Glow-worm P.4

{{#if: | {{{image}}} }} {{#if: October 28, 2017 | | Date posted || October 28, 2017 }} {{#if: Glow-worm P.4 | | Link || {{#ifeq:{{#sub:Glow-worm P.4|0|1}}|[|Glow-worm P.4|[Glow-worm P.4 Glow-worm P.4]}} }}

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Glow-worm P.4
Chapter guide
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Chapter List

Part 4 is the fourth chapter 0f Glow-worm. PHO user 'Of5 ' and friend investigate multi-triggers, Questionable_Mammal offers to help him find the rest of his cluster, and we learn about the kiss/kill dynamic. Gets identified by a mysterious benefactor.

Plot

A slice of of5's web searches is shown of5 is performing a search of the forum. They're looking for all things pertaining to multi-triggers, grab-bags, cluster-triggers, mosaic powers, with an emphasis on terms with articles and science. Topic: Use of Cluster Powers, Serial Powers, Matched Powers, and Nth-generation Powers to identify ‘Hinge Points’ in Power Expression – 1998

The topic is a 1998 scientific article, from back in the day. The focus of the article is on 'hinge points' - trying to find the kinds of unique scenarios (multi-triggers, serial triggers, 2nd generation triggers, etc) which have various expressions of the same power, and finding the common point - the hinge around which the rest operates.

The link to the full article is broken, because the internet isn't 100% post end-of-world. of5 reports it.

Topic: Class notes from Parahuman Studies 303.

A student posts their notes from their class, with prof's permission. The focus is on cluster-triggers (multi-triggers).

• Multiple people trigger at once, and instead of a more unified power package, they get a set of lesser powers. One is 'theirs' and is only a little bit weaker, and they get secondary powers from the others. * (Essentially, not explicit in the chapter, but Mr. Red gets Red Power at 75%, then gets blue, yellow, and purple at 25% each. Mr. Blue gets Blue power at 75%, then gets red, yellow, and purple at 25% each, etc.) * Hinge points are outlined in more depth. 'hinge' was the old term and 'dominant' factors are the new terminology. * There's brief discussion on why this is important - predicting power expressions, figuring powers out. * Case studies are outlined, explaining the above with examples. * Complicating factors are listed but not explained in depth: Kill/Kiss, personality traits bleed across members of the 'cluster', higher instances of paranoia, PTSD, aggression.

of5 notes that the links to slides and graph are missing. Another commenter says there's nothing to be done about that.

Group Chat: Anonymous Chat, a day later

of5 joins the chat: he's R from the group convo. Mystery_Meat/C (now calling themselves Questionable_Mammal), HSP/K, and Cap are present. Mangled_Wings/A isn't in chat, C says he upset her and she left but she'll be back.

of5/R had to travel to get to the library; they're with a female friend, who HSP/K teases of5 about. of5/R requests help from HSP/K in refining search terms. Meat/C offers to write up a more complex search term, and remarks he has games to give of5/R at their next face to face meeting. Topic: Relationship Entanglement in Cluster-Triggers – 2005

Another scientific article. Colloquially known as 'Kiss/Kill' - there's a remarkably high (40%) instance of murder within cluster-triggers. 60% if you include attempted murder. On the flip side, in 25% of cases, two individuals in a cluster will partner (including both close friendship and romantic expression) and in 10% of cases, it's both partnership and murder. This is a pretty strong effect: in 10% of the romantic cases, people form romantic ties regardless of their normal sexuality.

The link to the full article is broken, again, but it's remarked to be a pretty crummy article with editorializing.

Private Message Exchanges: Coded Name, Of5, the group chat

of5 is reached out to by someone with a long, coded name, with a coded message. of5 asks the people from the larger group convo about it: their female friend suggested it's a bot. After briefly wondering if it's 'S' (dismissed as S "Isn't that bad with computers") they're told to ignore it and move on.

But the person from the coded message starts speaking in plain english. of5's searches & comments on the broken multi-trigger articles have been noticed. Coded-name goes through all the instances of multi-triggers they've heard of, working out who of5 could be, and decides that of5 is the 'runt' from 'the mall'.

Coded-name already talked to someone else from the mall and was turned down. Lucky for of5, coded-name says, because of5 will need all the help they can get, and coded-name is offering that help. The mall group has a woman, a man, and two boys, four individuals. Three members of the group are coordinating to go after one of the two boys, the runt. The woman is hiring mercenary help for the deed, and the man is talking to an information broker named Tattletale to find the runt. Coded-name remarks 'a case of Kiss/Kill like I never saw and I don’t think they’re reaching for the chapstick.' - and the response from of5 is 'You’re wrong / It isn’t Kiss/Kill.' But, of5 says, they're open to assistance. Complex Search Term & Result

of5 makes a complex search for threads and topics involving a certain set of powers.

Creates a search targeted for the last month, of the Complex terms: sever, prosthetic, emotion, acrobatics. With a reasonable margin of gap between the terms. Relevant sections are shown with some surrounding context.

The main result is an 'incident report' by a hero team that's sharing out info with other hero groups. There was a woman with a fanged mask covering her lower face and a dress with a slit up one side. She had a mover power that let her run on walls, an emotion-affecting roar, and tinker claws that let her tear down doors and other obstacles. She got away.

Of5 returns to the chat room: It's a match. She's one of the people from of5's cluster. On being asked about the bot, doesn't reveal that it was a person, saying 'blocked & moved on'. of5/R is concerned about the woman. HSP/K offers help. of5 thanks HSP/K and Meat/C, calling them 'good kids' and at HSP/K's urging, goes to get their female friend a treat (likely to be ice cream) as thanks for the help with the library/computer stuff.

Characters

Chatroom group

• Of5
  • Unnamed Friend
• Questionable_Mammal/C
• Heart_Shaped_Pupil
• Capricorn/Cap
• Mangled_Wings/A (mention)
• S (mention)

Mention

• The Stable (mention)
  • Foulcock
  • Foulpig
  • Oxfair/The Good Ox
  • Ramfair
• March<ref>Decryption of the code used in the chapter on Reddit</ref>

Trivia

• Wildbow has written an extended chapter-by-chapter synopsis of Glow-worm on Reddit.

References

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