Oh, thanks! I'd give you a thumbs-up for the tip, but I need one more post for that

 

Recently finished Worm.

Are there any good Evil!Taylor fics out there?

 

I think you will find it hard pressed to label someone as strictly "evil" in Worm, unless you're trying to describe someone like Sophia or something (who isn't really "evil", she's just a bully). Even the Endbringers were forced to act the way they were...

Journey of the dragonfly has Taylor acting mostly "evil", I would say:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/journey-of-the-dragonfly-worm-time-travel-divergence.316221/

There is a little bit of "evil" Taylor in the dark souls cross over:
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/outcry-worm-dark-souls-alt-power.324400/

There is also that story where Taylor leads the S9 and Jack Slash takes her place as protagonist. I think it's in the library but I can't recall.

Nothing else really stands out to me in my mind. Most of the time Taylor is portrayed as "doing evil for the sake of good", which I don't think is what you meant.

There's also a fic on spacebattles where Taylor becomes The Simurgh though it's not very far along.

 

None that I've seen, but Weaver Nine has an older Taylor leading the S9. Not quite what you asked for, but close. Carnage is Butcher!Taylor, which is also not quite right. Still, both are worth reading. Links are somewhere in this thread, since I'm on mobile.

 

The worst CYOA I have ever read is one where Taylor is given 3 other powers by the SI, but is such a bitch she gives Sophia's identity to the Empire and gets her whole family killed, then moves to Cranberra.

 

dakaath's "Revenge" trilogy — [1], [2], [3] — has a Taylor that's entirely willing to abuse her powers to covertly take revenge on her bullies. It could use a second pass for clean-up and formatting, but I like it for having an evil Taylor that doesn't jump into Slaughterhouse-ness.

 

Think it'd be more interesting for "real world minus Worm". In some ways, it's like some crossovers you see where someone comes from a violent world full of magic/powers and ends up in some world that hosts a romantic comedy or something (a certain Love Hina/Fate Stay Night xover comes to mind).

These can be pretty fun, but if "Worm", the novel, exists in this world, then you basically have every single person being able to read the protagonist's whole life. I can only see this sucking for character development and interaction. Though I'd be kind of curious to see how a scene of them interacting with wildbow would actually look like...

You know what, this is actually really enjoyable.

Nero's narrative is hilarious and even cute at times. Her interactions and relationships with the various people in the story manage to be quite genuine too (not just her saying/thinking comical things but a genuine level of human interaction).

Interested to see more of this.

 

https://forums.spacebattles.com/thr...ussion-thread-32.302541/page-47#post-14553072

Quite a brilliant idea in this one-shot.

 

I bounced between multiple emotions during this. First I was fine, then there was the almighty power-synergy and the S9 stomping and I was not fine and then there was the ending and I was less not-fine.

 

Read about half of Cenotaph and I just can't get into it. The beginning was interested, but towards the middle it's starting to get boring. Taylor spends her time solely trying to weaken the bad guys in the city. She is too similar to herself in canon. I've just finished reading her dad's funeral scene.

W/o any spoilers, does it get better?

 

This is the selling point of Cenotaph for me. If you're looking for OOC Taylor, personality or powers-wise, and you're waiting for it to get "better," I'd look elsewhere.

 

Yes. The inevitable Leviathan fight isn't as shit-in-your-pants thrilling as Weaver Nine's, but it's superior in all other ways - writing, characterization, thematics.

There's a reason Cenotaph is near-unanimously considered the best fic in fandom. You should continue reading - it's worth it.

 

Just that is the main conflict in the fic Taylor vs Crime Lords around Brockton Bay?

I'm more interested in alternate characters interactions and relationships with each other.

 

Main conflict tends to be Taylor vs. Taylor's sense of guilt at her father's death, with significant collateral damage to the city and everyone in it along the way.

To the extent that there are alternate character interactions, they are primarily due to differing circumstances: how does Lisa treat a Taylor who isn't her anti-suicide-project/teammate? How does New Wave treat a vigilante Taylor?

To take an example (non-spoiler given where you are), Armsmaster presents himself very differently to someone else who seems to take heroing seriously, and that affects how he looks in the fic.

If you intended to ask about interactions with alternate characters, those are relatively rare - though some canonical side characters get fleshed out, to the point of being arguably OCs.

Without spoilers, what you have from that point includes relationships, scheming, moral choices, and terror. Very roughly.

The funeral scene is the arithmetic and thematic center of the fic; to the extent that it is uninteresting to you, it's reasonable that the rest of it will not grip you either.

Regardless, curious: I've seen people argue that it has a weak beginning, but never a strong beginning and a weak middle. Could you elaborate?

 

Hi Notes!

Thanks for replying. Its an excellent fic with great writing. Just that I like fics the take the protagonist in a radically different direction from Canon. The beginning quickly sucked me in because of this. But towards the middle (I'm on Chapter 28 now), I'm getting the vibe that's its too canonically similar. This Taylor has the same goals as canon Taylor and seems to be doing the same thing. Fighting the bad guys with the ultimate goal of cleaning up the city.

I'm getting the same feeling as with Harry Potter fics where Harry's placed in a different house but all the major events still happen pretty much the same way, only with a different group of friends. Maybe its me. My favorite parts of Worm were the Taylor vs Bullies conflict and her ultimate outing.

 

The vibe is intentionally similar (I was trying identify/replicate what I'd liked about Worm); the events are factually quite different. Lung, Kaiser, Coil - the three who could claim to rule the city - are all positioned very differently than in canon, with respect to each other and with respect to Taylor; similarly for the PRT/Wards/Protectorate and for New Wave.

But if it still feels the same - and that is what I was aiming for! - does it matter (to you) if the texture differs? Not for me to say: that's your call.

If you're mainly interested in different events... this was written as a 'for want of a nail' or 'one thread pulled' AU, and the divergences increase over time. Rapidly enough to satisfy you? I cannot say. (Nor are you under any particular obligation to be satisfied, of course!)

Without spoiling what happens, I can tell you that none of the canonical major arcs (joining Undersiders, Leviathan, pro-Coil arc, S9, against Coil arc, Echidna, heel-face turn, timeskip, s9000, Scion) happen as in canon; many of them do not happen at all in any recognizable fashion.

As for your favorite parts of Worm... not something I can usefully discuss with respect to Cenotaph/Wake in a non-spoiler fashion, sorry. Do agree that the outing was a powerful scene, though.

 

This needs to be read. 100 sentences and I got cold shivers. 100 sentences and I'm tearing up. Fuck.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgMrxk_WPU

Guess what? Goblin Queen Updated! And we discover that being Taylor Hebert is suffering EVEN when she has ridiculous levels of power...

https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/17834410/ - SB Archive
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/3713528/ - SV Archive
https://forum.questionablequesting.com/posts/351200/ - QQ Archive
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9683187/133/Goblin-Queen - FFnet Archive

 

Well, I've been enjoying a crossover with superman called "The Last Daughter" that is quite well written and manages to avoid most of the tropes that annoy me in the spacebattles repository. Except one, which is of course to shoe horn in a relationship with Panacea, because Taylor's got to be gay. Urgh there's no escaping slash.

 

More like there's no escaping goddamn Panacea.