Title: Skitter Studies
Author: The Laurent
Rating: T. Probably. It's on SV, so it isn't rated.
Genre: Action
Status: WiP
Fandom: Worm / Dresden Files
Pairings: N/A
Summary: None provided for Book One. Book Two in the spoiler:

Spoiler

Taylor Hebert, Wizard-in-Training, is the girl who has everything. A loving father, a car as soon as she turns sixteen, an internship with a P.I, a handsome new love interest, a magical talking book, a best friend whose safety is under threat, an implaceable dragon-powered enemy, a looming deadline (emphasis on the dead), a series of baffling heists that she must solve or else, and dozens of people she doesn't even know trying to kill her.

Link: SV

A pretty massive crossover, Skitter Studies follows Taylor Hebert, Wizard-in-training, as she tries to solve the mystery behind the murder of an executive in a local business. Along the way, she'll discover all sorts of interesting things about the local practising population.

So, first off, this is a fusion in the like of The Last Avatar. Taylor basically takes the place of Harry Dresden (she has a spirit of knowledge, Bobbie, and the remnants of her mother's workroom). The Wards are local kids with minor talents (as are the Undersiders), Colin Wallis is the local Warden (and has a girlfriend in Canada. She's probably real), and the Dallon/Pelhams are long term strong wizards local to the area.

Scions not around, so no Endbringers. Brockton Bay is still going strong, Emma met Sophia, but didn't go batshit, and there's not anything said (so far) about Cauldron. That said, it's also quite likely that Dresden isn't around (Ragged Angel are based out of BB, so he'd be pretty different).

It's a nice blending - there's enough familiar characters that it isn't an OC fest, but it's not just another SI in Chicago Dresden story. The mystery being solved is interesting, and not just a rip-off of canon either. The characterization works quite nicely too - we've seen Hana (MM), Robin (Velocity), and the Detectives Ryder (Assault and Battery) as cops, with Piggot in charge of the Special Investigations Division. They seem to mostly act in-line with the better fanon, so it's not too bad.

There's some trouble with spelling/grammar. Nothing major, but a few times I needed to re-read to understand.

The ending of book one got a bit choppy, but it's still one of the better DF fics I've read.

4/5 from me.

 

So...it's a Worm crossover without any actual Worm in it?

 

Yes.

Sort of.

The characters from Worm are there, and are similar to canon, especially when you take into account the amount of AUness going on.

Lung's still around. He's the main champion of a dragon, and is good at setting everything on fire and mashing ethnicities together because "we're all Asian". Coil's still around, and a massive dickbag, and nobody is sure whether he has powers or not. Brian's large, hot, and good at hitting people.

Tonally, it's completely different from Worm. But the characters are recognisable.

But yes. There's no giant space-whales bearing gifts of neuroses and UNLIMITED POWER

 

It's always space whales when someone is looking to bash the source material. Classic.

 

Eh, they were introduced in the bad part of the story. Like there's a pretty clear cut where Worm starts to go downhill.

That said, I just started this but I don't see the "but there's no Worm" issue? It's different sure, but Maury is fine calling it the father.

 

The last few arcs are the best ones tho.

 

Get back to writing, it's obviously all your plebeian self is good for

 

It's more that if you remove a character from their background story, the major events that shaped their life, the major influences from their formative years, their abilities and talents, and the world they lived in, but still call them by the same name, that does not at all make them even remotely the same person. Same as how if Harry Dresden grew up in a loving family, in a world with no magic, and never became a detective, he's not really Harry Dresden, whatever you might call him.

 

One of the better Worm fics out there imo.

The world-building is handled well and it blends the elements of Worm with the overall tone of Dresden in a very thorough manner. While it's true that all the characters are basically OCs (in a sense that they have different backgrounds etc.) they have enough similarities to their originals that it didn't really bother me.

For example, instead of being bullied and seeking escapism from her everyday life, in here Taylor constantly compares herself to her mother who was apparently a great Wizard. This leads to her having some self esteem issues and results in trying to "live up" to the example, which means escalation and also presents the mystery of how her mother died well in advance.

It's a very efficient style of writing which combines setting up future plot and building characters and the story is full of it.

Overall I gave it 5/5.

The only gripe I had is that everyone has a magical talent which corresponds to their Worm power except for Taylor, which felt a bit like forcing her to be the underdog.

 

This is really disappointing considering the name of the fic has Skitter in it. Maybe it's just me but when I see a fic with Skitter in the title I'd like to see Taylor with at least some kind of echo of her canon power (all too rare an event in the fanfic world.)