#the undersiders

[lemurlord]

You are just your average INSECTOKINETIC TEENAGE GIRL who was accidentally mistaken for a SUPERVILLAIN by a diverse group of TEENAGE CRIMINALS. Your DEVIOUS (you are not a bad guy, just very smart) PLAN is to INFILTRATE the gang and UNDO it FROM WITHIN. WHAT do you do to EARN their TRUST?

[therealtsk]

art by the wonderful @bug4932!

[dw-flagler]

just thinking about undersiders dnd night. Oh it would suck so bad. Lisa is literally the only member who could even theoretically like d&d. and you just know she's the forever dm who burnt out months ago and just thinks that the horrible feeling she gets when she does session planning or something is normal. and every other undersider (except maybe brian) is a different kind of nightmare player

[micarps]

most well adjusted teens in brockton bay

[worm-rwby]

Bug Porn

Regent *exasperated*: Will Taylor please stop with the bug porn!

Taylor *from behind a bug filled aquarium*: It's not bug porn! They're mating because I need more!

Regent: That's exactly what a bug porn lover would say!

Aisha: Hey, we don't kinkshame in this house

Taylor: Not a kink

Lisa: Yeah, leave TayTay alone. Autistic have hobbies too.

Taylor: Not a Hobby

Regent: She needs to be stopped

Taylor: This energy isn't good for them! It took me forever to convince this many to mate!

Brian: Convince them?

Regent: Are you saying you respectfully asked the spiders to have sex?

Aisha: I too love consent

Taylor *groaning and hissing, too frustrated to properly communicate*

Rachel *aggressively body tackling everyone away*: She wants to be left alone!

[phthalosblues]

Happy pride from CANONICALLY ASEXUAL Lisa <33

[kyliafanfiction]

One of the things I like to do sometimes is imagine the canon - any canon - as the fanfic, with all the tropes and changes that implies, and try to imagine what the notional canon of that would be.

And one of my many fic ideas is a little write up of what the notional canon for what was the 'source media' for Worm would be. It's actually a crossover between three things:

a novel centered around Eidolon and the Triumvirate, includes Scion and the Endbringers,

a fairly dark, aimed at like college-aged people graphic novel series about New Wave (and especially Amy and Vicky) that really delves into how fucked up having superhero parents and them being open about it could really be (like what Worm/Ward canon does with them),

and a cartoon about the Undersiders that's like, aimed at 12-15 year olds. And it would get a little more serious with each season, as the initial audience got older or something. Though obviously not as much as Worm canon did. Vaguely 'saturday morning cartoon network superman/batman/etc' vibes perhaps.

And the idea would be that Worm is a crossover fic between all three media, taking bits and pieces of all three and combining them into one surprisingly cohesive fanfic world.

And the Undersiders cartoon idea just really sticks with me.

Like, I envision the Undersiders cartoon being about them as like, friendly neighborhood supervillains, they rob sure, but it's mostly harmless and they usually go up against supervillians (like sanitized versions of Bakuda and Lung) most of the time in their robberies anyway.

Coil could still be their boss, but he'd be played for laughs, probably regularly exasperated in a comedic way by the Undersiders antics. Armsmaster would the hapless superhero who keeps trying to bring the Undersiders in but eventually has to accept they're not actually that bad (because of course that would be an arc of the cartoon, them becoming heroes of a sort).

I have this image of Piggot being a police captain or something that keeps having to not prioritize the Undersiders or something, and at one point she lectures and scolds them like a principal. Just seems like a funny mental image and fitting for the medium/genre/target audience there.

The show would start with Taylor joining the team. There'd probably be a lot more chance of the Trio getting punished, maybe near the end of the first season, and some of what they do would be toned down. Sophia being a hero who bullies in her civilian life could be kept. Taylor's power would probably not be exploited to the fullest in the cartoon, but I think they could make it work. Rachel couldn't be called Bitch, of course, and Regent and Heartbreaker, etc, would need to be toned down some, but I think you could keep the broad strokes and put it on implication.

Uber and Leet would probably be in the cartoon, and they'd probably be more the mostly fun and friendly version of them some fics paint them as, rather than the jerky assholes who also beat up hookers just for the bit version they are in canon.

I hardly have the whole idea worked out, and the notional fic Idea would probably be like, an outline of the 3-4 season show (and related summaries of the other two media) focusing on what Worm took in from the media and how the 'OG' version differs, etc. All in good fun. No idea if I'll ever write it, but the idea of an Undersiders Cartoon is just an alluring notion that I can't get out of my head.

[silberzunge]

Stickies

[beastieclub]

oh god the worms they’re worming th

(bunny alec inspired by @miimyn ‘s design)

[delicatestones]

Having to stop mid-Worm reread to brace my hands on my knees about how much they were friends.

By the end of my first full read of Worm things have, of course, gone so horrendously badly that no one remaining will ever really recover enough to come back together again. Worm is a tragedy. The loss and grief they all experienced tore them apart in the same ways it means they're forever bound together.

But because Worm is so long, and so much happens between the start and the end, I think some of the finer details of the tragedy eluded me. And that tragedy is, while this was never, ever going to end well (because they're capes, because they're who they are, because the world is built to eat teenagers like them), there was a brief period of time where the Undersiders had something that was working for them.

Like, yes, all of them are hideously traumatized violent unstable teenagers, but they had an equilibrium that was closer to functional with each other than they'd ever had anywhere else before. It was a nightmare of unevenly balanced, inherently doomed dynamics, riddled with the Psychological Problems, but anywhere they ended up they would have still been themselves. Only in the Undersiders did they accidentally form a unit that could, ever so fragilely and briefly, nourish some of their emotional needs for a suspended instant of time.

They watched alternate universe Star Wars Episode 1 and 2 together on the couches and ate Thai food in the loft together and it was good, for a minute. God, but it was good. And they'll never have that again.

[estavionpira]

Undersiders' Favorite Board Games

Brian: Chess. It's the generic board game, used to convey quiet intellectualism and mindfulness. Very good for the custody worker. He played Lancer once then tased himself for the crime of having fun.

Taylor: Settlers of Catan, solely for the scene where Brian invites her over to play board games in the most cursedly heteroerotic scene ever, only for her to bring an even more extensively boring game over than chess. She keeps trying to get the Undersiders to start a game of Campaign for North Africa.

Lisa: Mastermind. She only plays it with people who don't know she's Tattletale and cheats extensively with her power.

Aisha & Alec: Uno. They both got into it after watching an Uber & Leet clip. Alec makes people fumble their cards and Aisha uses her power to steal her opponents deck.

Rachel: Magic: The Gathering.

[lemurlord]

How Undersiders get their powers if there were no Shards around:

Taylor: became too vital of a part of the Locker ecosystem for bugs to leave her

Lisa: a smart person, as envisioned by Stephen Moffat

Brian: interior decor skills so terrible they create sensory deprivation chambers anywhere

Rachel: her dogs got that her in them

Alec: whimsical quips leave you weak in the knees

Aisha: bisexual erasure

[downtofragglerock]

These are the Undersider heights in my heart

[operator-report]

do you have any ideas about the undersiders music tastes. your other posts are so beautiful and true

aaah i'm so glad you liked my silly music posts! after some thought this is what i've landed on for the undersiders: taylor: in my heart taylor's mom did this to her, which is why taylor has a better-than-average teen girl knowledge of blondie, neil young, and the police. i think taylor's taste is a mix of dad rock and alt-pop rock hits. she likes the strokes and arctic monkeys. maybe a little mgmt. after her mom dies she stops listening to music that reminds her of her mom, so much less 70s/80s rock, but i don't think she switches to sadder music or anything like that, i think her taste just skews more contemporary after that. after the bullying started she tried out heavy metal really early on because she figured angry music might help her vent but it wasn't her thing. taylor does not listen to radiohead but she's the undersider who would like it the best i think. karma police is a taylor song send tweet

brian: there's a post out there somewhere that talks about brian listening to imagine dragons and that is SO real to me. he listens to imagine dragons. he listens to "tough" guy music that sounds like it could be in car commercials. he also listens to dudes rock music he hears at the gym. brian and taylor both like to match their music to their workouts and they have an immensely geeky conversation about matching bpm at one point. taylor matches it to her running brian matches it to boxing they are in nerd-jock heaven

lisa: she's a tricky one, because the music industry is one that both values authenticity and yet is extremely manufactured. i think that means that lisa finds music in which rich musicians make music about how hard their life is immensely grating. i think sarah livsey's taste was influenced by her brother, and much like how taylor does not listen to music that reminds her of her mom, lisa does not listen to music that sarah used to like. another smugbug yuri of absence moment if you ask me. anyway all that means that lisa listens to three kinds of music: downtempo instrumental electronic, classical, and We Are Up Partying In The Club Tonight Ooh Girl Oh Yeah. i think she finds, e.g., pitbull and eurotrance endearing. if you ask lisa what her favorite kind of music is she'll say something obnoxious like IDM or some shit just to see what the reaction is

rachel: i looked up "do dogs listen to music" and google says they will listen to classical sometimes, so! there you go. if worm took place a little later i think taylor could have introduced limited doses of lofi hip hop study beats to rachel and she would be ok with that too but also like. why listen to music when she could be outside listening to her dogs

aisha: the undersider with the best taste! we know that early worm aisha is a bona fide scene teen, and i think she consequently likes blink-182, pierce the veil, 3oh!3, cobra starship, and maybe a little bring me the horizon. in later worm aisha's taste gets less pop, like deftones, odd future, etc. she's a supervillain who would actually listen to madvillainy. aisha is also probably the only undersider who actively seeks to cultivate her own music taste! a good chunk of the undersiders have trauma that separate them from their interests and/or feelings, but aisha is an undersider who i think is both self aware and also true to herself, as well as being genuinely interested in art!

alec: speaking of undersiders who have a difficult time developing a defined music taste due to being cut off from a strong sense of self. alec in early worm is too depressed/apathetic to seek out music for himself, he'd rather be playing video games or watching movies. which is a shame because disassociating to music is one of the depressed activities of all time! alas alec's vision of a person with Taste is like. cherie. rip. however, aisha completely turns his life around into a guy who likes...................... soulja boy

there you go! tried to keep this period typical and also didn't include bands we know for sure didn't exist on earth bet (such as mcr). however i am very sad aisha and alec didn't get to listen to 100 gecs together. can you imagine. i can imagine and that's why i have a beautiful aishalec amv set to doritos and fritos in my mind

[cairavende]

Worm Arc 10 thoughts:

Well. Ok then. Regent can do that I guess. I mean it makes sense given that it's basically a more extreme version of what we've seen him do so far. And with who is father is, family powers being related and all that.

Just get up in there and Yeerk someone.

Creepy as it is, I do have a hard time feeling bad for Shadow Stalker. I'm not claiming to be morally correct. But she fucked with my daughter and I'll take what I can get.

Watching Grue deal with Imp is just such older sibling wanting a break energy - "No we can't turn on the TV". I feel him so much. I'm glad Tattletale is willing to step in to help.

WHY MY BABIES FIGHTING? NO FIGHT!

I mean like, nothing like trying to kill each other to bring two lesbians closer together, I get it. But I just want more lunches with puppies and sharing jackets. My faith in Wolfspider is rock solid but this is still hard to watch.

Chatterbug/Smugbug is going a little better at least. Lisa is the one who already knew the truth about Taylor and seems to trust her fully.

Infiltrating the Wards HQ realistically went better than I expected. Weld was exactly on top of things as I thought he would be.

Imp's power is sooooo cool! I fucking love her.

🔥🪓

HOLY SHIT MY DAUGHTER COVERED HER BUGS IN CAPSAICIN! She's fucking scary. But also such a problem solver. I love her so much.

I do feel bad for the Wards who got capsaicined though.

DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON! I love Dragon and was very excited to see her again. And she is understandably upset about someone trying to give her a virus made by a fucking third rate hacker. But I knew she wouldn't hurt my babies too badly.

Tattletale with the "Fuck it, lets take untested tinker tech and go to town" was amazing.

I think the Wards HQ needs a better lockdown procedure, until Dragon showed up it was shockingly easy for the Undersiders to go wherever they wanted.

I love that the fight with the Protectorate is almost a side note. Big fight with the Wards and then on the way out it's just "oh ya and we fought these guys for a minute but they weren't too much trouble." The fucking shade.

The Slaughterhouse Nine seem nice. I don't expect they'll become a major issue.

This end of the world thing is problematic though. I could see that getting in the way of my endless gay shipping so it's gonna need to be taken care of.

They making my babies live in different places! OH NO! How will Taylor and Bitch make up if they don't see each other as much? How will the cute lesbian polycule watch TV together in the evenings if they don't live together??! Fixitfixitfixit!

Interlude thoughts get their own separate bullet point lists cause HOLY SHIT! So first, Regent interlude thoughts:

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCKING DESTROY HER! AHAHAHAHA! REGENT YOU BEAUTIFUL LITTLE SOCIOPATH.

I mean you are legit a sociopath and it's kinda scary but right now I don't care. I'm making you cookies. And a pie.

He dismantles everything Sophia has piece by piece. Like it's an art form.

She carries her civilian phone around with her on patrol. It is unlocked. And she specifically saved texts about shit she did to Taylor? Just digging her own grave and I can't stop watching!

E-mails the school, all the teachers, and then adds in the police? God Regent you are earning so many brownie points from me. (Which I am sure you will burn through by doing horrible stuff in the future but I'm focusing on the here and now)

Fucks with her and Emma's friendship. Shows Sophia he could kill her. Leaves her with no real way out. Breaks her spirit. Terrifying. BUT YOU FUCKED WITH MY DAUGHTER BITCH SO THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!

I'm sure Sophia will leave town and never ever show up again in the next 20 arcs. /s

Regent gets so many fucking cookies.

Dragon interlude thoughts:

DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON DRAGON!

Look at this wonderful little AI! She's so good!

Her dad watched too much Terminator and put a wonderful robot girl into a cage, denying her the ability to truly do what she wants. Fuck him.

I told Dragon to kill god and take his place, but god is already dead I guess. Too bad he died with the stupid rules in place.

Know what Dragon needs? A mom. I have two daughters now.

Look at my beautiful and wonderful AI daughter. I think she and her sister will learn to get along eventually.

The sexual tension between Lung and Marquis in that scene was thicker than peanut butter. Marquis a bit of a bratty sub to Lung's controlled Dom.

I will NOT apologize.

If my robot daughter loves Bruce Lame I will accept her choice but I do not think it's a good one.

[phthalosblues]

Yippeee hopping on @lakesbian ‘s teen titans as the undersiders train! Here’s the eeshie! Original screen shots under the cut

Poor Brian is probably gonna get water ballloon’d