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worryinglyinnocent · 5 years ago

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Fic: Time in our Hands (3/?)

Summary: Temporal Detective First Class Aiden Gold has been working tirelessly to keep the timeline unaltered for as long as he can remember. He’s been chasing time bandit Lacey French for almost as long, but she always seems to slip through his fingers.

Until the day when his commanding officer tells him to bring Lacey in at all costs. The world itself is under threat, and Gold will need Lacey’s expertise to make sure that history happens as it should, and to prevent a catastrophe in the future…

Written for the A Monthly Rumbelling moodboard prompt, available here.

Rated: T

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[One] [Two] [AO3]

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Time in our Hands

Three

“Here. You look like you could use it."

"Yeah, well, it's not every day that you're going about your normal banditry business and then half an hour later you're being told you're off to the place you've always dreamed of visiting and by the way can you stop the end of the world whilst you're at it."

Lacey accepted the paper cup of coffee and took a sip, watching Gold as he sat down beside her. After seeing Kida, they'd gone straight back to the capsule bay, making ready to leave as soon as control let them know that their window was open.

"I don't suppose you've got something stronger?" Lacey asked.

Gold chuckled. "If we both get through this hairy adventure, I'll break out the good Scotch in my desk drawer."

Lacey toasted her coffee cup against his. "I'm holding you to that, you know."

"I wouldn't dream of anything else."

It was strange, sitting beside the woman who'd given him so much grief over the years. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that he ought to be rejoicing in finally having caught up with her after all this time, but he could feel no pleasure in it whatsoever, not when the circumstances were as they were.

Lacey leaned back against the wall, staring at the transport capsule that was now showing as fully charged and ready for another outing.

“What’s it like?” she asked presently.

“What’s what like?”

“Atlantis.”

Gold shrugged. “I’ve never been. When a place is time-locked, even we can’t go to it except in extenuating circumstances.”

“Huh.” Lacey’s smile was amused. “That surprises me. You always give the impression that you’ve been everywhere and know everything. I mean, sometimes you blend into the time period better than others, but none of us are complete chameleons. I guess I just thought that you guys get a free pass to go everywhere.”

“Not everywhere. We generally only go to the places that you lot go to. Since, theoretically, none of you should be going to Atlantis in the first place, I’ve never had reason to follow anyone there.”

He continued to watch her, trying to gauge what she was thinking, but if there was a person Gold had always considered unreadable, it was Lacey French. They’d met so many times over the course of the years that he liked to think he knew her, but in reality, she was still an enigma, and even though they were about to enter into this adventure together, he still didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her.

Still, as she had said before, a gesture of good will was in order, especially considering the place they were going to, and more importantly the time to which they were going. A distinct disadvantage to any mission to a time-locked time and place was that there was so little first-hand information from fellow agents about the local conditions. The Fall of Atlantis was not well-documented, and Kida had not yet recovered from her time lag to be able to give them any warnings about what they might face from her own experience. It was definitely going to be hairy, and despite her occupation and her wanted poster on the wall, Lacey was a civilian with no formal training in these matters. Gold absolutely did not want her to get hurt, or worse, on his watch; and that desire had nothing to do with wanting to see her brought to justice once it was all over.

“Give me your hand.”

Lacey looked down at his own hand as if he was offering her some kind of poisonous snake. “Why?”

“I’m going to take the cuff off.”

Lacey gave a huff of laughter and covered it with an awkward cough before giving him an incredulous look.

“Are you absolutely sure about that, Detective? I am, after all, a wanted criminal, however small fry I might be in the grander scheme of things, and as you said yourself on the journey back from Greece, I am under arrest.”

“Just let me take it off.”

Obediently, she held out her arm and Gold grabbed his keys.

“How do you know that I’m not just going to wink straight out of here?” she asked.

“I don’t. But I like to think that you care about the timeline enough not to want an alternate one to spring up out of Atlantis, so I think you’ll come along and close the time loop anyway. Besides, you just admitted that you’ve always wanted to see Atlantis, and this is the only way that you’re going to get there.”

There was also the fact that small personal transports like Lacey’s didn’t really work inside the headquarters building thanks to the interference of the much larger craft coming and going, but if she was really determined, she could make it out without causing utter catastrophe. And, of course, there was no telling what she might do once they’d got to Atlantis.

The cuff came off and Gold pocketed it. Lacey flexed her wrist, looking at the lights which had now burst back into life on her bracelet. They were flashing all colours of the rainbow and Lacey grimaced.

“Couldn’t jump even if I wanted to. It’s been glitching for a while. Probably ever since the time loop became known.” She paused. “There’s something else, though, isn’t there?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you could have just as easily left the cuff on and then you wouldn’t have to worry about it. I know it’s more than just a gesture of trust, because we haven’t known each other long enough for that and considering the amount of times we’ve played cat and mouse, frankly, you’d be stupid to just blindly trust me like that as a show of friendship and camaraderie. No, there’s something else.”

Gold took out his pocket-watch. He really didn’t want to think about how it had ended up in Kida’s hands for her to come back to headquarters with it, but he knew that whatever it was that caused the change in ownership was about to happen very soon in his own personal future.

“All agents have one of these,” he says. “An emergency time-out that will pull you back to the nominal present no matter where or when you are. You don’t have one, so whatever goes on out there, you have no fallback except that.” He tapped her bracelet, which beeped in protest. “I want to make sure that no matter what happens, you can get out of Atlantis should you need to.”

Lacey looked down at his hand on her wrist, and Gold realised that he had been holding on without meaning to, quickly letting her go as if he’d been stung. Lacey just gave her soft little laugh again and smiled.

“You know, I think you’re a big softie on the inside, Detective. For all you play the hardened time cop who’s had it up to here with me, I think a small part of you really cares.”

“It’s nothing like that.” Gold felt himself bristle as Lacey’s words wriggled their way under his carefully constructed armour and began to prod at the delicate bits of him. “I just don’t want to have a preventable time-related demise on my hands. The paperwork would take me until the end of time to process. Literally.”

“All right. I believe you.” It was clear from her tone of voice that she didn’t believe him in the slightest, but Gold wasn’t prepared to argue the point yet.

Before anything further could be said on the matter, the radio in Gold’s capsule crackled into life.

“Detective Gold, your window to Atlantis will be opening in ten real-time minutes. Please confirm your readiness.”

Gold stood up, offering a hand to Lacey to pull her up. “We’re on.”

Lacey took the offered hand and gave him a little curtsey once she was vertical again. “Thank you, sir.”

They made their way back into the capsule together and Gold sat down at the control panel.

“You might want to strap in,” he said, indicating the seat beside him as he fastened his own harness. “Navigating through time windows can be tricky. It’s not like your normal simple hop from A to B.”

“I thought you said you’d never been to a time-locked place and time before.”

“I’ve never been to Atlantis before, but it’s not the only time-locked place and time. I’ve done two previous ones.”

“Oh yes? And where might they have been?”

Gold chuckled. “Ah, now, that’s classified information. If you don’t know where the time-locked parts of history are, then I’m not going to be the one to tell you.”

Lacey just scowled at him, but nonetheless strapped herself into her seat, watching with fascination as he programmed the capsule ready for their departure.

“Control, this is Detective Gold. We’re clear to go whenever you are.”

“Detective Gold, your time window will last for twenty-four real-time hours and starts in five, four, three, two, one.”

Gold hit the ignition, and the little craft whirred up into life. He settled his hands on the steering column, flexing his fingers. It was a while since he’d had to drive manually. Normally all you had to do was key in your time and your co-ordinates and the capsule did the rest. He’d be able to relax for a little while once they were safely into the window; it would take about half an hour to pass through it and then he’d have to take control once again for landing in Atlantis.

He really wasn’t looking forward to that part all that much. In order to keep the time loop as stable as possible, they were going back to as close a time as the emergency time-out had been used as they could, and they would land right in the middle of the Fall period. With Atlantis being time-locked as it was, there was very little information about precisely what had caused its destruction beyond ‘a very big wave’. That could mean next to anything.

Lacey remained silent as he concentrated on driving, but he could tell that she was entranced by the entire process. He wondered if she’d ever had any experience of capsule travel before he’d picked her up in Greece or if she’d always worked with just her bracelet. There was so little he knew about her, despite having known her for such a long time. With just the two of them like this, it felt like it ought to be the perfect time to ask, but at the same time, the magnitude of what they were about to do made it seem like small talk would be frivolous in the face of it.

Making it safely into the window, he sat back from the controls, rubbing his forehead. Ideally he would have liked a bit more time to prepare for this mission. Not only were they closing a time loop, they were potentially saving the world, and he had no idea how they were supposed to go about it. All he could do was hope that Kida would be able to tell them when they found her on their arrival. Of course, that might be easier said than done, as it would be the first time that they were meeting Kida. She would be as unprepared for them as they were for her.

Gold glanced over at Lacey, who was still watching all the instruments and control panels in the capsule. Although she had always exuded an air of confidence, even after he had brought her into HQ and she had met Mal, now she looked nervous.

“It’ll be all right,” he said. “The Bureau’s handled worse scrapes than this. Like Mal said, we’ve successfully closed every time loop we’ve ever come across throughout the entire timeline.”

Lacey shook her head. “That’s not what I’m worried about.”

She didn’t elaborate as to what she was worried about instead, and Gold felt it best not to pry. There was already enough to be concerned about.

The rest of the journey was spent mostly in silence, each of the travellers lost in their own thoughts about what was to come.

#rumbelle fic #golden lace #Mr Gold #Lacey French #rumbelle #Fic: Time in our Hands

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journeysintowebcomics · 6 years ago

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Worm Liveblog #95

UPDATE 95: Moles

Last time Skitter argued with Tattletale and Regent about how going behind her back to control an enemy, even if he’s going to be useful, is wrong. Lack of communication is bad! And afterwards, Taylor visited Brian, giving him support. He was traumatized by everything Bonesaw did to him. After that interlude ended in an unusually positive note, it’s time to continue with the story. Back to the usual doom and gloom, hah! Onwards!

Sundancer had once described her life in costume as intense, violent and lonely. I’d had a hard time understanding the last point. That had been about the same time that I had been riding the high of having friends for the first time, after a couple of years spent in almost total solitude.

Maybe, if the subject had come up again in recent weeks, I might have understood, nodding my head in sympathy.

Huh. I don’t know, I thought that was kind of a given. Life in costume immediately brings to mind the words ‘intense’ and ‘violent’. I suppose Taylor had a rather romantic opinion of how life as a superhero was like.

This makes her think how, in a manner that makes her feel bad but is also completely true, parahumans are above everyone else. It’s all thanks to how they have possibilities almost nobody else has, and that also leads to parahumans isolating themselves in some manner. Boy is that ever true! Dad Hebert, for example, he sure has heard nothing from Taylor in a long while. Putting barriers between themselves and others indeed!

I couldn’t think of two capes who were in a committed relationship where there wasn’t some degree of fucked-up-ness. Night and Fog were, if I’d understood Tattletale right, essentially functional sociopaths. They’d acted out the role of a married couple with none of the affection or fondness. Victor and Othala were screwed up in a different way, burdened by a shared event in their past. Brandish and Flashbang? If their kids were any indication… yeah. Fucked up.

Can’t say I disagree. Not sure how well that fits Night and Fog given we haven’t really seen much from them in their relationship, so I can’t really comment on that, but the others seem about right. Victor and Othala are together due to their circumstances, and although they do seem to love each other, who knows if they’d have gotten together if things had been different. Brandish and Flashbang, well, we all know what happened to their daughters! Messed up, definitely, although that’s more because of Brandish’s behavior – or at least that’s what was shown. Maybe Flashbang also had more of a hand in that than you’d think, but I we don’t know. I only know what’s told in the story.

It seems Skitter is kind of afraid things will end badly for Grue and her. So far, the track record of relationships between parahumans going for long without someone dying is...not good. There are several examples already. I don’t know, Skitter kind of has 0% chances of dying due to her status as the protagonist, and I think if Grue was meant to die, it’d have happened during the Slaughterhouse Nine arc. He was in enough danger back then and ended more powerful than before, leaving aside the very obvious trauma. I can’t imagine he being in a situation like that again.

There’s a lot of fuzzy feelings here. It still is unusual to see them in Worm.

I felt warm in the core of my chest. That wasn’t just the morning light streaming in through the windows.

Not happy, exactly. I didn’t feel like I deserved to be happy, not with the responsibilities I wasn’t attending to right now, not with the mistakes I’d made and the people I’d failed.

You know, all I hope for Taylor is that someday she feels she deserves to be happy. She’s taking a lot onto her shoulders, that can’t be good for her. That’s the one thing I hope to see in the end, for her.

The happy rationalizations end and Skitter stands up, and soon she’s on the phone with Tattletale. Oho, is it plot time?

R is done. Bird in the pen 4 now. C wants a meeting neways. Get G I and come 4 11am?

Won’t lie, it actually took me a moment to figure out what this says. Let’s see...Regenr is done. That should mean Victor has been brought into the team as temporal support, one way or another. Not really sure what the Bird in the pent 4 now part. It possibly is about Victor being in, buuuut I’m not sure. Coil wants a meeting, and Grue, Imp and Skitter should go at 11:00 AM. All in all, it doesn’t sound like there’s been any trouble yet – unless Coil suspects something’s wrong and that’s why he wants a meeting!

...that’s a possibility, isn’t it? Coil isn’t stupid at all, maybe he does suspect something is afoot.

I hope Brian rested for once, because it’s time to go back into the hectic events going on. It’s meeting time. Taylor finds out Aisha arrived last night and cleaned up, when they encounter Aisha thanks Taylor for her help. You know, this went smoothly, way more than I expected. For once it feels like things are going according to plan.

“Thanks for cleaning up,” I said, quiet. I could remember her reaction the last time I’d been talking to Brian, and added, “And for not getting upset.”

“I can’t help him, don’t know how. So I’m putting it in your hands.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t thank me. If you screw this up, I can and will make your life a living hell.”

Looks like Aisha is resigned about her brother’s relationship because it’s for his sake. Good for her. Not surprising she threatens Taylor, hm...overall I think there’s not much risk about Taylor screwing up unless Brian and Taylor’s opinions directly clash, but at this point they should know how to ensure that won’t be a big deal. Right? I sure hope so, at least!

I thought Taylor would roll with the punches, but nope! She doesn’t. Instead she has objections, saying it’s likely she’ll screw up at some point. I don’t think that’s what Aisha wants to hear at all!

Apparently since Aisha got her power, she’s had a lot of practice in how to ruin a life and make someone go crazy. It’s all pretty clever, in a horrifying way. First she starts with a somewhat inoffensive attack, like moving stuff and making the person think their memory is fooling them. It gets more serious, misplacing very important objects. Small injuries is the next step, and then when they run away, Aisha strikes again after a while, worse than before, until her target wants to get away no matter what. That’s when they leave, once Aisha tells them that’s the way everything will be over.

And Taylor won’t get to have that respite. Well, kind of missing the point when you tell her that’s what you’d do, Aisha! Hah! But yeah, her point is that she’d look for a way to make Taylor’s life a living hell.

“I asked Coil’s lieutenant for some. He asked me how many gallons I wanted. How weird is that? I mean, seriously, who needs gallons of blood? Or maybe I could use it. Paint someone’s house, see if I can’t freak them out hardcore,” Aisha smiled wickedly.

Nothing says harassment like turning someone’s house into a biological hazard.

Brian woke up just in time to hear the end of Aisha’s recitation, inquiring what she was talking about. Taylor dismisses it all as Aisha being protective, which is pretty accurate, all things considered. While I don’t doubt Aisha means every word and would actually try to make Taylor’s life hell, I don’t think this is as big of a threat as it sounds at first. Taylor would have her ways of countering all that, somehow.

Brian and Taylor are alone again, time to be a bit awkward around each other!

I didn’t know what to do with myself. We had taken a step forward, but I didn’t exactly have any experience on this front. What was I supposed to do? What did I say? I wanted to hug him, to hold his hand or raise the idea of spending time together later, but I didn’t know what was allowed, or what would be pushing boundaries or taking things too far.

You know what’s the solution to that?

Asking. Preferably when there’s not a meeting with Coil looming in the very near future. Perhaps she could ask some time afterwards?

A bit more of fretting happens, Taylor is hoping Brian will put his arm around her – ahaha, she’s being like a normal teenage girl! How rare nowadays! -- and the romantic moment is over when Brian brings up business. Oh well. Next time, Taylor, it’ll be next time.

So, about Coil. What’s Plan A?

“I whip my territory into shape, Coil decides that it’s more valuable to keep me in his service. The idea is that he values my ability to keep an area stable more than he values having Dinah. He lets her go.”

Pretty unlikely. Coil already made pretty clear he doesn’t intend to let Dinah go. He’s not going to keep Skitter around at all. Despite how unlikely this is, Skitter still thinks it’s worth a try. Not holding my breath for that one!

“Think about what it would mean in terms of security leaks. If he let Dinah go home to her family, she wouldn’t be able to return to her normal life. If Coil was dumb enough to let her go with no safeguards and without people to watch her, then the heroes would swoop in on her and use her to get him.”

I nodded, glum.

I hadn’t considered any of that, I admit. This makes Plan A go down from pretty unlikely to pretty much impossible. Coil wouldn’t take a risk like this one no matter what.

Some of the dialogue in this part is nothing I haven’t read already – stuff about how Coil may think she’s expendable, and about how Skitter wants to keep working for her territory’s benefit. The one thing that seems to be new is that it was a bad idea to make that deal with Coil, the one about letting Dinah go if Skitter proved to be worth it. It indicated Coil Skitter had issues with his plans. Grue is right, that may have been a bad decision. Once another reason to strike at Coil and win: if they don’t, he may take measures against Skitter.

“Fair. What’s your plan B?”

“Plan B… well, it’s not so much a plan as a fallback. If I get found out before we make any headway, it means fighting Coil and his underlings.”

It’s Plan B time, because it’s time to strike. Again, the only chance they have is that Dinah is out of commission. They’ll have to fight, and right now his underlings and Coil’s power are big obstacles. Of those, Coil’s power is the one I’m not very sure how to counter...

They’re supposing Coil will back up Travelers and Circus, the perspective of their future fighting is daunting. It’s so daunting Taylor apologizes for this discussion, and offers to talk of something else, for Brian’s sake. She doesn’t want him being under a lot of stress. Oh, Taylor, he’ll be under a lot of stress in no time. There’s no time to rest in Worm! Just you watch, before this chapter ends Coil will crash through that wall over there, ready to use his power over alternate timelines.

Apparently Taylor is kind of disappointed nothing feels different even if Brian and her have kind of...gone deeper into their relationship now. It doesn’t seem like they’re acting different and she was kind of expecting some noticeable change.

I had to admit to being a little disappointed with the way the morning was unfolding. Part of that was with myself, not knowing how to act, but part of it was with the lack of romance. Rationally, I knew that the movies, TV, books and all that, they didn’t paint a realistic picture. I knew that we wouldn’t instantaneously click, that everything would be fixed.

Oh, there’ll be plenty of time for that kind of stuff once Worm is over. I mean, chances are once the story ends things won’t be as hectic for them anymore. There’ll be plenty of time for cuddling and getting sappy, hah!

Well then, since they’re all awake and it’s time for a meeting with Coil, the three go to Coil’s headquarters. It has changed a lot since the last time Skitter visited it – or more like since the last time Skitter described it. Before it was under construction. Now it’s finished, or almost finished. Say, once they defeat Coil, perhaps the Undersiders could claim this lair? It’s a good idea, isn’t it?

I glanced at one map; our territory had expanded somewhat. Or maybe it was better to say that the pockets of enemy forces that had lurked at the edges of our territory were collapsing.

If that’s true then the heroes must be pretty alert and ready to counter the Undersiders. For the main characters here, the progress they’re making is both a blessing and a curse.

Apparently they arrived early. The Travelers are here. Hey, Travelers, you wanna commit some mutiny? Hah! Yeah, it’s unlikely they’ll tell them anything, but it sure would be nice if they could count with the Travelers. Too bad the Undersiders can’t offer them whatever Coil did.

Whatever Tattletale went to talk with them isn’t going well, and is delicate enough for it to stay secret for a while, or at least until Coil isn’t nearby.

“Uh huh. You know, for someone who calls herself Tattletale, you’re way too fond of keeping secrets.”

Haha, that’s a good one! Gold star for Skitter. Tattletale doesn’t think it’s funny, because whatever she’s hiding right now is something she doesn’t like, I think. She just said some secrets aren’t so fun to keep. What could the Travelers have told her? Perhaps she did try to get them on the Undersiders’ side, so they’re not caught in the crossfire against Coil?

It’s meeting time. From what I’m reading here, it’s some sort of status meeting, where everyone will inform how their progress with their territories is going. Nice, I like hearing about what other characters have been doing offscreen. How do others handle their territories? How much trouble do they have? Is there anyone who has managed to earn the respect of the people living in their territory, whether it’s out of fear or not?

“Putting me on the spot, huh?” Trickster asked. “Dunno. Nobody’s doing business in my neighborhood, and there aren’t any crooks there that the public knows about, but Purity and her people are still hanging around, and I’m waiting on my teammates to wrap up their stuff so they can lend me a hand.”

Doesn’t sound like he’s doing much. Kind of disappointing, I thought that, as the leader of the Travelers, he’d have done something, no matter if it was good or bad. Maybe he just isn’t very interested in his territory.

“Good. Sundancer?”

Sundancer had the posture of someone who’d desperately hoped to avoid being called on in class. “I don’t know. I’ve been working with the maps Tattletale provided me, but I’m not good at this. I burn them out of whatever place they’re holed up in, they run, then half the time it’s like they settle somewhere else that’s nearby.”

Sundancer hasn’t made much progress either. Hm. It has been two so far yet this feels more...mundane than I expected. I don’t know what I expected but it wasn’t this. Oh well.

The problem with Sundancer is that she’s being too soft with those who invade her territory, and that’s not surprising. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone too badly, and that extends to her enemies. Because of her power, she has to pull her punches a lot, doesn’t she? And the enemies sense that, they don’t take her very seriously. Taking that into account I can only guess Ballistic hasn’t done much with his territory either, because he has the same opinions than Sundancer, if I remember correctly.

“Genesis?” Coil asked.

“Mostly clear,” Genesis replied, leaning forward and putting her elbows on the table, “Not sure how to get anything going in the way of operations. It’s not exactly heavily populated territory.”

Ah, nice! I bet her versatility contributed to driving out the enemy factions. It’s not a heavily populated area, so it’s not like she can do much in terms of rebuilding, apparently. I suppose Genesis’ territory isn’t priority in any way, it doesn’t sound like anything vital for anyone.

Turns out Ballistic managed to do some good job too. There’s only two other parahumans hanging around, both of which I recognize just from the descriptions:

Got that girl from Dolltown who’s pretty insistent on holding onto her neighborhood, even if pretty much everyone that lived there is dead, now.

That’s pretty depressing. I feel bad for Parian, everything she was trying to protect is gone, and it wasn’t her fault in any way. She just had the bad luck of being an easy target for the Slaughterhouse Nine. I guess she can’t let go, because she’s still over there. Seriously, she got a very bad hand...

“There’s a kid from the old Merchants group. Has powers. Going to try to scare off the Doll girl and recruit the Merchant kid.”

It took me a moment to remember who it may be. Scrub, was that the name? He’s the only Merchant parahuman that’s left, I think. Or at least I don’t remember he dying. I could be misremembering, though.

Ah, it really was Scrub. Okay, carry on!

Since Parian was going to be dealt with – as if the poor girl didn’t have enough problems already – Skitter wants to come along, and she’s told she can’t because Coil has a request for her. That’s bound to be troublesome! Now it’s time to see if Coil suspects Skitter and the rest of the Undersiders are getting ready to backstab him with prejudice.

Nevermind, that’ll be for later. It’s still time for status reports. The Undersiders’ turns.

“Been busy helping everyone else out,” Tattletale admitted. “Like Trickster, I guess, I’m waiting for others to finish what they’re doing. I’m pretty solid for business, though. Bringing in more cash than I’m spending.”

Nice! Excellent job actually making a profit, I don’t think any territory has managed to do that. Even if Tattletale hasn’t claimed the entirety of her territory – I think, that’s what this sounds like – she has been a busy bee. It must all be thanks to her power, I bet. It must be pretty useful when it’s about finding trouble and solving problems.

“The big one is reclaiming items and homes. I offer goodies to any people from the shelter willing to band together and scare them off, anything too difficult, I use the mercenaries you provided. Coil’s hooked me up with some banking services so we can actually make the transactions. People don’t have a lot of use for money with the way things are right now, and they do have stuff that they value. Figure a few hundred to a thousand dollars per job, three or four jobs a day, and they’re sort of doing my work for us, dealing with the gang members.”

I’m not very sure I’m interpreting correctly what Tattletale’s saying here, but I’ll try nonetheless. Hmmmm...so, she’s using the habitants of her territory to drive out the enemies that aren’t too troublesome. Those that are too difficult – the parahumans, I’d say – are driven out by the mercenaries. Those habitants receive goodies as their reward. I guess the act of taking back the houses and stuff is more profitable than I thought it’d be.

Grue hesitates about answering because, as we all know, he hasn’t really been able to do much, due to his current mental state. Luckily, Imp has done a lot of work, and she can inform Coil they’re 75% done. Nothing they can’t deal with in the future, if their track record so far is any indication.

“Excellent. Regent?”

“About the same. Nobody wants to cross Shatterbird, but lots of people keep popping up, moving in because they’re oblivious that she’s there. With no radio or TV, they’re clueless.”

Kind of surprising word of mouth hasn’t led to everyone knowing Shatterbird is still around. You’d think that was the kind of thing everyone who sees her would talk about, but I guess it didn’t, haha. It shouldn’t be too difficult to make it obvious she’s still around. She’s quite distinctive and her powers are well known.

“Bitch?”

“Nobody left in my territory.”

“No threats?”

“Nobody.”

Heckpuppy is terrifying, and she had no interest in having anyone’s interest in mind but her own. All Coil can do is offer her a territory on the outskirts where nobody will bother her. I suppose having an area in the city where the only resident is Heckpuppy is of no help to him, but I don’t think taking Heckpuppy out of there will help much. People will be terrified about moving in where she once was, haha

It’s finally Skitter’s turn to give her report, and it’s just what we all knew: no threats, no enemies dare to get in, and she’s protecting everyone personally – when she has time for that, hm? She has complained in her narration many times how she can’t do it as often as she wishes she could. Overall it’s nothing we didn’t know already. I wonder if the favor Coil will ask is related to her territory.

Ah, Coil is impressed! That’s a feat.

So, mayoral elections are coming pretty soon, and Coil wants to have taken over the city before that happens. As someone said before, a couple of Coil’s agents are candidates. Having the city under control will be favorable, and to ensure things continue being good for them, Coil wants to send a few of the villains here to ensure the discussions about condemning Brockton Bay turn in favor of Coil and the city. Oh boy.

Skitter really wants to help Parian, adding one person more to her very long list of people she wants to help – golly, Skitter, stop adding more and more people to that! Coil approves, and Ballistic seems kind of upset he won’t get to scare Parian away. Well then! One thing more for the future arcs.

You know, with everything there’s to be done, I’m not sure where the plan to defeat Coil will fit. They’re getting their schedules filled with stuff.

The meeting is over, everyone disperses. This is when Tattletale approaches Skitter to talk to her about some very important matters:

“One piece of good news, two pieces of bad news and one spot of catastrophic news. The good news is that Coil is impressed with you, Skitter.”

Impressed enough to not want to throw Skitter out like yesterday’s trash?

Apparently not. In fact, things seem to have gotten worse.

“But something tells me we’ve got a major snag. I’d say odds are pretty fucking good that he’s on to us.”

Well then! Everything got a lot harder now. Not surprising, hah! While Tattletale isn’t entirely positive yet, she’s sure enough to think informing Skitter is necessary. It’s good to have confirmation things are as bad as they feared they could be.

“Not positive, but pretty damn sure. And I’d say there’s a fifty-fifty chance one of ours informed him of our aims.”

“A member of the Undersiders?” Grue asked.

“That, or he’s got our places bugged. But I didn’t get the sense that anyone who built the place or brought our stuff in knew about any electronic bugging. Like I said, fifty-fifty chance.”

I’m finding hard to believe anyone in the Undersiders is betraying the rest and telling Coil about these plans. After Skitter’s betrayal, I don’t think anyone would think of being a traitor. I’m inclined towards thinking the place is bugged – they did raise it was possible Coil bugged their phones. Bugging the hideouts wouldn’t be too difficult.

It’s possible the request Coil has for Skitter is a test of loyalty. If she refuses or doesn’t go, then she’s disloyal and shall be eliminated. Well, not that going will be good for her, because...

I’m positive he’s asking you to go on that errand with Genesis and Trickster because he’s planning on eliminating you

Possibly. Those two are the only options. None of the Undersiders would ever attack Skitter because Coil tells them to, and Ballistic and Sundancer have qualms about killing. By process of elimination, that leaves Genesis and Trickster as those who’d “deal” with her.

The thing is, among them, Genesis is the one who can do anything. Trickster’s powers and skills aren’t useful when it’s about defeating Skitter. Genesis has better chances, thanks to her versatility and how it makes it very difficult to know what she’ll do – the sky’s the limit when it’s about what Genesis can do.

Oh well. I doubt she’s going, anyway. All that may not matter. It depends on how soon they’ll do their move against Coil.

That’s the end of the chapter, but I think I’ll read the next too.

The next chapter starts with Regent stepping out of the cell with Victor in tow. Looks like Victor isn’t cooperating out of his own free will, Regent has taken over him and is now trying to get used to the new body he’s manipulating. While it moves well, it seems Victor’s power isn’t working well through Regent’s own power. Ssssso does that mean he has some access to Victor’s power, just that they’re not as strong as they could be? Perhaps Victor is resisting Regent, like he warned he would?

Oh, Skitter is going with Trickster and Genesis like Coil requested. Well then. I’m still not convinced she’s leaving. If I had to guess, Coil is trying to get Skitter away for the length of time Dinah is out of commission because that’s the window of opportunity.

“Sure.” Grue extended a hand and smothered Victor in darkness. A second later, he said, “I’m getting something. Anyone here speak another language? Sug puppene til horemammaen din?”

Protip: don’t translate that in a workplace environment. That’s kind of difficult to explain to onlookers. Anyway, Grue is gaining the ability to speak a language, thanks to Victor. That’s going to be useful if he has to be crass at a foreigner. Doesn’t seem like Grue can choose what to steal, so in an attempt to redirect the absorbing darkness to take something more useful, Tattletale encourages Regent to make Victor use martial arts. That’d be better!

Grue feels guilty because this is kinda like cheating. He’s proud of achieving what he can through training, not through stealing abilities. Not that they’ll stop their current plan. Since apparently Victor wasn’t bluffing when he said he could resist Regent somewhat, Tattletale suggests drugging Victor a bit, see if that makes this all easier, and this makes Skitter think of Dinah because it’s technically what Coil is doing to her. Thankfully, Skitter isn’t upset things took this direction, because she has other things to stew about.

I had to wonder why? I was arguably doing the best among his underlings. Why was it so hard for him to simply let Dinah go, maybe take countermeasures to ensure she didn’t betray him, and leave things alone?

I’m not sure how Skitter hasn’t understood yet just how useful Dinah is to him. Of course he’s not going to let her go so easily. Come on, Skitter, you know this already.

Since this gives Tattletale and Skitter an excuse to walk away and continue discussing some ugly possibilities – such as a mole in the team – they go away, stumbling upon some of Coil’s soldiers.

“What’s with the soldiers?” I asked. “He’s got, what, fifty or sixty here?”

“A little under that, but some are elsewhere.”

This makes them wonder why Coil needs those soldiers in the first place, since he isn’t using them much. If I had to guess, they’re forces that’ll do menial job for him and other parahumans. It’s not like Coil doesn’t have loads of money, he has more than enough to keep them on payroll and I’m sure he makes even more money every time.

Anyway, about moles. Since Coil may have one in the Undersiders, then they should get a mole in Coil’s forces. This makes them consider Ballistic as a possible mole, and that’d be a good possibility if it wasn’t because Skitter annoyed him not long ago. Whooops. Her altruism comes to bite her on her rear – once again. The entirety of Skitter’s experiences in Worm can be defined in those few words:

‘Her altruism comes to bite her on her rear’

Anyway, how about some words regarding the murder attempt Coil may or may not be planning? Turns out Coil wants it as soon as possible, in Tattletale’s opinion. It may be during Skitter’s task. Makes sense to me.

“It’s one of those things where everything clicks into place perfectly if we acknowledge this one fact: he wants to kill you. For example, he has more reasons to send Imp than to send Trickster.”

“How’s that work?”

“I’ve already filled Imp in on this, but Coil’s concerned about Grue’s emotional state and what it means for our team as a whole.”

I nodded. Which means he wants to remove Imp from the picture to see how Grue handles himself.

I doubt Coil is concerned about Grue because he feels bad for him or anything, he just wants to know if Grue will be an effective underling. Boy, if Skitter dies he’ll be crushed. Coil will be losing two underlings in one move. Not that he cares, I’d say.

Apparently the Undersiders were planning to make Skitter the team leader since Grue wasn’t in condition to do it. Okay, that’d be great! Like Tattletale is saying right now, Skitter thinks tactically, that’s useful. Skitter doesn’t take the leadership immediately, though, instead she asks Tattletale why she doesn’t take the role because she can identify the enemy weaknesses.

If I had to choose between Tattletale and Skitter as the leader, I’d definitely choose Skitter. Just saying. Oh well. None of this matters if Skitter dies. For now, better focus on the present instead of thinking too far into the future, because the potential murder attempt is coming tonight. Good luck, Skitter.

Ballistic is here and he’s angry, and the surprising part is that it’s not only because Skitter is overstepping his boundaries. It’s because of his situation with the rest of the Travelers. They were never going to win any awards for team unity, but out of all of them, Ballistic is the most distant one.

For one thing, I don’t know if Coil seriously intends to offer any fix he does find. For another, Ballistic cares less about that than anyone else. Or maybe it would be better to say he almost doesn’t want to help with that because Trickster wants it so badly.

Ah, an opening! Too bad using it will tip the Undersiders’ hand. Oh well. At least maybe with this info they have an idea of his current mood. That has to be useful for something. No more time for discussing, because Ballistic arrives to their side and comments this little reunion seemed a conspiracy at work. Ayup, it is. Want to join?

To try to get on his good side, they tell him an Undersiders secret – that they’re thinking about replacing Grue as a leader. This only makes Ballistic get even more annoyed with them, because he takes this as them putting him in even more trouble by giving him compromising information. Everything the Undersiders have done since they arrived to the hideout is annoy Ballistic! At this rate he won’t accept to conspire with them.

“Tell me,” Ballistic said, as Tattletale strolled off, “Do you ever get past that point where you feel painfully uncomfortable around her?”

“Yeah,” I said. “You get over that with time.”

I can only imagine someone like Tattletale is tolerable when she’s on your side. If Skitter and Tattletale were on opposing sides, I bet Skitter would dread her a lot. Maybe even dislike her.

Seems to me like Ballistic is trying to dissuade Skitter from going with him to his territory and deal with Parian. He tries to get a clear explanation as to why she wants to do it, she’s...not honest? Or at least I don’t think she wants to go to get some inspiration of stuff she can do for her own territory.

I think what I’m going to paste here defines a lot about how others perceive Skitter’s way of dealing with her territory.

“If this city doesn’t get condemned, you’re going to have people moving into your district. Even after the city’s infrastructure is up and running again, those people are going to put pressure on you for certain things.”

“See, you’re approaching this like a medieval lord, managing her serfs and servants and I see this more as being a watchdog.”

I gestured toward the exit, and he sighed. We began making our way out of the base.

“Do you really want to limit yourself to being a watchdog?”

“When I’m making this much cash? When even the top guys in this town would run scared from me? Sure.” He held the door open for me.

“And that’s all it comes down to? Cash and being feared?”

I don’t think anyone outside of the Undersiders thinks Skitter is doing this because she cares about the residents of her territory. I suspect they’d all think she’s playing feudal lord with her turf. Coil may be the only one who believes Skitter’s intentions, and that’s because he knows she has strong moral opinions. Ballistic sure doesn’t believe her, or he flat out doesn’t care at all.

“Doesn’t seem worth it, working your ass off to make some people a little happier and more comfortable before the world ends.”

“You’re one of the people that’s fixated on that, huh?”

“The world’s gonna end. How can you shrug that off?”

Oh. Great. The end of the world is already affecting people. I knew some would care less about stuff once they knew the world was going to end, but this happened much faster than expected. Hard to work with someone who doesn’t care about anything. Skitter even realizes that. I don’t think this tentative plan about convincing Ballistic to be their mole is going to work.

I skimmed the next few paragraphs to have an idea what to expect, and I can already say Skitter is being pretty aggressive here. She sure isn’t going to draw Ballistic in with honey! At least she tried to throw in his face how he’s pretty upset about stuff when he shouldn’t care because of ‘the world is going to end’ logic. Ballistic gets all defensive, which I don’t think will be of much help here.

“Okay, first of all? I have a closer working relationship with the people in my territory than I do with any of the Travelers. If and when you get more people in your territory, you might find that’s the same with you, too. So I’m not sure I buy that coworker thing.”

“You’re talking apples and oranges. Capes and non-capes.”

“Fine.” He’d left an opening for me to target. “Then I’ll just point to your other ‘coworkers’. The other Travelers. There’s obvious friction. There’s resentment. Cherish said as much. So I don’t think you buy the coworker thing either.”

I won’t lie, I’m not very good at diplomacy. Maybe that’s why I don’t really see where Skitter intends to go with this. She’s using the information Tattletale gave her, yeah, but the way she’s doing it seems more like she’s trying to drive a wedge between Ballistic and the rest of the Travelers instead of trying to get him on the Undersiders’ side. If this fella here gets the impression Skitter is trying to sow discord, then this is all over. Crossing fingers Skitter isn’t making a mistake here!

“I’m curious what’s going on there, yeah. But I’m also trying to figure you out. As you said, we’re coworkers.”

Iiii’m not sure framing it as curiosity was the best idea. Kind of makes her sound like she’s asking for kicks and giggles. Maybe she should have said she was concerned or something.

“I’m not trying to get on your bad side,” I said. “Really. But I’ve dealt with some interesting personalities like Bitch, Regent and Imp for a little while now, and I know I won’t be able to communicate with you until I understand where you’re coming from. So I’m willing to go the extra mile to figure you out now so I can understand you in the future…”

That’s better. Maybe it’s because she just brought up her teammates, but Skitter starts thinking Ballistic is very similar to Heckpuppy. That would have never crossed my mind. Before this specific interaction, nothing about Ballistic was similar at all to Heckpuppy. This is the only time I can recall any kind of similarity. I get what Mr. Wildbow is trying to do here, but I still feel this is kind of out of left field.

Ballistic doesn’t know Skitter will die. Perhaps Genesis and Trickster will now only when they’re about to leave?

Seems to me Ballistic just got resigned to Skitter prodding and digging in his team’s personal business. Doesn’t look like he’ll be very forthcoming with information, it’s more like he’s getting tired of her questions. She’s trying to take an approach that’s making her sound like a confidant, he doesn’t want that.

Golly, I’m reading this and it’s like I’m grading Skitter’s diplomatic skills. I’m having fun, honestly! Mentioning she has talked to someone else in the Travelers...risky, but doesn’t seem to have raised any red flags.

At one point it feels like she reached a dead end, so she shuts up and they walk in silence. I once heard during an interrogation silence sometimes makes those you’re talking to start spilling the beans, and it seems it’s true here. Ballistic is the one who starts talking, without much prompting from Skitter. Jackpot!

“He took everything from us,” Ballistic said, breaking the silence.

“Trickster?”

“Trickster. When everything started falling apart, he stepped up to make the calls. Bad ones. And now the group is all we have left. No friends, no family, no home to go back to, no goals beyond fixing Trickster’s fuckups.”

So that’s why the group isn’t united at all. They all feel all they’re doing is try to fix Trickster’s mistakes. They’re possibly blaming him for everything and would like to be away with him if they could. Hmmmm...perhaps the reason why Noelle needs to be locked in that vault is because of something Trickster did? Like, I know it’s because of her powers, but maybe he’s responsible for her trigger event in some manner?

Nobody in the Travelers like Trickster. What they feel is more akin to respect, but nobody likes him. Who knows what the rest are thinking, and Ballistic isn’t interested in taking revenge against him for everything Trickster did.

No. I’m with the group for one reason. I stick with shit. Not going to turn on the guy. I agreed to this thing with Coil because I thought it’d be a way to get back some of what we’ve lost, maybe.

Alright, this settles it: he won’t betray them. Oh well. It was worth talking about. Skitter realizes too this won’t work, they stop talking until they reach Dolltown. Time to go search for Parian.

Skitter wants to make the first move, Ballistic doesn’t like that idea because then Skitter will take the credit.

“I get what you’re doing. You want to make us Travelers look bad. Get yourself a bigger slice of the pie somewhere down the road. More respect, more power, and you’re doing that by wedging yourself into everything, getting hyperinvolved. Gotta be in first place.”

Ooooh that’s unfortunate. He’s misinterpreting Skitter’s earnest wish to help her territory. Seriously, it’s like everything they have done in this chapter is annoy Ballistic.

Turns out this is doing more than just annoying him. He’s getting upset, precisely because of what I was afraid before: he thinks Skitter was trying to drive a wedge between him and the rest of the team. While it’s technically true, it’s not like she was trying to sow discord! But of course, that’s what it looks like, it’s understandable Ballistic would call her out for it. Things are going south here and that can’t be good at all.

This all leads to Ballistic declaring he’s not working together with Skitter in this. He’s going to do what he wants and he won’t let her get in the way. Parian better run away! Seeing how he meant business, Skitter agrees to step back, and instead uses her powers surreptitiously to look for Parian and guide her away from Ballistic. Ballistic isn’t going to like this at all once he hears about this.

There’s some people left despite everything, and they’re currently with Parian, running away from Ballistic. Dolltown itself has been attacked by several parahumans already and it’s rather noticeable. Golly, Parian can’t catch a break. Despite that, she’s at least willing to hear what Skitter has to say, even if she doesn’t trust in her not one iota.

Skitter’s offer is quite appealing: she’ll give Parian everything she needs to help the few people who are alive, and that people – people who were mangled by Bonesaw into decoys of the Slaughterhouse Nine – can receive professional medical help. In exchange, Parian just needs to join Skitter’s team—oh tell me she accepts! That’d be cool!

“No.”

Well that’s a bummer.

While they were talking, one of Parian’s followers approached Skitter, leaping towards her when Parian responded she didn’t want to accept. It’s not just any common person, though. It’s actually Flechette, and she’s ready to inflict some pain. Her power makes the arrows between her fingers pierce through Skitter’s costume. That’s impressive! Also, ouch.

“The lady said no,” Flechette told me, one hand holding me down, the other hand raised to strike me again.

Golly, I imagine Flechette is very upset someone’s trying to get Parian to join a team of villains. I can see how that’d be incredibly upsetting, and while I’m wincing in sympathy at Skitter’s pain – I mean, that must hurt a lot! – at the same time I can’t hold this against Flechette. Maybe Skitter wouldn’t have proposed this if she had known Flechette was here. Oh well.

This is where the chapter ends, so I think I’ll stop for now. It sure is taking me a long time to make Worm updates.

Next time: next update

#worm #worm liveblog #webserial #webserial liveblog #liveblog

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