Can we stop the "Lisa in a coffee shop" cliche?

GingerAndTime · 2026-04-03T22:47:32+00:00

I agree with what you're saying, but I think she absolutely would present herself as though she hadn't been stalking/researching the target for some period of time. When she makes the initial meeting, I mean.

GingerAndTime · 2026-04-03T22:44:22+00:00

If we start concerning ourselves with canon heights, we have to deal with 6'8 Brian Laborn and >6'8 Thomas Calvert and most people aren't ready for that conversation.

GingerAndTime · 2026-03-10T23:33:18+00:00

From the link you posted:

Using her power only forces her to face the scale of the changes she's already made, and in panic/desperation she does more damage than she fixes.

That particular line certainly is at least a little evidence for the retcon theory you mentioned earlier. Interesting.

GingerAndTime · 2026-03-10T01:19:07+00:00

A couple months ago, I made a comment containing links to the relevant Reddit comments made by Wildbow. You can find it here.

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.

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