Cut Strings
is a Worm fanfic by Slider, author of Mutant Deviations.
Unlike in canon, Jean-Paul Vasil (alias "Alec") never gave up being a Heartbroken, and continued being Hijack in Brockton Bay, Mastering both Skitter and Tattletale, his erstwhile team-mates. After using and abusing both of them, this ends up biting him in the ass when his control slips, and Skitter kills him in a fit of rage.
The Undersiders disband, Coil is thrown into the Birdcage as an accomplice, and Taylor and Lisa are left in the care of Assault and Battery while they try to put themselves back together.
This fic is currently ongoing.
This fanfic contains examples of the following:
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Jean-Paul's death allows Taylor and Lisa to become more heroic earlier on.
- Aisha is also inspired to join the Wards after seeing what Hijack did.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- Grue and Hellhound are willing to ignore Jean-Paul abusing his team-mates
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Sophia gets this without even changing her character, since she learns to respect Taylor for seeing what Hijack put her through, and even congratulates her for growing a spine.
- Adaptational Villainy: Jean-Paul Vasil enjoyed sexually and psychologically abusing his teammates unlike his canon self.
- Adaptation Name Change:
- Skitter and Tattletale eventually rebrand as Overwatch and Sightline.
- Aisha joins the Wards as Mnemonic.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Aisha Triggers with a Projection power.
- Asshole Victim: Everybody cheers when Hijack dies in chapter 1.
- Break the Badass: Taylor was on the receiving end of this at the hands of Hijack.
- Broken Bird: By the time of Hijack's death, both Taylor and Lisa are broken to the point of being dysfunctional and co-dependent.
- Broken Pedestal: Aisha's love of Brian is completely severed by finding out he worked with Hijack.
- Content Warning: "Rape/ Non-Con" is one of the warning tags on the fic.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Hijack had murdered Danny Hebert purely to psychologically torture Taylor.
- Jean-Paul dies at the end of chapter one, when Taylor sics her swarm on him.
- Coil is Birdcaged for sexually assaulting Taylor, so he's probably a dead man walking.
- The Dreaded: Jean-Paul 'Hijack' Vasil is this for Taylor, Lisa, and the PRT. Even after he's dead, they're reluctant to talk about him.
- Driven to Suicide: Lisa doses up on a power-suppressing drug and then attempts to perform suicide-by-cop, with Taylor as the cop. It doesn't work.
- Excuse Me While I Multitask: Taylor will enjoy a pleasant day with Lisa and their friends, while a couple blocks away her bugs will be tearing into bad guys like a chainsaw through butter.
- Get Out!:
- Aisha throws Brian out of her apartment after finding out he worked with Hijack, saying this verbatim.
- Taylor tells New Wave to remove Glory Girl from the premises, on the grounds that Victoria is a Master and Taylor is uncomfortable around Masters.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Taylor, after being a victim of Mastering, has to be restrained by Lisa.
- I Have No Son!: Aisha disowns her own brother after finding out what he did with Hijack.
- Morality Chain: Assault, Battery, and Lisa are this for Taylor.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Taylor has frequent panic attacks, whenever she runs into a Trauma Button, and Lisa has to prompt her to breathe.
- Anyone who finds out that 'Alec' was actually Jean-Paul Vasil, or that 'Regent' was actually Hijack.
- Lisa has an Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! moment when she discovers Battery is a Vial Cape, and panics when she thinks Contessa is about to enter the room.
- Taylor panics when she sees a Ward has a supply of Blackout.
- Director Armstrong has one Oh Crap after another in his interlude, running damage control in PRT ENE.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Taylor explicitly asks to hang out with Sophia Hess of all people because she can trust her not to act out-of-character.
- Pædo Hunt: Coil is Birdcaged for Statutory Rape, in addition to being an accomplice in Hijack sex-trafficking his own teammates.
- Parental Substitute: Assault and Battery become Taylor and Lisa's foster parents, since Danny is dead and Lisa's parents are far away.
- People Puppets: A rare instance of Taylor being the puppet rather than the puppeteer, courtesy of Jean-Paul Vasil.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Hijack had Mastered Taylor and Lisa so thoroughly that they could not consent, then used Lisa as a sex toy and pimped Taylor to Coil.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Quinn Calle doesn't hesitate to represent Taylor and Lisa as their lawyer.
- Kamil Armstrong is called in to replace Piggot as Director of PRT ENE. His first order of business is to clean house, while his second is to run Damage Control.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Grue quickly runs out of town after Hijack dies.
- Shout-Out:
- Suicide by Cop: Attempted by Lisa, with Taylor as the cop. Averted when Taylor refuses to follow through.
- Trauma Button: Anything that could remind Taylor or Lisa of what Hijack had done to them- such as skimpy clothes, Blackout (a power-nullifying drug), or Glory Girl's aura, is something that they will react poorly to.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: While impersonating Taylor, Jean-Paul used her body to establish good rapports with both Danny and Emma, for the purpose of twisting the knife in Taylor's gut by killing the former and denying Taylor's revenge against the latter.
