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funny guy is my favourite cape

what would jack as a 1.5 trigger look like?

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Noooo, you can't do this to me, now I have to update it again!

Back to the biohorror-romance drawing board I go...

It is my solemn duty to report that my Twig quest, Last Flower Standing, has become the longest non-crossover Twig fic on ao3. On the one hand, I'm proud. On the other hand, it should NOT be the longest (non-crossover) Twig fic. It's barely over 10k words, and it's barely about Twig! This is a travesty.

The longest (non-crossover) Twigfic should be some literary darling that grapples with themes of identity and relationships in a fast-moving world. Or a conspiratorial thriller set in canon's aftermath. Or a deranged Helen/Duncan/Sy slowburn polyamory shipfic. Something that's about the characters that makes Twig so great.

I'm going to keep writing my little freak fic, because it's fun. But I will be having fun while simultaneously being continually devastated by what my own two hands have wrought. The Twig fandom deserves so much more than what it currently has.

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For bonus points, move a great distance away from Kim's parking spot before passing out so he has to carry/drag you extra far. The date spot on the coast is an excellent choice for this

The moment Kim takes the body away for processing I always immediately read the ledger and pass out so that he comes back to resuscitate me, thus denying him his much-needed "kineema time"

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Hmmm, yes, truly a mystery for the ages

A friend granted me access to Disco Elysium so when I have some time that's what I'll be doing. Appreciate all the media recs everyone

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Hey! I just wanted to say that Freefall's story sounds really cool, I'm hooked by the world you've built around them (Downfall quarantine zone? 👀). I'm guessing they're tied in to Hatching a Heist by the Hatchworks connection, is there any more revealed about their story in that quest? Either way, if you plan to post more about them or Downfall, I'll be tuning in with great interest.

Thanks so much!

Freefall doesn't appear in Hatching a Heist (ao3), sadly. They're in the 80% of the iceberg that's underwater, so to speak. I came up with a lot of ideas for that quest and its setting that will probably never see the light of day because voters chose to go in a direction that doesn't really include them.

It's technically possible that Freefall could show up in the future, but voters have generally been unenthusiastic about the potential story directions that most directly tie Freefall into the plot. (They don't want Whitney-the-fake-cape-criminal to visit a parahuman prison, for some reason!) So I think it's unlikely.

And in the event that Freefall does come up, it will be a long way down the track. Probably literal years away in real time, with how sporadic my updates are, so I wouldn't recommend reading Hatching a Heist in the hope that they'll show up. Sorry for the bad news, it's really nice to have heard that you found Freefall cool.

Downfall is mentioned a time or five, and has had a much more obvious influence on the setting. They're still underwater, but you can see their shape lurking if you look for it. I still wouldn't read Hatching a Heist just for them, but keeping their existence in mind while reading could be a rewarding experience for the thoughtful lore-seeker.

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Amazing work! It's so awesome to see Freefall brought to life and you did such a great job with them!

(not my OC but my art) Freefall, for @parahumanzine ! :) Couldn't decide on which coloring style for the hair I should do, so here's both. They have antigravity powers! Character by recursivemontage!

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FREEFALL is my contribution to the Worm OC Fanzine run by @parahumanzine with art by @artistatthedisco

Make sure to check out the full size art, because it has *details* and I should be locked up for the crime of reducing it to a teeny tiny thing in the corner. Seriously, @artistatthedisco did a great job on very little notice.

Freefall has been knocking around in my head for a while now, and it was lovely to exorcise them onto paper. Antigravity is fun, and so is imagining deeply traumatised people who may or may not be doing their best!

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I do think my fic is good, to be clear. It's a grand old time. People should read it and enjoy it and vote on it. It's just not quintessential Twigfic material.

A bunch of OCs fighting for the love of a Noble in a weird battle royale set in a non-canonical castle is pretty far away from whatever the key essence of Twig is. It's fun! But if it is ever in any way *iconic* then that says something about the health of the community.

My funky quests should be niche, and that's okay.

It is my solemn duty to report that my Twig quest, Last Flower Standing, has become the longest non-crossover Twig fic on ao3. On the one hand, I'm proud. On the other hand, it should NOT be the longest (non-crossover) Twig fic. It's barely over 10k words, and it's barely about Twig! This is a travesty.

The longest (non-crossover) Twigfic should be some literary darling that grapples with themes of identity and relationships in a fast-moving world. Or a conspiratorial thriller set in canon's aftermath. Or a deranged Helen/Duncan/Sy slowburn polyamory shipfic. Something that's about the characters that makes Twig so great.

I'm going to keep writing my little freak fic, because it's fun. But I will be having fun while simultaneously being continually devastated by what my own two hands have wrought. The Twig fandom deserves so much more than what it currently has.

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It is my solemn duty to report that my Twig quest, Last Flower Standing, has become the longest non-crossover Twig fic on ao3. On the one hand, I'm proud. On the other hand, it should NOT be the longest (non-crossover) Twig fic. It's barely over 10k words, and it's barely about Twig! This is a travesty.

The longest (non-crossover) Twigfic should be some literary darling that grapples with themes of identity and relationships in a fast-moving world. Or a conspiratorial thriller set in canon's aftermath. Or a deranged Helen/Duncan/Sy slowburn polyamory shipfic. Something that's about the characters that makes Twig so great.

I'm going to keep writing my little freak fic, because it's fun. But I will be having fun while simultaneously being continually devastated by what my own two hands have wrought. The Twig fandom deserves so much more than what it currently has.

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Embracing the hustle and grind so tightly that there is no room left for personal enjoyment or emotional resonance is incredibly disco, actually

A friend granted me access to Disco Elysium so when I have some time that's what I'll be doing. Appreciate all the media recs everyone

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You should stream it, and furthermore you should be legally mandated to inform me when you do. I'm honestly not sure if it would improve *your* experience, but it would improve mine.

Just beware unrequested backseaters. It's actually totally fine to miss some stuff and there's no real wrong choices. A lot of the fun of DE is carving out your own path and seeing where it goes.

A friend granted me access to Disco Elysium so when I have some time that's what I'll be doing. Appreciate all the media recs everyone

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Gordon's death was probably the most emotionally affected I've been by a Wildbow work (with the possible exception of Worm arc 30, and that's a whole arc).

It's not unusual for Wildbow to kill characters. He's not the second coming of G.R.R. Martin that some readers paint him as, but he does write the occasional character death/fate-worse-than-death, and sometimes those characters are even plot-relevant people that readers like.

It's unusual, though, for the text to give those deaths much space. Sometimes characters die in the middle of chaotic fight scenes, where the protagonist can't stop to mourn. Sometimes the protagonist outright refuses to acknowledge the death at all, compartmentalising and denying just so they can keep pushing forwards, leaving the reader to deal with crumbs and implications. Or sometimes the death is one of many, a recognisable corpse sprinkled into a mass grave.

Death, in Wildbow's writing, is an impactful thing. It can be shocking and scary and change the course of history, even be tragic in a big-picture sense. But it's not personal. I don't mourn the character. The text doesn't give me time to mourn, when I move on to the next paragraph and the focus is on managing the immediate aftermath.

Gordon's death gets that space.

Part of it is the sheer build-up. It's made very clear to the reader that Gordon is going to die. It's almost ridiculous how often it's nailed in, repeatedly, over and over, that Gordon is going to die, and everyone who loves him knows it, and there's nothing they can do about it, his expiration date is first on the list and it's just a matter of when not if...

There's no shock involved with Gordon, just sadness. Sylvester and the Lambs have had time to come to terms with Gordon's death. Gordon's had time to wrestle with his mortality.

And when it comes, in a quiet room with no fights in sight, we get to see his death as the tragedy it is. A boy cut down before his prime even starts. We sit with him as he thinks about his last words, his last requests. We see his friends comfort him. His last breath circulates through the room as we linger -- there's movement, things to do, but we don't immediately rush off to the next scene. This is too important for that. He gets the best death a Wildbow character could hope for, and it ruins me.

And then his dog dies too.

Twig Liveblog for Arc 9

jesus christ what a brutal arc... it felt like the baron was cutting out MY eye!! i know gordon's death was pretty heavily foreshadowed but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt! the strongest lamb just snuffed out anticlimactically by a faulty organ 😭 the academy must pay!!!

the next chapter, in which lillian injects wyvern to numb the pain--mood--was one of my favorites so far. visceral and devastating. the line about how lillian feels closest to sy immediately after his wyvern does and how sy feels most distant from her after her dose was heartbreaking--especially after seeing just how drastically it can alter a personality. does sy have an identity outside of wyvern? would lillian still love that version of sy? what unspeakable cruelty to taunt this weapon-child with visions of what a normal life might be like as the drug leaves his system, and then to make him chemically crave his own subjugation. also, if there's one thing we know about consciousness-altering substances it's that after you imbibe them you never want to do it again.... and then the dog dies in the next chapter oh my fucking god wildbow what did i ever do to you (actually don't answer that).

on a cheerier note, i think i'm ready to declare my undying support for mauer. he's so cool and sexy. he could start boiling babies alive in the next arc and i'd still defend him sorry not sorry. when they blew the duke's fucking brains out i was whooping with the rest of the mauerists. it's quite un-wildbowian, i found myself thinking, to make a religious leader so sympathetic (though the extent to which his religious veneer is just a ploy to get more people on his side is a little ambiguous), as religiosity, when it does come up in parahumans, is treated as fundamentally reactionary (the fallen being the primary example). there's also that little aside from one of the soldiers about how "safe to pray" now that the crown and academy have been repelled. i'm not quite sure what to make of it, and it's further complicated by the interlude.

the interlude, indeed, helped to clarify my thoughts about the primordials. unlike other experiments, which are either clones, edits of preexisting life, or frankenstein reanimations, the primordials are entirely new forms of life. they represent a counterpoint to the crown's attempt to create something "beyond" humanity through advanced science. and because they are truly new, they constitute a legitimate threat to the status quo: this is why they enthrall mauer, and why they terrify the crown. mauer literally chaining up a "god" of his own creation (who loathes him) to serve his own ends is, let's say, a little on the nose.

the twins were cool but the fight went on way too long. idk why getting married to the baron is treated like a fate worse than death... like girl i know tons of people who would kill to be in that position... anyway i saw arc 10 is like over 20 chapters long so it might be a while till the next one of these lol. the classic wildbow frogboil!!

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An excellent contribution. Your Worm deadline has been pushed back two weeks.

reaching out to wormblr from behind my prison bars. hand against the glass. i swear to god I’m going to finish the book i am just experiencing the horrors (full time student + work + night classes soon)

here is skitter on my office whiteboard as compensation

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Here's how Gregor can still win

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I’m curious, when did the shift from “oh I like this victoria character” to “she is the love of my life” happen for you? Was it right from the get-go reading worm/start of ward or did it happen further down the line?

Nah, I wouldn't say I was really a Vic fan pre-Ward. I definitely recall thinking she was just Emma 2.0 until around 2014ish.

I was pretty ambivalent on her until around a year or two before Ward, when I realized that not only were there a lot of bad takes of her character from people who misremembered her parts in Worm, but also that some people were just being... gross about her. In a very sexist/misogynistic way.

I remember one time pointing out that Glory Girl in Worm was, based purely on her actions that we see, not nearly as bad as Skitter and getting people absolutely pissed at me. Was kind of funny when a lot of their criticisms of her came from Fanfic and I simply asked them to "cite it" lol.

It was only around arc 2 of Ward, where Victoria is taking care of sick children and hugging dying people that I realized this would be my favorite Wildbow Character.

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RESIST BIG YAOI. #GREGORSWEEP

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Gregor started this sweep by dominating a three-person round. In the semi-finals, he defeated the Armsmaster-Accord mashup. He is the undisputed champion of winning the 1-vs-2 matchup.

And I believe, in my heart of sexy hearts, that he can do it again.

MISS TUMBLR SEXYMAN 2023: WORM EDITION

featuring art by @senviva