#entity POVs a la The Void songs in Bifrost Incident

[il3x]

Oooooh

Okay, first of all, everyone go listen to the Mechs right now, they are fantastic. If you liked Dragon in Worm, check out Frankenstein, it's one song and it's a retelling with Frankenstein's monster as an AI, and it's great. Anyways. On to the reaction.

Not sure that I would flip the ending - Worm's already a tragedy. Hone in more on it, though? Totally. Taylor actually dies (unless you want to link up with my Worm Mechs AU where Taylor joins the Mechs after Gold Morning, in which case make it like a 10-minute origin song).

It's hard to remove the powers from Worm, because they're a fundamental, structural component of its tragedy, but it could perhaps be achieved. I have cyberpunk on the brain (and there's this fantastic cyberpunk Worm AU as precedent) so I lean towards that.

Since Mechs songs are all mythology retellings, well...

This isn't the story of Taylor; it's the story of Khepri.

Misc. ideas:

Khepri was the god of "personal transformations. These transformations, called kheperu, included the passages from childhood to adulthood and from life to death." (source), or, from Wikipedia, "Khepri's four main functions were creator, protector, sun-god, and the god of resurrection". The transformation/rebirth/multiple aspects part is reflected with Taylor (Taylor-Skitter-Weaver-Khepri, and just her development in general). See also this post by @henghost as another example of transformative Taylor stages. I think it could be retold by alternating songs about other characters/plot points with songs that mirror one another, each centred on a specific 'aspect' of Taylor. Think a structure similar to Ulysses Dies at Dawn, but perhaps two/three other songs then one Taylor identity song.

Names are also important in both Egyptian mythology - "The Egyptians believed that names held power, so much so that gods went by pseudonyms to keep their power safe" - and Worm, so the song titles could just be the names Taylor goes by in those stages. Easiest bait is "[unnamed? Taylor?]", "Skitter", "Weaver", "Khepri". Maybe throw in an "Administrator" too.

Speaking of Administrator! That's one way to sci-fi it up! The "Shards" are literal shards, the Entities are self-replicating machinery (a la Machine Army) and AI, the product of the hubris of an ancient alien society. Therefore, getting powers = having your brain hacked by self replicating machinery, which sometimes also takes over your body, hence the cyborgs you mentioned.

Hacker Taylor is amazing, btw. Definitely keep that.

Long songs as Interludes, the main plot/Taylor songs are shorter.

And in terms of inspo... the god/mythology aspect reminds me of this fic series too, and for musical Worm adaptations, consider this post about an Amy ballet by @skitterstan.

idea for a worm fanfic Worm but told by the mechanisms To anyone who doesn't know the mechanisms is a band that takes various mythologies and adapts them from what would normally be fantasy to Sci-fi greek mythology is a cyberpunk mafia story Norse mythology is a mystery story about how the first attempt at dimensional travel went wrong Arthurian Legends is a space western and the stories are always tragedies (usually with only one character surviving) also, the story's themselves don't usually follow the actual myth's plot

so my current ideas 1. flip the ending by making Taylor the sole survivor of Gold morning 2. probably no actual powers and at best characters using some type of technology that achieves a similar effect 3. most people are cyborgs to some extent 4. Taylor is a hacker and the way Khepri is achieved is she somehow starts hacking people's brains 5. Wolfspider is a thing (because every mechanisms protagonist is queer to some extent, Arthur is Bi, Loki, and Cinders are lesbians and Ulysses is nonbinary)

im not sure what Sci-Fi genre it will be but suggestions are welcome