?

Not to sound too much like I have sympathy for Bakuda, she's been really good at negating any possible goodwill she might have earned over the course of this arc and I don't think she's gonna get any more tolerable now

Good job Taylor now please for god's fucking sake take it easy for a little bit

Current Thoughts

God fucking damn this got stressful. Like obviously Taylor and crew were gonna make it out, they've got a while before I'm worried about any of them dying, but this could have cost them a lot more without actually killing them, that's for sure

Bakuda has proven herself to be an extremely fucking capable threat and a deadly antagonist; the only things holding her back are entirely self-inflicted, the need to make people suffer instead of just kill them, the same fragile ego that keeps her moving while being her biggest weak spot. I don't know how long she stays in the spotlight but for everyone's sake I hope it's not long

Little surprised that Alec is taking the lead on this one, but pleasantly so

And yeah, here we finally get an explanation for powers and triggers and all that, or at least the foundations of it

...Also there's no way that Glory Girl triggered just because of a basketball game, that has to be a crock of shit. What's up with New Wave claiming to be the most open hero team and then coming off the shadiest? How am I trusting these people less than I trust the government capes?

I like that they make a point of reassuring her after her blunder. She couldn't have known, and they know that, and they don't hold it against her. I love these kids.

Brian seems more comfortable smacking Alec around than he does Rachel. I don't think that's a thing of not wanting to hit women, last arc he decked Vista like she owed him money. Maybe it's that Rachel intentionally provokes that reaction and Alec is just kind of a little shit? Idk

Again, I remain utterly fixated on how this is Taylor's one line, the thing she refuses to compromise on ever. I'll buy that she doesn't want outside interference from the Undersiders or other capes when it comes to the bully situation, but it's harder to do that when she never makes a move herself.

This is so. Evil. Like, the false friendship, the rotting tampons, the imprisonment. The fact that nobody who sees this play out even bothers to help her. The fact that she's trapped for hours. If that didn't give someone a trigger event, I'm not sure anything would.

Alec is actually so real for this. Like for all that he was disgusted with the story (which, fair) his disgust isn't with Taylor, it's with the fuckers who did that to her. And Brian agrees with him! Lisa is making a point of not disagreeing, even.

Oh hey, Taylor actually acknowledges her thing with anger and violent retribution. Glad she's cognizant of that, it'd be a whole situation if she wasn't tbh

Actually thank god for Alec keeping up this line of thinking, this might be the most passionate we've seen him get about anything. The runner up is like, him being annoyed he can't keep Kid Win's skateboard, and that's peanuts compared to this. Maybe he's wrong about the revenge thing but I don't know that he is, and he's definitely not wrong about the indignity that Taylor is allowing herself to suffer

I don't think this is half the lie that Taylor thinks it is. For all that she has noble intentions, and I don't doubt she'll do her best with those... I don't think Taylor's drive to be a superhero was entirely selfless. This isn't all truth and justice going on here, this is feeling strong and being appreciated by others and not being looked at like a bottom-feeder.

Wonder when she'll figure that out for herself

Get cared about idiot! Get absolutely blanketed with affection and approval from the people who would absolutely rip your bullies apart if you asked them to!

You know. I think Brian's trigger event is one of the ones I know the least about? I know the broad strokes of almost every other Undersider, but I don't think I know anything about his.

Current Thoughts

Even knowing what's coming, reading through Taylor's ordeal with the locker is so fucking heartbreaking. She could've died in there and the consolation prize she got was not worth the cost of admission, that's for damn sure. Emma Barnes is a fucking maniac for this one.

The stuff about powers and trigger events is a pretty neat concept, and I like how it kind of contextualizes most capes as being fucked up. Like, I'm thirteen years late to the party on this one, but what a fascinating fucking idea to build your superhero setting on.

Alec really shone through for me in this chapter. Maybe I relate as someone who finds it easier to get angry on others' behalf than to be angry for myself, or maybe it's just nice to see him get fired up about something. I like this kid.

The fact that Rachel Lindt, Bitch, the badass cape who picks fights and wins, calls walks "walkies" for her dogs, is everything to me

Also everything to me: Dog POV. What a good boy Brutus, absolutely wonderful good boy

Dang :(

The conversation between Brian and Rachel is interesting. Brian's worried, fucking rightfully so by the sound of it, and Rachel is shaking off the concern faster than anything. He clearly knows this is a losing argument but has to say something.

This can only go well

This can only go well

It ended well, just like I was sure of

Nobody gets hurt and we all learn a valuable lesson about boundaries and consent

...And a little trauma

Ahh. Dog fights. Of course.

Yeah! Fuck up the dog fighting arena! Fuck em all up!

This is so fucking cool honestly

So that's how Rachel spends her free time. Fucking radical

Current Thoughts

First off, love Brutus, easy as anything to just lay out

And now we know what Rachel's side thing is, which is busting the shit out of dog fights and rescuing the dogs, and honestly that makes a lot of sense and is also cool as fuck

It seems a lot like for all Rachel doesn't get people, or gets them less than she gets dogs, she's still trying. That thing with the kid was very nearly a horror show and I doubt the kid or the mother will forget that one for the rest of their lives, but it was a threat of violence rather than actual violence, which I have no doubt that Rachel is able and willing to resort to. But she's got her head on straight enough to not do that, thank God

Also makes sense what she even needs the money for from the Undersiders gig. These dogs have to go somewhere, you figure it's a shelter or something that she oversees, that costs money.

The classic fade-in at the clinic, of course. Thank God Taylor's in one piece at the end of this arc

Holy shit, okay

Don't leave Taylor on pause while she's telling her bugs to do something, Jesus

Oh hey, power upgrade? Is that normal? I don't know if that's normal, but Taylor's fucking panopticon powers are getting even stronger

I like the banter

Oh hey, Danny gets to feel the sheer fucking agony of his daughter being caught in the crossfire of a supervillain attack, and he doesn't even know the full extent of what's been threatened towards her! What fun!

Wow, she didn't even last a week before the collision between her cape life and civilian life

Lisa is really fucking good at this, hell.

Taylor, love you, but if something makes you feel guilty to the point where it's borderline physical, that might mean you should rethink your choices at least a little?

Taylor is so lucky her friend is a dark empath or whatever they're calling it now

She hoped so bad that these two parts of her life would never come together, and now it has and she's got no contingencies or anything

Aww

The rundown of what we missed in the Bakuda fight fills in some of the gaps, and also it's a little funny that Taylor has claimed two and a half toes off of ABB's newest cape

Bakuda escaping makes sense, her takedown wasn't nearly as much a priority as the team's survival, but Lung's breakout feels like a low blow. Makes sense that the bombing campaign was a feint to break him out, but hell of a way to lose the progress that'd been made

And of course any hope at restoring the former equilibrium before Lung's arrest is dashed immediately

Escalation on top of more escalation seems to be the order of the day

Everybody needs to be cuddling Taylor to make up for the years of touch starvation she's endured at this point, that's a mandate and I will not budge on it

Current Thoughts

I hope the Undersiders actually get to cool off for a bit after this but somehow I doubt it, their luck isn't so hot

Here at the end of Arc 4 and I'm still a bit blown away by the pacing. I knew Bakuda was coming at some point before Leviathan, but the specifics evaded me, including the goddamn Bomberman cosplay, so here we are

Somehow I suspect things are gonna keep moving this fast if not faster for the foreseeable future, although I gotta be real I don't know what the hell kind of time frame this story takes place in if that's the case, barring I guess a timeskip? Ideally there's some time to slow down and cool off that isn't immediately ruined by the newest villain who decides to ruin everything

Our first mention of Aisha I believe, and boy Brian's story is a rough one to hear, poor kid.

His protectiveness of her is gonna define a lot of his character, I suspect. He literally got his powers beating the shit out of the man who terrorized and abused her.

I feel like that's close enough to being abusive that you can just call it abusive, or maybe Brian needs to make his dad feel like the lesser of two evils to make it make sense for himself.

I mentioned this offhandedly as I was reading on Discord, I think Brian is fibbing here

So far we've known him as a character who strives for responsibility and authority, who's making a point to be the Responsible Leader even as Lisa is making a lot of calls for the gang and the enigmatic boss is doing whatever the fuck. He projects an air of not-to-be-fucked with, and "projects" is a key word there; we've caught glimpses of him acting less like and adult than he desperately wants to be.

The fact that he's insisting that he was a Stoic Man as he beat the shit out of a man who was fucking with his kid sister makes me believe very firmly that he's ashamed of whatever emotions overtook him in that moment, or even in general.

Given the aspects of his power, I think underneath all the macho attitude is a young, terrified, vulnerable kid who hides himself and his loved ones where they can't be found, because you can't hurt what you can't find and you can't defend against an unseen attacker. I don't love questioning him, but I'm already questioning Victoria's story so.

So here we see how the boss got his hooks in. A few years of service in exchange for the ability to truly protect his sister. It's definitely not something he'll be jerked around on at any point.

The conversation about the spider-silk costumes is pretty great honestly. I like that Taylor's trying to figure out the fine line between "should I let these villains have in on my incredible stash of resources" and "how much of a pain in the as will it be to have that many spiders working"

I think Alec is trying to get the "dork" thing to stick and it's not working, but bless him for making the effort

This is a sweet moment for Brian and Taylor in the meantime, though.

Ruh roh raggy

Current Thoughts

I like Brian, even if I'm pretty sure he's lying about some details in his trigger event and even if he's trying really hard to be a boring person. The text of the narrative means I can always perceive you, buddy

Let's see, where to even begin

I like that Taylor's gotten a lot more confident about school. Even if she figures that Emma will inflict some kind of retribution, the fact that she's willing to take that risk for the sake of getting to laugh in her fucking face makes me glad. John Dillinger school of therapy is a fucking go.

I continue to absolutely adore the Undersiders, it's really fun to see them get to interact with each other in a more normal context, walking around the market and shopping and talking about whatever. I could read nothing but Undersiders slice-of-life for like a month straight and never get sick of it

The conversations about triggers and powers and stuff were also interesting tbh, a healthy dose of exposition and fleshing out the way the world works

Alec has grown on me a lot with this arc, between his clear anger at the shit that Taylor's had to put up with and his critical part in the fight against Bakuda

Which. You know what let's go there actually. Bakuda is so fucking terrifying as an antagonist that I kinda hope Lung pulls her back just so she can be less of a goddamn menace. The combination of ruthless forethought and sadistic unpredictability makes for a combination that rapidly outpaced Lung and the Wards as far as "oh shit this is for real," at some point I completely forgot about the Bomberman costume and - oh I wonder if that's why people don't talk about the Bomberman costume that much, the whole thing just accelerates so far past where that can still be talked about without losing focus

It was kinda sweet seeing Brian and Lisa help Taylor out in the aftermath of the fight, getting her home and helping her feel better (and lying to her dad for her). It'd be nice if Taylor decided that this could mean her cape and civilian lives could be more connected but I kind of doubt that's the case, unfortunately

Dog interlude might be best interlude, because Dog, and also Rachel proving that she rules

I kinda wanna get into a long ramble about all of my current character takes and opinions but I kinda want to get further into the story, see if there's a natural point where I can take a break and make that a separate post. If there isn't a natural one maybe I just do it every, I dunno, six arcs. Chunk it into fifths.

Yes, Taylor, yes! Appreciate your teammate! I'm finding the positive in the negative here

More of Tattletale being clever, and very importantly, Bakuda realizing that Tattletale's cleverness is a threat. She doesn't know how Tattletale's a threat, but she's smart enough to know that she shouldn't be allowed to keep talking.

Nothing good comes from when a villain starts talking about fear as a means of control. Every time it comes up someone suffers horribly

Yeah, see? Yeah. Bakuda starts talking about fear as a means of control, and Park Jihoo dies in a fucking disgusting and horrific fashion

Oh she's nuts nuts, holy shit

Like she's getting a huge kick out of this, she's loving every second of what she does to these people, it doesn't matter who gets caught up in it, only that she gets to watch it happen

Fucking terrifying

I suspect that Regent doesn't actually get as much of a kick out of this as he's playing up Bakuda's ego, trying to get on her good side. When you're in a situation this desperate, trying to appeal to your captor might buy you just a little more time. Wonder where he learned that lesson.

Well. It was worth a shot.

Also holy fucking shit this is such a horrifically cold maneuver

Bombs in everybody. Bombs in the conscripts, bombs in the members, bombs in the loyalists. You don't even know what the bomb will do to you, just that it'll be fucking awful

This isn't something Bakuda can keep up the whole time, I don't think, this isn't a level of energy that would be sustainable, but while it's running it's a fucking horror show

Also awww handholding, that got my spirits up a little bit

It's cool that Regent managed to get something going to affect that many people at once, although he's paid for it by the look of things

And God, Bakuda is just playing with her food, huh? No way that bites her in the ass

Concluding Thoughts

Bakuda is a fucking terror. She's been showing her chops as far as tactics go, and now we see what she's like when she decides to put on a show. Honestly I wonder if Lung being back in charge would be safer if only so that she's back on a leash

She's technically got a point about the fear stuff, but y'know, there's an upper limit to how much you can scare the shit out of someone before something gives and they just don't give a shit anymore. Her "leadership" is a lot like her power; deadly and expansive but not sustainable.