Learning to be Human is a Worm Alternate Universe fanfiction based on the "Friendbringer" idea, in which Taylor triggers with a power that allows the Endbringers to take on human form at the cost of some of their power (and at the same time allowing her to use their powers), and come to Winslow and start living with her, as they consider her their mother now. Not entirely serious.
Can be found at Spacebattles
, Sufficient Velocity, and Ao3.
Tropes:
- Achievements in Ignorance: Taylor stepped on Manton's van while fighting the Siberian as Iris, but has no clue what she did, or why the Siberian disappeared after that.
- Adoptive Name Change: The Endbringers and Bonesaw all change their names after they're adopted by Taylor and in Bonesaw's case, her last name gets changed to Dallon.
- Behemoth is now known as Benjamin/Benny.
- Leviathan goes by Levi.
- The Simurgh is known as Samantha/Sam.
- Khonsu becomes Connie (and after realizing he's Transgender, Connor).
- Tohu and Bohu take the names Theodora and Beatrice.
- All for Nothing: Abaddon's use of Path to Victory with almost unbelievable energy after completing a cycle comes to the conclusion that the Entity's goals of an infinite food source and infinite ability to replicate are impossible based on the known laws of physics, and that everything that they've done has been pointless.
- All Therapists Are Muggles: After working with the Travelers to take out Crawler, Taylor notes that she's going to have trouble finding a competent therapist that won't rat them out.
- All Your Powers Combined: Taylor gets weakened versions of all the Endbringer power sets. Her Iris form gives her versions that are just as powerful, if not moreso.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: Abaddon split his consciousness and had an amnesiac avatar live among a host species. When they reintegrate...
- Appropriated Appelation: A rabbit-like Case 53 with Teleporters and Transporters powers combined with a combat pre-cog ability and an talent to annoy people is called "Bugs".
- The Atoner: Benny, Levi, and Sam all count (for obvious reasons), but Sam especially feels guilty for all of the people she corrupted/"Zizbombed" before becoming human, like Noelle/Echidna and Sphere/Mannequin.
- Benevolent A.I.: Armsmaster drops the trope name when he learns about Dragon.
- Big Brother Instinct: After Conner is reduced to tears by a teacher that doesn't accept his Transgender status, Missy and the twins plot vengeance upon her.
- Blood-Splattered Innocents: Greg and Theo, but especially Greg, show up splattered in blood that's decidedly not their's, and turns out to be Jack Slash's, on the Hebert's porch after being missing for days.
- Bullying a Dragon: The bullies, the teacher who enabled Conner's bullies, and the principal who did nothing to stop them. Granted, the Finislators' hands were tied due to needing to keep their true natures hidden, and said bullies and enablers had no way of knowing who they were messing with, but they were incredibly lucky to have gotten off with only getting fired.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Things get darker fast when the Slaughterhouse Nine recruit Bakuda and attack the Empire.
- Child Soldiers: Taylor comes to this conclusion about the Finislators after hearing what they tell her about their past. Considering their mental ages and what they've been forced to do, it fits.
- Chocolate Baby: When she's still thinking that it's a Kid from the Future situation, Taylor notes the Finislator's widely varying physical traits and wonders how she'd produced kids with varying traits like that.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Benny is so buff that he attracts girls like crazy, but since he hasn't had the Talk yet, doesn't understand why at first.
- Contrived Coincidence: These seem to happen a lot in the story, like the team running into a drunk, in-costume and alone Kaiser on their first night out, the Trio suffering severe bad luck in their attempts to bully Taylor, or Coil getting trapped in his office when Sam/Oracle comes to capture him due to an equipment failure. Taylor thinks a few times that Sam/Oracle is responsible, and it has been confirmed that she is, at least for some of it. Much of the rest can be chalked up to Danny apparently having a copy of Path To Victory that works subconsciously.
- The Dragonslayers escaping PRT custody has so many coincidences lining up to allow that Dragon and Armsmaster both suspect someone engineered it somehow, possibly through probability manipulation.
- Both Addadon/Silver and Scion's human forms are named Daniel, something the former lampshades.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check:
- A PHO conversation points out that Kaiser could make more selling metal as a rogue than by being a villain, among other examples.
- After Sam captures Coil as a Valentine's Day gift for Tattletale, the Undersiders manage to get acquitted and set up as rogues.
- Denser and Wackier: Than canon... though that's a low-hanging fruit if there ever was one.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The Heberts/Finislators go through a lot, but eventually manage to save the world by keeping Scion from snapping.
- Easily Forgiven: The Travelers forgive Sam pretty easily, though Noelle being healed and the hope of a way back home certainly helped.
- Emergency Transformation: Thea copies her mom's Humanity Ensues power to save Dragon from Ascalon.
- Exact Words: The Finislators are careful to use these when Taylor asks about their pasts, nothing they say is false, but the way they say it leads her to believe it's a Kid from the Future situation, among other things.
- Danny/Silver does this to Scion about the Entity's goal. After all, giving up and finding something better is a specific solution...
- Facepalm:
- Taylor has a habit of doing this, even referring to it as "palm and forehead's torrid love affair", something Dragon also calls it.
- Pace takes after his mother when Silver teleports them right to where the Dragonslayers are hiding and Thea says that there's some bad news.
- Fainting: Eidolon does this after Silver drops him into the Hebert residence and he meets his kids.
- For Want Of A Nail: It seems a major factor in the reason Taylor got a different trigger and the Endbringers becoming human is a more benevolent Entity showing up.
- It's later confirmed that the major deviation, responsible for Taylor's different trigger and a number of other differences prior to that, like Valefor's powers being different, and Cody being left behind and his vial being broken by Sam in her Simurgh days, is Abaddon having a Heel Realization prior to his encounter with Eden and Scion, and using Path to Victory to find a way to make things better.
- Forced Transformation: They seem to automatically transform into their Endbringer forms when Taylor goes into her Super Mode.
- Fountain of Youth: Scion is turned into baby when he's turned human, and is adopted by Weld, who names him Daniel/Goldburn.
- Gender Bender: Amy eventually manages to physically change Connor to the point where his body and gender identity align
- Gentle Giant: Benny is huge and buff, not even bringing his Brute powers into it, but quite nice and friendly.
- Guilt-Induced Nightmare: Sam at least has these about all the people she's killed or Zizbombed.
- Happily Adopted: Bonesaw apparently manages to get away from the Nine and gets fostered by the Dallons after the twins find her when the Heberts/Finislators and the Dallons are picnicking together, latching onto Amy as a big sister figure.
- Hearing Voices: Before they appeared to her in person, the Endbringers/Finislators communicated with Taylor mentally, with Taylor using the trope name as a result.
- Heel Realization: After completing a cycle and reintegrating an amnesiac avatar whose consciousness he had split off and had live as a member of the host species, as well as Path to Victory revealing that the Entity's goals of infinite consumption and replication are impossible given the known laws of physics, Abaddon has one.
- To a lesser degree, Madison.
- Also, Kayden, when she starts spending time with the Finislators.
Ashamed as she now felt about it, the first time Kayden had seen Benny - sweet, kind, gentle Benny who got along so well with Aster - she hadn't realized he was one of Taylor's for a moment.
Frankly, her thoughts had been - uncomplimentary enough she didn't even want to repeat them in her own thoughts now. She was trying to get away from that.
And then he'd been - just… sweet. Kind. Polite. A good kid, a nice kid - more assertive than Theo, a bit awkward, but rather clever in his own way, if not very good with understanding people. Concerned about family, good with younger kids.
A kid that would've been considered a model son in any of her old - former? - friends' households if it weren't for the colour of his skin. - Hoist by His Own Petard: Jack kidnaps Theo and Greg, and torments them for days, cutting them whenever they try to talk to each other. Then, he leaves for a while, saying that he's killed their families, and that he's going to kill them when he sees how they've tried to escape while he was gone. Theo triggers as a result, and while Jack is incapacitated due to being right next to the fresh trigger Greg manages to loosen his bonds enough to stab him with his own knife, repeatedly, before Theo wakes up and uses his powers to finish the job by crushing his head.
- Manton/The Siberian's fight with Taylor ends up with her Super Mode accidentally squishing his van with him it because he pushed her too far and in the wrong direction.
- Humanity Ensues: All three of the Endbringers are turned into teenage humans thanks to Taylor. They can shift back to their old form, but prefer their human forms despite the loss of power.
- It turns out that she can give a similar ability to Case 53's, allowing them to switch between forms as they please, with lessened power in human form the only trade-off, not that most Case-53s care.
- Taylor uses this offensively later when, after Crawler reacts violently to the idea of returning to a human form, she has the idea to turn him human and have Sundancer and Valiant/Benny hit him in his more vulnerable form before he can figure out how to transform back.
- Thea copies this to save Dragon from Saint and Ascalon.
- It turns out that Abbadon/Silver did this to himself via a Stable Time Loop before the story started.
- This later happens to Scion, who is turned into an infant to boot.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Abaddon's fascination with the cultures and philosophies of host species apparently had a degree of this, leading to him being a bit out of things when communicating when other Entities. Then he splits his consciousness and has an amnesiac avatar live among a host species psychologically similar to humanity...
- An Ice Person: Benny eventually figures out how to use his dynakinesis to freeze Levi's water.
- Identity Amnesia: Sam is able to do this to Mannequin, erasing his memories and changing his shell so that Mannequin, and even Alan Gramme, are gone and Sphere remains.
- I Hate Past Me: Danny lampshades this trope when thinking about Abaddon/Silver.
- Immune to Fate: Taylor is hard for Sam to see via her powers, at least directly, but Danny for some reason is apparently completely immune to her precog abilities, at least when she's in human form.
- Karmic Death: When Jack causes Theo to trigger, Greg manages to escape his bounds, grab Jack's own knife, and stabs him repeatedly in the throat with it before Theo wakes up and finishes the job by crushing his head. Taylor even mentally lampshades later how he was killed via his own blade.
- Kid from the Future: Taylor assumes this about the Finislators at first.
- Kids Are Cruel: Connor has some bullies because of his trans status, and its certainly not helped by his teacher dismissing his gender status, which emboldens the jerks, especially when she outright ignores the bullying.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Levi charges Lung when they meet in costume. Nothing more needs to be said.
- Funny enough, there is a PRT trooper with the same name, and he does pull the same stunt in one of his appearances.
- Limb-Sensation Fascination: Taylor notes that this happens a lot with the Case 53s she's affected when she sees Dragon doing it.
- Literal Split Personality.
- Abaddon/Silver created an amnesiac avatar of himself during his last cycle.
- He does it again with Danny.
- Logical Weakness: Taylor takes out Crawler by turning him back into his far less durable human form, rendering him vulnerable to Benny/Valiant and Sundancer.
- Mama Bear: Don't mess with Taylor's kids. Seriously, don't.
- Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: One chapter implies that "Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness" on PHO is Glaistig Uaine using her powers to access the internet in the Birdcage.
- Mirror Character: Noelle and Sam, as they've both hurt people, despite not wanting to, due to lacking a choice as the result of the choices of others, which makes Sam even guiltier about what she did to her when she realizes why Noelle understood and forgave her.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Abaddon, after reintegrating his consciousness upon the completion of his last cycle, where his amnesiac avatar had lived a a member of the host species, and realizing via Path to Victory that the Entities were chasing an impossible dream and razing the universe All for Nothing.
- Mythology Gag: While looking for Silver, Alexandria and Eidolon run into the apparent recipient of this universe's QA shard, a new African warlady/warlord (who admittedly seems to care about her people), who gives Alexandria the willies due to her insect control powers.
- A user on the PHO forums says that "What Kith and Kin did is so improbable that it's like a cape with simple insect powers taking out Lung on the first night solo and successful at that...".
- Riley wants Amy as her big sister. This time, she gets that - after becoming adopted by the Dallons.
- Necessary Drawback: The Endbringers are much weaker in their human forms than their natural forms, and what they've done keeps them from being able to use said forms openly, so they can't just Curb-Stomp Battle every villainous cape on the planet.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Valefor getting the Merchants to attack as a distraction while he goes after Panacea not only ends with the Merchants and himself captured, but after Danny takes him out while he's forcing her to tell him her thoughts and secrets results in her getting some much needed therapy after Danny rescues her. Taylor and Danny even lampshade it when they're talking later.
- Noodle Incident: One of the factors allowing the Dragonslayers to escape is an incident involving instant noodles and a screwdriver.
- Painful Transformation: They don't like doing it though, because it hurts when they do (and also leaves them potentially vulnerable to Eidolon's subconscious).
- Partial Transformation: The Endbringers can partially revert to their previous forms if they need more power, and can potentially revert all the way back if needed (they never do it willingly, though).
- Potty Emergency: Sam slips the Trio chocolates laced with laxatives.
- Power Copying: Taylor, in addition to getting weakened versions of the powers of the Endbringers, can draw on the powers of nearby capes.
- Thea also gets in on this, and her link with Taylor means that she can copy capes near her mom as well. She even copies Taylor's ability to give inhuman beings human forms to save Dragon from Ascalon.
- Prescience Is Predictable: One of the things Sam likes about being human is the ability to turn her precog powers off, and act on her own skills, as her own self.
- Promoted to Parent: Taylor finds herself in the role of a mother, despite her "kids" being close to her own age.
- In the final chapter, Weld is this to the infant Scion is turned into.
- The Quiet One: Levi is fairly quiet, which his speech before charging Lung being the longest thing Taylor's head him say until he gets really into analyzing books.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: In a conversation on PHO, it's noted that if String Theory wasn't so crazy, she could have changed the world for the better.
- Sanity Slippage: While using "sane" to refer to Jack Slash isn't something one would normally do, in Greg's interlude, where he and Theo are being held captive by him, it's plain to see that the loss of the other members of the Nine, as well as Silver possibly exploiting the Broadcast shard to help mess with him (which Greg actually picks up on), has rendered him even more unstable than usual.
- Secret-Keeper: Kayden learns the secret of the Finislators by accident after seeing Taylor transform into her Iris form to fight the Slaughterhouse Nine.
- Ship Tease: Sam seems to have a crush on Tattletale, even capturing Coil as a Valentine's Day present for her, and the latter seems to flirt back with her in the aftermath. Benny and Rachel also seem to be getting along pretty well.
- Shout-Out: Benny is a big fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and even starts incorporating bending moves into his combat style. He later spreads it to his siblings.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Thea and Bea, aka Tohu and Bohu.
- Sole Survivor: Bonesaw to the Nine. Mannequin also survived, but only through Identity Amnesia. The rest of them were either killed or arrested.
- Stable Time Loop: Danny is Silver's avatar via one of these.
- Super Mode: Taylor has one in the form of a giant rainbow colored woman that PHO nicknamed Iris, but taking it forces the Finislators to transform as well, which leaves it as a last resort in most cases.
- Super-Toughness: All the Finislators have this, especially Benny, and Taylor has this as well.
- Tears of Joy: Theo and Greg after hearing that their families are safe after they escape from Jack Slash.
- That Was Not a Dream: Eidolon, after getting dumped at the Hebert household, passes out after discovering that he's had (due to Power Incontinence) six children, who view a 16-year old girl as their mother. When he wakes up, he initially starts talking to Alexandria (who isn't there).
Eidolon: "You know, Alex, I had this peculiar dream…"
Taylor: "I think that wasn't a dream. Do you want breakfast? Coffee?"
- Too Much Information: When Eidolon starts telling Taylor about Cauldron and the like, she's a little overwhelmed, and is relieved when the session is interrupted.
- Weak, but Skilled: The Endbringers/Finislators are less powerful in their human forms, but they and the cured Case 53's have more control as a trade off, and are influenced less by Eidolon's subconscious.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: In an omake that was later declared canon-compliant, a minor character was shown as Kaiser's nephew who triggered due to the stress of living up to his uncle, gaining the stranger power to have no one be able to remember his first name. He's stuck as 'probably-Francis' after somebody decided that he looked like a Francis.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When she firsts meets Amy, and the healer starts expressing doubts about herself after hearing that the girl is a big fan of hers and wants help people someday, Riley tells her, before Amy can even finish her sentence, that just in the past month she's saved over a hundred people that would have died otherwise.
- You Do Not Want To Know: Apparently this applies to the events that resulted in the Dallons learning about Riley's "good girl" trigger.
