Wildbow's Pact- discussion thread

[Ahriman238]

Here to talk about wildbow (author of Worm) and his new story, PACT!

He's getting a proper hosting site ready, but in the interim:

Pact 1

Pact 2

Pact 3

Pact 4


Pact is the touching story of a runaway from a messed up family who inherits a creepy house and library of demonic lore from his grandmother. And his disaff AU counterpart, I think. Little vague on how that part works still. Being wildbow's work, we can count on things getting steadily worse for our protagonist, who it seems is stuck with all his magic-wielding forebears' debts and enemies, and both seem considerable.

[madd0ct0r]

it's interesting he's ended up with a female main caharcter, even when the protagonist is male.

[Ahriman238]

New sites is up, and with it the new chapter. Technically Bonds 5, as that is what Wildbow is calling the first arc. The address, incidentally, is pactwebserial.wordpress.com.
Spoiler

I kind of like Laird, even with his dickery. He seems to have an honest concern for the people of the town, and he it seems he can still lead you to ruin despite vowing to do no direct harm to anything.

And the Faerie brigade is sort of on their side, for the moment. I laughed at their puzzlement over Blake's gender.

[Ahriman238]

Bonds 6 is up. We understand a bit more about the Others, the North End Sorcerer, and they're gearing up for an awakening.
Spoiler

Again interesting in that having a powerful focus, familiar, or demense seems to be a prerequisite for gaining the other two things, in any appreciable quality. I'm sure they'll find a way to game the system though.

Finally, wildbow hasn't gotten nicer about cliffhangers. I'm going to go ahead and say that Molly probably did it.

[Raw Shark]

Spoiler

I'm going to go ahead and say that Molly probably did it.

Spoiler

Seems likely, since Rose's notes in the little black book don't end with: "Update: Oh shit, I lost the nukes!" :]

So, Barbatorem? Google is telling me that's vulgar Latin for barber or barber shop? Not getting the "small joke," unless he's got a thing for bloodletting...

If Barbatorem doesn't talk, and can't be looked at directly or via reflective surface without him possessing the viewer's corneas, how did OG Rose see him well enough to communicate by the gestures she cataloged?

[Ahriman238]

Looking at extremities?

Imagine a conversation with your barber that goes on for generations.

[Alkaloid]

Spoiler

Kind of a long shot, but could the shears be Barbatorem? We know from Lairds familiar that Others don't have to take a living form, necessarily, and it fits with the name being a bad joke and the inability to speak.

[Raw Shark]

RE: Alkaloid: Totally.

10' Bear in the Room: Where is the rest of the family in all this, particularly Blake's Dad's generation? Literally the first thing we are told in this story is that they are spiteful dicks, walking up the big hill just to make everybody else walk up the big hill. At least some of them have got to be up to some kind of shenanigans right now. What about Paige? Why is she chosen last, despite seeming to be one of the most competent? Is it because she seems to be one of the most competent, given that getting the house kind of seems like a kiss of death..?

[Ahriman238]

I had wondered that, about the rest of the family, it seems they gathered for that one event and don't generally live in the town, else they might even be a useful resource.

I'm guessing none of the townspeople have heard that Rose (senior) specified that none of her heirs could sell the house, for a set period of years.

[Ahriman238]

Bonds 7 up!
Spoiler

Seems Barbatorem wasn't gone, or the shears (exactly, he was sort of hiding in them) you just need to be awakened to see him properly. Also, Barbatorem is a very scary thing.

Finally Awakened, a setback in that Rose can't do magic but can no longer lie or break her word. Asked for a personal item, Blake chooses his friend's car keys, symbolic of his sense of obligations. I wonder if that means he'll try a key implement, Oh well, it looks like the implement, familiar and demense will have to wait until after the Council meeting where we'll meet the other players. We know there's a truce before, during and after the meetings so it should be reasonably safe to go.

Heh. "should be safe enough" in a wildbow story.

[Raw Shark]

Interlude #1's up: RDT's diary, starting around age 8. We should've expected this, I suppose.

[Ahriman238]

I'm glad wildbow is still doing interlude, I hadn't expected that. As for Granny, well it's not like there's a ton of characters to pick from at this point. I look forward to the inevitable Laird interlude with breathless anticipation.

[Raw Shark]

I'm glad wildbow is still doing interlude, I hadn't expected that. As for Granny, well it's not like there's a ton of characters to pick from at this point. I look forward to the inevitable Laird interlude with breathless anticipation.

Hitting us with Rose the Elder now fits his style, though... we get a sympathetic view on someone who was previously presented as a monster, plus information relevant to where the main narrative is.

Looking forward to (flashback) getting inside Molly's head. Maybe Irene could be interesting, too - She's lived a life "untouched by all of this," true to the vow, (at least up until, y'know, her daughter got murdered over it; guess RtE's magic remains in effect if she dies before the consequences hit), but she's been in the family a long time and surely suspects that something weird is up by now.

[LaCroix]

I'm glad wildbow is still doing interlude, I hadn't expected that. As for Granny, well it's not like there's a ton of characters to pick from at this point. I look forward to the inevitable Laird interlude with breathless anticipation.

Hitting us with Rose the Elder now fits his style, though... we get a sympathetic view on someone who was previously presented as a monster, plus information relevant to where the main narrative is.

Looking forward to (flashback) getting inside Molly's head. Maybe Irene could be interesting, too - She's lived a life "untouched by all of this," true to the vow, (at least up until, y'know, her daughter got murdered over it; guess RtE's magic remains in effect if she dies before the consequences hit), but she's been in the family a long time and surely suspects that something weird is up by now.

Not exactly... It's about context... That's why she needed to write that lines in her diary...

I swore I wouldn’t ever make my children go through this. I would let them lead lives untouched by all of this.

She didn't let her children got through "this" - the awakening. That's why it had to be grandchildren to inherit.
She'd LET them lead lives untouched by all of this - if other practicioners or Others touch their lives, it's not her fault - she got lucky by using these precise words...

Dealing with Magic/Others is no game for people with lackluster verbal skills - it's like dealing with the worst lawyers possible., and your whole life and family at stake. No wonder she grew up to be a complete bitch.

[Raw Shark]

I swore I wouldn’t ever make my children go through this. I would let them lead lives untouched by all of this.

She didn't let her children got through "this" - the awakening. That's why it had to be grandchildren to inherit.
She'd LET them lead lives untouched by all of this - if other practicioners or Others touch their lives, it's not her fault - she got lucky by using these precise words...

Dealing with Magic/Others is no game for people with lackluster verbal skills - it's like dealing with the worst lawyers possible., and your whole life and family at stake. No wonder she grew up to be a complete bitch.

"All of this" isn't terribly precise; I was reading the vow to be much broader in scope than just the awakening due to that, even if the context suggests that she was only thinking of and intending to refer to the awakening at the time.

[LaCroix]

I swore I wouldn’t ever make my children go through this. I would let them lead lives untouched by all of this.

She didn't let her children got through "this" - the awakening. That's why it had to be grandchildren to inherit.
She'd LET them lead lives untouched by all of this - if other practicioners or Others touch their lives, it's not her fault - she got lucky by using these precise words...

Dealing with Magic/Others is no game for people with lackluster verbal skills - it's like dealing with the worst lawyers possible., and your whole life and family at stake. No wonder she grew up to be a complete bitch.

"All of this" isn't terribly precise; I was reading the vow to be much broader in scope than just the awakening due to that, even if the context suggests that she was only thinking of and intending to refer to the awakening at the time.

Well, magic is all about intent, they say...
I would go as far to say that if a child of her had found out about magic, and decided to go ahead with the awakening on her own, without any persuasion or help by Rose, the oath would still be upheld - she didn't swear she would keep them from it, only she would not force them (=make them), and let them lead a life untouched (let - which implies the child would have a choice)...

edit: clarified some ambigous sections

[phred]

I have a feeling Barbatorum was an attempt to fulfill part of that oath. No one would be willing to touch her kids with that threat hanging over their heads.

[Raw Shark]

Well, magic is all about intent, they say...
I would go as far to say that if a child of her had found out about magic, and decided to go ahead with the awakening on her own, without any persuasion or help by Rose, the oath would still be upheld - she didn't swear she would keep them from it, only she would not force them (=make them), and let them lead a life untouched (let - which implies the child would have a choice)...

edit: clarified some ambigous sections

Yeah, that makes sense if we read let = permit.

I'm really enjoying this story so far. Glad he picked it.

[Ahriman238]

First of the new arc, Damage is up!
Spoiler

We learn some more about the town and the players, including the Duchamp Enchantresses.

I guess we're not trying to keep Rose a secret.

That last move was... bold. That little announcement is either going to pay magnificent dividends or backfire spectacularly. Either way, Blake gets serious points for sheer nerve to threaten a room full of powerhouses and fairly blatantly try to turn them against each other. And he did the whole thing without lying once.

[Cycloneman]

I've got to admit, the way Wildbow makes his protagonists the ineffectual victims of people who have all the good will of a Khornate and all the comparative power of a small and not particularly bright child up against a rhinoceros (Taylor and her bullies, Blake and his family)... it feels kind of cheap. A quick and easy way to get audience sympathy.

I dunno. Am I the only one who feels this way?

[Raw Shark]

I've got to admit, the way Wildbow makes his protagonists the ineffectual victims of people who have all the good will of a Khornate and all the comparative power of a small and not particularly bright child up against a rhinoceros (Taylor and her bullies, Blake and his family)... it feels kind of cheap. A quick and easy way to get audience sympathy.

I dunno. Am I the only one who feels this way?

If we don't count Rose the Elder dumping the house on him, what has Blake suffered from his family on-screen so far besides a sucker punch from a teenage cousin in the grocery store?

[Cycloneman]

If we don't count Rose the Elder dumping the house on him, what has Blake suffered from his family on-screen so far besides a sucker punch from a teenage cousin in the grocery store?

The entire relationship between Blake and his family is just his family hating him, pretty much. Parents didn't care enough to look for him, Callan turning Molly against him, somebody fucking up his bike, etc. Every interaction with the rest of his family is pretty much defined by hatred directed towards him.

He also has a similar thing going on with the mundane townsfolk, who hate him for even fewer actual reasons, given that he literally can't do shit about the house until he's twenty-five, since it's not his.

[madd0ct0r]

Unrelaible narrator - Blake see's himself as the victim - he chose to go homeless for example.

[Ahriman238]

I've got to admit, the way Wildbow makes his protagonists the ineffectual victims of people who have all the good will of a Khornate and all the comparative power of a small and not particularly bright child up against a rhinoceros (Taylor and her bullies, Blake and his family)... it feels kind of cheap. A quick and easy way to get audience sympathy.

I dunno. Am I the only one who feels this way?

Doesn't bother me. Blake is hardly a mystic powerhouse at this point, and both Molly's surviving immediates and the townspeople have a legitimate beef, while the townsfolk may not know or care that he can't sell the place. You can argue that having lived and fought on the streets Blake should have given a better accounting for himself, but I think he did well to negate most of the sucker punch.

I don't feel like this is a gimmick to make Blake more sympathetic, I think the idea is that he is truly and completely alone except for his distaff reflection and the demon in the attic. We saw something of how the isolation and hostility of the community, both mystic and mundane, drove Molly to lose it and flee the safety of the house.

[Ahriman238]

Damage 2 is up.

Well, we know a bit more about the town and the setting.
Spoiler

The major takeaway seems to be Rose as a vestige, with a short shelf-life. It's now even more important than ever to establish how and why she was created, and what's fueling her continued existence.

We seem to be maneuvering Laird as the main antagonist, fronting for the Benhain/Duchamp coalition. I'm alright with that, Laird will make an awesome villain, but it leaves the question of what Johannes is up in the air.

Divide and conquer doesn't seem to have worked out, but at least it's told Blake a lot about the various factions and what they want. Oh, and Maggie's hooked, she just doesn't know it yet.

I'm fascinated how every conversation between practioners resembles diplomacy between heavily armed parties. Who can't speak deliberate mistruths.

Poor Blake's position hasn't changed much, the house is a safe refuge, but under constant siege so he doesn't dare leave. He has no allies but Rose and maybe Maggie, and damn little leverage except his grandmother's secrets and the magical suitcase nuke that it Barbatorem. Pity Laird seems to have a bunker. He still needs a demense to create a powerful implement, a powerful implement to create and defend a demense and a familiar to aid with both. And he needs to build a rep among the pactioners, others and spirits of the town, which is also sort of hard while trapped indoors.