Title: Mauling Snarks
Author: CmptrWz
Rating: T (it's on SV)
Genre: Action/Fluff
Status: Complete
Library Category: Other Fandoms - Worm
Pairings: N/A (nothing explicit)
Summary: A Worm AU where the Entities do things a little differently and Taylor's got an uncle that results in a different power set for her trigger event.
Link: Sufficient Velocity

Spoiler alert: sums up the plot

Spoiler

Jack Slash is Taylor's uncle. She triggers with a bud off of him, and gets the power to project blunt force, and to talk with 'snarks' (powers).

But as it turns out, Jack Slash actually leads a therapy group for parahumans who have uncontrollable urges to cause mayhem. This is known about at Security Level 9 (or SL9) within the PRT, and is approved of by the President; who is in the know about Costa-Brown being Alexandria, and a bunch of other things.

Also, paperwork is important, and wards get taught on how they should ask questions by being given minimal training without specifically requesting it. This is played for 'laughs'. Filling in paperwork properly basically makes you the god of the PRT.

The story is quite whimsical (early on in it's 1.5 million words), and progresses without too much plot. Characters drift in and out without too much worry, whilst Taylor (or Maul, in her cape ID) fixes pretty much every problem everyone encounters, makes snarky comments, and beats the crap out of anyone who tries to fight her. Due to her connections, knowledge, and skills; there's not really any problems that she can't face, or any problems her friends might have that she can't mitigate.

Taylor becomes besties with Panacea, and basically the two of them have holidays, and solve globe-ending catastrophes.

Very much in the thematic feel of Rorshach's "Mr Black", Taylor gets given gifts and presents that help with future problems; or problems resolve themselves based on her previous actions. Everyone's pretty helpful, and, for the most part, bad things don't happen.

If you're after a feel-good piece, then this is alright.

However, it doesn't really ever get very tense - Maul is fighting Leviathan / Lung / the School Board; but the stakes just feel low based on the rest of the writing. At no point does it really feel like Taylor's in any real position to suffer a true loss. Instead, she can just open up a package from the online shop, delivered this morning, and it contains the Shark Repellent Bat-Spray she needed to make everything hunky-dory again.

Taylor also goes on numerous diversions that don't really have much impact - learning how to drive a go-kart better than everyone else, beating the world's top score in pin-ball, setting a new top-score on the PRT test, setting another new record for number of arrests on a Tuesday following a full moon... It reads like a Mary-Sue, and not a well-hidden one.

The other major problem I found with this was the speech.

Whenever anyone enters a room, they say hello to everyone else. Who all say hello back to them. If two people come in, then everyone says hello to both of them.

It's really fucking jarring.

There's other parts that sound like robots pretending to human, but that's the worst offender; and sufficiently weird enough that I read things back over several times to try and figure out what was wrong.

The last instance is the insistence on pranks, and how they're funny. Multiple characters play practical jokes on each other, but I just don't understand how they're supposed to be funny in text, to be honest. Maybe I'm missing something.


All that said, it's not terrible. If you can accept that nothing bad is going to happen (to the characters that the author/MC likes), and that lots of things that are supposed to be secrets actually aren't, and that the main character is a major Mary-Sue; then it's worth a try. Also, minor body-horror with the Slaughterhouse 9, and some that everyone in universe doesn't seem weirded out by.

For a low-effort reading at work piece, I did actually quite enjoy this. It's long enough that you can put it down for a while and pick it back up several days later, and it not matter too much if you've forgotten much of the plot.

3/5

 

I've tried this a few times and couldn't get through the first few chapters. I won't rate it because of that, but it's just bad crack.

 

I've had the exact same experience. Same as with Taylor Varga or whatever it's called. I know these stories have a big following but I just can't stop having any interest once the cringe starts.