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!

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 cant believe worm is getting an official comic

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

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

No more hugs for Lisa lol

Commissioned from u/Southern-Wafer-6375

Do the single issues have ISBNs? I work in a bookshop but I think I can only order the collected volumes (if those happen).

​

Inspired by the Comic announcement and way too many fics that have stupid fanon.

Disclamer: This is NOT a moral defense of Sophia's actions twords Taylor or other characters but rather a debunking of a bunch of fanon which paints things that she did not do, or did not happen onto her.

--

Defense #1: Bioterrorism attack & Attempted Muder

--

Starting off with an easy one, a bunch of fanon states that The Locker was a bioterror attack and that shoving Taylor into it constitutes as attempted murder.

This is obviously extremely dumb and not true.

Bioterrorism is way too big a charge for The Locker. Not to diminish the event but it was just a bunch of tampons and garbage left to rot for a while. If that's what it takes to commit bioterrorism then every neglected garbage bin or poorly ventilated compost heap would be bioterrorism.

Attempted Murder is also way too extreme. Again, not to diminish The Locker but no reasonable person would expect being shoved into a locker filled with some rank garbage to actually kill somebody. Additionally there's not really any evidence to suggest it was even Sophia who pushed Taylor into the Locker. Taylor's recollection of events dosen't even definitively state that the Trio was directly behind her, they were standing behind her and to the side at least midway across the hall when she opens it and pukes. Which makes sense if you consider that no teen girl or person in general really wants to get in the smell path of that thing.

Given that the Trio are explicitly stated to rely on plausible deniability and catspaws its very possible that none of them even touched Taylor and instead let some random person they convinced to help them do it instead. There's just no proof one way or the other in the canon text.

Now she is definitely guilty of being an accessory to a crime, probably some form of Assault or Battery but her role in The Locker was honestly pretty minor. We know from her Interlude that Emma came up with the Locker, and it's implied she at least helped with filling the Locker with trash and tampons but nothing else. Honestly people way overplay how invested Sophia was in the whole Taylor hate train.

On that note.

--

Defense #2: Usage of Powers to bully Taylor

--

This is a short one that could honestly be part of the last bit, but it's more about the wider bullying than the Locker itself. There is this wide conception that Sophia was using her powers to steal things out of Taylor's Locker and backpack, or even using them to open it to get to the Locker in the first place.

This is super dumb and totally unsupported. Sophia is specifically good at one thing, surviving. There's no way she would have made it 2.5 years as an independent black cape in Empiresvill if she was doing stupid shit like using her powers in the middle of a public school. One known to hold a large number of Empire affiliated kids. This fanon only exists to lump further crimes onto Sophia's shoulders by making her uniquely responsible for all the real bad stuff the Trio does to Taylor, implying that without her powers the worst pranks would be impossible to pull off. Which is obviously not true as getting past School Locker locks is ridiculously easy for anyone with basic hand eye coordination.

--

Defense #3: Usage of Cape status and Wards Membership to cover up crimes.

--

This is probably the biggest and worst offender just for prevalence and widespread memetic infection alone.

The oldest version (that i know of) of this idea posits that the administration of Windslow dosen't want to lose the funding they get by hosting a Ward at the school.

This early idea falls apart immediately when you remember that Sophia was an independent Vigilante during the first year of the bullying, starting in September 2009 until she was captured in late 2010. There's also literally nothing in the canon or supplemental text that indicates this "Wards Fund" for the schools even exists. I'm not even gonna address the whole "skimming off the top" fanon for the Principle and Sophia's nonexistent handler.

The next thing the fanon junkies jumped to was the idea that Sophia had a preexisting "deal" with the school administration as a Vigilante to watch out for and defend against gang encroachment on the school in exchange for them ignoring anyone she hurts (not just Taylor)

This is almost as dumb as the previous idea. The idea that Sophia could make a deal like this with that simpering coward Patricia Blackwell is laughable. For one, how is Sophia even going to fulfill her end of that bargain? Without being able to use her powers in school she's just a very athletic teenage girl who's good at fighting. This deal would also have to take place in Freshman Year when Sophia is 13-14 years old, and promising to counteract gang affiliated 18-19 year old students all on her own. Laughable.

If this "deal" ever happened Blackwell would lie to Sophia's face about accepting it, and immediately call the PRT on Sophia once she was out of the room.

Some miscellaneous fanon related to this line of thought.

The Handler:

Sophia's "Handler" is an often brought up element that just straight up doesn't exist. Really. The only "evidence" that people have for the Handler existing is that some lady who isn't Sophia's mom shows up for the disciplinary meeting in Hive 5.4. It's pretty obvious this lady is a PRT staff member or social worker based on their only line of dialog, which is to state a preference that Sophia keep attending her "Track and Field practices".

I'm honestly 50/50 on whether this is doublespeak for Wards hours or actual practice, given that Taylor thinks Sophia is a track star and there's people who would definitely notice their "track star" never showing up for practice. People say it's doublespeak because the Arcadia Wards get half days and "Work studies" as their Wards covers but those are all individual tasks that you could disappear into. I think there's a legit chance this was meant to be a social worker trying to keep a teen on probation in a healthy social activity. Note that they don't say Sophia shouldn't get in school suspension, only that she still be allowed to attend track practice which is a classic social worker move. This bit is mostly just my opinion tho.

Even if this woman is a PRT official there's zero indication that Sophia is familiar with her long term, or that she actually knew about any of the bullying. Honestly this meeting goes terribly for Taylor, making her look every bit the overexaggerating tall tale spinner the Trio have spent the last 16 months painting her as. I had a very similar meeting when I was a kid, and that shit didn't require any government coverups or a Lawyer playing defense to fuck me over, just a bad reputation and being crap at talking the good talk, something Taylor is explicitly bad at during this part of the story.

PRT not supervising Sophia enough at school:

In Wards!Taylor fics there's almost always a moment where Taylor or someone else accuses the PRT of not supervising Sophia enough, allowing her to get away with bullying under "their watch"

This is bullshit and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what the PRT's job is, expecially in relation to the Wards. The PRT is a Law Enforcement organization, and the Wards are not actually child soldiers. It's not the PRT's job to Big Brother their Wards and, based on the implications of the Wards arc post-S9, they might straight up not be allowed to do so.

Law enforcement isn't allowed to snoop around schools without explicit permission from the administration to do so, its enshrined in a half dozen different privacy laws. Responsibility for reporting any misbehavior that Sophia gets up to on school grounds is entirely on the school not the PRT. Hell the PRT wasn't allowed to monitor Taylor while she was in actual prison, they were entirely reliant on the Prison administration to do so and report any misbehavior. If a convicted felon gets that kind of out of costume privacy from the PRT then you better belive they didn't have a clue about anything at the school.

There are hard limits on the PRT's jurisdiction even when it comes to capes. They don't act like a separate government that handles all cape related stuff. Missy is a prime example of this, she says in her interlude that she tried to get the PRT to remove her from her parents but CPS says no and that was final.

A common argument is that since all that was required to strip Sophia of her probation in canon was the messages sent by Regent, that her probation should have allowed the PRT to read her private messages and find out about her crimes. Something that is actually in the jurisdiction of Law enforcement.

To that I say that probationary agreements are highly variable and the "search clause" to read all private messages is not a universal term, much less so for juveniles. That or Wildbow doesn't understand how probation works in America, and didn't know we gave up 99% of our privacy laws a long time ago. Either way it's not an automatic part of her probation, and never suggested to exist in canon. Either way, she could have just kept her "crime" phone in her bedroom. No juvenile search clause allows the search of private bedrooms without a serious cause.

A funny timeline goof often makes this extra stupid in Wards!Taylor fics where Taylor's trigger event outs her to the PRT in January. At that point in time Sophia had only been in the Brockton Wards (and not at the boot camp in San Diego) for like 4 months. If Taylor goes to the PRT on the day of her Trigger then The Locker is literally the first major bit of bullying that Sophia has done to her since she joined the PRT. Something that, if revealed to the PRT day of, means that Sophia was immediately caught and detained the moment she did something other than light shoving to somebody. Which makes the PRT's "poor monitoring" of her actually super effective lol.

--

Offense #1:

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As a quick departure, something Sophia definitely did do was violate her probation by shooting Grue with a broadhead bolt some time after she is conscripted into the Wards.

This is explicitly stated in Agitation 3.3. Sophia shot Grue with intent to kill, using a broadhead sometime between mid-late August 2010 and April 8th 2011.

Of course for this to actually matter someone would need to catch her doing this, and convince Grue to come into court and testify. Good luck with that.

And people wonder why Piggot was so hard on Armsy when Lung nearly died. Hero's going to hard on villians is basically impossible to prove in court short of death or arrest, so the PRT really has to put its foot down whenever they catch somebody.

Honestly all that would be required for Sophia to get nixed from the Wards is a proper video of that event. Too bad Grue's powers make it impossible to take video of him :)

--

I've got a couple more but it's 1am and I want to sleep. Maybe I'll post more in the morning.

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.

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.

Holy shit this is happening I’m so excited I grew up with this shit (which is a little fucked but who cares) I’m so happy it’s getting adapted I’m gonna buy every comic oml

We’re getting a real comic :). I guess my work is done, there really wouldn’t be a point anymore since the whole reason I wanted to make the comic was because there’s wasn’t one. So now I get to sleep more and look forward to 2027.

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 !

TL;DR - Sleeper's powers blunts vectors, which alters wavelengths (Thanks Accelerator from a Certain Magical Index). It explains why light is distorted, objects don't move, etc.

--

Some definitions to know before diving in:

Vector: Any physical quantity that has a magnitude and direction (this is basically all physical phenomena in the natural world that involve force, movement, or energy [heat, light, velocity, electricity, etc])

Wavelength: the physical distance between two consecutive, identical points on a wave (not as important, but good to know that light works with this)

--
(Disclaimer: My physics and math are limited to sophomore undergraduate school and a lot of anime. I may get some terms incorrect)

Sleeper's power works on Vectors and Wavelengths, altering the space around him. In particular, he dampens Vectors and modifies wavelengths. And there are some key characteristics that point toward this conclusion:

1. The Shimmering Colors

Colors unfold unnaturally while in the storm because of electromagnetic wavelengths are thrown off balance. Usually, light wavelengths should act normally. But within Sleeper's influence, light doesn't behave correctly anymore and violate normal wave mechanics, as mentioned by Defiant. To create that impossible aurora borealis effect, light waves must be held in some continuously warped/static state. Something that could only be done if you could alter the way wavelengths operate...such as through vectors.

2. The Thinker Deadzone

Thinker powers appear to be some sort of function of communication between entities as a whole, and also work as a way of well...thinking. Nonetheless, this requires the use of energy and/or, this is some form of wavelength being sent toward sleeper. The vector dampening effect would thus cancel out these signals from certain types of thinkers.

3. Communications Deadzone And Why Temperature Doesn't Do Anything

Similar to above, but for human made devices. Radio, cellular signals, etc all depend on wavelengths. Sound depends on wavelengths. Heat similarly revolves around radiation wavelengths and vibrations. Because of Sleeper's dampening effect, information and energy just can't move within this space.

4. Why All Or Nothing/Weird Capes Can Survive:

All or nothing defensive capes pretty much create a stasis or domain of their own that exists outside normal reality, which renders them immune to having their vectors changed up by Sleeper (For my fellow weebs, think of it as having a simple domain while under the effects of a domain expansion in JJK). Even Sanya creates (or thinks he's creating) his own "domain" to keep alive in this space.

Changers with weird powers and thus, weirder brains are able to survive Sleeper due to having different biological vectors that are atypical (yes, like your neural impulses and general bio-electricity you emit). Capes like Artem who don't have a standard human biological state and probably has a weird sense of consciousness (considering he's a walking talking infection), avoid their own vectors being scrambled in the same way that would incapacitate a regular guy.

5. Your Girlfriend's Sister's Hypothetical Shaker Reasoning (Click For Context)

This Shaker would be able to last a short amount of time, but would ultimately fail due to being unable to really escape or fight back.

Crystal is a very stable form of matter. It is very hard to tamper with due to its atomic structure. It would be able to locked into a rigid space, making it very difficult for Sleeper to force the vectors into a weird state. Since the crystal is conductive, it practically acts as a lightning rod to sleepers powers, dispersing it. And there's also that 200 meter safe zone. Our Shaker has created a crystal fortress. A fortress of solitude, if you will.

....But now what? She's stuck there. She'll starve, get thirsty. If she made a bubble, she'll run out of air. It would take a miracle for her to survive...such as sleeper suddenly being transported to another world, perhaps? Or if he just decides not to keep his power running? Truly low odds.

6. Why Things Don't Move Right

Everything that moves through machines or in the air has a kinetic vector. If sleeper's powers dampens vectors, then it forces rapid deceleration of objects. It's why a missile can still float in the air and potentially take months move.

Your Questions/Arguments

1. So Is This Just A Lesser Version Of Scion's "Stilling" Ability?

Not quite. I believe that ultimately, Sleeper works on Vectors, which indirectly affects wavelengths as opposed to immediate wavelength control. If Scion is absolute control of wavelengths, Sleeper is a net that slows them down/alters them. It dampens.

2. Shard Abilities Are Rooted in Trigger Events. How does this relate to his Trigger?

Dampening/Repelling Vectors can translate to repelling his attackers when he got jumped.

3. What about the storm?

Here's a quote from a comment I made:

I believe that the storm gradually grew from the use of his powers. And I believe that Sanya has a theory on that himself as shown by these two quotes:

Maybe his powers were meant to grow into something more over time.  Maybe this was stifling them.

and

The hurricane effect- he’d been working from an assumption that when the Sleeper had triggered, the cloud of effect had immediately snapped out to be a certain size.  After all, if it had started much smaller and gradually reached the big size, then people would have noticed and evacuations would have started sooner.

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?

He just hasn't connected that the use of his powers causes the stirring of the storm.

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.

4. But Aekely, you didn't mention —

Hey it's nearly 5AM and I'm writing a dissertation alright. This was a writing break and I'm going to bed now.

Final Thoughts

I don't think this is all the way correct. I like the theory that the dimension Sleeper's shard is stealing energy from is the current dimension where he's at, and that causes the storm. I don't know if it's right, but it's interesting.

I think vectors works with the idea of how he made the metal "sing" to contact the agents who were gonna kill him. His powers let him dampen/alter vectors. Why not metal, or arcs of electricity? If Sanya got ahold of a physics book (and could read it) he'd be very powerful.

The storm...look I don't know. I still think that when he "charges his power" he is renewing the storm. In fact. I like another theory that when he does that, he is expanding the range of his initial "shield," over a large area. That goes with the quote I posed above with how he believes that his powers were meant to grow into something more over time.

Ok, I'll edit this in the morning. Goodnight you all

Finished it a few weeks ago and have been kicking some stuff around the old noodle. One thing in particular i keep coming back to are some of Kenzie's interactions with Dragon and Defiant.

Like, the chatbot/AI stuff in the prelude had Kenzie thinking shed be in trouble, but isn't that tech both of them would love deeper access to?

And what on earth was up with the 'not a cube' Kenzie showed off to Antares and Defiant? I reread that section a few times and couldn't make sense of it, and then I dont think it came back up? Was it supposed to show us Antares was in a weird headspace?

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!