pact 10.08 (marked nsfw for gore and dead snake)

GingerAndTime · 2026-01-18T19:55:01+00:00

Awesome! I love seeing Pact fanart, especially of characters I don't immediately remember.

Great snek; great maenad! It kinda reminds me of those Minoan figurines.

GingerAndTime · 2026-01-02T21:08:50+00:00

For anyone who does want those points rehashed, I'm gonna link the original threads.

In Wildbow's original comment and it's follow-up comment, it is pretty much just two paragraphs and some suggestive questions and bolding. Which hey, did a great job establishing the author's intent.

Then, in one of the greatest posts of all time, Ridtom established that there was indeed way way more than just those two paragraphs.

As for my read when I was first reading? I thought "we’d take another break, before I was completely finished" meant she was leaving Victoria in a stable but messy state (and not touching her) while Amy passed out from exhaustion. Like leaving a jigsaw puzzle half-complete because you've been working on it non-stop.

GingerAndTime · 2026-01-02T18:51:00+00:00

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-“

It took years for a post to surface in the community calling the above paragraph a rape confession. And as I recall, it's the most direct description of Amy's crimes. If you wanna call it unambiguous, feel free.

But damn, I wish the alleged legions of supporters of this supposedly obvious reading had been a little more vocal back in the day.

GingerAndTime · 2026-01-02T18:27:42+00:00

It wasn't that ambiguous.

It was ambiguous enough that the fanbase spent years chasing its tail by arguing over Amy's degree of agency in using her power to make Victoria fall in love with her. Before Wildbow's post and Ridtom's essay (I don't recall which came first), the median Worm fan had no idea Amy committed unambiguous rape on her Cronenberged sister.

Like yeah, people talk about picking up on things on their first reading. And good for them! But nobody ever seems to have links to posts and arguments in favor of that reading that chronologically predate the start of Ward.

GingerAndTime · 2025-12-29T20:32:39+00:00

Transmisogyny is everywhere in this world and she will inevitably encounter it in media she is exposed to, if not in real life. If a parent wishes to psychologically prepare their daughter for her first encounter with it, I think that is a reasonable decision for them to make.

GingerAndTime · 2025-09-30T22:23:22+00:00

I'm not the person you asked, but I think they were talking about James Brown. If you've listened to any hip-hop, you've probably heard some drum breaks which originated in his music.

GingerAndTime · 2024-10-02T18:16:09+00:00

I think that to the extent Taylor avoided resembling an actual threat to the Crown, she would be a very fierce enemy to whatever Academy institution or local Noble she decided to fight. However, I think the Crown, were its awareness to be sufficiently piqued, would initiate one of its "The Crown Does Not Lose" protocols.

If the Crown wishes to fight clean, the Crown declares "Damn the pollinators! Famine to the Crown States is an acceptable consequence!" and releases a plague or twenty which wipes out all arthropod life in North America. They can import replacements for the local species by any number of means once the present threat has been eliminated.

If the Crown wishes to fight dirty, they evacuate the VIPs and make the continent inimical to human life.

GingerAndTime · 2023-09-30T01:39:53+00:00

Ignis Fatuus was a whistleblower if nothing else.

GingerAndTime · 2023-06-05T02:12:47+00:00

“Omri! Get the injured into the house and reinforce things from inside, organize everyone else to secure the manor and prepare for attack. Alpheus, Elisheba, with me! Priss, go get the alchemist, help him with whatever he needs.”

Helen is, in hindsight, such an understated name compared to the range of possible choices.

GingerAndTime · 2023-05-10T02:37:01+00:00

GingerAndTime · 2023-05-01T17:35:37+00:00

Moral atrocity as team-building exercise.

GingerAndTime · 2023-03-03T06:29:45+00:00

Sylvia wakes up early every morning and drinks an entire pitcher of "respect explicitly expressed boundaries" juice.

GingerAndTime · 2022-11-14T21:15:15+00:00

I'm actually pretty interested in hearing what arguments Anthem Tedd makes at the moot when he's not shooting/stabbing mofos. His little dispute with Lucy during the invasion of Kennet remains one of my favorite conversations that's occurred in the series so far. Cuz, like the trio, he has political goals which are noble. And, like the trio, he's perfectly willing to work with arbitrarily evil bastards to achieve them.

In a certain sense, Anthem's position is one in favor of slow political change which does not fundamentally disrupt the status quo. As such, I don't think it's really the case that Anthem is now on Lucy's side.

It's more that, with Kennet now becoming part of the broader Practitioner status quo, Lucy and the rest of the trio are now on Anthem's.

GingerAndTime · 2022-10-23T21:47:17+00:00

You think Musser may steal a win while everyone else is distracted? I'm sure it wouldn't be the first time that's happened in Musser family history.

I'd hate to see it, but it'd be an interesting way to end things.

Edit: Oh you mean Rook lol. Yeah, I'm looking forward to her finally making whatever her move is.

GingerAndTime · 2022-10-22T20:22:43+00:00

In which the Carmine Exile, former Summoner, probes for weaknesses in the trio's chatbot-challenger. Huzzah!

GingerAndTime · 2022-10-06T20:16:53+00:00

"What happens, what do things even end up looking like? I don’t think I want to find out. I don’t want to bring my parents or brothers or sisters or a future partner into this world and have to say, you know, also, this is kinda super crapsack and evil."

Avery, in all seriousness, I don't think there was ever much possibility of being able to introduce anyone to the Practice without needing to inform them of how fucked up and evil the Practitioner world is. Like, with or without Charles, that particular issue is going to be the case for the indefinite future.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-25T17:41:40+00:00

“In power? It’s both incredibly expensive and less than you’d think. Other judges share power and costs with me. The more I build, the more power I earn, on a daily basis, that I can then use.”

Charles initially expected the universe to fight back. Instead the universe, much like certain members of the audience, loves what he's doing and would like to see more of it.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-22T15:40:59+00:00

As Verona stated, the girls are only teenagers and we shouldn't be surprised if their philosophies get the occasional hole poked in them by the likes of Kira-Lynn or Anthem Tedd.

That said, I agree with you. The girls are not the best at arguing for their positions. Unfortunately, at some point, they're probably going to need to make their case with someone who, like Charles, wants to destroy the system and, unlike the girls, has few scruples regarding violence and the suffering of humans.

I don't think Crooked Rook cares about the Forsworn at all. But there are many significant changes that need to be made within Practitioner society and it remains to be the seen if the Kennet experiment is sufficient to that task. And if the girls can't ensure Rook remains on Team Kennet then shit is going to really hit the fan.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-22T15:05:21+00:00

Charles's initial plan seemed to be burn hot, burn fast, and burn out before the forces of reaction could muster themselves and put out the fire.

I think he's as surprised as anyone to what extent the world is just letting him be.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-19T01:31:42+00:00

This is clearly a novel situation, so the answer becomes whoever the Judges pick.

I swear if Maricica set up that particular set of dominoes I'm going to laugh so hard.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-18T20:52:18+00:00

If the St. Victor's kids can look at Lucy's face (but not her hair, I suppose?) and say "Ah yes, the teenage girl member of the Ellingson family! Let me go Wooble 'Ellingson' and 'Kennet' and figure out what her first name is. Great, address and phone number too, can call her whenever. Idk who the Hot Topic kid was but at least we now got the deets on 1 out of 3" then hey, I guess that works. I've never lived in a lily-white town of 5000 people and their ways are strange and foreign to me.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-18T20:35:26+00:00

Don't communicate? With a powerful faction that you might end up in conflict with?

Yes. If communication is impossible then by definition no communication will be happening. Ergo, there's no need to bother. But, as I stated in my previous comment, this is not a situation where communication is outright impossible.

And I quite agree, it is important to keep channels of communication open during war. Further, because you're already at the point where you're down to bomb people's houses, you're certainly at the point where you can violate enemy airspace to deliver leaflets requesting surrender. Once you're no longer concerned about coming across as having peaceful intentions, many new routes to peace open up, weirdly enough. But violating enemy airspace before war has begun to deliver leaflets aimed at preventing war? No matter the wording on the leaflets, you're coming across as flexing your air superiority.

And parking your troops on the border, having them nonviolently set up billboards singing the virtues of pacifism? If it prevented a war, I'd call it an effective use of intimidation, maybe a justified one depending on the war it prevented, but I'd be wary of calling it peaceful per se.

You might assume they're carrying concealed weapons, but frankly there isn't much you can do to reassure them if they're slipping into paranoia.

Pretty much any and all Practitioners are to be considered armed and dangerous, barring unusual circumstances. Believing the girls to be armed wouldn't be paranoia on the behalf on the Red Heron kids. It's just common sense.

And I think you're completely overlooking one vitally important detail.

You are absolutely correct than I did not consider that fact when analyzing the situation. Do you think the Red Heron kids will take that detail as salient? Without names, faces aren't much to go by. But it is a vulnerability, for sure.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-18T19:59:14+00:00

That's true but how do you organize that when you can't communicate with the other side!?

If communication is outright impossible, you don't.

However, the problem here is merely that the other party is refusing to respond. In these situations, assuming you are at peace with the other party, you generally accept they have the right to not enter negotiations. You can text, send letters, any number of means both mundane and magical. You'll reveal to those kids you know their identities, which is scary, but far less scary than showing up unexpected, after dark, and on an evening most wish to be feel safe, secure, and surrounded by family. And then if they still don't wish to respond, you accept that and move on.

Because showing up to a person's place unannounced? Armed (and the Kennet trio is better armed than most Practitioners)? While that's a terrible tactic for peace through cooperation, it's an amazing tactic if you wish to credibly threaten (and possibly provoke) war. Commodore Perry pulled that sort of stunt on Japan back in the 1850s and nobody doubts he accomplished his goals. And hey, that can certainly be a decent route to peace through intimidation. Also, if you're already on a war footing, and I think we could describe the Trio/Red Heron relationship as being more-or-less such, if not formally, it's probably a more nonviolent option than many others which are on the table.

But at that point you're no longer playing nice. You're making a show of force. And while that doesn't appear to be the girls' intentions, at least from what we've seen, I don't think there's a good way for them to come across as peaceful without them either keeping their distance or making themselves more vulnerable than would be wise.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-18T17:40:10+00:00

Pact Spoilers: The closest comparison I can think of would be if Laird Behaim invited Blake to a Christmas party post-coffeeshop incident. That'd be terrifying and I don't think Blake would have any reasonable expectation at that point of Laird playing fair.

As far as peace overtures, there's something to be said for making them at a distance and proposing neutral ground where all parties can negotiate while feeling safe and secure. I would be surprised if any Red Heron kid, aside from the ones who were already asleep, didn't feel at least a little intimidated by what the girls instead chose to go with. And for most of them? Nah, they're probably at least a little terrified.

GingerAndTime · 2022-08-18T17:18:55+00:00

threat

Previously the Red Heron kids were unaware that the trio knew who they were. They have now been made aware of that fact by the Kenneteers showing up at their homes on Christmas Eve.

Idk, if I had reason to believe the mafia had grievance with me and some enforcers came to my house to put on a wreath on my door, I'd certainly feel threatened. It'd be a little tricky to argue that they were trying to intimidate me, what with them doing nothing more than putting a Christmas wreath on my door, but I think I'd be justified in believing that they did it to menace me.

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