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1''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13946744/1/The-Sea-Shadow The Sea Shadow]]'' is a ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' fanfic by [=FireFlamerx9z=]. It is complete at 9 chapters and an epilogue.
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3The night was the same as most nights at that point had been for Admiral Bobbery. Drowning his sorrows as he thought about his lost love. But on that fateful night, everything changed when he came across an abandoned merchant's wagon, carrying a badly injured and sick shadow girl. She needed someone and so did he.
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5The story is based around the idea of Vivian being adopted by Bobbery at a young age and how it changes both the characters and the story.
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7Can also be found [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/48734014/chapters/122934817 here]].
8----
9!!''The Sea Shadow'' contains examples of the following tropes:
10* ActionGirl: Vivian gets into a BladeLock with ''Cortez''. And actually manages to hold him off for a while!
11* AdaptationalBadass: Vivian, due to being motivated to actually fight, is strong right out of the gate and also wields both a sword and a blunderbuss.
12* AdaptationalHeroism: It's downplayed, since Vivian was never really a villain, but in this story she is on the heroes's side from the start.
13* AdaptationalIntelligence: Rather then everyone simply falling for Lord Crump's PaperThinDisguise, several of the heroes are openly suspicious of "Four Eyes".
14* AdaptationalKarma: Beldam is revealed to have disappeared shortly after the final battle with the Shadow Queen, with no one caring enough to look for her.
15* AdaptationalModesty: Downplayed. In canon, Vivian doesn't wear anything beyond her hat and gloves ([[BarbieDollAnatomy not that there is anything to see]]). Here, she wears an open pirate-like coat, as well as a sash across her chest.
16* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Since she wasn't around [[BigSisterBully Beldam]] for most of her life, Vivian lacks her canonical ShrinkingViolet behavior and is instead a flirty, HotBlooded DeadpanSnarker.
17* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul:
18** Vivian and Bobbery barely interact into canon. Here, they are father and adopted daughter.
19** Vivian lacks her canon crush on Mario, simply viewing him as a friend. Instead, she winds up developing feelings for Goombella.
20** Related to the above, Vivian and Goombella end up becoming a couple by the end of the story.
21* AdaptationalSexuality:
22** Vivian is confirmed to be pansexual by WordOfGod.
23** While Goombella's sexuality is never confirmed in story, canon only had her showing attraction to Mario. Here, while she does begin with a crush on him, she later returns Vivian's feelings, implying she may also be pansexual, bisexual, or [[{{UsefulNotes/Asexual}} demisexual.]]
24* AdaptationalUpbringingChange: In [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros canon]], it's implied that Vivian was raised by Beldam, who was a complete BigSisterBully to her which left her a ShrinkingViolet SociallyAwkwardHero. This fanfic, on the other hand, had her get adopted by Admiral Bobbery early in her childhood and, due to him both giving her more support growing up as well as her different environment, leads to her being a flirty, HotBlooded DeadpanSnarker as well as on the heroes' side on the get go rather than having to pull a HeelFaceTurn.
25* AdaptationalVillainy:
26** In canon, Beldam's abuse of Vivian and Marilyn was limited to insults. Here, she is physically abusive to Marilyn, even using her ice magic to make the blows hurt more [[spoiler:and was the one responsible for Vivian's brutal beating at the beginning of the story, with the heavy implication she was attempting a SiblingMurder. Needless to say, she does ''not'' make her canon HeelFaceTurn.]]
27** It's revealed that the remaining X-Nauts did not make their canonical HeelFaceTurn.
28* BattleTrophy: The sash Vivian wears is from a Gooper Blooper whose tentacle she cut off during a fight.
29* BigSisterBully: Beldam, much like in canon. She slaps Marilyn, using her ice magic to ensure that they hurt even more and [[spoiler:was the one who attacked Vivian, leaving her badly injured all because the duo had a disagreement.]]
30* CallingMeALogarithm: When Koops calls her a Shadow Siren, Vivian assumes it's an insult and snaps at him.
31* CatapultNightmare: How Vivian wakes up after her lost memories come back to her as a dream.
32* DisabledInTheAdaptation: Vivian is missing an eye [[spoiler:due to Beldam attacking her as a child]] when in canon, she could see perfectly fine.
33* DisproportionateRetribution: Why did Beldam [[spoiler:attempt to murder Vivian? Because they had a disagreement over serving the Shadow Queen.]]
34* DramaticIrony: Where to begin?
35** Vivian repeatedly saying that she's not a Shadow Siren and has no idea who they are.
36** Upon learning his identity, Vivian states that she wasn't going to just bail on Mario simply because she knew who he was.
37* DrowningMySorrows: The story begins with Bobbery drinking due to his grief from Scarlette's death.
38* EveryoneHasStandards: While Vivian certainly doesn't like Grodus, she still tries to warn him about unleashing the Shadow Queen since she's well aware that Beldam most likely hid some details from him.
39* EyepatchOfPower: Vivian wears an eyepatch to cover her missing eye and is quite the impressive fighter.
40* EyeScream: In the backstory of the story, Vivian's eye was stabbed out and the wound was so bad that it needed to be ''cauterized''.
41* FlamingSword: One of Vivian's moves in combat.
42* ForWantOfANail: Vivian's closeness with Bobbery changes quite a bit.
43** Bobbery receives Scarlette's letter years before canon due to Vivian wanting to learn to sail.
44** Vivian agrees to help Mario out without him offering to help her first and also knows who he is, although she does need to have him hint at his true identity before she realizes that's she been helping him.
45** Bobbery joins Mario due to Vivian talking about the adventure with him, rather than Mario giving him Scarlette's letter.
46** After Vivian gets her memories back, she reveals to the heroes who Beldam is truly working for before they even enter the Thousand Year Door.
47* TheGadfly: During their fight in chapter 3, Vivian begins flirting with Goombella and increases the intensity when she realizes that the goomba is getting flustered.
48* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Being a devoted older brother to Luigi, Mario struggles to understand [[spoiler:why Beldam would attack and abuse her younger siblings (and in Vivian's case, attempt to ''murder them'').]]
49* HandicappedBadass: In spite of missing an eye, Vivian is an impressive sword and blunderbuss user and lacks the confidence issues that hampered her in canon.
50* HappilyAdopted: Vivian adores Bobbery and it's implied she wanted to learn how to sail to be like him.
51* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Played with, as no one directly tells Vivian this. Rather, she gives the same sentiment after defeating [[spoiler:Beldam in their one-on-one fight, telling her former sister that she's not like her]].
52* InSpiteOfANail: Vivian and Bobbery still join Mario's team in what would have been the same chapters as canon and for the same reasons.
53* InterspeciesAdoption: Bobbery, a bob-omb, has adopted Vivian, who is a LivingShadow.
54* InterspeciesRomance: A subplot of the story is the slowly building romance between Vivian, a LivingShadow and Goombella, a goomba, with them ultimately getting together in the last chapter of the story.
55* ItWasADarkAndStormyNight: The story begins on a stormy night.
56* LoopholeAbuse: When Doopliss steals his identity, Mario is cursed to be unable to say his name. However, there is nothing preventing him from describing himself to Vivian and her realizing who he is based on the clues.
57* MythologyGag:
58** After the heroes defeat Gloomtail, Goombella notes that at least he wasn't a skeleton, alluding to Bonetail, who doesn't appear in this story.
59** After watching Beldam insult Doopliss, Vivian internally notes that had she remained with the Shadow Sirens, she likely would have the group's ButtMonkey, which is exactly the role she played in canon and the reason she would ditch them in canon.
60* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: A general rule of thumb that the team quickly picks up on is that Vivian is freaked out, something bad is either happening, or about to happen.
61** As she's getting her memories back, the partners all note how wrong it feels to see one of the stronger members of the team suddenly look so small and afraid.
62** As Grodus is releasing the Shadow Queen, as well as when she regains her true form, Vivian's voice outright goes numb, revealing that she's not actually sure if they can't beat the Shadow Queen.
63* OpenMouthInsertFoot: After Vivian (who, reminder, only has one eye) finds the note on the Excess Express, Koops asks if she wants someone else to read it for her. Luckily for him, she laughs him off.
64* PapaWolf: While Bobbery tried to reason with the mayor of Fahr Outpost, he switches to threats the moment that the mayor makes a nasty remark directed at Vivian.
65* PrecisionFStrike: Once she finishes explaining to the group [[spoiler:what exactly Beldam did to her]], Vivian finishes by saying "My own [[spoiler:sister]] tried to ''fucking'' kill me!" before breaking into sobs.
66* RelatedInTheAdaptation: Vivian was adopted by Bobbery when she was young.
67* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: [[spoiler:Both Beldam and Marilyn were under the belief that Vivian was dead and are shocked to learn that she is helping Mario from Grodus.]]
68* TheReveal: The second half of chapter 5 has Vivian get her memories back as a nightmare, causing her to reveal to the others (and the readers) who her attacker was: [[spoiler:Beldam]].
69* RuggedScar: It's noted that Vivian has a couple aside from the one near her eye.
70* ShipTease: Vivian and Goombella get several teases during the story, beginning from Vivian flirting with Goombella during the fight with Doopliss and going from there.
71* ShoutOut:
72** The Yoshi partner is named Rocky, for [[Film/{{Rocky}} Rocky Balboa]].
73** At one point, Vivian calls Lord Crump [[Franchise/Ben10 Alien X]].
74** After beating him the second time, Rocky jokes that [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Lord Crump is blasting off again]].
75** As he's looking over the picture of Vivian and Goombella on their date, Mario notes that Vivian's outfit combined with her eyepatch gives her a [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera Phantom Of The Opera]] like appearance.
76* SiblingMurder: It's all but outright said that reason Vivian was in such a sorry state at the beginning of the story was because [[spoiler:Beldam was attempting to kill her.]]
77* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Vivian is found near death with zero memory of who did it to her or anything outside of her name. Bobbery basically namedrops the trope.
78* WouldHurtAChild: Vivian was only around ''five'' when Beldam [[spoiler:attacked her and slashed out her eye]].

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