Worm: Who else has read it?

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This story is quite possibly the best thing I've read in years. Taylor Hebert, a 15 year old girl who's been horribly bullied, has gained the power to control bugs. Rather than going full rampage on her aggressors she decides to be a hero, it doesn't end up going exactly as she's planned. She ends up joining the Undersiders and going undercover as a villian and gets thrown head first into the complex and daunting world of Capes. Everyone has problems and nothing is as simple as it seems, Taylor has to make some hard decisions and do the wrong thing for the right reasons.


So who else has read it?

 

I've been meaning to for a while... but i always have trouble with getting into first person narrative off the bat (its the reason i ended up reading Codex Alera before Dresden files)

I'll probably take another swing at it soon, seeing as I hear nothing but glowing reviews about it.

 

It's a good read.

Wildbow does an amazing job building tension for.... hell, 23 arcs now? The stakes just keep getting higher.

The latest arc does kind of piss me off, though. Timeskip.

 

I mainlined the whole thing a couple months ago (as in Schedule: eat, sleep, work, read Worm). Of course, that means I'm quite a few chapters behind now.

 

Status update: Spoilers ahead!

Dragon Down but speculation is she's not out for the count
Saint is a dick. Jsutified but still a colossal dick.
Skitter has once again proven herself to be the Chuck Norris of Worm by nearly killing an S-class threat as a bid to take out another S-class threat.

 

And I'm caught up.

Loved the part where Taylor just surrenders... and the Hero capes are all basically shittin their pants worrying about what she was up to.
To paraphrase the good doctor... "No plans, no backup, no weapons.... Aren't you just terrified now? ^_^"

Recent time-skip and escalation makes it look like its only a few more segments from the end. Also, Defiant is way too calm over the current issue with Dragon. he doesn't let go ANYTHING easily... so i wouldn't be surprised if she pops up in a human body.

 

The general consensus is that Defiant managed to break her limits secretly during the 2 year timeskip and is fairly confident that she can reboot but didn't want to test it. So we should know if she's alive in the next couple updates.

My favorite part was where she very easily took out what is likely the 3rd strongest person on earth (After Mr. I-Have-Every-Power! and Ms.I-Have-The-I-Win-Button!).

Really I love any scene where Skitter was being a bad ass villain.
The scene where Glen shows her the security tape."If you told me that girl was a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine I wouldn't have batted an eyelash."
The scene where Skitter tells some thugs that when you piss of villains some will snipe you, others will rip you to shreds. She'll do both.
Weaponizing a villain monologue to defeat two of the most powerful Tinkers in the world.
Knocks out a man who fought back Leviathan single handed. Then carves out his goddamned eyes! She also rotted off his crotch. Accidentally.

God I'd kill for a fic where Skitter was actually truly villainous. Or at least more willing to use crippling force without guilt. I'd just love to see what could have been if Jack kidnapped her at the ending of the S9 arc and mindfucked her into joining like they did Hookwolf. It's one of the reasons I'm working so hard to convert their verse into MM.

Also am I the only one who sees the ridiculous amounts of LesYay between Bitch and Skitter? Seriously if Tt hadn't killed that possibility I'd swear that they'd hook up by the end of the series.

 

I've read the series and am following it closely. It's excellent stuff, easily some of the best 'superhero' fiction I've ever read, and that includes things like the 'Wild Cards' series largely written by George R.R. Martin. (A lot of other authors like Roger Zelazny got to play in his setting).

The author does a great job of making things feel plausible, especially Taylor's motivations throughout the series, and it has an overall feel to it that really reflects modern-day fears, cynicism, and morality - all without taking the easy route of two-dimensional antagonists. You can understand the motivations of some really frightening and dangerous people, up to and including Slaughterhouse Nine, and it makes the conflict that much more gripping.

 

The only real "bad guys" in worm are the Endbringers and The Slaughterhouse 9. And even some of the 9 get back stories that make you cry for the devil. I thought I'd never feel sorry the Evil loli Franken Fran, then Interlude 25 made me want to give her a hug even if it meant she'd turn me into a lovecraftian horror.

 

Bonesaw does like hugs.

 

Another interesting idea would be if Taylor had decided to drag the Undersiders into actual heroism. I think she could convince Tattletale and Grue to go hero without all that much trouble, and by the end of her tenure with the Undersiders Bitch would have followed Taylor pretty much anywhere she went. The only real problems would be Imp, who I think would go so long as Grue did, and Regent who would probably be fine being a hero so long as nobody questioned him too deeply about his past or tried to take his money.

 

That's an interesting idea. Honestly, I think the real problem would be Taylor herself and her personality, unless she'd somehow built up a similarly mythic reputation and come up with a method to either blackmail her superiors or convince them to do things her way. The story doesn't bludgeon you over the head with it, but her and Armsmaster-nee-Defiant do share a few traits.

Taylor is compassionate, but not especially empathetic. She wants to help people, but she's terrible at seeing things from another person's point of view. She expects people to be logical and practical rather than emotional and shortsighted. And when the chips are down, she is simply not really willing to lose- instead, she gets very smart and very vicious and crushes the opposition, no matter the consequences of said viciousness.

If it was later and the Undersiders had basically taken over the city... Yeah, I can't see the Protectorate going for that at all easily. Maybe you could come up with big enough lies and legal loopholes, but it would require pulling most of the Wards in the city elsewhere at the very least... And it would have basically required Alexandria or possibly Dragon to shove it down the non-capes throats.

 

I was actually thinking that any time after they conquered the city they could at least attempt to turn over to heroes if Taylor really wanted it to happen. At that point Taylor had the clout to push the Undersiders into it, and was strong enough to dictate terms to the PRT if she had gone in from a position of strength. Instead she put herself in there power and then tried to dictate crazy terms. The Protectorate were looking incredibly weak at the time as well, so having a high profile team bend the knee to the government could be very helpful for pulling things together. Admittedly they will probably never return to Brockton, but the Undersiders could force the issue on keeping them together with some oversight.

 

I think that's overly optimistic. Keep in mind Tagg's confrontational mindset, and that this mindset was seemingly shared by the non-capes in the Protectorate, and that the Protectorate's first instinct was 'throw her in the Birdcage', when that failed it was 'arrest her and then do things how we please', and when Taylor tried to blackmail them to make them act intelligently (which Taylor DOES with people) they called in Alexandria.

Basically, there's no LOGICAL reason it couldn't work. But it wouldn't work. Not least because the first thing the Protectorate would want to do is break up the Undersiders, and being arrogant enough to say no to them would result in a scene similar to Alexandria's. You say 'the Undersiders could force the issue'. That's the kind of thinking that gets Taylor into trouble.

Sure, the Undersiders CAN make it very much in the Protectorate's best interest to keep them together. But if they do so in any kind of confrontational way, the majority of the Protectorate admins and even heroes will be ready to hurt themselves to 'win' and save their egos. From their point of view, if a bunch of snotty little brats in a single city can make them bend knee, they've ALREADY lost the whole war.

Tattletale might do a better job at negotiating... But even she has her limits. And Lisa herself is far from nonconfrontational.

 

Thing is she was following Dania's advice when she put herself in prison. And besides that, the PRT was too entrenched in its need to be on top, having her bend knee would never have been enough for how high profile she'd become. NOTE just how badly they were all FREAKING THE FLIP OUT from her surrender alone. From having her CONFINED AND IN THEIR power...

Also I was bloody amused by how high she shot up in Clockblocker's respect'o'meter after Echidna. He was still flipping out about how she basically used him to cut Noelle in half.

 

It is much easier to consider tossing Taylor into the Birdcage or prison when she is already sitting in your containment cell. If she went in from a position of power with her entire team, and keep in mind Tattletale is recognized as a pretty big asset at that point, then they would have at least a very real chance of convincing the PRT and Protectorate to make some kind of deal. Taylor's big problem with her attempt at surrender is she didn't go in with her snotty little brats, instead she just gave up and left her team in a position to continue ruling the city.

Taylor did not seem to have much to offer when compared to the things she was demanding, but the entire Undersider team is much more valuable. They also probably wouldn't be demanding a city stay under the ownership of a bunch of villains, so the cost of getting them doesn't make the PRT look as pathetic.

 

I WOULD say that they could probably flip sides almost any time before the whole 'we're taking over the city' thing since they were basically small-time.

But the moment they 'claimed' the city, in a lot of people's minds, they basically declared war on the Protectorate's self-image. At that point they 'won' against the Protectorate, not just the Wards. The problem is at this point ANY win by the Undersiders, even against bad guys, makes the Protectorate look bad. Now the Protectorate needs to get a BIG 'win' back against them before they'll even consider letting them join up in a more kid-gloves kind of way. If the Undersiders were driven out of the city in an embarassing way and then did basically nothing for a few months, maybe it could work.

Basically, at the point they 'own' they city, any compromise with them makes the Protectorate look intolerably weak. So why compromise when you can just call in Eidolon or Alexandria? Good as the Undersiders are, the Protectorate SHOULD be able to crush them.

 

If the Protectorate hadn't been hemorrhaging members they might have been able to turn things down. Having the Undersiders bow down to the government could be very helpful, but almost as important is Tattletale, who is a critical resource for any side that can get her. They would be bringing alot to the table and the cost would look less like the PRT completely failing at their job than the original timeline.

 

99% of the people making the 'personnel' decisions probably DO NOT understand how valuable Tattletale is, and in fact the Protectorate has Thinkers of their own. (Alexandria among them, and the Contessa and Numbers Man put Tattletale to shame). Dinah Alcott is FAR more important than Tattletale, by at least an order of magnitude, and yet Tagg, the Director for Brockton Bay, was pretty much trying to bully and threaten HER, which is idiotic beyond all belief, and yet illustrates my point- emotions and ego play into decisions made, even by organizations.

Yes, Tagg was a moron, but which Director do you think would have folded to the Undersiders and let themselves look bad in order to get Tattletale? Piggot? Fat chance. Calvert? Obviously not. Tagg? Hell no.

And keep in mind Cauldron and thus the brains of the PRT knew ALL ABOUT Coil. After a fashion they DID plan to use Tattletale. Yet when she slipped Coil's leash they made no effort to regain control of her. And there's a reason for that- As valuable as any of the Undersider's powers are, they can get somebody else with those powers out of a bottle. The real power brokers don't give a flying fuck about controlling their noncape administrators, and when they do show up, they're likely to take a stance like Alexandria or Contessa - They'll simply BREAK anyone opposing them. Because it works.

Skitter killing Alexandria was a freak accident, and if she'd been the slightest bit less lucky or she'd faced Contessa or Numbers Man or Eidolon instead she'd be in the Birdcage if that was what they wanted. Skitter admitted no team she could put together could stop Eidolon.

 

Been meaning to read it but never found the time...

 

I disagree with your opinion on Tt, She's pretty high up there. While probably not as powerful as Numberman or Contessa she's not as far bellow them as you'd think. They just have powers that help alot more in combat. In fact Tattletale is essentially an slightly less powerful inversion of Contessa, Contessa gets the how to solve part of the problem while Tattletale gets the why it works. If you combined the two that would be frightening beyond belief. My beleif on how contessas power works is that she simply asks it how to achieve something and it tells her exactly what to do to guarantee it comes to pass, it doesn't give answers for impossible problems ans she still has to act on correctly.

On another note, I'm wondering what would have happened if Skitter had never read Dinnah's message. Perhaps if it had been rendered illegible by the liquids inside Echidna?

 

IIRC it was mentioned that Dinah wanted her to surrender because Taylor escalates the violence quite a bit if she doesn't give up being a villain.

 

So, Skitter's power is the ability to control anything with an exoskeleton, right? So, send her to Transformers, and watch as she realises that she's able to control the titular giant living robots. Hilarity ensues.

 

Taylor's power is a bit more limited. It effects thing you think of as bugs. So it also includes some things without exsoskeleton but the rest of the lmits are a bit wonky. She unable to control bug made by powers ans the like. Think of the passenger as a GM who has final say on what your powers do, LOLNOPEing effects it should logically have irl or in the game system. So she can't control a transformer.

A Xenomorph or Zerg on the other hand...

 

Insecticons?

Given that every single Transformer carries a fragment of Primus's power, though, in the Spark that gives them life, I could see her attempting to control an Insecticon triggering an evolution of her power, as the divine power of Primus mingles with the power of the entities that grant Worm-verse superpowers - and this goes double if the predatory entity it's fleeing from is her universes' version of Unicron (because as a multiversal singularity, he exists in every Transformers universe). Especially if she comes into contact with a more direct conduit of Primus's will and power, like the Allspark, the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, or Vector Sigma.

 

No, her powers don't work on mechanical beings for one thing since she could not control Bonesaw's evil spider robots that actually do have an organic brain inside them. Nor have any effect on dragon's machines which are far closer to Transformers.

What you're saying is like if Shirou sudently started tracing lightsabers.

 

Shirou could trace lightsabers, if he wound up in Star Wars, and actually saw a real one.

 

I think I'm just going to stop arguing here, this is obviously not going to go anywhere...

 

You know I'm just going to add. She already stated that it needed to have SIMPLE NERVOUS SYSTEM for her to take control, exoskeleton is just the thing that usually marks the type of creature with the right type of nervous system organization for her to use. Also she reads their DNA to figure out what they are potentially capable of.

Guess what has neither of these.

 

I begun reading Worm thanks to this thread. Thank you very much!