So I already planned on getting back into Worm after dropping it for a bit(... almost half a year), buuut my motivation skyrocketed when I saw a post complaining about automod blocking loveread and Wildbow actually respondes for once, tuning the automod! Yes, I'm salty its only now, I'm a petty piece of shit like that and I won't let go atleast until I finish this liveread(maybe I should drop it and start Pale to get +100 wildbow respect points).

(none of the above is serious btw. i respect wildbow.)

Aaaaanyways, last time we left off on an admittedly plot armory bank robbery with fight scenes I didn't quite like... wait, thats arc 3,not 4! what was 4 about agai-(explodes violently). Enough filler, lets get started!

-Somer's rock, villian meeting, ooooo. A classic.

-Taylor already starts to try and seperate the kinda cool to hangout with maybe her only friends from GRRR GROSS VILLAINAS I WILL BETRAY LATER I SWEAR.

-Wildbow humor is good humor. Its just so funny how the deaf girl intsensely stares at Taylor and her first assumption is "coke", which is fair but a bit funny imo. Now I'm imagining villain's meeting where villains for some reason allow each other to get high as shit on "coke".

-Taylor, you silly goose, you'd know what's going on if you just read the arc 3 and 4 interludes!

-What kind of power does Coil have that he's so confident coming completely "naked"(i mean with that skintight costume...) while not using his power at all so tattletale couldn't tale what it is?

-salty tattletale is interesting to see with her goofy logic for why they actually perform better than faultline's crew. btw i'm actually better at writing than tolkien because tolkien is criticized by some people. meanwhile everyone love my livereads so far, the results speak for themselves. :)

-ok so the meetingg itself is just peak. peak character interactions between villains. wildbow is great at getting character traits to comr across effectively, which is probably just him naturally adapting to publishing schedule. i think character interactions are so far my favorite part of worm rather than powers or battle writing.

-should've expected superhero fans to assume battery married her brother lmao

-... aghh fuck. i think i lost my touch at being able to comment on things without just retelling them as if YOU haven't read worm. i think i only have fights left to comment on, speaking of which...

-taylor, racism is indeed wrong, but i don't think you can scream about it being wrong to nail a transforming type supervillian with huge pieces of metal when you rotted off the said supervillain's crotch

OK, worm fans, I have a small question. So Lung gets fried by mini sun. Then impaled. Sundancer and Taylor complain about Kaiser impaling Lung's heart... Then he proceeds to get wings and evolve. Iirc Lung's regen and evolution are REACTIONARY(which is how taylor beat him because her bugs have hella poison yet they're fucking bugs so they're not recognized as threat by Lung's power thingy), so was it Kaiser impaling his heart that triggered it? Otherwise I genuinly don't see point in Wildbow writing out Taylor and Sundancer's negative reactions.

Anyway, taylor's plot arm... nah, i could easily joke about it but with things I'm a fan of not only do I have 0 room to complain, the way Wildbow did it this time(unlike a certain bank robbery arc) was actually pretty smart, so, genuine kudos. Ahem, smart thinking saves the day once again, this time featuring Newter's blood. Though why just stab Lung's eyes with knives instead of having Sundancer burn off most of his body if he'd regenerate in a few months anyway(or a year I guess)? Makes little sense. Like atleast have Taylor try to ask Sundancer even if Sundancer would refuse.

-I have... my little doubts. About Bitch's brain being the exact same as a dog's. Coming fron TATTLETALE'S mouth. Buut I suppose for now I'll slightly trust it to be atleast partially true.

End thoughts: this is... actually a pretty short arc. I mean, it took me wayy too long to read, but in terms of the events that happen, it's not as much as I expected. Huh.

Interlude is pretty interesting. I can already predict plot twist because it seems pretty obvious? Like obviously Coil has to need SOMEONE to generously donate resources to have x militsry and super duper equipment? So, here's my theory:

Coil is apart of that group with that overturned omega symbol. Client, full on member, maybe even secret leader of it, idk. He's definitely a part of it though, having them give him resources. In exchange for? Whatever his agenda is with missions he gives to undersiders. Am I wrong yall? I guess we'll see later!

So, any thoughts on my thoughts? Anything I got wrong? I'd love to see yall comment!

First of All:

OFFICIAL WORM CONIC LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cant wait, im buy as soon as I can. I want this boosted, base boosted, I want this successful. I love it.

Been a while though since I posted here, so I am back if for now.

But I digress, the point: Worms biggest feature that I feel makes it so compelling is the fact that all the characters are biased. We dont see the whole story, only that is filtered through the lens of the characters perspectives. A very unreliable one.

I still personally remember not truly realize what Purity was really like till Wildbow made it blatant with that "fucking civilized" line in her interlude. It completely made me look back at what was actually happening in that chapter.

This is especially easy as Wildbows writing style can be light on description at times, allowing us the audience to more easily be distracted by what the character tells us.

This brings me to the reason why I think the comic will be good for both the story and discussion of events [such as everything with Amy]

That being visuals.

I know it sounds simple but with the addition of visuals our perspective of events becomes untied from purely the lens of the character.

With their internal monolog, their dialog, we can see theor justifications, their perspectives. Their flaws.

With visuals the unbiased truth can be shown to us. Shat is actually happening in all its horrific truth. Saying Taylor put spiders on civilians will not be the same as showing it anymore.

The comic allows the writer to, if necessary, detach the perspective lens from the camera lens.

Now apply this to an extreme example, what was done to Victoria.

We no longer get Amy's biased eye on things, just how she justifies it, what she thinks of it, as the horror of the events play out without distortion.

The reason I feel discussion will be better here is this: we will get a picture without the biased filter of the character. The horror cant be excused if the camera doesnt excuse it.

This can be taken to any number of scenes, such as taylor nearly killing triumph or the death of aster. The filter becomes detached from the camera, remaining only in dialogue and internal monologue.

This isnt even touching on the fact that this is effectively wildbow taking a second crack at worm as a whole. A second pass through.

I wonder what that will add

I've seen this joke floating around and I get that she's making them look more like Vicky but is there like a canon moment or fanfic or something that started this joke?

No more hugs for Lisa lol

Is it a coincidence that so many S-class threats are named with S?

jack Slash with the Slaughterhouse nine. the Simurgh. Sleeper. ... SCION. and Enchidna was only classified as an A-class, because, well ;)

And is Skitter foreshadowing in this regard?

Seeing as this follows the naming convention of a four letter "W" word, It stands to reason that Wildbow might be planning on a new Parahumans entry

The ending scene matches something we saw with Khepri in Worm, so it takes place around then

I'm so insanely hyped, Parahumans is back in business!

Like I kinda feel like that would get in the way, right? She can't stand flush against walls like this, and she straight up just can't wear her suit under normal clothing like she does in Insinuation 2.6

Also this suit is NOT cushioning her from impacts, those are just gonna hurt or snap off the spikes

Just curious tho, the actual design is pretty cool

Hey everyone! We're IDW, here with Wildbow (John McCrae), the author of Worm, and we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce the story to people who might not have come across it before, as well as chat with readers who are already familiar with it.

We'd love to answer questions about the next phase of Worm: the IDW comic book adaptation!

A content warning

Worm is dark fiction, and it gets considerably darker as it progresses. It includes graphic violence, strong language, bullying, psychological distress, trauma, and other potentially disturbing material. Sexual content occurs, though it's generally handled offscreen.

This isn't a story where the heroes always win, the protagonist is protected from the consequences of her actions, or morality neatly divides everyone into good and evil. Please use your judgment if you're considering reading it, particularly if certain subjects are difficult for you.

Where to start the story

The original web serial is available online and IDW Publishing has announced an official comic adaptation. Read more about it on Gizmodo!

Readers who've finished the story are welcome to ask spoiler-heavy questions, but please mark spoilers clearly so people who are still reading can join the discussion, too.

Ask me anything!

A third entry in the Parahumans world seems to be in the making? Or a teaser for a comic after the announcement, perhaps? It was linked in the e-mail on the "s" in "sleeper"

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1R2PrAtxzmhSyi2_LJhd96fliqxM0TbSImlHHFsYFdFw/mobilebasic

Commissioned from u/Southern-Wafer-6375

The information we have:

Trigger event: “He had been a bad student, a poor employee, a disappointing family member.  He had friends he could hang out with, but no best friends. He’d had a very pretty girlfriend for a very brief time, and then he’d bungled it.  He’d panicked and he’d made an asshole of himself and then her new boyfriend had come after him with a few friends in tow, to convince him to go and stay gone.”

-Static electricity shield that repels objects that impact him. “Pushes back more than it stops anything”. He needs to refresh it every 4 hours to keep it up, and can flare it to push back harder.

-4 foot electrical arc he can cause at will. Seems to conduct through metal and shock people like normal electricity. He uses this power to open a door that’s stuck closed by the storm-the mechanism by which this worked is unclear.

-“Storm” effect that slows movement to almost a standstill, prevents fires from starting, jams all mechanisms with moving parts, prevents sound from travelling, prevents fluids from drying or soaking into things, and affects temperature in some way (described as neither heat nor cold existing). Might also affect the mind in some way, unspecified. Mutes explosions impact, but doesn’t prevent them entirely. Certain frequencies of sound can still travel in the air.

-Storm effect also creates psychedelic colours in the sky and in fluids. Also in perturbations of the air caused by shockwaves.

-It’s likely that the storm expands in size over time or in response to some kind of behaviour from Sanya. What causes it? He doesn’t connect the storm to his power, so it’s likely it wasn’t present at the moment he triggered. Does it follow him, or does it remain in areas he has affected?

So now that we’ve seen his full power in action, what do we think it is exactly? What’s the unifying principle of his shard that connects everything he can do?

I can see one throughline. His storm effect appears to work based on potential energy, and the transfer of energy between forms. From a physics perspective, you would describe the process of a rock dropping as the rocks gravitational potential energy being converted into kinetic energy. Starting a fire is converting chemical energy of fuel into heat. All machines convert one form of energy into another in a useful way. Liquids drying involves the particles converting electrostatic potential energy into kinetic energy and flying off from their structures. Changes in temperature is energy diffusing from a more highly concentrated area to a lower concentration, which is also a shift in potential. Sleepers storm seems to drastically limit the rate at which these changes can occur, which would explain a lot of the effects.

I'm so excited for the comic that was just announced, so I thought I'd share this tattoo I got in May inspired by the series!

Also, Worm 3, Electric Bee-galee???

Bugs in the hive (starting closest to neck):

Butterfly, Bee, Praying Mantis, Beetle, Dragonfly, Spider,

I used to dream of times like this. Two schools, a graduation, a moved house worth of work is finally getting an adaptation! Three and a half reads and maybe a hundred fics later. This has made the whole year !

MY SECOND MOST FERVENT DESIRE HAS BEEN GRANTED (ASIDE FROM STRING THEORY AND LEET’S TRIGGER EVENTS)

(Serious spoilers for Worm and Ward btw)

WE HAVE INFO ON SLEEPER!

Like, I feel like his power is basically all answered, so I’mma just compile that my thoughts and analysis into a lil post.

Sanya is an uneducated dude, someone who blends into the background, someone whose life stagnated and never really recovered

“He had been a bad student, a poor employee, a disappointing family member.  He had friends he could hang out with, but no best friends.”

He triggered when someone he once knew tried to drive him out of town. Blaster/Shaker, bordering striker. Loss of safety, risk of losing something familiar. Isolation for a minor Master element. Not aware of the protective Breaker element, or less likely: doesn’t have one at all.

(In South Slavic languages like croatian, the noun/Prefix San means “a Dream”)

A defensive forcefield that pushed back more than it really stopped anything, and a offensive weapon that shocks…

Well, more accurately, his power dampens things.

“It hit him, and his power flared.  He was thrown, still, against the wall of the building opposite the door.  Again, the static crackled and cushioned things.”

“The storm crackled, boiled, popped, the colors taking on a rainbow sheen that somehow felt it shouldn’t make sense with the way the colors unfolded.”

It turns air to soup, bullets drop out of the air, makes brains slow to a crawl, explosions (and most other threats can be outrun with a stroll (Sanya isn’t exactly athletic, is he?))

… Is Sanya related to Winter or Krieg? Their powers are similar, the only difference is that Sanya’s seems to linger and spread as he uses it.

“But if they hadn’t, if the person it had all originated from had started small and nobody had cared or noticed, or if they’d started from a relatively unpopulated area that didn’t see much traffic... Here?”

“Maybe his power was meant to grow into something more over time”

My theory is pretty simple. His power is basically a variation on Stilling. Adaptive dulling and propagation of wavelengths, with an emphasis on the former.

When he gets bumped, or intentionally flares it, the miasma gets worse and spreads out, and it starts sinking its fingers further into whatever it affects. (Complexity of powers) His power didn’t initially work on the black hole guy, but it eventually sank in and turned him and all his constructs into more of that dampened mess.

I’d bet that it didn’t initially work on people, it just made things harder to move in, but it eventually figured out how to decode most shard connections and human brains. Maybe his lightning lash, that thing that lets him push and pull things, is also a sort of tether that makes his power focus on trying to affect a specific thing?

Similar reason to why most precogs can’t see him, the power tries to interact with the bubble, and any data that comes in doesn’t come out, it’s dampened.

Lethality probably comes from the fact that even when he leaves, the dampening effects don’t. The Simurgh was dealt with basically permanently. The scream is dampened, no more post cog or pre cog. No more telekinesis.

His attempts to “track down Sleeper” as well as running away from threats in the storm causes him to inherently move towards chaos (shard nudging him towards conflict and further data), and him defending himself just makes the storm BIGGER. (Zayin might’ve been a sleeper in a weakened storm, the locals attacked him, he defended himself and the bubble grew in size and strength to completely collapse everything.)

I’m prolly just spitting out stuff everyone who’s read it knows, but I’M JUST SO DAMN EXCITED TO SPECULATE AND ANALYZE!

Edit: Reread it some, and I also noticed that Sleeper is ironically extremely sleep deprived. His sense of time is heavily warped due to his exhaustion (4-5 Hours for months is effectively just being permanently plastered.) and his shard seems to capitalize on that. It’s noted that shards (Not just Jack Slash) like to give their hosts nudges, hunches or instincts. His power tends to flare up whenever he’s in danger, dampening impacts and disorienting his enemies, and he’s a lot less disoriented by his insomnia than he should be. It plays on his feelings of loneliness, and pushes him towards investigating “Sleeper” while keeping him from figuring out who that actually is.

​

Modern comics still live and die by their physical sales. Moreover, if they buy more expecting much interest then more locals may pick one up, further guaranteeing more sales later on

I just finished it (Should be working, lol) and I loved it. Super interesting, love Sanya. His situation is horrifying and compelling. And that ending!

Shout out my boy, Torso.

What do you guys think?

Huge congratulations to Wildbow for the upcoming comic adaptation of Worm! I’ve never been more excited for a piece of new media—it’s going to be first comic book I ever purchase, and I'm hoping to pre-order whenever I can. I’m also wishing the best for Wildbow in terms of his health. I haven’t been following his personal life, but I hope he finds equilibrium there and a sustainable way forward with the comic and Seek.

Anyway, I thought I’d sojourn from my usual reviews of Pale to share my thoughts here. These are written live as I read so you can see my thought process through. Spoilers ahead for Wake, of course 😊

Link to Wake

• The big reveal! Sleeper’s power is this colored dampening field that seems to behave like the opposite of Behemoth’s dynakinesis. The dampening of energy, temperature, and waves feels like an interpretation of Scion’s stilling power.

Before

• Sanya’s power allows him to push out Sleeper’s effect. This reminds me of this old post from Wildbow that gave some hints into who could survive Sleeper. The only power that had a chance was a Shaker ability to create replicating crystals that are chemically inert. I can imagine that power creating an area resistant to Sleeper similar to what Sanya is doing? There were also this meme-become-canon that Torso could take out Sleeper.

• Seems like the enemy solider may have some Breaker/Blaster/Striker black hole power that he’s able to use to resist Sleeper’s power.

Now

• Holy shit, he’s here…and he got air dropped in? Torso is completely unaffected by Sleeper’s power. And he’s somehow working with the Elitnaya soldiers, which is really bizarre. Not sure who set that up.

• I remember a scene of Sleeper sitting in a chair, reading, and looking out over a field, but I think that was during GM. He also participates in the final conflict of Ward, so I’m not sure where to place Wake in this timeline. Seems like Sanya could be in the right area.

• The woman with some degree of invincibility just explodes when confronted with Sanya’s power? Holy shit, he’s powerful.

Later

Once dressed, he went out onto the balcony, and reclined in a patio chair with a book in hand, and began to sound out the words.

• Uh, fuck me, that sounds like the scene of Sleeper that Khepri chanced upon during GM I was thinking of earlier.

The sky looked more stormy than usual. He made sure to renew his power. The electricity crackled, and the colorful miasma flowed away from it in plumes.

• Is Sanya generating Sleeper’s effect now through some sort of embodiment of Sleeper’s power? Has he been Sleeper all along, which is why he was being hunted by the Elitnaya soldiers and Torso? Or is he just a guy that’s chilling? I’m going to revisit his tracking patterns to see if I can make better sense of how Sanya potentially ended up tracking himself.

Summary (EDITED IN)

So I'm now fairly confident that Sanya is and has been Sleeper. Thematically, I'm curious how people are interpreting Wake. Sanya's hunt for Sleeper seems like it could be a commentary on the harm we can cause in obsessive pursuit of a goal, no matter how noble. Only when Sanya chooses to care for himself and work on self-improvement does he partially achieve his goal of limiting Sleeper's wake of destruction. There's also the theme of loneliness--perhaps Sanya's pursuit of external validation and human connection is what causes harm, and his later choice to turn inward rather than outward is what helps him achieve his goals.