#most wormfic authors don't actually do that

[artbyblastweave]

One thing that a lot of other capepunk fiction's worldbuilding has made me appreciate is the extent to which The Protectorate, as an organization, is about as much of a character as any of the actual individual characters. You can ask "What would the Protectorate Do in response to X or Y scenario" and there's enough in the text about their strengths and weaknesses and organizational ethos that you can kludge together a fairly true-to-the-text approximation of the exact way that they'd turn it into a multidepartment buck-passing office-politics-ridden clusterfuck.

[cleopatraphouse]

Top nine Wormfics (as picked by someone who has read over a thousand Wormfics)

(I know Wormblr can be kinda tight-knit so please don't feel bad if you're not on the list.)

9. Wink

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By: Idiom Alpha

Status: Dead. 29K words.

Summary: Post- Gold Morning, a small-time band of villains struggle to survive in post-apocalyptic America.

Gold Morning and its consequences are fairly underrepresented in Wormfic. Even the fics set on Gimel tend to feature it as more of a new settler town than a ‘rebuilding after the end’ Eaden. Part of the reason is the relative newness of Ward, part of the reason is the relative badness of Ward; but let’s be honest, a lot of the reason is that post-Gold Morning there’s no Taylor. And no one reads Wormfics without Taylor.

Wink doesn’t have Taylor, except vaguely in the background of a flashback scene. And it’s really really good anyway.

After a slow bit at the start of chapter one, we get to see into a fully realized scavenger civilization Earth Bet. Some towns exist, held together by capes or regular human grit and spit. But most of the world’s population has died or relocated. But it’s not really a sad story, as dark as the subject matter gets at times. The narration (given by OC cape Bystander, whose deal I’ll leave as a surprise) is purposefully light and jovial. Example sentence: “You know, I think the funniest part about the apocalypse is that it left everyone with a lot of free time.”. This has the dual purpose of giving the exposition pizzazz and personality, while making the emotional moments that come later hit harder.

Speaking of. So, like, I have autism (and a couple of other things but that’s the important one here). I don’t know exactly how severe it is on a scale of one to ten, but it does make my life difficult. I’m not sure how much detail is appropriate to give here (yknow, because of the autism), so I’ll keep things vague. Suffice to say that many things are difficult for me that I really really wish weren’t.

I bring this up because the most seen I’ve ever felt, as an autistic person, was reading Finale in Ward. (Even though she gets called not-autistic in the same chapter...)

The second most seen I’ve ever felt is reading Sentiment’s interlude in Wink.

I’m not going to give the whole thing away, but the line where her brother tells her to be normal, and the narration follows up with “Kinneret tried being normal. It wasn't a very fun game, but she played it for years. It didn't help her make any friends.” Yeah. Yeah, that’s real shit. Way realer than that one Questionable Content strip which still bugs me years later even though it’s not important or relevant at all.

The fic unfortunately died shortly after the plot started actually picking up. Thankfully the chapters are fairly substantial. An arc for Bystander is successfully conveyed, even if it’s not the fully realized arc that was clearly being built to. There are even twists! And there’s some pretty good art, drawn by the author.

Idiom Alpha has written a bunch of Wormfics! Sadly literally all of them are dead. They’re still really good though! My favorites are Not Looking Forward To It (which has my favorite takes on Dinah and Flor), Lean (which has my favorite take on Noelle), and Don’t Do Brains! (which has the only ending Idiom ever wrote even though it’s officially unfinished).

8. Santa-Assault And Imp The Elf: Christmas Carnage

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By: Rukaio Alter

Status: Complete. 79K words.

Summary: Assault just wants to teach Imp the meaning of Christmas in his own roguish way. When he’s kidnapped by The Elite, she gets dragged along and triggers, which might be what they need if they’re going to escape.

There are perhaps a surprising amount of Christmas-themed Wormfics (Visited By Three Villains and The House Of Mortal Clay spring to mind as choice picks). This is the best one though, partially because it’s more Home Alone than Prep And Landing. While Christmas is inherent to the plot, set dressing, and even themeing; the fic is not trapped by being ‘a Christmas fic’. While there is a “saving Christmas” bend to the plot and imagery, it’s more just a very very well written story about two strangers trying their best to save some kids with cancer from supervillains... during Christmas, while dressed as Santa and an elf. It’s a fun ride at any time of year. I read it slowly to savor it.

This is easily my favorite take on Assault. I mean, the portrayal of Imp is really good too, but this is the version of Assault that the other fic!Assaults wish they were. Roguish and irreverent without being uncaring, goodnatured and upbeat without being saccharine, and burdened by his past without being maudlin; Christmas Carnage is able to fully explore and flesh out a character relatively underutilized by canon. And yes, there’s more to his relationship with Battery than sitcom tropes. We even get to see him as an angsty kid!

People completely allergic to cheese probably won’t be able to tolerate the sillier moments, the jokes can get goofy. (Sample joke: “You said it made me look professional!” / “And you were stupid to believe me.”) It’s a fairly deft management of tone though, it never slips into outright farce even when the comedic explosions start up. And Ruk gives most of the serious parts (even a tearjerker or two) room to breathe.

Some of the fight scenes maybe lack some of the impact they should have (Ruk has a bad habit of starting action paragraphs with discourse filler words). That’s just kinda something you gotta accept, treat it like part of the shonen-esque action-comedy the fic is clearly modeled after.

I really wanna stress that this could have easily just been a silly crackfic, the title even wants you to think that. But instead there’s really tight plotting, moments building naturally from character interaction, lots of setups and brick jokes, and subtle background worldbuilding. A few of the payoffs are admittedly easy to see coming, but they’re still fun. And I’m not gonna spoil it, but the ending did give me that warm holiday-with-friends feeling.

Ruk is probably most known for his Unimaginatively Titled Worm Snippet Collection, which has some of the most creative and good short stories in the fandom. I’m specifically shouting out “Screenbug” and all his takes on Contessa. He’s also done an enjoyable-if-a-bit-underseasoned crossover with Columbo, Just One More Thing, Mr. Anders...; and the weirdly problematic crossover, Brian Laborn: Ace Attorney. Outside the fandom, he ran an original fiction and review blog for a few years, and has done stuff in a couple other fandoms I’m not in.

7. The Postdiluvian Road

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By: Aleph (Immatrael) & EarthScorpion

Status: Complete, with a sequel hopefully on the way eventually. 115K words.

Premise: In a timeline where Leviathan wipes Brockton Bay off the map, Lisa and Taylor go on the run together as the only surviving Undersiders.

This is technically a shipfic, but don’t let that color your preconceptions too much. This is a story about Lisa and Taylor getting to the point where they might wanna date, but that’s not the main events occurring. They don’t even kiss. Taylor thinks a lot about Lisa’s lips, and Lisa confesses to a sleeping Taylor that she’ll always be there for her. It’s a very slow burn, is what I’m saying.  But it’s not plotless, it’s not a coffeeshop AU (as much as I enjoy Coffee Machines And Golden Mornings); the whole story is character development skillfully interlaced with conflict scenes.

In the hands of less artistic writers, the Leviathan attack would be an easy excuse to get two characters alone. That’s not what happens here. TPR completely commits to the premise. Just as every canon chapter set in post-Leviathan Brockton is soaked in filthy water and supply chain problems, every moment of TPR is suffocated in paranoia and desperation. This is, as a result, the fic on this list that keeps most closely to Worm’s apocalyptic tone. Lisa is never sure that Coil’s really dead, that she’s really free. Taylor never stops grieving her dad. Brief moments of respite feel less like breaks than they do pauses. Every bit of emotional development comes after struggling to find food and a place to sleep.

One of my favorite aspects comes when Lisa and Taylor are trying to get some quick cash. They steal some suitcases, one of which contains some mysterious vials. They throw the vials out because they only want the money and the vials are worthless to them. Obviously, the reader knows they’re Cauldron vials, but the story never feels the need to point it out. And it wasn’t just a thrown in detail, it sets a group of capes after them. Lisa and Taylor are stumbling through other stories that we only get snippets of. The world is real and big and scary, but maybe these two can find safety in each other’s arms.

This fic also features the most subtle and tasteful Simpsons reference I think I’ve ever read. Keep an eye out!

I’ve seen people say that TPR!Skitter is weaker than she should be, but I think that can be chalked up to her having less grounding, less familiarity with the environment, and less backup. All she’s got is whatever bugs are around her and a squishy thinker to protect, she doesn’t even have a base to build up stores. There are understandable reasons for Taylor to be the underdog, is what I’m saying.

The fic is wrong about Niagara Falls, though. Niagara Falls is goddamn beautiful.

I am given to understand that this is only part one, and that a part two is or was meant to come out some day. Even if that doesn’t happen, we still have is a complete story of two girls who gradually realize they might wanna be gay in between doing crimes, and I think that’s great.

Aleph and EarthScorpion previously collaborated on Impurity, a Taylor alt-power Wards fic that to be honest I didn’t get much out of. EarthScorpion also wrote a crossover with a video game I’ve never played, and Aleph contributed some interlude chapters to something called Silence Is NOT Consent!.

6. Silence Is NOT Consent!

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By: JustAnotherCat (justanothercatgirl) and Aleph (Immatrael)

Status: On hiatus. 310K words.

Premise: After the Slaughterhouse Nine leave Brockton Bay, Skitter finds Amy having wretch’d Victoria, forces her to undo the physical damage, and takes Victoria in.

This is a hard one to talk about. There’s so much discourse attached to Amy’s character already that mentioning her becomes a minefield. Add on SINC’s brutally honest depictions of the aftereffects of rape on the victim, and I’m just painfully, painfully aware that if I don’t write this right everyone will (justifiably) get mad at me. 

So, what I’m going to say is that I think this is a horrifically accurate portrayal of severe PTSD. If you are lucky enough to be neurotypical, I imagine parts might seem unrealistic or unintentionally comedic. No. That’s what it’s like. Or, yknow, as far as I’m capable of understanding. Basically every chapter has some kind of gut punch, where Victoria again realizes how she’s still being affected by her trauma. It is uncomfortable and horrible and real.

But even besides all the heavy stuff, this has a great portrayal of Taylor and Victoria. The story’s written first person, from Victoria’s perspective, and it’s so great to see her act as a kind of straight man to Skitter’s usual deranged determination. This is the most in-character Taylor I’ve ever seen in a Wormfic, how she’s constantly going to eleven for the greater good, even when and ESPECIALLY when it’s unwarranted. One of my favorite moments comes shortly after the Rachel interlude: an uncontrolled emotion power goes off without warning during a negotiation; Taylor pretends she did it on purpose; and Victoria watches, bewildered. It’s funny, dramatic, and characterful all at once.

I will say I respectfully disagree with some of the decisions regarding Alec and Aisha, although I understand why those decisions were made and get how they fit thematically. In general the side characters are noticeably weaker than the main duo (although I think this is my favorite ever take on Charlotte). See the Brian interlude for what I mean. It’s a worthy portrait, sure, I agree with the author’s note that Brian doesn’t get enough love in fic. But does it go as deep into his character as it could?

The worldbuilding, however, is a highlight, fleshing out Brockton just that little bit. I particularly enjoy the details about the entrance to Skitter’s lair. It never feels expositiony either, every line of description comes off as an in-character observation from someone desperately trying to keep her shit together. And as the story progresses, so too does Victoria’s familiarity with her new situation, leading to my favorite Taylor/Victoria pairup. Like The Postdiluvian Road, this is not a romance story so much as it is a survival story that happens to include learning to trust again. It is bleak, sad, beautiful, and even occasionally funny and cute.

Silence Is NOT Consent! is currently on indefinite hiatus, sadly. But even if it never comes back, it’s well, WELL worth reading, even if you haven’t cried to "Body Terror Song" by AJJ.

justanothercatgirl also has a one-shot collection (which has my favorite depiction of Shatterbird) and shockingly little else. I hope she’s writing other things in her spare time, because I’m not kidding when I say the world needs voices like hers.

5. Intercession

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By VigoGrimborne

Status: Complete. 189K words.

Premise: Post-Gold Morning, Taylor is Isekai’d by Contessa into the Harry Potter universe, and given an infant Harry Potter to raise.

I'm a little reluctant to mention this one; apparently the author is uncomfortable with the amount of attention it got. Also it’s a Harry Potter crossover, and fuck J.K. Rowling. But like, the story is really good. REALLY good! Don’t get mad at me, I’m a transgirl, I know how bad Harry Potter is!

I had no idea how badly I needed to see Taylor Hebert being a good mom, or, for that matter, to see Harry Potter vehemently defending an adoptive parent. The fic isn’t perfect, there are certain comedic moments that just fall flat for me (the most forced ‘Taylor's boobs’ joke outside of canon). But that doesn’t matter. This is close to the platonic ideal of the ‘Taylor gets isekai’d post-Gold Morning’ fic. And it has really good pacing thanks to it being planned out in advance, almost every chapter feels like a nearly-complete story on its own. Other writers, take notes.

Other writers should also take note of how Taylor doesn’t waltz into the situation and immediately beat everyone else. There’s actual tension and stakes as she struggles to deal with magic for the first time, to shake off the rust and get back into combat. Even when she wins, it still has that skin-of-her-teeth desperation to it that Worm did so well.

Tellingly, a lot of the worse parts you’ll want to skip on a reread are the parts most rooted in Harry Potter canon. Harry’s first perspective chapter detailing his first three years at Hogwarts is great, but the parts spent at Ron’s house are pretty inconsequential. Maybe it was meant for the people who didn’t come from the Worm side of the fandom crossover? Harry’s classmates, at least, are given actual personalities and arcs totally absent from the books.

Credit must be given to the romantic pairing. VG somehow, miraculously, managed to make Taylor Hebert x Sirius Black not only a not-creepy pairing, but a straight-up great match. This isn’t teenage Taylor shacking up with an adult; this is Taylor as an adult mother, fully prepared to kill Sirius if his roguish charm starts negatively impacting her son.

VigoGrimbone also has a collection of side stories, outtakes, and rewrites called Of Summoning Snakes And Sorting Hats, definitely a must-read if you like Intercession even a little bit; and a collection of Worm one-shots called Chunks Of Worm, which features my favorite Amy/Lisa pairup in one story.

4. Mixed Feelings

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By Kittius

Status: Dead. 1M words.

Premise: In a slight AU, before canon start, an OC named Astrid (not to be confused with Aster) triggers after years of abuse from her Nazi father.

I found this one thanks to ColossalMistake plugging it in an interview they did, and I'm honestly flabbergasted that I hadn't heard about it before. It's straight up brilliant. Is it the one million plus wordcount that's making people rec it so infrequently? Is it the unashamed British slang that keeps making it into the dialogue of ostensibly-American characters? All I know is that Mixed Feelings is astonishingly good.

It would be irresponsible of me to not address the length. This story is a million words long even before we add in the 50K of sidestory and the other 50K of author-written apocrypha. And no, it did not need to be that long. A million words into Worm and we had at least fifteen arcs and all that entails. A million words into Mixed Feelings and we’ve had five arcs, a few fights, and one major character breakthrough.

Some of the wordcount is justified. Astrid is constantly repeating certain phrases in her head (“There is always a basement.”, “Failure is always punished.”) and this is great! It really gives you the claustrophobic feeling of being controlled which she’s dealt with her whole life. It’s like SINC, only it’s CPTSD instead of PTSD. Some of the wordcount is... less justified. The Emma interlude goes on for three parts, the Battery interlude goes on for five, and both could have made their points in two. And just skip the Testing, Testing sidestory. Even back in the main story, I do not care about Kid Win’s relationship fumbles.

It’s worth pushing through though. For one thing, the worldbuilding is fucking incredible. Astrid was raised by her Nazi father to be a child soldier, and this is reflected in how she sees the world. So we as readers get to see how the Wards HQ works, from the workout room to the cafeteria to the Youth Guard advocates. But we don’t just see them, we see them through her viewpoint. Sometimes this adds a tinge of comedy, like with her continued bewilderment that other people are engaging in decadent behaviors like eating candy or making jokes. Other times it adds little dramatic flairs, like when she’s incapable of understanding that “punishment” does not mean “extreme physical abuse”. The world feels real and lived in, with PRT foot soldiers irritatedly gossiping about Assault’s criminal past, Carlos sadly reminiscing over his dead boyfriend, and the Youth Guard desperately and futilely trying to stop more superpowered children from dying.

The overall mood is dark, which partially comes from Astrid’s fucked worldview and her slow healing process, but it also comes from looking straight on at what the Empire Eighty-Eight would actually be like. Worm justifiably gets flack for having a depiction of Nazism that’s only slightly more real than Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Mixed Feelings has a depiction of Nazism that’s clearly had research put into it. Pay attention to how an OC villain is clearly based on ‘women are property’ incel screeds, without it ever being actually spelled out. And as horrific and disturbing as the depictions of Nazism are, they’re probably as respectful towards the real-world victims as possible. And the best part is that the fic repeatedly, repeatedly shows that growing up as a Nazi (even unwillingly) is actively killing Astrid. She is almost totally incapable of functioning in the real world, because every interaction is filtered through trying not to be hurt. Her actual body is failing on her, because of her father’s lifelong abuse. You just wanna give her a hug. Except you don’t, cause she’d flinch at the sudden movement. I can relate!

Mixed Feelings has my favorite take on Piggot and Carlos, as well as Rennick, for what that’s worth. But the real star of the show is Amy. She’s such a bitch, to EVERYONE, it’s great! If you’re a big Ward fan I imagine you won’t love her as much as I do, but for anyone who’s able to imagine Amy Dallon happy, here she is, miserable and annoyed and taking it out on whoever is nearby at the time.

The author’s notes are super neat too, going into why they made certain decisions based off of offhand dialogue from across the whole of Worm.

All that said, it is funny how there’s NO EFFORT AT ALL put into making the story seem American. I learned like fifty British slang terms from my readthrough. Not that it affects the quality of the story, but it is funny to imagine American teenagers in 2011 casually saying things like “all and sundry”.

Kittius also has a snippet thread, which includes some non-Worm stories that are pretty nifty, although the overall quality is, to be honest, variable.

3. The Great Escape

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By ColossalMistake

Status: Dead. 106K words.

Premise: Eidolon must deal with the loss of his reputation due to the revelations during the Echidna fight, while at the same time attempting to help with a total breakout from the Birdcage.

Apparently this was made partially as a self-challenge by the author. ‘Is it possible to make Eidolon interesting?’. And If that story is true, this is one of the biggest slam dunks in writing challenge history. Absolute knocking it out of the park. This goes beyond “my favorite take on Eidolon” to “I now want to read more Eidolon fics”.

Eidolon here is a tragic superman. He’s tormented not just by his diminishing powers, but also by his pact actions in Cauldron and his impotence in the face of larger societal structures. The Great Escape has a lot to say about the actual nature of power. Early on, Eidolon briefly tries finding escapees manually before giving up and having Doormaker send him where he needs to go. This is after he’s kicked out of his homebase in Houston. He can go anywhere he wants, but that’s not his office anymore. Later, he tries to help put down another situation, only for it to be revealed that everything he did was part of Contessa’s plan. He can fight Endbringers, but he's still human, he's still part of the system. This all has even greater thematic resonance when he goes to church and talks to a priest as himself, as David. He’s a Christian, struggling to be what God meant him to be, struggling in a world that seems beyond God. Even I was touched, and I’m an annoying atheist edgelord.

As you’ve probably gathered by the other descriptions in this post, I’m a sucker for fanfic that expands the world of the original work. Imagine my joy when on top of the previously-mentioned setpieces, we get mention of a website besides PHO. Eidolon meets a young, naive OC named Amp, who is specifically trying to use him for a photo op to boost her rep, since she read online that it was a good move. Words cannot describe how much I love this scene. Eidolon’s gradual realization of what exactly Amp is trying to do... damn it’s good. And then Amp gets one of the top-two Wormfic interludes, where we see her entire life story, and we understand her, warts and all. Beautiful.

All due respect to the very good Initiation, Covalence, and The Problem With Other Realities, but THIS is the deadfic I most hope comes back. Everything from the prose to the characterization to the worldbuilding is spot on. (The plot is maybe a LITTLE loose…) And look out for the most admirably restrained Taylor usage in any Wormfic, she appears in the background for half a chapter, and it’s perfect, no notes.

Besides a couple of short, cracky one-shots and a contribution to the fanzine; ColossalMistake also wrote The Underside Of Gotham, a very very good Batman crossover that is brilliantly plotted and arranged. Every member of the Undersiders and every member of The Bat Family gets exactly one POV chapter. It’s downright impressive how every perspective feels like the perfect viewpoint for that chapter, and every chapter fluidly builds towards the story’s ending. He also wrote Internal Calculus, a CYOA crackfic where YOU are an intern at Cauldron trying to seduce Number Man. There are a whole lot of endings and some very funny lines, and also one ‘frustrated writer’ rant that you kinda have to just raise an eyebrow at and move on.

2. Intrepid

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By Cerulean

Status: Ostensibly only on hiatus, but don’t hold your breath. 860K words.

Premise: In an AU with many major and minor changes from canon, The Locker Incident leaves Taylor with a power that makes her seem catatonic, leading Emma and Madison to trigger. Emma joins The Undersiders, Madison joins an AU New Wave, and Taylor joins Faultline’s Crew. Meanwhile, Sophia attempts to deal with how the other Wards hate her even more now by helping out a new trigger in her spare time.

Anyone lower on the list is fully justified in getting mad at me. Intrepid has a lot of problems. The prose can be clunky, some moments (especially redemption arcs and romance scenes) feel unearned or rushed, many plot elements are introduced and then underutilized, and fight scenes often end too quickly. Some of the examples of ‘an adult guy trying to write a teenage lesbian’ are, er, unfortunate. And uh. There are way more slurs than were necessary to show that Nazis are bad. That’s before we even get to how the story handles the concept of ex-Nazis, which can politely be described as “naive”.  

This is the most Marvel-y of the fics on this list, with a lot of focus on exciting battle scenes with lots of people, even when the fighting seems kinda contextless. Madison especially enjoys throwing out quips a la Spider-Man in a way that can be jarring given the surrounding violence.

But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t make myself move Intrepid down a slot. Those moments may be unearned but damn if they don’t hit. Interlude 20B is an incredible example of how to do a ‘minions rebel against their boss’ thing. Chapter 6-07 might be my favorite car chase I’ve ever read (admittedly not a lot of contestants in that contest, but still). There’s another chapter which is almost a blueprint for how to perfectly kill off a certain kind of villain. The “You like girls, Captain Oblivious.” monologue is just a fantastic bit that I needed to mention. And Intrepid also has one of the only Endbringer arcs I’ve EVER enjoyed, INCLUDING in canon.

This is also my favorite take on Sophia. She, through a somewhat elaborate set of circumstances, becomes the leader of an independent hero group during her off hours from the Wards. And while this causes her to become a less shitty person, she never loses her anger issues, she never stops being Sophia. I hesitate to call it a redemption arc, it’s more just character development. A lot of ink has been (justifiably) spilled over her canon appearance, which barely rises above racial caricature, and I’m not going to pretend that Intrepid has a radical deconstruction of her which makes it okay somehow. But yknow, if you’re stuck with it, this is maybe the best you can do.

Intrepid also has my favorite take on Labyrinth, which I will fully admit is pure bias on my part. I just really like it when neurodivergence is portrayed as endearing and not annoying, okay?

In the end, this is a fic that’s on this list not because it’s necessarily better written or better plotted, but just because of how much fun it all is. This is a fic where every cool idea the author could think of got shoved in there. Sometimes that leads somewhere, sometimes it doesn’t, but it sure always feels like it’s going to, which is skilled writing in and of itself. The Travelers show up, and just for fun, Noelle is their leader and they’re all alt-powers because they drank different vials. It’s great! New Wave shows up, but they haven’t unmasked and Fleur isn’t dead and Amy and Vicky both have alt-powers. Wonderful! That girl who Taylor mentions to Emma once in canon shows up and becomes the Butcher but the Butcher has a new name because they got subsumed by a new group. Fuck yeah! This fic is an example of how many changes you can make to canon while keeping it recognizably Worm. Why don’t we have more of that in the fandom? I mean, I can think of some examples (Slick, The Fall, even Inheritance) but so many people are content to follow the goddamn stations of the canon. 

This is also the only Wormfic I think I’ve ever read that does Armsmaster’s transformation into Defiant in a unique way. I love when fanfics are able to recreate arcs or plot moments in new contexts!

The most recent arc (written after a five year hiatus) admittedly makes me doubt that Cerulean still has what it takes to give Intrepid the conclusion it really deserves. But the fic is still too damn fun for me not to love. In short, this is Wormfic’s answer to Kingsmen: The Secret Service, another awesome fun action romp that doesn’t totally make sense plot-wise if you think about it for too long (and kinda sucks right at the end).

Cerulean started in the Animorphs fandom with the pretty decent Animorphs: Redux series. His first Wormfic, Atonement, is retrospectively a sort of dry run for Intrepid, exploring the same themes and ideas but not as good. And it has my favorite take on Legend! I do, however, need to specifically disclaim the original character of Vacate, who has some of the worst attempts at ‘realistic Urban dialogue’ I’ve ever read, it’s kinda uncomfortable. Currently Cerulean is publishing two original web serials, neither of which I can recommend in good faith. Heretical Edge is impossible to describe because the plot changes every other chapter, and Summus Proelium is just Worm but worse. Read the first chapter of each and then skip everything but the interludes, treat them like short story collections.

Bonus Round: Other Wormfics which have a particular special sauce

Absolution by Quantumsheepery, which has the best dialogue in any Wormfic, and the only good use of ‘aura theory’.

Broken Crown by thevalleyarchive, which has my favorite takes on Theo and Krieg, and also some of the most horrifically realistic depictions of Nazism I’ve seen in fiction. If it was far along enough to know that it’d stay this high quality, it’d be in the top ten list, easy.

Chain by Truebeasts, which has my favorite Dragon and Aisha.

Collagen by T0PH4T, which has my favorite Hookwolf, my favorite Endbringer arc, and an almost unforgivably clunky start before getting incredible out of nowhere.

Episodes by Sharpes_Tanith, which has enough plot to fill an entire arc used as background flavor for a one-shot of an uncomfortably honest portrait of bipolar disorder.

Glassmaker by JinglyJangles, which has this totally unique tone and vibe.

Here Comes The New Boss (Nothing Like The Old Boss) by HowlingGuardian, which has my favorite Spitfire, Velocity, piece of fanart, and Amy/Taylor pairup.

Just The Two Of Us by Discreet, which has a great plot I won’t spoil.

Mandible by Dragobeisha, which has my favorite Teeth and one of my favorite capefights.

Powers And Profits by Partizanka, which has one of the most out-of-the-box story concepts I’ve ever seen, executed flawlessly.

Slaughterhouse 9 Power Taylor by Thinker6, which has my favorite two-shot.

The Girl That Lived Through Time by 3ndless, which has a demonstration of exactly how much you can do with the Worm setting.

The Third Door by Dysole & TelegraphNine, which has my favorite Bonesaw’d!Taylor, and is a potential candidate for the awkward ‘most improved’ award.

These Bloodied Hands by beef jerky, which has some of the best prose in any Wormfic.

Unbreakable by JackSlash, which has my favorite Jack Slash.

1. Riley, Alone

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By R3N41SS4NC3

Status: Complete. 94K words.

Premise: No spoilers just read it. Even if you hate Worm go read it right now. Seriously, there’s one moment that made my jaw drop with how good and clever and creative it was, it was like getting hit by a truck. Read it!

That’s right, my pick for all-time best Wormfic is one where Taylor doesn’t show up at all and The Undersiders get mentioned like once.

This is a story that has a very special place in my heart. As you can probably gather from the other fics on this list, themes of atonement and redemption just resonate with me more than themes of recovery. I find the question “Is it possible to still be a good person after hurting people very badly?” more interesting than “Is it possible to heal after being hurt very badly?”. (Is this because I am a bad person? Possibly!) And without giving anything away, there’s a sentence roughly in the middle of the fic that monocasually destroyed part of my Catholic guilt complex.

But besides that, the story is just extremely good. The prose is top-notch, the plot progresses at a steady clip without sacrificing detail or forgetting character moments, and the standard cliches of Wormfic are either avoided or given unique twists. My favorite example for that last one is a trigger event scene. Everyone who’s read enough Wormfic has seen the phrases “DESTINATION. AGREEMENT.” just so. so so so many times when a writer’s being lazy. Or, if they’re not lazy but they’re still kinda uncreative, it’s just the visions from Worm rewritten again. Giant whales and all that. Riley, Alone has a completely original, totally unique interpretation of a trigger event vision and it makes the scene so much fresher and newer while also contributing to our understanding of the characters.

Even the chapter titles are great! Riley, Alone is divided into three sections, plus an interlude and an ending. Each section has its own unique chapter title gimmick and it just adds this tiny bit of flourish that makes the story feel that much more cohesive and planned out. I can only think of one other Wormfic (the very good, previously-mentioned Just The Two Of Us) that’s taken the time to do something more interesting than Wildbow-style arc titles.

Speaking of chapters, credit needs to be given to R3N41SS4NC3 for creating a totally new take on the concept of a Worm-style interlude. Again, I don’t wanna give it away, but if you’re like me and you still think it’s kinda annoying how Worm switched between first- and third- person, you will maybe love this.

And yes, I am avoiding detailing what plot points the story has, but that’s because I really really feel like it’s best gone into as blind and unsuspecting as possible. It starts focusing on Bonesaw before the Nine get to Brockton Bay and that’s all you need to know.

I guess if I had to say something to criticize it, the plot slowing down in the second half makes the story feel a little lopsided towards the front. I kinda wish there was just a little more Bonesaw body horror stuff shown on-screen. There’s a scene with the Siberian where it’s debatable how well it holds up to scrutiny. Chapter fifteen specifically feels like it was crying out to be absolutely nightmarish but it isn’t really. Uh. That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. I love this story so much. It’s got my second favorite take on Jack Slash and my favorite-ever take on Bonesaw. It’s got meditations on identity (gender and personal and societal). It’s got a nicely subtle Pact reference.

Okay, there is one thing that annoys me. Early on, Jack Slash is suggesting names for Bonesaw’s latest creation, and starts to say “Murder Rat” before getting cut off in the middle of “Rat”. So he’d say “Murder Ra-“, right? But it’s written in-dialogue as “Murder R” even though that’d be read out loud as “Murder Arr”. Anyway go read it already.

R3N41SS4NC3’s other fics include Charity Begins At Home, which has my favorite Madison; Desperate Times Call For Desperate Pleasures (co-written with piperfurby), which has my favorite Manpower but does veer between brilliant and bewildering; and Pyrrhic Love, which has my favorite Emma. There’s also another story that I don’t wanna mention in case people get mad at me but it’s very artfully done. And when you've read all that, read its first fic, what if catgirl!taylor got stuck in a tree?, which is near-Wattpad-level crack, and see how all great artists have to start somewhere.

[yay855]

Not to mention that your story can exist in a smaller focus and still have knock on effects or even just a little epilogue saying "and they somehow survived canon and now are living as best they can".

The problem comes when, instead of writing about minor characters or changes that wouldn't impact the canon events meaningfully, people take the main character and make them no longer the person who could save the day. This is especially bad with Wormfic because instead of using OCs or tertiary characters, it's always about Taylor.

Stories where Taylor has a power that wouldn't let her reasonably survive Leviathan, for example; instead of using her sensor Thinker power to find people in need of rescue and stay away from the fighting, she has a gimmicky Brute power that's strong enough to take on the merchants or maybe Lung if you get in a clean shot before he ramps up, but would be relegated to the front lines of an Endbringer fight and die there. Or worse, she's strong enough or weak enough to survive Leviathan but has no reasonable method to solve Gold Morning.

The way the setting works on a fundamental level is that clever use of a niche power can get you a lot farther than raw force. Taylor's bugs saved her life and made her more terrifying over and over in ways that straightforward powers wouldn't, giving her more authority and chance of surviving everything. And when she became Khepri, it was her own power and the skills she had developed through it that let her save every single Earth when the greatest warriors and tacticians and monsters couldn't.

But so much of the fandom doesn't get that. And instead of altering Taylor's circumstances but keeping her powers and uses the same, or giving her a power that's roughly equivalent but would change the path she took, they give her a power from some other franchise they're fond of and play it completely straight. Like making Taylor the protagonist of Ghost in the Shell, or the Dovahkiin, or the Gamer, or a tinker whose creations are all intelligent beings that she sees as family to protect.

The best idea I've had for my own kind of Wormfic that actually plays into the same themes and would work with unavoidable canon events is having Taylor's power turn inwards instead, allowing her to create essentially shadow clones ala Naruto except the clones' consciousnesses are permanent and there is no real original, so instead of bugs, she has an army of Taylors who can effectively teleport between one another and all immediately know what the rest do, gaining another copy or finding another trick every time she can't run away from or defeat something.

And that's just the first trigger, since unlike bugs, people can open doors and operate telephones. The second comes when sheer masses of teenage girls armed with knives and pistols aren't enough to find safety.

It carries the same basic concept of Taylor treating people like tools and having a crapton of intimidation factor and utility, but now she sees herself as the tool and slowly stops being able to trust anyone but herself and her clones. Especially since having a more visible power means she gets recruited by the Protectorate almost immediately and realizes that many of them ren't great people but have the veneer of authority to make people not question them. And also that they're hiding active murderers like Shadow Stalker, and the argument that "you didn't know" that your own ward nearly killed an innocent civilian via septic shock after an extended campaign of harassment and violence against her to the point of a trigger event doesn't make you look better. Especially since she told you the civilian name of the Ward who nearly killed her when you recruited her.

Piggot cares more about holding onto her existing power and fears than actually making a difference, and most of the heroes don't have the knowledge or sway to do things themselves. Armsmaster arguably might, but he cares more about his own glory and success than ethical behavior until after Leviathan. The Undersiders also don't encounter Lung until months after the locker incident, and this time around Taylor is both much more experienced and trained and is desperate to find people who will actually defend her and her interests - and if the government is corrupt and the gangs are all even worse, a small time group of thieves who owe you their lives seemingly isn't a bad place to find refuge.

Seemingly.

Why does every Wormfic have to be about saving the world... can't you just save like, a moderately sized city? Or not save it at all?