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In which Taylor attends a computer class, makes some new friends, and meets three darling dogs.
This is the discussion post for Arc 2 of Worm, by Wildbow. Any and all comments welcome! Spoilers for events later than this arc must be encoded via rot13.com. Spoilers for this arc should not be encoded.
Want to jump in?
1. Read it online. If this makes your eyes bleed...
2. Email me at Rphoenix2 @ gmail and I'll send you an epub. If you do this, please pay Wildbow something via his PayPal or Patreon. This is not an offer with an expiration date - I'll send it along any time.
Spoilers!
Taylor's school situation is so fucked. I've seen some peoplebeing wrong on the internet arguing that she willfully turns down offers of help, but based on my own experience being bullied at school, she's absolutely right that the offer is worthless and would only make things worse. Mr. Gladly is the teacher, he has the power, he could have intervened when he heard and saw the girls being mean to her, and he instead pushed the responsibility off on Taylor, the victim. He sucks. Also, I want to punch Emma in the face.
This arc really comes to life when Taylor meets the Undersiders. I love their lair - it's so appealing in a teenage way, with the pizza boxes and big TV and Alec's graffiti. Rachel aside, the others are already being nicer to her and valuing her more than anyone in her normal life. The bit where Lisa hugs her and Taylor realizes that no one hugs her but her dad is so heartbreaking.
I'm not sure how much sense Taylor's undercover plan makes on a logical level. Armsmaster already offered her a place with the Wards and she didn't want it due to too much adult control and teenage drama, so it's not clear what she'd actually get from giving him valuable information. I think her plan only makes sense in that it gives her an excuse to make friends with some people who actually want her without her feeling like she's really going over to the side of evil and villainy.
(Actual level of observed evil on the part of the Undersiders at this point: low.)
There's something hilarious about Taylor getting attacked by a Rottweiler, a German Shepherd, and... a one-eyed, one-eared, hairless terrier.
It was very satisfying to see Taylor finally not hold back and instead physically fight back . Brian and Lisa tending Taylor and Rachel's injuries in their lair was oddly sweet and cozy.
"V pbageby ohtf. Gung'f abg tbvat gb fgbc Nyrknaqevn, Tybel Tvey, be Nrtvf."
This line is nothing noteworthy on first read, but with the benefit of hindsight, holy shit.
The Victoria and Amy interlude is fun and makes an excellent compare-and-contrast with the rest of the book. Meet the heroes! Aren't they heroic? Victoria's well-practiced landing pose and letting the breeze blow back her hair cracks me up - I know exactly what pose she means.
I enjoy and appreciate that she beats the shit out of a racist skinhead, but if you're not supposed to just murder people and you're not actually trying to, throwing them across the street and then throwing a dumpster at them is unwise. The accidental overkill reminds me of Taylor accidentally nearly killing Lung with spider bites, but it was the first time Taylor attacked anyone with spiders and she had reason to believe he'd regenerate. This is the sixth time Victoria has nearly killed an unpowered criminal, and she had no reason to believe tossing a dumpster at him wouldn't kill him. Amy won't be able to bail her out if she kills someone on the spot or gives them brain damage!
I also like the difference between the sisters - in particular, Victoria's straightforward violence and Amy's subtle mindfuck.
This is the discussion post for Arc 2 of Worm, by Wildbow. Any and all comments welcome! Spoilers for events later than this arc must be encoded via rot13.com. Spoilers for this arc should not be encoded.
Want to jump in?
1. Read it online. If this makes your eyes bleed...
2. Email me at Rphoenix2 @ gmail and I'll send you an epub. If you do this, please pay Wildbow something via his PayPal or Patreon. This is not an offer with an expiration date - I'll send it along any time.
Spoilers!
Taylor's school situation is so fucked. I've seen some people
This arc really comes to life when Taylor meets the Undersiders. I love their lair - it's so appealing in a teenage way, with the pizza boxes and big TV and Alec's graffiti. Rachel aside, the others are already being nicer to her and valuing her more than anyone in her normal life. The bit where Lisa hugs her and Taylor realizes that no one hugs her but her dad is so heartbreaking.
I'm not sure how much sense Taylor's undercover plan makes on a logical level. Armsmaster already offered her a place with the Wards and she didn't want it due to too much adult control and teenage drama, so it's not clear what she'd actually get from giving him valuable information. I think her plan only makes sense in that it gives her an excuse to make friends with some people who actually want her without her feeling like she's really going over to the side of evil and villainy.
(Actual level of observed evil on the part of the Undersiders at this point: low.)
There's something hilarious about Taylor getting attacked by a Rottweiler, a German Shepherd, and... a one-eyed, one-eared, hairless terrier.
It was very satisfying to see Taylor finally not hold back and instead physically fight back . Brian and Lisa tending Taylor and Rachel's injuries in their lair was oddly sweet and cozy.
"V pbageby ohtf. Gung'f abg tbvat gb fgbc Nyrknaqevn, Tybel Tvey, be Nrtvf."
This line is nothing noteworthy on first read, but with the benefit of hindsight, holy shit.
The Victoria and Amy interlude is fun and makes an excellent compare-and-contrast with the rest of the book. Meet the heroes! Aren't they heroic? Victoria's well-practiced landing pose and letting the breeze blow back her hair cracks me up - I know exactly what pose she means.
I enjoy and appreciate that she beats the shit out of a racist skinhead, but if you're not supposed to just murder people and you're not actually trying to, throwing them across the street and then throwing a dumpster at them is unwise. The accidental overkill reminds me of Taylor accidentally nearly killing Lung with spider bites, but it was the first time Taylor attacked anyone with spiders and she had reason to believe he'd regenerate. This is the sixth time Victoria has nearly killed an unpowered criminal, and she had no reason to believe tossing a dumpster at him wouldn't kill him. Amy won't be able to bail her out if she kills someone on the spot or gives them brain damage!
I also like the difference between the sisters - in particular, Victoria's straightforward violence and Amy's subtle mindfuck.
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tl;dr I realize no one is going to find these thoughts interesting but here goes
- so if you're a normal in this universe, you are SO FUCKED but I guess that's generally true in superhero universes.
- I sort of want to hear about how SOMEONE is just getting the hell out of dodge, although it kind of sounds like if there are superpowered jackasses everywhere you're just fucked no matter what.
- OTOH I'm fascinated by the economics and...I ASSUME any leader of the rando superpowered gangs with a working brain realizing that completely destroying the
means of productioncivilians will probably fuck up their infrastructure?? Not enough information. I mean like if you have a "never needs to eat/photosynthesis" superpower you just might not care. But like. This money from the Undersiders' boss, okay so maybe the boss is a trust fund baby, but seriously, the money has to come from somewhere????? Ditto food, supplies, etc.?- Taylor's school situation is believably fucked. What's really interesting to me is where her analysis nails the power/social dynamics involved (I think the analysis is mostly in her head and not spoken out loud? I can't remember and I didn't bookmark it) but she's...kind of shit at analyzing anything else re: social/power dynamics. Which makes sense; she's steeped in school.
- Lol, the instant I saw that she was getting her dis/information about superpowered people off forums AND A FUCKING WIKI I went, I bet 80% of that information is put there by credulous unreliable people (or people who just don't know anything useful/reliable), bored 4chan types who are doing it for the lulz, or people ACTIVELY putting up disinformation (which one of the teen "villains" she ends up with claims to have done about his own powers although I don't know if I believe him). I mean please. Taylor needs to read Sun-Tzu and/or Paul Linebarger. God.
- I am SUPER confused about how Tattletale's power even works, if it does. Partly this may be that the reader just isn't given that much info yet (possibly also that they don't trust Taylor with details). I think it would be hilarious/much more interesting if the "this is my weird intuition superpower" thing was total bullshit and Tattletale...is instead
Kevin Mitnick"just" a regular but very good hacker/security engineer/social engineer. Alas, I will probably not be that lucky.- Taylor is "underwhelmed" by Alec's nondramatic power. Taylor sucks at min-maxing. I think it's subtle and fucking scary and probably, e.g., lets you carry out really hard-to-detect assassinations. (Make you "accidentally" trip off a ledge/ladder? "Accidentally" fire a gun? Uh.)
- I would also sort of expect, beyond drift compatibility personality concerns, smarter leaders to be recruiting for force multiplier potential - not just the power level of individuals, but how their power sets work together. I would personally be REALLY worried about Coil and his fifty ex-military peeps if they actually genuinely know how to work together with whatever the hell they may have for powers, as opposed to five rando teens who cannot even keep from fighting each other for one night.
- Taylor actually does not seem to realize she has it pretty good in terms of "what can I offer you" because she has a great intel/information power with additional attack possibilities (given brown recluses/disease). Intel is valuable to everyone!!!
- Also the whole "I block radio" dude (sorry, I lose track, I can tell who Bitch is but the other characters just bore me) whoa, that's VERY INTERESTING, is that across the E&M spectrum or only specifically radio frequencies??? Pending access to testing situations, that would be THE FIRST thing I sussed out!!! Because total E&M blackout could be weaponized in really interesting ways. It would actually be very interesting if he could specifically filter various E&M bands.
- I don't know that Taylor spying on the Undersiders for Armsmaster is that coherent a plan, but she knows where their lair is - assuming it's the only one or the real "main" one; I sure as fuck would have a backup lair and/or bunker or five if I was able to secure the territory, which sounds admittedly like a BIG if given the number of super groups attested in the interlude. Honestly, some of the Undersiders seem like nice kids but also I would not join them given a choice because they SUCK at operational security and I want to live?! Anyway, even if not Armsmaster, someone might want that information, if she survived long enough to spill the beans AND could guarantee she wouldn't also get offed right after. For that matter, I totally get why she was pissed enough to threaten to walk out after getting attacked (I have a temper too!) but did she just think...they would...let her go knowing what she knows?!
A better play might be setting up via whatever the fuck passes as a online service with whatever the fuck virtual proxy thing (look, I'm not a hacker) rather than ever going out IN PERSON for this stuff but I guess then we wouldn't have an action story. Also, frankly, at this point in time (with the understanding that she's still a teen!) she doesn't seem to have the social savvy to play off very dangerous people against each other; if she had that skill set AT ALL she wouldn't have a bullying problem. (I'm not saying Taylor deserves to be bullied; the bullies suck. I'm saying that someone with that specific skill set would have been able to maneuver around/stop the bullies.) Of course, also I'm thinking of John Varley's "Press Enter" and for all I know there are people whose superpowers let them kill you over a phone connection, so it may well be moot.
- God, my kingdom for a competent penetration tester.
- My unpopular opinion about the interlude is that Victoria and Amy are assholes, but even more unforgivably, they're stupid assholes. I mean, yes, the racist skinhead is a suck human being and I really don't care about him, but Victoria does not seem to give a SINGLE THOUGHT to bystanders or secondary casualties when she's slinging things around. Also I have Feelings about the Hippocratic Oath, so Amy can die in a fire too.
- I also really hate the "torturing people works!!!" meme but that's so common in (USAn, usually) fiction I have given up. Besides which I'm not convinced I'm supposed to think of Victoria and Amy as being really "good" people anyway.
- I actually enjoyed this arc! I don't particularly like or care about any of the characters but thinking about the multiple tactical clusterfucks either happening or waiting to happen is satisfying.
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Re: tl;dr I realize no one is going to find these thoughts interesting but here goes
Taylor has horrible social skills except in some fairly limited situations, and is really not good at the sort of social savvy you mention.
IIRC a lot of people have in fact fled Brockton Bay and other places with high cape concentrations, because they are in fact terrible to live in. Lots and lots of collateral damage.
I don't think we're at all supposed to think Victoria or Amy are nice people based on what we see in their interlude, and Victoria particularly comes across as incredibly reckless. I think it's significant that the first interlude we see from a hero's POV shows them being terrible and not actually heroic - and given that they're being mean to a racist skinhead, they have to be very OTT mean to make readers think anything but "Yay kick that skinhead's ass!"
Taylor is "underwhelmed" by Alec's nondramatic power. Taylor sucks at min-maxing. I think it's subtle and fucking scary and probably, e.g., lets you carry out really hard-to-detect assassinations. (Make you "accidentally" trip off a ledge/ladder? "Accidentally" fire a gun? Uh.)
I had exactly the same reaction - Alec's power seems incredibly useful! In retrospect, once you've gotten Glory Girl's interlude, her underwhelm makes a bit more sense. If capes mostly assassinate ordinary people, Alec's power is fantastic. If they mostly fight each other, then it's not going to be that useful if you're going up against Superman.
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Re: tl;dr I realize no one is going to find these thoughts interesting but here goes
Agreed. Although for me it's not even entirely the OTT mean. I mean, I don't care about the skinhead. If Victoria and Amy were assholes but they limited their targets to skinheads, okay? But it's not just that they're mean, it's that I'm not convinced they're particularly bright or conscientious or good at target selectio. Victoria's approach to superheroing convinces me that maybe this time the target was actually a skinhead but it would not at all surprise me if some of the past almost-kills were random unlucky non-skinheads or anyway, people who didn't "deserve" to be beaten up (for some value of "deserve").
OTOH, powers aside, with their stupidity I don't imagine they're long for this world anyway.
I actually really hate Amy a lot more than Victoria, but this is a me problem. I think Victoria is supposed to come across as More Of The Problem and Amy is The Enabler, but since one of the very first things I learned as a small child was the Hippocratic Oath, I have an irrational bias here.
Alec's power seems incredibly useful! In retrospect, once you've gotten Glory Girl's interlude, her underwhelm makes a bit more sense. If capes mostly assassinate ordinary people, Alec's power is fantastic. If they mostly fight each other, then it's not going to be that useful if you're going up against Superman.
I don't have enough data at this point to say, but...If it's the case that capes (a) generally don't CARE about normals (non-cape normal friends, lovers, family, etc. etc.) and (b) capes don't ever significantly RELY on normals (food production? inventing/mending gear? running banks? janitors? random support/logistics staff????), or (c) capes can generally protect any normals they care about then sure. OTOH, if capes ever have significant emotional weaknesses with normals, rely on normals for logistical/supply/other needs, or are spread too thin/???? to protect any normals in the first two categories, I could still deffo see a use for Alec!
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I mean - he's fine if a story HAS completely vile villains. But the protagonist needs to be heroic, or did something horrible in the past but is genuinely seeking redemption, that kind of thing. If it's straight-up antiheroes all the way down, he's out.
I asked Ara about it, and she said she noped out because (a) too long (b) she didn't care about any of the characters (c) in particular, she thought Taylor was incompetent.
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oh god I completely missed that even on my reread!
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