History Literature / Worm

''Worm'' takes place in an alternate universe known as "Earth Bet". The history of Earth Bet very closely resembles that of our own Earth, but things rather drastically changed when a naked man with golden skin, going by the name "Scion", was suddenly found hovering in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1982. Following Scion's appearance, a fraction of the human population found themselves suddenly gaining superpowers, usually a result of [[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening being faced with an extraordinary traumatic and stressful event in their lives]]; these incidents became known as "trigger events" and the superpowered people that resulted from them became formally known as "parahumans", informally as "capes". In the beginning, the sudden influx of these parahumans gave birth to the brief era that became known as the "Golden Age of Heroism", as many of them started using their powers in name of public good and helping people. But in the late 1980s and early 1990s, this Golden Age gradually faded out, as a growing number of the parahumans instead started using their powers to commit crimes, something which presented an increasingly serious challenge to the parahumans who stayed on the path of heroism. In addition, the growth of the superpowered criminal element and the brutality of their crimes, resulted in widespread concern and discontent amongst the regular human population, resulting in several of the world's governments founding agencies to counter parahuman criminals.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:Scion, the world's first superhero, is truthfully an alien EldritchAbomination that introduced superpowers to Earth as part of his species' life cycle, making him indirectly responsible for every major conflict in the story. The cycles usually end in the destruction of all life on the planets the entities inhabit, but the death of Scion's partner leaves him unable to complete the process and stranded without a purpose. Cauldron committed all of their atrocities in the hopes of stopping Scion when he inevitably tires of the superhero role he adopted to pass the time and decides to wipe out all life anyway, which happens when Jack Slash convinces him to return to his vicious, primal roots.]]

* FandomSpecificPlot: 99% of all Worm fanfics involve Taylor obtaining a different power than in canon. This also doubles as an ObviousCrossoverMethod.

* SuperWeight: The levels work out like this: [[note]]Tinkers, due to the [[GadgeteerGenius nature of their ability]], are difficult to place on the scale[[/note]]
** Type -1: [[CareerEndingInjury Director Piggot]], [[spoiler:[[AndIMustScream Glory Girl]], Gray Boy's [[GroundhogDayLoop victims]]]].
** Type 0: [[NervesOfSteel Jessica Yamada]], [[KidWithTheLeash Kevin Norton]], [[spoiler:[[DecoyLeader Doctor Mother]]]].
** Type 1: [[CapeBusters The PRT]], [[HiredGuns Coil's mercenaries]], [[spoiler:[[TheCracker Saint]]]].
** Type 2: [[RazorWind Jack Slash]], [[CastingAShadow Grue]], [[RenaissanceMan Über, Victor]], [[ShatterpointTap Faultline]].
** Type 3: [[AnimalEyeSpy Skitter]], [[UnblockableAttack Flechette]], [[TheParalyzer Clockblocker]], [[PerceptionFilter Imp]], [[PeoplePuppets Regent]], [[HyperAwareness Tattetale]], [[SpaceMaster Vista]], [[TheBeastmaster Bitch]].
** Type 4: [[FlyingBrick Alexandria]], [[FlyingFirepower Legend]], [[HulkingOut Lung]], [[AdaptiveAbility Crawler]], [[MookMaker Echidna, Nilbog]], [[LivingShadow Moord Nag]], [[TimeTravel Phir Sē]], [[NighInvulnerable Siberian]], [[ArtificialIntelligence Dragon]], [[spoiler:[[TimeMaster Gray Boy]]]].
** Type 5: [[{{Kaiju}} Endbringers]], [[PhysicalGod Scion]], [[InvincibleHero Contessa]], [[AllYourPowersCombined Eidolon, Glaistig Uaine]], [[spoiler:[[VillainOverride Khepri]]]], [[ShroudedInMyth probably Sleeper]].
** Type 6: [[spoiler:[[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien The Passengers]] (including Scion) in their mature form]].

* ShootTheMageFirst: Supplementary material mentions that, all parahuman threat ratings being equal, PRT operatives are to target Thinkers first. Thinkers have abilities like SuperSenses or precognition, which can impact the outcome of fights far more than more straight forward offensive abilities. A powerful tinker is enough to turn an otherwise relatively weak group of capes into an enormous threat capable of taking down apparently much more powerful threats. It is telling that, in a world with so many superpowers, two of the most feared parahumans are otherwise physically normal people who are top-tier Thinkers.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Tattletale excels at [[BreakThemByTalking using these gain an advantage over opponents]] and [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talk opponents to death]].
** Tattletale gives a mild one to Panacea to stop her and [[FlyingBrick Glory Girl]] during the bank robbery, but its long-term consequence end up [[spoiler:driving Panacea to a nervous breakdown, and leads to Panacea mutating [[FateWorseThanDeath Glory Girl]] and voluntarily going to [[TheAlcatraz the Birdcage]] for what she did to Glory Girl.]]
** Tattletale's deconstruction of Armsmaster -- which leads to him immediately attacking her.
** Taylor and Emma exchange these.
** Tattletale gives a nasty one to [[spoiler:Saint]].

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Taylor delivers more than one over the course of the series.
** She gives one to Emma in Arc 20, tossing in one for Sophia as well. Emma grows increasingly angry over the course of their conversation, which culminates in physical violence; unfortunately, she isn't nearly strong enough for Taylor to feel threatened.
-->'''Taylor:''' Talking to you even now, I’m realizing how small your world is. You think of popularity and high school, of looking nice. That’s not even one tenth of a percent of what’s going on in the world at large. Yet you’re trying ''so'' hard to climb to the top of this tiny, sad little hill. [...] I really like this approach of yours. You started off really subtle, and in the last minute alone, you’ve descended to flinging basic insults at me, trying to see what sticks. Except I’m ''really'' not bothered, and you’re doing more to make ''yourself'' look bad. [...] How demented are you, that you think I’d fucking want to be your friend, after all the shit you pulled?\\
'''Emma:''' Are you really better off where you are?\\
'''Taylor:''' Now? ''Yes.'' Then? Fuck, even ''then,'' yes! I called you pathetic a minute ago, but Sophia’s worse than you. She was a sad little basket case who lashed out at people with violence and barbed words because it was the only way she could deal. The only real advantages she had were the fact that she was attractive and how you were misguided enough to look up to her, which is laughable unto itself.
** She later gives one to heroes as a whole while talking to Miss Militia in Arc 21, listing the countless reasons why the Protectorate has practically no moral high ground left.
-->'''Skitter:''' See, there’s one thing that’s really grating with you heroes. You keep saying ''sorry''. Oh, you guys are sorry your [[spoiler: top members were kidnapping people and turning them into freaks]]. You guys are ''sorry'' that some of your members [[spoiler: bought their powers]]. You’re ''sorry'' that your bosses crossed a line, trying to [[spoiler: drop bombs on our team members after we did the grunt work of facing the Slaughterhouse Nine]]. You’re ''sorry that'' you went to such extremes to rehabilitate your group’s sociopath that you let her get away scott-free with [[spoiler: the abuse she was inflicting on a bystander]]. But you don’t change. You don’t ''do'' anything about it.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: It would be hard to argue that [[spoiler:Cherish]] doesn't deserve what happened to her. The Slaughterhouse Nine also wipe out the Merchants, a gang of hedonistic assholes who have abducted, raped, murdered etc.

[[TheWikiRule In the grand tradition of the internet]], the novel [[http://parahumans.wikia.com has its own Wiki]].

* GoofyPrinterUnderwear: When Taylor meets Armsmaster for the first time, she's reminded of the fact that she used to have a pair of underpants with his emblem on the front.

* ProtectivePressure: As a controller of bugs Weaver notices that a lot of stores utilize air pressure to keep pests out. [[spoiler:A Clone of Mannequin weaponizes this in the Slaughterhouse Nine thousand arc.]]

* ProtectivePressure: As a controller of bugs Weaver notices that a lot of stores utilize this to keep pests out. [[spoiler:A Clone of Mannequin weaponizes this in theQ Slaughterhouse Nine thousand arc.]]