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An Impractical Guide to Ascension (Worm / Practical Guide to Evil)

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strauss said:
To be fair, not like Taylor x anyone has a better record. I can think of a few where the relationship(generally very fucked up) was the plot which might or might not count, but otherwise nothing.
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There's one where she dates Sophia after redeeming her and unfucking her mind. It was a crossover with LotR, so it's very big on redemption and forgiveness. I'm generally not fond of love stories in my fics, but I liked that one.
 
SoulShdw said:
The only one I've read is Deputy with Aegis that I can recall off-hand.
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There's a few Chris pairings but yeah the whole aegis thing really made deputy a lot less enjoyable and it just carried on it's sequels.

There's been a few decent Taylor x Lisa and at least one Taylor x Victoria I've read and can't remember the name of but generally worm romance is even worse than xianxia harem romance which is really weird considering how well written quite a few worm fics are.
 
Dalriaden said:
Ideally never, don't think I've read a fic yet where Taylor x male ward actually added something enjoyable to the story.
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I've seen a few make a cute relationship with Chris.
strauss said:
To be fair, not like Taylor x anyone has a better record. I can think of a few where the relationship(generally very fucked up) was the plot which might or might not count, but otherwise nothing.
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I've read lots of fics that ship Taylor with various characters where the shipping is quite enjoyable.
Dalriaden said:
Taylor x Victoria I've read and can't remember the name of
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Was it Intergalactic No-fault Collisions? Because that one has a pretty good Taylor x Vicky ship.
 
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On the topic of social mobility in Praes: the praesi as a society exist on several strata, there are the Named, the Nobles, and the rest. Getting a Name instantly catapults you out of normal dynamics, and can provide a source of upwards mobility to anyone (and there is some hints that nobles tend to get Names less often, possibly because of the weight of "bitter downtrodden peasant claws for power or rises on innate gifts in opposition to privileged nobility, only to fall tragic and bloody" with the obvious exceptions of Chancellor and heir(ess)) and should not be counted on for social mobility in general even as it makes it look like there is easy potential for mobility because of it. So that leaves a massive and eugenics focussed nobility with an obsession with murder, and a commoner level kept under their boot heel on the verge of starvation and yet sufficiently educated that there is a widely practiced cultural norm of naming children after yourself to confuse devils coming to collect on debts. There isn't much social mobility between these castes of society, but a noble can move up among nobility easily enough with murder and treachery and bribes, or down by becoming a corpse. And a commoner can rise by displaying talent, by manipulation, by brutal murder, or by selling out or selling their soul. There is no real way for a commoner to become a noble, but with great risk they can become obscenely wealthy and with great will they can become Named. Praes is not a model meritocracy. Roma thinks it is because she is a Villain and consequently both an outlier and a megalomaniacal ideologue. Praes is, however, a brutally meritocratic example of Byzantine feudal madness where any random person just might become a being of intense power and climb the Tower, or where any random peasant can and very well might summon a devil to sell their soul. It is a society built on the edge of starvation where parents have to keep in the back of their mind which children the can afford to starve to death in a famine, where mass blood sacrifice is the most effective way to make the crops grow, and where rising too high is as certain a death sentence for the overconfident or unwary as falling too low.
 
Alivaril said:
You merely need to change how you view the situation. Being underestimated would be a measure of success, and is not the Panacea widely respected despite being a non-combat entity?

Again, there's no 'the' before Cape names. It's not a title; 'The Gallant' and 'The Panacea' might sound like they work, but then you end up with things like 'The Miss Militia' and that just sounds silly.
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This is a fun little quirk, I hope it keeps happening. I wonder, which cape names in the Bay fit into Named conventions? I started drawing up a list, but there were too many capes. But surprisingly, a lot of them fit the convention, or at least could conceivably fit. The main exceptions were Uber, Leet, Kid Win, Miss Militia, Oni Lee, Coil, and some of the Empire.

On a different note: I wonder what Taylor's story-driven power will make of Amy? She's technically a kidnapped "princess", stolen as a youth by her father's treacherous enemies, and deeply unhappy with her evil stepmother?
 
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Lab_Accident said:
This is a fun little quirk, I hope it keeps happening. I wonder, which cape names in the Bay fit into Named conventions? I started drawing up a list, but there were too many capes. But surprisingly, a lot of them fit the convention, or at least could conceivably fit. The main exceptions were Uber, Leet, Kid Win, Miss Militia, Oni Lee, Coil, and some of the Empire.
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The Undersiders are particularly funny if you think of them as being Named. The Bitch? The Tattletale? Fantastic. Though "The Regent" is probably a real Name.
 
HeWhoAdds said:
The Undersiders are particularly funny if you think of them as being Named. The Bitch? The Tattletale? Fantastic. Though "The Regent" is probably a real Name.
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The Grue, as well. Of all groups in the Bay, the Undersiders were the only one where all the names fit. New Wave, on the other hand, were one of the worst, with only "The Shielder", "The Panacea", and arguably "The Glory Girl" fitting the scheme.

But the award for the best Name in the Bay goes to The Clockblocker.
 
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Lab_Accident said:
On a different note: I wonder what Taylor's story-driven power will make of Amy? She's technically a kidnapped "princess", stolen as a youth by her father's treacherous enemies, and deeply unhappy with her evil stepmother?
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Ah, but she is also a villain's daughter who has fallen in love with a hero…ine! That's a completely different set of tropes.
 
Rgal said:
Ah, but she is also a villain's daughter who has fallen in love with a hero…ine! That's a completely different set of tropes.
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And the fun part? In Guideverse logic, both are valid at the same time. Which role gets applied depends on how things are being framed (see Book 2, Chapter 47).

If she's being her usual misanthropic self? She's the villain's daughter and on the road to redemption (which may or may not have all manner of problems for her powers, which must now be evil because villain's daughter).

If she plays up the disney princess route? Something will happen that will give her the chance for escape, or some manner of ironic punishment will befall Carol. Because this framing makes her a heroine, and thus Providence is on her side.
 
Dantalion said:
And the fun part? In Guideverse logic, both are valid at the same time. Which role gets applied depends on how things are being framed (see Book 2, Chapter 47).

If she's being her usual misanthropic self? She's the villain's daughter and on the road to redemption (which may or may not have all manner of problems for her powers, which must now be evil because villain's daughter).

If she plays up the disney princess route? Something will happen that will give her the chance for escape, or some manner of ironic punishment will befall Carol. Because this framing makes her a heroine, and thus Providence is on her side.
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There is also the "struggle between innate goodness and hereditary evil" going on, so really, Amy can go a dozen different ways. If this was PGTE, she'd be a fulcrum point for sure.

Other people with strong stories in the Bay are: Coil, who is a classical Villain par excellence, and comes complete with a lair, a monster, and a kidnapped princess; Lung who is a literal dragon and might as well be made of narrativium when it comes to Taylor's power; and Faultline's Crew with their strong Band of Five energy going on, complete with a Leader, a Lancer, and a young waifish girl with strong but uncontrolled powers. But I don't think anybody has as many narrative paths as Amy right now.
 
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There's also Regent, who's technically a secret noble on the run from his cruel and domineering father.
 
Wow, this is an exceptionally good crossover, executed impeccably. The overlap between the two stories, the concept that to be a villain is to declare that you will change the world regardless of who tries to stop you, the character development in relationship between Taylor and Roma without the casual dismissal of Danny either?

I love everything about this! Thank you so much for writing it and posting it where we can see, I can't wait to see where you go next.
 
Alivaril said:
AN: I hope I don't regret pointing people toward it, but there's a version of AIGTA friendly to light themes available on Archive Of Our Own.
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I thank you a lot for this (though I'll use the dark friendly version). I prefer reading fics on mobile but the SV version doesn't display the different fonts on my old android, so I'd been trying to find workarounds before I searched for fonts in this thread and found you already having done something about it.
 
Alivaril said:
Oh, do try not to challenge fate in such a manner, Roma fretted. Please revoke that statement. Saying such things is not unlike entering melee with a Swordsmaster.
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You're missing the color in this one

Both Danny & Taylor have the same issue - they prefer to bottle up and hide the issues. So someone (such as Roma) calling him out on how poor a job he's doing would set that repair into motion.
With Roma becoming Shade, she could talk to him. (Having an adult vouch for her is a benefit that should not be ignored!)
 
It's interesting, if perhaps rather uncomfortable, to see Roma manipulate Taylor so blantantly yet effectively.

It's to be expected, with Taylor being as desperate for any genuinely positive or at least friendly human interaction as she is, but it's still interesting to see how quickly she is slipping.
 
It is just too bad that she isn't La Roma, then we could say it backwards.

I can't help but to suspect that Taylor was corrupted faster in canon, but that is largely why I avoid canon...

In the context of an enforced narrative, the argument "if I don't do it, then someone else will" becomes more credible. Taylor is seemingly the only one in this predicament, so it kinda falls apart, but then again, I recall hearing rumours that Feralcurtsey said that they would keep writing with a new protagonist if Taylor died, so the Worm narrative forces are in collusion in this matter... . If it is going to happen regardless, at least The Dread Empress can have fun with it and add some style, and Taylor can try to mitigate the damage, and hopefully get some non-evil confidants to bounce her plans off of...
 
I'm... still not totally convinced that what Taylor does is driven by a Narrative. It does seem very likely Roma is, which would affect Taylor at second-hand, indirectly. But, it seems to me that Taylor might have, at least, some 'wriggle room'. Anyhow, it's a wait-and-see job!

(Please see my sig for disclaimer. :) )
 
It occurs to me that Roma achieving physical manifestation will also make it significantly more likely that Taylor's Name will…

Y'know, that actually would work. A virtuous heiress is able to turn her surrogate mother to the side of good, only for said mother figure to sacrifice herself in the process of saving another. Later, the heiress falls in battle, and so, takes up the Name and Role of her mother figure: she attaches herself to a shard, and becomes the Shade herself.
 
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