A thought on that though: People seem to assume that Others actually take note of physical appearance. In my min, it doesn't make much sense that Others could being talking to an Old, Wrinkled and spot covered Woman and the, when their heir comes along, they don't notice that the Old hag they were just talking too is now a teenager? And what if the heir doesn't look the mother all that much and takes after the father, adding even more differences.

My thoughts are that Others don't focus on the physical, so much as the spiritual. It would make sense for the Physical World to become something like background noise to them, something they can look at, but don't particularly care to. It'd make more sense to me that a family of practitioners would have a kind of...similarity on their magic/spirit/soul and that's what Others usually take note of first.

I feel like I rambled again, but oh well.

 

I'm sure Wildbow would say no, but I'd find it oh-so-amusing if we had a few nods to Worm in this. They probably can't directly co-exist in the same universe, but it would be rather funny if they did, in some capacity.

Also, I think Rose is someone who should have been kept ouf of this story until later. What drew me into Worm better was Skitter... She was her own party for a long time, she didn't have anyone else to lean on and had her own schemes going on, separate even of her allies. In this, the tension's a little dried up because Blake can always yell at Rose about what he's worried about. It's not like Rose has any reason to hide much from the person she too is forced to depend on. Because it's a pretty good chance neither two are hiding much from the other... there's really no tension between the two. Which just bothers me, I guess - they shouldn't be fast allies in a story like this. 2.1 would have been much more thrilling if Blake had nobody watching his back and he were making more brash, more stupid decisions which only make his problems worse.

 

I agree actually.

The atmosphere of this story would be a whole lot different if Blake was completely alone at this point. No one to help him, no one to bounce ideas off and no one to experience this with him. Rose makes it a lot easier to deal with everything that is happening.

And as you mentioned, at least at the moment, their relationship is pretty dull. They both seem to trust each other, they both work well together and there's not much interesting/awkward/conflicting in their relationship (well, obviously apart from Rose obviously struggling to understand exactly what she is). I'm sure Wildbow will end up with a reveal on Rose's nature which will potentially change that, but I still reckon it'd have been better if Blake had been alone.

 

While Wildbow's stumbling along a bit at this point, I think I prefer this new approach to just doing the same old thing again. As much as I enjoyed Worm, I can always go back and read it if I want to see the same story repeated. I figure that once things start to happen and Blake finds his feet a bit the story will pick up and become more enjoyable.

 

Right, Wildbow is doing this story, instead of some sequel to Worm, to broaden himself. But it doesn't change the fact that this story would be much better the way I described it, with Blake on his own.

If he wants to do something different for the sake of it... the least he can do is drive a wedge between Rose and Blake. There needs to be tension there - it can be any kind of tension really, hell, romantic tension at this point would be better than what it is right now. They're too trusting and open.

 

I find the whole inexperienced and alone bit a little tiring. Blake's inexperience serves not only to provide a false sense of suspense (because really, in what fucking story would the protagonist immediately be killed off not two chapters in?) but to keep the reader's understanding of the world paced with him. Which is fucking annoying due to the fact that Blake is a slow reader and on a busy fucking schedule.

Rose doesn't add much to the experience either, mostly because she's been laboring under the delusion that she was the main character of her own story as opposed to the annoying voice over the shoulder guide a la Navi. A conflict that I'm sure we haven't seen the end of, despite her grudging acceptance over the last few chapters.

The setting is pretty much the only reason I've kept up with this so far.

 

Dude relax things are just starting up. Whats the use of introducing tension in the beginning when there's clearly a long time ahead. Also I don't know about you but I figured the whole ritual thing not going right and them disagreeing on how to handle things was the first stirrings of tension but it will be slow and gradual because they are not stupid enough to alienate each other right now.

It would have been better if you complained about how easily they seem to have accepted and adapted to each others existence.

 

Well, yeah, that's missing tension too - they should be questioning each other's existence more, but I sort of just accepted that part I guess. Wildbow didn't want to write a bunch of scenes where the protagonist expressed his doubt about magic - I can sympathize, I wouldn't want to either.

I am relaxed, I'm just a complainer at heart I guess.

 

Updated!

Not sure how to feel about anything at this point. Blake threatening, or even considering, to use kids as leverage seems kind of brutal. Not surprising given Wildbow's penchant for the darker, more desperate aspects of human character. Still. I'm becoming progressively more lukewarm towards Pact. I guess I just still don't quite get Blake as a protagonist.

 

I really wasn't very fond of the way Blake's threat was handled. It went from "shocking threat" to "utterly meaningless" in the span of like a paragraph, and I still don't quite get the why and how of it.

Blake himself I have no real issue with, but he also doesn't really stand out all that much either, so /shrug.

 

I think I'm going to stop reading Pact for a while. It's moving slowly and I'm not sure where it's going, but maybe holding off for a couple months will make the read more enjoyable. I don't have any opinion of Blake as a protagonist. He's not bad or good, he's just kinda there. Same with Rose.

I guess I don't know what to think about Pact.

 

Hrmm, I think I will. I'm quite liking it. I've never read Worm, so maybe Pact isn't up to his usual standards, but it's still been pretty good imo. I kind of have to agree with Agayek on his threat becoming kind of meaningless. It made the chapter kind of meh.

As far as the thing with the children goes, I just thought of it as a clear sign that Blake, was to be a kind of anti-hero.

 

The thing about Blake is that so far he's been entirely reactive. That's not good in a protagonist since it means he doesn't really establish his own position in the story that well.

However, I think we just saw the start of him becoming a proactive character; a deal with Maggie would allow him to claim a demesne/build an implement/gain a familiar, which would let him do the other two as well. That would allow him to fight back against the other practitioners and actually start to make his own presence known, rather than being a vector for his grandmother's plans.

Also, who wants to bet that Blake solves Rose's problem by making her his familiar?

 

I laughed when Maggie and Blake were parting ways because Rose was clueless that "Blue" was in reference to "blue balls", not "sad".

 

Another update as of yesterday.

This one I rather enjoyed. I'm starting to think that Pact is at its strongest when Blake is describing/ interacting with the Others.

The three sections which have stood out for me as being that most enjoyable are (in no particular order); the creepy as shit bird things, June the friendly ghost, and Laird's pocket watch of timey-wimey bullshit. Honorable mentions for Edward Shearhands, and Pizza Delivery Time.

It's everything else that's leaving me kind of wanting.The politics seem to obviously be a focus. Which is fine. Except nothing in that department has especially caught my attention. Since everyone seems to be waiting for Blake to slip up, and it's taken him an arc and a bit to get himself together, I've been just kind of sitting back waiting for something to happen. There's been a lot of exposition so far, but little of it has been in a terribly interesting way. I think the whole "Grandma's Evil Library" deal has kind of bugged me. I want to see this stuff in practice, not read about it in books within a book.

 

Double post: Because update.

So, Blake's going to fight a sword wielding elf-chick. Ok then. Also: That karmic system. I guess it explains why bad shit keeps happening to this family, but there's not really enough info to judge it yet.

To completely contradict my last post, I have to say that the Lawyers (and Lewis in particular) were the best part of this chapter. It's nice to have Blake interacting with people outside of Rose now. She's probably my least favourite part of the story at this point to be honest.

Anyone else still keeping a tab on this one?

 

I certainly am. The last update was rather intriguing, I have to admit.

I'm not sure how long it'll hold my interest, but it's doing a decent enough job of it for now.

 

I will probably take a break. I think this story needs a good couple solid arcs for me to read before I can finally make up my mind about it.

 

Whatever interest I had is long gone by now.

 

I think I might take a break as well; he's writing a character that seems to be a lot less inside their own head than in Worm, and it's not working as well as I'd like. I'm starting to feel like Face might have been the right pick in terms of stories to continue; the way this story has evolved has convinced me pretty readily that Boil would have not worked at all.