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I'm not sure if I like the "sidekick syndrome" that comes with a kid familiar. I'd rather have a less human familiar that is really a tool with personality (like June is) than a familiar that will more than likely be a responsibility for Blake. Not to mention that Rose is already kinda like that (and we can see how well that is working out for Blake). Also, while I liked the chapter in general, the Hyena's binding seems either kind of lazy, or a terrible move that will bite Blake in the rear end. What was the binding, really? "I submit" mumbled in a weird primordial language by a giant dog? Seems pretty weak to me. I guess it's Conquest's problem now.
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Apr 3, 2014 09:09
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| # ? May 11, 2024 21:18 |
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I'm guessing Fell or maybe the lawyers are loving Blake over. It seems a bit ridiculous for this to "just" be karma, with the scale we've seen on that subject so far. Fell has a pretty clear motive (stop Blake from helping Conquest more), a fast-approaching deadline for when he can reasonably act on that, and a believable way to know how to set up the police finding him (the phone). The lawyers are pretty clear-cut as well, they want to force Blake to rely on them. But this would be a much more active intervention than their previous actions, so I find them kinda unlikely.
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Apr 3, 2014 11:36
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Hugoon Chavez posted:I'm not sure if I like the "sidekick syndrome" that comes with a kid familiar. I'd rather have a less human familiar that is really a tool with personality (like June is) than a familiar that will more than likely be a responsibility for Blake. Not to mention that Rose is already kinda like that (and we can see how well that is working out for Blake). About the binding, I think it's about the nature of the Other in how you bind it. Pauz was a demon, so he was bound via legal contract because that he recognizes being subservient. The Hyena was an animalistic goblin, the Alpha of his world, so he is bound by simply recognizing he is beaten.
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Apr 3, 2014 11:54
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1. A bad binding is good because he wants the hyena and Pauz to get loose and gently caress up conquest. 2. How angry will rose be if he chooses a familiar without talking to her about it because she's in a coma because he's sucking her life away? On a scale of there's no scale it's just a lot. 3. Is the kid a ghost or the soul of a little kid or what? Aren't ghosts just like replays of the badness whereas the little kid's guardian angel or whatever bugged out when the hyena came? Because a ghost is a lovely familiar but the soul of a little kid is like the opposite of demons and what you'd expect from a diabolist.
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Apr 3, 2014 14:10
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^ I have no loving clue what Evan is. By the rules of Pact so far, ghosts are just energy stuck in an event or idea. Evan acts like that, sometimes, then like a thinking being, other times. Which one is it? If no one "Collected him", then shouldn't he be all there? It's either a soul ro a ghost, makes no sense if he acts like both. I think it's time for an interlude that focuses on Jacob's. What's going on while Blake is playing ghostbuster? WB said the next interlude might be a lost pages (or whoever he calls them), so maybe we'll get some light on the workings of the paranormal world that are in play right now. God knows there are a lot of questions in the air.
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Apr 3, 2014 14:56
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The ending to this chapter is so Wildbow it's ridiculous. Like others have posted, I have no clue what Blake could do with Evan as a familiar, but he's already shown himself to be much more aware than a typical ghost. Might be able to play to Blake's advantage, having an incorporeal familiar who is capable of independent planning, scouting, and also reporting back on what he saw, among other things.
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Apr 3, 2014 16:00
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Hugoon Chavez posted:^ I have no loving clue what Evan is. By the rules of Pact so far, ghosts are just energy stuck in an event or idea. Evan acts like that, sometimes, then like a thinking being, other times. Which one is it? If no one "Collected him", then shouldn't he be all there? It's either a soul ro a ghost, makes no sense if he acts like both. My take on Even is that he's a soul that is becoming a ghost. Wildbow has wisely stated about 40 times thus far that you shouldn't try to put labels on things in this universe.
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Apr 3, 2014 16:15
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About Evan, he didn't die from getting mauled, he froze to death after escaping the Hyena for a while. It seems like he's a soul stuck in the park who acts more like a ghost the farther he goes from his body. I don't really get what advantages he'd give Blake as a familiar as he probably takes more than he gives. On the other hand, he still has his soul so maybe he could cross over into another kind of Other. As for the cops, it's probably just karma. Everyone avoided the park, even normal people, so it makes sense that no one found Evan's body. And Blake looks really suspicious, looking like he does while standing over the body of child and talking to it.
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Apr 3, 2014 19:02
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Happy Yeti posted:About Evan, he didn't die from getting mauled, he froze to death after escaping the Hyena for a while. It seems like he's a soul stuck in the park who acts more like a ghost the farther he goes from his body. I don't really get what advantages he'd give Blake as a familiar as he probably takes more than he gives. On the other hand, he still has his soul so maybe he could cross over into another kind of Other. He is a ninja. 
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Apr 3, 2014 19:36
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Blake didn't get hit by karma, just stupidity. He probably didn't close the web page on Fell's phone. Or if he used Google his search would have been saved.
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Apr 4, 2014 04:31
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Fellwenner posted:Blake didn't get hit by karma, just stupidity. He probably didn't close the web page on Fell's phone. Or if he used Google his search would have been saved. The key thing you are forgetting is that even that would be "Karma".
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Apr 4, 2014 05:00
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NecroMonster posted:The key thing you are forgetting is that even that would be "Karma". This seems up there with ta'veren for sheer convenience of the in-Universe deus ex machina.
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Apr 4, 2014 05:46
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Actually, now that I think about it, the park was probably casting a bad aura just because of the sheer amount of horrible things going on there. When Blake defeated The Hyena and released all of those ghost, this aura ended. Maybe, just as the Hyena surrendered, a cop somewhere got up suddenly and said "WAIT, why the gently caress haven't we checked the park that kid we never found used to play in? seems like the first place we should've checked..." But I agree with Karma being kind of a lovely deus ex machina. Hopefuly we get at least some explanation on this. Hugoon Chavez fucked around with this message at 08:21 on Apr 4, 2014 |
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Apr 4, 2014 08:18
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I think Evan is probably a really good choice for a familiar. It's the soul/ghost/something of a kid who survived for days in a haunted park. He's a survivor through and through. Then when he finally dies his ghost still avoids getting mauled by the hyena. And on top of that the whatever is left behind tries to and helps save Blake. The kid has mojo.
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Apr 4, 2014 15:17
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I still like the idea of Blake somehow making Conquest embody its "conquered" aspect instead of its "conquerer" one and taking that as his familiar, if only for the looks on the faces of the folks back in Jacob's Bell.
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Apr 4, 2014 16:21
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I can only imagine that beating Conquest would result in it losing a massive proportion of its power. It was stated there were other/previous conquest's so no wonder it is desperate. I mean its degraded enough a ptiest to a nearly extinct god can think about taking it on.
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Apr 4, 2014 18:10
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Well sure, a spirit of The Conquered is going to be less potent than one of The Conquerer. I don't see Wildbow giving Blake that kind of trump card this early. I don't really think it's that likely to happen, but it would be pretty funny for the Jacob's Bell powers to have chased off Blake like they did, only for him to come back a week later with the ex-lord of Toronto in tow.
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Apr 4, 2014 19:58
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After a little more thought Evan is probably a really good familiar for Blake in the long term. If he is going the (good?) Diabolist route what could possibly be better protection from various diabolic forces than being bound to the soul of an innocent? Of course its pretty shittyshort term as Blake really really needs some sort of power source.
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Apr 5, 2014 01:45
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[4.12] Short term though, at least Evan could help him escape the police! 
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Apr 5, 2014 01:54
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I have to say, I was disappointed that that was a chapter end, and Black Lamb's Blood kind of bored me.
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Apr 5, 2014 09:20
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I liked Black Lambs Blood a lot.
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Apr 5, 2014 14:50
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I didn't mind it, it gives a lot of background on the world. Especially if it's written by Grandma Rose, as the reader-comments seem to suggest.
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Apr 5, 2014 16:21
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Nettle Soup posted:I didn't mind it, it gives a lot of background on the world. Especially if it's written by Grandma Rose, as the reader-comments seem to suggest. I thought that Grandma Rose only knew the author? That's what the fiends said, at least.
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Apr 5, 2014 17:52
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nothing to seehere posted:I thought that Grandma Rose only knew the author? That's what the fiends said, at least. It couldn't have been grandma Rose, the family details make no sense and the author was a male.
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Apr 5, 2014 19:07
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I just read the last few chapters of Worm (the Scion fight) again and I just noticed that due to her powers, Contessa probably has no idea what 'conversation' she is having with Taylor/Khepri at the end. Completely did not consider that when I first read it. Worm just has such awesome little things like that.
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Apr 5, 2014 19:28
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What do you mean?
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Apr 5, 2014 19:51
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big sperma shot posted:What do you mean? Taylor can't communicate due to her brain getting mangled, we see her being unable to both speak and understand anything, even social clues break down in the end. When Contessa speaks to Taylor before double-tapping her, Contessa must have used her power to path something along the lines of 'nonlethal option to permanently disable Khepri'. We know that Contessa does not necessarily know what she is doing or why it works, she just follows the steps her power gives her to a tee. I'm also pretty sure that the steps she gets are not necessarily the most efficient ones, just a path to victory. Apparently the bullets and the conversation is what is needed to both disable Khepri and convince Taylor this is the right decision. The alternative would be that Contessa can magically understand Khepri, for which we have no reason to believe this is the case.
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Apr 5, 2014 20:06
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Contessa can use PTV to speak languages she doesn't know (we see it happen onscreen), soo...
Tunicate fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Apr 5, 2014 |
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Apr 5, 2014 20:16
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Or Contessa could have used her power to find a way to understand Khepri as well as speak to her. It's not impossible (Khepri managed communication with others early on, and grew more human as the conversation progressed), so the path to victory would probably work. It's a more abstract implementation than she usually employed, but that's exactly what Contessa wanted to start doing (though it's stated in that conversation, an admittedly unreliable source in this situation); using her power more abstractly, solving things for herself. But then I think Contessa is kind of an awful person and liked seeing her life's work get brushed aside by Khepri as ultimately irrelevant. Her playacting an appropriate response without understanding takes the sting out of it. I think the coolest Contessa moment is back in Lung's interlude, chapter 22, where she nearly killed him and caused a trigger event, making her ultimately responsible for him moving to Brockton Bay and eventually starting the story proper. loving precogs, man.
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Apr 5, 2014 20:27
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Lyon posted:It couldn't have been grandma Rose, the family details make no sense and the author was a male. You sure about that part?
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Apr 5, 2014 20:36
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Tunicate posted:Contessa can use PTV to speak languages she doesn't know (we see it happen onscreen), soo... Yeah that is kind of exactly my point? She can use PTV to speak win arguments in languages she doesn't speak without knowing what she is saying. And I know that it cheapens Contessa's final speech. Though on the other hand it would be very in-character for her to rely on PTV and I could see it being what Khepri needs to hear to calm down into Taylor again. Though yeah, she could have PTVed a device that lets her communicate or something. Though we haven't seen her tinkering before, there's no real reason why she wouldn't be able to. Namarrgon fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Apr 5, 2014 |
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Apr 5, 2014 20:44
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Namarrgon posted:Yeah that is kind of exactly my point? She can use PTV to speak win arguments in languages she doesn't speak without knowing what she is saying. And I know that it cheapens Contessa's final speech. Though on the other hand it would be very in-character for her to rely on PTV and I could see it being what Khepri needs to hear to calm down into Taylor again. It feeds her the necessary knowledge to understand what she's saying. We see it in the Contessa interlude.
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Apr 5, 2014 21:36
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TheRagamuffin posted:You sure about that part? I'm going back in to research what the Company said and what was written about Black Lambs Blood. It would be very very fitting if Grandma Rose actually wrote that and purposely twisted words to make it seem like it was a completely different person who wrote it. Though since the person writing it was raised by a preacher/templar that is unlikely. Unless a normal non-practitioner wrote the introduction and just lied through his teeth.
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Apr 5, 2014 21:53
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Affi posted:I'm going back in to research what the Company said and what was written about Black Lambs Blood. It would be very very fitting if Grandma Rose actually wrote that and purposely twisted words to make it seem like it was a completely different person who wrote it. Huh. I'm kinda intrigued by the idea of just having a non-practitioner tell lies for you. Telling someone to say something untrue isn't actually lying. I suppose this make it hard to trust nonpractitioner allies of other practitioners.
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Apr 5, 2014 21:57
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Tunicate posted:It feeds her the necessary knowledge to understand what she's saying. We see it in the Contessa interlude. Huh, you're right. She can will to understand what others are saying and the knowledge pops in her mind. Similarly she can chose not to phrase her PTV as 'I want to win this argument' but more specifically 'I want to say X' essentially giving her omnilingualism. Presumably she gets good enough at reading her super-walkthrough to know what she was saying and still doing PTV-conversations at the same time by the time Worm takes place. So she is even more overpowered!
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Apr 5, 2014 22:11
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Affi posted:Grandma Rose actually wrote that and purposely twisted words to make it seem like it was a completely different person who wrote it. The author (who I'm pretty sure is female, but I'm unconvinced is Grandma Rose) even said as much in the text. They're purposefully misleading the reader as to their identity. e: check it: The Author of Black Lamb's Blood posted:The morning before I left for that fight with the young devil, I was seventeen years old, doing the sort of thing seventeen year old boys are particularly inclined to do when locked in the bathroom. Nowhere in this sentence does it mention the gender of the author. But it almost does. TheRagamuffin fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Apr 5, 2014 |
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Apr 5, 2014 22:37
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Apparently the previous diary entries also say you can lie via text, just that most practitioners won't, so as not to make a habit of it. Whoever it is that hands over the book originally also refers to the author as female. Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Apr 6, 2014 |
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Apr 6, 2014 00:25
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TheRagamuffin posted:You sure about that part? "I remain a careful man, these days, but it is human nature to make mistakes in youth."
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Apr 6, 2014 00:29
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Piell posted:"I remain a careful man, these days, but it is human nature to make mistakes in youth." Haha, welp. Serves me right for posting the tiniest amount of  .
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Apr 6, 2014 00:49
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| # ? May 11, 2024 21:18 |
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http://flashpulp.com/ Here is a web serial you all might not have heard of yet. It isn't just text though, three times a week they release a new story and with it is a podcast/narration of the story. It's at 370 episodes as of this posting and the author say sit will end at episode 600. Each character is unique and if you don't like one there are several other arcs to follow. He tries to keep it to a monster of the week type thing so newcomers can jump right into it, though as the last story comes closer all the arcs will converge together. Oh and most stories have a taste for the occult.
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Apr 6, 2014 12:51
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