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Did they explicitly state that people naturally got Scion's partner's shards? I kind of thought those shards 'died' and maybe that's where the cauldron capes were coming from by 'resurrecting' the partner's shards. I kind of also thought when Glaistag referred to the courts it was the shards from Scion as one court and the partner's shards were the second court/cauldron capes.
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Aug 30, 2013 01:52
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Skippy McPants posted:Endbringers aren't exactly smart, but they do have at least some degree of animal cunning or inelligence to varying degrees. Taylor has never displayed the ability to control anything with even an ounce of volition. Stuff has to be dirt simple, with just basic biological drives, to fall into her sphere of influence. Except that the Simurgh blocked Panacea's communication to Dragon about the shards/passengers in what appeared to be a very intelligent and knowing way.
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Sep 5, 2013 16:26
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veekie posted:Can't be exactly certain on that with Foil's attack. If it was something the Worms used to fight each other with, it might have posed a serious threat even if shot at a projection. I believe Foil's ability was stated to affect all realities at the same time during Scion's POV chapter.
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Sep 20, 2013 00:20
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What was the Simurgh doing? I didn't really catch it.
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Sep 22, 2013 03:56
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I dunno, seems to me like if it was Scion they'd be, to quote Snatch, "proper hosed." Maybe it is one of the other Endbringer level characters we haven't been introduced to yet. Of course, since they're going to rescue Contessa and the Doctor I suppose that does give them some escape options so maybe it is Scion.
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Sep 28, 2013 20:28
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And it has been stated that almost every character had their own story and were all in contention to be the main character of what turned into Worm. So there is plenty of material that could be adapted and turned into side stories/sequels/whatever.
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Oct 7, 2013 21:57
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thespaceinvader posted:So... Second Entity and Contessa interlude. It transpires the second entity hosed up and accidentally dropped the 'see the path to victory' shard. And I still can't figure out what the everloving gently caress is up with Doctor Mother. What's your question/to figure out? Is there something I'm not picking up on?
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Oct 12, 2013 13:58
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Yeah I like Urban Fantasy for the really awesome world building. I think it is my favorite part about the Dresden Files. I'm looking forward to this, though I would have read any of these with my least favorite being the Battle Royale style one.
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Jan 3, 2014 17:03
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drat this latest update will be the one that finally got me hooked I think. I was going to read it no matter what because Worm was awesome (and I have a lot of free time) but now I'm invested.
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Feb 8, 2014 18:37
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Laird is giving me some real Armsmaster vibes. I think the difference is Armsmaster really was working for the "greater good", he just overvalued himself and thought he could do the most good (or more than other people) if he had more personal power. I feel like Laird is kind of similar but opposite, he plays the "greater good" card to amass personal power for his own gain.
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Feb 12, 2014 05:43
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I like it, I was getting tired of Jacob's Bell. Hopefully Blake will be able to find someone to work for in Toronto, perhaps the Lord, who can offer him protection for service. This will give Blake time to improve his craft and what not before he has to deal with the people in Jacob's Bell again. They'll obviously still be after him because they can't touch the house until all the heirs are dead (I guess?) and it will still be stopping them from expanding the town.
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Feb 25, 2014 20:36
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Fetucine posted:I'm pretty surprised by the most recent chapter. The end of it seems most comparable to, well, the Leviathan arc. It puts Blake utterly outside of the comfort zone he's found, and totally changes the game. Leviathan turned Worm more than a little post-apocalyptic and signaled a pretty distinct change in the tone and pacing; forcing Blake out of Jacob's Bell has the potential to do something similarly huge. I imagine Pact will eventually ramp up the power levels similar to how Worm did but I think forcing Blake out of Jacob's Bell actually slows this process down. If he stayed in Jacob's Bell it would be unrealistic for him to survive for very much longer. I think he'll go out and explore the world a bit, learn, grow, and then when he returns he can basically force a stalemate. The whole quote about his grandmother not being a genius makes me wonder if Blake will end up being a genius. “The geniuses are an even bigger threat, yes,” Andy conceded. “And the geniuses are so few and far between they don’t really warrant mentioning. Your grandmother was good. Scary good, but she wasn’t a genius.” For a kid who knows next to nothing about magic he's done some pretty interesting things in his first few weeks of being a practitioner. Maybe not a genius in the traditional sense of being super intelligent but perhaps maybe a genius at intuitively using magic... if that even makes sense. I also just went back and found this... 6. Attend the council meetings. Second Saturday of every month, at the park, in the twilight hours. In a five year term, there will be sixty such meetings. Miss six in total, and your rights to the property will be forfeit. So I guess Blake can't go too far, he's going to have finish performing his rituals to perhaps have a chance at surviving. The demesnes will probably be important since he's lost the house. Also the earlier stipulations before number six were to complete the rituals so he needs to get going anyway. I hope he finds a way to not waste one of the rituals, particularly the familiar one since that seems like an important piece.
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Feb 26, 2014 00:46
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Yeah I was a bit confused by that too, I think it might just be their nature and/or Pauz thinks he can gain leverage over Blake by forcing Blake to beg for help outside of their contract.
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Mar 20, 2014 16:30
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Pact is getting pretty good now that we're into some interesting action. Often times I feel like Wildbow's characters sort of "win" too easily for the situations s/he puts them in but it is still really entertaining. Blake appears to be a "natural" (if he doesn't wind up being a genius) practitioner. He has made some seemingly pretty complex glamour manipulations, negotiates/binds others, etc without really much in the way of knowledge. I hope once these three quests finish be completes one of the next rituals, I think he has to complete one soon based on the timeline that was left by his grandmother? Do you think it will be familiar or implement? Demesne I imagine will be last as he will want to perform that back in Jacob's Bell.
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Apr 1, 2014 05:59
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Saros posted:Evan also seems kind of weak for a familiar. I mean compare him to the Troll or the Fae the various Duchamps have and whatever time spirit Laird keeps. I guess beggars cant be choosers and i'm sure Wildbow will be creative with uses of power as always. In that one interlude one of the characters literally had an ancient god as her familiar. Wildbow is very good at making use of seemingly weak powers as evidenced by Worm but... I was hoping for something a little more oomph.
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Apr 3, 2014 08:26
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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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Scorpion 3-2 posted:I might have missed it but was this interview ever posted? That was a neat interview, thanks for posting it. I guess Wildbow is officially confirmed to be a male then after lots of speculation. New chapter is up, at least Blake will have Evan to help him with this one. It was pretty clever getting Duncan removed from the team but the line of questioning he left behind was a nice counter. I'm glad he isn't calling the lawyers, that would probably clear this up in a matter of minutes but I like that he is staying strong.
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Apr 8, 2014 05:37
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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?
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Apr 22, 2014 11:46
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Tollymain posted:No, it's pretty clear that Sandra aborted her pregnancy. That's where the connection between her and the Drunk broke, the moment that she realized his god had circumvented her family's magic and he realized she would abort it rather than betray her family. I didn't see anything in the story that implied she had an abortion? When she calls the unnamed man I think the connection that broke is between her and the unnamed man. Jeremy definitely tries to have Blake destroyed at the next council meeting so he is definitely helping out his wife's cause (well the Duchamp and Behaim cause). I haven't read all the following chapters yet but I did just reread her chapter and the working definitely breaks if a male child is born.
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Apr 28, 2014 13:53
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builds character posted:She said her family wouldn't let her keep the kid and she and the drunk are broken up and he doesn't have a kid and the duchamps are still having girls (little girls younger than twelveish at the meeting). Oh I just reread again and I get it now, I was being dumb. You are correct. Honestly I had kind of forgotten who Sandra Duchamp was from the earlier chapters so didn't realize they were the same person and thought this was just a random Duchamp giving us a look into Toronto/Jeremy. Lyon fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Apr 28, 2014 |
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Apr 28, 2014 14:21
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OmniBeer posted:I was so absolutely pumped when I read those last few lines. Great a unstable artist types being taught about magic... this won't lead to trouble.
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Apr 29, 2014 06:12
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I wonder if Pact is meant to be a lot shorter than Worm. Did Wildbow give any indication of the length for these next stories? Obviously there is tons of room left in the world but potentially taking down Conquest and the Behaims in one blow feels like it wraps up all of Blake's major antagonists. From here he would really just have to work on his negative karma by sealing demons and trying to set the world right.
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May 3, 2014 17:49
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Thursday bonus chapter is out.
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May 8, 2014 06:22
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Grouchy Fish posted:Where did Blake vow not to summon demons? I'm not saying he didn't, I just don't remember it if he did. He doesn't. He makes a promise to do his best to avoid diabloism as best he can (or something along those lines) but I believe that is the extent of it. Even in one of the latest chapters the Sphinx tries to pin him down and he says he can't make the same promises as his cabal because he has other ties.
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May 12, 2014 16:42
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RC Cola posted:I still like it. It would have been nice if it just ended when Blake did his three tasks for Conquest and moved on. I hope this is the last chapter for the arc, but I'll keep reading it! Agreed. I want Blake to learn and explore the world. The setting is the most interesting part of Pact so far. I guess he needs to get free from the constant attacks for such a thing to be possible which hopefully is what happens at the climax. Laird and Conquest get defeated leaving Blake in an uneasy peace with the rest of Jacob's Bell. Grandma Rose stated in the flash back that the mirror image the Barber created would be her heir's protection rather than some trick, or at least that is how I read it.
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Jun 11, 2014 05:36
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Coca Koala posted:I've been enjoying pact so far but I agree that this arc has been dragging, and in particular the payoff for this chapter was pretty lame. Blake was just about to lose, then he was seriously about to lose, then he was mere moments from losing, and then all of a sudden he won, and I didn't really understand how we got to that point. I guess Conquest went into the mirror because he randomly decided that he needed to subdue Rose as well, instead of just bitching Blake some more, and then he was somehow bound in the mirror because of reasons? Hopefully this is the setup for that now. I just went back and reread and the contest won't end until Conquest dies or surrenders. Since he can't die he'll have to surrender. They also never established what Blake got if he won, hopefully he'll be able to demand his freedom and protection so he can return to Jacob's Bell without constant attacks.
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Jun 19, 2014 19:13
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Blasphemeral posted:This whole contest, actually, is similar in theme to a demesne contest. He got all the major players in Toronto either on his side or against him and then won. It'd be really cool if he could claim a large portion of Toronto as a demesne because of this nonsense. That would be pretty boss, and take the Conquest mirror as his implement hah.
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Jun 19, 2014 19:45
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Hmm... interesting update. A couple of questions was Rose out of the mirror at the end when she placed her hand on Alexis's shoulder? Did Blake plan for the demon to eat his connections? Pretty much everyone he was currently directly connected to via friendship and by the conflict with Conquest were at the warehouse. If his connections ceased to exist with everyone what would that imply?
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Jul 1, 2014 07:27
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I am convinced this is fully planned. It kind of makes sense... it frees Blake from the responsibilities of being the heir, completes his promise to Rose that he would try to help her become permanent, will allow him to travel the world trying to stop demons/bad others (part of #1) as Blake promised Evan, semi resolves the death of Laird though not the overall Jacob's Bell situation (if they think he's dead), allows him to continue to help Rose if he chooses but perhaps unties their fates, completes Isadora's prophecy, etc etc.
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Jul 2, 2014 05:57
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The writer of Ra is a goon I believe.
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Jul 14, 2014 23:04
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Grundulum posted:Some interesting speculation, courtesy of the comments: (1) Wildbow is drawing heavily on the Monomyth/Hero's Journey for this work; (2) Blake = Johannes, (3) Wildbow is using Odin as an archetype for Blake's new persona, so watch out for any tricksters in the story. For #2 do you mean that directly? If so that would imply some form of time travel or something wonky like that. The rest of that is interesting and now after reading this I hope Blake is able to have a reckoning with Rose for her basically betraying him the whole time. Of course Grandma Rose might have set it all up this way so maybe it is more her fault than Rose's fault but still.
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Jul 26, 2014 18:35
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This is the most positive reading you can put on Rose in my opinion. I'm not saying you're wrong necessarily but the way I read a couple of those parts was different. It felt like Rose was always 100% looking out for herself rather than for the both of them which, as you said, is due to her upbringing and understandable. Understandable does not equate to likable. Yes she and Blake disagree on how to operate but at the end of the day he was typically the one in physical danger/pain so he got to make the calls in those situations. Further I doubt Rose would have survived the situation the way Blake did, she would have involved demons (she was clearly willing to summon them) or the lawyers. Rose would have become/will become an actual diabolist probably which is pretty much stated in the story to be evil unless you try to follow Blake's path and Rose doesn't seem like the type. I think Rose wanted and worked for this outcome. If she really did screw up her awakening on purpose then I say actively working towards but if that is just her now Blakeless memories making her think that then worked for isn't the right term but she definitely didn't do as much as she probably could have. The note was about more than just not manipulating his friends and she calls herself a bitch for having written it. Once again understandable but not likable.
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Jul 27, 2014 13:21
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I can't find it anymore but doesn't Johannes have a disfigurement similar to the injuries Blake just received to his one leg and one arm? I never would have thought of the connection but someone posted about Blake being Johannes. It would be interesting if this place worked as some sort of reverse time loop as opposed to speeding up time like most faerie/other realms do. Edit: The last comment (for now) at the bottom of the chapter has some interesting points about Blake possibly being inside of Ur along with all the other beings It has eaten and Ur's offspring that were mentioned in that one Histories chapter are the beings that have turned into monsters by eating other inhabitants of Ur. Lyon fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Jul 29, 2014 |
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Jul 29, 2014 08:54
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OmniBeer posted:..holy gently caress, the twist in that last chapter was something I literally did not see coming in the slightest bit. Has anyone processed exactly what this means to all the previous story? I'm trying to think about it in my head right now and was Grandma Rose able to setup something so powerful that it temporarily swapped a vestige and a real person? How do Blake's friends play into it then... were they always Rose's friends and just temporarily thought they were Blake's friends? In that opening chapter everyone talks about how big of a magic act was fired off when Molly died but man it was really huge for it to literally put a real person into the mirror world, pull out a vestige, AND connect all of Rose's connections to Blake. I'm a bit confused but I'm sure we'll get it all explained at some point.
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Aug 5, 2014 07:10
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RC Cola posted:I couldn't figure that out either. I'd think it would be rape to be this traumatic though. I think Blake got his touch phobia once he figured out what was going on with the cult and how all the casual sex was being used to manipulate him. I figured based on his comment about Alexis they killed or incapacitated Carl when he found them at the shelter and ran away.
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Aug 6, 2014 02:10
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Pavlov posted:I was thinking, back in the last chapter, how did Sandra know about Blake, and that he'd come back? Perhaps she had enchanted an object to track Blake or something and that enchantment formed a pseudo magical connection that Ur didn't eat? Sort of similar to what she showed Maggie how to do in that one chapter. I'm more surprised Maggie did but I guess her connections were actually connected to the Paedric and her memories/connections were more secondary so the universe didn't strip them away when Ur ate the connections?
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Aug 18, 2014 04:44
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Also it looks like the Drunk hasn't actually arrived in Jacob's Bell yet since when he entered Johannes's realm they detected that Blake had passed through about a day ago. So Blake is safe until at least after his meeting with Johannes.
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Aug 21, 2014 16:54
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blastron posted:The more we hear about Rose, the less I'm inclined to believe that Blake was actually originally the vestige. Isn't it awfully convenient that all of Rose's belongings were damaged in a flood and thrown out? Why haven't we seen any of her own things? When Blake was thrown into the Drains, his stuff was all still there and the landlord had to throw it all out. If Rose was real to begin with, she should have left some sort of mark on the world. My take on that is, her belongings getting "damaged" is just her parents being spiteful but not admitting to it. I'm not saying you're wrong about who is real and who isn't, just that there might be a simple explanation rather than a supernatural one.
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Sep 16, 2014 06:33
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packsmack posted:Why she has to wear those clothes is explained in this chapter. It is funky how she has zero friends. From a couple of her lines I seem to remember her being a little bit of a loner and raised to be manipulative. That could be a possible explanation for that. I can't believe Rose junior is actually Rose senior as why would she have let herself end up in this position? I get the impression that Rose senior was scary enough that even the combined Jacob's Bell practitioners would not have attempted to mess with her. Not that they couldn't have theoretically eliminated her but the cost would have been way too high. This is their one opportunity basically because of the oath Rose senior made as a child to not train her descendants which has now left a gap the other practitioners can exploit.
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Sep 18, 2014 03:37
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Namarrgon posted:That's the best thing about Wildbow: nobody is safe! Honestly sympathy seems stupidly easy so long as you have a power source. I'm sure all the practitioners in Jacob's Bell are pretty well versed in it or at least defending against it. Blake has just been using it against novices and non practitioners.
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Sep 24, 2014 04:00
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