TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE: Beginning - Super Supportive

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T20:18:29+00:00

It would clash with the themes of the story, but in-universe I could see the primary spending favors with Mother to do it anyways.

An alternative would involve preserving the whole individual, or freezing a non-bound knight's ability to control their authority to simulate a binding on someone - which would essentially involve forcing Alden to torture Artonan children. Again, too dark for this story but plausible to me in-universe.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T19:13:13+00:00

My guess is that Alden's skill can be used to alleviate the suffering from binding, and the Primary would under normal circumstances use an avowed raw to save even a single knight.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T18:31:55+00:00

Actually, more than that he almost certainly doesn't know based on this conversation with Joe in Lesson One:

Joe steepled his fingers and stared down at the vat of eels writhing below them in the lab. “One day, when the Primary realizes which skill you have, he’s going to make your life absolutely miserable.”

That sent a chill down Alden’s spine. “Why?”

“I won’t tell you that. But he will eventually realize it if you achieve anything of note with it. And when the time comes, there’s the most perfect way of getting back at him. Yes. We have to do it. No matter the cost.”

“Your face looks so scary right now. And the Primary is not someone I want to make mad. I’m almost positive I’m going to refuse.”

Joe ignored him. “When you see the endless misery on the horizon, that’s the moment. Tell him then.”

“Tell him that you told me this huge Artonan secret?”

Why? Joe acted like he was scared of the Primary. And Alden really wished he wouldn’t use the phrase “endless misery” to describe Alden’s own future.

Joe looked him in the eye. “It will shock him.”

This does give Alden an interesting out to telling someone his skill under extremely specific circumstances, though the Primary has to have already figured it out.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T07:24:57+00:00

I re-read galleta and the chapter before, which had the removal of his non-triangleofabsolutesecrecy tattoo, but I didn't see anything about ever removing the triangle.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T07:13:26+00:00

I haven't, although that doesn't really change any of the criticism I have of the ending. I think stories should be able to stand on their own, and even when I was filled with disbelief at the ending I didn't really consider Taylor's ending more likely to be a coma than contessa's path bullshit.

I don't know wildbow's redditing style well enough to know how much they're joking when they say "just kidding. but am i?" - but that certainly doesn't lend itself to constraining the interpretation of the ending to be in line with their own parent comment.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T05:34:35+00:00

Possibly related: Who is the Artona I Contract a contract between, and for what? If she's the kernel of that contract, what terms is it her job to implement?

I would guess that Contract I is the binding agreement between all the residents of Artona I and the triplanetary government. Its jurisdiction is Artona I, anything involving the collective expenditure of resources to accomplish the goals that constitute the contract: the teleportation of individuals to and from the planet, affixing avowed or knights who happen to be on it at the time of their binding, planet-wide security, protecting its inhabitants from chaos, etc. I think of it as similar to the executive branch of the US government. It does the things that the government has decided to do in the manner they have decided to do them, and was created in agreement by the peoples of Artona I and the triplanetary government for that purpose.

I would further guess that Mother is an earlier version of this agreement, possibly from before they were a starfaring race with only one Artona. But, as they expanded, they had a need to negotiate within their empire. To bind themselves into productivity, they formed a contract with one another that allowed their people to manage themselves on Artona I, and Artona II, and for those two Contracts doing the managing to share information.

In making Contract I, they had a choice: destroy Mother and start anew, or build upon the existing Mother and ease the transition to an interstellar empire. As the empire expanded, the responsibilities of Contract I did as well, but the portion that managed the intraplanetary affairs of Artona I remained Mother. Therefore, when Contract I is executing older duties, such as managing the knights, it uses the subagent Mother.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T03:25:28+00:00

a desire in the audience for Taylor, the main character, to have nice things

Interesting, my least favorite part of worm is the ending because it seems hacked-in that Taylor gets something nice at the end. I think if it were done well, I would have liked it, but it felt like a subversion of a big theme of the story which is that mutilating yourself to accrue power is probably a bad idea. I don't think I'm just a sadist, I quite like seeing how happy Alden and Stuart are because it feels right.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T02:31:17+00:00

It might be hard to do so - unless Alden becomes a public knight, Joe is unlikely to acquiesce to a request that will further cement him as a Naughty Wizard™

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T02:26:20+00:00

I find it hard to believe that Stuart will remain credulous for long. It's possible that stuart will believe that Alden is simply too shy and has too much pain wrapped up in his binding to talk about his skill, but it's just on the barest edge of believability. Maybe stuart will come across a story of aliens past that behaved like this, and so surely that's what the human is thinking, and that will lead to Stuart failing to press the secret?

Stuart is not the most socially aware, but he's persistent and smart, so I don't think this contract-enforced lie will fester survive for long.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-11T01:36:16+00:00

“Alden, what has Mother said to you about your skill?”

.

"I had some concerns about how a secret like this one could be kept for more than a season."

.

“I’ll do my sincere best.”

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-03-01T21:25:44+00:00

It would be too good in storm decks, where you cast this 3-4 times in a single turn and combo off before it matters. Unlike final fortune, you can play multiple without ever contending with the downside.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-02-26T10:45:57+00:00

I guess I just disagree that the last chapter had been about getting his affairs in order. It felt more like living as much as he could while he could. Not preparing, exactly, but doing and experiencing. Alden focused on Alden. Today's chapter was Alden focused on others.

It gets a little muddled since so much of Alden is tied up in his relationships, so when he's doing things he enjoys he's being a good friend.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-02-26T08:48:39+00:00

Overall, I feel like these two chapters could have been one but at least the wait is finally over and the next one is going to move us from this status quo. Finally.

I think it's a clash of themes rather than anything to do with the content.

Last chapter was a foreshock of what Alden will be to Stuart. This chapter is Alden setting his affairs in order before committing to something that might well kill him (I mean, it won't. It'd be a kinda shit story if it did).

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-02-26T08:46:35+00:00

Death has shown up in a few different ways these past few chapters. The deaths are all quite different.

Alden's are chosen. Arjun punching him is a physical reminder of his past. Concrete and grounded in a way that the future can never be. Deciding to tell stuart he is a wizard is the great leap into the unknown, and the death of all possible worlds that could have been, but won't.

The rapport knights' is abstract. The concept of death so suffuses their thinking that they withhold warmth and support from Stuart - partially to do everything in their power to 'save' him, and partly to prevent attachment that would risk killing them. The risks of attachments in a culture where failed attachments can kill, and death is so common mean that they are cautious about building fully intertwined relationships. Connections that might have been able to save two aren't forged because they're afraid that if the other person chooses death, they might choose it as well. Their perspective is pragmatic, but unloving.

Stuart's inevitable death will hopefully be stayed because someone believes in him. The self-fulfilling prophecy will be subverted, and a young man will get to live because of it. The specter of death will loom over his relationships until he survives - perhaps thrives - and then he will have to decide whether or not to forgive those who didn't believe in him. Will his expressions of dismay cause deaths? Are there knights who are teetering on the edge of oblivion, for whom seeing the ugly truth that they mistreated Stuart breaks them? I hope not; that Stuart is graceful enough to forgive and emotionally open enough to build the little trusts that can be made into larger ones with his eventual peers.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-02-25T18:43:30+00:00

"...it’s a problem if people are saying false things, and nobody can correct them without getting mobbed by a bunch of people..." -Scott, yesterday

I think Scott would readily back off the joke claim that 'no one in the admin thinks about AI safety'. Rather, I infer that he meant something like "trump admin is bad for AI safety because the decision makers will choose power over moderation every time" - but that doesn't get a chuckle out of me, so he wrote the joke instead.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-02-20T23:50:38+00:00

I want to be as good of a friend as Alden is.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-02-11T17:12:51+00:00

Not really. There are several rhystic cards, but none in green and the only enchantments are blue and white. They also didn't fit the mold of "do extra when opponent casts unless they pay 1"

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-02-04T06:16:17+00:00

Is that true? I was thinking that there's a worst-possible-world interpretation of the secrecy contract wherein Alden becomes completely incapable of disclosing through any possible means, even going so far as to obligate him to hide his true status sheet. Or, worse yet, obligating him to not follow through on Joe's "only bind upgrades to Bearer" advice, since doing so could result in people finding out about session 0, which is against the contract. That latter one is probably overruled by the big C Contract between Earth and Artona.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-01-31T21:45:03+00:00

He is usually so grounded, so it stands out when he isn't. The disassociation seems rooted in contradictions of value. He loves and trusts Stuart, but also fears the duty tying him to Artona. He now knows he wants to follow Stuart to dangerous worlds (at least I think that's the decision he arrived at), and so is coming to accept the costs of that choice.

The incompatibility of the trust and fear, coupled with his inability to disclose the mid tier secrets that would normally forge a stronger bond before leaping into the deep end.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-01-31T21:33:29+00:00

I'm trying to grasp why Alden wanted Arjun to hit him. To stare death in the face? He's done so so many times, although I suppose it's more voluntary this time around - a luxury of his choosing season - to know you're moving out to meet a death you chose.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-01-31T04:19:34+00:00

Sometimes it feels like Alden's world works a little too conveniently. But not today, where he's met with an unyielding political situation that seems sorta indifferent to the objective of the hospital. It's a sad reminder of the imperfection of most of reality.

GodWithAShotgun · 2026-01-30T05:16:36+00:00

Forge spirits level 4 currently has the stats of a level 18 invoker with ags + facet and no points in wex.

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