when i first read worm as a kid i was like damn this case worker is being pretty harsh on brian that sucks he just wants to do right by his sister
and then when reading it again as an adult that scene makes me burst out laughing every single time. HE’S SEVENTEEN
genuinely obsessed w/ taylor hebert. like. Incredible character design. despite it all, worm is still The Best Superpowered Media. the way the bug powers are entirely integral to her identity the way she is Literally a bug girl the way she’s always putting the para in parahuman. obsessed w/ the fact that she’s a crawling worm you can’t root out and a biting swarm that blots out the sun and a cockroach that loses its head and keeps fucking going. obsessed with the bit during gold morning where she’s floating dead in the water and then lab rat’s tech lets her grow literal bug legs & mandibles so she can skitter back up the oil rig and think about how much she wants to hurt an entity which can snuff billions of people like ants beneath its heel. character who is a bug both in the sense that she’s infinitesimally small and that it is impossible to really get rid of her. you can shoot her and leave her in a burning building for dead, you can snap her spine, you can blind her, you can tear her intestines out, and she still just Keeps Fucking Crawling so she can reach your mouth and suffocate you. literally the most david vs goliath character of all time except it’s cockroach vs goliath. you can nuke the planet and she’ll hide in the nooks and crannies of the barren wasteland promising that she’s going to get back at you for what you’ve done, and she always makes good on that promise. she’s the queen of the hive she’s the monarch she’s the administrator she’s The Worm That Turns she is THEE top weirdgirl character Ever
hello people who follow me whose interests presumably align with my own, i would like to strongly recommend to you the serial web novel Katalepsis. there's a plot summary on that linked page if you want to take a peek, as well as content warnings, but you can also start blind here (unless you feel like you need to take a glance over the content warnings!)
very nice blend of cosmic horror/urban fantasy with a dash of lesbian romance (there are a lot of lesbians in this), generally a fun story and very worth a read. the pacing is probably the best part, i managed to carve through this one pretty quick despite its volume because it doesn't feel like a lot to read in practice. so very enthralling and with worldbuilding that has me very intrigued
Notes I’ve taken on arc four of Pale:
I think this was my favourite arc so far and that last chapter was my favourite chapter so far. Now that the characters and their relationships are all well established, I feel like, it can really focus on the emotions of the characters and play with their relationships. Which I absolutely love and which I think is the authors biggest strength.
So about the arc: It is cut into two pieces, with the first four chapters being set (mostly) in Kennet and focusing on the party. This part was absolutely great and I really like the dynamics the trio has with their classmates, Melissa and Jeremy in particular. (Same is also true about their new „classmates“ at the BHI.) The second half, set in the BHI, was really exciting in terms of worldbuilding and magic and almost tricked me into thinking school is useful or fun. What I liked most about this part was seeing the different attitudes of the Practitioners towards Others, others and morals in general.
I was about to say that Avery is my new favourite because of her character development with the forest ribbon trail, snowdrop and her relationship with her family, but the last chapter where the girls create echos of themselves really cemented Verona as the best. I really appreciate having a good person protagonist who has problems feeling emotions like other people.
Also I am not quite sure whether Verona wanting to become an Other is allegorical for dysphoria, suicidal thoughts or not an allegory at all. Either way she continues to be the most relatable character and I love her.
lisa felt the need to request no tongue bc her shard told her exactly what taylor did to that poor girl
Accord literally solved world hunger in under seven hours and the Number Man ran the economy in worm. I don’t think it is that unlikely for them to be able to build a stable city together.
Even if it weren’t connected to other worlds.
like 90% of the fatal flaws in the worldbuilding of ward come from the fact that wildbow ended worm with an apocalypse but evidently did not want to write a post apocalyptic story so the world ward takes place in makes no fucking sense
One of my favorite genres of post
RIP Victoria Dallon you would have loved that stupid blue cop from League Of Legends