Dominion
is a completed Worm fanfic on SpaceBattles.com. It is written by Materia-Blade, the author of Copacetic.
It plays with the general premise of Alt-Power Taylor by giving her a variation of her canon powers: In the locker, Taylor Triggers with Khepri powers at Skitter range.
Taylor is completely screwed over by her Powers: after mauling Sophia Hess and accidentally killing Laserdream, Taylor is a homeless fugitive sentenced in absentia to the Birdcage. The only people willing to shelter her are The Slaughterhouse Nine.
Not to be confused with Dominion, an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic.
This fanfic contains examples of the following:
- Adaptation Name Change: Because Taylor starts out with people-control rather than bug control, her Cape Name is Dominion rather than Skitter.
- The Alcatraz: Baumann Parahuman Containment Center, aka The Birdcage. Taylor is so afraid of it that she joins the Slaughterhouse Nine.
- All for Nothing: It's revealed in the final chapter that Contessa's Stealth Mentoring of Taylor was to make her worthy of controlling Contessa herself (and with her, Path to Victory) to better humanity. After poking around Path to Victory and its actions for a few hours, Taylor realizes that the power had been sabotaged to take the most destructive path possible to achieving a goal, leaving the world worst of than before regardless of what the end result was. Deciding that the best use of Path to Victory is to not use it at all, Taylor kills Contessa, removing the power from play entirely.
- Arc Words: "Run with the Monster", Contessa's message to Taylor.
- Base-Breaking Character: In-Universe example with Taylor. Several characters (including Amy and Robby) absolutely despise her, whereas others (Bagrat, Greg, and Katherine) feel sorry for her.
- Break the Badass: Sophia was on the receiving end of a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown during Taylor's Trigger Event, putting her in the hospital, shattering her confidence, and giving her pity rather than respect.
- Broken Bird: Even before joining the Nine, Taylor is this.
- Disney Villain Death: Played for Drama when Laserdream crash-lands due to flying into Taylor's control radius while she is asleep.
- Subverted by Taylor herself when she breaks out of a Birdcage transport with Crawler.
- The Dreaded:
- The Slaughterhouse Nine. Even Dominion fears them.
- Dominion acquires this reputation after her Trigger Event and accidentally causing a massive car crash in Easton, Pennsylvania.
- The Birdcage is this for Taylor.
- Deal with the Devil: Taylor must join the Nine and "run with the monster" in order to remain free, and hopefully find a way to turn off her power.
- Death by Adaptation: Laserdream dies when she flies into Taylor's range. Jack Slash is offed by Taylor in a Klingon Promotion.
- Gone Horribly Right: Taylor tries to distract the Nine from her presence by puppeting a woman into claiming she wanted to rob a bank. Not only do the Nine try to rob banks, but the poor woman was experimented on by Bonesaw.
- Morality Chain: Contessa is this for Taylor, prompting her to "get your hands bloody but keep your heart clean".
- Mythology Gag: Contessa tells Taylor to "Cut Ties" via text message. And their final meeting in the last chapter ends with one of them shooting the other twice as a Mercy Kill.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Sophia Hess was on the receiving end of one during Taylor's Trigger Event, and was unable to fight back due to Taylor's power. She's reduced to a paranoid wreck who lashes out when people pity her and is receiving therapy from Jessica Yamada.
- Odd Friendship: Surprisingly one with Taylor and Crawler. Taylor finds Crawler comforting as he was the first parahuman she had controlled for an extended period of time and was her main form of protection for weeks against the rest of the Nine, the PRT and police, and his use in escaping Dragon's confinement, making him a familiar presence that she latches onto emotionally in her isolated, distrustful mental state. That trust only grew during the Siberian's test and the amount of times Crawler protected her from the Siberian, and when her control of him was removed Taylor noted that she was not afraid of him retaliating but afraid of losing him. Crawler, although initially not liking being dominated by her, ends up developing a devotion of and protectiveness to Taylor, mainly because Taylor can bring him to better fights than Jack can, but also because of Taylor accidentally passing her sadness, grief and rage onto him when she called Emma and her dad, causing him to start crying and leading him to develop empathy and an attachment for her. His adoration becomes described as puppy-like, and he tries to be gentle, generous and accommodating for Taylor when he can; his body even somehow adapted better handholds for Taylor to make it easier for her to ride on top of him. And when Taylor decided to betray the Nine and kill Jack, Crawler betrayed the Nine with her, citing that Taylor was stronger than Jack and is more worthy to follow. This strong relationship between the two has caused many readers to interpret it as Ship Tease and there are even a couple of omakes that have the two as a couple!
- People Puppets: Taylor starts out with Khepri's power of controlling people, even when she's asleep. In canon this was enough to mark her as an S-class threat.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Taylor gives a scathing one in the final chapter to Contessa, for not realizing that Path to Victory had be twisted by Eden to ensure it caused the most collateral damage while completing a path, making the world worse as a result. She ends it with what could best be called a Mercy Kill.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Taylor flees Brockton Bay when Laserdream dies and Piggot declares over the phone that she'll be sent to the Birdcage no matter what.
- Shout-Out: Katherine McBride's PHO username is "Queen of Blades". Her condition is directly compared to Edward Scissorhands.
- Training from Hell: Taylor is 'tested' by the Nine, who modify some townspeople so that Taylor must command them ruthlessly and feel no remorse in order to keep them alive.
