Fanfic / Just A Phase

Just A Phase is a fanfiction of Worm by First Selector, who is also one of the authors of Inheritance (Worm).

Taylor Triggers as a Breaker/Stranger/Thinker who can phase through solid objects, phasing out of the locker right in front of Sophia and Emma. Then she Got Volunteered for the Wards by her father.

Finding out that Emma and Sophia are both Wards means Taylor wants nothing to do with the Protectorate, and wants only to live her life.

Taylor gets shipped off to Boston to join the Wards there, with no desire but to quit. She refuses to participate in power testing and gets into contact with the local Youth Guard representative.

The fic is ongoing but is currently on hiatus.

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This fanfic contains examples of the following:

• Adaptational Badass: Emma Triggered in the alley as an electrokinetic Blaster that can sense weak points in enemies.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Tattletale shows up at the Boston Wards public tour in early January, three months before canon Taylor met her.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike in canon, Emma feels genuine remorse for her actions and wants to, but can't, make it up to Taylor.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: This Taylor is tentatively known as "Phase" (a permanent Cape Name is dependent on power testing, which Taylor won't do); she can phase through solid objects (and isn't Manton-Limited, phasing through people multiple times), has clairvoyance within an 8-foot radius of herself, and is a Thinker Blind Spot that also lets her know when someone tries to use Thinker powers on her.
• Adults Are Useless: From Taylor's point of view, this is a general thing. The fact that James Reed, her Youth Guard contact, not only believes her over Emma's message but quickly moves to forestall further attempts makes her break down in tears.
• Anger Born of Worry: Lily gets angry with Taylor after her first cape fight as a vigilante goes somewhat pear-shaped.
• Anti-Villain: Gauss and Armstrong are decent PRT bosses who want to protect their community and help their Wards. However, their refusal to acknowledge Taylor's objections to being drafted against her will and nearly killed by two other Wards makes them part of Taylor's coercion and conscription and thus antagonistic to Taylor's desire to be free of the PRT, especially with their repeated requests for power testing.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Gauss' usual cheeriness becomes a gobsmacked expression after her encouragement for Taylor to get a civilian phone, because "It's bad form to use your Wards phone to talk to your friends," backfires.
  Taylor: What friends? No, seriously, what friends? Your Wards drove them all away, and it's not like I'm on speaking terms with my family, either. Who, exactly, am I going to call?
• The Atoner: Emma, after witnessing Taylor's horror at finding two of her bullies were Wards.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Taylor views her childhood dreams of becoming a hero as this: she's now part of the heroes after wanting nothing to do with them anymore.
  • Meanwhile, Emma sees her desire for Taylor to show she was strong and fight back as this: Taylor did indeed become stronger after she Triggered from everything Emma, Sophia, and Madison did to her - and fought back by telling everyone about the bullying and cutting off the one attempt Emma made of trying to mend bridges, because any trust she might have had has been pushing up daisies for months.
• Benevolent Boss:
  • Regardless of Taylor's feelings on the matter, Director Armstrong and Gauss are trying their best at being this, as they are entirely unwilling to force Taylor into power testing despite heavy pressure from above. They don't consider punishing her after she revealed how she Got Volunteered to a group of teens, even though this kickstarted a big fuss.
  • O'Hannon, Boston Image Department's boss. He leads the Department with skill, shows a willingness to listen to interns for their insights in teenage culture, has them sit in meetings where they can help and orders pizza for everyone when they have to stay late due to overwork.
• Berserk Button: The Protectorate, for Taylor.
• Broken Pedestal: After enduring horrific bullying at the hands of two wards, getting no apology or restitution from it, and finding out her bullies are Wards, Taylor finds being stuck in the Wards to be a punishment than a reward. Her disillusionment with the Wards is what causes Emma to have a Heel Realization.
• Brutal Honesty: Taylor doesn't mince words about how she Got Volunteered into the Wards - even in front of a tour group full of children and teenagers.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: Inverted. Taylor is eager to reveal the horrible and tragic moments of her life to shame people into leaving her alone.
• Child Soldiers: Taylor makes her superiors very uncomfortable when she tells a tour group that she was signed up against her will and that there have been dangerous power interactions in the past because the PRT was too eager to get Wards in costume and onto the street. Weld is upset with her, but she doesn't care.
  Weld: It hurts everyone, because it makes the Protectorate appear to be out-of-touch and only interested in us for our power. The Wards cannot be seen as child soldiers.
  Taylor: Tell that to someone who wasn't drafted.
• Cursed with Awesome: Taylor's power is strong enough even to resist Thinkers. Unfortunately, this makes the authorities more eager to use her despite her wanting to get out of the Wards as soon as possible.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Emma wanted to prove to Sophia that Taylor was strong, so she let her bully Taylor and then joined in, hoping (at the beginning) that they would be able to become friends again once Taylor proved her strength. Two years later, Taylor Triggers - and quickly stays as far away as possible from her tormentors, and puts up every barrier she can find between herself and Emma after she sends her a message because Emma's done the "fake apology" prank so many times that Taylor never considers she might be sincere. Not to mention how this would impact Taylor's ability to trust anyone or how the reputation of the Wards could suffer.
  • After ending in the hospital during her moonlighting and finding herself interrogated by PRT officers, Taylor chews herself out for thinking she could pursue vigilante activity without the PRT potentially sticking their nose into her business.
• Disowned Parent: After Danny signs Taylor up for the Wards (giving up guardianship to the PRT at the same time) against her will, she disowns him, blocks all of his attempts to call her and refuses to meet him when he comes down to Boston.
• Eating Lunch Alone: Taylor's ideal regarding meals. Given that she kept being harassed by her bullies pre-Trigger and by people she completely distrusts post-Trigger, it's hardly surprising.
• False Friend: After being betrayed by her best friend and screwed over by the Protectorate, Taylor is inclined to see the Capes who want to befriend her as liars who want to use her.
• First Friend: The Youth Guard representative has become Taylor's first friend since Emma turned on her. It also counts as Intergenerational Friendship.
• Food Porn: The first thing to lift Taylor's spirits is the fantastic food in the cafeteria.
• Friendless Background: After a year and a half of intense bullying that led to her Trigger event, Taylor has been left with literally no people she considers herself close to. It takes a while for Gauss to realize this, even after Taylor explicitly points it out several times.
• Gilded Cage: Taylor sees being in the Wards as this: she gets a lot of good benefits and accommodations, but it doesn't change the fact that she's stuck under the thumb of people she wants to ditch.
• Got Volunteered: After Taylor refused to join the Brockton Bay Wards, Danny signed her over to the Boston Protectorate lock, stock, and barrel. Needless to say, she wasn't happy, and has used Loophole Abuse to keep Danny from being able to even see her while she works on leaving the Wards ASAP.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Downplayed in that it's a non-lethal example; Emma wants to become The Atoner, but after everything she did to Taylor, the latter regards her genuine attempts to fix things as yet another ploy to bully and/or torture her. Thus, when Emma sends Taylor a message, Taylor requests Jim to block any potential way for Emma or Sophia to contact her, and Armsmaster gets reamed out for giving Emma the information to do so.
• Heel Realization: Emma was mixed-up enough in the head to believe that once Taylor triggered, they'd go back to being friends and everything would be fine again — until Taylor came to the PRT to try joining the Wards, saw her tormentors there, burst into tears and runs away.
  She had been, inexplicably, expecting Taylor to be excited to join the team and be her friend again. The questions of how or why never even registered to her delusional brain, and it wasn’t until Miss Militia was chasing Taylor down the hall and Dean was yelling that Emma realized how badly she had hurt the other girl.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Possibly at the insistence of her Conflict Drive, Taylor's begun self-sabotaging her aversion of power testing by moonlighting as a vigilante.
• I'm Not Here to Make Friends: Taylor absolutely refuses to socialize, her only stated goal being to get out of the Wards as soon as possible. The Ward she's closest to is Connie, who makes no attempt to interact with her for reasons other than schoolwork - which is pretty much the reason why Taylor can get along with her.
• I Work Alone: Invoked. While Taylor still wants to be a superhero, she doesn't want to do so in a way that would serve the PRT, an organization that screwed her over.
• Innocently Insensitive: Taylor watches for any opportunity to call people out for inadvertently treading on her unhappy past.
  Taylor: What's the occasion?
  Gauss: Nothing really. Do we need an occasion for pizza?
  Taylor: Before I learned to cook, I would order pizza when my dad didn’t come home in time for dinner.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While Taylor may not be choosing the most healthy or productive way of dealing with her situation, it's worth noting that the PRT has yet to so much as apologize for Emma and Sophia's actions, let alone doing anything to punish them or make restitution to Taylor.
• Karma Houdini: Downplayed. While Piggot swept her mistreatment of Taylor under the rug, Emma has earned the scorn of her team and her family with her actions and is haunted by what she did and upset that Taylor refuses to have any contact with her.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • Vista and some of the other Brockton Bay Wards think that Taylor's reaction to learning Emma and Sophia were part of the Wards was an exaggeration.
  • Nebula, unlike his boss Gauss, doesn't care about the fact that Taylor's Trigger was caused by two members of the Wards, only about making Taylor - one way or the other - properly join the Wards.
• Leave Me Alone!: Taylor's default reaction to any Protectorate, Wards, or PRT interactions.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Costumes, permanent Cape Names, and Patrols (among other things) depend on Power Testing; since Power Testing technically isn't compulsory, and Taylor refuses to do Power Testing, she does not need any of these, only a domino mask. Fortunately for Taylor, vigilantism does not require Power Testing.
  • Wards' schedules include a couple hours a day for hobbies. As Shadow Stalker can attest, vigilantism apparently counts as a hobby.
  • The PRT is sometimes forced to take custody of parahuman children from Abusive Parents, with there being regulations in such cases of acrimonious separation that can be invoked to protect said children from their parents. Due to their wording, Taylor is able to claim ex post facto that her relationship with her father (who signed over guardianship to the PRT) was personally damaging and that she needs the PRT to keep them separated for her own well-being, conveniently keeping the PRT from getting Danny to try and convince her to undergo power testing.
  • If Wards and Protectorate can use their powers at a pizza party, and Taylor hasn't been through power testing, then Taylor can leave in spite of pressure to stay. Also related, she ducks out of Armstrong's weekly meeting with the Boston Wards after he states it is optional.
  • She also screws with Emma and Sophia by pointing out to the Youth Guard that the Brockton Bay Wards aren't following regulations, as Wards with "sufficient reason" can file complaints in departments beyond their own.
  • Director Armstrong attempts to pull one (in a misguided attempt to help Taylor socialize) by revealing that Taylor can participate in public tours of the Wards' common areas, since they do not require power use. However, Taylor counters by realizing she can do her homework and ignore anyone that tries to speak to her. It doesn't work the way she wants, but she instead ends up telling a group of teens about how she Got Volunteered, starting a media shitstorm.
  • Tinker Wards have restrictions on how long they can spend working, since they're prone to fugues. However, if they just happen to be fiddling with their gear during a scheduled tour of the Wards HQ, that doesn't count toward the limit.
    Valve: You're not the only one who uses rules creatively.
• Morton's Fork: Director Armstrong and Gauss find themselves in one regarding Taylor - leaving her alone would only cause her to isolate herself from everyone else, but trying to get her to socialize with the other Wards or join Ward-related activities only validates her belief that they are trying to force her to conform and causes her to push others away.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Flechette makes one about Taylor, seeing the latter as what she could have been if circumstances had been slightly different.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Emma thought she was bullying Taylor to make her strong, but eventually admits to herself she wanted catharsis for her trauma and the surprising boredom she got as a Ward.
• Obliviously Evil: Emma doesn't realize that her behavior towards Taylor is horrifically abusive until she sees Taylor's horrified recognition.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat:
  • This is Emma's motivation for bullying Taylor: the less-than-ideal reality of the Wards and having to cater to the whims of bureaucrats drove Emma to torment her former friend out of boredom.
  • James Reed invokes this on behalf of Taylor: to get back at the Brockton Bay Wards, he files paper work that forces them on the bench.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Shortly after a recording of Phase telling a group of tourists about how she was enlisted in the Wards against her will got posted on PHO, the PRT prohibited taking pictures and recordings on tours, for "security reasons".
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Taylor upon discovering that Emma and Sophia are Wards - she was so distraught that she phased through the Wards' room door on the way out.
  • Emma when she sees Taylor being horrified that Emma is a Ward.
  • Taylor when Flechette's bedroom is within her Thinker radius.
  • Taylor when Emma sends her an apology text.
  • Danny and Director Armstrong when Taylor refuses any and all social contact other than with the Youth Guard.
  • Emma when Taylor blocks her over the apology text.
  • Taylor when she realizes Director Armstrong and Flechette know what she's been doing on her 'nightly runs'.
  • Adolescent tourists (and their tourist guide) when Taylor displays Brutal Honesty about how she Got Volunteered.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Seeing Taylor stop in the middle of a sidewalk and smile is unexpected enough that Gauss tries to ask her what happened. Taylor just lashes out, though, pointing out that apparently her having a good day counts as unusual. (Gauss was, of course, correct; Taylor was smiling because she had just realised it might be possible for her to use her "hobby" time to patrol the streets without PRT supervision.)
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot:
  • Gauss does this several times, to the point that Taylor mentally remarks that she is wondering if the heroine likes the taste of her own feet.
    • Gauss, attempting to make small talk with Taylor, begins to mention that she chose Boston after graduating from the Chicago Wards for a reason. Taylor quickly shoots her down by pointing out that she isn't there of her free will.
    • When Taylor mentions she doesn't have a civilian phone, Gauss mentions she should get one, because it's bad form to talk with civilian friends with her Wards form - and Taylor fires back that she doesn't have any civilian friends thanks to Emma and Sophia.
    • When going to the pizza party, Taylor asks what's the occasion. Gauss asks if they actually need an occasion for pizza. Taylor replies that she ordered pizza when her father didn't come home in time for dinner.
• Open Secret: Pretty much all of Boston's Protectorate (as well as the Brockton Bay Wards) knows that "Ghost" is actually Taylor.
• Point of Divergence: For some unknown reason, Lisa never went to Brockton Bay, staying instead in Boston. This causes Coil to instead form the Undersiders with Chariot as a member.
• Properly Paranoid: From Taylor's perspective, she is this. She's suspicious that the Wards were ordered to befriend her so she goes through power testing, and gets the Youth Guard to block Sophia and Emma on her Wards Phone after the latter attempts to apologize.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Director Armstrong tries to do the best he can to make Taylor more comfortable, but he doesn't realize that Taylor has become such a cynic that she can only see anything he suggests that runs against her purpose (namely getting out of the Wards ASAP) in a negative light. And the one thing that might get Taylor to believe him - publicly and visibly punishing Emma and Sophia - is something he either can't or won't do.
  • James Reed, Taylor's representative in the Youth Guard, plays it straighter, being the only person who empathizes with Taylor's abuse and tries to make her situation easier without minimizing her feelings or pretending her situation is unfair. However, while Taylor appreciates it, she's also thrown off her stride and baffled such an unfamiliar attitude.
    I didn't even know what to do in the face of an authority figure who even paid lip service to caring about what I thought.
• Selective Obliviousness: Almost every adult character quickly ignores Taylor or Change the Uncomfortable Subject whenever she brings up the appalling circumstances of her being in the Wards. James Reed has so far been the only exception to the rule.
• Slave to PR: The PRT's reputation as a protector of public order is as vital to reducing crime as fighting criminals. Hence their willingness to cover up Emma and Sophia's actions out of fear of public backlash. Taylor's harsh description of the circumstances to her becoming a Ward to a bunch of schoolchildren aggravates the PRT heads who can't handle public scrutiny of their affairs.
• That's an Order!: Gauss gets Taylor to go to a pizza party by framing it as an order. Taylor, while still not trusting Gauss, is lightly impressed that she managed to say that without Corpsing.
• The Shut-In: Taylor only leaves her room for essential purposes (food, showering, school, shopping, exercise), and minimizes time outside - and contact with other people - as much as possible.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Taylor's reaction when she saw that Emma and Sophia were in the Wards.
  • Taylor's motive regarding the Wards. She nearly bolts several times but is motivated to stay by material concerns (namely the college fund, as she's noted that if they try and take it away, she'll leave) and the Youth Guard member being her Only Friend.
  • Taylor can also justify leaving a social function where participants can use their powers because she hasn't been through power testing. She also leaves Armstrong's office the moment their personal meeting ends so she won't be roped in the general meeting with the rest of the Wards.
• Trauma Conga Line: Taylor's best friend turned on her and spent a year and a half making her life Hell. She gets triggered and outed, the organization she admired allowed her bullies to become Wards and escape punishment for their actions, her father abandons her to join the Wards, and she's stuck with adults who don't care about what she has to say. To see she's not in good spirits is putting it mildly.
• Understatement: When Nebula tries to make small-talk about Taylor having transferred from Brockton Bay, Taylor replies that "Two of the three girls who caused my trigger event when they tried to murder me are Wards there, so I didn't think it would work out." Nebula, naturally, reacts in a way that Taylor internally describes as "jaw flapping in the wind."
• Wham Shot: Taylor's reaction of despondent panic upon finding out she's a Ward is this for Emma.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Taylor has no problem in dropping brutally honest comments on the Protectorate whenever she has an opening. After all, from her point of view, she was left to suffer for two years at the hands of two Wards and the adults didn't care until she Triggered. Why should she care about their opinion now?
  • Taylor gives Danny one over how ashamed her mother would be over him dumping her in the Wards while disowning him as a father.
  • Connie (Valve) points out that Taylor being forced to be in the public tour was counterproductive and then tells Weld that it doesn't matter if he wants Taylor to be in the Wards - the important thing should be whether Taylor wants to be in the Wards.
  • Dean lets Emma have it for torturing Taylor.
• Wretched Hive: One of the few reasons Taylor is happy to be in Boston is that it isn't a trainwreck of a city, with its institutions and public services being in much better shape than Brockton Bay despite the high crime presence.

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