Wormverse ideas, recs, and fic discussion thread 1

I don't see why it would need a web-based platform like patron or kickstarter. Like Lacks said, most teams would only really be operating on a level of local interests, so a 'normal' charity would work just as well. Surely there's ways to obscure the corporate veil, though I'm more familiar with it masking the donators, not the donatee. Surely the Bet Supreme court passed Citizens United decades ago. I forgot, does numberman just work for villians, or does he do contract work for rogues/independents too?

Also, re the fandom popularity argument, yeah, I'm not actually sure what prompted the worm explosion. ZnT was obvious in retrospect, it had a framing device that let it act as a pretty much blank slate to blatently insert whatever SI/crossover character you wanted. Kinda sorta not really like Ranma and it's propensity to support random slice of life antics?

I think there might be a web-based platform out there, though, or at least ways to do that. Of course, it all depends on the scale being used. Since online funding in Aleph was in its infancy in 2011, it's probably embryonic, so it's not something where Legend (haha no he wouldn't be allowed to, but imagine someone as big as Legend) sets up a Kickstarter and makes fifty-thousand dollars. Or even ten thousand. Charity drives are probably where the money is at, but those involve a corporate or legal structure.

It's the sort of thing New Wave would be better at, but I still think there might be small-time sites/set-ups for that sort of thing.

I also think it could have cultural cachet, at least among a certain set of people. The idea of directly helping out heroes in their fight for justice, while not having to actually risk anything more than a (X, insert number) monthly, weekly, bi-monthly, whatever else donation would probably be interesting to some in a...slacktivist sort of way.
 
Yo, @earthboy: writerly language in books and shit is prescriptive and descriptive. It's what people thought How Writing Should Be to the point that it became How Writing Is. And making sense isn't based on personal metrics when we're talking cohesion/coherence. It's about putting words, sentences, paragraphs and concepts together in a way to present information in an understandable fashion.

And you can go look for, I don't know, KindlePorn and go through for things like cohesion, coherence and use of syntax, then measure them in regards to sales, popularity and what have you. None of the things I said were subjective in any way that wasn't in a post-structuralist "all human measures are subjective because making inferences based on data requires prejudices," sort of way.
No, what you say is a poor answer because it's not clear how one would turn "writerly language and shit" into a quantity.

Also, of course, most works which inspire fanfiction have been published, and have been edited by professional editors. Looking for grammatical flaws in Harry Potter is not going to be useful, because Harry Potter has been picked over and corrected by skilled professionals.

The flaws that I'm talking about cannot be the sorts of things that editors would catch, because if they were, then editors would have already caught them.

No, the flaws that I'm talking about must be something higher-level than the mere technical errors that you're focusing on.

Sorry, your idea does not seem to be usable.

Most of those flaws aren't the sort that (I think) earthboy is saying (iirc) are linked with higher rates of fanfiction though. I think he was referring to higher level flaws. i.e. "X is a decent piece of writing by objective measures, but a lot of people don't like how Y turned out, so there's a lot of fanfic of it." When I suggested that reviews and ratings could be used as a numerical measure of how 'flawed' a title is, I wasn't really addressing the point earthboy actually wanted to make. I think.

I think 'dissatisfaction' is a more applicable term that 'flaws' in this case though. There's a lot of alt-power Taylor fics, not because Skitter's power was flawed, but because a lot of people want to see what she can do with other powers. They aren't satisfied with what they got: not because it was bad, but because they want more but varied. Or if what happened to Sophia and Emma in canon wasn't enough to satisfy readers, they'll want to write fics in which different stuff happened (which some may call 'fix fixs' or 'bashing' depending on their own perspective). Not because the events in canon were necessarily objectively flawed, but because they weren't fully satisfying. I imagine it's very rare for a work to completely satisfy readers, and those that do might only do so because they haven't succeeded in generating much interest, attention, and investment.
Yeah, that's much more like what I'm talking about.

Dissatisfaction seems like a good term -- not sure that makes it any easier to quantify, though, but at least it does dispel the confusion that we're talking about technical errors.

I think some works do have higher or lower overall potential dissatisfaction, and yeah it's going to be stuff on the plot level and character development level.

It might also be due to expectation dissonance: when a work builds up some kind of expectation of awesomeness and then fails to deliver (in part or in whole).

Something like: the work fires your imagination regarding some future event, and then delivers an event which fails to exceed your own imagined conclusion.

Speaking of which, I better get on and write more alt-power Taylor and try to get out one more update this year.
:oops:

I resemble that remark.
 
So I just finished playing a certain game, which will be revealed at the end. Some small scraps of this could be used in a straight Worm fic too. No where near what I consider passable, but I need to get the idea out.

Eyes to See You With

--

After the first of the Light Gods had fallen to the last, or as the folk put it, 'The devil damned the devil,' the powers granted to those in desperate need had become wild, and dangerous to everyone. Those few stable users had pooled their resources to find a way to stop these tragedies.

Years later the curses stopped on their own. But, with the onset of the terrible plague, that technology was once again pursued. It was completed by Blueprint, who was known far and wide for his genius, and all lesser tinkers vied for his favour even as they were forced to create his designs. Such things were not my concern, I used their tools, and I protected the Tinkers when ordered, that was all.

But, now everywhere in the low quarters there were strange music boxes, the tinkers said the sound was a side effect of the etheric pulses, disrupting the reaching whales, demons, from making contact with the sick and dying. No fair minded noble thought it fair or good, but there had been triggers by people who already had their minds rotted by the plague. It had not been nearly as bad as a wild trigger, but I had been called in to put the poor bastard down.

It was said that there were still triggers edging through. It was said that, believing they could beat Blueprint's devices the poor folk had resorted to trying to ease the way for the devils with strange rituals and prayers.

The music was simple enough to tune out, but it was said that it would drive a newly triggered mad as the demons continued to fight and broke a man's mind from the inside.

Everyone prayed for the Wardens, and the last two Gods of Light, to come again, this technology they would offer up as tribute and in return they would be saved and moved from this dying world. That was their only hope now, it seemed, for his quest for a cure had come to naught.

That had not broken my spirit though. Nor did my lady's death (Oh my love!). But when so accused, when the guards believed that accusation I was blacking out before the pommel hit my temple.

The music was screaming.
I woke up in prison, memories of the final battle churning in my mind. I had seen the face of the first god, the golden man, and the last god.

Months later, after horror, after torture, I saw her again, in the flesh. Perhaps the music was finally getting to me.

"I'm not, actually." She folded her arms. "I'm not flesh, and I am not her. Just an echo of a memory. With the last of this world's whales dead their remains needed a direction. I'm no Leviathan, but I can keep them from killing you humans." She nodded once, slow and measure, "I can keep them from killing you. I can push your trigger event through, allow you access to your powers. It might take a while to settle, though."

"And make a deal with the arch devil herself?"

"Your kind already reaps the rewards of such contracts. Blueprint is a parahuman. In fact, if you hadn't restricted the trigger events in the low city it's possible the plague might have already been made treatable by a Tinker. So, what do you say?"

"Why?"

"The person I never was, she hated bullies, and her powers let her escape, too."

"What will I owe you for this? You don't do this, otherwise as you said, the plague would have been treated by a low born Tinker by now."

"Nothing, they are your powers. This is my choice, because you remind me of her."

"Then I accept."

"Then receive my mark." My hand burned, a beetle, full spread, and ringed in gold was branded onto my left hand. "I hope to see interesting things from you, Corvo Attano. Interesting things indeed."

--

Dishonored crossover, obviously​
 
Question:
Would Dragon's power to copy and integrate other Tinker's work be a Tinker power or a Thinker power?

What Hotdog said. The way it functions, it acts more like a Thinker power: granting information she normally wouldn't have access to. The way to fight her power, however, is essentially the same as any other Tinker, except moreso.
 
Has anyone proposed a story where Taylor (or any other character) makes contact with a creator deity and convinces them to make a new mate before Zion goes all GM on them?
 
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