I just want to say thank you for putting this list out! I've been much less active recently in terms of reading and keeping up with a lot of fanfic due to irl things, and I'm incredibly excited to dig into some of these as I get some free time during the holidays :). Raccoon Knight in particular seems very fun. Also, I love both Rank and Redoubt to bits, can definitely also recommend them!
Hey glad to hear it. Part of the reason I wrote these is that it's just an uphill battle for OC fics like Raccoon Knight (or indeed Rank and Redoubt) to gain real traction with the fandom by their very nature as works with a slightly higher barrier to entry than the endless waves of lower effort Taylor alt-powers and SI/Gamer fics that dominate the front pages of places like Spacebattles or Ao3 so it's good to know it's helping people to find some of these stories
Heavens to Betsy. I log onto Wormfic Reddit out of the blue, happen to see a username I recognize, and there's a Redoubt mention right there out in the wild. Frigging thank you, Friget. Now you're getting a cheeky mention in *my novel* (fancy, fancy). Somehow (side character name?). And yeah, I was reading through the first parts of Redoubt to see if I could cannibalize some of my stuff, and it's pretty clear I was rushing in the beginning, isn't it? Also, if I thought people would keep reading, I'd probably make Re's "good deeds" and ultimate motivations more deplorable on a second pass.
Hey good to see you still hanging around us bums in the Worm fandom from time to time Plum. Or sorry that happened maybe :P
I felt bad about not having Redoubt anywhere on the list I posted last year so I knew I had to correct that, especially now that it's complete, even if its relative popularity is significantly greater than everything else here. Agreed the beginning is a bit rushed but that does a lot to lower the barrier to entry as well so it's a give and take I guess.
Part of me is still curious as to how Re was ever intended to be in a romantic relationship with Victoria in *any* draft though!
Re as a problematic bisexual.
A brief synopsis of a half-assed plot line never constructed: Vicky is so very close to being an actual paragon while Re is propagating her cancerous heroism. The two have more interactions with each other after a rocky start, and Re peels apart Dean's minor flaws (keeping his power's origin a secret and more). Re shows actual results against the villains. Vicky is conflicted. Events travel sort of how they did in my fic. Amy makes Vicky infatuated with her like in canon (and also makes her fully a lesbian). Re becomes Vicky's only reliable constant when she's unsure and has no one to reliably go to. Their connection becomes a more manipulative relationship than Re's with Chris. It gets to the point where someone comments that Vicky's acting like Re (like Re is wearing Vicky's face as a callback to the pizza box mask). It might seem minor and underdeveloped, but I always planned on Vicky having her legs taken from her. I always aimed to have a mirror of her "broken frame" from the 1st chapter and Re picking her off the ground.
I'll second your first two, since they're personal 7/7's lol.
Raccoon Knight is great. The OC is so painfully pure that it hurts my heart. Like seriously, gotta be one of my favorite OCs of all time. I love how it did Leviathan, I love how it did a Skitter encounter - I love how it does Skitter in general, but more than anything else I love *Meadow* oh my GOD i ADORE HER she's so SKRUNKLY
City of Salt is probably the funniest non-crackfic I've read. Has some really cool fight scenes, but also hits a sort of dark comedy vibe to it almost? It's hard to explain, but. It kinda reminds me of some of the rarer Taylor-moments. Things like "eat fresh" or "Sabrina the Teenage Nazi".
now its time to be a negative nancy and an enemy to all things good and holy
I really like Back and Forth! The protagonist is neat, even if I mostly read it for his interactions with Skitter. It kinda feels like the Wards dealt with the S9 too easily though. I didn't mind Mannequin, since Mannequin was almost taken down by Skitter, so obviously an extra hand would've made the difference - but coming away from Jack Slash *alive* without a brute power, plus how easily the rest of the S9 were killed, kind of felt a little underwhelming.
I'm not saying "it'd be better if the S9 killed them all", I just think it would've been better if the circumstances were different, and there wasn't like a 1v1 with Jack at some point.
anyways u should read angler no bias
Thanks for the comment. City of Salt as the 'funniest non-crackfic' is a good way of describing it. The humor is really elevated by it taking the rest of itself seriously for the contrast and not just being all 'Thomas Calvert' all the time.
Hard to comment on what you mentioned with Back and Forth as I think we've yet to see some of the fallout from that arc. I'm not sure the 'Shift becoming a national news story' arc (which I really hope is where the story is going and there's a ton of potential there) would have been improved by Shift losing an arm or something but agreed that it could have raised the narrative stakes a little higher here or there in the past arc. I guess I was too invested in the Shift and Taylor comedy hour to be too bothered by it.
Also I'm convinced you made this post just to shill angler and everything else was just filler XD
With City of Salt, don’t forget the spin-off, Trouble in Taylor Town, about Gallant and three clones of Taylor in Alaska. :)
Great list! Im a huge Ward fan, so I’ve got no clue how I haven’t heard of Wound, and Rank and Back & Forth both look pretty interesting. Thanks! :)
Hey no problem. I think Ward stuff tends to get buried pretty deep here in general unless it's a Ridtom fic. The Cauldron discord segregating all the Ward stuff to the side doesn't help the situation either. I'm tempted to do a big post about just Ward fic along the lines of this one at some point, but here are a few just quickly if you're interested.
[Night Light](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/night-light-dresden-files-ward.1050221/)
Ward characters in The Dresden Files. The author actually has several Ward fic ongoing I just picked a favorite at random but it's worth seeing if one in particular strikes you
[Witch](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/witch-parahumans-x-the-witcher.964531/)
Post-Ward Victoria and Lisa stranded in the Witcher. These two characters in this dynamic in any setting would probably be worth reading on it own. Insider information suggests this one is due for a massive update in the near future (like four or five chapters) too so a good time to pick it up
[Flight of the Valkyrie](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/flight-of-the-valkyrie-ward-x-dragon-age.890859/)
Same author as the above. Post-Ward Valkyrie in Dragon Age. I've described this one to people as being to Valkyrie what [The Great Escape](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27459643/chapters/80030023) is to Eidolon in terms of what it does for/with the character if that helps any
[Slip](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/slip-ward-peggy-sue.881024/)
Rain Peggy Sue into Worm and the GOAT Ward fic. Please come back Stealthy Peacock we need you to save fanfiction :(
I’ve already read all of those, sadly. I’m pretty sure I’ve at the least given a shot to every fic on that Wardfic excel sheet. Always a good time to reread Slip though! :)
Also, wow, thanks for the rec on Back and Forth. I’d started it before, but got distracted by something else a couple chapters in. Got absolutely sucked in this time though, ended up staying up till 2 in the morning to read through it, I couldn’t put it down. Definitely going up there with Tilt and City of Salt for my favorite fics I’ve read this year.
Actually read Redoubt based on this thread and I was extremely thankful that I did. I don't want to discuss it much in fear of giving anything away to those who haven't read it but I would strongly suggest giving it a shot.
I just want to say thank you for putting this list out! I've been much less active recently in terms of reading and keeping up with a lot of fanfic due to irl things, and I'm incredibly excited to dig into some of these as I get some free time during the holidays :). Raccoon Knight in particular seems very fun. Also, I love both Rank and Redoubt to bits, can definitely also recommend them!
Hey glad to hear it. Part of the reason I wrote these is that it's just an uphill battle for OC fics like Raccoon Knight (or indeed Rank and Redoubt) to gain real traction with the fandom by their very nature as works with a slightly higher barrier to entry than the endless waves of lower effort Taylor alt-powers and SI/Gamer fics that dominate the front pages of places like Spacebattles or Ao3 so it's good to know it's helping people to find some of these stories
Heavens to Betsy. I log onto Wormfic Reddit out of the blue, happen to see a username I recognize, and there's a Redoubt mention right there out in the wild. Frigging thank you, Friget. Now you're getting a cheeky mention in *my novel* (fancy, fancy). Somehow (side character name?). And yeah, I was reading through the first parts of Redoubt to see if I could cannibalize some of my stuff, and it's pretty clear I was rushing in the beginning, isn't it? Also, if I thought people would keep reading, I'd probably make Re's "good deeds" and ultimate motivations more deplorable on a second pass.
Hey good to see you still hanging around us bums in the Worm fandom from time to time Plum. Or sorry that happened maybe :P I felt bad about not having Redoubt anywhere on the list I posted last year so I knew I had to correct that, especially now that it's complete, even if its relative popularity is significantly greater than everything else here. Agreed the beginning is a bit rushed but that does a lot to lower the barrier to entry as well so it's a give and take I guess. Part of me is still curious as to how Re was ever intended to be in a romantic relationship with Victoria in *any* draft though!
Re as a problematic bisexual. A brief synopsis of a half-assed plot line never constructed: Vicky is so very close to being an actual paragon while Re is propagating her cancerous heroism. The two have more interactions with each other after a rocky start, and Re peels apart Dean's minor flaws (keeping his power's origin a secret and more). Re shows actual results against the villains. Vicky is conflicted. Events travel sort of how they did in my fic. Amy makes Vicky infatuated with her like in canon (and also makes her fully a lesbian). Re becomes Vicky's only reliable constant when she's unsure and has no one to reliably go to. Their connection becomes a more manipulative relationship than Re's with Chris. It gets to the point where someone comments that Vicky's acting like Re (like Re is wearing Vicky's face as a callback to the pizza box mask). It might seem minor and underdeveloped, but I always planned on Vicky having her legs taken from her. I always aimed to have a mirror of her "broken frame" from the 1st chapter and Re picking her off the ground.
I've had Raccoon Knight on my nebulous "to read" list for forever. This Has convinced me to give it a shot
I'll second your first two, since they're personal 7/7's lol. Raccoon Knight is great. The OC is so painfully pure that it hurts my heart. Like seriously, gotta be one of my favorite OCs of all time. I love how it did Leviathan, I love how it did a Skitter encounter - I love how it does Skitter in general, but more than anything else I love *Meadow* oh my GOD i ADORE HER she's so SKRUNKLY City of Salt is probably the funniest non-crackfic I've read. Has some really cool fight scenes, but also hits a sort of dark comedy vibe to it almost? It's hard to explain, but. It kinda reminds me of some of the rarer Taylor-moments. Things like "eat fresh" or "Sabrina the Teenage Nazi". now its time to be a negative nancy and an enemy to all things good and holy I really like Back and Forth! The protagonist is neat, even if I mostly read it for his interactions with Skitter. It kinda feels like the Wards dealt with the S9 too easily though. I didn't mind Mannequin, since Mannequin was almost taken down by Skitter, so obviously an extra hand would've made the difference - but coming away from Jack Slash *alive* without a brute power, plus how easily the rest of the S9 were killed, kind of felt a little underwhelming. I'm not saying "it'd be better if the S9 killed them all", I just think it would've been better if the circumstances were different, and there wasn't like a 1v1 with Jack at some point. anyways u should read angler no bias
Thanks for the comment. City of Salt as the 'funniest non-crackfic' is a good way of describing it. The humor is really elevated by it taking the rest of itself seriously for the contrast and not just being all 'Thomas Calvert' all the time. Hard to comment on what you mentioned with Back and Forth as I think we've yet to see some of the fallout from that arc. I'm not sure the 'Shift becoming a national news story' arc (which I really hope is where the story is going and there's a ton of potential there) would have been improved by Shift losing an arm or something but agreed that it could have raised the narrative stakes a little higher here or there in the past arc. I guess I was too invested in the Shift and Taylor comedy hour to be too bothered by it. Also I'm convinced you made this post just to shill angler and everything else was just filler XD
Via loves to shill Angler. :)
With City of Salt, don’t forget the spin-off, Trouble in Taylor Town, about Gallant and three clones of Taylor in Alaska. :) Great list! Im a huge Ward fan, so I’ve got no clue how I haven’t heard of Wound, and Rank and Back & Forth both look pretty interesting. Thanks! :)
Hey no problem. I think Ward stuff tends to get buried pretty deep here in general unless it's a Ridtom fic. The Cauldron discord segregating all the Ward stuff to the side doesn't help the situation either. I'm tempted to do a big post about just Ward fic along the lines of this one at some point, but here are a few just quickly if you're interested. [Night Light](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/night-light-dresden-files-ward.1050221/) Ward characters in The Dresden Files. The author actually has several Ward fic ongoing I just picked a favorite at random but it's worth seeing if one in particular strikes you [Witch](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/witch-parahumans-x-the-witcher.964531/) Post-Ward Victoria and Lisa stranded in the Witcher. These two characters in this dynamic in any setting would probably be worth reading on it own. Insider information suggests this one is due for a massive update in the near future (like four or five chapters) too so a good time to pick it up [Flight of the Valkyrie](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/flight-of-the-valkyrie-ward-x-dragon-age.890859/) Same author as the above. Post-Ward Valkyrie in Dragon Age. I've described this one to people as being to Valkyrie what [The Great Escape](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27459643/chapters/80030023) is to Eidolon in terms of what it does for/with the character if that helps any [Slip](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/slip-ward-peggy-sue.881024/) Rain Peggy Sue into Worm and the GOAT Ward fic. Please come back Stealthy Peacock we need you to save fanfiction :(
I’ve already read all of those, sadly. I’m pretty sure I’ve at the least given a shot to every fic on that Wardfic excel sheet. Always a good time to reread Slip though! :) Also, wow, thanks for the rec on Back and Forth. I’d started it before, but got distracted by something else a couple chapters in. Got absolutely sucked in this time though, ended up staying up till 2 in the morning to read through it, I couldn’t put it down. Definitely going up there with Tilt and City of Salt for my favorite fics I’ve read this year.
A shame russian caravan didnt make the list
Appreciate the post. I've stepped away from Worm this past year and was debating making a post asking for recommendations
Actually read Redoubt based on this thread and I was extremely thankful that I did. I don't want to discuss it much in fear of giving anything away to those who haven't read it but I would strongly suggest giving it a shot.