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Charm Learning Shard (Worm/Exalted) (COMPLETED)

Reader mode
Daniel Snuts said:
This is where I head off Taylor joining the Wards, which would make for a non-story, and Taylor joining Coil, which would make for a light-hearted comedy. I need something juicier and more grimderp.

With the introductory chapters out of the way, expect another 10-15kB per day, five days per week. Or rather don't expect that, because it's a fan fiction writer telling you they'll keep to a schedule. Expect it to end suddenly and disappointingly.
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So how does it feel to manage over a hundred fucking chapters on a 5 a week schedule without slipping and disappearing for an unexpected hiatus you absolute fucking madlad.
 
Kinda meh ending, especially if thats a real epilogue. An ending chapter with various peoples thoughts woulda been nice.

The comments and speculations were fun regardless of the story kinda tapering off and still worth it.

There was never any doubt she was gonna win, you know when a character gets that strong , you need interpersonal relationship to carry the story, because combat is a foregone conclusion. But she's a gamer who's emotionally stunted and butchered so no hope on that avenue.
 
Vealie said:
Ziz on best of all possible worlds duty is an existential nightmare, until she powers down nobody on bet has anything resembling freedom of will and she would definitely go into stable orbit a few centuries before running out of juice.
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I'd argue the hard materialism of this work and Worm as a whole means that no one ever actually had free will. Literally everyone and everything is dancing on the strings of causation and probability. At least with Joy in charge (I read that right, right? That's her English name?) the meat puppets are happy while dancing on strings.

(yes I know about compatibilism I just think it's a cope lol)

Daniel Snuts said:
I suppose I'll host general discussion and questions of the work as a whole, until the thread gets archived as complete or sinks into the abyss, or whatever happens to stories when they end.
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Hey gratz on finishing! You struggled a lot to get this thing published and that's commendable.

I still totally think you're a /pol/ack, but that's okay I browsed that shithole for years so it's not like I can throw stones. I read this thing to the end for a reason after all (I called it "hate reading" at some point but honestly I enjoyed a lot of what the story offered)

If that's a crime we'll work off our debt to society in gulag together
 
zharshoul said:
Kinda meh ending, especially if thats a real epilogue. An ending chapter with various peoples thoughts woulda been nice.

The comments and speculations were fun regardless of the story kinda tapering off and still worth it.

There was never any doubt she was gonna win, you know when a character gets that strong , you need interpersonal relationship to carry the story, because combat is a foregone conclusion. But she's a gamer who's emotionally stunted and butchered so no hope on that avenue.
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It fits the story quite well. What do you feel at the end of the road when you get revenge? Is sacrificing for power worth it?

It's a shame the story's a fanfic and I can't order a copy.
 
queermunist said:
(yes I know about compatibilism I just think it's a cope lol)
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Personally I never understood the free will vs determinism debate. If your actions aren't predictable, then they must be based on something other than who you are. Randomness is much more of a threat to some idea of free will than determinism in my opinion.

I agree that it makes sense for the story to end with a bit of a whimper. It wouldn't fit for a climatic ending when the story is about Taylor's gradual destruction in pursuit of power.

XZR-2 said:
Charm Learning Shard 2: Electric Boogaloo
When?
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This author's interpretation of Ward's bullshit would be truly hilarious I suspect.
 
I don't think it ended with a whimper personally. I can't see any other way for it to end but her trying to an hero

zharshoul said:
There was never any doubt she was gonna win, you know when a character gets that strong , you need interpersonal relationship to carry the story, because combat is a foregone conclusion. But she's a gamer who's emotionally stunted and butchered so no hope on that avenue.
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She wasn't emotionally stunted. At least not because snuts was incapable of writing emotion. He did a great job of showing her emotional journey. There was tons of interpersonal relationships. The fact that they were systemically destroyed and that she was destroyed as a person as a result of them is, y'know, story conflict and character development.


Oh also unrelated don't think we didn't notice that the Dinah foreshadowing was paid off, and she was totally using Infernal Monster Form.
 
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You know, I really like this ending. It's simple, it makes sense, and it's honestly less depressing than canon. Aisha still being alive means a lot, and I would absolutely read a romantic hurt/comfort sequel fic of Taylor learning to be a human again under Aisha's tender care.
 
ses said:
I'll be honest I kinda teared up a bit at that. I want Aisha to give Taylor a hug and help her find herself again.
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That's a good point, why didn't she just drop stealth and go for the hug, instead of writing a note? I mean, she definitely survived the complete destruction of Brockton Bay, right? It wasn't Contessa, a note-sized portal and the path to maintaining a crucial asset. Wasn't Dragon with a stealth drone and similar ideas, because the AI couldn't have cracked the code after the S9 arc.

(gotta stay true to the original, and Wildbow's little "what epilog? Oh you mean Taylor's dying hallucination?")

ses said:
(Epilogue is misspelled and I'm not sure if it was intentional)
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Merriam-Webster said:
or less commonly epilog
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Jesus, don't do that to me. I thought my ESL had finally caught up to me right at the finish line.

Vealie said:
I think this is my favourite completed worm fic now.
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Like you tell your mom she's your favorite mom? I honestly don't think I've ever read a completed Worm fic.

ses said:
So how does it feel to manage over a hundred fucking chapters on a 5 a week schedule without slipping and disappearing for an unexpected hiatus you absolute fucking madlad.
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Feels nice to be down to just one job again. But it was fun too! I won't say that everyone was nice and encouraging, because, you know. But the only thing that ever offended me was the idea that I would have been anything but scrupulous with charm learning times. When I put Rune into the planning spreadsheet, I saw that Sometimes Horses Fly Approach would become the axis around which all of arc L would have to bend. And I went "aight, we'll do that."

zharshoul said:
Kinda meh ending, especially if thats a real epilogue.
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Genju said:
he did warn everyone.
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I did warn everyone.

queermunist said:
Hey gratz on finishing! You struggled a lot to get this thing published and that's commendable.
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Turns out that when art is actually transgressive, it doesn't get a bunch of smarmy cunts praising it for being transgressive. It gets shut the fuck down.

queermunist said:
I still totally think you're a /pol/ack, but that's okay I browsed that shithole for years so it's not like I can throw stones.
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I think I went to /pol/ once. Or maybe it was /b/? I came, I saw, the forum layout made my eyes bleed, I left and never came back.

XZR-2 said:
Charm Learning Shard 2: Electric Boogaloo
When?
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With Taylor dipping her toes into Devil-Tiger I've sort of laid groundwork for exalted-titan Taylor going up against worm-titan whoever. But I haven't read that thing, nor will I. Charm Learning Ward will never happen.

ses said:
Oh also unrelated don't think we didn't notice that the Dinah foreshadowing was paid off, and she was totally using Infernal Monster Form.
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The Fan-Service At The End Of The World.



Should also call out my favorite comments.

3rd place goes to this one:
GAMB42 said:
This Fic really is a roller coaster, with chapters running on pure crack alternating with serious issues all the time. Definily a treat.
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Because it made me go "I wonder which are which".


2nd place:
pepperjack said:
Daniel Snuts said:
Well, when you can't abort a poorly chosen course of action, all that is left is to double down on it.
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I think you put the story summary in the middle of the chapter, Daniel.
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Because yes, I did accidentally do that.


But first place goes to the guy on reddit who said (paraphrasing) "Good thing the author turned out to be a nazi, because that justifies my decision not to read it because of the second person perspective."
 
I think you misunderstand me ( to various people) I'm not surprised by the ending especially since he let us know and it fits the vein of the story as well. It's "good" in that regard but its still a story where bad things happen, things just get worse and nothing of importance (other than Scion dying I guess) is really resolved. This is Taylor's life and her adventure into powers whether she liked it or not. (She didn't) . It's a story of disappointment , seeing hope continually snuffed out, the seemingly pointlessness of it all and it does it well.

I would personally never recommend it as a stand alone fic but more as a thing to read along with the comments from the start. I get that there are people that like that though, but I'm not one of them.

——-
Yes there are several hundred page long thread comments of stories I have joined in late or when it was over and read through, its a sort of meta experience and adds a certain context compared to reading the naked fic.

——-
It was certainly a trip and I was glad to have been here.
 
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Daniel Snuts said:
It wasn't Contessa, a note-sized portal and the path to maintaining a crucial asset.
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Why would Contessa bother? She and Doctor Mother have no reason to care about Earth Bet in particular, and probably would just retire to a beach in some world with no parahumans now that the multiversal threat is seemingly gone.
 
Bravo snuts, bravo. This was my favorite wormfic ever, and honestly the obsession with it took over my life for the past month to a probably unhealthy degree. I really really hope you continue to write transgressive art for QQ and don't feel chased off now that you've finished what you came here to do.
 
Two questions, if that's okay. If not, whatever man.

Had you decided on the ending's pacing before you posted chapter 1?

Are there any fanworks in the Parahumans fandom, or something else that SB/SV/QQ likes, that you particularly hated around the time you first started writing this?
 
This fic is really something special. I've read enough fanfics to know which ones I'll remember and come back to, like there's so many 'safe' fics that follow favorite tropes (or rehash canon :mad:) - they're entirely forgettable. Not this. I really hope you end up writing something else, because quality work like this is really addicting lol. Thank you for being committed to bringing in something like this.
 
So, this story is finally done. Honestly I'm both a bit happy and sad to see it over. I've read this story since back on SpaceBattles and it's one of the most creative and outthere Worm fics I've read in a long time. It was willing to go places both storywise and humor wise I've never seen another Worm fic go. I kinda lost interest after the end of arc L when it hard spiraled into grimderp, I had hoped Snuts was joking when they said they were purposely going to copy my least favorite part of canon Worm, yet despite that the story still managed to fit in countless moments of creativity, humor, subversion, and general moments of awesomeness all the way to the end.

Bravo Snuts, and I look forward to your next work if and when that is.
 
Ooh, I will also post a list of completed worm fics that I thought were ok. I actually think this fic might be favorite completed one though.

A Cape in Konoha (Worm/Naruto AU)

A Wand for Skitter (Worm/HP)

A Word

Charity Begins at Home

East of Eden: A New Twist on an Old Cycle

Dominion (Worm, S9!Taylor)

1minus2 said:
This fic is really something special. I've read enough fanfics to know which ones I'll remember and come back to, like there's so many 'safe' fics that follow favorite tropes (or rehash canon :mad:) - they're entirely forgettable. Not this. I really hope you end up writing something else, because quality work like this is really addicting lol. Thank you for being committed to bringing in something like this.
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Yeah, it is interesting how original and memorable this fic is despite following the stations of canon to a certain extent.
 
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