#worm sentinel

[allwormdiet]

Sentinel 9.4

Back in the saddle again

You know, I'm not sure if tinkers actually are "supposed" to be smart. The other examples we have to work off of besides Kid Win are Bakuda (constant state of fucking around and finding out until it killed her), Armsmaster (he of the dumbfuck raid boss solo plot), and Dragon (actually no notes on Dragon's relative intelligence), plus Chariot in just a minute here who literally only succeeds at being a mole because the Protectorate allows him to succeed as a ploy

I'll concede that they're adept engineers and scientists, sure, but you can know how to build a nuclear reactor and still be dumb enough to build it in your backyard. There's no single measure of intelligence that everyone measures high on, that's just not how it goes.

Then again like two-thirds of this chapter are lowkey about Kid having self-esteem issues so like, I get that he's being hard on himself. I feel like half the cape POVs we've gotten so far have self-esteem issues, never mind Taylor Hebert Queen of Self-Image Problems

I'm gonna skim over a lot of this fight like I had in 9.3, but while this can't feel good for one's confidence, honestly I'd mostly just be relieved. Like, yes, let the villains whose powers are Railgun and The Fucking Sun take it easy on me, that's fine, I like my body parts staying in the configuration they have.

Thank God he actually has a chance to feel like he's contributing, without the horror of accidentally killing someone

Wow, Trickster sucks. Why do they put up with this guy?

So, somehow I doubt he's somehow lacking in a specialty, but from the description of his apparent focus issues (plus the fact that taking medication to help with focus nearly took him out) I wonder if the way his tinker stuff goes involves having a bunch of little things, if the lack of focus is somehow a sign of what his specialty actually is.

Oh fucking boy

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay (sarcastic)

Also I don't know why they specifically would go to cities that have already been Endbringered but there's a real "kick them while they're down" energy to it that I do not care for. Goddamn jackals.

Is it the "another tinker" thing or the "that wasn't Armsmaster" thing that he's more excited about lmao

Weld's adapting a little better to his role, and Clockblocker is able to keep his mouth shut and play along, so things are improving.

I dunno man, it's a citywide apocalypse, does bedtime matter anymore?

Hey what the

Fuck

is going on here

Tinker-to-tinker communication

Y'know, now I'm curious what the wages are for a non-Tinker Protectorate member. Obviously Tinkers can have it made if they've got something the higher-ups want, but is Miss Militia making enough to own a house? Is your income tied to merch sales?

Think this is the first time someone has outright said triggering as a parahuman rewires your brain to some extent. Curious to see further elaboration on that.

I think if you're gonna hire a mole, you should make sure they can lie convincingly. That feels like step two.

(Step one is "make sure you can trust this person to be a mole for you")

Fucking gottem

Well hey Kid, looks like you're pulling your weight after all

Current Thoughts

I do think Sentinel is a neat arc but I'll admit, in recounting and rereading this it lost me a little bit. That might just be the Travelers fight though, I could feel the lack of stakes to the fight like a gap between my teeth.

Kid seems like a solid character, classic impulsive inventor with an actual exploration of what that impulsiveness does to his work ethic and self-worth. I'm glad he gets a chance to shine here and I hope he figures out his exact specialization so he can stop being so down on himself

The Wards do seem to be coalescing into more of a team as things progress, sure would be a shame if the resident lone wolf was to fall for obvious bait and disrupt that or something.

[gastlives]

ok vriska

girl what the fuck calm down

bye bitch

i do wnana know whats ur deal still why u Doing this it does seem like we'll learn at least hopefully ok annnd its shadow stalker pov wonder if shes gonna think abt taylor and its last arcchapter …

welp theres the other bitch

not much abt madison so far

man ure the one throwing tantrums whenever someone claps back

lived w this all ur life huh

wow…

did u pick out eyeballs tho?

i bet ya didnt

holy shit a BUTCH 😍

but cop tho.. oh well shes not real

sad people: exist sophia: >:(

yeah no shit shes 'predator'

what the hell why is she here

does she know shes taylor?

oh man getting another nemesis are you?

oh….

thats not good that she knows

kill!

maybe ure not the only one seeking carthasis

ok so she doesnt know its taylor at least

still ha ha ha ha

nice to know

sad that taylor doesnt have lisa powers

haha nice one

omg grue?

omg regent?

team beatdown?

woa cool mask… tattletale?

yess eye level moment

oh wait no thats a new one

also brutus (?) is still alive thats awesome… undersiders goes strong

skitter badass moment

oh yeah that scepter had a taser

okay… hi imp

[spydere]

Ok because it keeps getting auto removed from the subreddit, I'll just post it here then.

So, Browbeat originally survived Leviathan, but was retconned into dying because of the Stranger 12 memes. We all know this part.

But.

On kind of a reread to keep pace with livereads, and I noticed this passage in Sentinel 9.5:

These are, I would guess, memorials of the Wards that died during Leviathan.

There are two memorials. The number of dead Wards, now, retcon taken into account, is three.

I'm sure you can see the problem here.

[delectableworm]

Stinky rat man, evil little twunk‼️‼️

(I want to obliterate him on a daily basis-)

WHO SAID THAT?!?

Nuh uh continue 👂👂👂👂 im listening. My pussy ear is wide to hear.

Evil lil twunk I'll have him on his knees whining crying hands cuffed behind as I stepped on his tiny spike. Tiny spike for a big ego mech♥️♥️

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

I hate to say 'Sophia almost has a point' but her comment in 9.2 about not rendering the victim they rescued powerless or she'll never get over it is...

Not entirely without merit? Like, not right, but not wrong?

[canarydarity]

hello,, remember that Jimmy centric harbinger of death au I mentioned months back? Have a snippet of a scene from the first chapter :) (which will be posted in full soon!)

“Jimmy, look out!” 

From over his shoulder, he hears it—the spark and a slight buzz, like static; for a weird second, he thinks of the radio and the crackling, the sand in the desert. But he knows better, he knows that hiss, a sound that haunts him both awake and asleep. It doesn’t matter that he was just facing that direction and had seen no sign of any creepers—there was a conditioned response to what he just heard, everyone has one; Jimmy’s is to drop, ducking to the ground hands up and over his head—not that they would’ve done anything to protect him had the threat been real. 

And while nothing happened—no crater dug itself into the ground, no hole ripped itself through his barely-armored body, no gasp as he woke up back in that desert—the panic was most definitely real. Seasoned target of one too many jokes, following the usual progression Jimmy knows the anger comes next; the panic would fade upon the realization that the threat wasn’t real and the annoyance at whatever joke was played would take its place, no less insistent and intense as the feeling before it. But as Jimmy cowers on the ground, catching his breath, his hands frantically cataloging limbs and appendages and understanding he was fine, he doesn’t find that his fear gives way to anger—his fear wasn’t giving away at all. 

His ears are ringing, which is weird because there had been no actual explosion. The noise came from somewhere—probably a disc if he had to guess—but it was pre-recorded, only a playback of some other detonation, it shouldn’t have nearly been enough to do any real damage. And it didn’t seem to for anyone else either, if the laughter he vaguely hears behind him is any sort of indication. The perpetrators are fine, but even so, Jimmy’s head rocks like there had been a blast, like he needs time to recover. 

No matter how many times he repeats to himself that nothing had happened, that it was just a stupid prank, he can’t seem to calm down. 

A hand touches his arm and he flinches hard, blinking up to find Scott just trying to help him to his feet. “Easy, Jimmy, easy.” Jimmy lets Scott pull him until he’s standing, brushing him off. 

Martyn is still laughing at his own prank, wiping a tear from below his eye, practically wheezing; it’s unclear how much of it is real and how much is for show. “I have gotten a one hundred percent success rate with that,” he brags with a happy sigh, hands out to his sides, inviting them to join in on his praise. “I gotta say, I’m pleased.”  

“What was that noise?” Jimmy asks, but his question goes unanswered. 

“He got me as well,” Scott says, but then he turns to look at Jimmy with a smirk. “But not nearly as aggressively as he got you, Jimmy.” 

Jimmy wants to join them in their amusement, he really does, but his heart rate hasn’t quite recovered yet. He’s embarrassed, almost, to still be feeling it. He blinks a few times hoping to clear something in his brain, begging himself to calm down, to chill out before someone notices. 

But of course, the next thing Martyn says is “Just a music disc Tim, jeez, you alright there?” Not sounding at all actually concerned about Jimmy’s state of being; his deceptively kind words more an excuse to poke at Jimmy’s weak spots than actually inquire about his feelings.

He wants to play it cool, to take the joke as easily as he’s sure the others have, but instead on instinct his shock makes him shove his arm in Martyn’s face, crowing “I’ve got goosebumps, Martyn, look!” 

Martyn draws back in his distaste, his own hand coming up to push Jimmy’s arm back down and away. “Yep, I see that alright, thank you.”

Scott pats Jimmy twice on the shoulder, something he’s quickly getting sick of happening in this sort of context.

“I’ve got a few more people to get with it, though, so—” Martyn says, clearly trying to take his leave now that he did what he came here to. “Actually,” he interrupts himself, “have you seen Grian anywhere?”

Scott shakes his head, “No, I—”

And—maybe just a moment behind—Jimmy understands he means to repeat the prank again, and speaks without really thinking about it or meaning to for the second time today. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, actually.” 

Martyn’s eyes dart away from him and then back again like he's giving some sort of aside to an audience, acknowledging the weirdness of Jimmy’s comment with a 3rd party who’s in on the bit. “Um, what?”

Jimmy ignores the feeling that he’s walking himself into a joke, calling on Martyn to pick him apart like usual—because the feeling of wrong wrong wrong wrong is so much stronger. His ears are still ringing from the explosion that didn’t happen, and he rubs a hand over one of them trying to make it go away before he answers, but for some reason, that only makes it louder. 

He winces, both from the pain and the knowledge that he knows exactly how this conversation is going to go over before he even starts it. 

“I said you oughta stop that.” He tries to be firm, but from the smirk on Martyn’s face, he’s not going to succeed. It makes Jimmy double down, rush the rest of the sentence out of his mouth as quickly as possible, trying to avoid the possibility of being dismissed. “Someone could get seriously hurt!”

“It’s not a real creeper though, is it Timmy?” 

Jimmy feels the helpless frown settle on his face, and the frustration that comes with knowing he's going to lose but not wanting to give up; he acts and speaks with the same level of intensity as he does with everything else, but there's an underlying urgency here that he does not doubt even though he doesn’t quite understand its cause. He doesn’t bother answering Martyn’s question, knowing at least enough to understand that he isn’t meant to. 

“I still don’t think you should be doin’ that though!” He argues, and the worst possible turn the conversation could take begins from there; dismissal of the point that the prank is potentially dangerous for the more amusing idea that Jimmy is a sore participant. 

Martyn rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “Oh come on,” he drawls. “Take a joke, take a joke…” 

Jimmy groans, “But Martyn, I think th—”

Martyn groans back, “But Timmy!” 

Scott laughs and Jimmy turns to glare at him, giving up on his sentence halfway through. 

Martyn takes the distraction as his leave, already having jogged halfway across the tiny valley by the time Jimmy looks back in his direction. 

“You’re gonna kill someone with that!” Jimmy yells after him, but Martyn is ignoring him and making really exaggerated gestures of goodbye, like he's just given a performance and the crowd is shouting for an encore. He brings both hands to his mouth and blows a kiss to his imaginary admirers, then clasps his hands together giving a large bow; waving, smiling, mouthing thank you. 

Jimmy calls again “I’m serious Martyn!” But his friend fakes a laugh and says “oh, you’re all too kind!” Before disappearing over the crest of the mountain across them.

[reckless-elsecaller]

Been mulling over a wormfic idea recently (technically a crossover with SotM, but I would be trying to keep it acessible for Worm onlys) Post GM

So basically the death of Zion kind of opens up earth to the interference of some cosmic entities. And one of them, Malavox, saves Taylor from Contessa, and even heals her mind and boosts her powers. All he asks in return, is that Taylor bring the world to heel, place her boot upon the collective necks of everyone, for her to CONQUER. Which, y'know, Taylor really isn't interested in, for many reasons. To her objections, Malavox, following his normal patterns, says not to worry, she is free to leave his service at any time. He'll even leave her with the enhanced powers. Malavox will however be taking the mental healing back, and leaving Khepri free to roam in Taylor's place. Now aware of her actions as Khepri, and afraid of unleashing a powered up version of that, Taylor agrees to work for him.

Taylor meets up with the friends she has left who don't want to kill her. Rachel is there, Taylor cries on her shoulder. Taylor is mad that she was lied to about Grue. Strong emotions are had. A weird psychic AI that Malavox connected Taylor to tells her that She will likely face opposition from agents of Malavox's rivals.

[ganurath]

I feel like Kid Win's arrival on the tenement where Chariot's family lived doesn't get enough analysis, because there are so many untold stories and implications squeezed into the four lines and two paragraphs that go from Kid Win's arrival at the building to meeting Chariot's mom at the door to the family's apartment.

[honeysider]

FUCK YEAH SKITTER WE ARE BACK IN BUSINESS AND YOU GOT TO TASE YOUR TORMENTOR FUCK YEAH YOU GO GIRL

[wormbloggign]

sayonara armsmasterbator! i hope you dont come back!

[allwormdiet]

Sentinel 9.6

Well.

At least we're not as fucked as Brockton Bay.

"Ugh, how dare crime be prevented so I can't beat the shit out of the people doing the crimes for my own catharsis" - sentiments of the utterly normal

This glimpse into the inner workings of these two has not endeared me to them any further, tbh. I think the time in which they can actually turn these impressions around is starting to dwindle.

So. Here's Sophia's worldview laid plain, and it's about what I expected. Might makes right, violence and desperation and greed are the true nature of humanity, everyone can be divided between sheep and wolves and she refuses to be a sheep.

Mostly I think I'm just curious as to what, exactly, shaped her to be this way. Like obviously whatever caused her to trigger is a factor, but I don't know if any parahuman has had a complete overhaul of their personality brought about by their power coming online; I suspect that she'd followed some version of this mentality before the worst day of her life (so far) proved her right.

I can't imagine Piggot would be thrilled that Shadow Stalker thinks so highly of her, or at least the why of it.

This is cool, though. Give Wildbow credit, he can make just about any sensation of using a power sound rad as hell.

*sighs* Fucking Nazis

At least Sophia is sensible about what to do with them

Another neat fight scene, this one is a bit quicker than the Travelers tussle so I kinda like it more. That and it involves beating the shit out of Nazis.

Ruh roh Raggy

hiimdaisy_adachi_murder.mp3

Oh yeah, why eliminate the villain who you know is a particular threat to you, specifically, when you can try to torment her first?

This isn't even me saying that Sophia should try to murder Skitter, bc obviously I prefer the latter to the former, but taking the whole thing of seeing her secret identity into consideration, the response to crossing paths should be "take her down fast and hard," not "put her back against the wall and make her panic"

It's gonna fucking break her brain when she realizes Taylor is Skitter, huh?

There's something really funny about how basically every outsider POV we've gotten on Skitter involves hating her ass. Truly cursed to be unpopular.

I like the logical weaknesses of Sophia's power so far. Things getting into her shadow form, like bugs, fuck with her ability to remanifest because she has to "shove" them out of where she's going to solidify. The electricity I'm less clear on, maybe just some quirk of what she's "made" of in her altered state, but it's a good way to explain why she can't just leap through buildings willy nilly. The thing with the gas/vapor absorption that gets mentioned in a second also makes sense and is pretty neat.

Hey Sophia do you maybe regret playing with your food a little bit

Also still cool to see Skitter's powers from the outside POV

God that's so cool

...Y'know, if these two could get over their bullshit for like, a minute, they could probably have some very cathartic hate-makeouts. More blood than normal for kissing but less blood than normal for their usual interactions.

Lol

Lmao

Nuts that what threw her off in this moment was looking for a secondary murder weapon to cover up her power's tell.

Also: get fucked Sophia.

And you fell for it hook line and sinker, because you're a petty tunnel-visioned sadist.

Got the whole crew doing the group pose, love to see it

Also: hi Aisha, glad you get to join the team, sorry you had a trigger event, hope the future scenes with you are less uncomfortable than your first one

Skitter is so fucking good at playing up the villain role, she really should be proud of the work she puts into it.

Not entirely sure why they're kidnapping Shadow Stalker, but I'm sure it's going to be another photo album moment for the Undersiders and their rise to prominence.

Concluding Thoughts

Y'know, a lot of trouble could've been avoided if Sophia just ignored that impulse to play with her prey. I'm not gonna be like "oh why can't she just rein in the violence" because every parahuman we've met so far is either a participant or facilitator of violence, but the cruelty is what's gotten her in trouble here. Not only did she only get baited into this trap because she refused to make an earlier attempt at the killing blow, not only did she take the bait of hunting down a lone villain while a PRT convoy was under attack by fucking Nazis, but the hostility might have been avoided if she hadn't gotten her kicks from tormenting and assaulting Taylor. If Sophia was just Emma's friend who hung back and watched as she tormented Taylor, things might've differently all the way back in the medical tent, but alas, she was a willing and gleeful participant.

Little concerned about what the fuck they're going to do to her, but there's nothing to do but wait and see.

Also, cautiously glad that Imp has arrived, she seems fun from what I've picked up via osmosis, again fingers crossed that her continued presence in this story doesn't involve nearly as much wincing as Tangle 6.3 because holy shit.

[gastlives]

weld nooooo ure not being charismatic enough!

omg mom im on tv

whos nilbog.. i remember the case fifty threes tho at least

no… how could u tell….

maaaybe itd be a little fucked but ummm could amy help?

well im gonna guess this is what were tlaking abt if he reached out to her

yknow she looks to have less curls in fanart ive seen of her

curls retocn retcon

damn rip new wave

oh yeah ur bf died… and poor browbeat…

yuuup

awesome

well thats kinda robophobic

metalphobic

u upset the kid..

damn u conviced shadowstalker..

oh damn

wadahell

trickster kinda op damn

that must be crazy to experience as a metal man

thats craazy high

goodbye clockblocker…

its cuz ure not a THINKER lol

hi kid win

well ure lucky that they dont wanna kill yet

yea it would have probably been better if u didnt get rid of that hoverboard

welp

holy shit trickster not the kid

oh shit

neurodivergent moment

i wouldnt be surprised if i had dyscalculia myslef im kinda shit at simple numbers off from the head eh

woww when powers make me more fucked abt adhd

[reckless-elsecaller]

Way way too many things for me too say just one

don’t think i can call it a hyperfixation anymore fam im afraid im just long term insane about this piece of media

[did-sm1-say-catfish]

ok, psych sentinel and guide au

keep in mind, I've read like three sentinel and guide au's. I get the gist of it... i think.

Here is the info page I've been looking at for the Sentinel and guide shit

I'm thinking of a very genfic (except the angst) type of story, where Shawn is a traumatized little sentinel and Gus is just there to stop him from making trouble... and then they become bffs. of course, the little psychic stunt is still gonna happen in universe, but oh man the shenanigans these little blorbs would get up to!!

ex. Shawn hiding bc of everything being too much and his parents yelling, and Gus just hugs him and helps him zone in. ||| Gus trying to steal cookies from the teachers lounge because "its not fair" but Shawn finds out thru sentinel shit and they just end up bickering in the teachers lounge until they get caught. ||| they go to a hockey game and when Shawn gets zoned out gus calms him down and they go steal pucks instead of staying in the stadium

guys im so close to making fanfiction and fanart for this stupid au. ....I must resist so i can finish my dabihawks todofam draft

[got-into-worm-by-mistake]

Oh, the Wards are children, Sophia? Right, and you turned 18 when, you psychotic bitch?

[canarydarity]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: 3rd life | Last life smp series, double life smp Rating: Teen Audiences and Up Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archival Warnings Relationships: Jimmy Solidarity & Martyn inthelittlewood, Jimmy Solidarity & Scott Smajor, (eventually Jimmy Solidarity/Tango Tek) Additional Tags: 3rd Life SMP Spoilers, 3rd Life SMP References, POV Jimmy, Jimmy | Solidarity-centric, Canary Jimmy | Solidarity, jimmy solidarity as a harbinger of death, Introspection, Angst, Not Canon Compliant, or not completely i mean, this will eventually be a team rancher fic, when it gets to dl, Jimmy | Solidarity Needs a Hug, Social Anxiety, Jimmy | Solidarity Has Self-Esteem Issues, Dissociation (additional tags to be added) Summary: A bit of a different interpretation of the canary curse throughout the seasons of the life series. We already know the story of the canary—dying first, dying always. But what of the harbinger of death?

___________ I graduated college, so here, have the first chapter of my Jimmy harbinger of death au: Sentinel Species