The "Why aren't you reading Worm yet?" Thread.

[Ahriman238]

and Venom 2- the secret is out.

[Ahriman238]

Venom 3.
Spoiler

Different game of cops and robbers indeed! Vegas must have been an interesting place before the defection. Besides Revel we have the body-snatcher, the precog, an illusionist and a shapechanging duplicator. Against a lot of thinkers and precogs trying largely to cheat the casinos with their powers. I'm imagining a lot of speed chess and Mission Impossible (the show, not the films) style hijinks.

[madd0ct0r]

speed chess with secrete pieces. if you can follow them from the start, you'll know what each piece is, but if not, then keep stabbing in the dark.

I guess Vegas must have had a lower ratio of brute violence - not many flying bricks trying to take safes with them.

[Ahriman238]

Venom 4.
Spoiler

Okay, the Irregulars have really gone beyond the pale now. Revenge against Doctor-Mother? Extreme but understandable. Declaring Weld and Sveta traitors for not playing along and making a show of their slow execution? Not cool. Especially starting to burn Sveta alive before Weld's eyes.

Wondering what the deal with Imp is.

Oh yeah, they're up a creek. Trapped, vastly outnumbered and moments from a horribly painful death. Pity for the Irregulars that's when Taylor gets really scary and dangerous.

[Ahriman238]

speed chess with secrete pieces. if you can follow them from the start, you'll know what each piece is, but if not, then keep stabbing in the dark.

I guess Vegas must have had a lower ratio of brute violence - not many flying bricks trying to take safes with them.

Maybe constant monitoring by multiple thinker types. Otherwise between the illusionist (still don't know his limits) Satyrical and Pretender you're too likely to lose track and find the team you were following were ringers or nonexistent.

Speaking of, Satyrical impressed me again with his calm in the latest update, Venom 5.
Spoiler

And now the Big Guys here to really ruin Cauldron's day.

Like I said, cornering Taylor is not a good idea.

[Ahriman238]

Venom 6, more on the Vegas capes, who continue to grow more impressive.
Spoiler

Leonid can hear anything in his range, however small and regardless of obstruction. He has some sound control like a poor man's Screamer, muffling or doubling noises. And he can teleport.

Floret has a thinker power where she notices all the tiny details and tells around her, sort of like Tattletale without the automatic ability to extrapolate. Plus she can create crystals that are sticky, disrupt technology or cause a variety of chemical reactions.

The question mark is Blowout, a brick-type that gets stronger and tougher the more people are paying attention to him, and can apparently do a minor or major stunning effect by letting other people feel what he does.

Add these to the others and you have an awesome team for gathering information and messing with people. Pity they do hardly anything before sacrificing themselves to slow Scion down for a picosecond.

[madd0ct0r]

i must admit, I'm pretty lost at this point. What the hell was Satyr's plan?

[Ahriman238]

I think it was stall until he could decide whether the new and untrustworthy element (the Undersiders) would be more valuable taking out the digging capes quickly and cleanly before he backstabs them, or as a meatshield to slow Scion down.

[Ahriman238]

Venom 7, and answers about Cauldron.

[LaCroix]

Spoiler

I might be wrong, but I'm this brain surgery thing might be *interesting*.
Removing all blocks from her passenger might result in her being able to control every creature in her range. A swarm of superhumans? With her ability in micromanagement (absolute control over thousands of organisms at the same time) , it would be the most coordinated attack, ever.

[Ahriman238]

New one up. Interlude Eden/Contessa. Or if you prefer, Secret Origins of Cauldron.

[Forgothrax]

The implications of Contessa's power are rather nasty on a personal level. With a power like that, it's very obvious that it runs her life. Without her power, she's helpless... and one has to wonder how much of a person she is with or without it.

[Ahriman238]

The comments section has long had speculation on Contessa, she's just a robot acting out what her power tells her, she's the true leader of Cauldron and the Doctor just a front, etc. This chapter actually served to humanize her with her freaking out over her helplessness and deferring to the Doctor.

[Alkaloid]

I like that literally nobody except for the Doctor thinks that what she did was Ok, and the only person who doesn't take at least some issue with it is the Numbers Man, who appears to be a sociopath.

Interesting to see what the endbringers and the Capes would have been like if everything went the way the entity planned as well. More Powerful, I think, but more compromised.

Mantellum looks to be handy if they can bring him into play against scion, because he's never seemed bright, but from the last chapter doesn't really seem capable of forethought and relies heavily on his future site.

[LaCroix]

called it...

[madd0ct0r]

given what we already knew, it's not a huge surprise. Where wildbow takes it though, that is a much more open question.

[Raw Shark]

Speck #3: Well, that explains a lot about how the CUI has been acting...

[Ahriman238]

Well, hell.

I think Taylor broke the threat rating system. Is there anything past S Class? Oh well, if anything of humanity survives, they're never going to forget that awkward kid from Brockton Bay.

If the relay bugs only increase her range over insects, how is she fitting 200+ people in a 16 foot radius around herself?

[Jaevric]

I think she's reaching through Doormaker's portals; basically using them to bridge the distance and be "within 16 feet." One of her themes has been novel combinations of powers.

[Ahriman238]

Ah. Taylor with portals, limited omniscience and control of capes (maybe all people) is terrifying on a level even the Simurgh doesn't quite match. And she can't even communicate her intentions now.

[Raw Shark]

Taylor with portals, limited omniscience and control of capes (maybe all people) [snip]

So far, by my reckoning, we've seen:

The Simurgh: Tried; Failed; probably earned a very dry look.
Glaistig Uaine, Tattletale: Declined to try.
Teacher, Panacea, Bonesaw: Catch-N'-Release.
Everybody Else: Part of the two-legged "swarm" now.

[Ahriman238]

Speck 4.
Spoiler

Dragon lives. For now.

I remember a long time ago someone in the comments joking about Taylor becoming the Queen of Blades. That would be a lot less scary than the girl who seizes control of 5,000 capes, friend and foe alike. Including the world's greatest powerhouses, and the omniscience and portal-capes.

This fight shows some of her weaknesses, and her terrible physical/mental/emotional state is the greatest. But Taylor has become a far scarier person than I could have possibly imagined, even during her Warlord days.

[LadyTevar]

The question is, can she do this without losing herself before it's done?

[Ahriman238]

The question is, can she do this without losing herself before it's done?

How sure are we that she hasn't already? She's attacked her friends, controlled her allies against their will, lost the powers of speech, literacy, and understanding, crippled herself, is riding the edge of total emotional breakdown and/or loss of identity. The only reason she seems to be keeping her head even slightly above water is having a goal, an impossible enemy to fight. I suspect if she actually triumphs over Scion she'd self-destruct within minutes.

And despite it all, despite every new update taking us from bad to worse, despite the darkness and the sheer impossibility of it all, I'm still pulling for a happy ending. Not exactly expecting it, not anymore, but hoping.

[Forgothrax]

The only happy ending I'm really seeing at this point is a glimpse of a now-mindless Taylor ensconced in the middle of a fortress built to repel an entire First World military and their capes, sealed away from any living thing, sitting on her bed clutching a little stuffed dragon with a smile on her face.