Fanfic / Worm: Artifice

Worm: Artifice is a Worm Massive Multiplayer Crossover^note Specifically it crosses over with NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, Silicon Valley, Hannibal, Thoroughbreds, Veep, White Collar, NCIS: Los Angeles, Evil (2019), Fargo, Gilmore Girls, Prodigal Son, Modern Family, True Detective, 30 Rock, The Blacklist, Archer, Joan of Arcadia, Yellowjackets, and Magnum, P.I. (2018) fanfic by HighEvolutionary1106.

The Tinker Artificer moved to Brockton Bay in 2005, serving as a member of the PRT.In 2011, she is requested to investigate the circumstances of one Taylor Hebert's hospitalization. The world is never the same afterward.

A compilation of background information that is not necessarily mentioned in the story, but is common knowledge can be found here.

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This fic provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Many characters who were normal humans in their respective franchises are parahumans in this fic.
  • In canon Madison was a normal human here after having her drink spiked with a Cauldron vial she becomes a insectoid Case 53 with the power to create giant bug monsters.
  • In canon Emma was a normal human here after taking a Cauldron vial developes powers similar to canon Echidna.
• Age Lift: In canon it's never specified how old Labyrinth and Spitfire are beyond the fact that they're both young, in this fic they are 20 and 22 respectively.
• The Alcoholic: Carol Dallon has quite a drinking problem.
• Amicable Exes: Abigail and Karen had broken up a few months prior to chapter 196: Interlude 24.c-Karen Wynn, but they hold no animosity towards each other. Karen even offers to buy dinner for Abigail and her new girlfriend Kim.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: After Madison becomes a case 53 she gains the power to create giant bug monsters.
• Both Sides Have a Point: During her interrogation Ainsley points out that she was a traumatized kid who was in serious need of psychological help after finding out her father was a Serial Killer but was ignored. Herbie acknowledges that she has a point, but she also points out that she was a college student not a psychiatrist so she couldn’t have provided much help and did the best she could. She also points out that being neglected doesn’t excuse Ainsley for her crimes.
  NathanAllenBaker: The thing here is that Ainsley and Herberta are right. Herberta did neglect Ainsley, (Given what we've seen in canon, everyone neglected Ainsley) but Herberta was also a 22-year-old engineer with only a Psych 101 course's worth of knowledge about psychology and her own experience with about six months of therapy for severe anxiety, neither of which lends itself to untangling Malcolm and Ainsley's issues. Herberta did the best she could, and Ainsley can't justify her actions with the excuse of "No one ever paid attention to me".
• Cast Full of Gay: Between Herberta/Artificer (who is a lesbian), a few canon gay characters, and various canon characters who have undergone Adaptational Sexuality this fic has no shortage of LGBTQ+ characters.
• Content Warnings: Several chapters have these.
  • Chapter 22: Ramifications 4.1: Content warning for alcoholism, mild (but insidious) homophobia and implied verbal abuse.
  • Chapter 24: Ramifications 4.3: Content warning for what could be called a hate crime.
  • Chapter 26: Interlude 4.a-Herberta: Content Warning for a homophobic slur, general homophobia and abusive parenting.
  • Chapter 32: Tranquility 6.1: Content Warning for characters joking about sleeping with Nazis along with some sexual innuendo and mild nudity.
  • Chapter 33: Tranquility 6.2: Content Warning for mentions of pedophilia.
  • Chapter 47: Disruption 8.1: Content Warning for a disturbing nightmare at the beginning.
  • Chapter 48: Disruption 8.2: Content Warning for mention of an attempted date rape.
  • Chapter 73: Infiltration 11.3: Content Warning for discussion of drug addiction.
  • Chapter 79: Interlude 12.a-Ashley/Victoria: Content warning for discussion of a hate crime, emotional issues and Ashley's low self-worth.
  • Chapter 83: Interlude 12.b-Lily Reynolds: Content warning for choking kink.
  • Chapter 91: Interlude 13.b- Karen: Trigger warning for ableist language.
  • Chapter 95: Interlude 14.b-Millie: Content warning for anti-Asian slur.
  • Chapter 151: Groundbreaking 20.1: Warning, Roger Furlong is in this chapter, so there will be slurs and offensive language.
  • Chapter 155: Interlude 20.a-Catherine: Content Warning for Selina Meyer's parenting, which, if anything, is worse than in canon.
  • Chapter 156: Groundbreaking 20.5: Again, Roger's in this one, so slurs and swears abound.
  • Chapter 177: Interlude 22.a-Valerie/Ainsley: Content Warning for torture and medical experimentation
• Crossover Relatives:
  • Paris Geller's biological father is Accord.
  • Amanda is one of Heartbreaker's kids.
• Dating Catwoman: Valerie/Saggitarius starts secretly dating Ainsley/Tattletale in Interlude 22.b-Valerie.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Skidmark dies earlier in this fic then he did in Canon.
  • In canon Nilbog survived all the way to the sequel, here he is Killed Offscreen by Panacea.
  • Dorothy/Night and Geoff/Fog are both killed by Kaiser.
  • Stormtiger never died in canon, here he does.
  • Crusader, Victor, and Othala are Killed Offscreen. The first two having never died in canon and the third having died much later in canon.
  • Melody Jurist/Cricket never died in canon, here she does.
  • During the Leviathan attack quite a few people died some of whom either survived canon worm or died at a latter time.
    • Didn't die in canon: Assault, Dauntless, and Menja.
    • Died at a latter point in canon: Battery, Lady Photon, Oni Lee, and Leviathan.
  • In canon Cody/Perdition was sold to The Yàngbǎn by Accord after he caused an incident with Echidna, here Accord just killed him.
    • Subverted in Accord's interlude when it's revealed that while Accord did kill Cody it didn’t stick. He now keeps Cody in a secret chamber in his office where he constantly tries to permanently kill him.
  • In canon Eidolon is killed during Golden Morning, here he dies years before the start of the story.
  • In canon The Simurgh survived all the way to the sequel, here she died before the story even started.
  • In canon Francis Krouse/Trickster dies during Golden Morning, here he dies sacrificing himself to give the heroes and his teammates time to save Noelle.
  • In canon Gary Walsh never died, here he is shot and killed by the Undersiders.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • In canon Skidmark dies from dropping into spinning propeller blades, here his head explodes from a implanted Bakuda bomb.
  • In canon Alexandria dies by Skitter forcing bugs to suffocate her, here while she still dies via suffocation its because legend forces fire extinguishing material down her throat.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Here, Karen Wynn is mute while her canon counterpart wasn’t.
• Double Standard: Herbie points out that when Armsmaster acts arrogant people like him, but when Swansong acts the same way people call her a “a stuck-up bitch.” This trope is even name dropped in a discussion between Herbie and Rory/Triumph.
  “So people think she’s arrogant. Who cares?” she replied. “Besides, people think Armsmaster’s arrogant, and they love him.”
  “Colin’s a guy.” Rory retorted. “There’s a different standard. You of all people should know that.”
  “I’m well aware of sexist double standards regarding how women assert themselves, Rory. I did want to be an engineer before I triggered.” Herberta shot back.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • Leviathan attacks Boston instead of Brockton Bay. Also Leviathan dies there while in canon it survived.
  • Behemoth attacks Libreville instead of New Delhi. Also Behemoth survives the attack while in canon it was killed by Scion.
• Gas Leak Cover-Up: To cover up the fact that Madison has become a Case 53 the Wards make it seem like the reports about the giant bugs she created were just hallucinations caused by a gas leak.
• Gender Flip:
  • Danny Hebert is Danica "Dani" Hebert.
  • Theo Anders is Thea Anders.
  • Kurt Wynn (AKA The Number Man) is Karen Wynn.
  • In canon Jess is a guy, here she is a girl.
  • Helen Girardi is Harry.
• Incompatible Orientation: Dinah has a crush on Missy, unfortunately Missy is boy crazy, as Dinah puts it. It comes to a head in Recount 25.6 when it’s mentioned that Dinah had told Missy about her feelings for her and Missy had turned her down.
• Love Triangle: Vicky is dating Dean and she has a crush on Ashley. Neither Dean or Ashley are antagonistic to each other and Dean even tells Ashley that she is welcomed to try and ask Vicky out. It ends with Dean breaking up with Vicky so she can be with Ashley.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: This fic is a crossover between Worm and over a dozen different franchises.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Bakuda's full name is Vivian Song.
  • Regent's full name is Alec Blanc.
  • Iron Rain's first name is Eva.
  • Battery's first name is Jane.
  • Rune's full name is Tamara Hulmann.
  • Accord's full name is Harold Norton.
  • In canon Dinah Alcott's parents were unnamed, here their names are Henry and Meredith Alcott.
  • Ligeia's first name is Maya.
  • Mrs. Geller's full name is Elleanor Geller.
  • Narwhal's first name is Elaine.
  • Amanda's full name is Amanda Vasil.
  • Flechette's full name is Lily Kimura.
  • Hero’s first name is Alvin.
• Official Couple:
  • Taylor and Lisa start dating in chapter Investigation 1.3.
  • We find out that Emily/Spitfire and Elle/Labyrinth are a couple in chapter Combustion 5.2.
  • Dani and Herberta become a couple in Interlude 5.a- Herberta.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Carol Dallon aka the hero Brandish is a homophobe who at one point called Herberta a dyke to her face. Best summed up by the author from the ao3 comment section:
  NathanAllenBaker: Carol doesn't necessarily see gay people as less-than, but more of as inherently flawed in some way. She sees Herberta as promiscuous, owing to the fact that Herberta was engaging in a fair bit of casual sex around when they met, for reasons that will be revealed later. She sees Amy as a deviant, because she had a crush on Vicky. She basically finds character flaws in gay people she meets and acts like it's that flaw is what she's judging them. She does slip into overt homophobia, but rarely enough that she can pretend she isn't homophobic.
• Primal Scene:
  • In Recount 25.6 Taylor, Lisa, Tammy, Amy, and Dinah walk in on Valerie and Ainsley.
  • In Caracosa 26.6 Crystal mentions that during a team building retreat that she walked in on Noelle and Mars.
• Redemption Equals Death: Zigzagged, after Francis/Trickster sacrificed himself Noelle only focuses on his positive traits, while Marissa doesn’t think that his sacrifice washed away his negative traits.
  Noelle: So, Francis is dead?
  Marissa: Yeah, he went off and threw his life away to prove how much he cared about you. Fucking narcissist.
  Noelle: Mars, I know you didn’t like that we were dating, but Francis didn’t deserve that. He did care about me.
  Marissa: And only you! I had to do this behind his back because he was so paranoid he would have stayed with Coil when it was clear we were being strung along.
  Noelle: He was trying to do what was best for me!
  Marissa: So was I! It pisses me off that he made himself a martyr and you’re crying over him when all he did was be a possessive asshole.
• Sex Slave: After Emma gets the power to make clones of anyone she touches that will do anything she wants them to she makes clones of Brian and Sophia that she uses for sex.
• Shout-Out:
  • In chapter Synthesis 9.2 a character named Jane appears whose power is she can sense other peoples emotions by hearing them as music.
  • In Interlude 19.a-Narwhal we get Zodiac a group of clones of Vicky/Glory Girl who the author admits are shout outs to the Pandora clones.
    HighEvolutionary1106: After reading the fic Atonement, I kinda fell in love with the character of Pandora, Amy's Echidna clone hive-mind. So, I decided to put my own spin on it, except with Vicky instead. They're less alien than Pandora, behaving more like a dysfunctional family.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Dean/Gallant survives the battle against Leviathan.
  • Behemoth isn't killed when it attacks after leviathan.
  • Jackie Taylor survived the hypothermia that killed her in canon thanks to her getting powers.
• Time Skip:
  • Tranquility 6.1 takes place two months after the previous chapter.
  • Matrimony 27.4 takes place on July 7, 2013, the next chapter Stranded 28.1 takes place nearly a year later on July 5, 2014.

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