Comic 1139 - Approach the worm
Posted on 6th Dec 2018, 10:27 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 5 (1 votes) /
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Author Notes:
... Alone.
"What?" Michelle's expression sinks. "Blondie, no-- we're not just gonna--"
"She's right," Fuse says quietly. "Liz was right. That... meat cage thing Blondie just did? Think about how much easier that'd have been if she didn't have to protect all of us. That's... that's what she's doing, at this point. Protecting us. She can portal herself out, she can bring herself back from the dead, she can... do all this crazy shit. We can't. We die, that's it. Game over."
Caius huffs. "Hey! I ain't useless, alright? I don't care what this worm thing's doin', if she gets in a fight--"
"--We're dead weight," Fuse interjects. "Seriously. Guys. Put it the fuck in perspective. Any other day when we're dealing with Shirai's goons or one of Carpenter's stupid robots or Prophet's ragtag squad of mutants, I'd agree with you, but this? We're behind the power curve on this one. This is some... straight up, almost-god versus kinda-god bullshit outside of our wheelhouse. If Blondie needs someone to hack the worm or burn this whole place down I'll be there, but something tells me my little flamey kicks and itty bitty pistol aren't gonna do jack once we get down that hall."
Caius and Michelle both fall silent.
Fuse pauses... then continues, a bit more solemnly. "The best thing we can do for Blondie right now is not get in her way. I'm not saying we're helpless, I'm not saying she doesn't need us anymore, just--this, this one time, we're way out of our league."
"...Alright," Caius concedes. "I get it." He points a finger straight at you, however. "But if you NEED us, you tell us! I don't care how dangerous tha stupid worm is, don't hold back on our account."
Fuse, Caius, and Michelle head back toward the entrance. Michelle is the last to leave the power plant, stopping in the door.
She stares into your eyes, silent at first.
"...Be careful in there, Blondie."
You make your way down the hall, spreading the blood more as you go.
You can feel the power redistributing through the facility... slowly, but steadily, the webs coming back to life.
It all converges in the chamber with the worm.
As you draw nearer, you can hear it--the wet, sloppy crunching.
You can feel the energy contained within the creature, a massive electrical field generated around its body.
"YOU."
The words crackle and hiss. Strained, and spread thin across the atmosphere. It's less like the worm is actually speaking, and more like... it's making the ghosts speak for it.
"IS IT YOU?"
"SHE."
"HER."
"THE ONE I AM TO CONSUME."
"ALL THAT POWER. I NEED IT."
"THE PROPHECY."
"I FEEL YOUR BODY."
"TAKING OVER THIS PLACE. THE FLOOR. THE WEB."
"ARE YOU THE OTHER ONE?"
"THE MAN THAT BECOMES A CITY."
"THE MAN THAT BECOMES THE WORLD."
"THE PROPHECY."
"I MUST BE READY."
Considering everything thus far, blooding this thing might be enough to send us into shock, at least, our "human" form. Then again, this worm desires the death of Thale, I guess.
We can reason with it, I think.
We are fighting "The Man That Becomes The World". That we'll Kill him before he becomes The World, before he becomes A City.
We "Take Over Things" temporaly for that fight.
I have no idea how to diplomacy this, I should just leave this to everyone else
maybe just don't eat us, big worm guy, we could work something out... but like I said before, if it's a shaky deal, we're going to have to go plan B and blood the thing. Or kill it if that fails
EDIT: oh also ask if it has a name
why have we not done the obvious?
Andrenline?
Lets get reserves of adrenaline ready in the red, just in case.
It's behaving for the moment, at least. We should probably inform it that we've been handily thwarting the man who becomes a city, and thus the prophecy need not be fulfilled to the letter-- though there's no knowing how it'd react to that.
...can we try to find out what else he knows about Thale? Could we get the worm to monologue, or offer him something in return?
(If we webbed the world to get information, would we call it the World Wide Web?)
Either way, the prophecy's off. We can certainly give the wyrm power to consume, but if it just eats us as we are now, it will never be able to reach even a fraction of that power. We've already stopped Thale from becoming the city, and we'll continue to stop him if he tries again. It would be a better idea to side with us, enjoy some free delicious power, and not end up on the losing side. If it insists on being hostile, however, then we'll have to take actions we'd really rather not take.
We also might want to ask where the Silkwyrm learned of this "prophecy" in the first place. Was it told, or did it see a vision?
EDIT: Also, a thought. If we feed it from the red, that technically *would* be it consuming us. Hoooopefully that's what this prophecy means XD Even if it isn't *supposed* to mean that, maybe we can spin it that way!
EDIT EDIT: Also also, we need to make sure our allies know that their skills are still invaluable, we just don't want them getting squashed! And we have ~ideas~ we're working on to allow them to help us in battle without getting squashed. Fun ideas :3 Mecha-related ideas!
Plus it may help in communicating, kinda like with Mom's Red.
Tell the worm to stop eating the physical components in this plant and offer a freshly-spawned Blobbert (with a small electric charge) as food instead.
Explain the Thale situation and what you need the power plant for.
I get the feeling we could warp the entire worm through the red to assist us in critical fights where collateral isn't an issue.
Who wants to see Mine sic it on Carpenter/Nil's un-fortress ?
We have saved the strong soul from itself.
We can offer it power -- as an ally, not as a meal.
If the Silkwyrm agrees to peace, we should be able to give this place back. We took things over here merely as a precaution; should that prove unnecessary, we will gladly give them back.
Explain to it first off that we came here to investigate this place without knowing it was here originally, we've been taking preventative measures since the initial electrical burst in case it tries to attack us again (hence the blooding), and that we only wish to cooperate if possible. We will retract the blood once arrangements have been made, but it's staying there until we can reach an agreement that is favorable to both parties. Finally, we will only respond violently if we are attacked; if negotiations sour but don't turn hostile, we can just as easily walk out of this place and never return.
If, and ONLY if, that is established, explain to it that consuming us may not help it at all, since we are unsure of whom it is seeking exactly (and also do not wish to "die"). Explain that we know of the Man That Becomes A City, and that we have been actively undermining his plans; he may even be in such disarray that he will fail in his quest for ascension. However, also infer that cooperation can only help both of our causes. It need not fight the MTBAC alone, that we can help it grow stronger in other ways should it still wish to, but that we need assurances that our agreement of peace will stand.
Speak clearly and keep our tone neutral, inferring that we are taking this situation seriously. No jokes or other silliness -- it probably won't understand that nonsense and will only muddle negotiations. If it seems confused upon any point, stop and ask where we've been unclear; don't act condescendingly, but also don't ramble through it. This is big, serious business and we should treat it as such.
Maxim 29: "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less"
Silky is not our friend or ally.
Silky wants to consume us to be ready, but ready for what we have no idea.
Is it 'I MUST BE READY TO FIGHT THE MAN THAT BECOMES THE WORLD' or is it 'I MUST BE READY TO SERVE THE MAN THAT BECOMES THE WORLD'?
Just flood the whole place in blood and drag Silky into the red.
Also tell him man who wants to become the world is our main enemy, as in, genetically predetermined to kill him forever enemy. So, the best readiness plan is us, since we are basically him++. Also maybe we could give him the power he wants by doing project super-ghosts on him or maybe a slave-ghost, which is most likely a bad idea.
If he's amenable to conversation, then perhaps we could inquire as to his background. Probably not, though, what with the giant hostile worm thing.
"I AM THE PROPHECY ENDER. THE BREAKER OF CYCLES. THE SERIAL HUGGER. ENDER OF ENDS. THAT WHICH ELIMINATES NOTHING BY CREATING SOMETHING. GOD OF BLOOD, BODY, AND LIFE. I AM THE RED. I TAKE THAT WHICH IS BROKEN AND MAKE IT WHOLE AND BREAK THAT WHICH BINDS REALITY DOWN.
I AM ONE WHO HAS CONQUERED BOTH THE MAN THAT WOULD BECOME A CITY, BECOME THE WORLD. I AM THE ONE WHO SAVED THE ONE YOU WOULD DEVOUR AND CONTAIN THE KEYS SO THAT YOU NEED NOT DEVOUR ANY FOR THE POWER YOU CRAVE.
NOW SPEAK OF WHO YOU ARE. IT IS ONLY POLITE AFTERALL.
ALSO, IF YOU'RE UP FOR CONVERSING MORE CASUALLY INSTEAD OF INVOKING GREATER POWERS TO SPEAK, THIS SEEMS JUST SILLY."
(As for the keys, specifically refering to doing the astral projection ritual on him and then proceeding to do project Odin on him... IF he turns out to be an ally.)
"TAKING OVER THIS PLACE. THE FLOOR. THE WEB."
Tell the thing we're a parasite (relatable terms); that no matter how it consumes us, we'll just consume it from the inside-out like we're doing with the energy-silk. That'll knock eating us off of the table of options. Then all we have to worry about is being fried if negotiations break down and it considers us a threat.