Inchworm

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.7.

Episode Notes:

• Where did Bakuda learn to play chess and why is she so good at it?
• Elite planning or just Leet planning?
• Ted gets to be a Bakuda fanboy for just one teeny tiny moment
• In the Metal Gear Solid games, Bakuda’s codenames would be Bomber Mantis, Fatwoman, and The Bomb
• Does E88 make it easier for the ABB to exploit people?
• It’ll get worse before it gets better
• Sweet character moments with Grue and Tattletale
• What’s the sound of a black hole, Ted?
• Bomb Corner

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-07/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.x (bonus).

Episode Notes:

• Ted is wily!
• As is Wildbow. Way to hide the ball, Wildbow.
• Boo! There’s racism inside this feminism!
• Maybe Kayden is tragic but not sympathetic?
• She’s also seemingly very ineffective when not fighting
• Kayden and Aster as symbols
• Purity, blankness, and whiteness
• Is Theo too “pure”? Or is he lacking “manliness”?
• Empire Eighty Eight sounds like working at Amazon
• I don’t really have a quippy line about this, but we try to grapple with how 2011 supervillain Nazis feel different from the 2025 mundane ones
• Does Kayden want to change? Or even want to want to change?
• Oops we compared Purity to Tattletale
• If we can think Kayden's a hero for three-quarters of the chapter, what does that say about heroes?
• Purity and Bakuda are both changing the odds for the upcoming gang war
• This is an interlude more like what Jenny was expecting
• Jenny reads the first five words of the next chapter
• Does the dog die??

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-x-bonus-interlude/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.6.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny's forgotten everything she's ever predicted
• Leet's power must trigger such anticipatory nostalgia
• In defending video games, Uber and Leet are fighting a battle that's already been won.
• Unlike their battle against the Undersiders, which has already been lost.
• But have they ever farted on a baby?
• Tattletale, master baiter
• We speculate on how Uber breathes in a doctor's office
• How to optimize Leet's power?
• If you cloned yourself, would your clones have your superpower?
• Do tinkers even use science?
• A very cartoonish fight, until Taylor has to choke someone out
• This upcoming fight isn't looking good for our herovillains
• Taylor's learning to be more careful with her swarm
• Interlude 3.5?! We're floored.
• We find out about the special protectorate orphanage which is totally real

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-06/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.5.

Episode Notes:

• Get your votes in: can Taylor banter or not??
• Taylor gets her wish
• Is Uber’s power is like moving to California?
• Turns out video games do cause violence!
• Did Uber and Leet invent Twitch?
• Sorry to say that having good taste is not a technique
• Jenny wants to know when the fun stops
• Is there a slippery slope here aside from the storage locker roof?
• Taylor's really hitting her (under)stride(r). Unfortunately?
• A detour about form and pacing featuring a comment from Wildbow
• Jenny pitches a different metaphorical fall
• Emma’s power is, indirectly, permission for Taylor’s vengeance
• Alec's coming into his own, maybe!
• Ted pitches a paranoid and lonely ghost-finder cape
• The elusive Rachel
• Jenny speculates on Leet’s classification and secret employer

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-05/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.4.

Episode Notes:

• The suspense is getting to Jenny
• Turns out these villains really ARE sympathetic!
• Non-villainy? In this economy??
• Stakes just went up, everyone!!
• How can Taylor turn Brian in now?
• Taylor's ripe for a coming-of-age disillusionment
• Does Brian disprove the category of villains, or simply escape it?
• Whose motives are nobler, Brian's or Taylor's?
• Brian's stoicism and pragmatism go hand in hand
• Was this the worst day of his life, though?
• Taylor, you should make your hugs less brief
• Are superpowers related to self-image?
• We're on Alec's side about the spiders
• Taylor the tailor
• The Monty Hall Murder Problem
• The Sidewalk Incident
• Predictions and torturability

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-04/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.3.

Episode Notes:

• Taylor's backstory: what if Carrie, but more?
• It was worse and more deliberate than we expected!
• BTW Danny, be kind to yourself, this is an absolutely acceptable reason to lose your temper
• How her trigger event shaped the way she is in Arc 1
• What does Taylor hope for when it comes to the Protectorate?
• They’re real friends! Genuine, certified friends!!
• Alec's secret insecurity
• We're on Alec's side, though. Those bullies deserve to suffer
• Taylor’s impressive suppression
• She doesn’t trust herself to take revenge, but she doesn’t trust these villains either
• Taylor needed to share her truth, officially becoming the Heart of the group
• Trigger Event Lore Corner
• Spoilers for The Time Traveler’s Wife about what might happen if you trigger very young
• Taylor’s power as eldritch horror
• Next up this arc: more bullies and Emma’s cape name!

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-03/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.2.

Episode Notes:

• Jenny is still settling into her expectations for this narrative
• What do season 5 of The Wire, Serenity, and Toy Story 3 have in common?
• Okay, but what if the rest of the story is just 1.5M words of fluff?
• Undersiders: Origins is probably not a fun watch
• Alec and Taylor successfully banter
• Putting the sides in Undersiders
• The art of building a female friendship
• How Taylor must have looked from the outside
• Being undercover doesn’t stop Taylor from drawing clear boundaries
• Jenny pitches a grave robbery
• We predict the power of the Fugly Bob's Challenger

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-02/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Shell 4.1.

Episode Notes:

• The best muffins she’s ever tasted… so far!
• Rachel’s not beating the charges
• But she’s making our hearts beat sympathetically
• CSI: Sweater Dog
• Alec’s probably not a murderer, though he slays in a Kid Win tee
• Taylor makes a difficult concession
• Paying off her emotional debts
• The mystery of Emma’s heel turn
• Can old people like teachers and dads become capes?
• Potency and Scented Candle
• Taylor’s itching for another scrape
• How necessary the boss is to their operation
• Finally, somewhere in Brockton Bay we want to visit
• Predictions

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-4-shell/4-01/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss... listener questions.

Episode Notes:

• Our gross bug stories
• We've really been enjoying the inching of it all
• Jenny was expecting things to go less well for these characters
• Ted's been impressed with the careful writing on a reread
• Jenny wants to write cape RPF
• Is Glory Girl's force field a metaphor?
• Jenny predicts the Dallon family secret
• Who are the real monsters, us or the monsters?
• Are powers getting stronger?
• What if the Endbringers are the real good guys?
• Is Shell a metaphor?
• Taylor's gonna build a crab army, control a gut biome, learn to fly, and develop firefly morse code
• Jenny classifies capes beyond just Tinkers
• Animorphs corner!
• Pop girlies
• Jenny’s hopes for her own theories
• A LOT of five man band discourse
• Okay, but which Undersider is which Friends character?
• Without missing a beat, Jenny admits that her favorite Animorph and her least favorite cape are basically the same person
• Jenny’s does a cape fight bracket!!
• Jenny’s first fanart reactions - check Tumblr for links!
• We had more questions than we could cover, and we are so grateful! Thanks to you all!

Links:

• Fanart we talked about: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PIayVMwuEfDdtmfw9K4_a6wHRBYiM7lZFgJQYONkG9g/edit?tab=t.0
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow

Jenny and Ted discuss Agitation 3.x.

Episode Notes:

• Announcement: Arc 4 coverage starts in June ’25
• Write in mailbag questions in the #ask-a-host channel on Discord
• The “viewpoint” of this interlude was a real surprise!
• When the PRT director docks the breakfast budget, I shout: “Leggot my eggot!”
• The ending seems ominous but do they really know anything about Tattletale?
• What’s going on with Armsmaster’s brief appearance here? Is he jealous that Miss Militia’s power fits his name better?
• Miss Militia as an American fantasy and reflection on gender-identifying cape names
• Miss Militia and Aegis show off their leadership skills
• Why Gallant’s power may have led him to adopt a “gallant” persona and why he and Glory Girl work as a couple
• Amy’s burnout and why Gallant fails her
• An ominous path for Panacea
• The Wards seem pretty okay, we guess!
• A Skitter confession/apology
• The name of the game for the PRT/Wards is optics
• Kid Winning us over (and Kid Proving Taylor would hate it here)
• What do you think the PRT capeaganda video games would be like?
• Funny Aegis
• RIP Emma
• Jenny takes another bite at Amy’s secrets and feelings
• The Shell game

Links:

• https://parahumans.wordpress.com/category/stories-arcs-1-10/arc-3-agitation/3-x-interlude/
• https://www.patreon.com/Wildbow