Firebird, a Worm AU/Xover?

Madison is Browbeat.

Okay, you have my complete attention. Also, a nice touch how Madison recognizes the body issues Taylor has due to bleedover from Jean.

Sophia and Emma, oh what a wonderful negative feedback loop. Really, I like those two, but seriously, they need Help and Therapy, but alas, this be Worm. Other than Jessica Yamada, there be no therapists.
 
There was another fic, Survival Strategy, which pointed out that the bullies would have had to exert very little effort to bully Taylor. Even the locker could have been filled with one day's worth of tampons (2000 students comes out to something like 30 tampons per day). It just makes it all the worse because after a certain point making Taylor was nothing more than an after thought.

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All fixed, thanks!

And to Madison's belief, they seemed almost obsessive with it. Thinking up new and more inventive ways to torment Taylor. I think it was supposed to be her observing what a waste it was to put that sort of effort into that task when there were better things to, but then I got stranger'd and the narrative went in another direction.
 
Well shit someone actually went with the Maddison and Browbeat had about as much character development so maybe they're the same person joke:o.....I love it!:D

EDIT: Also I just realized that Maddison/Browbeat is Morph!
 
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Whelp... there go the rails... they were really nice ones too... Guess it's time to call the inspectors to rebuild this infrastructure.

 
SO now that we've established Madison is Browbeat, is Madison a he or a she? ...also, seems like Circus cannot monopolize the unknown gender schtick anymore now.
 
SO now that we've established Madison is Browbeat, is Madison a he or a she? ...also, seems like Circus cannot monopolize the unknown gender schtick anymore now.

Madison is a she. I got cute right at the end there with gender pronouns, but she changes into someone else for cape identity(and doesn't hang out with the Wards as Madison the girl, so they don't know, as Madison can be unisex)

I wish I had thought of Circus before hand, but that way lies Coil and meh.
 
Previous: 1.5

Interlude: Sophia & Madison

Her parents were not, as Professor Singer thought, waiting for her. They were never waiting for her. Business and choice kept them away and other than a monthly stipend, she only heard from them if they were going to be in town and they needed her for dinner or a party. Otherwise, she was left to take care of herself with the money they sent.

Hmm, that's interesting.


of a teenage male with a vaguely asian cast to his features where before there had been a petite blonde teenage girl.
?!
Also, wasn't Madison a brunette?

She snapped to attention, offering a salute as a gesture of respect. "Browbeat reporting for duty, ma'am!"
Oh ho, so you're incorporating that into the story, eh? A lovely Interlude chibipoe.
 
So if we also go by the fanon that Madison is really into buff guys her turning into a guy like Browbeat is like Greg transforming into a Playboy Bunny.
 
So, two of Taylor's tormentors are Wards. Double the fun, when she finds out. :D
 
So, two of Taylor's tormentors are Wards. Double the fun, when she finds out. :D

Nope. Just one. SS escaped getting busted and is still a vigilante. Madison's actions are largely minor and petty. They look worse than they actually are. (Not that Madison is suddenly a nice person. She isn't. But prior to the locker, she had no issues and with a sterling record for her short time in the Wards, they aren't exactly peering over her shoulder. She DID get a severe talking to when her name was brought up, but Taylor didn't see who stuffed her in(and had no way to know Madison wasn't even there that day because parents had her for winter break for making the happy family charade. ). Madison is just a very damaged girl who.. kind of doesn't care about people beyond the 'What benefit do I get for this person caring about me?' From Sophia & Emma, it was popularity and all she had to do was harass someone.

Now, though, she sees the streams of high school social structure changing and realizing that Emma and Sophia are likely to up the ante even further in the face of a target who is supplanting them, she's realizing this simply isn't worth it and is organizing how to position herself optimally so that she gets the most from it.

She often gets the 'Go talk to kids/speech jobs' as a Ward because she(as Browbeat) is rather personable and people will listen to her. No one gets that she's lying through her teeth because her childhood and lessons from her parents can be summed up as: "I can get to or obtain X by acting like Y." Combined with a power that lets her change herself as needed, yeah, Madison Clements is much a lie as anything else, because that's all she knows, is how to present a perfect face to whoever she's interacting with. Probably a bit of a Stranger element too, that lets her subpsychically get a feel for what does/doesn't offend people and she adjusts herself in response. Little things like someone being irritated by the line of your face, or how your jaw is shaped, etc. No one has that with her.

:( I've put way more thought into this than I thought since the idea came to me.
 
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Just as I finished, there's a new chapter! Most excellent timing I do believe.

This is probably as good as I'm going to get it with my current skill level in photoshop. It came off pretty good I think, a lot better than the stuff I've done before, so I'm pretty satisfied at the experience. She is perhaps a little more pretty than I intended, but big eyes and a wider mouth are not normal things to find on comic characters. I'll chalk it up to Taylor being unable to objectively rate herself >_>;

Still loving the story, and especially enjoyed the amusing twist there.

Interesting.
 
Madison's secondary ability seems interesting (and fits in well, even if I don't quite understand the need to be at the head of the food chain at school, per se, rather than being left alone and unremarkable). She's also lucky Piggot doesn't have the wards getting proper counseling, lol.

....but I can't really see Taylor/Jean having any attempts at friendship (hell, I don't even known how Madison would even go about cozying up and/or leaving the trio behind in the minds of the other high schoolers, even with her abilities), even if she'd be nicer about it, than, say, Emma Frost or some of the darker telepaths would be.
 
Madison's secondary ability seems interesting (and fits in well, even if I don't quite understand the need to be at the head of the food chain at school, per se, rather than being left alone and unremarkable). She's also lucky Piggot doesn't have the wards getting proper counseling, lol.
Honestly she seems a bit lonely but not in any other way super messed up.
 
...

Sounds like she went full Ebon Dragon.

It's really sad.

Yeah. When I got to the Madison is Browbeat as I was writing, I considered what Wildbow had said and wondered what would produce that sort of power.. and my mind immediately snapped to the parents of pageant kids and/or distant emotional types who are always busy or what have you. Both together would produce a Changer power, I think. Maybe the ultimate changer power(assuming that is how you would label it). Ridiculously unrealistic expectations driving you to always look perfect, etc. (The pageant kids with the really nutso kind of parents. Look at how amazing my daughter is, but as she got older and couldn't do the little girl pageants any more, it transitioned to have the perfect daughter for functions and whatnot, where she has to appear as the dutiful daughter of a happy family unit.)

So, yeah. :/ I took a joke and made it into something pretty sad. :(
 
Honestly she seems a bit lonely but not in any other way super messed up.

She's pretty stable, all told. She basically has to take care of herself due to largely distant/absentee. She's just learned some pretty sad lessons from those same parents and coupled with her power, that creates some identity issues. She reshapes herself in subtle ways to meet others' expectations instead of deciding for herself who she wants to be.
 
Nope. Just one. SS escaped getting busted and is still a vigilante. Madison's actions are largely minor and petty. They look worse than they actually are. (Not that Madison is suddenly a nice person. She isn't. But prior to the locker, she had no issues and with a sterling record for her short time in the Wards, they aren't exactly peering over her shoulder. She DID get a severe talking to when her name was brought up, but Taylor didn't see who stuffed her in(and had no way to know Madison wasn't even there that day because parents had her for winter break for making the happy family charade. ). Madison is just a very damaged girl who.. kind of doesn't care about people beyond the 'What benefit do I get for this person caring about me?' From Sophia & Emma, it was popularity and all she had to do was harass someone.

Now, though, she sees the streams of high school social structure changing and realizing that Emma and Sophia are likely to up the ante even further in the face of a target who is supplanting them, she's realizing this simply isn't worth it and is organizing how to position herself optimally so that she gets the most from it.

She often gets the 'Go talk to kids/speech jobs' as a Ward because she(as Browbeat) is rather personable and people will listen to her. No one gets that she's lying through her teeth because her childhood and lessons from her parents can be summed up as: "I can get to or obtain X by acting like Y." Combined with a power that lets her change herself as needed, yeah, Madison Clements is much a lie as anything else, because that's all she knows, is how to present a perfect face to whoever she's interacting with. Probably a bit of a Stranger element too, that lets her subpsychically get a feel for what does/doesn't offend people and she adjusts herself in response. Little things like someone being irritated by the line of your face, or how your jaw is shaped, etc. No one has that with her.

:( I've put way more thought into this than I thought since the idea came to me.
My reaction to the chapter was firmly in "that's terrifying"; on one hand, I'm interested in seeing more of this Madison, because frankly this adds a hell of a lot to an otherwise flat character of Madison. OTOH, she's acting waaaaay too much like a functional sociopath right now - Being X gives me Y, so therefore I am X.

I'm actually pretty happy that she's in the wards, because someone like Coil getting their hooks on a shapeshifter with lots of wants and no morals is terrifying. She may be damaged, but that doesn't excuse her just flat out using people for her own ends - she certainly doesn't care about what happened to Taylor, just the shift in power structure and how it will relate to the people she is coat-tailing off of - I mean, her "friends" - and how that affects her own place in the social structure. I'm almost interested in seeing if Tattletale can pick up anything from Browbeat - if Madison has that much control over her (? - screw it, Madison is a she) body, she could potentially stonewall TT's pickup on tells.

Great job, especially with that curveball!
 
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