What are you reading?

[Dracos]

Read Salve, kind of amusing...hasn't really gotten anywhere yet.  Bonesaw/Riley is there, and has escaped her first conundrum...and bled a lot.  Some good psychological scenes, nice staredowns, but it is weird no one suggests she's some kind of magical half-human thing (like Hagrid) based on her very unnatural abilities.  We've successfully gotten Riley...to hogwarts though, right at the start of year 1.

[Dracos]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11442113/1/Dreaming-of-Sunshine-Switch - Read this stuff this morning while biking.  It...simply wasn't very good.  It's thematic is the usual 'Throw the AU characters into original universe', but really doesn't go anywhere with it.  They just really don't quite get anywhere over many chapters with any of them.  A good scene here and there, but more just covering a few obvious encounters.  Anyhow fanwork of fanwork of fanwork amuses in a way.

[Dracos]

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/liaison-worm.3419/

Taylor gets social networking + power transmission.  Scares Coil since she can identify him and/or cancel his timelines, even though she doesn't know it.  Seems abandoned though, pretty much right after set up, precisely as the pedal is hitting the metal on changes cascading.

[Ergoemos]

I enjoyed Salve, and Liaison was decent, but I couldn't get far into A Harsher Truth. Its interesting to see the different interpretations of Armsmaster.

Honestly, I really would love more stories like Salve, ones that start waaay after Arc 1. I get tired of seeing the same bank heist from different perspectives, and so many of the more interesting characters show up a little later. If I were to write something, though I probably wouldn't, I'd do something like Parian with variant powers, or maybe a Bakuda that decides to become an independent/smaller agent after Lung's capture instead of the bombing spree.

Anyway: The Metropolitan Man follows Lex Luthor, Lois Lane and Superman in a 1930's setting, where the main conceit is Lex is really the protagonist, trying to find a way to stop the unknown, insanely powerful Superman. It does a good job of making every individual very well fleshed out and reasonable in their decisions. Extremely smart (and well grounded in history), complete, and not too terribly long. 

[Yuthirin]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/goblin-queen-vii-worm-exalted.307078/ Read through this.  It is sort of a mix of neat and incoherent, generally following a story of Taylor a reality warping raksha?  I dunno, not sure.  At it's best, it has Taylor meddling with the strings of reality while doing word-fu to people and trying to find a grounding for herself.

At it's worst it'll got like 6 chapters without any clear view of why any of this relates or will ever relate to any of the core cast.

I made it through like 90 chapters of this. I consider that to be an amazing feat of human accomplishment,. I have read 90 chapters and have no idea what is going on, except that Taylor is some sort of Exalted and doesn't really do a great job at being one. Incoherent.

[Merc]

I think I stopped around the same point as you, given a quick peek at it on FF.net.

I quit around the time that Shadow Stalker started going to other dimensions and getting invited to banquets. Felt like Senaril all over again!

But yeah, Drac's initial assesment is the same as mine. I kept seeing hints of neat stuff and thinking it'd all make sense if I just kept reading... It kept getting more nonsensical instead!

I'd probably have quit it a looooooooot sooner if it was a new fic, but since there was already so much of it out and the chapters were relatively short, I kinda just tried plowing through it. It was deceptive that way.

[Anastasia]

Goblin Queen is like popcorn. Each bite is light enough that you can keep going and going. Except that the popcorn is sometimes completely insane and changes in ways you wouldn't expect.

[Yuthirin]

Goblin Queen is like popcorn. Each bite is light enough that you can keep going and going. Except that the popcorn is sometimes completely insane and changes in ways you wouldn't expect.

It's like that multicolored popcorn from when we were kids, only the popcorn flavor is different every bite and it occasionally mutates into a small animal or house.

[thepanda]

Didn't the author say something like most of the story is fun/wouldn't it be cool filler between the tiny amount of plot he's thought up? Then again, if you have to read a discussion thread to understand what's going on. . .

* thepanda still finds the story amusing, but I don't have expectations for it beyond the above.

[Dracos]

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/manager-worm-story-thread-iv.301602/ read all of this last night.

Taylor gets the ability to steal/merge/give shards.  Becomes 'slenderman' boogieman slowly wiping out the villains of brockton bay.  Also Apparition with her first power, as a member of the Undertakers.  And the rogue, Arsenal who is on good terms with the PRT.

Basically, learns right away that she got an ace power that people would murder the crap out of her for having, befriends tattletale, and works to try and fake that no she is not this power stealing boogieman.

It's actually pretty darn good.  A compelling story of Taylor using her powers to save the city...  and in large parts managing it, even with general competence by most other groups.  It even has a pretty interesting take on what happens to Shadowstalker.

It's also one of two that I've read that give Danny a power and has Taylor outed to him relatively early in a positive and supportive setup.

[Anastasia]

Manager's really good, yeah. It's a fun fic overall and one I enjoy immensely.

[Jason_Miao]

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10093207/1/No-Need-for-Halkeginian-Logic

A slapstick FoZ/Skyrim crossover.  Louise summons a generic Skyrim player, who applies Skyrim logic to the new world.  By the same writer who started that FoZ/Madoka crossover posted awhile ago.

[Dracos]

Think I failed to mention this one. 

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/subduction-worm.6053/

Abandoned fic.  Was following an interesting slow dig into the conspiracy of Cauldron, following Taylor joining up with Mercs to try and support her injured dad.

It seems definitely that a lot of the more fun Worm fics are Taylor the Trump.

[Dracos]

I think the worst part of Goblin Queen was Emma (the bully) becoming a Dragon Exalted via purchased Cauldron power, and then in short order handing Taylor her ass in a fight.  A fight where at least Emma was using fatally dangerous attacks.  Frankly, saw no reason for that whole thing to be there.

Still, it was rather incoherent in the current parts.

[thepanda]

I thought it was clear Taylor lost that fight deliberately? She used her narrative-reality-warp power to give Emma the victory she needed to stop obsessing over Taylor.

edit: And currently reading Catalyst.exe. An SI wakes up as an AI in the Mass Effect universe and decides to help. Unbeknownst to her, this universe isn't strictly cannon. Much, much better than it sounds.