This is a villain in the making.
The Precipice is a series by C. M. Atanasio, located here
on Amazon.
It originally began as a side-story to Bird, a Worm fanfic under the author's pseudonyms Racheakt. The project eventually grew in scope until the author decided to graduate it to the status of full original work.
The story draws on another fanfic by the same author of Semtex, which was going to explore a similar topic, begun and then abandoned in 2014. The idea was revived in 2019 and repurposed into what became The Precipice.
The Gray Hours #1
Grace Phillips is a freshman student at Aylesbury, New Hampshire. She is there for a degree in Engineering Management, but what she really wants to do is study the phenominum known as Superhumanity. She is ecstatic when she lands a coveted position as a lab assistant in the Biamonte Center, performing research on superhuman abilities. As time goes on, however, her vision of her future comes crashing down.
- Does power define you? Change you?
What is power?
Warning: Unmarked spoilers from here on out!
This series provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Grace kills Autumn by accident after she surprises her in the Biamonte Building during her rampage.
- After-Action Healing Drama: Grace has some nasty lacerations after her encounter with Stitchskin, and is forced to patch herself up in her dorm bathroom.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Grace's mental powers allow her to learn and intuit at superhuman speeds, going from a freshman student to building a zero-point power generator in just a few weeks.
- Bookworm: Grace is a consummate bookworm and devoted to her studies to an unhealthy degree, to the point it impacts her health and social life.
- The Cape: Galaxy Gold is a reference to several superheroes all wrapped into one, including Booster Gold and Superman. He is so stereotypically an ideal superhero that it's lampshaded in the story itself.
- Cataclysm Backstory: Fifty years before the story proper, a hail of meteors created a number of large craters; it is speculated that this was the source of superpowers, and it is mentioned that millions died, but in the decades since, the world has settled into a kind of normalcy.
- Character Tics: Grace has a stress ball that often makes its appearance when she is stressed or frustrated.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Wellie fills something like this role towards Grace, reminding her to eat and just generally looking out for her.
- Coat, Hat, Mask: Part of what sets Grace apart from the other Supers we see is the practical components of her costume. Where Autumn, Timpani, and Galaxy Gold all wear some kind of tight-fitting, purpose-made costume for the job, Grace wears a coat and ventilator she modified herself. It subtly draws a commonality between her and Stitchskin, who dosen't really wear a costume either, foreshadowing her fall to villainy.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The concept is played with and deconstructed. Grace comes from a loving home, has a great relationship with her parents, and clearly has a bright future ahead of her. However, it is all but outright stated that the expectations placed on her by her many opportunities have left her emotionally and mentally vulnerable, and the pressure eventually produces cracks. The emotional fallout of her One Bad Day leaves two dead and her life in tatters.
- Emotional Powers: It's subtle, but Grace's power mimics her insatiable thirst for understanding and irritability, responding to moments of violent musing with ways to harm.
- Energy Absorption: Timpani's power fills a reservoir of energy whenever she exerts herself, which she can then release in a form she chooses, including Flight and Hand Blast beams.
- The Executioner: Stitchskin's mask seems to vaguely evoke this imagery, fitting for a supervillain enforcer.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Grace is constantly sleep-deprived, to the point that several characters ask her is she's feeling well all the time, and she contemplates avoiding the conversations with makeup. She clearly understands.
- From Bad to Worse: Over the course of her efforts to avoid losing her scholarship, Grace attempts to create a zero-point energy generator and ultimately holds her school hostage.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Grace immediately fixates on the applications of her power in learning about and developing technology.
- Gas Mask, Longcoat: Grace's costume is a ventilator mask and long coat, both modified using her power — the mask has a whole suit of special abilities tied to it when she's done.
- Green Thumb: Autumn's power is to generate short-lived plant matter and talk to plants.
- The Insomniac: Grace becomes infamous for her foul temper, which is brought on partially by her perpetual state of sleep deprivation.
- Invincible Boogeymen: Stitchskin quickly becomes this in Grace's brief encounter with the shapeshifter. It doesn't help that she is a very green Super with a power not particularly well suited to direct confrontation and no weapons prepared that can hurt Stichskin through his shape-swapping ability.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Grace's actions start off morally ambiguous and include stealing property from her school, eventually escalating to premeditated murder of one of her professors. However, an element of this descent comes from circumstances outside her control, such as when Felix plagiarizes her midterm, without which she never would have gone down that path, or with Hartford, who is, in fact, so aloof and stern that Grace mistakes it for antagonism.
- Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: The core of Wellie's friendship with Grace is Wellie's perpetual good humor and gregariousness, and Grace's appreciation of it.
- My God, What Have I Done?: It is gradual, but Grace steadily breaks down following Autumn's death. The breakdown only accelerates after she murders Hartford.
- Personality Powers: Grace is a geeky workaholic who gains mental powers which allow her to learn and intuit at superhuman speeds, going from a freshman student to building a zero-point power generator in just a few weeks.
- The Pollyanna: Wellie Burke is a fount of endless optimism, and gregarious cheer during Grace's first year.
- The Reliable One: Wellie is empathic and sensible, if a little more energetic that most examples of this trope.
- Science-Related Memetic Disorder: While milder than most examples, Grace does dip into this from time to time.
- Secret Room: Grace makes her first lair in a crawlspace in her dorm. The door was sealed up during renovations, but she locates it after she discovers a draft in the restroom.
- Stern Teacher: Hartford in spades. He is, in fact, so aloof and stern that Grace mistakes it for antagonism and starts to hold a grudge.
- Supernatural Sensitivity: One of Grace's abilities is to sense and analyze other superpowers.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Autumn mentions she got sick before she experienced Catabasis — the awakening of her powers. Grace was also sick for a prolonged period (not that it slowed her down). However, Grace also mentions that a moment of extreme stress is theorized to catalyze the event. Being sick is a symptom proceeding Catabasis, but some kind of stressor or trauma is what gives you powers.
- Unspecified Apocalypse: The nature and origin of superpowers is not clear, and the most likely source is a massive meteor storm that happened in the 1960s, resulting in a massive worldwide famine and millions dead.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Grace starts off kind of gawky and awkward, and eventually ends up killing two people.
- Villain Protagonist: Grace eventually goes down this road.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Stitchskin can assume multiple faces, and is forced to change shape if harmed, but as long as he can change shape, he suffers no injury. Instead, the skin of the person whose face he has stollen cracks and sheds all over him in tatters.
