David - proud Gleeman in Branwen's adventuring party’s Reviews > Children of Time > Status Update

The Portiid spiders have never been a passive or defensive species. No patient web-lurkers they; they attack or counterattack. Those not directly involved fan out, watching to all sides with many eyes

These spiders are such warriors! Hopefully their fighting skills will be more effective than this

We will show them, Portia thinks. We will show them the error of their ways.

The epic battles are about to begin! :o

"Don't be too hard on him, the situation is unprecedented."
"I'll be the judge of that. I swear, sometimes I think I'm the only competent person left in the whole human race."

That's a tad harsh... even Batman has an off day sometimes!

The machinery had been taken apart and put back together more than once. Words stenciled on the side said "Do not open. No user-serviceable parts inside."

Some tasks just feel pointless!

"I don't believe you."

WOW! I did not see that revelation coming! I was caught unawares even worse than these guys were!

Bianca is still waiting. Nobody in all of history has done what she did. The eyes of the world are on her with a judgmental gaze. So she waits.

But, hey, no pressure, right, Bianca?!

They are performing that oldest of tricks: constructing a path by which to reach a destination, only in this case the destination is permanent security. With each step they take towards it, that security recedes, and the cost of progressing towards security grows.

Not how that is supposed to work!

Suddenly he was clear and scrabbling at the wall to regain his feet. His twisted knee savagely resisted but he was adrenalined to the eyeballs right then and overrode it. That got him all of two steps away from the skirmish, whereupon he was grabbed.

Not exactly as great an escape as this was...

The censorship he had ordered Lain to put in place was never going to be able to keep out the chief culprit - to wit, Lain herself.

Lain is good at being sneaky! Others, not so much...

When the giant opened and closed its mouth, the spiders hypothesized it may be a means of communication, but the absurdity of such an idea won out. After all, using the same orifice for eating and communication was manifestly too inefficient.

Humans inefficient at talking? I can buy that!