#AltPow

[metalatias5]

for my TOH fic Alternative Powersource

They’re chipped crown buddies now ^^

[artfoxtail]

Old idea about reversed powers.

Amy Dallon aka Courage. Part II

[dw-flagler]

[trans-queen-administrator]

Worm Fanfic Recs

No rankings at play here, just my favorite fics that I think other are really good. There are fics I like that aren't listed because I have a bad memory, but everything here is something I really really enjoyed. I have biases obviously, this isn't objective.

The Fics

Our Private Crises - A nailbiting murder mystery with unique and well done POVs from a different character each chapter. The mystery and reveal at the end were stellar, and it got me attached to characters I never thought I'd care for. 29k words. Complete.

It's Cold Out There Every Day - Missy is trapped in a time loop on her birthday. Genuinely stellar characterization, it has the best Missy and Aisha I've ever read and its such a creative and well executed premise. 41k words. Complete.

Tilt - Unpowered homeless girl Taylor fakes a thinker power to get in the Wards and secure housing. She's even more self destructive and self deprecating than in canon. 10/10 characterization for a slew of POV characters including Taylor, every ward but especially Sophia, Rachel, Lisa, and a ton of other characters. Despite not going through all of what canon Taylor went through, this fic nails her character better than pretty much any others. 220k words at time of posting. Updating consistently.

Tear Apart, Stitch Together - Taylor triggers with Shatterbird's power and kills thousands. Short and sweet, everything that's there is great and it wraps up well I think. 13k words. Complete

Memories of a Simurgh Victim - The Simurgh attacks Brockton Bay. Has two storylines, one following Taylor and one following Amy and Vicky. Among the most fucked up things this fandom has to offer, a terrifying showcase of the Simurgh and her power. 62k words. Taylor's story is incomplete but the Amy and Victoria story is done.

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Pleasures - Cherish altpower Taylor tries to consensually fix Amy's incest fetish. A trainwreck I can't look away from, the worlds first psychological horror romcom. It's so fucked up and so amazingly funny, and has good well written characters. I don't like Pillbug and I'm not a big fan of altpowers, but this fic is still one of my favorites because it's so damn compelling so definitely check it out if you actually like either of those things. 211k words at time of posting. Updating consistently.

Roots - The Slaughterhouse Nine attack a small town with a roster of OC capes, but something is very off about the place. POV shifts every chapter, and the OCs are interesting and unique. The S9 are also wonderfully characterized here, I've never had a fic make me sad for Crawler of all people. 67k words at time of posting. Ongoing. Criminally underrated.

Roma Fade - Ciara and Fortuna both try to grow past who they were as capes and find themselves as people in a small town post Gold Morning, having found common ground posing as moms to a recovering Taylor. I'm sure fake dating would never end in real attraction, that would be absurd. Incredibly gay, incredible characterization for everyone, the best post-GM fic around in my opinion. 87k words at time of posting. Ongoing but currently on hiatus.

Case - Lisa and the Simurgh start a detective agency. It's just great humor and a lovely story and wonderful despite being short and deceased. 14k words. Dead.

Silence is not Consent - Taylor intervenes and saves Victoria from Amy and gives her a place to stay, Victoria massively struggles dealing with what happened. Amazing characterization, Victoria's POV is unique and incredibly well done, and her seeing Taylor from an outside perspective is interesting. Be warned that this is a very heavy fic emotionally, but it's really fucking good. 212k words at time of posting. Updating consistently.

A Word - Altpower Taylor is obsessed with writing a story. I don''t know how to describe this fic honestly it's hard to do justice, but it has perhaps the best conclusion to Gold Morning I've seen in a fanfic. 11k words. Complete.

Scarab - A fantasy AU where powers are thought to be magic, and the Faerie Queen takes an interest in Taylor. Filled to the brim with creativity and passion, this fic is teeming with fresh ideas and interesting depictions of canon characters. The worldbuilding is great as well, no other fic on this list has a map, so this is clearly a cut above the rest. 139k words at time of posting. Updating consistently.

Swallowtail - Ok I lied this one has a map too. Taylor with an incredibly interesting stranger power joins Faultline's crew. There is a truly astounding amount of AU elements and alternate powers for canon characters, it feels like a new world while still being recognizable and distinctly Worm. Has a large amount of alternate POVs and the first arc can be rough, but it's creative and amazing. 360k words. Ongoing but currently on haitus.

Soliloquy - Ex-Slaughterhouse 9 Taylor is in prison, bitter at the world and herself and especially her clone who saved the multiverse. A heavy fic about someone slowly recovering and becoming a better person when they're convinced it can't be done. Made me cry. 71k words. Complete.

TWNY - Post-GM Taylor finds herself in the world of RWBY with a pair of moth antennae. Multiple POVs, all very interesting despite me knowing nothing of RWBY. Probably the best characterization of Taylor in any post-GM crossover fic, she's heartbreaking in the recent arc, and it feels like the fic has barely scratched the surface of what it'll eventually cover. Also it's very gay. 136k words. Ongoing.

The Great Escape - Eidolon is struggling after his reputation is destroyed and Cauldron is revealed, and then the Birdcage opens. Amazing use of seldom seen characters, great POV with Eidolon, well done and interesting fights, has String Theory. 107k words. Ongoing but currently on haitus.

Happiness Is Inevitable - NSFW. The only damn erotic mind control Simurgh smut in the fandom somehow. Besides the porn (which is a lot of the fic, who woulda thunk it) the story itself is actually pretty interesting and has a lot of creative parts, and it has better characterization than most fics. 29k words. Ongoing?

Oneshots

Break me so that I can be whole - This accursed fandom is tragically bereft of QA / Taylor fics, but this one shot is great, love an eldritch take on shards. Probably fucked up but I'm not actually a good judge of that so be warned. 1.8k words.

Book Worm - Dragon helps teach Taylor how to read and speak and understand language post-GM. Bittersweet and lovely. 2.5k words.

Defiant Didn't Dox Saint For Nothing! - Taylor goes back in time and the first thing she does is kill Saint because he sucks. Cracky but I like it, fun little oneshot. 1.6k words.

Ruling Ash - Glory Girl flees Brockton Bay during the Slaughterhouse Nine and ends up living with Damsel of Distress. Cute, and Starsong before Ward is very interesting. 2.8k words.

My Sunshine - Leviathan goes worse and Brockton Bay is destroyed. Taylor and Victoria survive. Very somber, but well executed. 3.4k words.

Cherry on Top - A character study of Cherie Vasil, showing how she went from running away from Heartbreaker to joining the Nine. Extremely well written, absolutely incredible depiction of her character. It depicts abuse and actions typical of Heartbreaker and Cherie, so be careful reading. It's a lot emotionally. 12.7k words.

Devil in a New Dress - NSFW. Shatterbird / Reader, I'm not explaining myself on this one. Neat Shatterbird characterization, hot, pretty fucked up so be warned. 1.7k words.

[cpericardium]

i just re-read worm after a few years and am thinking about getting into the fandom- can you recommend some fics and people to look into? good or especially bad, either way- i just dont want to be out of the loop ;)

You came to the right place!!! I have read far too much wormfic to ever be healthy again.

I would not intentionally recommend very bad fics to a fandom newbie because that just makes for an unhappy experience—you'll have plenty of opportunities to find the dregs if you just look at any of the most common recs on /r/wormfanfic. I have a list of some of my own favourites, but my tastes are particular and often clownish. Of them, these are the ones I'd rec to someone new. In fact, many of these I read before joining the community myself and still hold up. Loaf (or, the fic that sucked me into the fandom): Post-Gold Morning, Contessa tries to bake a loaf of bread without using her power. I read this, immediately had to make fanart, and then didn't stop. Case: Sequel to Loaf. Lisa teams up with a woman who isn't the Simurgh to form a private detective agency. Tabloid: Adventures of a PRT photographer slash cape paparazzo. Character study and lots of cape worldbuilding. It has art! Cauldron Quest™: Contessa in a quest, what will she do? Typewriter: Lisa can read between the lines (of Worm). It's Cold Out There Every Day: Vista is caught in a timeloop. Amy's Octet: A series of quizzes about Amy Dallon. Forward: Taylor tries to move on after Gold Morning. The Great Escape: The Birdcage opened and Eidolon is tasked with catching the escapees. A Certain Logic of Violence and Uncertainty: Marquis and Amy in the Birdcage, what will they do? Shinka: Lung character study. Looking Forwards: The reason I started shipping Contessa/Alexandria. Cherry on Top: Cherish character study. Valleyxandria: A day in the life of Rebecca Costa-Brown, a California girl. Dragon Unbound: Dragon unchained! Agent of Cauldron: A girl kills Eidolon, gets inducted into Cauldron. Very expansive worldbuilding. Ghostlight: Pretender can hear Alexandria's voice while piloting her body. Janus: Victoria in Taylor's body, what will she do? Hatching a Heist: A woman pretends to be a cape in order to rob her former employer. Steel Owl: Parahumans Online can be such a lonely place. I Need Some Space: Taylor's new stepsister is Vista. The Artist Formerly Known As Bonesaw: Two years after Gold Morning, Riley wakes up and she's still in the Slaughterhouse Nine. Authors to look into: Chartic, k800, maroon_sweater, henghost (but you HAVE to check the tags first), Fox_in_a_Box (this is for Number Stans), Redcoat_Officer, Harbin, TheSleepingKnight, Omega_93, Dusky

[il3x]

so what kind of worm fanfic do you think alternate universe writer you writes

That's a tough one, because I have/had Wormfic ideas in this timeline, but alternate me has been writing for a while and probably developed her own style and preferences in a way this Me hasn't.

In the good universe, she's doing a post-apocalyptic survival thriller Ward rewrite. In the bad universe... altpowers, lots of altpowers.

[dragongirlfangs]

It's funny to see people comment on the Worm fic I just updated and some ask "hmm... I wonder if it'll take the Fic Killer for the protagonists to do this desperate move", because I genuinely have no plans to write an endbringer fight at all. Like ever. Not in this story

Like not in a condescending way or anything, it's genuinely interesting to see how people expect an endbringer to show up if you're writing a worm fanfic while it never even crossed my mind

[glorber]

can someone make a total drama x worm or homestuck crossover fanfiction does that exist please im desperate

[masterweaverx]

Alright, a quick round up of what I published last month!

Oneshots and drabble series:

The Inexplicable Legend of Saffron Chastity McGrates: In which Brockton Bay is introduced to a CPS agent that actually wants to Protect Children, and will face down all Worm's grimdarkness to do it.

Seeker and Sprite: Manifestation 1.3: Vicky triggered late, Taylor triggered early, and it turns out they're a cluster. In this chapter, Vicky hears that Taylor's woken up...

Taylor Altpower: Droidworks: Instead of controlling bugs, Taylor makes Star Wars droids. How does this affect the plot?

General Grievous Saves The World, much to the surprise of everyone, especially General Grievous: Because Earth Bet is in such a terrible state that even the murderous cyborg jedi killer is an improvement.

Maddeningly Sane: What happens when a character gets so traumatized that they come down with a case of common sense?

Taylor Altpower: Raven Friends: Taylor befriends ravens. She doesn't control them, she just befriends them. Might not even be a parahuman. How does that change the plot of Worm?

Inibarrana: Artavaita: What if... Bionicle was in Star Wars? (Yes that's right, no Worm this time!)

And then I also published the first five chapters of Vista of the Stars, wherein Vista mysteriously arrives on Ryloth, which is sure to not cause any ripples in the Star Wars timeline. I mean, what can one space-warping little girl actually do to change things, right?

Anyway, here is your reminder that writers are artists too, and artists need support! Here is my Patreon if you want to support me long term, and here is my ko-fi if you want to support me short term. I really depend on this for... basically all my income.

[lakesbian]

Gameboy anon, cont: I also did that one Sidepiece fic and actually published it, but I don’t think that counts as good. Unless you really like Guts by Chuck Palahniuk and / or are into that kind of thing.

i have zero idea what "that one sidepiece fic" is but i just wanted to take this opportunity to inform the public that i support when things are grotesque, senselessly or sensefully violent, purposefully gross-out for any reason including just for fun, and/or otherwise liable to cause people who complain about gory horror movies being "torture porn" to start gagging

[scolop98]

so is the “quirkless hero Deku/deku has a quirk AU -> altpower!Taylor fic” pipeline something that happens to other people or is that just a me thing

(hilariously, these are both fandoms where I read copious quantities of fanfic before I even considered engaging with canon)

[metalatias5]

art for chapter 17 “Blue Colors” of my TOH fic Alternative Powersource, above: the fully colored piece, below: the original quick sketch of the idea

you can read chapter 17 of AltPow here on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41989626/chapters/114836443

[kyliafanfiction]

Yes, objectively, Taylor's power is actually really fucking strong. Though there are certain kinds of enemies where her powers are pretty useless, on their own.

But Taylor herself never actually considers them powerful, and had she had a more 'visibly powerful' power at the start, her actions would have been quite different.

[dw-flagler]

fuck. I was writing this emma barnes fic and I've come to a realization. For a period of exactly seven days in 2009, Emma Barnes is a completely different person from the one in canon. Like, I always knew that meeting Shadow Stalker the second time shaped her as a person, but it's genuinely shocking how utterly different the road of her life could have been.

Like, for my fic I had these two paths I was struggling to pick between, which I'm calling Wire and Cloth, as a joke about imprinting (see neither is good but one is distinctly better than the other), one where Emma ends up being kidnapped by the ABB and one where she ends up as shadow stalker's apprentice. But.

Look, here's a line from Interlude 19: "What got her, the nebulous idea that haunted her, was the impact those scenes had.  There were so many defining moments, so many crises, big and small, that shaped the people they touched.  The biggest and most critical moments were the sorts that wiped the slate clean, that ignored or invalidated the person who had existed before, only to create another."

Like, yeah, she's talking about triggers, but what's getting to me is how empathetic (in the literal "I can relate to your pain" sense) and compassionate she sounds. Like. Emma shuts herself in her room for a week because she's incapable of dealing with the horror of knowing that hundreds of little girls are going through what she did every minute of every day. She can't deal with it.

This emma, who only exists for a week, is haunting me. She's just--It's just weird!

And the Emma who exists for the rest of the story, for every section except for less than half of one chapter, you can see the remains! She's there! Emma recontextualizes her existential despair at the enormity of human suffering, something she only really understood in abstract until now, as Sophia's predator/prey philosophy, right? It's so easy for her, because it gives her a way to explain it. There's predators and there's prey. It already slots into her worldview. Like (and I'm really just harping on about victim blaming today aren't I?) those girls who suffered like Emma did, they suffered because they were weak! It's simple now. There's two kinds of people, the ones who are hurt and the ones who hurt, and all Emma has to do to make sure that she is never hurt again is to be the one who does the hurting.

But for seven days, there's that ghost. The kind Emma Barnes, who doesn't want anything like what happened to her happen to anyone else. It's not as narratively interesting, I get that. Who wants a worm character who's all peace and love? That doesn't make for a mentally disturbed teenage girl doing horribly violent acts, and that's what we in the worm fandom all want to see. But still she haunts me.

[il3x]

alrighty I get that I'm taking a joke post way too seriously, but I'm genuinely baffled at the implied take of "I can empathise with Sophia, but I draw the line at Amy and Alec"?? like. As a fellow Sophia defender I thought we were all for sympathising with a character's childhood abuse and/or noting their Questionable Portrayal without minimising or excusing the character's own abusive actions... we've trained for this! i'unno.

The Alec one particularly doesn't sit right with me, since he's also a wormfave of mine and I am vaguely familiar w/ his shipfic. Maybe I've been reading the Secret Okay-If-A-Bit-OOC Alec Ships which focus on him recovering from his own childhood sexual abuse (even sticking only to explicit canon, Heartbreaker groomed him into hypersexuality, and his age means it was statutory rape for him too) and there are Worse, Even-More-OOC Alec Ships out there where he's sexually predatory or Weird(TM) about bodyjacking in the canon era?

In general, I just think the implication (if I'm reading this right) that Alec and Amy would always be predatory in a relationship isn't correct, since their actions were the product of very specific circumstances.

(That said, if anyone ships Amy and Victoria outside of the horror genre, I'm side-eyeing them reeeeeeal hard.)

Apologies if I misinterpreted your intentions here, too, it's kinda bold of me to try and refute something which wasn't outright part of the post, so yeah. Sorry if I jumped to conclusions.

What Your Favorite Worm Ship Says About You

some people have found my crusty, old ass tumblr post on this very topic, so im making a new one with my updated opinions! Cause those are, in fact, allowed to change. Enjoy! Taylor x Lisa: you're into relationships that could be dysfunctional or healthy with one push in either direction. also something something sun lesbian moon lesbian. Taylor x Rachel: You love dogs, and you want a girlfriend who can kick your ass. You're also into bomber jackets. I respect you. Taylor x Alec: Sadly, you do exist, and you did make it weird. Go away! Taylor x Amy: You read altpowers on the daily and complain about canon worm being too grimdark. Solid odds on you having never read worm. To be clear, it's worse if you have. also something something FBI OPEN UP Taylor x Victoria: You like the vibes of Lisa and Taylor's dynamic, but you want them to be a little more heroic and a little less dysfunctional. But only a little. Taylor x Clockblocker: You're straight and liked that one joke that cropped up. I also haven't seen any of you in a hot minute, thank god. No offense but this ship is mad boring.

Taylor x Sophia: You've come to realize that Sophia is a great character who gets done extremely dirty by the rest of the fandom. Also, rivals to lovers. Taylor x Emma: This can go one of two ways. Either you adore childhood friends to lovers, or you love enemies to lovers. Either way, you're obsessed with hurt and/or comfort fics. Taylor x Theo: You actually read Worm and recognize that Theo is criminally underrated in the fandom. Now just stop shipping him with Taylor and you'll complete the next step on your journey to enlightenment.

Taylor x Simurgh: I can't say for sure you're a anime fan, but you're definitely at least a little bit of a monsterfucker. also something something inherent eroticism of being world-destroying power couple. Taylor x Greg. You read Worm SI's unironically and get really defensive when people say that Greg is an incel. Completely unrelated, you haven't spoken to a woman other then your mother in five years. Taylor x Cherie: I've been informed this is a ship. I've yet to be informed as of a reason why I should like it. Cherie likers stay mad!

Lisa x Rachel: I don't remember the last time I saw this ship that wasn't also tagged as a polycule with Taylor, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're an OT3 enjoyer.

Lisa x Victoria: You’re into the “enemies to lovers” trope, but more of the "Spiderman x Black Cat" type then the "you murdered my entire home town but i can't help but find you sexy" type. Also you have a thing for blondes

Lisa x Faultline: Your ideal relationship dynamic is bickering married couple. You're also into heist movies.

Lisa x Simurgh: You have a thing for smart girls... who hate you. Also, you really liked Part of the Whole.  Contessa x Alexandria: You're fucking based. Also something something inherent eroticism of girlbosses winning Contessa x Numberman: you're friends with Peri and enjoy memes about pants and math Numberman x Jack Slash: You think serial killers are hot and are starved for m/m ships. Danny x Eidolon: You're losersexual and are starved for m/m ships. Also you frequent r/wormemes Danny x Miss Militia: Honestly, i think you all died out. I couldn't be happier, this ship is fucking dumb. Amy x Literally Anyone Besides Taylor: listen, there's like a hundred different jokes i could make here, but all of them boil down to amy defenders always defending the rapist for some reason so let's just agree amy defenders are fucking cringe and move on Dragon x Defiant: You understand that this is unironically the only healthy relationship in worm with some of the best character growth and romance in the entire story, and a majority of all of it happens off screen. You're extremely bitter that so many fanfics do both of them so dirty they get beaten into different characters. Alec x Aisha: You like the idea of this ship, cause two pranksters making everyone miserable is the kinda vibe you enjoy, but constantly run into the issue that Alec is...well. Alec. That or you're into Alec's brand of shit, in which case, FBI OPEN UP Aisha x Missy: You read It's Cold Out There Every Day. I did too. Fuck, this fic is so good. I'm going to go cry about the ending again. Lily x Sabah: Yes, you know the age gap is a little problematic, you just want to be happy with your relatively healthy canon lesbians goddamn it Purity x Literally Anyone: You don't understand why people keep calling you racist. You're not! You're just weirdly defensive of the hot milf who murders people of color and seem to constantly bring up that Kaiser didn't actually believe the nazi propaganda he was peddling. You are racist btw Taylor x Brian: You...are Wildbow

[victoriadallonfan]

“In this altpower fanfic I gave Taylor an actually strong power-“

STOP

Stop what you are doing

Do you know how large 3 city blocks are? How bout 5? 6?

300 meters (900ft), 500 meters (1500ft), 600 meters (1800ft) respectively

These are Taylors bug ranges over the course of the story. Not counting power ups she gets from Amy or Doormaker.

Everything within that partial blue square? That is a little more than 600 meters.

Every bug in that area is under her control. And she doesn’t stay in one place, she drives around and COLLECTS MORE OF THEM!

Do you realize how many bugs there are?! In these city blocks? We can’t know, it’s basically impossible beyond estimates because there are so many bugs!

If you gave me or anyone 6 blocks range control of fucking paper towels and napkins, we’d be stronger than a good 80% of Parahumans. And there are A LOT more bugs out there, bugs that make MORE bugs!

Stop saying Taylor has a weak power! She’s always been OP, from Day 1!