I have never played with a crossover, but I was curious about it.
I do one of two kinds of fics: the ones in which I focus entirely on the lore (The Bigger Picture), and ones where the story is collateral for me to explain the Lore (Revolution, Unbound).
Worm isn't that much interesting to play with in regards to the lore, since it's very well explained, and the story in itself it's kind of fixed, given the nature of Scion that imposes a hard, close end to the Worm book. AU or not, unless the author goes 'ok, in this fic won't happen because I say so', the end conflict must be against Scion.
I don't do that. The whole point of my fics is to explore the existing lore, not creating a new one.
So, these two characteristics simply stop me from starting an SI, or simply an AU with an OOC or new OC. Taylor wins in the end because somehow she manages to force a second trigger and 'trick' Scion.
Here the crossovers come to mind.
I have several plot bunnies for Worm in mind, all centred around a failed trigger of Taylor.
I don't know if it makes sense for anybody but me, but a trigger is a process through which the [ENTITY] plants a shard inside of a human. To do so it must create a connection, but a connection can't be established until the [human] is open to receive said connection. During the Trigger, [human] gets opened to form a connection with [ENTITY] which uploads the shard into the [human] before closing said [human] and thus severing the connection until the death of the now host of the shard.
Why do I think it works this way? Because the two space slugs are seen only during the trigger and forgotten immediately after.
Now, to put the MC in a condition of somehow fight back Scion (impossible unless with a cheated second trigger through Panacea), in my head at least, something must go [ABERRANT] during the trigger: either opening the MC to something different than a Shard, or ... stuff that you'll find out if you read the following fics.
I was curious about the Seven Deadly Sins series. The anime itself is horrible, as the manga is predictable and kind of... bleargh?
But the powers in there are super interesting, in particular the 'Sins'. Besides the coolness of their powers and that everything happens because of 'reasons' I have somewhat fantasized and hoped that there is a relationship between the Sin and the 'personality' of the respective character.
Even so, clearly the characters aren't their sins.
Meliodas is [Wrath] but only as an answer to his [Love] for Elizabeth.
Ban's [Greed] is countered through the [Selflessness] that makes him give up his immortal life for his loved one.
Escanor's [Pride] is built upon his [Admiration] for Merlin, thusly recognizing himself as somewhat less than her.
Merlin is put there without a reason whatsoever, but her [Gluttony] is somewhat balanced through self-discipline, so [Determination] perhaps?
I have no idea why [Sloth] is represented by the fairy king, but I guess that he somewhat also embodies [Sense of Duty] (because he's a king or whatever)
and the giantess [Envy] because she kind of likes Meliodas(?) and [Acceptance] because she stops pining after him at some point?
And the strange puppet guy who I really don't get, the author went out of fucks to give by then, so he tossed [Lust] and was done with it adding a sex-less body?
Anyway, Medliodas is OP and kind of boring to be used as power for anyone
the others are kind of meh, besides Ban, but his powerset would, very much like Meliodas, make him kind of OP as a power for the MC
the only one who saves himself is Escanor: helpless at night, but manages when he sees his own [hope-source of admiration] as some kid of inner Sun. Even so, I get that the Sun could be linked with Pride, and that stylistic choices have dictated that Escanor cannot echo the Stars' light with his own, I still like the whole kind-OP-uncaring set he has during the day, as well as his dutiful behaviour during the night.
AD YEAH, I ONLY SOMEWHAT OWN THE IDEA OF THIS SPECIFIC CROSSOVER, EVEN IF IT WON'T DO ME ANY GOOD.
DAWN OF THE LIONESS' SIN OF PRIDE
It shouldn't have been possible.
It couldn't even have been allowed.
How could it?
Even for them, this was beyond horrifying.
She had known there was something wrong as soon as she had returned to school.
She knew something had been done to her locker, it wouldn't even be the first time. But this...
She even somewhat expected the disaster inside, but to be shoved in and locked inside said disaster...
From the moment she had been tossed inside, there hadn't been any room for 'I knew there was something wrong' or 'I should have expected it'.
There was no room for thought of any kind, everything was squashed under pain-panic-hate-despair.
Taylor Hebert screamed, only to immediately gag and fail to suppress the urge to vomit as the smells overwhelmed her, to trash wildly when she felt 'them' crawling on her legs, over the open cuts caused by her savage flailing, skittering over the metal doors of her coffin, buzzing too close.
It couldn't be real, but even that last hope found no way to survive inside of Taylor's mind.
The blood on used tampons gave a sharp tang to the air, while the rancid scent of her vomit meshed with a vengeance with the strangling flavour of stale shit and acidic piss. All that happened in the dar, the thin beam of light that managed to climb its way inside the locker from the edges of its door was just enough to give her tearing eyes awareness that something was moving over her. No, not something, several somethings, skittering, climbing, biting, burrowing, tearing, stinging, hurting.
Disgust quickly left the way free for Panic to rise, Fear and Rage both surging forth, the second building after the first as the walls felt
In the smell of vomit and toxic waste, of despair and panic and not-enough-room-can't-breath-help-die-I-wanna-die that completely encompassed the girl, Taylor broke, and her being opened to something... beyond.
Vast, amidst the star, moving impossibly in a fractal nightmare of twin raising spirals, there was something beyond the realm of human thought, beyond the scope of mortal understanding. But even in that moment of impossible and blessed detachment from reality, that impossibly brief sliver of time, the body of Taylor Hebert failed, her heart stilling over the overload from her panicked vegetative nervous system, her mind blanking out over the convulsions shaking her body, her muscles spasming out of any form of control and limit, she distractedly felt her teeth biting on empty air so strongly that her molars cracked, but by then, Taylor Hebert was dead.
As she died, [ENTITY] retreated the [Queen Administrator] that it was about to load into the cracking being of the [Potential-Host, and if it could have, it would have felt dissatisfaction with the loss of [Potential-host]. As [Entity] abandoned any attempt to complete the releasing of [Queen Administrator, and the equivalent of its attention crumbled away from the [Potential Host - Deceased, something else walked in Taylor Hebert through the open connection left behind.
Everything that begins, one day ends.
It was a basic truth that every human grasped on some level or another.
Life existed because it was defined by an end.
Living beings are born, they grow, maybe struggling, maybe not, consuming something to sustain said growth. Air, food, other living beings, their own time. Maybe they spawn litters or spread pollen destined of giving life to something once more. Maybe they have children, or cubs, or hatchlings, seeds, saplings, spores... from life another life, until that one too completes its cycle.
On the vast and green hills of Britannia, Escanor found himself contemplating death.
The Deadly Sin of Pride wasn't one of the profound thoughts and deep philosophical self-exploration. He stood at the top, as it should be, and the rest of the world changed over time. Escanor never felt like changing. He was what he was meant to be, the peak of both possible and impossible, as he had always been. He had followed Merlin for decades, trusting her and carrying her as a star in his own heart of hearts, taming the shining beacon that his own self was. He had taken care to not simply unleash his unmerciful nature over the world, he had avoided challenging the sun and the stars, knowing that even if he were to die in the process, his Pride would never die, turning someone with no kindness into the Titan that Escanor himself was.
He had followed Meliodas when the Seven Deadly Sins were founded, he had regained the Self that he had burrowed for years when Ban stumbled upon him, wounded and hunted by the Commandment of Truth. Escanor was born kind. There was no path around it. And with kindness and self-control, he had helped again, just as a distraction from his own internal struggle.
That had been a good choice, his Grace, his Pride, had managed to unleash 'some' of its unending light upon someone somewhat strong enough to witness the Inner Him without crumbling to motes of dust at midday.
As the time dragged itself over the land he had so intimately known, as the stars completed yet another step in their endless dance, he had been dragged along with the last adventure of his life. Evn then, the Deadly Sin of Pride held no fear, it really had no place within himself.
Yet, when the time came, he accepted the people that he realized where his equals as worthy companions to fight with, worthy people to offer his life for.
And as he died, blood pain and tears flowing freely, he held no fear. As his body crumbled as an afterthought for having used a power never meant to be tamed or regulated, he distractedly wondered what would happen if an unworthy fool were to inherit the Grace that he had made his, and truly understood only as he died.
Escanor never felt fear. Pity, even something akin to worry, but never fear. But as he died, his mind reached back to the times in which he roamed alone, his power too vast and wild to let Escanor be around people without accidentally burning them into motes of dust.
Meliodas could likely handle a fool with the might of Sunshine, but how many would burn in the meantime? How much at risk would Merlin be? His last conscious and aware thought went to all the people he could have met and learned to live with if he managed to tame Sunshine before his last moments, and considered how sad it was that amongst mankind, he learned to know and appreciate so few, and that he learned the value of those few he had connected with somewhat only as he was dying.
His last act of will, powered with all the might of the immortal sun that he would always hold within his heart, was to cast Sunshine away, making sure that even in death, his power would not be a threat to the ones that had loved him just as he had learned to love in turn.
Tylor Hebert didn't realize that she was dying, how could she? And yet she was aware that something was about to end. The primordial state of [SURVIVE] her mind was into didn't realize anything beyond the metal coffin that was related to the something which was about to end.
No living being truly understands the concept of death, of the end, of no-more. It can't, because the very definition at the base of every living being is to be and to refuse the not-being. Oh, humans have come to realize it in their thoughts, some even think that they accept death once it comes, but it's only a lie built and perpetrated to reassure both themselves and th ones around them.
For the same reason people can't hold breath long enough to die, the [Primal Mind] at the core of the human being doesn't accept death. The human body will always choose life over death. Cells burning resources to live just a little longer, unconsciously gulping when water is poured in your mouth.
As she died, the last corner of conscious thought of Taylor Hebert realized that it was done for, and while it surely refused the idea of death, it focused on the loss that Danny Hebert would feel, it reached towards the man that had been crippled by the death of his wife, the one who had forged through the pain with bullheaded stubbornness to sustain his daughter. And that corner of coherent thought wasn't able to conceive the well-deserved rage and disappointment that the dying schoolgirl would have expressed, it was a miracle for itself, her last thought went along the lines of being sad because her only lukewarm human interaction in the whole world was with her father.
In the dark, alone, Taylor Hebert died.
And as life left her body, and her soul was left linked to her body only through a thin strand of awareness, her last thought resonated with another one's last thought.
An image, held as an anchor, managed to link itself with the wishes impressed over [Sunshine] from its previous user, and as the last electrical impulses fled Taylor's nervous system, said image burned just a little brighter, earning back the depth and meaning it was starting to lose once that its owner was no more.
[Sunshine] held no consciousness of its own, it was a Magic, not a living being, and yet, in the nooks and crannies of the departing soul of a schoolgirl dying of fear and despair inside a locker, it found many shapes that fit with its previous owner.
Refusal to just lay down and die.
Endurance to unjust adversity.
Instinctively refusing the very idea of lording your own power over others.
A will to become something, buried and almost completely hidden beneath self-doubt and endless fear.
And, at the end of the line, almost as an afterthought, Hope.
So, brightly, suddenly, and with the strength of the Lion's Sin of Pride, [Sunshine] rose over the startled and fleeting remains of Taylor Hebert's soul, coaxing it back with the impossible warmth Escanor dedicated once to Merlin, burning away the wounds and the pain, vaporizing the harmful surroundings of the locker, which suddenly found itself gone from reality, melted and turned into motes of dust.
With [Sunshine, Escanor had once found, been gifted, or forged, the Divine Axe Rittha, named after a young maiden loved by the Sun.
Hadn't [Sunshine] just chosen yet another maiden? How could the golden and impossibly heavy weapon be left behind?
Live once more, Taylor wondered briefly why all the pain she had been feeling had disappeared, distractedly wondering why she felt like her back was on fire.
For a brief instant, she opened her eyes, closing them immediately once she only saw fire. White fire, with its warmth encompassing her, feeling like the water of the shower set on its maximum hot, exactly at the instant in which you are confused if the water is charboiling your skin or its cola as ice.
White Fire, burning away everything bad that existed to hurt her.
White fire, holding the promise she already made in her heart of hearts, signing it with her soul.
Everything that begins, one day ends.
It was a basic truth that every human grasped on some level or another.
Life existed because it was defined by an end.
Taylor Hebert's life had begun fifteen years before, and ended that day in the locker.
Escanor's life had begun 40 years before his last battle against the Demon King, and ended as he gifted himself to the void to save other from that fate.
Taylor, Lioness' Sin of Pride begun her life on Monday 10th of January, 2011, at 12:14.
And reality burned.
AN
So, regarding the date and the hour of her trigger.
in the books it's stated that the trigger happened when she returned to school in January. First day of school in January 2011 was Monday 10th, as for the hour, well, on that day the sun rose at 7:37 am and set at 16:58 pm, making it a day 9:21 hours long. The middle of that interval of time is roughly 12:14- meaning when the sun it's at its peak.
I found it fitting.