A Worm fanfic by DeviantD
on the Spacebattles forums. In canon, Taylor survived the Locker Incident without permanent physical damage. Here, she isn't so lucky, and is left permanently mute. She triggers with telekinetic abilities that take the form of interacting with invisible constructs, along with a sound-dampening field. She decides to be a mime-themed hero and takes the name Marceau, after the famous French mime Marcel Marceau.
Surprisingly enough, it gets better from there, as Taylor finds solace in her Cape life, friends in the Undersiders (who are re-branded as heroes), and her cape identity is entangled in a Love Dodecahedron of epic proportions. On hiatus since 2018, it is most likely dead.
Latest story thread here.
Also on Archive Of Our Own.
Also on FF.net.
Silencio contains examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Taylor doesn't go down the slippery slope like in canon.
- Coil retcons the Undersiders into being heroes, and they go along with it.
- Madison deeply regrets her bullying after seeing Taylor be rendered mute because of the locker. She eventually triggers from it.
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Taylor seems to be this to many people when in her Marceau costume.
- Bad Powers, Good People: Something of a strange case. Taylor's power is a result of receiving Jack Slash's shard, but the way it manifested for her gave her a much greater capacity for heroism than blade projection might.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Apparently, Lung owns a rather successful furniture store.
- Death by Adaptation: In canon Jotun, Stormtiger, Triumph, Ballistic, and Oliver lived through the battle with Leviathan, they don’t here.
- Eldritch Abomination: On a meta level, the shipping chart is considered one by the posters in the thread.
- Everyone Hates Mimes: Hilariously inverted; Marceau is a Sex God and center of a massive Love Dodecahedron of shipping.
- Evil Twin: More like morally ambiguous and uninhibited clone: Amelia, a clone of Amy created by Noelle and cured of Omnicidal Maniac status by getting shot in the head, then regenerating badly and copying Amy's non-omnicidal brain structure.
- For Want Of A Nail: The basic swap is Taylor receiving her power from Broadcast instead of Queen Administrator, but there are ripples even beyond the mime thing.
- On her first night she fought Lung as she did in canon, but her power could hit him hard enough and fast enough that he didn't even get the chance to noticeably ramp up before being knocked unconscious and brought into PRT custody. Bakuda's distraction still gave Oni Lee the window to break him out, but Lung refused to even try and break her out when she was defeated and subsequently arrested following the failed ambush of the Undersiders, largely because his wounded pride took offense to her presumption that she could implant bombs in his people without first obtaining his approval. By the time Leviathan attacks Boston, Bakuda had cut a deal with the PRT to stay out of the Birdcage in exchange for telling them how to disarm all her unexploded bombs, so she was there to personally provide ordnance for the fight. Lung, meanwhile, assembled with the responding capes for a chance to reestablish why the ABB was so feared despite having only two capes, but he explicitly only stayed upon learning the attack was in Boston because he refused to back out of a fight that Marceau was attending.
- Gender-Blender Name: Marcel Marceau was a male mime artist, and Taylor took on that name even before Tattletale convinced her to present as male in costume.
- Heroic Mime: Marceau after Coil re-brands the Undersiders as heroes is a very literal example of the trope. Taylor was mute for a while after her trigger, but Panacea fixed that. She still never speaks when in costume, to keep up the mime theme.
- Humiliation Conga: Emma goes through one; Taylor starts the rumor that she's Taylor's jealous ex, Taylor can walk like a supermodel in heels, she, along with everyone else in the bay, finds out that Taylor's a respected superhero...
- If It's You, It's Okay: Taylor never identifies as lesbian or bi, but in 7.7 she starts officially dating Panacea.
- Killed Off for Real: In the chaos following Coil leaking the identities of all of Brockton Bay's capes, Taylor kills Hookwolf with a mimed sword in self-defense.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships: The Parahumans Online Interlude shows Marceau is this In-Universe.
- Lighter and Softer: As a whole, Silencio could be seen as this when compared to canon whilst refraining from becoming parody or Crack.
- Logical Weakness: Since Taylor must interact with her constructs to make them real, she doesn't have much in the way of range. She can't project her mime walls any further than arm's reach in front of her, for exammple.
- Love Dodecahedron: Centred around Taylor/Marceau. There is a Love Chart here.
- Mistaken for Gay: It all starts when Taylor makes fun of Emma by implying that Emma's her jealous ex, and then she starts hanging out with Panacea, which everyone takes as dating. Making matters worse, her male cape identity has been shipped with multiple female capes, such as Glory Girl and Miss Militia.
- Mundane Utility: Taylor can use her TK powers to wear high-heels without any problems.
- Oblivious to Love: It takes three dates and Lisa taking pity on her for Taylor to realize that Panacea is into her.
- O.C. Stand-in: Madison who reacts to Taylor's retaliatory bullying rather more seriously than canon and triggers as a result.
- Official Couple:
- Taylor/Marceau and Amy/Panacea
- Kayden/Purity and Brian/Grue
- One-Word Title: A silence-related title, to fit mime-ish powers.
- Poor Communication Kills: Averted. People are, in general, more quick to talk things out than in canon.
- The Undersiders tell Taylor that she's been accidentally dating Panacea, and Taylor decides to clear up the situation with Amy. Upon which they start dating for real.
- Carol and Sarah discuss Carol's poor parenting of Amy when it comes to Sarah's attention.
- Refuge in Audacity: Taylor asking Miss Militia for her autograph right in the middle of a standoff between her, Armsmaster, and the Understiders.
- Running Gag: Marceau being a Sex God and everyone thinking Taylor is a lesbian.
- Shipper on Deck: Lisa seems to be this for Amy and Taylor.
- Spared By Adaptation: In canon Aegis, Fenja, Gallant, Kaiser, Manpower, Shielder, Strider, and Velocity all died during the battle with Leviathan, here they all survive.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Madison Clements is the Undersider's new surveillance Tinker in Arc 5, capable of creating surveillance drones capable of ignoring Aisha's Stranger powers and seeing her even when Madison herself can't.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Lisa convinces Taylor to present Marceau as male in order to further protect her identity.
- Regent also indulges in some crossdressing for the fun of it.
- Swiss-Army Superpower: Taylor's Your Mime Makes It Real powers count. At one point she even forms a literal swiss army knife.
- Troll: At least half the cast qualifies, but special mention goes to Lisa, Aisha, and Taylor.
- The Unmasqued World: When Coil goes down, he exposes the civilian identities of all of Brockton Bay's capes.
- Unwanted Harem: You'd be amazed how many women are interested in mimes.
- Urban Legend Love Life: Marceau has one.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 14.1. The identities of all of Brockton Bay's capes, villain and hero alike, are now public knowledge.
- Willfully Weak: Taylor, being a hero, doesn't use her power for lethal attacks. Until Hookwolf crosses the line by threatening her and her father. She mimes a sword and slices him in half.
- Your Mime Makes It Real: This is Taylor's power.
