It's about a dark and edgy world that's full of superpowered folks, and which is, therefore, about three steps away from dystopian collapse. Many places are already there.
The story is about a teenage bullying victim who gains powers, and uses them to become a very dangerous supervillain, despite her best efforts.
And anyone familiar with the RWBY fandom may have just gone "wait, this sounds familiar. Are there a lot of fics where a main character gets an alternate power set?"
Yes, yes there are.
In this fanfic I'm about to complain about, Taylor gets an already existing power that's already broken.
Canon has "Path to Victory", which is almost literally just an "I WIN" button. It tells "Contessa" what she needs to do to succeed at almost any goal she wants. She's a big blindspot for people who can see the future.
Some powerful entities can't be accurately predicted, she can't predict how people will "trigger" and get their powers, and she's terrible in space.
Taylor has the darker, edgier little brother. Which is just an "I WIN" button, with no “almost”. It means she gets to do whatever she wants, and she’s a borderline sociopath.
Someone tries to mind-whammy taylor? Nope, doesn't work.
Contessa tries to use PTV.on Taylor? Doesn't work.
Look, this is obviously, transparently a stompfic. And there two ways to go with that.
ROFLSTOMP, or take it seriously.
Make it a humour fic, or focus on how the protagonist seems strange to those around them, and how they see everyone else as strange in return. Also how the protagonists actions affect various people and the system.
If you want challenge just give them mutually contradictory goals. The power can't do x without risking or losing y and certainly can't take care of z at the same time.
I read a Harry potter story which gave Snape the path to victory and the last published chapter was snape sitting in a bar trying to figure out what he wanted to do next. Looking back, that was probably meant to represent the author.
You can tell a good dramatic story with an OP protagonist. You just have to work harder.
This story mostly worked hard on setting up literally contrived situations so Taylor can kill someone in amusing fashion. And people's amusing reactions. That's the main selling point.
And of course the author and Taylor say that she has no more moral issues with killing. Because ROFLSTOMP.
In fact, one of the first things she does is literally stomp Sophia to death.
Taylor will still go after hard drug dealers because they hurt people, but she'll leave soft drug dealers alone. And of course she hates the local Nazi gang.
In short, she's a very selective sociopath.
So the story tries to mix both types, including with Sociopolitical Commentary™. It doesn't work very well.
At one point Taylor cracks a joke about tech Bros.
Fun fact: Worm takes place in an alternate universe where there is a very slim chance that they would develop that particular slang. A universe that is culturally very different from our own. In fact, I'm pretty sure the original webnovel ended before "tech bro" was even really a phrase.
And when Taylor kills the local Injustice League, she gets the bounty, and decides to donate it to the city. Specifically, she announces, the general public.
And in case anyone was wondering why it can’t be given to businesses directly, she says trickle down economics doesn't work.
Let's ignore whether that's true or not. Trickle down economics usually refers to tax cuts. Not handouts and bailouts. Also the phrase was popularized mainly with Ronald Reagan's tax cuts.
Note that superheroes and villains started appearing on record in 1984. Reagan's first tax cuts were in 1981. His second were in 86. By 1985 in the worm universe, the breakfast club came out with Nic cage as bender. Superheroes didn't go public until 1987.
So it's possible that the phrase could still exist in the worm universe.
But it does seem strange that a teenager with little interest in politics happens to use it. In fact it seems a lot more like something an adult writer from our universe would use.*
And besides all that, it's just getting one note. No char development. Even the people reacting to Taylor do it the same way.
I mean I knew this was going to be self indulgent Mary Sue nonsense from the jump, so I really have nobody to blame but myself.
*To be fair, precedent does exist in canon. There's a character called Nice Guy. He can make himself appear to be a non threat, or even socially invisible, even when people are actively trying to find him or he's slitting a throat. Which sounds a lot like the 2000s internet feminist stereotype of a nice guy. Ironically, the character concept was originally for a girl.
June is the Seer of Breath. Grows up in big mansion by the beach, raised by Nana Crocker from the Crocker fortune. Also last name is Crocker in this!! Lazy tgirl swag, she's defintley not depressed haha dw about it come watch all the nic cage films with her while she rants about her dumb piano lessons and totally ignores how upsetting it is that her grandma's always busy working at the Crocker company. She stills gets pissed at the sight of cake though.
Rose is the Heir of Light. Grows up arguably the most normal, although she's very much leaning into the whole goth thing the most, dyes her hair black and everything. Raised by her stepdad, Dad Lalonde, after her Mom died (got crushed by a meteor). Plays up the fact that they have a bitter rivalry to seem cool but secretly is on really good terms with him and hides it out of embarrassment.
Jade is the Knight of Space. Grows up in town by the countryside covered in woods, raised by her incredibly absent Grandfather who taught her how to hunt and constantly sets traps around the place without telling Jade and also pretty often doing this funny trick (see: incredibly annoying and honestly) where he suddenly leaves her in the woods and expects her to fight her way to back home. Jade is an incredibly skilled hunter and gunsmith however, and highkey roleplays as a wolf girl for fun. This has only sometimes sometimes got her shot at when people have mistaked her for an actual God Damn Wolf. Also goes by Jade English!!
Dave is the Witch of Time. Grows up in a secret massive underground doomsday vault, stocked incredibly plentiful of supplies. Raised by HAL, the AI built after his Brother that runs the whole thing and does his best to take care of Dave, after an unfortunate accident takes Bro out when Dave was a baby. They run simulated battles together and Dave spends most of his bored ass time creating the shit out of shittily drawn monsters and swordsmen and enemies and weapons and then battle simulations of those shitty jpegs.
@cursedfortune sent:
belated/early munday question: horror stories you're ride or die for? it can be from any media.
Eyyy, guess what, it’s munday now, so thanks for the question friend! To start, my blanket statement concerning my faves is that I absolutely love any story that explores the unknowable, the unexplainable, and the extraordinarily eldritch. Cosmic and monstrous horror is MY. JAM. I’m into the gore, the body horror, the things that are just TOO. BIG. for our brains to comprehend so they just.. yknow… explode. Bonus points that I am a notorious terato and appealing monster designs are just……. hhhh
So in terms of specifics: it’s sad that Lovecraft was such an asshole, bc honestly some of his stories serve as the cornerstone for a lot of my inspo, primarily his works like Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, Beyond the Wall of Sleep, Dagon, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and etceteraaa. Thankfully, his ideas have since been better adapted for people who AREN’T raging bigots like himself, which is why I HAVE to give a big shoutout to Lovecraft Country, of which I’ve only read the book but I hear the show is awesome too.
And nooooow let me kinda do this by categories with some of the highlights off the top of my head:
Movies:
The Thing (or anything John Carpenter tbh)
Hellraiser (plus the book Hellbound Heart, and just Clive Barker in general)
The Ritual
The Void (the ultimate love letter to practical effects horror, would recommend 10/10)
Color Out of Space (also the short story, plus I gotta credit Nic Cage, his performance was actually fantastique)
Shows:
EVERY. SEASON. OF. CHANNEL. ZERO. No lie, it's AMAZING. (And it's not like American Horror Story that's like.... icky to me, ngl. Some parts of that are cool, but then others are.... yuck. iykyk
Uuuuh tbh haven't watched too many shows, but I do have every intention to watch The Last of Us (as well as play it)
Books:
Tomie (and like, ALL of Junji It's stuff... so can we get some love for Junji Ito heeere!!)
Frankenstein
Camp Damascus
And I'm working on reading Shadows Over Baker Street now, which is like, if Sherlock Holmes was in the world of HP Lovecraft and so far it's WICKED SICK and Neil Gaiman writes the opening short story A Study in Emerald and I love that man, he is a fantastic human being)
Also since I'm on the subject of Gaiman, Coraline gets a mention
The Turn of the Screw (read in college and the first paragraph is a doozy but the ending HIT ME)
Video Games:
Silent Hill (any time it's foggy I'm like "i..it look..looks liiike....... o_o u know what... O-O )
The Evil Within (both games---they have their problems, but the haunting atmosphere is A+++ (well, in-between all the... horrific dying... pffff))
And like……. whatever it is that’s going on in Kojima’s silly little mind
Also I would like to give a shout out to the comedy/horror genre, like the Evil Dead series (Bruce Campbell, pls slide into my DMs), Dude Bro Party Massacre III (I'm not sure this counts as horror??? but OH lord my brain is still trying to wrap around this insane mess and I need people to watch it), and Tucker and Dale vs Evil.
So yeah, is a messy list tbh and there’s a ton more, but these ARE my ride or die picks and I'm sorry that this got so long but I have FEELINGS for horror aaaaaah
i was going thru your blog and found the post where you mention the missing scene that led to the wounds on renfield's chest at the end of the film, and i just wanna say thank you for bringing that up because i always felt stupid, like i must have missed something that explained the chest wound.
also thanks for mapping out renfield's apartment to the best of your abilities, youre a real one, Zombie!
RIGHT?! It's such an oversight! Boy, I hope someone was fired for that blunder! /KIDDING /Simpsons reference
But no seriously, you are so welcome :3 Renfield I thought was going to be a silly, shoulda released it in January, "well at least Nic Cage is in it" movie, but it has absolutely become my Bright Spot in this goddamned some of a bitch universe, you know? I am more than happy to do what I can for my bug bros (I'm still trying to get that going as a collective term for Renfield 2023 fans- we're bug bros!).
I also just took like 200 screencaps from the BluRay and will try an' post them once I get them sorted. First up: RENFIELD'S APARTMENT THAT DOES NOT EXIST IN EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRY
I have been pounder what would happen with the dc Burton verse if.
1. all the major villains survived.
2. Warner Bros allowed Tim Burton continue with dc movies until the aughts
villains being sent to Archambault asylum instead so they could come back.
Batman continues have Billy D. Williams as two face. Robin William's the riddler. and Marlon Wayan's Robin.
Tim Burton's Superman with brainac being canon with the batman films.
Batman 4 could have nic cage superman and micheal Keaton batman and catwoman teaming up team up to fight joker, penguin, two face, the riddler, lex luthor and Brainac.
hello! :] could you do dave getting bullied by transfem swagger haver dovesprite. dove is all like "you may have a weed smoking girlfriend (which you DONT even LOL) but could you BE a weed smoking girlfriend? NO!!! ive seen you try to roll a blunt and it was so embarrassing john cant even LOOK at you anymore. take the L, bro. take it real fucking hard." and dave is like "woah man. fuck. girl. girl me. whatever. i dunno if we should be talking about me taking things hard. seems a bit..." and dovesprite kinda raises a brow and is all like "you for real gonna say 'thats gay'? im a lesbian, dave." and dave is like "WHAT. oh. okay. WHAT." and then jadesprite is like "hi guys!! :)" and dave is like "WHAT" and dovesprite is like "oh hi babe." and dave is like "HUH" and then dovesprite and jadesprite start having a dyke make out sesh. and hes all tryna look away and shit, but its like right in his face and also theyre like glowing ghosts and stuff so its pretty distracting. so then he calls john but the whole time hes all self conscious about the whole blunt thing so its really awkward and stuff, but john already forgot about the whole thing so he doesnt understand. so he just starts talking to nic cage and soon dave just all up and forgets that his alt timeline bird-self is right behind him going to mack-on-city with the dead-dream-sprite-ghost-self of one of his besties. but yeah anyways thanks if you draw it.
i was really normal about this ask thank you so much man. i hope ur days going great. really unsure why you sent fanfic in my inbox but im the one who drew it so i cant really talk.
bro, i got my parents into TLOU and they love it. my dad was like “i’ve seen that pedro guy in the unbearable weight of massive talent with nic cage (his favorite actor)” and now he wants to be besties with pedro and nic.