I ignored it when Skitter said it a handful of chapters ago, but now I can see a bit of what she sees in Parian. Parian's always been a vestigial member of the Undersiders, just there, but largely useless and redundant. She has a drastically underused power [she could turn hair into a weapon, maybe even other people's hair? It's all dead cells, so the Manton Effect probably doesn't come into play], an okay moral compass, and a social problem, and so reminds me of a pre-Skitter Taylor. I'm not sure that she's leadership material, but then I wouldn't have picked bullied Taylor for that either.

 

I agree that she doesn't seem to be best-using her powers. It's "fine control over small objects," correct? Why not control paper or blood or wire? I suppose there might have been some psychological barriers preventing her from considering these options, which were unnecessary pre-Leviathan and S9 anyways.

Didn't realize it until this interlude and the whole "needle and thread" thing, but they actually do have very complementary powers.

 

She could control spider silk as well, which might be how Skitter was planning to trigger one of those traps which Accord couldn't quite figure out during the villain gathering. Binding enemies in a bolt of cloth or silk seems obvious now that she can afford it.

 

Just gotta say, when you speak from experience you have to remember that your experience isn't representative of the whole. In my first couple years of uni, I attended a very small, insular school and this kind of shit happened daily. It was like some terrible extension of high school, glad I got out of there.

 

Parian's been one of my favorite background characters ever since Leviathan when Skitter introduced her as a relatively normal. non-cape girl with a power who also decided to try and fight an Endbringer. She became even more awesome by tackling Bonesaw. Which is also probably a large part of why Skitter respects her so much. Parian did save her from a fate worse than death, after all.

 

Not gonna lie to you all.

Wildbow asked in IRC whether it should be Lung, Citrine, or Parian.

I told him Parian, God dammit!

 

I would of picked Parian as well. Lung really doesn't interest me that much. Though Citrine could of been interesting.

 

Yeah, I was actually in favour of a Parian centric interlude. I feel like she's the best posed to offer an interesting/ fresh perspective on the whole situation with Skitter. Man do I feel bad for Bitch though.

 

I would have gone with Lung, if only because I find the Birdcage segments fascinating.

 

I'd have gone for Citrine, but that's mostly because I want to see what Accord is up to. Lung would have been second because the Birdcage is awesome. Parian's interlude wasn't bad though; she's going through a few of the problems Skitter did early on (which I why I put her last - we've already been through those) and her gradual descent into being a supervillain (dragging Flechette along wither her) is pretty interesting. Wonder if she'll end up being the parahuman version of Charlotte to Skitter.

 

At first I had thought they would send her to the Birdcage so that the ineffectual leaders can look hard on crime. But that wouldn't make sense - no bugs in the birdcage, unless you count the electronic kind. Still, I'd imagined the Birdcage was needed to bring the healer back into play, which made me realize that I had no idea how Skitter had gotten healed and regained her sight. As far as I remember, that quantum healing thing was temporary. Could somebody point me to the place where the healing occurs, or is that an offstage thing?

In talking about an increase in her powers, personally, I'm all for her getting control over increasingly smaller, microscopic creatures. Firstly, it would increase her ability to multitask; secondly, it can be absolutely deadly since telling the bacteria in your gut to turn off could possibly bypass the Manton effect.

 

I can't check right now, but I believe the quantum healing was permanent so long as Skitter stayed within range of the healer for long enough and didn't have any great stresses. Her eyes would've healed eventually with use of the private clinic's eye drops anyway.

 

The healing that Scapegoat gave was permanent, so long as his conditions were met. And they were.

He managed to foist the injuries off onto an Echidna clone, which is also within his powers.

 

Thanks.

And gah, ClockBlocker is such a horrible name. I slip up half the time with it.

Also, the escape from the school? Brilliant.

 

That's exactly what Clockblocker intended when he came up with it.

I for one really hope we don't get a Birdcage arc and/or a possible timeskip. I'm interested in a lot of characters and plots outside of it, and I wouldn't be thrilled about them just passing us by as nearly-powerless Skitter slowly climbs the prison social ladder, or slowly talks an unreasonably stubborn Amy into doing absolutely anything productive.

With luck shit goes down on the day of, either with an Undersiders attack or something major happening beforehand.

 

If she does go into the Birdcage, how long do you reckon it would take for her to convince Amy to make her bugs self-replicating?

 

I'm not sure what you mean. Her bugs can reproduce and it's unlikely Dragon would allow for her to bring insects into the birdcage.

 

The real question is, if she goes to the birdcage...how long will she last? I feel like Dragon would have to seriously control who Taylor can be in contact with. Without her bugs, she's more or less a sitting duck in there.

Also, just want to say that I finally finished my archive binge and this story is damn epic. Taylor is a bamf.

 

Good question. Dragon's AI might have been tinkered enough by Defiant to ignore authority figures and instead squirrel Skitter away elsewhere, but there's not much point in that.

Honestly, if Lung gets a hold on her, she'll die quickly. The only way she could last is if she made allies (and considering that her power is useless there, the only benefit would be in the future possible gain to be had if there was a jailbreak and wanted an ally in Skitter who already has a base, team, control of a territory, and has defeated Dragon before) or if she triggered a second time as a result of the isolation and stress she'd feel in an environment like the birdcage where she'd be helpless.

 

I really don't think we're going to see skitter go to the birdcage. I really hope we don't at least.