Remove ads

An Imago of Rust and Crimson (Worm crossover)

Reader mode
This story continues to be great, if slow-developing in plot. Thanks for taking the time to write it, EarthScorpion, it's one of my two favorite things you've written so far (the other being Overlady). I'm finding your writing has developed and improved a lot since your earlier fanfiction works, and I'm always happy to see a new chapter of yours.

I like the descriptions of The Other Place and I find Taylor's personality and so forth is really well done here. Also the fridge horror as others have mentioned.
 
EarthScorpion said:
"Hi," I said back, sinking into the Other Place. There, she had far, far too many eyes, glowing bright yellow in the gloom, all somehow looking down on me. It seemed she'd already decided I wasn't as good as her. The eyes covered her face and her hands, and the glows from under her ragged and tattered clothes suggested they were there, too. Her fingers were almost as long as her forearms, were splattered in paint, and twitched all the time. Paranoia, maybe? Or was she a thief with those twitching fingers? I wasn't sure. There was a judgmental cast to her features, and spurs of bone erupted from her skull like a crown.

So she was Daddy's little princess. Great.

Either way, if I was going to have to sit next to her, I'd have to take precautions. It only took a moment for me to think up what I'd need to do. A doll with a TV screen for a face, to stream words like 'BE NICE' and 'TREAT HER WELL' right into each and every single one of her eyes. I vaguely remembered her face from crowds, but I didn't think she'd actively ever done anything to me. I didn't want another enemy. I left the doll flashing its messages into her eyes in the Other Place, and returned to normalcy.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yep, I called it. Her power makes her prone to pre-judge people and never give them a chance. It's especially egregious in this case because I'm certain the teacher chose to put that girl specifically next to Taylor for a reason, and now anything nice she does for Taylor is obviously only because Taylor is using her power on her.

EarthScorpion said:
Of course my luck had to run out. And it did so in the lunch line, where I couldn't use Isolation if I wanted to be served.

"Oh, look. Do you smell something bad around here?" a very familiar voice said behind me. "It smells even worse than the usual cooking."

I didn't need to turn to see who it was. That was my former best friend, Emma Barnes. I balled my hands into fists, ignoring the pain, and tried to control my breathing. I hated her. I hated her so much. And in the reflective metal of the food counter, I could see that she'd brought my other two least favourite people with her.

From now on, I was taking packed lunches.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The correct response here is to immediately talk to a teacher about this, but of course Taylor's not going to do that.
 
Great writing once again! I can't help but to feel for Taylor, noone should have to be that jaded. The way you write the 'otherworld' and her interaction with it is giving me huge Mastigos vibes, especially after reading the new write up on Dave Brookshaw's blog over at Onyx Path. You can find it here if you haven't seen it yet.
 
Okay people, It's time for experimental, emotional, psychic surgery! She needs to practice her powers for attacking people, and we have 3 volunteers. Let's see what happens when she sends some sadness, or fear. Can she drive them mad? Give them nightmares? Decisions, decisions. I just picture Emma saying something terrible, and being freaked out when she sees Taylor break out in evil laughter.

Then there are all the other ways she can screw with them without getting caught. Just the teleporting cherubs alone. She steals all the trio's stuff. Follow them and put stolen clothing with tags when they go to a store. Put grease on the path before them so they slip all the time. Come on Taylor, time to brainstorm.

Will she instantly know that Sophia is a parahuman?
 
I love how this taylor's trauma is portrayed with such depth. Canon taylor is muted and shut-in, which also conveys the trauma, but this version is just much more vivid and focal.
 
So she set herself up as belonging to a fake government conspiracy. But that is actually a real foreign/memetic/anarchastic/something conspiracy the government is trying to contain using their own actual governmental conspiracies. Fun times.

Typo:
I'd was still saving the story for my scrapbook.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
Last edited:
TheAnt said:
Will she instantly know that Sophia is a parahuman?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I think I see where this may be going. It's likely Taylor will conclude that Sophia, being a complete monster, must be a supervillainous thug. Taylor will have cherubs follow her to gather evidence and, from the safety of her bedroom, find out what's what. Thus begins Act 2.

I want to start by saying that this is quite possibly the single best Worm fanfiction in existence (though such a postion would obviously be the subject of debate), and definitely my own personal favourite. That said, the beginning of this update has a few problems with diction and sentence structure.

Here are the ones that jump out, in chronological order:

...El Diablo Blanco may have been captured by a PRT lead by Justice after a high speed car chase.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Repetition of "by" sounds a little odd.

could be the end for the infamous narco-lord," the radio stopped blathering as Dad turned the dial, obviously preparing for a pep talk.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The connection between the radio being on and off is weird, here. The sentence feels like a run-on sentence, but I don't really know if it is or not.

...as if the world wept bitter tears for the dreadful things which were about to happen.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Feels kind of like too many words, here. Would work just as well if you removed one, which may or may not improve flow depending on which one you picked. In this case, it's a very stylistic decision, though, so this is the smallest problem by far.

I don't mean to offend at all in bringing this up. I feel like if this were something I were writing, I would want readers to point this sort of thing out to me.

Also, Prince Charon "liked" this before I edited in the critical bits, so if I'm to be shunned then leave him out of it.
 
Last edited:
TheAnt said:
Okay people, It's time for experimental, emotional, psychic surgery! She needs to practice her powers for attacking people, and we have 3 volunteers. Let's see what happens when she sends some sadness, or fear. Can she drive them mad? Give them nightmares? Decisions, decisions. I just picture Emma saying something terrible, and being freaked out when she sees Taylor break out in evil laughter.

Then there are all the other ways she can screw with them without getting caught. Just the teleporting cherubs alone. She steals all the trio's stuff. Follow them and put stolen clothing with tags when they go to a store. Put grease on the path before them so they slip all the time. Come on Taylor, time to brainstorm.

Will she instantly know that Sophia is a parahuman?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, for Emma she could always put a mirror in front of her in the other place. Make her see herself as she really is. Then again, that might need a deeper understanding of her so it doesn't seem that likely. Or dressing her like Taylor to put her on her position.
 
So far so good, but I hope Taylor will develop even greater Magics in the future!

She IS a Mage after all, and since a Magus has to develop his/her Gnosis, maybe she'll increase it AND learn her spells from studying the Shards and watching how the powers of Parahumans affect the world!
 
This story continues to be awesome, with fantastic world-building.

I'm particularly amused by how easily Taylor is slipping into preemptively mind-controlling people who have done her no wrong simply to prevent them from possibly hurting her in the future. This is creepy, but also a completely natural response to the trauma she's been through.
 
Peanuckle said:
I enjoy her steady growth and acceptance of her power. Setting a "be nice to me" creature on the girl was a nifty trick, though full of fridge horror. She'd make a frightful monster if she sent out creatures like "kill people" or "do horrible things." It'd be almost impossible to trace it back to her, as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

...

Y'know? That sounds a disturbing amount like whatever 'Slaughterhouse' might be in this universe. Someone with a similar level of Otherworld access (or whatever the heck it is) siccing murder-dolls on people.
 
I wonder if Sophia would be able to notice something is up? There is that supposed Master/Stranger Protocol floating around, the PRT might have given her training to notice when someone is dicking with her emotions.
 
Maybe her power just shows her the objective truth of reality and reality really is crappy?
Or has a non-human aesthetics.

Would be hard to argue that her interpration of her visions aren't influenced by her attitude.

Or that her attitude isn't influenced by her visions. Not sure those influences are deliberate manipulations or necessarily lead to untruth.
 
Cliffs should be banned. Too many protagonists have accidents with them. It's a menace.

Otherwise, nice update. I like Taylor's characterization and how subtly she changes.

Ridtom said:
Nooooo! And she was actually having an okay day too!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's a lunchtime, what did you expect?

BlackoutSampler said:
I wonder if Sophia would be able to notice something is up? There is that supposed Master/Stranger Protocol floating around, the PRT might have given her training to notice when someone is dicking with her emotions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That is an interesting question. I would like to know how paranoid the PRT is over those protocols. On the one hand, Masters would give nightmares to pretty much any organization. On another, suspicion of possessing Master powers could easily lead to a new witch hunt. I mean, it's hard to say if someone's mood changed because stuff happened or because someone influenced it.

Taylor's power is subtle and tend to work with what's already present, though, so unless she starts bombarding Emma with "GO FUCK YOURSELF" dolls, I don't think she would be caught soon.

I also don't think she would get very creative with Emma and Sophia, to be honest. She would most likely try to arrange matters so they will ignore her. There is some potential for escalation and disaster there, however. She doesn't know her powers enough to use them safely, so I can see her experimenting with some terrible results.
 
Aleph said:
Hahaha.

I don't think that's her power WARPING HER MIND.

I think that's just Taylor being a cynical loner who doesn't trust anyone due to her experiences in school.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh, I didn't mean her shard (assuming they exist here) was doing it, but rather that the way the power frames things in just about exclusively negative ways + Taylor herself seeing things badly make her judge people like that.

Edit: Although I am almost certain that the power by design encourages the behavior Taylor is engaged in.
 
Wander said:
Oh, I didn't mean her shard (assuming they exist here) was doing it, but rather that the way the power frames things in just about exclusively negative ways + Taylor herself seeing things badly make her judge people like that.

Edit: Although I am almost certain that the power by design encourages the behavior Taylor is engaged in.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah. I think your meaning was understood.

Since we are working with the theory that her power is a memetic infection, it is entirely possible that this is the case.

We have yet to see clear evidence about that thou. The example of artist girl does not count for that because Taylor would be prejuiced against her anyway.

Any form of mind-control power would make you doubt true motives of people if used as freely as Taylor does.
 
Aleph said:
Hahaha.

I don't think that's her power WARPING HER MIND.

I think that's just Taylor being a cynical loner who doesn't trust anyone due to her experiences in school.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Not so much reach into her mind and change her, as make sure she never gets a chance to make an unbiased first impression. She's naturally inclined to see the worst in everyone... and then her power confirms it for her. It doesn't even have to lie; we all can be shitty in some circumstances. It always just shows her the worst, and lets it develop into a constant confirmation bias.

It's the corollary to the old saying, "just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." Just because they're after you doesn't mean you're not paranoid. On the suspecting the worst of others, Taylor is very paranoid, and quick to believe the worst once it's been shown to her.

I'm not sure if she'll develop Canon Taylor's tendency to then try and dig. She learned all her 'best' lessons from her enemies; Coil, Jack, Alexandra, and in the end her childhood bullies. That tendency to dig was what let her befriend Bitch, which was one of the most heart-lifting story arc in Worm. But she didn't have a power that handed her answers. When you have a super-hammer, you satisfy yourself with nails.
 
Aleph said:
Hahaha.

I don't think that's her power WARPING HER MIND.

I think that's just Taylor being a cynical loner who doesn't trust anyone due to her experiences in school.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

But really what's 'mind warping'? I mean, if you could see someone's thoughts deep in their heart of hearts, I think you'd have a very, very alien worldview. And probably very cynical. It's a great vicious cycle.

Is a cynical misanthrope->sees things justifying worldview->becomes more of a cynical misanthrope->repeat.

I fully expect that the nWoD crossover isn't actually in Things but in thematics. The slow degradation of morality by interacting with a cold, unfeeling world with plenty of shadows where innocence can be lost, having to face the fact that secret knowledge is often maddening-and having a powerful, versatile toolkit which deliberately encourages you to be a terrible person to make use of it for its fullest potential.

Being a munchkin in nWoD is often the same as being a monster.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top