Tertiary (Worm)

[Visual Pun]

[expletive deleted][expletive deleted][expletive deleted]

THIS is why I think I need to get a Beta reader.

Now I have to go back and edit all of the places I posted instead of doing it just once.

[expletive deleted]

 

[Cyclone]

One little tiny nitpick. Skidmark's name is Adam, not Alan. (Adam Mustain, that is).

The only Alan's named in canon IIRC are Alan Barnes and Alan Gramme (Emma's dad and Mannequin, respectively).

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[expletive deleted][expletive deleted][expletive deleted]

THIS is why I think I need to get a Beta reader.

Now I have to go back and edit all of the places I posted instead of doing it just once.

[expletive deleted]

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No, you really don't.

Unless it came from a WoG somewhere, Skidmark's name being Adam Mustain is complete fanon. It's certainly not canon, as I just searched; neither of the names "Adam" or "Mustain" appear anywhere in canon Worm at all. There was, however, an Officer Adams briefly mentioned who worked at the psychiatric hospital Faultline broke Labyrinth out of and, of course, the hero called Adamant.

 

[Biigoh]

One little tiny nitpick. Skidmark's name is Adam, not Alan. (Adam Mustain, that is).

The only Alan's named in canon IIRC are Alan Barnes and Alan Gramme (Emma's dad and Mannequin, respectively).

Click to shrink...

Smaller nitpick. Skidmark's name was never actually listed in Worm. :>

 

[Visual Pun]

Someone on the internet is WRONG?!?

Quick, to the Batmobile!

 

[Ack]

Smaller nitpick. Skidmark's name was never actually listed in Worm. :>

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However, it is listed as that on the TVTropes page.

 

[Cyclone]

However, it is listed as that on the TVTropes page.

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That doesn't actually make it canon.

 

[Biigoh]

However, it is listed as that on the TVTropes page.

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TVTropes doesn't make it canon... you do know, right? ^^;

If you're going to cite, I would suggest either Worm itself or a WoG that notes Skidmark's name...

 

[Ack]

I know it doesn't make it guaranteed canon, but it makes it more likely to be canon than just showing up in someone's fanfic.

 

[Ack]

TVTropes doesn't make it canon... you do know, right? ^^;

If you're going to cite, I would suggest either Worm itself or a WoG that notes Skidmark's name...

Click to shrink...

In this comment on SB, it's suggested that either you or @notes is responsible for the 'Adam Mustain' and 'Sherrel Bailey' names.

So yes, almost definitely fanon.

However, as it's made it into the TVTropes page, it's now semi-official fanon (I say semi official because Wildbow has not signed off on it).

 

[Cyclone]

In this comment on SB, it's suggested that either you or @notes is responsible for the 'Adam Mustain' and 'Sherrel Bailey' names.

So yes, almost definitely fanon.

However, as it's made it into the TVTropes page, it's now semi-official fanon (I say semi official because Wildbow has not signed off on it).

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Maybe so. But telling someone his 'fic is wrong on the basis of fanon is not cool.

 

[macdjord]

Maybe so. But telling someone his 'fic is wrong on the basis of fanon is not cool.

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Telling someone who obviously intended to use the fanon name but accidentally used a slightly different one, however, is perfectly helpful.

 

[Chojomeka]

On the subject of Skidmark's and Squeler's names....kek *innocent whistling*

 

[Ack]

Maybe so. But telling someone his 'fic is wrong on the basis of fanon is not cool.

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For which I do apologise. I had thought the names were more grounded in canon.

Telling someone who obviously intended to use the fanon name but accidentally used a slightly different one, however, is perfectly helpful.

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[Visual Pun]

Hey, I'm the one basing an entire CHARACTER (Moist) on an acknowledged typo of WildBow's so... yeah.

I probably intended to type Adam for Skidmark but my mind wandered over to a plot point from the next arc and the first name of another character just dropped in.

More berating myself at having to go back and fix it when I post the first chapter of the next arc.

Hey,....

Did I just spark a mini-flamewar on QQ?

I gotta stop leaving all this kindling laying about right next to the spilled lighter fluid and conveniently placed magnifying glass leaned up against the open box of matches.

 

[Chojomeka]

I'm still surprised that someone thought that the names Karmafalcon and I came up with for his Coincidence(Dead since Karma disappeared) fic somehow became the fanon names for the Merchants.

 

[Biigoh]

I'm still surprised that someone thought that the names Karmafalcon and I came up with for his Coincidence(Dead since Karma disappeared) fic somehow became the fanon names for the Merchants.

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Not as amusing as Tin Mother on Pho.... :3

 

[Chojomeka]

Not as amusing as Tin Mother on Pho.... :3

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Yes the circulation of fanon.

 

[Visual Pun]

morP 3.1

Authors Note:

Spoiler

Much like the ancient Rankin/Bass animation of Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, I overcome my own shortcomings as a writer in this arc by rotoscoping over someone else with real talent! All hail Wildbow, and please forgive the hack job I have performed to mutate his prose to my needs. All rights to Worm are his, all wrongs in this chapter are mine.

Now, Let's get this chapter started: Once upon a fanfic....

Principal Blackwell arrived at Winslow High as the pre-dawn light filtered through the clouds. As usual she was the first one into the building. She entered the security code in the office and reset the system to ignore the administrative areas so she could get some work done before the other staff arrived.

_____

Taylor was in agony just getting out of bed after an uncomfortable few hours of attempted sleep, jolted awake by every move of the bruised side of her torso.

She couldn't even blame it on a fictional afterschool assault by Sophia since Shadow Stalker undoubtedly noticed her injuries as Butterfly last night. Taking an absence might also lead Sophia to start connecting her cape identity with her student life, and Taylor in no way wanted to risk that. So a taking more pain relievers to help her tough it out during the school day would have to suffice. Besides, she had that Art Project due today.

She applied new bandages as best she could as she looked in her bedroom vanity mirror. Too bad she couldn't risk using the larger bathroom mirror, but she needed to hide her injuries from her father or he'd go ballistic over Winslow High's failure to halt the bullying against her. A long sleeved brown turtleneck should manage to disguise any spots which bled through, especially under the extra layer of her baggy hooded sweatshirt.

By what she had learned about the Spoils system from Dauntless last night she would lose over half her remaining cash if she filled out all the paperwork and went through the PRT. Or she could keep it and be linked to the Merchants, even if as a Mercenary. Taylor decided to register after she got the payment she had already earned from Squealer.

At least she had found some ticks to tag Sophia again. However, that was a a crutch she didn't need to rely upon. It had come back to bite her in the ass, so she needed to practice identifying people without the shorthand of a specific bug per individual. She would give it a try today and see how it went.

With a sigh as she hobbled downstairs to breakfast she thought, "At least it's Friday."

"Best day of the week."

"Yeah, right…."

_____

Sophia entered in-school detention, her last day in this boring as shit hell hole was finally here. No more long boring hours with the rejects of Winslow's lackluster schooling.

She dropped her phone at the teacher's desk and noticed something at her usual seat.

A small, round glass bottle of apple juice.

"Thought I'd forgotten about you, Sophia?"

She wheeled to face the source of the mocking voice, one fist cocked back ready to punch when Jesse stepped aside and said, "Good Morning, Mr. Nelson. How's Sophia been doing? Will we get our star athlete back on Monday?"

The harried teacher answered, 'Yes, um… Jesse, isn't it? Yes, yes, she'll be back to regular classes on Monday."

"Great," the senior glared at Sophia out of the teacher's view, "The entire track team can't wait for her to return to practice soon enough."

Sophia tightened her fist in frustration until her knuckles popped.

_____

Class ended in five minutes and all she could think was, "My pain medication had definitely worn off."

Mr. Gladly's World Issues class had finally got to the unit about capes. Now that she was one, it should have been more interesting. But Taylor just couldn't follow along as pain infiltrated her senses and sabotaged her awareness. Twenty minutes to twelve; five minutes left before class ended.

Taylor glanced over her shoulder. Madison sat two rows to my left and two seats back. She was chatting with Julia, as usual. It was difficult as she tried to ignore the aches and pains, but could still feel sweat breaking out on her forehead. A glance up at the clock showed Eleven-forty-three.

"Let me wrap up here," Mr. Gladly said, "Sorry, guys, but there is homework for the weekend…" He continued to lay out the assignment, but the dull aches from her injuries due to her run-in with the Undersiders last night incessantly grew over the course of the class period to require her full attention to keep any further frailties crack her façade.

No way would she even consider taking any pain pills here and reveal a potential weakness under Madison's watchful glare. She needed to go somewhere private and check if any of the bandages had bled through.

The bell rang with a lilting ding-dong, and Taylor was the last one out the door. She couldn't run, but headed up the stairwell as best she could to the third floor to the girl's washroom, the haven she had been sure she'd outgrown the need for.

There were a few girls leaving, which meant there was no wait for a stall to open up. A peek below the partitions showed that there was nobody else in the other stalls. Taylor sat on the lid of the toilet and examined her injured flank as best as she could with a tiny round make-up mirror. A minor miracle, there was no bleeding and no excuse not to dig down for the pills in the bottom of the backpack.

The door of the bathroom banged open and Taylor didn't even have a chance to do more than dry swallow the pills. She realized in her haste to care for her injuries she'd neglected to track anyone with bugs for over an hour. With a feeling of sinking dread she knew that carelessness was about to come back to bite her in the ass.

The noise of the conversation outside her stall was obscured by giggling and the sound of water from the sinks. There was a startling thump on the door, and Taylor not-so-silently hissed at the pain as she involuntary flinched.

"I told you I saw her come in here to hide" one of the girls on the outside, probably Madison, exclaimed with glee, then in response another girl added, "Yeah, do it!"

Taylor abruptly stood up, the shirt fell to cover the bandaged injuries. Rushing for the door, even unlocked it door didn't budge when she pushed.

There were noises from the stalls on either side, then a sound from above. Taylor looked up to see what it was, only to get splashed in the face. Her eyes burned, as she was momentarily blinded by the stinging fluid in her eyes and blurred across her glasses. The familiar taste it as it ran down her nose and mouth.

Apple juice.

Then, a painful impact sent her reeling as a glass bottle shattered where it was hurled against her head.

Diluted blood streamed in rivulets down her face.

"Fuck this shit," Taylor angrily thought.

Skittering swarms of insects climbed up inside the walls from the crawlspace beneath Winslow in answer to Taylors' summons.

_____

Principal Blackwell hung the phone back on the receiver. Now that the threatened Barnes lawsuit was put to bed, she could use the budget scraped up to better use. Perhaps towards something which would benefit the entire school. She began to ponder what to do with this unexpected surplus when her concentration was broken by the slightly muffled sound of something moving up inside the wall of her office.

Eeeeyew.

Her decision made, she opened a drawer from her desk to peruse the school district list of preferred subcontractors.

 

[Chojomeka]

Welp at least Blackwell as the preferred subcontractors list out.

 

[Visual Pun]

>laughs evilly<

 

[Chojomeka]

>laughs evilly<

Click to shrink...

The school's insurance isn't going to cover this is it?

 

[Visual Pun]

Just so you know, this entire arc is completely written.

I'm going to take the month of July off from writing (well, I'll still take notes as ideas pop up) and so.......

I'll be posting this entire arc, one chapter a day until it's complete.

Then you all call me a rotten bastard for

Spoiler

ending the chapter on a CLIFFHANGER

Spoiler

as usual

Spoiler

but also for doing something no fanfic (that I've found, anyway) has done yet and you realize I won't be publishing anything more until August.

 

[Visual Pun]

morP 3.2

Even after the broken glass bottle sliced open her scalp, the deluge of drinks on Taylor's head didn't stop there. Madison and Sophia leaned over the top of the stall, each of them with plastic bottles at the ready to replace the empties they had already discarded. Bent over with her arms shielding her head, Taylor suffered through the liquid assault a second time.

It ran down Taylor's neck and back, her heather grey hooded sweatshirt wetly molded to her shoulders soaked through, and fizzed painfully as it ran through the lacerations under her hair. Taylor pushed against the door again amid sweet and sticky puddles of juice on the floor, but her bruised and bandaged side eliminated any possibility of body-checking the door open with Emma braced against it.

More empty plastic bottles with labels for grape and cranberry juice fell to the ground around me. A bottle of orange soda bounced off my shoulder to splash into the puddle before rolling under the partition and into the next stall. The smell of the fruity drinks and sodas was sickly sweet.

The door swung open, and there stood Madison, Sophia and Emma. Julia leaned in from the side and took a picture with her camera with a flash. The four of them laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world, but the sounds of their amusement barely registered. Julia was shocked by a response in kind as Taylor took a picture of her own.

"Omigawwd!" Julia protested as she blinked away the spots which clouded her vision, "Why'd you do that?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Sophia said as she snatched the phone out of Julia's hand, "Delete that. No evidence that points back to us, dumbass."

All that a second attempt to take a picture accomplished was a close-up of a palm through the view finder as Sophia said, "Oh no you don't."

This was followed by a shove which knocked Taylor to collapse back in the stall onto her backpack with a crunch amid the puddles of juice.

As Sophia turned and walked away, she briefly fumbled with the disposable camera. She hissed, and unexpectedly exclaimed, "Ow!" then shook her hand briefly then violently pulled out the film. The tangled ribbon cascaded to the floor behind her and became worthlessly over exposed in the ambient light. Sophia pulled up on the window sash to no effect, then tossed the curled film and empty box clattered into a garbage can.

One big flaw in the camera defense Taylor realized – she had to take manually take the pictures. Hindsight being 20/20 she acknowledged getting a voice recorder would have been a good idea after all. Too late now, though.

Taylor said "You…"

BANG!

Taylor flinched as the door in the next door stall slammed closed right next to her ear.

"You're fucking THIS close to having your fucking head kicked in, snitchy bitch," Sophia growled.

Taylor struggled to control her breathing due to her aching side and decided that now was not the time to try and stand up again.

"You're just lucky these windows are practically painted shut or I'd have chucked that shitty camera out and then thrown you out right after." Sophia ranted.

Taylor didn't trust herself to say anything that wouldn't set Sophia off further, so she kept silent.

"You say anything about this, one fucking word," Sophia snarled as she loomed over the prone Taylor, "and I will throw you out that window…"

Sophia whirled and stalked away, "…and I won't even try to open it this time."

As she left the restroom with a smirk Emma gave a little wave of one hand and said "Buh-bye, Tay-tay."

A slightly stunned Madison recovered her wits enough to pull Julia, who had just stood there staring in shock at what she had just witnessed, out to the hall to follow Sophia and Emma.

The bathroom door slammed shut behind them.

Carefully, Taylor climbed unsteadily to her feet and leaned against the stall for balance. Enough of the swarm under her control had finally made it up the walls and vents inside the three story building or onto the roof from outside that Taylor could push her emotions away from herself and distribute her negative feelings across tens of thousands of bugs.

The one feeling she didn't want to push away was the cold, almost sour sensation in her stomach. Not nausea, but a condensed, determined calculated rage as she approached the sink and rubbed at the smeared, streaky lenses under the running tap.
As she began to clean herself up, Taylor used the bugs in the vents to listen in on the conversation in the hallway outside.

"Oh my god, that was great," said Emma, "The perfect end to your week of detention, don't you think?"

Sophia gruffly snorted a reply.

"What the hell did she ever do to deserve that?" Julia muttered.

"Oh, y'know… Existing. Inhaling. Exhaling. Being too ugly to live, that sort of thing," Madison explained.

Sophia said, "The Track Team has started giving me shit, now it's all gonna flow downhill onto her."

"So, you want to come over tonight and hang out, watch bad movies?" Emma asked as the group followed her away from the bathrooms.

"I can't," Sophia replied, "I've got that… dance I have to go to tonight. And the rest of my weekend is all booked up."

"Wait, wait, you're going to the dance?" Emma said incredulously.

"Believe it or not, yes," Sophia said defeatedly.

Emma turned away from Sophia, "How about you, Julia? Got plans for tonight?"

"M..me? I, uh… no, no I was going to go to that dance at Immaculata too," Julia said.

"What about you Mads? Got a secret boyfriend at Immaculata we don't know about?"

Madison quipped, "Well, if you knew about him, then he wouldn't be a secret then, would he?"

Emma giggled and said, "Sounds like a plan, then. Go get us a table in the cafeteria before they're all gone, We'll catch up with you in a bit."

After Julia and Madison went down the stairs, Emma asked, "You've never gone to a dance before, why is it so important tonight?"

Sophia let loose a dissatisfied grunt and said, "I have to go to that lame dance for my… evening job. No getting out of it, or it's my ass in a sling."

"Wait. They're forcing you to go to a fucking dance? Let the gangs run around free, this Ward needs a corsage, stat! Seriously?"

"I know. They're gonna pick me up and drop me back at home afterwards, then I got a meet-and-greet with seven year olds first thing in the morning tomorrow."

"Yuck, can't you just drop-kick the little ankle-biters?"

"I wish, but not after last time…" Sophia's voice trailed off as Taylor returned focus back to her immediate surroundings.

She noticed her fingers had wrinkled like prunes under the running water, but at least her lenses were merely wet and no longer streaked by juice. A look in the mirror confirmed she looked like she'd been near an exploding hippie with all the various splatters of fruit juice stained her clothes and made her look like a spastic first attempt at tie-dyeing. At least the brown turtleneck only looked wet, but splotches of red, purple and orange speckled her faded jeans like a Jackson Pollock painting.

At least her scalp had stopped bleeding, so she cleaned up the tacky blood on her forehead with wetted paper towels as best she could.

Squadrons of mosquitoes flew though the gap in the window Sophia had managed to open slightly more and attempted to suck the staining liquids out of her clothes to little success.

Taylor gathered her backpack and ignored the sound of her former art project crunching together and looked at her reflection in the mirror, not surprised by the defeated, disheveled countenance looking back at her.

"Is this all there is?" she thought to herself, "Try and be a cape, but get beat up for it. Plan retribution at school only for everything to slide back into place as if the events of last week never happened…"

She hefted her backpack and moved to exit the bathroom, her bugs returned to the crawlspace under the school as she tried to decide what to do next.

Retreat, and let discretion be the better part of valor, catch the first bus home in defeat? Or should she brave the humiliating stares and laughter as she went to the office and see how they would follow through on this latest round of bullying?

No, even if confronted by Principal Blackwell those bitches would probably claim Taylor had dumped the juice all over herself in some pitiful cry for attention. She could just picture Madison playing up the condescending innocent bystander angle, "…and then she just dumped it all over herself like a crazy person. I think the poor thing needs help." It's not like the school would take fingerprints off the bottles or…

Taylor turned and looked at the garbage can near the window.

The camera.

Sophia had unrolled the film, and tossed it in the trash.

Taylor walked up to the dented can, a ribbon of exposed film draped halfway out and looked inside at the disposable camera box on top of the trash.

She reached inside her backpack and removed the plastic sandwich baggie which formerly held her pain pills and turned it inside-out.

Taylor gathered up the ruined film carefully with the baggie, intentionally never touching it with her bare hand then reached into the can and retrieved the disposable camera with the same level of care.

The still factory sealed, unbroken, disposable camera lay inside the baggie, right next to the exposed film which used to be inside of it.

With Sophia's fingerprints all over it, and possibly inside the now empty sealed camera as well.

Not a smoking gun, per se, but one more piece of evidence.

Taylor sealed the baggie, dropped it on top of her ruined art project, lifted her backpack and exited the bathroom.

She remembered an album her father sometimes listened to, not so much since the accident where her mother died.

"All in all," Taylor rhythmically muttered, "it's just… another brick in the wall."

A masculine teen voice joined in, "We don' need no educa… what the hell happened to you?!?"

 

[jrbless]

With luck, that is someone on the track team. All Taylor has to do is say that it is because of Sophia (which is true). The track team already has it out for Sophia, and this would be more ammunition. Another "funny" option is that it is an E88 wannabe and she also tells them it was Sophia. They also would have it out for her just because she isn't white. Maybe they would start harassing her in her civilian life all the time, not knowing she is a Ward.

 

[Chojomeka]

...I want to hug this Taylor every much but I worry she would take it badly

 

[Visual Pun]

morP 3.3

Jesse walked upstairs to his locker after lunch and passed Sophia laughing with her friends making their way down.

"See you at practice on Monday, Sophia," he said in a friendly manner.

"Yeah, yeah, Monday." Sophia grunted a perfunctory reply and turned back to her friends, "Hey so what are you going to wear to the dance at Immaculata tonight? If I have to go I might as well look good…"

As he reached the top of the stairs and turned down the hall, the Track Team captain overheard some girl quoting the only Pink Floyd song every kid was guaranteed to know.

Jesse turned the corner and joined in, "We don' need no educa… what the hell happened to you?!?"

The tall, skinny girl in front of him looked like the Sixties had thrown up on her. Red, purple, and orange stains in haphazard streaks and blotches colored her jeans, hooded sweatshirt, and backpack. Damp hair matted the top of her red-stained scalp, which he suddenly realized wasn't stained at all, but bloody. She looked like she had been in a fight and lost.

The girl looked at him and said three words: "Sophia FUCKING Hess."

"Okay, What did she do?"

"Broke a glass bottle of apple juice on my head and dumped juice on me while I was in a stall."

Jesse was stunned. Hess had managed to use the bottle he'd subtly threatened her with this morning and bully someone else with it. He was impressed and appalled at the same time.

"Why the fuck would she do that to you?"

"She said if she had to take the Track team's shit, it would all flow downhill to me." Taylor replied.

Jesse fumed as his thoughts raced. Hess needed to be taken down a peg or two. Who did she think she was, Alexandria?

He turned to the girl and asked, "So… You know that old saying; 'Don't get mad, get even,' right?".

Taylor nodded.

Jesse realized Sophia was one of those Type A personalities that would benefit from hazing in the long run. To get knocked down, but then have the ones who knocked you down help you back up again. That's what being part of a team meant to him, a group you'd shared adversity with and knew coulkd be counted on when the chips were down. Sophia could be an asshole, but she was OUR asshole, a part of the Track Team and it was past time she learned that.

"Just be at Immaculata tonight at nine and you can watch Hess experience a favorite word of mine." Jesse said.

The tall skinny girl cocked her head quizzically.

"Schadenfreude…"

 

[Chojomeka]

...now I'm interested.

 

[Biigoh]

Welp... an unexpected twist! Everyone is gonna be at Immaculata...

 

[Chojomeka]

Welp... an unexpected twist! Everyone is gonna be at Immaculata...

Click to shrink...

And likely won't be immaculate for long I thinks.

 

[Starfox5]

Carrie 2.0 - shadow explosion.