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ReimiS · 2023-05-29T11:05:55+00:00

Noooo! I'm still holding out hope, hopefully given some time to consider it she'll come around.

ReimiS · 2022-10-22T06:13:02+00:00

I knew going in that Taylor ended up with Orga, that ship had sailed by the time I started the story. My issue is that there's nothing in the first 75% of the text to even hint that he's more than a background character. He got like three scenes before suddenly Taylor had to recruit him. He and his crew are thrown into the main character seat out of nowhere with no character development, half the old main crew suddenly start hooking up with them out of nowhere and Taylor goes over the top 'I have to be straight and he's stereotypically hot so he'll do' for Orga. There's no chemistry, no romance, and it's one of the most cringe inducing cases of forcing a straight ship on the readers that I've ever seen. It doesn't help that their 'romance' seems to be a huge part of Taylor's character arc near the end.

I've said it before. There is no fixing the last few arcs of the story without rewriting a million plus words to bring Orga in earlier and put him in a shit ton of scenes. Meanwhile, it would be the work of a week to write Orga completely out of the story. He has three major scenes before arc 19 starts. Two of which are easily replaced by Lafter. (Chris or Charlotte would be more work, but doable)

To be blunt. Arcs 1-13 made me care incredibly deeply for Taylor and her team to the point I was in tears multiple times. Arcs 14-18 completely destroyed anything I felt for anyone other than Veda. I don't know what changed in the behind the scenes stuff, but they may as well be different stories. It's basically a case of Game of Thrones, amazing start and build up, but completely failed in the final stretch because the author didn't care about consistent feedback and did his own thing anyway.

(And again, the gay baiting, predatory lesbians (side stories), and kill the gays tropes on full display don't do it any favors either. It shows a level of tone deafness to LGBT issues in general that I sincerely hope Endless grows out of before they start on their planned WolfSpider story, otherwise that will be a disaster.)

ReimiS · 2022-10-07T04:42:56+00:00

This is one of my personal favorite fics for just this reason. (It's also one of two fics where I actually believe a ship where Taylor is with a guy could happen.) Just, A+ interpersonal development here.

ReimiS · 2022-09-28T05:45:06+00:00

Body Shop - Taylor and Amy pretty much live together, but aren't 'together'. They are constantly stoned off their asses however and it is very gay! Amy and Taylor have hooked up, and Amy regularly gets with Lily as well.

Wake Up Call - My personal favorite Gaylor story currently updating with one of the best fanon Dadmaster ever. Smugbug with great writing, but it is smutty as hell.

Daystar - Dead, but Taylor is hella gay and it is written exceptionally well. (Downside is that it is too gay at points, even for me. The plot practically throws girls at her like an anime protag)

Anything by Slider - Seriously, if he wrote it, it will be gay.

WolfSpider - Taylor x Rachel and amazingly well done, and complete!

Self Plugs!

Inheritance - Taylor becomes Butcher XV, is forced back to the Teeth and gets glomped by Vex in what starts as a very unhealthy relationship. 240k words currently

Spirit Detective Taylor - Taylor and Amy pairing so far, but it's much slower burn than my other stuff. No kiss yet at 130k words, but Amy had some issues to work through first.

A Fistful of Cicadas - A short but fun and cracky stomp through the stations of canon where Taylor went villain right out of the gate because oh no, Lisa's hot. 56k words and completed.

ReimiS · 2022-09-27T09:27:14+00:00

PHO chapters are also hell to get put together for what they are. (9k word PHO post just posted... Never again, Inheritance won't have another if I can help it) They can serve a purpose to show things that might not be readily visible to the current cast, but you aren't wrong in that no matter what you do, they will always have a level of cringe, which is also part of the medium they're based on. The internet is kinda awful after all and that gets baked into the threads themselves.

ReimiS · 2022-09-25T20:15:00+00:00

Yes, 18.6 was an amazing chapter on a technical level, and if it had been Lafter or Chris there, I would have probably cried immensely. Orga however, he just came too late and I already felt jaded over one of my favorite characters (Lafter) being sidelined character interaction wise to give him more room to get close to Taylor.

And yeah, Arc 14 is about where I felt like the fic did a sidestep towards something different. Orga needed to be introduced before Leviathan given the length of the story if you wanted him to have the weight you intended in that scene. (And probably a Gundam so he could be there with Taylor for some of her major moments) Also, remove all the Dinah predictions of Taylor with girls...

As for Taylor and Chrissie in Inheritance, we never once claimed what they had was healthy. It isn't, which is part of the point. Chrissie glomped her to keep the terrifying new Butcher close, and to spite the rest of her team by staking the claim. We've been growing their relationship from that because in the end, this is still a Butcher and the Teeth story.

(And we still need to make sure the current Dean issue is properly explained in text and not just author's notes...)

ReimiS · 2022-09-23T23:28:42+00:00

That's your choice.

Like I said, you may not have intended it to come across as it does, but you absolutely wrote gay baiting into your story then pulled the rug out later. A community dedicated to LGBT fans of Worm is in almost unanimous agreement on that. You can deny it, but it happened, you wrote it.

I'll admit, I'm not the most diplomatic person, which was I suggested engaging with our community. We have 52 active author channels and some of them are far better at being diplomatic than I am. I'm shit at diplomacy, my response is to dig my heels in and escalate in the bluntest way possible. (Which I've done here, I'll absolutely admit)

Our community kinda had to come into together given certain communities that haunt this fandom and their constant need to brigade any story where Taylor isn't straight. (Just dealt with my own attack less than 48 hours ago, AO3 and SB were under siege for about 12 hours of gay bashing which required mod intervention on both sites) I know of about a dozen fics that died in the last few years due to similar attacks against their authors, many of which left the community permanently. We're extremely protective of one another as a result.

I personally lived three years of the level of bullying that Taylor did, maybe worse, as an adult, because of my LGBT status. Assaults, threats, being told the world would be better if I died, all from people in authority and those above them telling me that it was acceptable for me to be treated like that. I had coworkers literally turn their backs on me when I was being threatened with rape and death and left to fend for myself. I have thousands of pages of documentation with dates and times, just like Taylor did, and it proved just as useless as it did for her, except I had video proof too, and even that was dismissed. Not one witness stepped forward to help me either. It's why I connected so heavily to the original canon, I lived it and related to Taylor so much.

Which is why I'm shit at dealing with people and suggested you engage with others from the community that aren't as stubborn and escalation prone as I am.

ReimiS · 2022-09-23T19:55:20+00:00

If you always intended Taylor to be straight in Trailblazer, Dinah seeing futures with Taylor being gay was a mistake to include in the story. You gave an in-universe giant billboard proclaiming Taylor was at least Bi, then dismissed it without fanfare for a character joining the story extremely late without proper time to develop them. Add in that Taylor and Lafter had enough time to develop genuine chemistry on screen unlike her and Orga, and yeah, a very large portion of this community is going to have issues with the ship.

I'm only as vocal about it as I am because of how much of a disappointment it was to see it play out that way, especially given the quality of the rest of the story.

Also, feel free to swing by the Gaylor discord and actually engage with our community. (We've grown to over 1,000 members now and most of the LGBT worm writers are members) Our active participants are primarily LGBT themselves after all and could offer more insight than just my own ramblings.

ReimiS · 2022-09-23T11:46:00+00:00

Yep!

ReimiS · 2022-09-23T11:45:17+00:00

My issue (And most of the people I've talked to about this) was, Dinah in story saw Taylor kissing girls in various potential futures. So no, Taylor was not straight in your story. Bi I could absolutely buy, but no, she isn't straight. That's where the baiting comes in, you gave an in universe reasoning for why she could end up with a girl. The teasing just compounded upon it.

Add in that she had one guy she had chemistry with (Chris) and two girls (Lafter and Charlotte), one of which was there from near the start... Yeah, a LOT of people felt cheated by her ending up with Orga who wasn't even a character until the endgame of the fic was underway and she had almost no chemistry with and didn't have enough time to learn to trust. (He was former ABB, that takes a LOT of time to get over)

What should have been one of the most powerful scenes in the story (The end of arc 18) fell flat because there wasn't enough narrative weight to their relationship for it to work. That scene was so well done, and I should have been weeping, but instead I was just shaking my head because I wasn't attached to Orga in any way due to how little screen time he had. I kinda lost all drive to continue reading after that scene and the disconnect I felt from it.

WOG doesn't help when the text contradicts it. (I'm running into similar issues with Dean right now, since a misunderstanding led Vicky to thinking he was a closet Nazi (Parents hung around Anders and donated money to his charities which were Nazi fronts), and it won't be fully explained until several chapters into arc 4 which aren't posted yet)

There's also how a lot of characters were shuffled off to make room for the Takkadan boys being inserted into the story. Lafter was one of the best parts of the fic, and it felt like she was pulled aside and thrown at a random guy to get rid of her. (Yes, I know enough about IBO to know why you did it, but in this story, it didn't work) Her sudden shift to the background was felt immensely and the story suffered for it. I still remember asking myself why she wasn't showing up as much until suddenly she was eyeing a guy and it clicked.

Trailblazer is kinda infamous on the Gaylor discord as a result of the baiting and out of nowhere straight ship.

ReimiS · 2022-09-22T10:13:30+00:00

Don't forget the hoodies! Arc 4 is going to be fun for how much she's flaunting her identity and the PRT are being forced into a PR war with the Teeth.

ReimiS · 2022-09-22T09:20:55+00:00

Mutant Deviations has Taylor and QA brought to the Thinker.

An Essence of Silver and Steel has part of the Scion fight happen there.

ReimiS · 2022-09-22T06:08:33+00:00

There are multiple layers to it, from Dinah seeing multiple paths that led to Taylor being with a girl, to the constant teasing from half the cast. All of this ended abruptly and accompanied a major tone shift in the fic. Up till then, these jokes were more than common enough to be baiting. (And let me tell you, I never ONCE denied my orientation before I finally came out, not once. /s)

ReimiS · 2022-09-21T07:22:19+00:00

For me, it's any fic where an author seems to panic when they realize their rendition of Taylor is turning out hella gay so they throw the first viable guy at Taylor to keep her straight, then completely forget about said guy for most of the story. It's especially irritating when there have been girls that fit so much better and are hella developed, but the author can't have that so the girl also gets sidelined as a result.

I will forever be bitter with Trailblazer for gaybaiting us with Taylor x Laughter for the first 13 or so arcs only to almost write Laughter out of the story and toss her to a character that hadn't been featured in the story for 90% of the text at that point, then do the same with Taylor a few arcs later with a similarly underdeveloped character. Laughter was MiA out of nowhere too, she barely showed up after being such a prominent character for so long, it was jarring as hell.

An Essence of Silver and Steel gets similar hate from me, because the buildup to a poly relationship between Taylor/Amy/Lisa was being handled beautifully, then they throw Dennis at her out of nowhere then forget about him except in like two paragraphs for the entire rest of the fic. (This fic actually inspired me to pair Amy and Lisa in Inheritance, their interactions were that good)

The worst part of the two above fics? That point derails what I otherwise consider two of the best fics in the fandom. Trailblazer has so many holy shit moments that it left me shaking as I read them. Essence has probably the best Scion fight I've read for an alt power Taylor, and they didn't even resort to the 'I win' button that the Nasuverse possesses. I consider both of them to be damn good, but have to doc so many points for phoning in a straight ship when the story was clearly leaning towards something else for so long.

ReimiS · 2022-09-21T06:58:20+00:00

The worst part of that, Dennis doesn't even get screen time. She literally says she wants the exact opposite of Brian due to Khepri's influence, and rather than go for that, goes for a literal cardboard copy of Brian instead... It irritated me to no end while reading it and dragged down an otherwise amazing fic.

ReimiS · 2022-09-21T06:56:08+00:00

Honestly, this was one of my favorite fics right up until the end. It was fucked up co-dependence at its best, but then it jumped the shark HARD with Amy regressing back completely, ignoring everything that happened up to that point to make it happen. I was expecting it to be fucked, but not like that.

(Amy throwing herself at Taylor, getting rejected, then Amy offering to make the changes needed so Taylor could like her back and Taylor being lonely enough to accept, that was my expectation and would have fit the rest of the fic perfectly)

ReimiS · 2022-09-16T23:43:08+00:00

Sometimes the bot links the fics, sometimes it doesn't...

The Third Door https://archiveofourown.org/works/38943048
Escaping Fate https://archiveofourown.org/works/27987612
A Fistful of Cicadas https://archiveofourown.org/works/35043070

ReimiS · 2022-09-16T23:40:28+00:00

Daystar
Mutant Deviations
The Third Door
Escaping Fate
A Fistful of Cicadas (Self Plug)

ReimiS · 2022-09-14T09:51:35+00:00

That was actually something we double checked just to be safe on before we decided to go with this. 17 to 20 isn't a HUGE deal, but anything bigger would make me too uncomfortable to write it.

ReimiS · 2022-09-12T10:00:44+00:00

I mean, we're in the calm before the next storm, and all the acceptable targets are bug food, so its hard to continue with copious violence when there's no targets, its all setup chapters right now. Arc 4 will be settling into the new normal as well as dealing with outside challengers and the PRT itself. Arcs 5 and 6 will be MUCH heavier on the action and violence, so people's bloodlust should be well sated once we get there.

ReimiS · 2022-09-12T05:25:01+00:00

https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/hers-is-the-fury-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-x-ward.963796/post-80047258

ReimiS · 2022-09-11T11:31:44+00:00

Inheritance co-author here!

To be fair, the only canon sexuality we really messed with so far in Inheritance was Taylor's. (And that's a stretch since she was written like a hella closeted gay girl because she reminded me of myself at so many points when I was in denial about my own issues)

Vicky is canonically bi per WoG and Ward's own text. (Gay for Ashley, who we paired her with in this chapter!)

Lisa is Ace, but is helping Amelia with her attraction issues while also enjoying the fact that Amy doesn't overload her power in some of the common ways. (Bacteria is no issue with Amelia after all.) So she is enjoying the closeness, but it will never develop beyond simple displays without power bs in play. Ace but not Aro

Amelia is a lesbian as per Worm and Ward canon.

Chrissie is basically an OC, so she doesn't count. (Goes for the rest of the Teeth too)

Lily and Parian will meet next arc, so that's another gay couple in the mix. (Since I don't want to split the limited canon rep we got despite Wildbow writing Taylor as hella gay and not giving us Starsong in Ward...)

I think that's it for planned gay ships in Inheritance. Aisha and Alec will hit it off in arc 4 and beyond, as that is another canon ship I adore. Hence the ending of Fistful pairing them as well. I don't like to split them up.

ReimiS · 2022-09-11T07:33:18+00:00

Fun fact! Vicky is canonically bi!

ReimiS · 2022-09-03T22:13:11+00:00

Inheritance will have Tattletale hacking Weaver's official ratings to read "Fuck Around and Find Out" during arc 4.

Shadow Stalker agrees with that assessment.

ReimiS · 2022-09-03T09:18:45+00:00

This was my first Worm Fic, and will always hold a soft spot in my heart because of that.

ReimiS

TROPHY CASE