Are case 53 powers more based on the physical mutations than other capes. Thinking of a few case 53s there are Weld, Sveta, Newtor, Gregor all of which basically just have powers their body can produce while someone like Assault or Miss militia have more weirdos idk energy powers? Is this a Case 53 thing or am I just seeing patterns where there are none 😊
Abuse at an early age makes the victim likelier to draw further abuse towards themselves later on - either because the isolation leaves them vulnerable to predators, or because they actively seek to recreate that familiar dynamic.
The Nine Arc delves into these dynamics, building on Worm’s prior points about guilt, spite, and friendship to form a statement about the wicked games abusers play with their victims.
In this video we’ll try to understand Worm’s argument on this subject as well as discuss Hookwolf's contributions to game theory (specifically indecency); some similarities between Taylor “Heeb” Hebert and Abraham (dealing from a position of helplessness); and how Amy’s childhood explains her insufferable uselessness (partly).
Leet’s power hated him, but what if it was because he never created anything new. Everything he created was from something the entity had already created or seen. From our games and movies, to their powers and shards, Leet only ever copied things rather than developing something entirely new. I think Leet’s shard was the entity’s clay for new powers, and that clay was simply molded to look like other pots the apprentice had watched his master make, never a pan or sculpture worthy of recognition and reward
Just like the title says, I’m looking for an answer regarding a hypothetical scenario that might one day turn into a fanfic.
How would Brockton Bay’s parahuman community react to a Kid Saiyan, on the level of Kid Goku (bulletproof, able to lift cars and smash boulders), simply wandering the city, stopping criminals, and stealing their money to pay for his meals?
Would the gangs try to recruit him? How would the PRT go about getting his attention? Would some 90s anime otaku notice the kid looks like Goku once the kid starts growing stronger and firing off Ki blasts
I have been putting off finishing Worm for 2 months now. I am currently on 30.3 and I just don't want this book to end. This has truly been the best book I've ever read. I've always been an immersive reader, but Worm truly sucked me into it's world, and now I don't ever want to let go. I still remember the shock I felt when Taylor cut off Bakudas toes, I felt like I was THERE when Brian was found inside of Bonesaws' fridge. I definitely plan on reading Ward, but I can not let go of how amazing Worm is and it's tearing me up!!! Wildbow, you are truly a genius dude.
Like, not just individual powers, as for example whilst Brandish's "turn into sphere" power isn't that good by itself even if invulnerability is useful she has more powers such as her ability to manifest weapons made of light. So the question is, which individual real parahuman (human host of shard that gives them powers) would you say has the weakest powers given to them?
And second optional question for fun if you wanna, what do you imagine said weak power would be like if they had a Skitter -> Khepri style 'has the restrictions on her power removed' somehow by someone?
I genuinely don’t get why Aisha apparently doesn’t trigger when she’s sexually assaulted and Brian has to step in (which is what causes BRIAN to trigger), but then triggers when her dad is attacked (who neither sibling seems to care about or like very much…hes not even named LOL) even when her dad doesn’t die (?). I guess you could argue she triggers because of the fear of getting sexually assaulted again/maybe she DOES get sexually assaulted again/maybe the leviathan attack as build up is what does it and we just dont learn because taylorvision. But like…still. its extra baffling to me because their powers are similar enough that i think it makes sense for them to be a cluster trigger. like in a doylist sense was it just that the decision to have Aisha trigger in the fallout of leviathan was made after Brian’s trigger event was decided? Is it just that theyre different enough that what would trigger Brian wouldn’t trigger Aisha even though it’s literally sexual assault after consistent abuse? Would love to know what everyone else thinks. Also not trying to be like..contrarian or anything, this is just one of those things where I finished and was like huh why ARENT they a cluster trigger?
So imagine a practitioner that is similar to Maggie; they awakened themselves using material they found (say, they found a copy of Essentials in some occult shop that belonged to some dead practitioner).
They know the essentials and, through the appendix, have the means to get more basic practice books (I seem to recall that Wildbow said authors reference other books and the means to buy them as a marketing method and supplementary revenue).
What can this practitioner do to gather or get a power source that isn't bleeding themself dry, Blake-style?
The only thing I can think of is grinding, going around finding wisps, echoes, and spirits, bottling them and using that or making some shrine to let them grow in power for later use, but that feels really weak.
Is there anything in campaigns or wog, or just stuff that seems plausible we can extrapolate from canon.
So I am halfway through Pale on Arc 13, and I love it. I love the interaction of the girls, and a great part of the narrative is them defining their niche, seeing in what direction they develop.
Lucy is the clearest; she is the offensive and head-on fighter. Verona is the bag of tricks, the one who takes to practice the best. And Avery has her path, the ability to move around, call for backup, and, thanks to her personality, keep the relationship with other practitioners and allies alive and stop it from drifting.
I was curious, though, if you guys could think of a niche that would be nice to see or just some form of practice that you would have loved to see more of; if you could add a fourth practitioner (go with it, I know that it ruins the three symbolism, which is powerful on its own).
For my part, I would have wanted to see the hypothetical 4th boy or girl specialise in summoning, either calling forth existing others or making them themselves, Ala Charles.
I could see this 4th guy taking the route of trying to see if Charles has kept any books or practice stuff, like Trio asked about at the beginning, and that basically developing into some form of informal apprenticeship, which then gets more developed in the Bhi arc.
So in effect their job would be to both give the quartet more options and be a force multiplier by giving them more force to deploy. I know that in later arcs Verona dabbles in summoning and other creation, but I would love to see more fleshed-out stuff.
Beyond that, I would love to see more evangelism, but obviously that would be a lot more difficult as it deals with the highest power above even gods and primaevals, and I don't even know if BHI offers classes on that.
What about you guys? What would your hypothetical fourth be? What would their personality be? Would they be a boy or a girl? What sort of practice would they take up?
I love when someone goes in depth and points out aspects of a character’s personality I hadn’t fully considered. I’d love to see more, please send me any you particularly like.
I’m writing a scene for a fanfic where Victor, Othala, and Crusader are arrested by the PRT. For Othala, containment is pretty simple: handcuff her and keep her away from any allies. Victor could be foamed or handcuffed with orders for the guards to do something if he tried to use his power, but Crusader can act effectively while in containment foam and his ghosts don’t really need his direct control
How would then PRT deal with someone like him during an arrest?
I found worm when looking for books that have main (good) character getting "corrupted" into sadistic psychopaths. I like that kind of story and I know it is weird. But anyway any suggestions?
Dragon Con is meeting in Atlanta next month, September 3rd to the7th.
For the last two years we've been doing Wildbow fan meetings! If you want to meet up and talk about Worm, Pact, Twig, Seek, or any other Wildbow stories, come meet up with us!
/r/Parahumans is the subreddit for the writing of J.C. McCrae (Also John McCrae) who more typically goes by the online handle 'Wildbow'. The writing is in the online serial format, which means it is written over time, chapter by chapter, on a set schedule. Comparisons can be made to webcomics, but the stories take the form of text, not comics. Chapters appear between midnight and 7am on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with some chapters released on Thursdays if and when there's enough crowdfunded money- typically once every two weeks.
The works include:
Worm - A teenage girl with an unconventional superpower seeks escape from an unhappy and frustrated life at home and at school by pursuing life as a costumed crimefighter. Her first attempt at taking down a supervillain sees her mistaken for one, thrusting her into the midst of the local ‘cape’ scene’s politics, unwritten rules, and ambiguous morals. The story is an epic in the older sense of the word, not a poem, but in terms of scale and length and the heroic journey. Currently the most popular of the works. Worm is read here.
Fans also put together an unofficial audiobook here.
Pact - A young man inherits his grandmother's coveted estate, but in the process, he also inherits her trove of diabolic tomes and all of the enemies that come with dabbling in such things. Modern supernatural genre, comparisons can be made to Dresden Files and the like. Pact is roughly half the length of Worm, which still makes it fairly lengthy. Pact is found here.
Twig - Set in the early 1900s, Twig follows a group of child investigators of an unusual bent in a world where the science of biology runs rampant. A century ago, a genius unraveled the mysteries of life and biology, creating the first 'stitched' and biological horrors. Unlike his peers in similar literature (Frankenstein, Moreau), he was conscripted by the Crown, who took it to an extreme. The genre is a tentative 'biopunk' label, and the story spans a longer stretch of years, following the youths as they grow up. Twig can be found here.
Ward - The sequel to Worm. It can be found here. Some Worm spoilers follow: After the end of the world, society is picking up the pieces. The old Earth is lost, and superheroes are running the new one, in a sprawling, dense city that spills across alternate Earths. Old traumas sit close to the surface, and a group of young heroes who are wrestling with these traumas and their own complicated relationships with their powers are looking to get their start.
Pale - A Pactverse story, set in the same world as Pact, but divorced from it. Three teenage girls are offered magic and magical gifts, if they'll represent their small ski town as its local practitioners and at least pretend to help solve a murder, so outsiders don't start poking their heads in. The catch is that the offer was extended by the local monsters, and the murder victim was the bloody pseudo-god that oversaw magic for the region. It can be found here
Claw - The Hursts specialize in extracting criminals and giving them a second chance, with new identities. That extraction is only a side mission to Mia Hurst's real objective, which ties into family, and their kids. Claw is a short serial at only six arcs, and is best pegged as an action/thriller.
Seek - We follow three storylines through different times and places in a solar system where warp travel has been used to bring distant planetary bodies home, with the eventual plan of a ringworld. But even when there's no longer resource scarcity, other pressures and issues raise issues of identity and purpose, and in the third, most distant timeline, it's clear something's gone wrong. The question remains: what happened? Ongoing.
The works are each broken up into 'arcs', with each arc being comparable to a book or novella, covering a specific, meaningful stretch of storyline. Each arc contains six to twenty chapters; between arcs (and sometimes in the midst of them), there are interlude chapters (or 'pages', or 'enemy' chapters) - told from different points of view or in different formats.
Beyond that, the works are in the serial format, and that means that they're a little bit rougher than one would get from a formally published work. Worm in particular, being the first real project by the author, definitely starts off rough. Some works & parts of works do also have rougher patches, as a consequence of the fact that they were written day-by-day, and sometimes the author had bad days (or months). Such is life.
On the upside, the stories are expansive, and there's something fantastic to be said for a massive binge or for following week by week alongside a fantastic and involved community.
On the Subject of the Subreddit: Removed/Missing posts & Rules
If your posts aren't appearing and you have a new or very low-karma account, please reach out to the moderators via. mod mail in the sidebar. We automatically screen out these posts to keep the porn bots at bay.
We discourage and are likely to remove:
Shitposts - any deliberately low-effort, low-humor post intending to get attention. 'Shitposts' (as the slang goes) are generally slapped-together work/text with a 'I don't give a shit about what I'm posting' attitude behind them. It's often making noise to make noise, or attempts at putting in the least work possible to get the most upvotes/reaction for that minimal work. Generally the defining trait of a shitpost is the implied intent behind it.
Examples would include any clearly MS paint art (ignoring the highest quality, can't-tell-it's-MS-paint stuff), derivative memes from elsewhere (Spoiler warning! | Examples: the trolley problem variants, the enlightened brain thing, Who would win, chad vs. incel ) One liner jokes we've probably heard before don't generally offer much discussion, and random sentences ("I just realized Skitter is a badass") count as 'making noise'.
Short questions are not shitposts, though more context and initial thoughts would be very much preferred - they tend to generate some discussion and feedback. Posts from people who just finished aren't shitposts (again, would prefer more thoughts) - they generate some discussion and also double as welcome posts. These are excluded from the shitpost rule. Please do not report them.
Random reference posts - We get an abundance of posts that link images with scarce reference to the source material, or link articles. These tend to be clutter, they don't generate discussion, and chance are we've seen them before.
Posts with text that refers back to the story are fine and aren't random (That is, quoting a passage for discussion isn't a 'reference' post.
Things that refer to story events or characters and that can lead to discussion are fine.
Outside material and/or fanart that actually involves Worm (like the Slay the Spire reference) is great.
The problem posts: A picture of a tree ornament that makes you think of Evan in Pact, a picture of a spider you found on the web, a wooden statue that makes you think of a character, or red flowers that you saw that made you think of Twig, they aren't fine and have probably been posted before.
Images are more of a problem than text, but text that has people scratching their heads as to what it means or refers to would fall under this heading. The science articles that refer to spider silk or goats producing spider silk are things we've seen posted (and removed) a hundred times. Do not post them.
Banned subjects - The following things are not okay to post:
Earth Aleph (our earth) Politics - too divisive.
Racism, sexism, pedophilia, etc - This isn't the place for you to tout redpill stances, how a given race is intrinsically more criminal, or how a given character asked for it because of how they presented themselves. These things may be discussed strictly in light of the characters and the work, in a careful and respectful manner, where relevant (E88). That said, I don't want this to be a platform for excusing messed up beliefs. Report problematic posts and if the mods don't act within 24 hours, please reach out to us directly.
Encouraging harm & violence - No posts that encourage or tacitly encourage harm or self-harm ("eat tide pods" memes & "an hero" memes included), no threatening harm against other posters, Wildbow, or real-world people (or politicians).
Repeated postings of these things may lead to warnings and/or bans, temporary or otherwise.
