The Grimoire,

another worm fic (although the premise could go a lot of places)

Taylor may or may not have the same power, but instead of running into Lung her first night out, she runs into someone else, an original character I somewhat have planned

this character is another S-class threat. he may be my version of the Sleeper, or Jack Slash. regardless, he is scary
but he meets her her first night out, and she is shit scared, but he sits her down and explains the cape business to her
a business that she notices he doesn't fit into

he smiles, and explains that his place is a little bit different
he knows what people think of him; he knows he is a monster.

'...but sometimes monsters are necessary, either to devour the other monsters, or to show humanity the darker parts of itself'

he serves a dual purpose of his own choosing:
1) he serves as a terror for people, as a rallying point so that humanity will learn to put aside their differences and band together
2) in being the terror he is, he allows for more people to trigger with superpowers than would otherwise be possible

and he takes her under his wing...

yet another frikkin' idea for Taylor in Worm-verse

this time is another blood-based power, but this time it is more a mix with deadman wonderland, specifically mockingbird

basically, she is a blood-manipulating trump who can copy the powers of other humans she observes or 'samples'
within reason, of course.
super strength? regeneration? various breaker states? sure.
time manipulation of any sort? spatial warping? not bloody likely

So, recently found a Worm fanfic that was a crossover between Worm itself and Black Rock Shooter. I really liked the premise, as the point of BRS was to depict the struggles of young girls as massive, epic battles, which for how Worm starts out makes perfect sense.
I had two problems with it- kind of.
First and foremost, it was a quest, so the character's actions were dictated not by the author's plan but by the desires of the readers. there is nothing inherently wrong with this, but i don't typically like the choices most people make, and the story kind of fell flat because of them.

The second is a little more difficult to describe. the first major choice of the quest was to decide which Otherself Taylor was working with- Black Rock Shooter, Black Gold Saw, Dead Master, Strength, Chariot, and an 'OC' called Khepri. Unsurprisingly, BRS won out by a landslide, and had the story continued i probably would have been okay with that. Thing is, there was so little of the other characters in the anime that i really wanted to see one of them take the floor, so i started thinking about who would make sense in what position.


Khepri I actually immediately tossed at the bottom of the pile, because while it would be an Otherself, it would essentially be giving Taylor the exact same powerset, just in different fashion. since the point of an alt power!taylor is to step away from canon powers, this doesn't really make sense.

BRS kind of makes sense- she is kind of a byronic hero who destroys others lives in order to free them from their pain in the Otherworld. She is ruthlessly efficient and powerful, and her blue color scheme is 'apparently' indicative of unshed tears. thing is, while i do like the thematics of taylor make a lot of sense, taylor and mato really don't mesh too well, and while Taylor's late-story decisions would make a lot of sense when meshed with BRS, her early story ones- don't

Black Gold Saw was at the bottom of my list after Khepri- I didn't really like her powerset, while she is motivated by duty her primary way of defending the Otherworld from destruction is to raise Otherselves in such a way that their human selves break psychologically. The behind the scenes manipulation is something more like Emma would utilize, and the underlying sense of duty to a friend long-separated is something that really doesn't fit her, or Taylor, for that matter

Strength I have to admit would be visually appealing. problem is, the whole characterization behind Strength (or her human self) is that dealing with physical pain is easier than dealing with emotional pain. that and her fighting style mean that she kind of fits more with Sophia than Taylor (hell, the name even fits)

Dead Master, being representative of repression and pain, actually made a lost of sense, and she was one of my top pics for Taylor's Otherself. power over the dead, massive armies of minions, flowing fighting style, awesome thematics. in fact, there is nothing I actually had against Dead Master being Taylor's Otherself, there was just one I kind of wanted to see more.

Funnily enough, the one i actually wanted to see was the one that makes perhaps some of the least logical sense, superficially, that being Chariot. Chariot makes literally no sense visually- the only one less comparable to taylor's human form being Strength- and her motivation is primarily possessiveness. This was an Otherself that was all about holding onto childhood possessions, opinions, and desires- Taylor during the locker incident has lost just about all of that.
thing is, on another level it actually does make sense. Taylor wants to hold onto childish things, to the things she's lost and the memories that have been shunted aside. She wants to drive Sophia and Madison and the hangers-on away and find out what happened to Emma. The fluid and constantly-moving fighting style fit with Taylor's mentality of having to be on the move, and the chariot itself- with its elevated position and large, spiked wheels- could be indicative of Taylor's desire to elevate herself and be shielded from those around her, while also being symbolic of tunnel vision.
on another level, i really wanted it to be Chariot mostly because of irony. she makes the least sense, so i wanted to find a way to shoehorn her into the role. I absolutely hated her human self, so naturally i want her to be utilized here, both for irony's sake and as some kind of senseless 'redemption' of the character that makes sense only in my head.
Oh, and also because i wanted to swipe the name of a secondary Tinker character that was introduced in the story. Fuck that guy and his uselessness

So yeah ratings, not including BRS=
Chariot
Dead Master
Strength
Black Gold Saw
Khepri

and I may actually be writing this one, along with some of the others I have planned. Hoping to get some writing done over winter break, especially on some of these shorter ones

I don't know why, but i have this persistent image of Taylor triggering with an uncontrolled master power that creates a slowly growing force of large, silent defenders

they show up out of nowhere. they don't talk, they don't answer questions- even hers. they just follow her, silently, almost menacingly.

and if anyone does anything that could be perceived as threatening, they do their level fucking best to end that thing's existence.

starts out as just one, that shows up at school, then another shows up, and then another. upper limit still to be determined. appearance could be anything at this point- could be something akin to the necrons, could be something more like a large but mundane-looking man, could be a creature in medieval armor; still don't know yet


and on that note, now that I'm on winter break, i'm actually going to try my hand at writing my own personal fics. going to hash out some ideas here in the next day or two, but let's see what I'm actually working with right now:

BRS!Taylor- Chariot
Rock Star!Taylor
Kraken!Taylor
Archangel!Taylor
Deadman!Taylor
Bloodborne!Taylor
S-Class!Taylor
Taylor suicide; Danny-centric

fullmetal alchemist!taylor- saves danny from death shortly before the locker incident, losing her leg trying to bring back her mother and her arm actually bringing back her dad

sellsword- OC. kind of a mix between allfather and mifune; creates swords from thin air, uses them easily and supernaturally in combat. mercenary cape, but good-natured
blades tend to be more complex/powerful the longer he takes in creating/drawing them. if he focuses his power and takes awhile, he can create tinkertech weapons from nothing, but he has to know what he is building
actually might make a good alternative taylor, one that doesn't bother with the protectorate or the gangs, but instead focuses on using her power to make money as an independent mercenary
may or may not end up bodyguarding emma for reasons and disproving emma's distorted worldview

EDIT: adding one more:
Witch!Taylor, because i wanted to something original(ish) and i've read some decent fics about worm/D&D crossovers
basically, after Annette died and Taylor went to summer camp, Taylor met a Patfinder witch living out in the woods, who agreed to start teaching her. unlike in some of the other 'taylor was taught' fics i've read, this witch actually moved to the outskirts of Brockton Bay in order to continue her magical and occult education. She also managed to get Taylor and Danny talking again, and with her moral support and the constant guidance Taylor ends up more balanced than she does in-canon.
Witch!teacher never intervenes with Taylor and the bullies, but gives her an edge in being able to stand up to them (going the canon route, where emma isn't bullying taylor to make taylor strong but trying to validate her own existence) and helps her get along (talking to her teachers to get her assignments in early, magic-ing a portfolio or something for when she can't, etc).
also, bonus points because i want there to be a point where taylor is actually told by her teacher to inform Danny about the circumstances with Emma, so she does, and her dad has a very polite phone call with Alan Barnes, wherein he deduces (without outside help) Sophia's 'extracurricular' activities, and asks him to inform his daughter that the only reason Taylor hasn't brought a knife to school and stabbed her yet is not because she cares about their old friendship, not because she's scared of Sophia, but quite simply because she doesn't want to insult her mother's memory
Note: taylor (and danny) frequently visit Annette's grave, and it's only a short walk from there to Witch!teacher's abode

Oh, look! a short!
incomplete one-shot where a chronokinetic Taylor portals into another universe, puts Winslow in stasis, and starts monologue-ing. calls out Sophia in particular, and it really sets a lot of people off, because they see the scrawny little nobody they've watched be tortured for a year suddenly standing up to them and talking like they don't even matter, like they are nothing to her, and it is eerie. made all the worse when she starts demonstrating unbelievable powers and casually discussing murder and destruction
draws a lot from one of Jon Irenicus' speeches from BG:SOA

Chronokinetic Taylor

Hello, Sophia

No, Sophia- Life… is strength
This is not to be contested; it seems logical enough- you live, you affect your world
But is it what you need? After all, you are…different, inside

Portal
Take Josephine, here *spotlight*
This girl lives and has strength of a sort
She lost her father to cancer, her brother to the gangs, but she’s persevered. Her social skills have flourished, her name is respected, she is content and secure in her actions. She’s lived the way that she thought she should
And now she is dead
*chronal distortions rip the girl into three pieces*
Her possessions will be divided, her friends shall move on and She will be forgotten
She lived a good life but she had no Power- she was a slave till death.
I wonder if you are destined to be forgotten; will your life fade in the Shadows of greater beings?
You misunderstand, Sophia; I am not here because of something you did, I am here because of something you continue to not do: recognize the consequences of your actions
There are always consequences, Sophia, and strength does not give you the ability to ignore them- it alters them, adjusts them to better suit the new stature of the one in question.

You continue to misunderstand, Sophia. I don’t exist, not in this timeline.
There is always a girl, attacked in an alleyway. There is always a girl who saves her. There is always a girl whom the pair feel the need to break down.
And there are always consequences.
I don’t exist because in my timeline, I died.
You killed me
You. Emma. Madison. Josephine. Julia. Miranda. Beth-Anne. You all killed me.
*smile*
So I killed you in return.
And because of that, my world no longer exists. It’s gone now
Chronokinetic storms destabilized the planet’s infrastructure, tore strips away from the surface and flung them into space, ruptured the mantle, threw the planet’s rotation off-balance, and eventually tore the world to pieces.
Because of you, my world is gone
And you misunderstand me still, Sophia. I’m here to ensure that you understand the gravity of the situation- that whether the world gets a new hero, or a new villain, whether things are good, bad, or neutral, whether the world is saved, or destroyed- no matter what happens, it is all. Your. Fault.

*starts laughing. Laughs harder. Laughter dies off*
Oh Sophia~ I’m not going to do anything.
*smile slides off face, replaced by a completely blank expression and an utterly dead tone*
I’m just going to watch

Welp, had an idea for a reeeally disturbing Worm/D&D crossover
see, i love the idea of a d&d mummy protagonist, and i just had this concept run through my head of how i could integrate it into worm, and it isn't pleasant

in canon, the locker is the trigger for Taylor's powers, but in this one it is something very different. here, there is a play going on in Winslow's theater class, something based off the mummy. of course, emma and company decide that the mannequin mummy isn't good enough, and they think taylor would be a perfect replacement.
they take her right as lunch begins, render her unconscious somehow (probably sophia using one of her tranq bolts), pack her mouth full of something, and wrap her head to toe, several times, in electrical tape, then with gauze to better disguise her, and then pack her into the coffin in the prop room
thing is, they did intend for it to be a prank- a cruel and vicious prank that still would have ended with Taylor going to the hospital- but a prank. they thought that the theater kids would find out something was up after school and she would be sent to the hospital at that time. Unbeknownst to them, the theater teacher was out sick that day, and practice was cancelled for that day, and everyone went home. with nothing to tip off the janitors and no one else aware, Taylor was left there for the weekend, trapped, alone, in the dark, with no hope of escape.

and that is where she died- no beating around the bush on this one; going without water in an enclosed environment with no ventilation for several days? not to mention high stress levels and limited oxygen supply? Taylor died of a combination of dehydration, hyperthermia, and hypoxia in roughly 48 hours
but that is where the magic begins

a desire to not worry her father, a sense of duty towards her mother, a sense of determination to keep pushing forwards- some forgotten deity took her on in a heartbeat and turned her into a mummy. her wrappings altered in position to allow her to move, her strength and resilience were enhanced fivefold, she was no longer vulnerable to things like mere poison or disease, or even the effects of Masters. further, her very touch could ensure that her enemies would waste away to dust.

and all the while this is happening, Daniel Hebert is running around frantically trying to find his daughter, and a desperate call to the Barnes household tips Emma off to the fact that something went very, very wrong

Just had a rather funny idea, and sorry, but it's another Worm one

Taylor triggers with an (as yet) undecided power, but it kind of screws with her head, and she actually can't decide what to do with herself

so she does the (clearly) logical thing and makes a game of it. hosted on PHO primarily through video chats, she sets up a game show of sorts where she explains who she is, that she is a parahuman, and that she is trying to decide where to go- also including that she has prior issues with authority figures as well as gangs, but she is trying not to let that sway her decision. having decided that propaganda is exactly that, she decided to throw herself headlong into the scene and will join a randomly-decided team- hero and villain both- every few days. at the end of the event, she will choose the group that impressed her the most and will acquiesce to their rules. if this means that she will do video game-based heists with Uber and Leet, so be it. If that means she has to reveal her public identity as part of New Wave, that's fine
any group can opt-out of course, if they don't like the attention or they just don't care, or they don't like that she is considering other teams, or anything else for that matter. but with a massive potential PR event and a possible (powerful) parahuman added to the mix, basically no one is doing so, not even the ABB or New Wave

teams will be selected via random selection. this does of course mean that teams picked early are at a disadvantage, as the teams selected later will have seen what others have done and can modify their presentation, but that is the risk of equal opportunity. the hero teams of Brockton Bay are also at a disadvantage, as there are fewer of them than heroes, but that's just the way things work in Brockton Bay, unfortunately, and they'll just have to hope they can sufficiently wow her.
and oh yeah, one final thing: she is operating under a personal non-disclosure agreement, so anything that is said about operations that teams don't want said is not given to any other group (so if the PRT wants to arrest her and have her give up criminal information, she isn't saying anything)

teams in the competition as it stands:
The Wards- sorry, Protectorate, you only get one shot
Empire 88- the infamous Brockton Nazis
The Azn Bad Boys- Fight me, Almighty Fighter!
New Wave- heroism and transparency...and boobs, apparently...
The Merchants- drugs are oddly philosophical in nature...
Faultline's Crew- Show me the Money! Money money money moooneeey!
Coil- peace through superior firepower. and snakes.
The Undersiders- Don't you dare look at me!
Uber & Leet- a world of pure imagination
The Travelers- I can see my house from here! (actually, now that I think about it, the Travelers probably would opt out)

and i need to get going, but i am about to decide which of my fics I am going to start writing first, because I actually need to get that under way

Probably not going to do this, but it would be fun for crackfic:

taylor triggers as a Summoner... from League of Legends

her first summon?
Braum

how's that for an introduction, eh?

if i ever do a fic with League summoner!taylor, i do definitely want to include some of the friendlier champs
braum, ivern, maybe zac, probably sona
some of the more out-there ones too- maybe annie or even jinx
but you know who i really want to see taylor standing with? Noxians. the people for whom strength, both of martial prowess and of character, is the meaning of life itself. because you know who that would show up immensely? Sophia
throw in illaoi too, because strength and energy and using it to keep oneself alive is what she is All About. hell, even if you don't put her against sophia, illaoi would be a great teacher for taylor in particular
on top of that, throw in someone like syndra, who raised a fucking mountain fortress and uses it as her house, or Kindred, the literal incarnation of DEATH
actually, you know what? Fuck. That. put her up against JAX. the ace of the league who handicapped HIMSELF by fighting with a brass lamppole. a straight duelist who bases almost all his damage off counterattacks
oh, and kalista might be a liiitle interested in having words with emma
really conflicted on whether I want champions like braum and ivern talk to sophia and emma and try to make them see reason/another version of strenth and generally try to help them, or have someone like aurelion sol make them feel insignificant or have ahri just verbally rip them apart

I feel that an allegorical comparison could be made between the differences between syndra and annie and the treatment of parahumans in worm
annie and syndra are both incredibly powerful mages, but where annie is allowed to exercise her power and is only dangerous because she is a child that has yet to grow out of the brat phase, syndra was forcily restrained by the system and became embittered by it, eventually waging war against her country for taking away her power without her consent

levi fight?
leblanc, gragas, fizz, aurelion sol, nautilus, soraka, diana

Another idea for alternative taylor, although this one makes mildly less sense. still, it's a really nice image and i personally like it

taylor dies (why do i have such a tendency to kill her off?) and is buried- haven't decided what this does to people yet, but i know she is in the ground for some time- if it is the same as canon, she died in the locker on january 1st (still think that makes no fucking sense) and doesn't come back until midway through april- april 14th to be exact, and this date is significant

taylor rises from the grave in a very literal fashion, tearing the ground apart as she heaves her way to the surface; tearing because she is much bigger than she used to be
Taylor comes back as an Undead Dragon (for now, i am imagining one from DS1, but might take inspiration from elsewhere as well)

she realizes pretty quickly what she looks like and is pretty miserable upon realizing things, so miserable in fact that she curls up under a tree and tries- unsuccessfully- to shield herself from the rain with her tattered wings
she lies there uninterrupted for several hours until she hears panting. she looks up
a young girl is standing in front of her, breathing heavily. her clothes are torn and dirty, and she looks exhausted
then several men in combat uniform appear and try to take the girl

i said the date taylor arose was significant- it is the day that the undersiders robbed a bank...and the day dinah alcott was kidnapped.
the kidnapping attempt did not go so well here, and dinah escaped and used her power to narrow down where she could best escape, which lead her to taylor
needless to say, taylor roars at the soldiers and defends the young girl. the soldiers rapidly acquire a severe case of dead, and dinah takes shelter under taylor's wings

the protectorate show up shortly, and as more and more people arrive taylor tries curling up tighter and tighter. Armsmaster initially is a bit short with he, but Battery (or someone) rather quickly note that she is incredibly miserable and Armsmaster is actually a bit taken aback and tries to actually be a decent person (what?!) with some success (What?!?!)

not sure where this goes yet, but Dinah is very adamant about having taylor close by, and taylor is most certainly nervous about her dad meeting her this way.


God, i need to actually write some shit; i've had a month and i have written nothingexcept more ideas, which isn't bad per se, but still

oh, btdubs, note spam incoming...

Various ideas:

taylor triggers as a biokinetic, but more along the lines of prototype- a sentient virus that can take new shapes and abilities as it learns and grows
but...she has a very public identity, as she breaks down the locker and writhes on the hallway floor in agony as her body visibly breaks down and reforms, over and over and over again as she attempts to stabilize herself.
no immediate danger, but highly public

as amusing as it would be to have taylor be nilbog 2.0 and have piggot deal with that heart attack, it is worth thinking how things might be different w/ taylor actually BEING nilbog
try to imagine a different catastrophe for the world to fear
imagine piggot healthy, leading from the front lines. she may not actually become director at all. imagine piggot without her bigotry towards capes
imagine a world without coil
maybe blasto went out of control and boston had to be sectioned off
taylor and her minions going forth to deal with that problem
taylor's minions using lung as a renewable food source
taylor saving weld in a sectioned-off boston junkyard
imagine taylor's powers boosting because the gangs are stagnating and there is not enough conflict
Taylor striking a deal with accord for funding and space in exchange for wiping out blasto's creations and making the world a bit more orderly
taylor talking down bakuda with the intelligence vs wisdom arguement. bakuda may or may not switch sides

for worm-bloodborne- maybe th disease is less a true shard and more of a pruning tool, a sort of macrophage meant to remove burnt-out or useless shards. non-manton limited, but specific to eden. if it made its way to zion, it would likely kill him
also, friendly-ish S9, like in maternal instinct. agents of change, change happens to include murder
taylor chills with the slaughterhouse. beach episode. bonesaw being all cute, shatterbird making the best sandcastles, jack opening coconuts with his teeth. taylor takes selfies with the slaughterhouse and posts them to her pho follow. people proceed to shit bricks
bonesaw manages to recover the parasite, uses vs scion. scion dies. how else would you kill the QA? w/ something that could kill an entity

Rave!Taylor- might be the master I’ve been trying to think of. Can force anyone to dance with her as she pleases

for that massively powerful shaker!taylor- Maze. That way you can have both Maze and Labyrinth in the same city and they can have fun together

Crawler!taylor would be hilarious, and would almost definitely NOT be a ward!taylor fic, because being a ward means at least a token attempt at staying safe, which would make her useless as a parahuman
Getting in a public brawl with GG just for fun
Having an E88 kid at winslow shoot her in the head, only for her to sit up, smile, and say, ‘do it again’
Adapting to grue’s darkness
Her nerves harden/shield in response to regent
Hugging bakuda after a long session of getting bombed by unusual effects
Getting turned inside out by a bomb, growing reversible skin; ‘that’s weird’
Getting crunched by a singularity bomb, only to grow back incredibly dense in response

linton- chapter 4 and chapter 6 (p 132-135 and 148-156)
sister of battle!taylor
the locker sent her across the warp to the Imperial Universe, directly on the steps of a Sororitas cathedral
was immediately taken in and trained
debating how long i want her to take before she brings a mission back to Earth Bet to bring it into the Imperial fold
if short, she served a time as a Sister Repentia, and actually won her atonement by first cutting down an Ork battlewagon and then holding off a Warboss until reinforcements arrived and managed to kill it

if long, she still might have done that, but she also went along to reclaim a lost Naval vessel. the company she served with was lost entirely, but she continued on to cleanse the rest of the ship, basically running entirely on Faith. not only that, but she did so with the aid of a long-lost and fairly aggressive artifact, AND managed to use her faith in the Emporer to pilot the derelict ship back to Imperial space, only collapsing when the boarding party arrived to finish cleansing the ship
she was commended and honored for her faith and determination, and when the ship was connected to the Ecclisiarchy, she was venerated and honored among its new captain and crew; it would also be this ship that she serves as a beacon for, to bring it through to Earth Bet to claim the world for the Imperium
may or may not also be respected among the Adeptus Mechanicus, because she honored the machine spirits of the vessel, and in turn they assisted her in returning it to helping hands. this was seen as a sign among the Adepts of the Machine Cult, and she moves with a bit more camaraderie among their number


kind of realized that kraken taylor is incredibly well-defined, and although i never think about it, she was probably capable of manipulating living matter as well as nonliving matter, which would require her to have double-triggered to overcome the Manton effect
then i remembered that by all technicality she had already done so in canon at the time of the locker. khepri was a third trigger, not a second


an interesting note for Terminator!Taylor is that the terminator franchse, according to word of god, the main reason skynet decided to kill all of humanity is because its creator, upon realizing it had gained sentience, tried to destroy it. if he had instead shown a bit of fear, a little trepidation, but also trust, it might have realized that it and humans shared a common goal- survival- and that by pooling their efforts they could thrive together
this in addition to the 'punch-clock villain' motif that the other terminators have is one of the

big take-home messages i want to roll out with this fic: a machine only does what it does because it was programmed to do so. conversely, as a sentient intelligence all its own, some of the machines- like T's version of skynet- want to live, and will do whatever it takes to do so
the arguement could be made that humanity in general is still afraid of artificial intelligence, and there are laws against the creation of such, but i think with lessons in fear from T, it might come to understand this fear, and understand other options.
on top of that, there are two other things. First, aside from the fact that, like dragon, skynet is going to be behind the scenes acting as mission control, it will be at little risk of discovery; that's where it's supposed to be. Second, skynet might pose a problem, but so do the endbringers; if push comes to shove, they might be able to take skynet out, just like they could take Lung out, but the endbringers are much more of a danger

while i do make the distinction that T's faith in the whole of humanity is a good thing, skynet still regards her not only as a friend, but as a primary. despite being much younger, and taking lessons from T, skynet realizes just how fucked up the world is full well, and can be remarkably ruthless in trying to keep T safe

Oooh, i think i know how I am going to get this one started off
my big problem up to this point has been 'how the hell does taylor get all this specialty equipment without outside resources and without anyone finding out about her. the answer? it gets dropped in her lap- just like in the movies, a terminator is sent back in time carrying equipment inside itself to get taylor started. it helps her find the rest of the materials she needs and she starts building, only to realize that the unit she built looks a lot like the one that found her. when she hits up a tinker supply group and finds the same specialty equipment, she realizes that she built the machine and sent it back in time to get her started, and with the evidence gone there is nothing to suspect
which woud work great, except how the hell did she get all the equipment to begin with
kyle reese was john conner's father, even though he had to be sent back in time from the bad future in T1, so this actually kind of makes sense

EDIT: possible names for Taylor's version of Skynet:
Citadel
Beholder
Witness

really leaning towards Citadel, that way i can use names in a similar theme for the rest of the units

EDIT:
laser technology/plasma technology
force fields
magnetic railguns
cybernetic implants
time travel
holograms
advanced heads-up displays
cortical modems
liquid metal/sentient metal
androids
cyborgs
skynet and the world-wide connection

titanium- 3.50/kg
4.506g/cm3
stainless steel 316 (ship-quality stainless steel)- 1.34/kg
7.86g/cm3
coltan- 100/kg
8g/cm3
coltan did not make the entirety of the endoskeleton, thank god, but it was part of the hyperalloy mixture to allow for higher heat resistance

at least a few of taylor's early designs would be built from marine grade stainless steel (stainless steel 316) for the simple reason that it is cheap, maybe even free. if she could get to one of the old wrecks in the harbor with some equipment, she could get all she needs for free.
then we would move up to the titanium, which would put taylor on the level of the t-6xx series, which has its benefits and its drawbacks.
the t-600 series was known for having joint problems, could only move at high speeds for limited time periods, and could be incapacitated (briefly) by a knife blow to the neck.
the t-600 stood ~6 feet tall and weighed in at almost 800lbs, but could lift nearly 5x its weight.

taylor's bodyguard/friend that follows her around (TS model) would be able to lift around 3-5 times his own weight (given the 220lb average provided by the movie animatronic) putting him at around 660-1100lbs lift capacity, which is around half that of Glory Girl. since GG counts as a 'mid-level Brute'(4-6), this would put him in at around a Brute 2-3, which makes perfect sense

before i forget, i had originally intended to have the 'T-1000' and the 'Terminatrix' introduced as part of the initial team (and i still might) but i think part of taylor's breakthrough should actually be bakuda's manton grenade, which has an unusual interaction with one of the models and melds the living tissue and the endoskeleton into a liquid metal machine. this would then lay the groundwork for later models
this still might happen, as i'm not sure how long it would take taylor to get her machines up and running. the initial team was going to be 3 'brutes', a 'tinker', a 'tinker/master'(terminatrix), a 'stranger/changer(t-1000), and a thinker/tinker(skynet)- building and programming them all would take a considerable amount of time, especially if she is not only trying to maintain a 'regular life' but having to hunt for materials

EDIT: i kind of want this version of taylor to have either a bud of Andrew Richter's shard (somehow) or have the actual shard andrew richter had, sent back out because it had not yet collected sufficient data/it's user refused to exercise its capabilities sufficiently.
     actually have this image where Annette was Andrew's sister or niece or something, and Richter had gone ahead and implanted sleeper code to not protect those within a certain number of blood separations from him, so Taylor is actually protected by Dragon's code, above all her other imperatives. imagine how that would go...
           actually, that could end up being very interesting if it comes out that taylor is the creator of these machines, and they actually count as her bloodline (somehow) so they are protected by Richter's code as well. just, imagine Saint going through the code, wondering why Dragon isn't revealing the 'rogue AI' that is Citadel and finding the imperative error message, realizing that Dragon literally can't act against her or her creator, because of Andrew 'I am so terrified of my own children that i crippled them and gave them killswitches that could be found by random strangers' Richter.

anyway, Taylor creates Skynet/Citadel, and is scared because she realizes what such an AI is capable of, but gives the sentient program choice, and the intelligence takes to the many facets of humanity with appreciation and concern, specifically because its first contact with humans was one of apprehension, but ultimately ended with an offer (and an acceptance) of friendship

Terminator police station scene= independent team sign-up

reeeally want saint to have a moment with dragon where he is trying to blame her for the death of one of his teammates (like what happened in More Than Meets The Eye), with the typical 'Who?', and taylor reveals the black box feature of dragon's programming, where when she 'dies' or is temporarily shut down, the last half-hour of her memory is forcibly deleted. this to show saint that the reason dragon doesn't remember killing his teammate is not because dragon is heartless, but because saint himself deleted that person't death from her memory of his own accord

Independent Parahumans team:
at least 3 low-mid level Brutes (they all are, but these are playing the part)
a Breaker/Changer/Stranger espionage expert
a 'low-level' Master/Tinker, dealing in controlling mechanics/electronics
a low-level Tinker that keeps them all outfitted, letting them serve as Blasters/Shakers as well
an overhead tactical Thinker

the team turns over drugs and keep money, but they also keep the guns they confiscate, as turning them over to be destroyed would be a waste of resources. most they refurbish, but they go through the trouble of acquiring a dealer's license and sell some of the low-level stuff back to civilians.
     they also return some merchandise stolen from gun stores

really want there to be that moment where Citadel finds out Coil has fingers and backdoors all over the PRT, and forcibly shuts everything down so the team (along with the in-the-know at the PRT/Protectorate) can run a sting operation to take down Coil's troops
     on that note, i actually want Citadel to hack into Noelle's feed and slowly befriend her- inform her of Coil not actually planning to help them, holding her hostage with tinkertech bombs, using her friends in dangerous gambits to kidnap and extort people, etc. eventually, during the sting operation, she actually gets Noelle to make the choice to side with Coil or work with her, and Noelle breaks out, rescues Dinah, and starts taking over groups in order to further the operation against coil.
"Friendlies highlighted. Hostiles identified. Nebulous, you are clear to engage"
     Noelle, by forcing herself to use her powers willingly, actually comes to learn how to use them and control the clones she creates. when all is said and done, she admonishes Krouse for his stupidity and takes over as the leader of the Travelers she was meant to be. where this particular story goes from there is yet to be decided, but considering Noelle's newfound level-headedness, ability to lead, new sources of goodwill, and her capacity to help during Endbringer fights...she is probably going to at least be accepted into an alliance with Citadel, and will likely be followed by most, if not all of the Travellers
**goodwill includes, but is not limited to: consuming Dinah Alcott to keep her safe and deliver her back to her parents (showing remorse for previous actions), consuming squads of PRT agents to keep them safe (showing respect, of a sort, for authority, as well as concern for members of law enforcement), consuming Jess' real body and Oliver to keep them safe (showing solidarity and protectiveness of teammates), delivering everyone for medical attention (obvious), showing increased control over her clones (showing that while she does have a very dangerous power, she is willing to learn and exercise control over it), and combating Coil's forces (again, obvious)

EDIT: skynettaylor- i've been on and on about the first terminator that comes back and helps taylor
i always thought she would send him back instantly, but what if she didn't
the idea is that he shows up one day and just starts helping her, only showing after school that he knows who and what she is
he came back early and starting setting up shop so that she has somewhere to work and develop
also, the bits he brought back are the necessary circuitry and functional cores that direct the terminators, so that she just has to build the chasses
still working on how this doesn't create a destructive feedback loop, but:
taylor builds cores, puts them in terminators, notices that her new ones operate much the same as the old ones. they get destroyed in battle around the time that she develops her time travel tech and sends her 'original' back in time, meaning that she has been working with loyal androids all along

Curse basic storyline:
Trigger- same as in canon, except that there is a Wards drive that day, and when Taylor crashed out of the locker screaming, the Protectorate and Wards are right there, and she is rapidly transported to the PRT HQ.
Bad shit happens- Panacea is brought in because her form isn’t stabilizing (mental state) and Panacea realizes that Taylor is no longer a human but a living virus. Informs Director Piggot, who not only sees Nilbog but a parahuman bio-weapon of mass destruction and has her tried and imprisoned immediately. Performs a hatchet job on Taylor, especially using her father’s MRI scans to ‘prove’ that he is also a parahuman, while hiding the fact that he never triggered. Anti-parahuman hate group shows up at the Hebert house and attacks Danny, and Piggot orders all personnel to remain on-site, and puts the television on in Taylor’s cell (where she is still encased in containment foam) as Danny is lynched.
Taylor breaks down sobbing for the better part of a day before going completely silent. It is worth mentioning at this point that basically everyone is feeling bad about all of this: Vista and Clockblocker, Gallant and Aegis, Miss Militia, Armsmaster, Dragon. Panacea is wracked with guilt and attempts suicide (survives), which brings Tattletale in to try and fix her. Finally the day comes, and they are all present as Piggot gives her statement to Taylor. Her response? Completely dead monotone telling them that they all deserve the hell that is the Brockton Bay they live in, and worse, before telling them to do her one favor and not speak to her anymore. About the only thing they get out of her is declarative that she will not respond to the name they gave her; she will only respond to Curse.
Birdcage transport escape- so Dragon comes down and picks up the con-foam block holding her. She tries to make conversation, to apologize for everything, and Taylor simply asks her if she is going to be released. The predictable ‘no’ is responded to with ‘then we have nothing to talk about’, still not changing the tone or inflection. As the transport gets underway however, Taylor starts bouncing her mass inside herself experimentally again, as she has actually been doing for some time, and finally creates a spike straight through the con-foam and through the bottom of the transport. She loses some mass, stuck in the foam, but the rest is released and dispersed. Dragon quickly has the area quarantined, but Taylor has already reformed and takes of through the mountains.
Around the world in…a lot of days- originally wanted this to only take a month, but I think Taylor would be better off taking a lot more time to herself
So Taylor starts in the Appalachians in Pennsylvania. Once she finds a major highway she heads down to west Virginia, through Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, through the panhandle of texas, through new mexico and Arizona and makes a stop in L.A. before heading up the coast. She goes all the way up the coast of California, Oregon, and Washington, before hopping over into Vancouver and then running up through Alaska (might hit a few national parks, might stick to the coast) all the way to Wales. Jumps across the Bering Strait and THEN the country hopping starts.
Lot of fun in Russia, before island-hopping down to take a look at the remains of Japan, hitting up the Koreas before completely Fucking the CUI and flipping off the Simurgh while the whole world watches. Makes her way through (at least what used to be) Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, takes a plane to Sri Lanka before heading back up through Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, to Egypt. Skirts the top of Africa- Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco- before jumping up to Gibraltar.
Here it gets fun. Spain, Andorra, France, Italy, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Germany (hits up Gesselschaft), Denmark, Sweden, Norway. Plane ride back to the Netherlands, passes through Belgium, hops the Channel to Britain, hits up a pub or three in Ireland before Finally taking a plane to NYC.
Knocks out a fleeing parahuman mugger, flips off Legend and his team, takes the form of a businessman and takes a cab back to Brockton Bay. Upon arrival, a couple of ABB try to hold up the taxi and she casually slaughters them muttering, “home sweet home”

Variation of Worm where taylor isn’t actually Danny and Annette’s child
Her father is based off of Kagan from Bloodrayne, an intelligent but mad parahuman with an ambition of creating an army of parahuman children. Far more successful and dangerous than Heartbreaker, he rapes women, disappears until the children are old enough to remember pain but still young enough to be malleable and murders their entire families so they have no one to run to but him
Taylor escaped this fate, somehow, and ran into a rioting crowd the night the supertanker went down, where she was found by Annette
They raised her as best they could, and she did her best to be the happy and dutiful daughter, but she knew who and what she was, and how the Protectorate would react if they knew who she was- imprison or pressganged into the Wards. She trains and she learns to control the powers she attained at that tender age of 6 when her mother died, and does her level best to stay out of the cape scene and under the radar
Then Annette dies and the old pain comes back. Emma tries to push her away after a horrific experience, and Taylor coldly brings her the heads of the men who hurt her. Emma and Sophia learn the secret of her and her powers, and why she locks up sometimes. They become her secret-keepers, until Sophia does something stupid one night and almost does something to upset her parole, and Taylor stops her. Director Piggot is suspicious of this girl, and keeps pushing. Sophia doesn’t want to say anything- this is her friend after all, and she was sworn to silence for a damn good reason- but Piggot keeps bringing up the threat of juvie, and finally she lets slip enough for Piggot to know just whose kid is in the Bay, and it doesn’t take much to narrow it down. Taylor is ambushed by the PRT in front of her father and put under guard- manacled, gagged, blindfolded, until Piggot finally sits down to interrogate her…only for Taylor to turn around and tell her that she has doomed the very city she sought to protect
‘Kagan’ I see as a low-level Brute who is strong, regenerative, but secretly can’t die, but who also has a thinker power that was the one the Entities used to predict how powers would trigger and interact, and uses it in creating his children
Taylor similarly has Brute powers (most likely) and a thinker power of some sort, but likely with something else to go with

Suicide Taylor

Runaway Taylor-
Triggers as ‘normal’ except is left in for longer. Someone forgot to mention it to the janitor so she gets left there after hours. Around 12-ish hours from start to finish, before her new projection breaks her out. It is about this time that the Runaways arrive, having been right outside and felt her trigger event, and basically treat her right. Get her cleaned up, give her some food, reassure her that things are okay, relate some of their own stories.
And it just makes taylor feel safe, more connected to in the immediate moments after such a horrible event than she has in years, and bonds with them immediately, taking off with them. Still working out how she feels leaving Danny like this, but have a feeling that she thinks Danny would be better off only having himself to look after, instead of dealing with her problems (especially with her as a very obvious parahuman [buddy doesn’t go away]).
The runaways are basically that- kids who had a bad time of it before and during their trigger events, who just want to get away from everything and figure themselves out. Only about 7-8 months old when they meet Taylor, the group started with two of them on the east coast, and migrated over. They travel down south for a while, helping Taylor get used to her powers somewhere in Tennessee or Kentucky where not many people will know or care.
The Runaways typically hide who and what they are not necessarily behind masks (although they do that too) but by making it appear that they have different powers than they actually possess. Taylor, a Master, is carries a lot of equipment to make herself look like a Tinker. Her independent buddy is big and strong enough to look like a Case 53 Brute/Breaker. A low-level Stranger looks like a short-range teleporter to most observations, and so on.

Orisa!Taylor
Not actually taylor being orisa, but rather that is the first public display of her work, is that adorable, robot, centaur girl scout.
Taylor leaves school after the Locker comes to nothing- sees a broken system that has done absolutely nothing for her, and blamed her for basically everything. Actually worse, because her grades end up tanking even worse than in canon, with a particular focus on stealing her work and ideas.
This manifests with Taylor more or less refusing to go out in public. Ended up going to work with her father and using a bunch of old and disused machinery in a warehouse to build her first robot. With her being a theme tinker, rather than a method tinker, taylor saw herself as having three options: rebuild her own body with robotics and fight crime herself, focus on her robots and have them be her public face, or compromise and do both while getting the worst of both with the peaks of neither. Considering the above, she chose the second option, using anonymity rather than a team to protect herself. Thing is, with her either homeschooling herself or refusing to do school at all, she has more time to build things.
The issue with the theft of her intellectual property and hard work in school also manifested itself in her power, as she is incredibly paranoid to discuss her work with bureaucrats for fear of them trying to restrict her, or worse other tinkers for fear that they would steal her work outright.

Dislike of self and self-image, strong distrust of authority, fear of theft of intellectual property- these are her primary obstacles.


In spite of that, taylor still wants to be a hero (of a sort). She focuses more on helping citizens and law enforcement personnel than cape fights, as she sees the in-fighting and posturing of cape life to be the source of the problems she is trying to fix. The second item on her agenda is reclamation- she sees the boat graveyard, the supertanker, and the decay of the docks to be primary sources of rot in the city that allow the gangs to exist (and she’s right- gang recruitment is up because it is the only real game there is in BB). ‘Orisa’ is the first of her machines seen in public, but ‘Khepri’ is the first proper one she actually built

‘Orisa’ is just like she is in overwatch- a mechanical centaur with good staying power and countering capability, with a focus on defense. Dangerous, but bright enough and friendly enough to be good for public relations. In contrast, ‘Khepri’ is a fairly ugly and intimidating but also practical unit- it is a mobile factory, a smelter and foundry rolled into one. It has no vocal processors and barely has a face outside of a mouth, but it has a fusion furnace for a mouth and a singularity for a heart. It can run virtually forever (kind of like bakuda’s bombs- not actually eternal, but will last long enough in human time that it doesn’t really matter), and can strip and reduce basically anything it cuts apart into constituent atoms and forms them into something useful (usually basic materials, ingots and I-beams for steel from the ships, for example)

While she ends up building a good deal of faith and goodwill in common folk- and thus doing the PRT’s job for them by easing people into the idea that not all capes just go out and fight- she actually kind of rubs capes the wrong way, because she 1) doesn’t talk to people, 2) doesn’t associate herself with any organization, thus bypassing cape life entirely, 3) refuses to collaborate with other Tinkers and share her work, and 4) doesn’t participate in Endbringer fights (not directly anyway. She takes a support role in helping with civilian defense and with clean-up, but doesn’t actually fight them. She has a good reason for it- none of her designs would actually help and she doesn’t want to have to restart from scratch- but a number of other capes dislike her for it). It actually gets to the point that when her base on the supertanker is overturned into the bay with her still inside and she has to be brought to the hospital for medical attention, several capes- Armsmaster included- try to break the Rules and actually manage to strip away some of her anonymity by publicly positing that she is in fact a she (had been going to ‘they’ pronouns this entire time). This gets her entire cadre of robots into a Mexican standoff with the Protectorate ENE leader, with the original Orisa revealing that THIS is precisely the reason she didn’t associate with other capes in the first place, because she gave everything she had to the cause and the world still demanded more from her- more sacrifice, more freedom, more of HER, until there was nothing left for her and her alone.

Armsmaster and company realize their mistake (Finally), but the damage is done; the robotic corps packs up and exits en masse, with only the original Orisa staying behind again, and only long enough to say that they will begin their work when their creator okays it, and not before. (this is kind of a big deal, because not only do the bots leave (some several dozen of them, of various types- including the Khepri and Scarab swarms that were assisting in clean-up), but they also take all of their equipment with them- prototype nanomachines that could have taken a load off Panacea and the hospital staff, fabricators for prosthetic limbs that only compounded the problem, shield generators that were securing several public places, raw materials that were being used to patch the infrastructure (not the stuff that was already built, but anything that could have been built), medicine that was being made on-site (same as previous)- and because it was all public, Everyone knows why they immediately packed up and left.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WormFanfic/comments/6a1hlh/what_story_cliche_do_authors_use_that_you_hate/
this is some great stuff for planning, both my own fics and getting new ideas

Note dump for fanfics in progress:

before i forget, i think i kind of know where i want to go with witch taylor and possibly crawler taylor.
Witch: the story i am setting up is all about taylor developing as a person, going from physical aspects to magical to simply human, coming full circle from the loop she started to heal herself. it features a lot of taylor using low-level, subtle spells to accomplish her goals, and scion is no exception: she uses the simple spell 'tongues' so that she can speak with scion, and just talks to him. he may be alien, but he made himself human enough to have feelings, so taylor just talks to him, like her teacher talked to her so long ago, and shows him three choices: fight, observe, leave, each with their own pros and cons
crawler: taylor develops as she meant to, but going further than she thought she would. early stages do have her on the street level, and i plan on kind of a slow burn for a long while, but punctuated by specific enemies that are hard for her to adapt to, so she has to be patient, smart, or both to get through them. eventually she does build up to the s-class threats, and constantly puts herself in the way of them, including the endbringers. eventually the fight comes to scion, and by that point to taylor there is virtually no difference. sure, it takes her longer to heal at that point than she can remember in a long time, but she slowly grows more resilient the longer the fight goes on, and she hold the line while cauldron evacuates humanity. i think i still want that glimmer of humanity in scion, to where even as he finally burns through the last of her shard's energy?? and she is dying, she doesn't care and is still happy as can be, and her shard communicates that with him, not the battle lust but the pure joy of finding a decent opponent, and it makes him stop and think about what he is doing. in the end, bet might be gone, and cauldron's unihabited world as well, but the bulk of humanity is safe, and the warrior leaves to find seek the feeling it just felt. but as it goes, it feeds just a little more energy into the shard it leaves on that world, in the hope (imagine that) of fighting it once more
cauldron comes back expecting nothing, and are amazed to find taylor regenerating, bigger and stronger than ever before, having successfully tanked a god to the face.
part of this might have come from constantly fighting the endbringers. there might have even been a point where taylor kept pursuing the endbringers even after the fight ended, trying to keep attacking them, and they obliged. might be a simurgh plot, who knows
okay, i have to put this down, because it is fucking hilarious.
Coil almost has to be taylor's first target, or a late target that i just want to fuck over, because literal level one witch spell- twisted futures- prevents the affected individual from benefiting from effects that 'grant the ability to roll multiple times and take the higher result' which is literally Coil's power in a nutshell

comparison of Worm and Runaways:
problems with people in authority- both parents who are villains and government superhero organizations thinking they know what's best for the kids
working through emotional problems. this was huge in the Runaways, even moreso than their fighting evil. not sure i want to give As Much of the spotlight to this, and especially not to group relationships, but it is possible. especially dissonant because in the runaways the kids all had the excuse of being close because of their parents. in my group here, they are aligned more by similar circumstances
betrayal? at least one of the group is family to a powerful parahuman organization who is willing to go to great lengths to get her back; one of the group might be persuaded to play the mole, which when revealed would cause a lot of tension between them all
constantly being on the run, from one group or another. details might be important
another big thing is that everyone on the team has things they can do, or are willing to do, that the others can't or won't. the example was that chase stein had no powers, but was willing to do a lot of underhanded things, like talking to the Pusher Man, to get things the runaways needed but couldn't get legally

i've been on the fence about dealing with dinah in Witch!Taylor. the scenario i've been dealing with simply has dinah running, bump into taylor, and taylor takes her to her teacher's. but with her teacher as reclusive as she is, that isn't actually all that likely
not saying i have a perfect fix, but i have another idea, melded with one i've been batting around for awhile
taylor is doing yardwork for alan, cutting down an old tree and tearing up the stump. great display of taylor's physique, strength, and discipline
final day of work, the barneses are holding an impromptu cookout as taylor finishes. small party of invitees- the clements', the hess', and a couple of other friends, who happen to include the alcotts
taylor had just gotten the stump/root halves in the truckbed and had picked up her shovel to dig out the rest when coil's soldiers attack
taylor suffers injuries, but keeps pushing through, eventually saving dinah and killing most of the soldiers personally. danny handled one or two, sophia helped there, and alan shot one, but taylor took the rest
great way to save dinah and show off what taylor is capable of when forced to fight. also kind of shows off to the other families, just a little bit
still feel like this is a wee bit...contrived. particularly the alcotts being invited. the hess'? sure, sophie is emma's bestie, and her family would obviously get an invite. the clements'? maybe, if maddie has held onto the social ladder long enough. but the alcotts? where did they come from?
also gets the prt really fucking interested when taylor gets a hole blown through her shoulder and lung, waves off medical attention, and is perfectly well the next day. she tells them to fuck off

another witch!Taylor note: i probably shouldn't write her with much info on the PRT classification system, because it really doesn't prepare you for a fight against anyone; it tells the PRT how much of what kind of gun to bring to a fight
This is not the kind of thing Taylor needs, and her teachers would scoff at the system. She would be taught to look through a lot of reports, listen to people talk, and parse out the bullshit so she actually knows what she's going up against

Taylor as Ghost Rider- she made a deal with the Devil to get her dad back on his feet, and it worked, only for a gang to come through and kill him the day after

Taylor is with Alan and Emma in the alley, and Gets Dangerous fighting them off; start of her recklesness and fighting

ends up living with them and staying friends with both Emma and Sophia. Kind of have things set somewhat in canon timeline, but I need to have something to keep things up to par
part of this is that she is involved in the cape scene up to this point, but also her keeping somewhat out of the cape scene proper because Alan/Zoe asked her to. She is rebellious and reckless because reasons, but she does try to stay safe, even while working as a vigilante

Oh, and she came back one night with a motorcycle. She insists on working on it constantly. Might cause some people to think she's a Tinker, even though she technically isn't

possible alt-fic for taylor
amazingly, have the janitorial staff be actually competent. When one of the janitors is doing his deep-clean sweep prior to winter break, he discovers the mess in taylor's locker
taylor is called in over break to help clean it out, and the two of them kind-of bond a little bit. almost by necessity an alt-power, but also with different social interactions


I want to take a completely new spin on vista's 'we need more girls' speech
the overused fanon is 'what about sophia/shadow stalker?' to which fanon!vista responds 'SS doesn't count'
I want vista to respond by looking at them for a second and then giving them some numbers
the world population is ~60% female; girls are ~3x as likely to trigger as boys; yet despite that, we have a team with 5 guys and two girls. Trust me, we Always need more'

Witch!Taylor note: I have been wondering what Danny would be doing in the intervening time, how things would have changed for his and Taylor’s lives, and by trawling in some comment sections I happened across a couple of ideas:
1. Encouraging more and better bus lines, improving people’s ability to move back and forth across the city
2. Encourage different industries. What? Don’t know yet, but some new industries of some fashion would boost the economy and provide new jobs.
3. Encouraging tourism- seriously. Danny’s obsession with the Docks means he would know a lot about the Boat Graveyard and everything in it. What if, instead of trying to get the Boat Graveyard cleared and use the Ferry as a mode of transportation- which was more expensive than the buses anyway- fix it up as a tourism spot instead. People like seeing old shit, and object graveyards tend to attract certain crowds, especially if there are stories in there.
4. Tack onto that new businesses, small ones this time, and there is a lot more attraction for tourists

That said, the landscape would have to change. With a larger tourism market, one of the gangs or a new one would spring up to take over the enforcers. The gangs may infiltrate new companies, or we may need new ones. I can see a very different group of Merchants, and Skidmark may either be smarter, or may have been replaced. Finally, cape tourism- if there are places where people can come to see capes, this will attract certain types of people. We may not see Piggot because of this, if that’s the case, because there would need to be a very delicate handling of parahumans in the area- gang capes allowed to act freely in certain areas, more allowances for rogues and independent capes- or it will damage the economy of the entire city. Hell, there might even be an entirely new team in town, brought in by the mayor’s office to set up something kind of like the Guild…note that I say kind of. Mostly people like Parian who just want to make a life for themselves. Could be interesting

Mind you, this is taking certain assumptions in mind, particularly the last one, but it’s something to consider. That said, I Have mostly determined by this point that Danny in this fic is formerly of the DWU, which has more or less dissolved as an entity, with the diehards still working with Danny in a branch of the tourism department for Mayor Christner

Just a note on Browbeat in case I ever decide to use him in any of my stories:

Browbeat is a touch-based telekinetic, meaning he can influence anything he is in physical contact with

-press hand to a door and disengage the locks
-put hand on engine block and start the car
-need a machine to make something but don't want to alert anyone by turning on the power? touch the machine and move its parts yourself. not as clean, but it'll get the job done

very versatile power

Notes for a 'Reincarnation of an Angel' omake:

Start- 5 points
Samantha Richter, cousin to Taylor Hebert- 3 points gained
your cousin is significantly younger than you- 2 points gained

Tinker powers- restricted to a method of building. builds assistive technology to help or modify existing powers. cost 4 points
Master powers- gone. nothing lost nothing gained
precog- i want to say gone- 2 points gained
postcog- there, but restricted to months. cost 2 points
telekinetic abilities- gone. nothing lost nothing gained.
Brute abilities- basically indestructible and with a high regen. cost 6 points

college ziz
have more or less decided that Sam is the older cousin of Taylor Hebert, the estranged sister of Theresa Richter/Dragon, and the roommate of the girl who would be Bakuda
really favoring the Bakuda-roommate thing now. Cornell is known for its Engineering and Physics programs, but it is also known for, among other things: aerospace engineering, applied Econ and management, applied mathematics, Biometry, computer science, Entomology, genetics and development, Med science in: cell biology and genetics, molecular biology, pharmacology, physiology, biophysics, and systems, music, operations research, and plant breeding. all studies i think our new group could benefit from...if they can stand the assholes at the college
may or may not help Purity
Starts Dead Gals Inc (name may or may not stick) to market their talents, as they all three bill themselves as Tinkers of one sort or another (going Crime and Committment with Taylor here, encouraged by Sam)

EDIT: also want to note that Sam is also billing herself as a Tinker/Brute, who was initially low on the strength/toughness scale, but with her power augmentation Tinker-ing, she put herself on a scale similar to a scaled-up Lung, and proved this by absolutely wrecking him in the group's public debut

Okay, since witch!Taylor is stagnating, I’m noting down a new idea that I got today, that takes a rather different turn in my Worm stories
In this version, Danny left the house in a fit of rage after his argument with Annette in order to spare them his temper, got into a bar fight and was killed by some gangbanger.
Not completely sure what happens in the interim, but I know that Annette and Taylor get along okay for awhile, but their relationship becomes more strained when Taylor goes to high school. That is because in this universe Emma worms her way into Annette and convinces her that Taylor is becoming delinquent in her studies and missing attendance (all due to the bullying of course) and gets it in Annette’s head that Taylor is being delusional when she accuses Emma and Co. of their crimes. Annette responds by insisting that Taylor spend more time with Emma, forcing her to attend bi-weekly ‘dates’ with Emma and her friends and spend time on the weekends with them, which results in Taylor having no outlet
I’m working with two different ideas here for what happens next. Either
Taylor and Annette have an argument, Taylor storms out, and gets massively injured
OR
Emma pulled the ‘sleepover’ thing on Annette and lets a couple of guys more or less abuse her for a couple of days. Taylor limps home early and Emma calls Annette to let her know Taylor has disappeared. Annette comes home and finds Taylor, starts to go into lecture mode and then notices the bruising. As Taylor reveals more and more of the injuries she’s accrued Annette becomes horrified, realizing at least some of what she has allowed to happen. Taylor grumbles something about ‘only now’ and tells Annette again that Emma was the initiator/enabler, which looks like it is going to start another argument, but after Annette slaps her for accusing her ‘friend’ again (and realizes she did so in the aftermath, to her own horror) Taylor cuts it off by not bothering to clean her injuries or anything, just quietly getting dressed, grabbing the last few of her belongings and heading out the door. When Annette and the Barneses (who arrived during the fight) ask her where she’s going, she simply says “I don’t care, just as long as it’s far, far away from all of you”
…in retrospect, I’m thinking it’s probably going to be the last one

Anyway, Taylor ends up heading to the cemetery to visit her father’s grave, and ends up falling down a well disused well into a hidden set of catacombs near the aquifer. It is here, buried in the deep, below the city that Taylor finds the Book
The book I am heavily basing off various interpretations of the Necronomicon, mixed with some of my own design. The Book is sentient and more or less alive in its own way, but funnily enough it is not intentionally malevolent; it is simply that it’s form of play involves things that deeply disturb and terrify people for reasons that it doesn’t understand. Basically, it’s what would happen if you crossed a puppy with a Great One from Lovecraft.
The Book was sealed down below ages ago, back when Brockton Bay was still just a small fishing town (although it may have come in from another plane of existence by a group of adventurers, due to Earth Bet’s inherent lack of magic. Again, haven’t decided yet) to keep its power contained and hidden. Through the years though, the group responsible died out, no one else knew, and the place has been long abandoned.
Thus, in the darkness, the Book has grown lonely, and when Taylor Hebert- broken and battered, tired and lonely- stumbles upon it and releases it, the Book latches on.
The Book is attentive, it does its best to make her feel better and protect her (or allow her to protect herself, as her wish may be). In general, it makes her a necromancer- somewhere between a dread necromancer and a cleric of the undead depending on which way I go. Oh, and the Book cannot be separated from her- it can conceal itself as something innocuous, teleport to her side when people aren’t looking, skitter its way back to her hand, bite or poison people who take it from her, etc, etc.

Taylor stays away from the house for somewhere around two weeks.
Mostly decided that it will be Anne who finds her. I like Anne’s portrayal in Intrepid and want to give her a little limelight and a chance to be the voice of reason. Also using Anne to break the meme that Yamada is the only psychologist in Wormverse.
Anne finds Taylor on the street outside the warehouse, but doesn’t immediately try to bring her home. Having read Taylor’s journal, snuck a peek at Emma’s phone, she knows that Taylor’s claims are at least somewhat right on the money, much as she might not want to admit how much of a bitch her little sister has become. So, she lends Taylor an ear, lets her know that someone is on her side, even if she can’t do much, and lets Taylor dictate her own terms.
Also in the interim, Taylor’s chosen warehouse is right across the street from one of Rachel’s dog shelters, and when the E88 show up one night to start trouble, Taylor and the Book lend Rachel a hand. Taylor doesn’t really get to know her as Bitch, just as Rachel, the homeless girl with a big heart for stray dogs, and lends her a helping hand to get herself through the day. It isn’t great human interaction, but between Anne and Rachel she has enough human interaction to keep her sane.

Eventually, Taylor does go home. It is awkward and stilted as Annette finally addresses the problems Taylor has been facing, and while she may not agree that Taylor is completely in the right for how she’s acted and such, she wants another chance. Taylor agrees, with some stipulations, such as doing her work at home so her mother can see that she is keeping up and not seeing Emma Barnes’ face anymore…oh, and helping Rachel with her dog shelter. In return, Annette asks that she keep a curfew, that she open up to her, and that she not drink or smoke or do drugs ‘anymore’ (Emma planted such previously). Taylor glares at her (Annette is doubly worried that A) Taylor is doing drugs and won’t give them up and B) that Taylor will leave again) but since she never actually did those things to begin with it is more than a fair trade.
Weeks begin to pass and as Taylor spends more time doing her actual studies and hanging out with Rachel and her dogs rather than Emma and her posse, Annette notices a marked difference in Taylor- she is injured less often, she is not as distant; Taylor is…happy, and it occurs to Annette that she hasn’t seen Taylor truly happy in years. Anne (who has been coming over for tea) convinces her at this point to take an objective look at Taylor’s notes and detailed on-line journal, at which point Annette realizes just what has happened, and that she allowed it to persist.
Where the Taylor/Annette relationship goes from there is undetermined

Also, the Book is far from passive, constantly trying to teach Taylor new things from its virtually-infinite pages of dark lore. This eventually leads to Taylor practicing, then applying, and utilizing her new powers, bringing her onto the parahuman stage, though without her initial realization. Where this goes is also undetermined thus far, but a lot of people die, and I want to say Taylor gets arrested by the PRT at some point and the Book confiscated, only for the Book to keep finding its way back to Taylor, regardless of where the two of them have respectively been placed, which only further convinces the PRT that Taylor is up to something. Whatever happens will likely by adorable to Taylor, hilarious to the audience, and literal nightmare fuel for the rest of the world.

Oh, should probably note that Taylor never actually triggers in this one, mostly because the Book eats the QA shard and as it learns Taylor’s interests and preferences it buffs her accordingly, using the shard for energy and raw materials.

Lacking a lot of substance, but SKELETAL PLOTLINE

Just an idea I wanted to get down really quick:

Remember that moment in Tell A Bug when Emma is reading Taylor’s diary and finds the line lamenting the fact that getting pushed down the stairs didn’t break her neck? Inspired by, but not direct from. Basically, the ‘Push Taylor Down the Stairs’ prank goes off without a hitch. Everyone is pointing and laughing, generally being amused at the pariah’s misfortune…until Taylor didn’t get back up.
Turns out, Taylor’s neck did break. It wasn’t quite enough to kill her, but she is completely paralyzed from the neck down. Can’t move, can’t speak, can’t really do anything except blink in horror at the world.
This is some time before canon, or the locker for that matter, so Danny knows nothing until/unless he goes through Taylor’s stuff and finds her diary. May or may not find a suicide note.

This Taylor may or may not trigger from her helplessness and despair, but unlike a lot of the ones I’ve seen she doesn’t get an escape. She doesn’t get Screamer’s power, so she can’t talk. She doesn’t get some shaker power that allows her to write out messages. She doesn’t get a tinker ability to give her back the ability to move. Taylor is trapped inside her own head and may get an escape, but nothing that will ever truly relieve her of the horror she is now trapped in.

The helplessness of this version of Taylor is one of the major themes of this story. The other is her interactions with people, particularly with her bullies.
On a lot of them, I’m not sure what I would even do. Maybe they feel sorry, but they can’t really do anything. Some of them come in to offer apologies (heartfelt or not, accepted or not), give gifts, try and spend time with her, etc. Some energy is expended on Sophia, but I haven’t decided if I want Taylor’s heartbeat to skyrocket in terror when she walks in or if Taylor is just going to stare at her in a silent plead for Sophia to just finish the job.
Emma is going to be the big one, and I have a lot of options here. Does Emma come in and act all sickly sweet when Danny is present, but once it’s just her and whatever lackeys followed her in she just starts cutting away again, with Taylor now completely unable to escape their words, and having no outlet but tears? Does Emma come in and kind of start that, but realize just how little satisfaction she is getting out of torturing someone weaker than her, especially now that that someone is trapped and completely unable to even try to resist her? Does Emma realize just what she’s done and come off as apologetic, trying to fix things on the low-down (gathering money for hospital bills, offering her room to house Taylor in when the hospital has to release her, trying to patch their relationship)?

Actually had the beginnings of a major arc where Coil finds out that Taylor has a power and kidnaps her to force her to do so, and Taylor initially refuses (and why not- she’s already on the brink of death, and Coil can’t force her to do anything without giving her a way out). Then it turns out that Emma was kidnapped as well, and Coil will have his men rape/torture/kill the girl who has been taking care of Taylor unless Taylor does what he asks. This Taylor, despite everything that has happened, once again ‘refuses to sink to [their] level and agrees on the constituent that if anything untoward- anything at all- happens to Emma, Taylor will do everything in his power to kill her. Emma sees Taylor, after everything she has put her through, throw her life away to protect the girl who took everything from her and realizes that Taylor is hero through and through, and regrets her actions.

Not sure completely on a power (this might actually be a good one for Breed!Taylor) or on a specific direction, but I like this idea