Line #8 Literature/ParasiteCode


1	[[quoteright:225:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paracodecover_9.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:225:[[CuteBruiser Ava]] takes a fighting pose, letting the reader know [[FightingSeries what they're in for.]]]]
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4	''Parasite Code'' is an ongoing WebSerialNovel began in 2022 by S. P. Tucker, and a {{Pastiche}} (slash {{Reconstruction}}) of shonen [[FightingSeries fighting series]].
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6	Ava Hidalgo is a [[BlatantLies perfectly normal sixteen-year-old girl]]: she's five foot four, a hundred and thirty pounds, and [[BloodKnight really, really loves]] [[CuteBruiser getting in fistfights with boys who are bigger than her.]] One day, after getting suspended from school and befriending a stray cat, she gets stung by a [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke genetically-engineered parasite]] and introduced to a [[WorldOfBadass world of danger and adventure]] unlike anything she's ever known.
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8	''Parasite Code'' (or ''[[PortmanteauSeriesNickname ParaCode]]'' as the author sometimes refers to it in shorthand) received daily updates at roughly midnight CST on Website/RoyalRoad ([[https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/57899/shonen-fighting-sci-fi-parasite-code here]]), before going on SeriesHiatus in October 2022.
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11	!! ''Parasite Code'' contains examples of:
12	* AmbiguousSituation: It's left deliberately up in the air if [[spoiler: the RelationshipUpgrade between Sam and Ava will stick past the Parasite Tournament.]]
13	* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: [[AvertedTrope Averted.]] While Ava hasn't taken any ''serious'' damage yet, she tends to come away from her fights fairly [[DentedIron dented]]; she's gotten two teeth knocked out, and in the aftermath of the Wolf Rogan fight, she's described as looking like "one giant bruise."
14	* BigBad: In the initial mini-arc, [[SerialKiller the Devourer]]; in the Parasite Tournament arc, [[spoiler: [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Johnson]]]] as of Chapter 15.
15	* BloodKnight: Practically [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggerated]] with Ava. She feels most alive when she's trading blows with somebody.
16	* BrokenBird: Ava's life is ''not easy,'' and her viewpoints and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold general attitude]] reflect that.
17	* ConversationalTroping: Ava has geek tendencies, and the similarities of her situation (and the villains she fights) to various anime, manga and video games are not at all lost on her.
18	* DeadpanSnarker: Everyone has bits of this from time to time, but Sam and Ava get the most of it.
19	* {{Determinator}}: '''Luke.''' Despite having his chest so badly melted with HollywoodAcid that his ''ribcage is exposed'' in the Dissolve fight, he tears one of his own ribs out '''with his bare hands,''' and still manages to stay conscious for long enough to use it as a conduit for the Code of Sword.
20	* DrugsAreGood: Well, more "drugs are neutral," but Ava is an extremely heavy marijuana smoker, and it isn't judged in any particular way by the narrative.
21	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The first five chapters are fairly rough compared to the material past that point, and per WordOfGod are going to be [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion rewritten]] in the future.
22	** Ava is a much more blatant {{Expy}} of [[Manga/YuYuHakusho Yusuke Urameshi]] in the early chapters.
23	** Ava's attitude towards violence and death is extremely inconsistent at first.
24	* ExpyCoexistence: During the Wolf Rogan fight, Ava and Sam both explicitly compare him to Wrestling/HulkHogan and express familiarity with the latter.
25	** Rubberman, similarly, draws direct comparison to [[Manga/OnePiece Luffy]] and [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Mr. Fantastic]] from Ava, and ''One Piece'' is explicitly mentioned as being on television in a later chapter.
26	* FightingSeries: Naturally.
27	* GoodOldFisticuffs: Ava's preferred fighting style even before she received her power; made even better by the [[MegatonPunch Code of Fist.]]
28	* {{Gorn}}: When the novel gets violent, it gets ''very, very'' violent.
29	* GroinAttack: When Luke attempts to go for payback against Ava, instead of going for a [[WrestlerInAllOfUs German suplex]] like in their first fight, Ava ducks under him and punches him square in the balls.
30	* TheHero: Ava, naturally, being the primary viewpoint character.
31	* HeroKiller: [[spoiler: Maxim Konstantinov dispatches Luke and Scott in consecutive chapters.]]
32	* HoaxHogan: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] as hard as possible, if not outright [[ParodiedTrope parodied]], with Wolf Rogan.
33	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ava puts up an abrasive, violent front, and is indisputably a massive BloodKnight, but when the chips are down, she ''almost always'' does the right thing for the people she cares about.
34	* JokeAndReceive: Ava attempts to fill time in the Parasite Tournament, when her first opponent decides to be fashionably late, by cutting a promo... that's lifted directly from Wrestling/HulkHogan, complete with copious LampshadeHanging. Cue "Real American" and [[HoaxHogan Wolf Rogan]] running in.
35	* MadeOfIron: Luke takes more punishment in the Dissolve fight than a human being should reasonably be able to without dying.
36	* MadeOfPlasticine: Ordinarily, violence is handled fairly realistically, but all the rules go out the window when a Code is involved.
37	* MegatonPunch: The Code of Fist enables Ava to hit so hard that she can shatter concrete into splinters and [[ChunkySalsaRule reduce a human to a fine red spray.]]
38	* SerialKiller: Charles Raymond Keyes, the Devourer, is a [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal]] who was empowered with the ability to [[PowerCopying steal other people's powers]] by [[BrainFood eating the brains of his victims, parasite and all.]]
39	* SmokingIsNotCool: Ava is an occasional cigarette smoker; however, it makes her get winded much more easily.
40	* SpicyLatina: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with Ava; by simple way of being a Latina and an AntiHero BloodKnight, she fits the trope somewhat, but it's explicitly at least partially a facade.
41	* TheStoner: Ava smokes ''a lot'' of marijuana, and reacts like a kid in a candy store when she finds out that the ship taking the protagonists to the Parasite Tournament has a dispensary. Sam also qualifies somewhat, but to a lesser extent.
42	* TakeThat: During the [[HoaxHogan Wolf Rogan]] fight, Sam notes that he "hope[s] he isn't as [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist]] as the genuine article."
43	* TeethFlying: If Ava gets in a fight, and takes a good hit to the jaw, it ''usually'' costs her a molar.
44	* TournamentArc: The Parasite Tournament, obviously.
45	* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] between Ava and Mr. Johnson, when parasite evolution comes up; the latter mentions a shapeshifter whose parasite evolved to only allow him to transform into a literal {{Trumplica}}. [[HeartIsAnAwesomePower Immediately subverted,]] as the character involved immediately turned it into a lucrative con scheme in the Bible Belt.
46	* WillTheyOrWontThey: Sam is established ''very'' early as having a crush on Ava, but CanNotSpitItOut. [[spoiler: As of Chapter 15, he does, and they do. [[AmbiguousSituation Sorta.]]]]
47	* WrestlerInAllOfUs: Ava's EstablishingCharacterMoment involves her pulling a German suplex, explicitly identified as such; later, in the Parasite Tournament, she's forced to improvise some wrestling spots to stall for time against [[HoaxHogan Wolf Rogan.]]

Context Literature / ParasiteCode