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journeysintowebcomics · 5 years

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Worm Liveblog #92

UPDATE 92: Daughters

Last time Taylor and Rachel started fixing their relationship somewhat, and Taylor proposed to the rest of the Undersiders the rather daunting task of fighting Coil. They have one week, maybe one week and half to succeed. Let’s continue!

And here it is, it has started: the interludes in the middle of the story, brought by the generous souls who donated to the author. This is one of them. To be honest, I’m not very sure about this...it feels kind of disjointed. I have liveblogged a few webcomics and since then something that’s starting to tick me off is intermissions happening in middle of the story. By now I can only sigh with annoyance every time they happen. More often than not it feels like it breaks the storyline. In this particular case it didn’t really do that because the arc was just starting, but in the future I hope these bonus interludes don’t happen in middle of the arc unless it’s like...another point of view or something like that.

It’s not clear right away who is the protagonist of this interlude. Seems to me it’s a young girl in...a cell, perhaps? A dungeon? It’s a dark place she can’t leave by their own will, seems to me. There’s also another young girl in here – a fellow prisoner? This is confirmed further when a man enters with a plate of food, giving it to them. The point-of-view girl thanks him, he hesitates but doesn’t let that stop him from closing the door and leave them still locked inside.

For a fleeting moment Dinah came to mind, but unless Coil recently kidnapped another girl for whatever reason and also stopped drugging her, it’s unlikely the girl this interlude is about is Dinah. Haven’t ruled out the other girl being Dinah, though. Very low chance but it’s there.

The other girl can’t believe POV girl thanked the man. Why’d she do such a thing to her captor? Hard to think it’d be just politeness.

She couldn’t justify it. Her heart was pounding. She stared at the plate. Soup and bread: enough food for one person, barely enough for two. She could have said she did it in the hopes that he would feed them more often, but she wasn’t sure she would be telling the truth.

“Let’s… let’s just eat,” she spoke.

It’s still too early to know for sure what to think about this girl, but she seems...I’m not sure what’s the word. Kindhearted? Naïve? I don’t know. She’s a nice girl, that’s what I’m trying to say.

There’s no time for that because the scenario changes to a different person. It’s Alan and Carol...it took me a moment, but I think they’re Panacea and Glory Girl’s parents? No, wait, it was Mark. I think Carol – Brandish – is the mom, but I’m not sure who Alan is.

Carol is dealing with the possibility of closing the office because of the city getting condemned. Right, she’s a lawyer. She’s gathering files and getting busy, but she’s not okay. She has stuff to be worried about, since this is clearly the present, unless Brandish had been in another condemned city before.

Yup, this is the present. I bet she’s worried about Glory Girl. She must be missing right now, after all. But nope! Looks like it’s not that. It’s less motherly and more frustrated reasons to be distracted.

Line by line, Brandish talks about how things led to her husband getting a brain injury that led to a very sad situation we readers are very aware about. We all know how it ended:

Carol smiled, but it wasn’t a happy expression. “So imagine my surprise when, after weeks of taking care of my husband, wiping food from his face, giving him baths, supporting him as he walked from the bedroom to the bathroom, Amy decides she’ll heal him after all.”

I imagine how it was like for Carol, yeah. There’s this healer in her family who ironically isn’t able to heal him, because she can’t heal brains. Weeks later, you find out that was a lie, and the healer sat on her hands for all these weeks before finally deciding to help. Of course we all know it wasn’t like that! We know about Panacea’s plight. However, Carol doesn’t. To her it looks pretty awful, leaving aside her husband’s recovery, and now, she’s going to spread the word about this to other people, causing damage to Panacea’s reputation. Great, as if that girl didn’t have enough problems in her life. With some luck her stained reputation won’t reach wherever she’s going to go after Glory Girl is healed.

The Slaughterhouse Nine’s visit to Panacea also doesn’t help. Mark must have told her about how that visit went, right? So she must be aware he was healed at their behest. If so, then the impression she has of this is even worse, because it took a supervillain coercing her to finally heal Mark, meaning she didn’t do it willingly. Of course she’d be upset!

Victoria went looking for her after she ran away, returned home empty-handed. I think she was even more upset than I was, with Amy taking so long to heal Mark. She was almost inarticulate, she was so angry.”

“Your daughters are close. The sense of betrayal would be that much stronger.”

So far from the truth. I don’t doubt Glory Girl maybe felt confused and all, but she was very willing to forgive her at first. If it wasn’t for Panacea losing control of her powers because of her emotions for a moment, things may have ended in a much more peaceful manner.

And now, like I said earlier, Glory Girl is missing. She was thinking about joining the Wards, so this mission alongside them may have been her way to prove herself. It...didn’t go like expected at all. Welp! While Glory Girl isn’t anywhere in my list of characters I like, I feel bad for her. I hope Panacea removes from Glory Girl the love she hastily had implanted in her and then goes away. Glory Girl will be majorly upset with that, but it’s for the better to do that anyway, I think.

They know the Undersiders took her for medical attention, but apparently Brandish doesn’t know where in the city the Undersiders are at. Huh. Battery knew where Skitter was, at least. I doubt she kept that to herself, so the Protectorate must know what territories the Undersiders have taken – at least some of them, right? Kind of surprising Carol hasn’t been able to get any leads. So now she’s distraught and came here to get herself busy and calm down. I can relate to that. Pretty normal reaction, yup.

Alan tries to offer help but it’s not that simple. There’s nothing they can do other than continuing the search...

“Welcome back to Brockton Bay, Mr. Barnes.”

Oh! I remember now! I think. Wasn’t Emma’s father a lawyer named Alan? I think it once was mentioned Barnes is her last name? I don’t really remember, but yeah, I think this is Emma’s father. Emma and family must be back in Brockton Bay.

Some time later, Carol seems to have fallen asleep, presumably not in her office. Back at home, most likely. She woke up because a stranger has arrived.

It took me like a dozen lines to realize this is the past, with the girls trapped. My bad. Anyway, these are Carol and Sarah. Now that I think about it, this may be how Photon Mom and Brandish met, right? Because New Wave is a group where two families decided to leave aside any ‘secret identities’ stuff and just admit what their real identities are. I don’t think a pair of random families without any sort of ties would agree to shake the status quo like that. The other possibility is that Carol and Sarah are family. I don’t remember if Carol and Sarah were related, honestly.

These girls have been trapped here for quite a while, it seems they were held as ransom or something, because now a man comes to kill them, saying time’s up. This is the moment Sarah has her awakening. Neat! And like anyone would do in her situation, she uses her newfound powers to fight back against the man threatening them, and it’s pretty bloody. Yikes.

She couldn’t bring herself to protest. For the first time in long weeks or months, she felt a flicker of hope.

Weeks or months?! I did think it had been a couple weeks, at least, but I didn’t think it could potentially be months! That must have been quite a nightmare for them.

Speaking of nightmares, heeeeere is the other guy! The man who had been bringing them food. This time no amount of ‘thank you’ would make him hesitate, I suppose because his partner in crime’s battered corpse must still be around, so he raises a gun and shoots.

He’d tried to attack them? Carol couldn’t understand it. He was the one who’d taken care of them. When he’d appeared, she’d been happy. And now it felt like that had been ruined, spoiled.

She felt betrayed and she couldn’t understand why.

Okay, now I know the word I’m looking for is ‘naïve’. I guess it’s not out of the question a criminal can change their mind and all that, but it sounds like Carol took for granted he’d help them. True, he did show some hesitation that one time, but unless he showed hesitation every single time or other signs he was reconsidering this all he wasn’t going to switch sides just like that. Also, there’s a bloody battered body on the floor. Can’t have appealed to his good side.

The man shoots and heeeeere comes the trigger. This is the moment Carol gained her powers. I must say, I really like there has been parts where people other than Skitter have been shown gaining their powers. It has really driven home how traumatic it is to be in the kind of situations that’d get them their powers.

In this case, the vision Carol is having is of an egg opening and a lot of creatures bursting out of it, taking partners and flying away. Quite the vision! So far it had been visions of much older creatures, ones that were dying. I wonder if this is meaningful in some manner, if the vision depends on the person or something like that.

When the vision is over, Carol found herself on the floor. Sarah had tried to defend them, but I suppose the bullets were a lot to protect themselves from, and now that Carol had her trigger event, it’s her turn to fight back. She makes a weapon and attacks, it’s like a laser sword. The man’s limbs are cut and soon, well, he’s dead. That’s the end of this kidnapping and it’s pretty clear this is going to have some nasty psychological trauma on her.

You know, with all these traumatic situations required to have trigger events, it’d be great for new parahumans to consult a psychiatrist. It’s a shame so few have the chance to do so, I suppose.

Back in the present, Lady Photon is here to see her. She brings what could be interpreted as good news: they made contact with Tattletale and struck a deal. Good! If there’s someone who can deduce Glory Girl’s location it’s her. Maybe not with precision but she could perhaps say the general area? Where would Panacea take Glory Girl, anyway? Not a hospital, because she needed to work on her.

The information wasn’t free, of course.

“She wanted a two-week ceasefire. The Undersiders won’t give any heroes or civilians any trouble, and we ignore them in exchange.”

“That gives them time to consolidate, get a firmer hold on the city.”

“Maybe. I talked to Miss Militia about it, and she doesn’t think they’ll accomplish anything meaningful in that span of time. The Undersiders have their hands full with white supremacists and some leftover Merchants, the Protectorate and Wards aren’t part of the ceasefire and they’ll be putting pressure on the Undersiders as well.”

Ah, clever. She bought the Undersiders enough time to be able to focus on Coil without any other distractions. I have to wonder if, when Coil is defeated – because I think it’s a foregone conclusion they will! The enigma is how they’ll achieve it – the heroes will find out the Undersiders did it. That’ll make them even more dangerous in the eyes of the heroes.

Indeed, what Tattletale gave them in exchange was the location of both Glory Girl and Panacea. It’s time to go see them! I hope Glory Girl is almost healed by now, so Panacea can get on their good graces before she leaves. Some good reputation even in a place you’re not going to return to is always good, after all.

This interlude is jumping everywhere in the timeline. Back in the past, it’s Brandish in the Brockton Bay Brigade, confronting Marquis – Panacea’s father. They cornered him in his expensive house, Marquis isn’t worried at all. Hm! Is this going in the direction I think it’ll go! I hope it is! It would show how Panacea was adopted by Carol.

Looks like Marquis’ power is to manipulate bone. In a moment many bone spears erupt through his body in what must be a really weird thing to see, but it’ll be effective nonetheless. Bone is kind of a weird material, sometimes it’s depicted as brittle, other times as rather sturdy. I’m guessing Marquis would be able to control the density and hardness of the bone, right? In that case, he could make it as sturdy or as fragile as he wants.

The bone spears weren’t to impale anyone, instead they break off and are transformed into shapes that’d leave open wounds if the heroes get careless. It was to get bone exposed, I think. One of them’s bones in his foot break.

Alright! The heroes’ strategy is to attack constantly. Hit hard and hit often! It’d work better if Marquis couldn’t make a shield of bone, expanding it until it was larger than him, protecting him from Lady Photon’s blasts. I was already thinking ‘could they attack his back somehow?’ when Brandish thinks about how Marquis’ usual strategy is to get out of sight and then burrow to somewhere else.

Marquis emerged from the floor a short distance away, driving a spike of bone up through the ground and then deconstructing it to reveal himself.

I can imagine him encased in a drill made of bone, spinning through the floor and all, haha! But yeah, I must say, this power is pretty interesting, from what I have seen. It’s kind of quirky but also quite fearsome in the right hands.

Apparently he’s trying to protect something and he’s not being straightforward about it. Protecting his daughter, perhaps? It’s an anomaly in his behavior, one that puzzles Brandish.

His power let him manipulate bone. If it was his own, he could make it grow or shrink, reshape it and multiply it. It made him, in many respects, a competent shapeshifter. His abilities with the bones of others were limited to a simple reshaping, and there was a nuance in that the longer his own bone was separated from his body, the less able he was to manipulate it. Every second he was wasting talking was a second that the bone splinters he’d spread over the area would be less useful to him. He was putting himself at a disadvantage.

I’m not certain, but I think Marquis has a finite amount of material to work with. Otherwise it wouldn’t be that much of a problem, he’d make more bone spears and replenish the bits of bone he’s not able to control so well. Also, now I see the purpose of the bone spears was for them to break and scatter around. Clever!

So yeah, Marquis is usually known for turning everything around to his advantage, and that isn’t happening here even though he put two of the heroes out of commission in like five seconds flat. Something is distracting him, Carol thinks. In the moments the narration takes to tell all this stuff, Brandish is blindfolded with bone and Lady Photon is imprisoned in a column. Only Manpower and Brandish are available right now, and they’ll try the plan the heroes had agreed all along.

The plan is charging straightforward and even lunging at the weapons Marquis makes. Luckily for them, Marquis is focused on making things as nonlethal as possible, instead trying to imprison them and even undoing a scythe of bone when there’s a chance it can kill Brandish.

Kind of a random thought right now, but I can kind of see how Panacea and Marquis are family, in terms of powers. Panacea has biological manipulation as well, just that instead of just bone like Marquis, she can handle pretty much the entirety of a living being’s biology. The similarity is faint, but it’s there. Must say, the topic of parents and children’s powers being related in some manner is pretty interesting to me.

Anyway, Marquis tries to get away, chance Brandish uses to slash the protection there’s over a closet, which she then tries to impale. Marquis emerges in middle of them and gets stabbed in the shoulder. Ouch!

“What were you so intent on protecting?” Manpower asked. “This where you stash your illegitimate gains?”

Marquis chuckled. “You could say that. The most precious treasure in the world.”

It definitely is Amy. Pretty sweet of him to say such a thing of her. Seems like a sincere remark...it’s a shame things are like this and, well, Marquis had to be taken away. Leaving aside that he’s a villain and therefore does pretty awful stuff, seems to me he genuinely loved Amy. Amelia.

But Lady Photon was already reaching for the door, pulling it open.

A girl. A child, not much younger than Vicky. The girl was brown hair, freckle-faced, and clutched a silk pillow to her chest. She wore a silk nightgown with lace at the collar and sleeves. It looked expensive for something a child would wear.

“Daddy,” the girl’s eyes were wide with alarm. She clutched the pillow tighter.

I wonder if the reason why Amy was hidden in the closet, if it was to protect her or if he also intended to hide her for some reason. Doesn’t seem like the heroes knew he had a daughter.

“I have enemies. Would you like to see her fall into their hands? It wouldn’t be pretty.”

I’m not surprised a parahuman would hide the existence of their family, especially if you’re a villain with lots of powerful enemies. Of course if the heroes found out, then the enemies could find out too. He really was trying to hide her, not just protect her. And now that he has been captured, it’s up to the heroes to decide what to do with her.

“The motherfucker has a kid?” Lightstar muttered the question, as if to himself. “And she’s, what, five?”

“Six,” Marquis answered.

Six. Vicky’s age, then. She looks younger.

Six years...I’m a bit surprised Amy didn’t remember her father. Six year-olds are self-aware and it’s possible to remember stuff from back then. Faintly, but it’s possible. It’s not out of the question Amy may have forgotten Marquis, but yeah...it’s surprising to me. Well, there are other factors that cause memory loss, such as intense trauma. That’d depend on if Marquis getting arrested was intensely traumatic for Amy, though.

While Marquis talks about what happened to Amy’s mother and about how he enjoyed a lot his life with Amy, Brandish hates everything. Something about Marquis makes her remember the moments back from when she got her power. I don’t...really see the similarities, honestly.

That cultured act, the civility that was real. Marquis was fair, he played by the rules. His rules, but he stuck to them without fail. It didn’t match her vision of what a criminal should be. It was jarring, creating a kind of dissonance.

This kind of character is interesting, but I feel he’d have more impact if this was explained in some more detail. True, we already know one of his rules, and we can kind of deduce others from the fight, I guess, but I think there’s a chance to go deeper into this. Although...there wouldn’t be much of a point, I guess. Marquis isn’t going to appear again after this – most likely.

Young Amy doesn’t want them to take her dad away, she wants him to stay and rejects any consolation. The heroes can’t do anything but call the PRT and just take Marquis away. Later, Lady Photon has Amy by the hand and seats her in a car. Hm! Amy was calmer than I thought she’d be, if she accepted to get on the car so easily.

Leaving the girl in foster care is not a good idea because if anyone finds out she’s Marquis’ daughter, she’ll be targeted, kidnapped, and exploited for her powers. Brandish gets a bad feeling and asks Lady Photon to adopt her, proposal that is rejected because they already have two children and no possibility of having another. Instead, Lady Photon suggests Brandish adopts her. So that’s how Amy got into this family! And Brandish didn’t want her at all. I think that had been said before, but it sure hits harder when you see it happen.

Brandish doesn’t want Amy, and her husband may have clinical depression. It’s not an ideal family for an adopted daughter, especially one who just saw this bunch of strangers take away her father. She had even shouted at them she hated them. It really is a tragic there were no better options for Amy, because this is far from ideal.

“It’s not just that,” she said. “You know I have trouble trusting people. You know why.”

The change on Lady Photon’s face was so subtle she almost missed it.

“I’m sorry to bring it up,” Brandish said. “But it’s relevant. I decided I could have Vicky because I’d know her from day one. She’d grow inside me, I’d nurture her from childhood… she’d be safe.”

That perceived betrayal scarred her much more than I expected. Maybe it was Stockholm’s Syndrome? The term gets thrown pretty lightly in some stories, so I don’t really how grave it is in reality. From what I read here in a rather superficial research I just made, it’s pretty rare but it’s generally positive emotions and thoughts towards people who have wronged you, as illogical as it can be. Not sure if that fits, though. The cases I read about here indicate those feelings stayed for a very long time, unlike in this story, where Carol felt betrayed pretty quickly. I don’t dare to just call it naiveté, though.

Nothing else to be said here. Brandish will take Amy, even if she doesn’t want her. Nobody else can do it. And that’s the story behind this family. Goodness gracious!

Back in the present, Carol isn’t full of joy when she encounters the daughter she didn’t want. Yup, they found Panacea and therefore Glory Girl must be around too. Brandish immediately asks where’s Glory Girl; Amy’s response is that she’s sorry. Sorry for having kept her and made everyone worry the Undersiders had kidnapped her or something, I guess.

The location is a ruined neighborhood, possibly a random abandoned house. When Carol had arrived, Amy rushed outside to block the door – and yield at the first push once they try that, because compared to Brandish and Lady Photon, Panacea isn’t an obstacle at all. They ask for explanations, giving her the chance to say what’s going on.

“I didn’t want her to fight. And I didn’t want her to follow, or to hate me because I used my power on her again.”

Again?

“So I thought I’d put her in a trance, and make it so she’d forget everything that happened. Everything that I did, and the things that the Slaughterhouse Nine said, and everything that I said to try to make them go away. Empty promises and-“

So she did manipulate her memory again. She did break her own rules again and did what she thought was best. Erasing the memories of what Jack had said and everything Amy replied is more than I expected, but maybe it’s for the best. How will Brandish and Lady Photon react at these news? I doubt they’ll approve Panacea modified someone’s memory, but will they become angry?

They didn’t have much of a reaction to that. Alright.

Something in Amy’s voice alerted Brandish something was wrong, so she forced her way in and rejected Panacea’s hand when she tried to stop her. Amy was fearful, both staying against the wall and pleading her to stop going further into the house, while Brandish got upstairs and saw the only open door around, entering without hesitation. When Brandish stops, Panacea hurries to get there to explain.

You know, nothing good happens when someone has to say ‘please, let me explain’. I already dread what I’m going to read.

Amy kept talking, her voice strangely monotone after her earlier emotion, as if she were a recording. Maybe she was, after a fashion, all of the excuses and arguments she’d planned spilling from her mouth. “I wanted her to be happy. I could adjust. Tweak, expand, change things to serve more than one purpose. I had the extra material from the cocoon. When I was done, I started undoing everything, all the mental and physical changes. I got so tired, and so scared, so lonely, so I thought we’d take another break, before I was completely finished. I changed more things. More stuff I had to fix. And days passed. I-“

Brandish clenched her fists.

“I lost track. I forgot how to change her back.”

...you know, the more I read this, the more I felt this...strange sensation inside me. It was the same weird sensation of nervousness, like intense dread, I even had goosebumps. I reread it all when I pasted it here and I still felt that. Guess that means it’s pretty effective writing, eh? I can say without exaggeration this is the most...nervous, I guess...I have felt reading Worm so far.

A caricature. A twisted reflection of how Amy saw Victoria, the swan curve of the nape of the neck, the delicate hands, and countless other features, repeated over and over again throughout. It might even have been something objectively beautiful, had it not been warped by desperation and loneliness and panic. As overwhelming as the image and the situation had been in Amy’s mind, Victoria was now equally imposing, in a sense. No longer able to move under her own power, her flesh spilled over from the edge of the mattress and onto the floor.

...

...well then.

I’m glad I’m having a very hard time picturing this. Usually when I read something, I imagine it pretty vividly, but here I’m having some trouble picturing Victoria’s current state. Just from the description here it’s horrifying. I’m glad I can’t process just how awful it is.

...but dang, I’d have never thought something like this would have happened to Glory Girl. I didn’t like her, but that doesn’t mean I thought she’d have such a...I don’t even have words to describe it well. If Jack heard about what Panacea once she broke her own rules did...well, he’d be pleased he managed to push her towards doing something like this, even if it was pretty much an accident.

Last time these two had appeared in the story Glory Girl was recovering and Panacea was...not completely stable, but she seemed to be okay enough. What’ll Skitter think of this? Will the Undersiders find out?

Now what? What’s going to happen to them? No way anyone will let Panacea get anywhere close to Glory Girl again, and there’s not an abundance of parahumans with healing powers or the ability to manipulate someone else’s body. And Panacea...no way the heroes are going to just brush this aside. Is she going to be prosecuted for this? Sorry for the rambling, I guess I’m at a loss for words.

Obviously, Brandish isn’t taking this well. Her first thought is that this is a betrayal, and she was about to hit Panacea with her weapon when she finally took a good look at her.

The girl was so weak, so powerless, a victim. A victim of herself, her own nature, but a victim nonetheless. A person sundered.

Yeah, that’s...an apt description. Goodness, all this is pretty messed up. It takes all the fighting will out of Carol.

Some time later, Dragon and Carol are talking.

Carol stared as Amy shuffled forward. The cuffs weren’t necessary, really. A formality. Amy wasn’t about to run.

She’s going to the Birdcage, isn’t she. Geez, what an unfortunate end for her character arc. Unless there’s an arc happening in the Birdcage or something – a viable possibility, given how dangerous the Undersiders will be known as if their plans work! – Panacea isn’t going to appear again.

Just...just some recognition for how complicated Panacea is. I find that appealing and also very pitiable.

The armed escort would be waiting. No court- Amy had volunteered, asked to go to the Birdcage.

No surprise there, she must be feeling a horrifying amount of guilt, so intense only going to the Birdcage will be a step towards getting rid of it. I don’t think she ever will. This isn’t the kind of thing you ever forgive yourself for.

Surprisingly, Carol gives Amy a rather tight hug. I don’t think there’s any love, but she’s sorry. Amy gets into the truck and off the transport goes towards the Birdcage, to never leave that place ever again.

Carol nodded. “Two daughters gone in the blink of an eye.”

“Your husband decided not to come?”

“He exchanged words with her in her cell this morning. He decided it was more important to accompany Victoria to Pennsylvania.”

What I do find surprising is that Carol was the one to stay with Amy instead. She never wanted her, after all. I thought she’d want to avoid being anywhere close to Amy after...after what she did to her daughter. Guess the defenseless, hopeless and desperate Amy did strike a chord in her, enough to sympathize with her enough to stay and say goodbye to her. Too little, too late, though.

“You didn’t want to see Victoria off to the parahuman asylum?”

“Victoria is gone. There’s nothing of her left but that mockery. Mark and I fought over it and this was what we decided.”

Maybe it’s unkind of me to say such things, but with this it seems like she refused to say goodbye to Victoria because in Carol’s eyes she doesn’t exist anymore – all that’s left is whatever was the result of Amy’s mistakes. In contrast, Mark still thought of her as a daughter and wanted to see her off. Am I being too harsh with Carol by thinking like this? Maybe. But that’s what comes to mind.

Amy is gone, but Carol doesn’t leave yet. Instead she requests to watch Amy’s arrival to prison. Dragon has no problem allowing that, so after a few hours of waiting, Carol finally gets to watch it. Amy arrives, Dragon turns on the sound so Carol can hear what happens inside.

A second later, the sound cut in. An announcement across the prison PA system: “-one-two, Amy Dallon, AKA Amelia Lavere, AKA Panacea. Cell block E.“

You know, this must be quite a shock for anyone who knows who Panacea is. I bet many will be wondering how the hero who went around healing people in hospitals and stuff was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in the Birdcage. I imagine there’ll be lot of questions, and Amy will refuse to answer every single one of them, I bet.

Or maybe not, because Marquis enters the scene. With his protection, Amy will be left alone. Lung is behind him and is blocked so Marquis approaches Amy alone.

“I’ve been waiting,” he spoke.

Welcome home, Amy? I’m not sure if meeting Marquis again is good or bad for her. I just hope it’ll be good. At least she’ll have someone to trust in here – if she trusts him, that is.

This is the end of the chapter; Carol goes away after seeing Marquis meet his daughter again. Before I stop writing, though...

The day I cease seeing her as his daughter and see how she could be mine, he takes her back, she thought.

I understand how Carol feels – I think. I understand the traumatic reasons behind her complexes, I understand it’s very difficult for her to trust anyone, and I understand in her eyes Amy was a walking reminder of Marquis.

But, despite all that, I’m having a pretty hard time sympathizing with Carol. I just...can’t, for some reason. It’s tragic, pitiable, some would even say pathetic, but despite all that I just am unable to sympathize with her. Maybe because the thought of a small child being blamed for something out of her control rubs me the wrong way. It’s the kind of thing that’s very unfair, you know?

But even though I don’t sympathize with Carol I can’t despise her. Maybe precisely because of how pitiable she is. I’m not sure what kind of emotion Mr. Wildbow was aiming for, but I’m sure he managed to tug the right heartstrings in a lot of people, even if in me it may not have the right effect.

Also, I’ll miss Panacea. I warmed up to her throughout the story, maybe because she was a complicated character. Oh well. She had a good run.

Guess next update the arc will continue? We’ll see next time!

Next time: in six updates

#worm #worm liveblog #liveblog #webserial #webserial liveblog

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alexryzlingold · 7 years

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From Out Beyond Your Star (pt. 4)

Gems are the first alien race humans have encountered so diplomacy is important. Despite being one of Earth’s best Captains, Yellow still isn’t sure why she’s the one who ends up on the missions with Blue Diamond (a rather important Gem). Captain Yellow slowly learns more about the Gems and their society while also discovering that seemingly everyone she knows is sleeping with a Gem. She’s just glad she hasn’t managed to insult anyone. Yet.

Written for #bellowdiamondweek. Human/Alien AU!

Day Four: Empire/War - Yellow visits Homeworld and finds out more about the Gems history. Also, she kind of a prude when it comes to Pearl.

There had been a huge diplomatic trip to Homeworld once. Admirals, Captains, Presidents, Prime Ministers, Chancellors had all gone. There had been a huge dinner with dancing, and singing and Gems showing off shapeshifting abilities. One of Blue Diamond’s guards - the short amethyst - in particular seemed to be quite skilled in the latter. There had been Gems creating fire, ice and electricity, controlling water, flying and creating living holograms. It had all been rather impressive, and celebrated the completion of the Singer.

Since then Yellow had visited Homeworld several times. So much so, that Yellow could confidentiality day she knew her way around the palace and the surrounding city.

Shortly after the Singer was attacked (or did the attacking if you asked Pearl) Yellow found herself on Homeworld again while repairs were made to the Singer. This time there had been a large dinner but much less fanfare. Yellow had appreciated it much more, and after dinner most of the Singer and Yellow’s ship (the ISS Alto) were left to their own devices while Yellow, Blue Diamond, Saffron, Pearl and Cyane ended up in Blue Diamond’s private library. After a quiet nightcap, Saffron lead Yellow to her room (the same one she has stayed in last time) while Pearl and Cyane went one way and Blue Diamond another.

Then there had been Pink Diamond’s fifteenth year anniversary since she was inducted as one of Homeworld’s rulers. There had been annual alliance celebration of which Yellow had been an honoured guest of three of them. Then it was Captain White’s ceremony to become not only a Homeworld citizen, but also officially Pink Diamond’s suitor. Apparently nothing was too small to celebrate on Homeworld. It was this last one, barely a month after Yellow had learnt how to properly say Blue Diamond’s name that she noticed a change.

Like every other time, once dinner was over, Blue Diamond led Yellow to her library. Only this time Pearl stayed with her mother and honestly Yellow didn’t except Saffron or Cyane to leave her (though she still refused to try and define Pearl’s relationship, she had watched Pearl grow up after all).

They chatted about Yellow’s recent missions, and all the planets they had both explored (though Blue Diamond had explored many, many more). They talked about the city Yellow grew up in and how Blue Diamond used to spend days at a time as a child hiding beneath waterfalls. They talked until the stars were high in the sky and Blue Diamond's voice had almost lulled Yellow to sleep.

As they talked the drifted slowly closer together. Until Blue Diamond could press her face into Yellow's shoulder to hide her laugh and Yellow could rest her head in Blue Diamond's lap.

“I think,” Blue Diamond said, helping Yellow to her feet. “That it's time to sleep.”

Yellow was led out of the library and away from the room she normally stayed in.

“This isn't my normal room.”

“No, I had it changed.”

“Why?”

“So it would be closer to mine.” Blue Diamond gestured towards a door further down the hallway.

“Why does my room need to be closer to yours?”

“So I can be closer to you.”

“Oh.”

“I …” Blue Diamond's voice wavered ever so slightly. “I wasn't too presumptuous, was I?”

Yellow took one of Blue Diamond's hands a squeezed it gently.

“No, not at all.”

“Well that's a relief.”

“I've never done this before.” Yellow said, staring up at Blue Diamond. “I'm not quite sure how to go about it.”

“Go about what?”

“Kissing someone taller than me.”

A grin spread across Blue Diamond's face. “Oh. I think I can help with that.”

Yellow tilted her head back as Blue Diamond leant down. Their lips met ever so briefly. Then Yellow's arm wrapped around the back of Blue Diamond's neck and pulled the other woman to her again. She wasn't letting go that easily.

------

It was when Yellow woke the next morning and started to make her way towards the dining hall that she noticed the carved wall hangings that spread the full length of the hallway. They were abstract, but Yellow could clearly make out various Gems and other species. There were carvings of planets and weapons and giant beams of light. As Yellow moved further down the hallway, the scenes got busier and more disjointed. They were still obviously battle scenes though and waves of different species fell to large Gem soldiers. It was unlike anything Yellow had ever seen before. Yellow came towards the end and gently ran a hand over a large carving of a diamond shape, spewing forth another beam of light.

“My mother.” Blue Diamond said from her doorway, staring sadly at the carvings.

Yellow jumped, not having heard Blue Diamond’s door open.

“We were a warring race for many, many years. Many lifetimes even. We conquered and enslaved whole planets only to destroy them for resources. Whole races were wiped out.” Tears ran down Blue Diamond’s cheeks. “We were feared. Hated and rightly so. We are why humans never met another alien race. But my mother stopped that. She watched as her mother murdered millions and decided she’d had enough. She killed her own mother in order to stop the bloodshed. She reformed our government, our traditions and our values until we could once again be proud of being Gems.”

Blue Diamond moved to stand beside Yellow and touched the large diamond in front of her. “Some of the older Gems didn’t like her new ways, her new thoughts. But she died to protect them and I made sure to enforce them.”

Blue Diamond took Yellow’s hand and pulled her further down the hall until they were in front of a carving so obviously meant to be Blue Diamond herself. In front of her were kneeling gems and several shattered gemstones.

“My ascension was not easy, nor was it without its deaths. I never gave up on my mother’s ideals though, and I never regretted it. It’s why I was able to meet you after all.”

Yellow wiped away the tears still staining Blue Diamond’s cheeks. “It causes you pain, this mural. Why keep it here?”

Blue Diamond gestured towards the blank stone even further down the hall. “Your story is not finished yet, but we must still remember. It is here so that every ruler of Homeworld knows our past and where we came from. So that we may never go back to those dark days and so that we can forever appreciate those who fell to help us reach this point.”

Blue Diamond sighed. “She would have loved you.”

“Who?”

“My mother. She would have absolutely adored you.” Blue Diamond ducked to press a kiss to Yellow’s forehead. “You fight with such determination and righteousness. Your people are lucky to have, as are mine. You’ve fought for us as much as you’ve fought for humankind. It hasn’t gone unnoticed and mother would have loved you for it. You are what she wanted Gems to be.”

“I … thank you.”

Blue Diamond looped her arm though Yellow’s. “Now, that’s quite enough of a heavy topic before breakfast. Pink would chide me to no end for dropping our history on you. Anyway, shall we, my dear?”

Yellow nodded, trying hard to hide the blush on her cheeks that Blue Diamond staring lovingly down at her caused.

“Of course.”

#bellowdiamondweek #bellow diamond #su out beyond your star #yellow diamond #blue diamond #pink diamond #white diamond #white diamond/pink diamond #blue diamond/yellow diamond #polypearls #pearl #blue pearl #yellow pearl

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