[Worm] Queen of Air and Darkness (development thread)

Based on posts starting here.

Taylor is a fan of the Dresden Files books, having been introduced to them by her mother, and has a particular interest in the Winter Court. When she triggers, most likely during the same timeframe (winter is a good time for this, especially if it's colder than usual), but under different circumstances from canon, and probably outside school, she becomes a projection type Master. Her numerous projections behave like Winterfae as interpreted by Jim Butcher, as she was thinking about them when it happened. Her projections mostly obey her, and call her the Winter Lady. Two important exceptions are Mother Winter, who appears a vaguely familiar old woman with a strange, inhuman point of view (even if she does seem very eager to help), and Queen Mab, who looks and sounds like (a very idealized version of) her mother. Taylor doesn't like to call her, both because she has so little control over the elder Queens (they can't harm her, or indeed harm anyone she doesn't specifically allow them to, and they can only manifest if she calls them, but that's about it), and because Mab doesn't act like Annette, she acts like Mab.

She may also have a Trump power with a Queen of Winter theme (perhaps a second trigger at a dramatic moment?), but if so, she has to act like Maeve or Mab when using it (not Molly, as Cold Days didn't come out until 2012), and she probably doesn't want to do that too often. She can summon her Court either way, but can probably summon more while behaving like the Lady of Winter or the Queen of Air and Darkness. As with her canon power, Unintentionally Creepy Taylor is going to happen, the question is how fast. The Trump power would include an ability to step into a pocket dimension (created by Queen Administrator) resembling the Winter Court's portion of Faerie, and take others with her. Perhaps she even cannot be permanently killed outside of that dimension, though I'm not sure that fits (certainly QA would want to make her harder to kill, once she starts showing hoe creative she is). Also, if she does have Winter Lady themed Trump powers, she's going to be able to empower someone with the Winter Knight's Mantle, so the question is, who?

Even if she doesn't have powers beyond summoning, she'll likely get a Trump rating, since her faeries have such a wide range of powers.


In terms of the Rules that the Fae Courts operate under, parahumans automatically count as 'involved', and thus fair game (just ask Glaistig Uaine), whereas non-parahumans are only fair game if they're specifically involved with parahumans, such as the PRT or unpowered members of the gangs. If Taylor is aware of the Unwritten Rules, her Court will treat unempowered families, friends, and acquaintances of parahumans as uninvolved unless they choose to involve themselves.

Optionally, a bud from QA might empower someone as the Summer Lady or a similar being, but probably not for a while, yet (having Taylor and Emma trigger together could be interesting, but would require some set up, and I'm not sure I like the idea).


Thoughts?

 

First reaction is that I want to see Taylor interacting with GU, potentially Mabnette and GU getting into a Fairy Queen off. And the world can use more Dresden Fics.

Anyway, a few questions that hopefully help, somehow.

• Is the Earth Bet version of the series significantly different from what we know, just different enough to toss in a throwaway line here or there, or an Aleph import that is functionally identical to our version?
• Is Lea going to make an appearance?
• How does Taylor generate the projections? Does she need to do a "proper" summoning, or just will them into being?
• How does Taylor view her powers? Does she go full Myrrdin, or just accept that she's got a very specific theme?

 

OK here is how I would go around starting a story off this, I might actually do that if you guys think that this sounds like an interesting enough interpretation.
First of all, trigger event is during the bullying before the locker, maybe around the destruction of her mothers flute, then as she stumbles home in tears she almost walks into a cape fight that includes at least Crusader and Othala.
From this she Triggers and gets her projections which she can summon to her and order, and they all have similar levels of strength and power to low level parahumans. When her projections appear she can give them complex orders but cannot mentally control them. One of her projections is far more powerful than the others(Annette as queen Mab) but it will only help her if she acting in the way that Maeve would be. Her projections have a limited range(several hundred meters) and exhaust her as she summons them. In addition to her summons she can empower willing parahumans by doing what she feels like is summoning many powerful projections inside them, and while this severely exhausts her and the parahuman, it empowers them with the Winter Knight's mantle. The downside of this is that she can't easily revoke this, can only do it to one person at time, and these powers would be usable against her, so she would only do this to someone she truly trusts.
After triggering she immediately accidentally summons the Annette queen Mab, then feels even worse and runs away from the fight and home because of her encounter with it. Taylor's powers will grow when she acts in a way similar to the faerie and be more exhausting when she doesn't. This not only will effect her attitude as she tries to be a hero at night. But also makes her inclined to strike back and struggle against the bullying at school making it worse.
From there I can think of several different ways to go; having her joining the wards around the same time as Sophia, having her get picked up by the Undersiders, getting picked up by the E88 through school or Purity as she heroes, or taking down the merchants as a solo hero and possibly joining up with Parian in the entertainment industry.
As for perception of her powers she wouldn't think that they are magic but because how she orders her projections she will give off an impression similar to Myrrdin's.

How does this alteration sound? Any changes that could improve it?

 

I would say functionally identical to ours, for conservation of detail.

If the author wants her to. Would just require a good reason.

I would say that it depends on how powerful the Fae she's calling is. Little snow-pixies and such would just appear when she wills it, but more powerful Fae like the Leannansidhe or the Queens would take some effort, maybe chanting and/or drawing a magic circle or similar.

Not really sure on that.

That could work, though I hope you wouldn't have her joining the E88.


One thought I had (if the writer wants to go with a fairly dark fic, and not necessarily based on Blargh's idea) was that she goes out trying to be a hero with just summons, a costume, and some running, as per canon, and then then things go wrong, made worse by the fact that she reminds Piggot of Nilbog, so the Director pushes a bit too hard, making Winter Lady run, and Taylor finds out she's been labeled a villain (could also result from Taylor finding out Sophia is in the Wards). Over time, things get worse, and that's where the possible second trigger comes in (maybe with an annoyed Chief Director pointing out that this mess is in large part of Piggot's making).

 

One would think that Taylor would remind people of GU rather than Nilbog. Though if you want to play off Piggot, or just any directors, fear to create a darker story, all you need is an alternate
universe where piggy (or the current director of PRT ENE took part in a failed strike against GU instead.

This could also lead to a very different Piggot, even if she still ends up jumping the gun with Taylor.

 

I've started writing out my idea and I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas of what specific types of faerie she would summon and how they would fight/how difficult they would be to deal with. Also if does anyone have any idea of how specifically powerful Queen Mab is? Like what are her feats, I can't search through the Dresden files like I can with Worm to figure stuff out. As of right now I am having her start with summoning Queen Mab by accident, the starting figuring out her power by summoning a bunch of pixies(that is the correct name for the little guys Harry got to help him yea?). If anyone has a resource they no of with specific details or remembers more than me your help would be appreciated, like what would she summon after pixies and what is the list she would work through after them. I'm going to have to go to the library later this week and check out whatever of the Dresden files I can to slowly search through them otherwise.

 

This sounds awesome. Not sure how easy it would be to tie in the dresden files powers with the shards of worm though. There's lesser Queens or ladies, and mab then mother winter at the top. For the winter lady (taylor) just think high tier ice sorcerer. Mab is the Queen of winter, and you see a battle with in 'summer knight' I think, near the end of the book. descriptions of the fairie armies too.
Later books expand on the size of the winter court though, with the wild hunt and an army millions strong fighting the outsiders (hordes of cthulu) so Mab is as strong as you write her to be, possibly upto end bringer lite...
Another thought is that the fairy are sentient, worm shards don't typically do that. How about giving Taylor the actual mantle of a winter queen ala dresden files?

 

Wanted to avoid an actual crossover, and liked the idea of people noticing that her power is specifically similar to not only the myths, but to a book series (though only a few Thinkers, and anyone they tell, would notice that). Tattletale would easily be one of those Thinkers - even if she hasn't read DF, she would at least get 'powers based on a book or book series Winter Lady read,' which is a place to start.

 

Having another idea for this, specifically the version where Taylor and Emma triggered together, and both the Winter Lady (Taylor) and the Summer Lady (Emma) are capable of granting Mantles of various types to mortals (both cape and otherwise), along with their 'faerie' projections and such. Also, the PRT isn't exactly trying to recruit them, as trying to make sure that neither is recruited by the gangs. While getting them into the Wards sounds good at first, Think Tank suggests that they could be a serious problem on the same team, that they would be bad at taking orders and would be inclined to take control of any team that they did join, and that if one of them is recruited by a faction, the other will try to take over an opposing faction, and they really don't want either of them to go full villain. Piggot also isn't happy that the more clearly heroic of the two is the Winter Lady, who is also the one who otherwise seems more villainous, as opposed to the warmer and more approachable Summer Lady, who is a crazy and sadistic vigilante that they just haven't proven is a serious criminal, yet.

The story is told from the point of view of an alt-power canon character, possibly alt-Clockblocker (who would need a new name) or alt-Kid Win (who might not), whom both Summer Lady and Winter Lady want to Mantle as their respective Knight (as in, Taylor wants him to be Winter Knight, Emma wants him to be Summer Knight). The alt-power is basically 'wizard-themed Trump and/or Tinker,' and the character is leaning toward being Teen Harry Dresden, while still mostly being himself, much as Taylor and Emma are more themselves than they are 'Queen Administrator's interpretations of the Dresden Files characters their powers are based on.' Chris makes more sense given his power would just need some tweaking, but Dennis's sense of humour seems to fit a Dresden-type character better. I could see either of them complaining that having two beautiful girls both wanting him is a lot scarier and less fun than it sounds, though.

Alternatively, he could be alt-Grue, or they might be going for a girl with an attitude and a wizard-themed powerset, like alt-Lisa or alt-Amy.

EDIT: If anyone wants to complain about Taylor being called beautiful, please don't. When she manifests as the Winter Lady, her ice-cold beauty is unmistakable, even if she wears as mask - though a decent mask will still save her from being recognized as Taylor Hebert. (This isn't a Master Effect, her power just subtly shifts her form to be more 'Princess of Winter'-looking.)