Reads more like /tg/ than /b/. Everyone knows that all fiction can be improved by the presence of SPESS MUHRINES!!!

 

Bug on a Wire updated, is still awesome.

 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonfly updated as well. I like this author.

 

Read some of the other fics recced here.

Scarab: No appreciation for the crossover aspect, Taylor's powers are pretty cool. I like that she interacts with Clockblocker.

Memoirs of a Human Flashlight: Liked this one more, hearkened back to the superpowered!Harry stories that I used to read when I first started reading fanfiction.

Goblin Queen (not mentioned): Disliked, do not recommend, disappointing to me because it was fairly long.

Imago of Rust and Crimson: Not a big fan, it was alright, though. The imagery was a little much for me, and I also don't really like the crossover being a secret. I'll keep reading for the moment, at least.

After reading these stories, I've realized that I ship Taylor/Clockblocker. I don't really ever ship things, but for some reason, I just want ALL the Taylor/Clockblocker interactions. Perhaps just because I want to see more of him in fanfiction. Any stories I might not have read that have him in it?

 

I actually thought Wildbow was going to go that direction after Grue got moody/boring. I was pretty surprised/upset when he got added to Glaistig Uaine's powers.

On another note, can anyone explain to me Gray Boy's power? I get that it's some kind of time loop thing, but other than that I'm not sure I understand it or why it's so overpowered?

 

First he chooses an area to effect, and then he loops the time in that area. Nothing can interact with the areas he loops (other than him), and whatever is inside the looped area cannot interact with anything else not looped. I.e. if he looped an entire room, you couldn't open the door and just walk out, because you can't pass the boundary of the loop.

What he does to torture people is stick them in a really short loop, like <5 seconds and then burns/stabs/hurts them at the start of the loop, so you feel like you've been injured, then you react to the pain, and then the loop suddenly starts all over again, forever. So you're in a constant state of agony forever, your mind breaks from the pain.

Thats it, basically. He lies in his explanation (one time he says he can remove someone from a loop, another time he says that once a loop is created, not even he can end it) so its hard to know whats true and what is not, but that is the gist of it.

 

Can you interact with him inside the loop? Or is he only vulnerable when his power isn't active?

 

Spoilers ahead:


Grey Boy is always vulnerable, it's just he gets time-looped to perfect health every couple of seconds by default. So you shoot him, and he dies, and then he flickers back to health automatically. That's why he always has his uniform-- presumably he was wearing it when he triggered or took the formula [don't remember if he was a Cauldron cape or not.]

He's died twice-- once collected by Glaistig, presumably through her power stealing mechanism or through one of her other esoteric collected cape powers, and then killed by Foil, whose power explicitly penetrates ANY defense and cuts the connections between shards and their hosts.

His loops have withstood Siberian as well, as when Jack is caught in a loop, Siberian reaches for him, but can't penetrate the barrier. SO my guess is his power is as unbreakable as Clockblocker's.

 

A brief description: It is a crossover with exalted. Now, I know close to nothing about exalted but this is what I understood. When Taylor triggered in the locker and the shard started looking for something it could work with, Taylor got in contact with a dying godlike entity that latched into her to survive. Besides the control of insects provided by the shard, she has access to powers associated with it. She can call goblins to help her (not that she does anything with them but chores) and she has the power to give life to stories and control the plot of her story (reality warping). While the ability is indeed completely broken, the story has the format of a comedy. Her personality was warped, it is unclear if she was possessed by the entity, if she fused with it or if she changed by its influence alone. Since it was something akin to a living story you have that it looks at the world as if it were a story and has Taylor writing cape fanfiction in parahumans online that consists on a Mary Sue self insert in various situations with an absurd plot that vaguely resembles what happens to her in real life. She uses her name for her character and the cape name in the fic is the same one she uses in real life. She completely disregards people telling her how terrible she is at writing by saying that she writes for herself and that everyone is a critic. She is the stereotype for a bad fanfic writer with reality warping powers and her personality is closer to Nilbog than Taylor but thinking she is a genius writer instead of a king. Most of the humor comes from the smart characters banging their heads wondering how did someone that stupid end with that kind of power and misunderstanding caused by her reading too much yuri fanfiction (even though she doesn't swing that way!)

 

I'm not sure if that's the most brilliant or most ridiculous thing I ever heard of.

 

She Who Skitters in Shadows (Exalted/Worm) by gibbousmoons
It was one of the very early fics right when things exploded and isn't being updated right now, but Clockblocker is pretty prominent in the fic. Has Exalted stuff.

 

What's with all the Exalted crossovers?

 

Someone mentioned that Exalted is really popular over at spacebattles, I think.

 

Either Fiend or SwSiS was the first one on Spacebattles, which simultaneously got everyone there into Worm and stuck the idea of the Exalted cross into their minds. It's branching out more now but all of that is sort of an artifact of the initial explosion, like the microwave background is of the big bang.

 

Also, the fandom is younger than HP or Dresden Files (not the readers' ages, but the time the fandom has been around). Remember the glut of Super!Harry stories?

Exalted gives a very quick way to make Taylor super beyond basically everyone else. Because exalts have such a wide range of powers, and such high level powers. Whereas you can't quite justify all those powers coming from one shard/aspect unless you give up on explanations, and just have Taylor receive the "I win automatically" shard.

 

The irony being, of course, that for Taylor, every shard will be the "I win" shard.

 

Long story short: Exalted is a setting where in enormously powerful super-weapons called 'Shards' attach themselves to humans in extraordinary situations, giving them the power to change the world. The sources of these shards are tremendously powerful superbeings, one of which is a shining golden man.

 

Her shard connected to a Raksha, which can be described as a Cthulu larper elf. Cthulhu because the Raksha are native to the chaos that exists outside of Creation, larper because the Raksha become living narratives to enter Creation, and elf because the Raksha are the Exalted setting's equivalent to faeries.

I'm hoping that either the character is the Raksha pretending to be Taylor or the Raksha is fattening her up prior to the soul-munching.