#worm arc 21

[gastlives]

worm lb 21 part 3..

he probably thought of blowing tattletale up 1000 different ways from this meeting

gulp

looks at her when she was friends w e mma

not my TV!!!!

agreed

smiles

poor parian

shes gay

woow

damn

new flechette

holy shit kiss moment

wildbow said yuri, fucked up

wow its next arc already wowowoe

[snazzyscarf]

the thing about me is that I will absolutely shamelessly give my favorite little minor character who has cubed me a disproportionate amount of narrative significance than he actually has, BUT THE PROBLEM WITH THAT is that he (Clockblocker) actually honestly and truly DOES have one of the biggest impacts of any character.

like i know they were not giving out medals for the sake of preventing infighting after the leviathan fight, but Clockblocker damn well deserves one because quite literally everyone would have died had he not frozen the Titanic Waterbending Godzilla in time for several whole minutes allowing the remaining capes critical time to re-strategize and hold out for Scion. Additionally. everyone Also would have died had Skitter not been able to utilize his power to slice That Thang (Echidna) in twain. Two (2) S-Class threats within months of each other and he turned the tides on both of them.

it’s like. it’s honestly a testament to what Tattletale was saying about how a lot of parahumans never really get the chance to understand the full extent of their powers because they’re never under the right circumstances to do so. because if you think about it purely in situations like the bank heist or party crash early on in the book, Clockblocker’s power really isn’t anything to write home about. and if they lived in a reality where things like that were the biggest threats around he would probably stay that way!

but they don’t live in that reality. they DO live in a world with towering kaiju endbringers that threaten the planet every three months and they DO live in a world where monstrous parahuman accidents like echidna are likely to pop up, and it’s because of this product of circumstance that you can make a legitimate case for Clockblocker having one of the strongest powers in terms of utility. he lives in a reality where his niche is allowed to shine!

and it’s this kinda thinking that makes the fact that he is—at the end of the day—Just A Minor Character, so incredibly compelling because it further illustrates the idea that This Could Be Anybody. under the right circumstances, any parahuman could find their otherwise mid-level power suddenly become the most pivotal role in a survival setting. or the most dangerous! it opens up the floor to a wealth of possibilities.

like say what you want, and i do concede that of course my darling boy Dennis doesn’t hold the same narrative significance that any of the major characters do, but when you look at his role in the story from this perspective, He Really Is Kind Of A Big Deal.

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Arc 21, Reflections

So Taylor did get a bit of a chance to have a Warlord Era then, even if just the one arc, more like half an arc really. But we did see her and the Undersiders wipe the floor with threats that would have taken a long time to deal with (narratively, anyway) earlier, and it's our introduction to the Butcher's, whose powers have set off... at least 5 fics and probably more.

Arc 21 is another good arc overall - and while there's a few 'Damnit Taylor' bits (namely her attack on Tagg and her turning herself in, because DAMNIT TAYLOR), I think overall she made some right choices here. Valefor's defeat is definitely well done.

After the drag and slog that were 17-19, it's good that 20 and 21 were good. I'm worried about 22 is gonna go, and I'm probably gonna be yelling at Taylor a lot for her Generalized Stupidity Disorder (Protagonist Variant).

21 is also just a lot more sedate, across the board, while also advancing the story. Gives us a look at the way the team will be going without her, what the state of the city is, etc. The look at Number Man and the inside look at Cauldron just reaffirms my beliefs that Cauldron really is comically undermanned and that is at the root of all their bad decisions. It seems to come down to Doctor Mother being too controlling, I think? She only wants the people she and Contessa picked, or something?

The Number Man isn't an edgelord in the same way Jack Slash is, but he is still sort of a teenager mentally, and LARPing as a capable, profound adult, or his idea of one. And his view of how everything is an illusion/delusion/not real thing is partially a function of his power, whatever it exactly is, but it is also real near-edgelord behavior, so he kind of is a lot like Jacob Knifeboy like that.

I appreciate there's something Wildbow is going for by having the Number Man be a former teammate of Jack Slash and all that but I have to admit, it kind of makes the Wormverse feel small, just a little. I don't mark that as a point against Worm or Wildbow per se, especially since the payoff may be down the line, but it does feel a bit weird as it stands. But weird is not disallowed or anything.

[l-mop]

Worm arc titles are so cool except when they're not. (worm spoilers) Arc 21 - Imago: Fascinating arc name. Related to the psychology of the characters during the arc, while also referencing a stage of bug development that reflects Taylor's confidence and actions during these chapters. Arc 22 - Cell: taylor is in a cell

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 21 thoughts:

Well that was sure a turn around from last arc's "I'm going to rally the students so I don't get captured."

I know my daughter has made some . . . mistakes, but I'm not a fan of her turning herself into the openly corrupted and also bad at their job parahuman cops.

(Parahuman cops as in "cops who police parahumans" not "cops who are parahumans")

Like look, I get it. A precog told her to cut ties. I can't say it's wrong to follow that advice. But she could do that in a lot of ways that don't involve the PRT.

The second not from Dinah just being "I'm sorry" is brutal.

But before she can turn herself in she has to absolutely fucking crush the PRT/Protectorate for outing her civilian identity.

I love how fucking simple taking out the entire PRT headquarters was for Skitter and her girlfriends!

Who needs anyone else? Bitch brings muscle, Tattletale brings information, Skitter brings battlefield control. Lesbian polycule power activate!

Was it an overboard response? Maybe. Was it badass how she just took out so many heroes and PRT troops with ease? Yes.

Poor Dovetail has one of the most embarrassing introductions ever. First time we see her and Skitter is wiping the floor with her and thinking about her "crummy power".

God I hate Tagg so much that he makes me miss Piggot. Like she was absolutely terrible, but he's worse! And making me miss Piggot makes me hate Tagg even more!

Kindly old cemetery groundskeeper who doesn't pay much attention to the news! Never a bad trope.

They gave Butcher 15 to Cherish???!? Like sure they give all the reasoning for it but like ... it just seems like a really high risk situation. If she ever gets out it's going to suck. A lot.

THE SCENE AT RACHEL'S PLACE OH MY GOD!

SHE IS BUILDING A COMMUNITY! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!

Rachel just over here finding everyone like her and giving them a place. Legit crying. Look at that fucking growth!

(Also shout-out to my wife for having basically done the same thing. It's how I met her. It's how I met one of my girlfriends. And so many other important people. So ya. I fucking love this.)

Also you ever like a girl so much you try to give her an entire planet? Cause Taylor sure has.

"Rachel I don't want you to be sad when I'm gone so you can basically have this whole other planet we found."

GGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

Imp let Regent take control of her . . . welp. Like, I'm not really surprised by this. And in a different situation I wouldn't even really find it that weird. I'd do it with the right person. But combination of age and the situation they are in and Regent being Regent annnnnd ya. Welp.

I did love how much of the interactions between Skitter and Regent/Imp really was just her struggling with parenting two teenage supervillains.

IT'S NOT SO EASY, IS IT CHILD?!? MAYBE YOU'LL CUT ME SOME SLACK AND LISTEN TO MY ADVICE IN THE FUTURE!

(She won't)

I fucking LOVE that she made the bible themed hero kneel. Absolutely fucking amazing.

Oh shiiit, Skitter just flat dropped that guy multiple stories. Is she going to far?

. . . wellll, these guys do literally worship the Endbringers so I guess a little aggression is ok.

Damn, Valefor sure has some fucked up powers, I wonder what they're gonna do abou-

. . .

. . .

. . . . . .

. . . wellll, these guys do literally worship the Endbringers so I guess a little aggression is ok.

. . .

Yep.

. . .

. . . I think I preferred when she just used a knife.

So anyway

Not a fan of Taylor having more alone time with Brian (not because I have any issue with the idea, but because I think she needs to be focusing on her girlfriends), but I am a fan of her using bugs to clean her dress and fix her hair afterwords while Brian just kinda sits there and has to contemplate what he has gotten himself into. Queen shit.

Flechette was SO mad that Parian wasn't "cute" anymore, I couldn't stop laughing. Sure, she said "You had to take the playfulness away? The joy?" but we all know what she meant. Of course, it's won't take very long for the new costume to get Flechette's attention. (I have to mention that this is basically exactly what I said when reading the scene, and the interlude a few chapters later just proved me right.)

Flechette is just so hopelessly gay

Miss Militia is actually getting very mild respect from me right now. Like, she's still working for the cops but she is actually agreeing to silently push against some things. Now, she says she doesn't have more power then that but she is a very well known hero and if she would publicly speak out about certain things there is a decent chance she could do more. That would of course be putting her position at risk though. Which is why she only gets very mild respect right now.

OH MY GOD I DIDN'T JUST GET TO SEE TATTLETALE'S MURDER WALL, I GOT TO SEE HER ENTIRE MURDER ROOM!

Fucking multiple bulletin boards with threads connecting them. Everything color coded. Reference numbers to files with more details. Multiple TV screens, computer with constant information dump. God. It's like a literal representation of the inside of my mind while I read Worm. SO MANY THINGS TO FIGURE OUT!

I love a lot of characters, but Tattletale always stays near the top. She gets me.

And from the fucking joy of getting to see that setup I come crashing the fuck down.

Like, I have completely figured out at this point that Skitter is turning herself in. I know what is coming. She's had her moment with everyone else and Tattletale is the last one.

And then. Then just . .

No goodbyes.

😭😭😭😭😭

HOW DARE THIS BOOK MAKE ME FEEL MY OWN FEELINGS!! I'M TOO GAY FOR THIS!

I do find it hysterical that the PRT officers working the front lobby don't all recognize Skitter on sight. Fucking gas station employees will manage to keep track of people with pictures on the "bad check" board, you'd think the PRT could manage to have their officers keep track of the face of one of the most well know villains in the country, if not the world, who also controls their city. PRT is forever bad at their job.

That one guy did notice her eventually though, so I guess he gets to be employee of the month.

The Number Man interlude thoughts:

The inside of this mans mind is one of the sexiest things I have ever seen and the constant reminder of the horrible things he is helping Cauldron do to all their prisoners was very helpful because it was the only thing keeping me from deciding that The Number Man is a perfect soul that can do no wrong.

I have no illusions here. I am weak. This man is a monster and I should not have any trouble remembering that.

But fuck shit fuck oh god fuck I don't even need him to touch me. I just need him to TALK to me. I just need him to get high with me and let me pick apart how his mind works!

He understood numbers, and through them, he understood everything.

That line. Absolute killer. Fucking take me.

. . . anyway yes it's a very interesting interlude!

Loved seeing more of the inner workings of Cauldron

I very much want to see the final level of their basement that only the Doctor goes into because I said that I thought Cauldron had a dead (for values of dead that are non-definable) higher dimensional being in their basement back during arc 15 and now I know for sure that there is something down there. I wanna know if I was right!

Oh my god he was friends with Jack

"Friends"

Look I make everything gay ok? It's not my choice! Sure it means I get to enjoy every tiny bit of Wolfspider and Chatterbug cause I see all of it. But it also means I see the ships I don't want to think about!

I men what was I supposed to think when Jack said “We can live this. Together. Every waking second…”?

Gay

Parian interlude thoughts:

And speaking of gay!

Fucking Flechette just full blown "Fuck all of this I want you to tell me what to do for the rest of my life!"

Full U-Haul lesbian.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

This is Parian's new costume having an effect.

Just so gay. I love it.

Also Bitch just so fucking ready to break Skitter out. So fucking gay.

And the incredible loyalty, which is gonna hurt if she ends up feeling betrayed by Skitter.

Still gay though.

Tattletale, basically without powers, just completely giving Accord the "fuck off, we're in charge" was amazing. All she had to do was promise to consider his binders and he was all in. This poor man just wants somebody to read his ideas! He's like a aspiring screenwriter just begging people to read his script.

[b-a-pigeon]

As you might expect from a couple of queer indie authors, Fell & I are going hard on the sales and promotions for Pride Month! I'll try to summarize as succinctly as possible, and remember that you can always click the links for a full synopsis ;)

Are you in the mood for...

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✨ A short and sweet sapphic contemporary fantasy read? My novella Worm in a Jar is pay what you want on Gumroad all month, so you can download it free if you'd like!

✨ A not-romantic fantasy novel with queer trans protagonists, about a demon and a demon hunter who must team up to prevent an imprending wave of violence? Our upcoming collab, Hierarchy of the Unseen, comes out June 21! It's up for preorder now, and available as an ARC on Netgalley :)

✨ The above, and also deals and/or supporting queer trans authors? This month, we're running a special offer on Patreon: all new & current patrons starting at the $4 tier will receive a free paperback of HotU (in addition to the ebook downloads, early access to our work, behind-the-scenes exclusives, and more already offered to patrons)!

✨ Finding more queer indies to support? Check out Pride SFF Reads & Read LGBTQ Authors on Bookfunnel!

I'll post about these individually in the coming weeks, but just wanted to throw it all out there at once 🖤 Reblogs appreciated! Thank you all for your support!

[wormblr-polls]

From Worm Parahumans

[artbyblastweave]

You said you needed to be prodded to elaborate on why Worm should have been longer? Well consider this a prod, if I may be so bold.

A big chunk of it is rote contrarianism. Part of it is that I like Worm, my experience reading so much Worm was "Sweet! Even More Worm! I've got so much Worm left before I'm out of Worm!" So a version of Worm with More Worm is prima facie an enticing prospect.

In the non-reflexive, genuinely considered sense, there possibly should have been an interlude arc to flesh out the timeskip, make it feel like it was as much of her powered career as it objectively was. And I'm far from the first person to make this observation. But on another level, there's a sense where "Worm Should Have Been Longer" is conflated in my head with "Worm's Timeframe Should Have Been Longer." Which is tricky, and invites further unpacking-

One thing about Worm I've noted in the past is that the villain portion of Skitter's cape career- more than two thirds of the book- only takes place over about three months, but- speaking only for my reading experience- this was surprisingly easy to miss or elide in my consideration of the narrative. One reason for this is that Taylor and her supporting cast are so heavily fleshed out, are so well-realized, undergo so much character development in a compacted timeframe, that it felt like I had been following them for much longer than I had. This is enhanced (was enhanced?) by the out-of-universe passage of time; The S9 interlude arc is, like, a little over the one-third mark of the story, but Worm had been running for a year at the time that that was published, and it certainly felt like I’d been reading a years' worth of fiction while binging it. In this way Worm was truly faithful to its comic book origins; story arcs that take place over the course of hours but are published over the course of months, building reader familiarity with characters who objectively haven’t been at what they're doing for very long. A third element (noticed on rereads) is that Wildbow often opens with scene transitions/cold-opens or what-have you that, are generally contiguous with the preceding events, but simultaneously slightly obfuscate exactly how much time has passed. Arc 6 opens with Taylor finishing up with the ABB mop-up, and it’s blocked to demonstrate how far she’s come in such a relatively short time period. It can’t have been more than a few days since Lung. It explicitly wasn’t. But it had the vibe of having been a while.

What I’m working towards here, inch by inch, is the following conclusion: Worm has what I call an eyedropper approach to Taylor’s three-months and 22 arcs. Any given escapade feels like it’s just one vignette, emblematic of a longer, two-or-three-year stage of her life, scooped out and displayed as a representative sample of what’s going on. When shit hits the fan with Dinah, it feels like the upset of a longstanding status quo, even though by that point, Skitter has only been in five or six major engagements alongside the Undersiders. When they spend Arc 21 lancing various supervillain incursions into the city, it felt like I was watching a day in the life, like this was something the Undersiders had been dealing with, and would be dealing with, for a while- even though arc 21′s handful of engagements are basically the only times Skitter did that before she left. Purely from a vibes-based perspective, you could tell me that the first two thirds of Worm are occurring over the course of eight to ten years, and I might roll with that for a minute.

But the catch is- her villainous career has the vibes of lasting a long time, but it’s actually really thematically and logically important that it doesn’t. Skitter’s friendships within the Undersiders are strongly predicated on her ping-ponging from crisis to crisis so quickly that no true reckoning about their differing morals can ever come about. Skitter’s ability to administer as a benevolent warlord is heavily predicated on her lines of credit from Coil- and you cannot stretch that tension out much longer than it was stretched in canon without Dinah dying or Coil getting fed up with Skitters non-profitability. Breathing room is anathema to the story’s depiction of a pressure-cooker society where every crisis begets a new crisis. Nothing between Lung and Alexandria plays out the same way if anyone is allowed any amount of time to think about or process anything. And you actually see this in arc 21; it’s the first time that Skitter has a real opportunity to think about what the long-term looks like, and there’s a whole sequence where she’s getting nervous about her ability to reign in Regent over the long-haul. It’s the first time in three months where she’s had the luxury to worry about that kind of thing. 

You square this circle by.... basically, by striking the canon balance. There's a sense in which I'm increasingly convincing myself that I'm not talking about a problem Worm has so much as a problem Worm already has a workable-but-imperfect solution for. Create distinct periods in Skitter's development- "Rookie era," "Warlord Era," "Wards Era," whatever-each of which feel like they could balloon out into a years-long status quo if this were a comic, even though the cast are really living through the weeks where decades happen. Rely on the Sheer Amount Of Worm to smooth over the breakneck pace at which everyone's character growth and interpersonal connections are developing. There are a few points in the story where "fuck, has it only been three months?" is a salient mood to invoke. The get-together with Danny's coworkers, the back-to-school portions of arc 20. But for the most part the work already does a really good job of making the pinched timeframe a minor bit of fridge logic and not something hugely dissonant and immersion-breaking.

In the process of writing this I've basically argued myself out of thinking that there's much to gain from fucking around with this delicate balance. I don't know if that has implications for whether or not additional arcs covering the timeskip would help or hurt that balance- at a certain level of focus, that whole "you liked us, but you didn't love us" bit about Skitter's time with the Wards vs. The Undersiders becomes a much harder sell. It was already one of the hardest sells in the book for me, the thing that got me thinking about this in the first place. (two years vs three months!) But at some point, I have to bite the bullet- in a work as ambitious as Worm, "good enough" is a fine thing to settle for. It's good enough!

[painfully-bisexual]

So uh

Worm arc 21 huh

What the fuck was that

[feuerstahl]

Rainjoy’s FMA fan fiction, part 1

Disclaimer: All the stories are written by and belong to Rainjoy (rainjoyswriting on Livejournal). I only converted them to PDFs.

 Mpregverse That Was Never Meant to Be series: main stories.

They're in chronological order, though I'm less certain about the order of some of the middle ones. If you notice an error, please notify me. (Summaries mainly taken from Mpregverse masterlist).

 1. Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget

Summary: Where it all began. Contains series spoilers and sensitive adult subject matter, consider that a warning of this universe in general.

Rating: R

 2. Papa Was a Rodeo

Summary: There wasn't a can of worms in the world Ed wouldn't give a good poke if he could.

Rating: NC-17

 3. Boa Constrictor

Summary: Don't think about the last time.

Rating: R

 4. Spring

Summary: the story of how Ed got rid of some misprescribed medication, and accidentally got rid of Babbit's ear in the bargain.

Rating: R

 5. Cloud Mattress

Summary: Roy wakes before Ed and there is fluff.

Rating: PG

 6. Namesake

Summary: The ghost grins like a lunatic. "Can you see me? Up here, up here!"

Rating: G

 7. If You Don't Cry

Summary: Ed is a good daddy. Obsessively good, in fact.

Rating: R

 8. Learning Curve

Summary: Maes is a clever baby.

Rating: G

 9. Family Affair

Summary: Roy wants to be Fuhrer, Maes wants to mouth anything he can reach, and Ed doesn't know *what* he wants.

Rating: R

 10. Nameless rainy day fic

Summary: it's a rainy fluffy pointless fic.

Rating: PG-13

 11. Maes Walks

Summary: Ed finally lets Maes out of his arms long enough for Maes *to* walk.

Rating: G

 12. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Summary: Everything to hate and love about that day.

Rating: R

 13. And Return To Me

Summary: Roy inspects the East, and Ed and Maes brave the Military Wives.

Rating: R

 14. Mudslinging

Summary: Even for the spouses of the military, it's still a war zone.

Rating: PG-13

 15. Between the Lines I - Read All About It

Summary: One side of the story - just how much is the truth worth?

Rating: R

 16. Between the Lines II - Private Languages

Summary: The other side of the story - a thousand ways to communicate.

Rating: NC-17

 17. Equivalent Exchange

Summary: The following involves two gold rings, a military priest, and about half a cup of vomit. You are cordially invited to the Elric-Mustang wedding...

Rating: R

 18. Untitled school fic

Summary: The whole family's got a lot to learn.

Rating: R

 19. Between and Connecting

Summary: "Sometimes I really wish you could hear me, you know that?"

Rating: R

 20. Xylophone Track

Summary: Maes was composing an opera on his xylophone.

Rating: R

 21. Ever After

Summary: It's not quite happily ever after, but it really is close enough.

Rating: PG-13

 22. Doorstep Story

Summary: Ed brings something else in with the milk.

Rating: PG-13

 23. Untitled hospital fic

Summary: "We must have reached our lifetime's quota of hospitals by now."

Rating: R

 24. Sick Roy

Summary: (see title)

Rating: R

 25. Distance

Summary: Roy's family re-emerges, and Roy is fine, really, really he is. Really.

Rating: R

 26. Broadens the Mind

Summary: the Emperor of Xing visits, and Ed is not impressed.

Rating: NC-17

 27. The Couch

Summary: He sits with his arms folded, his legs folded, and his foot kicks, kicks, kicks.

Rating: R

 28. Loving You Too Long

Summary: Ed discovers more than he expected when he does the laundry.

Rating: NC-17

 29. Revolution

Summary: Roy vs. rock and roll.

Rating: R

 30. Clean Break

Summary: set five years on from the Between the Lines arc, and Roy really should have thought this through.

Rating: R

 31. Mending

Summary: There'll always be cracks; doesn't mean it's broken.

Rating: R

P.S. Please notify me if any of the links are wrong or broken.

[rainworld-ostpolls]

The Round 1 winner's list is here! 🎉🎉

71 songs out of 140 made it into the next round! Below is the poll list for round 2 :)

Pictures of the Past vs. Dustcloud

Silicon vs. Past Echos

Interest Pad vs. Moondown

Reminiscence vs. Threat - Outskirts

Dripping Time vs. Halcyon Memories

New Terra vs. Emotion Thread

ELSE I vs. Energy Circuit

Stargazer vs. Threat - Chimney Canopy

Distance vs. Deep Light

Passages vs. Random Gods

Urban Jungle vs. Sundown

RW_13 - Action Scene vs. Threat - Waterfront Complex

All Thats Left vs. ELSE IV

The Coast vs. Stone Heads

Black Moonlight vs. Lovely Arps

Weyuon vs. Threat - Looks to the Moon

RW_37 - Garbage City Shuffle vs. RW_39 - Lack of Comfort

Floes vs. Kayava

Bio-Engineering vs. RW_46 - Lonesound

ELSE VI vs. Threat - Sky Islands

RW_48 - Wind Chimes vs. RW_51 - Swaying Fronds

Garbage Worms vs. Raindeer Ride

White Lizard vs. Lost City

Rain vs. Threat - Metropolis (Day)

Wandering Cut vs. Metal Canopy

Random Fate vs. ELSE VII

Scapeless Doubt vs. Satellite

Aquaphobia vs. Threat - Outer Expanse

Not Your Rain vs. Fragile

Overcast vs. Breathing Hyometer

Accidented Condition vs. Chilblain Grace vs. The Cycle

Fading Light vs. Threat - Pipe Yard

Vast Unlife vs. Sheer Ice Torrent

Reflection of the Moon vs. Fragments

Another Ending vs. Reclaiming Entropy

Honorable Mentions to all the songs that sadly didn't make the cut:

Poll 1 - 10: Proxima, Wormpad, Sparkles, Phasing, Dark Sus, Quanda, Drastic FM, Threat - Heavy Industrial, Glass Arcs, Crystalline

Poll 11 - 20: They Say, Speaking Systems, ELSE II, Demonic Riser, Silent Construct, Threat - Garbage Wastes, Flutter, Pulse, Cracked Earth, Unseen Lands

Poll 21 - 30: RW_7 - Rooftops, Mud Pits, RW_10 - Noisy, Threat - Shoreline, RW_15 - Old Growth, ELSE III, The Captain, RW_20 - Polybius, RW_27 - Train Tunnels, RW_28 - Ferrous Forest

Poll 31 - 40: Grey Cloud, Threat - Superstructure, RW_34 - Slaughter, RW_38 - The Wet Moist, Grumblebum, RW_43 - Albino, Deep Energy, RW_47 - Maze of Soil, ELSE V, Threat - Farm Arrays

Poll 41 - 50: RW_49 - Nest in Metal, RW_50 - Mist Engine, RW_53 - Leviathan Cave, RW_55 - Sky Sprite, RW_58 - Lantern Mice, Bloom, Orange Lizard, Threat - Metropolis (Night), Daze, Garden

Poll 51 - 60: Wired, New ELSE VIII, Ancient, Sparkling Pendulum, Flicker, Threat - Sunken Pier, Onto A New Dawn, Obverse of The Old Wind, Frosted Festival, Trusted Component

Poll 61 - 70: Ascent, Flux, Threat - Rubicon (Unused), Eyes of Iron, Sheer Ice Torrent, Weathered Steps, Open Skies, Frost Reaper, Halcyon Memories (Reprise)

[gastlives]

worm lb 21 part 2

dies

what if she meant for u to literally cut a tie

inchresting

simurgh hates ur ass ig

woow ure still using test subjects huh

thats fucked up

eats math

wow

number man kinda SUCKS huh

what for..

oh

oh man

More?

oh its jack.... wayy long ago

thats craazy

i finished the chapter just kind of thinking they were silly friends buddies how old is jack at this point even

oh hey parian pov

:(

i think its awesome that u learned it :)

oh god a nice guy

wow not even being gay helps

runnnnnnn

i like how tattletale is just TT tattleTale [TT]

she was rose lalonde all along

hes sooo mad

and i get why

blonde???

she believes in taylor...

no no!!!!

im like bitch rn honestly

cries

heeelp

i have asshole rights

shes not in a good mood 😭

and she also hates him so thats that its ok theyre supervillains Not actually landlords

[someonewhogotanaccount]

Kitkat.

I searched Worm up out of curiosity and 6680 PAGES????😭

Yup. And it’s almost 1,6 million words long. Though I would separate it in multiple books (I would say the first book is arc 1-8, the second arc 9-16, the third arc 17-21 and then the rest as a fourth book, because I'm not completely through yet and can't divide the last arcs because of that). I can tell you it's worth it, despite or even because of the length. I often find myself wishing a certain arc had been longer/that I had seen more of a character and so on. It also changes quite drastically and in between it's quite intense. Although, what does in between mean. Actually, from arc 8 on, it's intense all the way through. You really notice how the characters change over time and a lot of things are super complicated. To be honest, in a quarter of the fights I didn't fully understand how exactly the main character won. Maybe that's because the whole story is in English. But as I said, it's worth it because there are always those WTF… OH WAIT, THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE! - moments. It's just sometimes pretty dark (in the truest sense of the word ;), even if I have to say that you, just like the characters, hardens with time against the events.

Gosh, I could say so much more. But I don’t want to spoil you so if you decide you want to read it, I wish you good luck, albeit I can absolutely understand if you don’t. Worm isn’t something for everybody (I‘m still surprised that I can deal with what happens there), but, and I repeat myself a third time, it’s worth it.

Now excuse me, I have to find out what the heck Jack Slash said. I hate cliffhangers ;).

[dorminchu]

semi-organized impressions of dune, parts 1 and 2

below the cut. mild spoilers.

12/??/21

pt1

+ despite never reading the books and going in blind, I was very interested in the world and characters. could follow along pretty well despite the density of the plot.

+ favorite characters would be leto and lady atredies, and reverend mother mohiam. the baron is a good adversary too.

+ paul's perception of chani, and his fate/fates of others around him, changes multiple times over the course of the film. I love that scene where they finally meet for real, and she asks, something along the lines of if his visions of her were true, and he doesn't quite answer.

+ there's this air of both majesty and inescapable tragedy that permeates in this film.

- music, at times, felt like set dressing. I think toto's score compliments the vibe a bit better (the prologue/main theme certainly fits the trailer). which hurts to say, as I am a big fan of hans zimmer's work.

02/29/24

pt2

+ jessica is still a fantastic character.

+ chani and paul really grew up! both of them have excellent character arcs (and a very touching, bittersweet romance). I went through a complete 180 on my opinion of both characters (found her a little undercooked & him ambivalent to the point of vague in pt1, it feels more intentional by pt2). I've heard chiani is quite different in the books, but I can't imagine her character or their relationship being written another way.

+ paul's nutty cousin feyd was a lot of fun, as were the reverend mother(s).

+ the emperor's daughter might be my favorite character so far. paul might've met his match when it comes to strategy.

+ the zero gravity suits are so sick! guerilla warfare between the fremen & harkonen was interesting to watch unfold.

+ paul's duel with feyd is worth the price of admission.

+ riding sandworm scene(s) also worth price of admission.

- I almost wish this movie was 30-60 mins longer. could've fleshed out little bits here and there (the significance of the sand worms & loss of the temple? what/why is spice? what are the other houses like?) but at the same time, it was so much fun to be engrossed in the world and its mystery.

bonus: funniest scenes (to me):

pt 1:

during paul's duel with jamis, his mom decides NOW is a great time to chime in, "oh, paul's never been in a real duel before" or something to that effect.

pt 2:

paul explaining to chani about optimal sand-strafing technique, which was taught on the holobooks, and chani gives him a look that could either be interpreted as, "what's a holobook?" or, "okay nerd, you're still doing it wrong, let me show you how to do it properly so you don't get killed".

the baron clumsily attempting to clamber up the stairs while everyone else is busy apprehending paul. then paul looks over like, "oh hey, I haven't gotten to you have I?" and ignores EVERYONE else including THE EMPEROR just to put the baron out of his misery.

[facelessoldgargoyle]

go read worm.

this worked I’m on arc 21

[shakertwelve]

1, 20, and or 23?

(answered 1 here!)

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

i still don't know if arcs 21-22 of worm were more of a slog than usual or if i had just been reading for 18 hours straight at that point and my brain was starting to fry

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

i get the viclisa thing now. i get it