|
I'm talking about this.
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2014 01:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 11:11 |
|
|
I have a weird feeling that the annihilation demon is actually way weaker than they realize. eta: In fact I feel like there is a bit of an implication that Pauz is the greater of the two between it and the Hyena. Might even be the next villain.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2014 06:48
|
|
|
Pretty sure Pauz swore not to harm Blake, his friends and family etc as part of the binding. Rose also talked about being able to read the texts in front of Fell. Uh oh. Saros fucked around with this message at 11:20 on Apr 19, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2014 07:16
|
|
|
Conviction 5.5 posted:“My idea is that we ward off darkness with fire. Prometheus, Khepri, the sun.  I wonder if we'll see a/the mythological Simurgh at some point. Also I remembered something and went back to double-check. From back in 1.3: Grandma Rose posted:Make no major deals or bargains. Until the end of the custodianship, you’ll need to run any major deals past Mr. Beasley (including the three major rituals. It was from a section of Rose's instructions that isn't necessarily binding, and even the explicit instructions have some wiggle room, like we saw with the discussion on "marrying a good man", but I think Blake hosed up in a major way by forgetting that.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2014 12:45
|
|
|
Fetucine posted:
.. Well, poo poo. Suddenly a 'hooray something good happened' (for once) moment turned into a pretty serious omen of doom. We've seen the nice side of all the lawyers up until now, but I suspect that might make them show blake just how nasty they might be if you cross them. Unless Wildbow forgot, which I could see being a risk when you're writing week to week like this with no editors  .I don't think so though considering a major theme of the whole story is practically 'read the fine print'.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2014 13:20
|
|
|
Besides it might not be a big deal and mostly a "consult them before making a muck up of things" and not a "consult them or they will end you" Worm question! So I'm rereading and accidentally stumbled on his fanfiction page and jus reading the blurbs made me shudder. Has anyone tried reading it? Is there any good fanfiction?
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2014 16:54
|
|
Affi posted:Worm question! I haven't found any good fan fiction of Worm and I actively tried finding some. Even if you find someone who actually knows how to write its difficult to not have holes in the background story because of how much world building WildBow did.
|
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2014 22:22
|
|
|
A Worm-Pact easter egg was pointed out in the comments a few days ago: https://pactwebserial.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/conviction-5-3/#comment-7081
|
|
#
?
Apr 20, 2014 23:41
|
|
|
I know, plot wise, that Blake will come out alive and triumphant over the abstract demon, but I can't see how. The guy is so weak he can't even carry a box, and I wouldn't like his odds even if he was in top fighting shape. Either there's something really weird with this demon, or we're going to get a sick Deus Ex Machina. Also, wonder what will happen with Fell once Blake makes a move against Conquest. I actually like his character and would love to see him free from his chains. Runes are kinda weird. So, anyone can learn and use them? Seems a little odd that not everyone would know them all, since they come so handy.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2014 08:05
|
|
|
Well, you fight like with like in Pactworld, maybe being worn down to almost nothing will help! Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if that's where Wildbow's going with this - of the Knights, maybe only the weakest and least impressive survived - maybe it's like catch-and-release - it ate the strong ones and left the weak ones alive to get strong and come after it again...
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2014 08:51
|
|
|
Hugoon Chavez posted:I know, plot wise, that Blake will come out alive and triumphant over the abstract demon, but I can't see how. The guy is so weak he can't even carry a box, and I wouldn't like his odds even if he was in top fighting shape. my money is still on rose being badass and going "full Thorburn" in this one. Relative to everyone else they apparently have a tremendous amount of knowledge about demons and how they work and they've (her, anyway) got demon street cred. Anyway, not like the abstract demon is going to punch him in the face. Re: runes, they get talked about when he meets up with laird at the coffee shop and then after. You have to build up credit with the local spirits for them to be really useful and even then they're not that powerful (unless fueled by something else I presume). Seems like folks really seem to focus, too, and runes are a lovely thing to focus on compared to TIME or STAR-CHUCKING DEMONS.
|
|
#
?
Apr 21, 2014 18:38
|
|
|
builds character posted:my money is still on rose being badass and going "full Thorburn" in this one. Relative to everyone else they apparently have a tremendous amount of knowledge about demons and how they work and they've (her, anyway) got demon street cred. Anyway, not like the abstract demon is going to punch him in the face. The whole 'pulls the stars from the sky' demon's actually pretty scary - you summon him and you literally will make the all the light in the entire world a little bit dimmer and make any light more likely to fail when it would cause the most harm - you're literally making the entire world a little bit more horrible, forever, to save yourself. Between him, the Barber, Pauz (who's just a MINOR demon, an imp), the demon that erases you from existence, and leaves everyone who was part of your life an empty husk of what they used to be, and that flesh-shaping Other that was tormenting him outside his home, Wildbow makes some hella unnerving demons. And we haven't even seen a REAL demon acting fully and freely - only second or third hand descriptions of what they can do.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 00:03
|
|
|
You know, it kind of surprises me that the magic world can stay so hidden. I know normals are supposed to have the blinders on, but it's been show that they can be forced off. Usually urban fantasy seems to handle this by making magic kind of low key. Here it seems like all it would take is a guy saying a bloke's name 7 times in the middle of a major city and suddenly the secret's out.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 00:23
|
|
|
Pavlov posted:You know, it kind of surprises me that the magic world can stay so hidden. I know normals are supposed to have the blinders on, but it's been show that they can be forced off. Usually urban fantasy seems to handle this by making magic kind of low key. Here it seems like all it would take is a guy saying a bloke's name 7 times in the middle of a major city and suddenly the secret's out. Well, to be fair, I'm guessing that you A. have to be awakened, B. have to know that the name has some meaning so you can't just say random gibberish and hope to get lucky, and C. the lawyers may have done something to make that deal possible for Blake in particular or just Thorburns in general - especially considering that summoning him without any magic circles or bullshit probably means that the demon gets to do whatever the hell he wants, even if he can't kill blake because of the lawyers. Also considering the 'magical nuke' aspect, if he said the name a 7th time, there might not have been a major city left for the secret to be out TO.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 01:00
|
|
|
I get the feeling that if somebody summoned Ornias or one of his peers without incredibly heavy-duty protections or somebody as infernally well-connected as one of the lawyers to run interference, the practitioner wouldn't survive the meeting. Nothing likes being summoned like that, and demons don't appear very fond of humans in the first place. On anything on a smaller scale than "wiping out a city", it seems like most communities have somebody whose job is at least partially running damage control and keeping magic hidden. People like Laird, who find power, prestige, and good karma in safeguarding the magical community, or subordinates of the local Lord, like Fell and the Eye of the Storm.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 01:36
|
|
|
I have a feeling that Blake is weak enough physically that it will be harder for the abstract demon to attack him/remove him. I secretly hope Blake just kites the demon to Conquest, removing half of Toronto with no one realizing what happened.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 01:56
|
|
|
I'm not just talking about Ornias in particular. It's just that if that kind of power can be thrown about with that short of notice, and with what we've seen of practitioners being just a little unhinged at times, you'd think every once in a while one would just go WELP gently caress THE WORLD and plop something nasty down in time square. Now that I think about Ornias specifically though, I guess summoning it doesn't actually guarantee a bunch of collateral damage. The demon Lawyer seemed to think it was ok to summon it pretty casually, so maybe demons don't tend to have big showy entrances and/or proceed to immediately ravage up the place.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 02:11
|
|
|
We've not really seen that much of the world yet, but I've noticed a few things maybe. Black Lamb's Blood says that a diabolist should try to bind demons and make the world a better place by doing so. It says most diabolists are too focused upon the now and not looking to the future, and that's why they tend to die in such spectacular fashion. Others were bound in an agreement a few thousand years ago, by Suleiman, which a number of people at least are pretty sure is King Solomon. King Solomon, in the Testament of Solomon, commands demons to build his temple by way of a magical ring. Suleiman forced Others to, apparently, play nice with humanity. At least to an extent. I'd suggest that Suleiman was a diabolist of some power, and he basically did what Black Lamb's Blood talked about before it got into the whole "all diabolists must enslave themselves by altering how magic works". He bound demons and other nasties. Blake seems to have the outlook that diabolists should, indeed, be binding demons because no one else really has the proper knowledge to do so. He might be a re-emergent Suleiman figure even. If Pact ever increases in scale like Worm did, I figure this is a likely path it would take.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 04:04
|
|
|
SerSpook posted:We've not really seen that much of the world yet, but I've noticed a few things maybe. Demon pokemon - gotta catch em all (and bury them somewhere they'll never be found again). Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Apr 22, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 04:30
|
|
|
Y'all need to read the latest chapter. The darkness demon is goddamn fantastic.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 08:08
|
|
|
HiHo ChiRho posted:I secretly hope Blake just kites the demon to Conquest, removing half of Toronto with no one realizing what happened. This would be awesome. The secrecy of magic is always a factor that pushes the readers disbelief in urban fantasy. If we think about it too much, it's almost impossible that at some point in modern society, one mage wouldn't just go crazy for fame and make a ghost appear in the middle of New York on national tv. Some settings try to create kind of a police force that combats it. Like Vampire's "masquerade" being uphold by most of the vampire status quo, but most just kind of handwave the issue, which is fine because it's a pain in the rear end to think about, unless that's your focus. In Pact's world, we can probably say that Karma might create an inmediate backlash against a practicioner that willingly shows his magic off, since it would very likely cause general chaos. Sure, karma is reactive instead of preventive, but whatever, don't think about it too much.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 09:17
|
|
|
GreyjoyBastard posted:Y'all need to read the latest chapter. It really is.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 11:42
|
|
|
Who were the allies that died in this chapter? Did I totally miss that or was it supposed to be some weird "the nothing demon ate the memory" type writing trick?
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 11:46
|
|
|
Lyon posted:Who were the allies that died in this chapter? Did I totally miss that or was it supposed to be some weird "the nothing demon ate the memory" type writing trick? The second thing.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 11:48
|
|
|
Man, I was hoping he'd manage to catch it. He really needs an overwhelming victory at this point, poor guy. Also an erasure demon would probably scare the living piss out of his enemies way more than even Barbatos. Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Apr 22, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 12:55
|
|
|
Wolpertinger posted:Man, I was hoping he'd manage to catch it. He really needs an overwhelming victory at this point, poor guy. Haven't we heard repeatedly that like offers protection against like? What could be more like the demon than one of its severed limbs? You may yet get your wish.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 14:18
|
|
|
The only thing that springs to mind for blakes possible allies was the 'paper goblins' he got from Maggie. If I remember correctly he explicitly gave back Dickswizzle but the (three?) paper bound gobbos were never mentioned. Maggie also tried to give him one permanently before so it seems likely she would have insisted he keep them. Still what a clusterfuck that was, eraser demon is scary and awesome.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 14:45
|
|
|
Pavlov posted:I'm not just talking about Ornias in particular. It's just that if that kind of power can be thrown about with that short of notice, and with what we've seen of practitioners being just a little unhinged at times, you'd think every once in a while one would just go WELP gently caress THE WORLD and plop something nasty down in time square. How are they going to get the name of somebody that big and bad? Blake got it because the lawyers gave it to him and he knows the lawyers because he comes from a long, distinguished line of diabolists. Other folks won't have that kind of access and also yeah, this is definitely an issue that I don't have the answer to. new demon is pretty awesome/terrifying. Also, look how wrong I was about rose and it being easy. 
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 18:13
|
|
|
I was thinking it would be hilarious if Wildbow, instead of updating, closed down the entire Pact site and replaced it with the Face samples or whatever until the next chapter. Would have been some clever meta-joke. If only it were April 1st...
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 19:22
|
|
|
That would be brilliant but require having written an entire parallel story.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 19:32
|
|
|
Re-reading Worm. I have to say I really loved how Alec dealt with Sophia in the interlude. He is such a loveable psycopath.
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2014 19:48
|
|
|
Huh. Considering how that worked the wreath might have done something just due to the fact that it's mentioned and not completely forgotten about like the allies were. Might have just been too small of a scale and not as potent as the fire.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 02:15
|
|
|
Victorkm posted:The second thing. I was really bothered by how easily Rose let Blake talk her into going for the demon, but after that it suddenly makes a lot more sense.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 04:45
|
|
|
SerSpook posted:Huh. Considering how that worked the wreath might have done something just due to the fact that it's mentioned and not completely forgotten about like the allies were. Might have just been too small of a scale and not as potent as the fire. Nah the wreath was mentioned briefly midway with Blake contemplating how useless it was as it got completely ignored as the demon rolled over and crushed it in the scuffle
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 07:19
|
|
|
Victorkm posted:That would be brilliant but require having written an entire parallel story. Oh please, it's Wildbow, he probably has like 10 chapters written for all of his stories already.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 08:28
|
|
|
Any other good serial recommendations other than Pact, Worm and Solstice War (which I should get around to reading eventually it just sounds kinda dry)?
Wolpertinger fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Apr 23, 2014 |
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 09:35
|
|
|
Wolpertinger posted:Any other good serial recommendations other than Pact, Worm and Solstice War (which I should get around to reading eventually it just sounds kinda dry)? There's Ra. Modern magic. I don't really think I can say much more without spoiling poo poo. It gets pretty crazy though
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 10:39
|
|
|
Man, that demon was loving scary. I really hope we never get any info on the dead allies. It's more fun that way IMO, but I already know people hoping for an interlude that spills the beans. Where does this leave Blake in relation to Conquest? I really hope he doesn't think on taking him on, in his current state.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 11:36
|
|
|
Hugoon Chavez posted:Man, that demon was loving scary. Instead of flat out spilling the beans or never mentioning them again, it would be more interesting if Blake runs into a couple inconsistencies left behind - to make their utter disappearance a bit more chilling.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 11:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 11:11 |
|
|
Yeah that's what I'd like to see. Inconsistencies that hint the truth. I'm sure that if I re-read the serial know I could spot a few, but 
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2014 11:51
|
|