#the slaughterhouse nine

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 14 thoughts from 14.8 through the end:

Gonna get a little bit gay up in here pretty soon. But first, some other stuff.

Pretty much jump right into "Oh shit everything is fucked" with the bio-weapon just spreading everywhere right away.

Skitter's focus on Tattletale specifically when trying to get them to higher ground was top level Chatterbug/Smugbug content. Like sure Sundancer and Trickster too, she wanted to save them. But when Bentley wasn't climbing fast enough what she said to herself in worry was "Tattletale."

Fucking god. Tattletale telling Skitter to fly to the higher building and use bugs so Trickster could teleport them and they'd follow? But fully knowing it wouldn't work and just trying to get Skitter to safety?

"It doesn’t look like her plan will work out. Tell her I’m sorry." - I WAS FUCKING BAWLING

I had figured that Bonesaw's contingency wasn't just a "everyone dies right now" virus or whatever. It would need to be artistic. And it would need to be a punishment to the local capes, both hero and villain. And the way to punish them would be to "take the city from them". "Make them watch it destroy itself." "Make them help".

I feel like what she did covered that general outline with a heavier focus on taking everything away from the capes. But still, god damn Bonesaw. Absolutely fucking terrifying. Super powered face blindness. At the base at least. Don't know who anyone is. Damn.

SKITTER IT'S NOT GAY YET THAT ISN'T TATTLETALE IT'S BONESAW! GAY WILL COME LATER!

If Jack put's his slimy fucking hands on my daughter again I will personally remove them.

The "Don't swear!" from Bonesaw while pretending to be Tattletale was fun. I managed to hit on it before that, but it was a good confirmation.

Fucking Jack and his "You’re versatile" after seeing Skitter make decoys while prepping to tie someone up with spiders. FUCK OFF WITH YOUR DREAMS YOU DICK. YOU CAN'T HAVE HER.

Instantly confirmed when Skitter flat refused to shoot someone despite Jack and Bonesaw telling her to. My daughter might not be perfect but she's not going to be one of you!

Coil fucked up a bit on the phone. He wasn't dealing with the pathogen so he should have done better. Even just asking everyone there to say something so he could listen to the voices. He would have known right away it wasn't Tattletale and Grue. Patching them through to Cherish that easily was a mistake. He really doesn't do as much as he could be. Like ya he's evil but that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed when he isn't using his full potential.

Cherish very fucked up when she thought letting Jack and Bonesaw know where she was would be good for her. Hope she likes her eternal torment at the bottom of the ocean. (Ok there's a chance she'll get pulled out in the future I guess.)

I'll admit, when Amy left with Victoria earlier I wasn't expecting to see them again so soon.

"Panacea is the healer, top floor, Jack is the slasher, the blond girl is the chemist-tinker." I don't know why, since it doesn't rhyme or anything, but I got very "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true" vibes from this.

Jack trying to convince Amy by talking about how many of her ancestors were successful by being cruel and Taylor just internally going "How many were successful because they cooperated?" Love my daughter.

Victoria is still very much . . . not dead.

HOLY SHIT AMY YOU PUT YOUR SISTER IN A PERSONALIZED FLESH COFFIN MADE FROM CATS AND DOGS?

Seriously. Personalized. It has her face on the outside made out of bone. What the actual fuck Amy?

Proud of my daughter for shooting Jack, even if it didn't work.

It's probably fine that Skitter got Amy to break her brain rule again. I mean like it's good. It was the only way to fix the pathogen. It saved herself and the city. That is all good. Just . . . there might also be some long term negative outcomes. Probably fine though.

Getting gets cured and goes off to cure the city be gay.

"I leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on her lips." - EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

WOLFSPIDER WOLFSPIDER WOLFSPIDER!

SO FUCKING GAY I LOST MY FUCKING MIND WHEN IT HAPPENED

"'You couldn’t have waited until after you’d cured me before you put the bugs on your face?' Tattletale asked. She was smiling as she asked it." - ALSO EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

SO GAY. DOUBLE GAY. EXTRA GAY. ALL THE GAY!

CHATTERBUGCHATTERBUGCHATTERBUG (SMUGBUG IS FINE TOO)!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also the level of effort the girls went through after that trying to figure out how to cure Grue and Regent without kissing? Fucking amazing. Kissing was only ok for these three. Obviously.

GAAAAAAY

Gay (bug)horse girl gay (bug)horse girl gay (bug)horse girl

And the remainder of the Nine got away. Which is pretty fucking bad I guess. What with the whole "end of the world" and all that. I get that story point is the *actual* big end of the arc. But it's been overshadowed. By the gays.

Did I mention things being gay? I just want to make sure. Cause they were. Gay that is.

Interlude 1 - Sierra is amazing. She is exactly who Skitter needs to be running things while she's away. Charlotte is also amazing and I think worships the ground Skitter walks on. My daughter is, as always, absolutely terrifying when described from anyone else's PoV. She only gets more so every time. She just uses bug speak without even realizing now. Amazing. I love her. Atlas is helping and I'm so proud of him. He even got to take the gun. I hope he gets to keep it.

Interlude 2 (thought about making this it's own post but I'll just keep it really simple) - God dammit all three of the big 3 are Cauldron created? Ugh. Legend you appear to be trying to do the right thing but you sure as shit aren't paying much attention are you? Holy shit like, you believed so much of what the Doctor has been saying for years? God damn bud. How could you look at Cauldron and assume they *aren't* doing human experimentation? Especially since you know they have done it in the past! Like god damn man! At least you do kind of acknowledge that maybe you were purposefully ignoring the signs cause you wanted to be ignorant. Maybe there is a little bit of hope for you. Hell of a lore dump interlude though. Gives me lots to think about. Also I'd absolutely listen to The Number Man talk about spreadsheets all day long.

GAY

[spindle-girl]

Worm 12.4 is so incredibly important to me. It has so much in that one chapter that I love.

Below is me gushing over the characters for the chapter where Jack cuts Tattletale's mouth.

We get to see the Slaughterhouse Nine with their cruelties of what's to come. Detailed explanations on their tests that our protagonists are going to have to go through. We also get to see the dynamic between four of them. Cherish tries to make herself the center of focus only for that to turn around on her when Jack makes her show Manequinn's test. After that she goes and tries to get the Siberian to kill the Undersiders. Jack is there to enjoy the ride. He wants to see where he can get his entertainment from and he basically throws a tantrum when Tattletale ruins it. The Siberian is just there to be used as a threat by her teammates. The invincible cannibal who will make any resistance pointless if she decides to intervene. Then the creeping horror that is Bonesaw, how even you die she can also bring you back. But she's also the one that wants the tests to be fair and have rules and she enforces this by casually having a city wide plague already in the water.

There's Bitch, who once again doesn't tell the Undersiders what happened when she was alone. And once again it threatens to alienate her from the group. It lingers in Taylor's mind, but when it comes to Bitch's mind this meeting probably helps to push the S9 into an enemy for her. Cherish tries to play the mind games she hates, Jack admits to playing a mind game on his own teammate which she absolutely hates, and all throughout the Siberian doesn't say a thing to her. Jack also hurts one her teammates and that would piss her off. Just one meeting for any thought of joining the Nine to go out the window, but bc we're in Taylor's mind it stays as a concern for the reader.

Then you got Regent and we get a fun throwback to Bakuda where he starts a conversation with the horrifying murderers. His insults to Cherish while appealing to Bonesaw is him trying to make himself the more likeable sibling. He once again manages to get critical info for Tattletale to make her move while also pushing back their executions. And when their usual shtick fails, Regent is instantly by Tattletale's side trying to stop the bleeding. He does care for them, even if he can't fully grasp it.

Grue stays quiet. He's once again in a situation where he can't do anything. No matter how strong he trains the best he can do is just being there, insulting the Nine to try and get their attention and he fails. When Taylor doesn't know what to do he just silently takes her place, letting the others talk as he himself doesn't know what to do. Grue just tries to there and has to hope that it's enough.

You have Tattletale in her element. She tries three times to get Jack to find entertainment in them so that he doesn't kill them then and there and she gets her mouth cut for it. It's even meant to kill her, but instead of backing down she goes all in. Bleeding out she makes a deal that Jack finds interest in and he basically takes it. Then to cap it all off you have her push Taylor to go. Go, leave her to save her dad and warn everyone she can. Fucking peak Lisa, not letting Taylor in because it would hurt too much.

Sundancer is just a bystander. She's just as scared as everyone there and is probably marveling at at they're even managing to talk to the Nine. When Tattletale gets injured she's actually there with Regent to try and help her, but when Tattletale goes to make her deal with Jack she's just a bit slow until she catches up to help. It's this repeating thing where Sundancer absolutely hates that this is her life and she probably hates how quickly she can jump into it.

Finally Taylor. Taylor the hopeful Worm, getting called that at last. In the face of the Siberian appearing she thinks of a plan, when she learns that Shatterbird is going to sing her thoughts go to her dad and her people, but Lisa gets injured and she stops. She's late to stopping the bleeding because Lisa's blood is splattered on her. Jack is saying she'll die and Taylor doesn't know what to do. Then when Lisa leaves it to her to finish the deal with Jack her ability to analyze the situation comes into play. She seen that Jack and Bonesaw are the two most important to get the Nine on board so she says it'll be interesting and that the game will be fair. And with the Nine gone she's has to decide between staying with Lisa or warning her dad and others about Shatterbird and again she freezes. Despite all the claims that Taylor behaves to clear minded in insane situations, she really doesn't. She just places far more value in her friends than herself so when it's her being hurt she can still operate but when it's her friends she just wants to leave with them. It's only with Lisa reassuring her that she goes and does something incredibly heroic.

This is after they leave the villain alliance making them the underdogs again. Before Taylor's fight with Manequinn where she wins because her people intervene to help her. Some of the absolute best of the Undersiders and Worm in general. I only wish Imp was here as well.

[abyranss]

Assorted Bonesaws

[innominaterifter]

"Oh, you can kind of predict the future! Come on, surprise me!"

"Well... I see a woman with a mane of hair down to her waist... I can't tell if she's blonde or brunette..."

"Wow, I like this already! Blonde or dark - it doesn't matter. The main thing is that she's hot, haha. What is she wearing?"

"She's completely naked."

"You're damn good at working with clients! What's around, where are we?"

"Some dark place... Lots of space, brick walls, high ceilings."

"Looks like some kind of cool loft, not bad! What is she doing?"

"She's smiling at you..."

"I'm not surprised, I'm really good with women one-on-one! And me?"

"You give her everything she wants."

"Cool!"

_______________________________________

I was testing a new, interesting location for filming the Siberian. It was very cold, and I was practically naked, so we didn't film much, but it turned out very atmospheric.

[valtsv]

Sorry, what is worm?

web serial novel about an alternate earth where people with superpowers exist and affect the structure of society. it's much more grounded in reality and on the "dark fiction" end of the spectrum than comic book or mcu-esque. i'd say it occupies a similar position in superhero media to something like the boys, although it's much more driven by brutal, mundane realism (at least on a character level; there's only so "real" a setting can feel when it deals in superpowers, alternate universes, and cosmic forces beyond comprehension) than shock humour and splatter horror.

[estavionpira]

Thinking about how Bonesaw is the only member of the Slaughterhouse Nine who wears a costume that isn't either created with a power or just regular clothes, and how Riley is the only member of the S9 (minus Harbinger) to actually develop as a person beyond the Bonesaw persona. Jack, Burnscar, and Cherish all just wear regular clothes, costumeless, and they've all become their personas. Jacob is Jack Slash, there is no separation. And this continues with Shatterbird's glass dress, Mannequin's doll body, Crawler's adaptations, and Siberian's stripes, which are all either costumes created with their powers, or are powers that produce a costume-like effect. Costumes take a role in Worm as a separation between a person and their cape persona, and the Slaughterhouse Nine either forgoing costumes or having them either incidentally (Crawler, Siberian) or for practicality (Shatterbird, Mannequin) shows how there isn't a person beyond the persona they portray. And yet, Bonesaw bucks this trend. She wears a dress like Alice in Wonderland, which is clearly a projection of the Bonesaw persona, and yet the costume is unnecessary for her power to work. It's something that she puts on to distance herself from Riley, and it works, until she is separated from the Slaughterhouse for two years and can't show herself to the world for that time. She has to exist without anyone to play Bonesaw to, and during that time, she isn't wearing the Alice dress. The costume is off, and Riley is allowed to exist again.

[else-creates]

[victoriadallonfan]

It’s fascinating to me that so many people can’t handle the fact that Jack Slash is written in a way where he can’t lose (to Parahumans).

Because this isn’t revealed out of nowhere.

Number Man literally spells it out for us in his interlude:

- Interlude 21

Like, even the weakest of media literacy can understand this. It’s not exactly abstract. Jack doesn’t lose to Parahumans because his power cheats. We even see an alternate Jack Slash as a hero, where Chevalier mentions he can never lose so long as he fights Parahumans.

And his eventual defeat is caused by them taking advantage of this perceived invincibility, using a normal human to sneak past his awareness to trip him up.

This is all very simple.

And yet.

Like clockwork, there are people in the fandom obsessed with the idea of “beating Jack Slash” or offended that the character written to never lose to Parahumans, can’t be beaten by their super special plan/OC.

They make it personal, like it’s an affront that a character has narrative reason for existence and that by denying them (the user) the ability to beat Jack Slash, it’s an insult to them.

Why?

What does it matter?

What does one gain from this? I can understand if one just want to discuss things for fun, but they don’t treat this like fun. They treat it like they need to WIN

So odd

[il3x]

Depending on how you think of it, Crawler is both one of the most and least tragic Worm characters. His motivation is inherently tragic, because what will he do with all that strength? When he's finally become the strongest fighter on Bet, he'll run into the Saitama problem: no worthwhile challenges remaining. Then there's the implicit tragedy of his trigger-power combination. It implies someone who was physically hurt, potentially motivating him to get stronger to avoid future harm, but in order to do so he must experience danger and injury and pain over and over again. Adaptability Brute is a new level of "the power pushes you back into your trigger situation". Adding in Bonesaw's comment including him in "did not have a good childhood", I tend to headcanon that he triggered from childhood abuse, which adds another layer w/r/t how mistreatment is sometimes excused as "it will make you stronger", and how survivors of abuse sometimes feel more at home in toxic relationships at first because it's what they're accustomed to.

But on the other hand, he wanted to Fight Stuff and Get Hurt, and he lived Fighting Stuff and Getting Hurt, and he died Fighting Stuff and Getting Hurt. There is no more self-actualised Worm character than Crawler.

[phthalosblues]

slaughterhouse girlies <333

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 14 thoughts through 14.7 (there is too much for one post, I mean I could probably get four to five posts from 14.11 alone):

The team figures out Siberian's whole "is a projection" thing pretty quickly. Good for them.

I really want to know who ripped out page 325 for the "how horrible of a thing have I done that I don't want shared" check. I strongly lean Trickster but I'm not sure. I want more details on the Travelers and TiaV dammit!

Amy is having a bad day. Probably really a continuation of a bad few days. She probably didn't really need those fingers right?

Skitter criticizing Amy in her head for not being "creative" enough with her power is so on brand. Of course my daughter has already detailed out the complex ways she would use a power she doesn't even have. I love her.

I really wish the Undersiders/Travelers combo would stop splitting the fucking party. If they had just sent everyone after Siberian I bet the could have gotten the dude.

I do have have Skitter has gotten to a point where one of her "start of combat" actions is to just make a fuck ton of bug decoys. Almost without thought at this point.

Have I mentioned how much I love the "writing words in the air with bugs to communicate with people"? Cause I do. It makes sense. It would work. It lets her communicate long range. But it's also very silly to imagine. Very Silver Age in the best way.

Then it gets even better! Skitter makes a full blown animation to tell Amy that Siberian is trying to drop a building on her. Absolutely fucking perfection.

Tattletale maybe misjudged ever so slightly in what she revealed to Siberian. The combo of Siberian just flickering out of existence and everyone being like "oh fuck" was very good.

Amy trying to do her bullshit again and Tattletale having none of it, just destroying every argument before Amy even makes them until Amy agrees to come and help. More than makes up for any mistakes Tattletale made with Siberian.

The relay bugs are super neat.

Fucking high speed mutant dog/car chase. Absolutely fucking AMAZING. I loved every part of it. Ending with Sundancer just dropping a 50 foot wide sun on the road.

Tattletale trolling the shit out of Piggot and the heroes gives me life.

Also, Piggot's phone conversation with Tattletale was basically a villain monologue. For Piggot. Just all the shit about why she was doing it, why it was for the best, the coy little "sorry your teammates are gonna die, it's just an unfortunate side effect". All of it. This bitch is evil.

My daughter fucking tying up Crawler with spiderwebs. HOLY SHIT KID. God damn.

Very Mulan "Get off the roof, get off the roof, get off the roof" energy as they all run the fuck away from the bombing zone.

BUG HORSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUG HORSE BUG HORSE BUG HORSE BUG HORSE BUG HORSE!!!!

AMY MADE MY DAUGHTER A FLYING BUG HORSE I'M DYING!

TAYLOR CAN BE THE (BUG)HORSE GIRL SHE WAS ALWAYS MEANT TO BE!

It rescues her and she has to teach it how to fly and they form a bond and she saves it and it saves her and and and she gives it a NAME! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

She's only had Atlas for a day and a half but if anything happens to him I will burn the world to the ground. Then I'll find another world and burn it to the ground too.

Firebombs don't really do shit but destroy a chunk of the city, probably kill some civilians, and make the heroes lives pretty fucking hard as they have to rely on the randomness of Clockblocker's power.

Also weren't there supposed to be a bunch of Nazis also getting hit by the bombs? One of the only somewhat maybe kinda almost decent parts of the plan Piggot and they aren't even here!

Piggot's plan is terrible and evil is what I'm saying.

The only reason nearly every hero doesn't end up permanently trapped or whatever inside Cache's bag of holding is cause Skitter was there to keep him from being crushed by a car. Well, Skitter and her bug horse (BUG HORSE!)

Skitter got to shoot Mannequin in the back. Very satisfying even if it didn't do long term damage.

Sucks to be Cache. He's . . . probably fine? I mean at least he got everyone out as he was melting.

Really sucks to be Glory Girl. She is . . . uhhh . . . hmmm . . . not dead. I can at least say that.

I mean Skitter got her to Amy. And Amy did stop her from dying. So like . . . she's probably going to be fine. Yep. Juuuuuust fine.

(Look if Amy wasn't a bitch about giving Atlas a digestive system I might be willing to forgive a lot. My daughters (bug)horse comes first. But Amy didn't so I won't. At least Grue was able to help. He gets a lot of brownie points for that.)

Anyway, Victoria needed to take some time to heal the rest of the way so she left completely under her own free will. And it will never come up again.

Bombin' 2: Electric HOLY FUCK PIGGOT YOU REALLY ARE CRAZY Bombgaloo

Kill a few more civilians and maybe Crawler and Mannequin. Destroy more of the city (including the library!) in a way that will probably never be salvageable (I mean at least some of it is stopped in time for god knows how long). Jack, Bonesaw, and Siberian escape. And because of what was done Bonesaw is going to activate her bio-weapon.

Great job Piggot. Gold star. You fucking did it. You saved the city. You motherfucking idiot.

[lemurlord]

If you needed any evidence that Jack Slash is lame, it's the fact that he pussied out on cloning himself.

Imagine how much cooler Slaughterhouse 9000 arc would be if it contained not only Jack Slash, but also Jack Splash, Jack Smash, Jack Crash, Jacob Vehicular Manslaughter, Jack Flash, Jack Bold&Brash, Jack Formely Known As Slash and Jacksonville Slashonville.

[abyranss]

It could be anywhere.

[innominaterifter]

Ah, hello! Late at work? I'm looking at your family photos: they look great, so soulful!

[archon-maenad]

under king, people saw the slaughterhouse nine as nightmares.

under jack slash, people saw the slaughterhouse nine as natural disasters.

he molded the public consciousness to the point where a group of serial killers were seen as an inevitable, unstoppable tragedy you can only weather and mitigate but never truly defeat. he made them into a fact of american life.

I want to sink my teeth into the concept like a feral sibby into flesh, because it's just so damn interesting. jack slash personally affected the collective trauma of a huge subset of earth bet's population. from the culture around small towns to the truce being extended beyond endbringers, he contributed to so many aspects of what makes bet's north america so unique and multifaceted.

jack slash left marks more like scars on people he never even met. he made history, and I suppose that means you could argue he won even in death.

what a monstrous, fascinating man.

[estavionpira]

Listen, folks, I have a lot of friends that are parahumans, and let me tell you, it's not good out there. The Slaughterhouse Nine, they aren't sending their best folks, it's not good what they're doing, and I know some of them, they're not all bad people, but they aren't sending their best. Rambling Jack Slash, have you heard him? It's crazy what this guy, Rambling Jack Slash is saying, and he reminds me of the late, great Hannibal Lecter, but he wouldn't admit that. Don't even get me started on Socialist Siberian! Folks, you know what I think she heard, I think she heard that everyone is equal in death folks, and she wants everyone to be equal, because she's a Socialist. But I know some of them, and a lot of them are great people, let me tell you. Brilliant Bonesaw, that's what they call her, and she is, she's a very bright young woman, and the Liberal Media wants you to think that she's terrible, but she's not.