open/close all folders
The Pawprint Shrine
General tropes.
- Place of Protection: Anyone who enters the Shrine grounds will be granted protection for as long as they want it.
- Truce Zone: No fighting on the shrine's grounds. Oni Lee won't hesitate to enforce it quite vigorously, and if he doesn't, the Kami will.
- Heroic Neutral: It doesn't matter if you are a superhero or a villain or a normal shmuck, the Shrine is open to everyone.
- Wrong Context Magic: The Protectorate believes Brushstroke is a parahuman with Good Dog as her projection. The Asian community knows the miko serves a bonafide goddess.
Taylor Hebert a.k.a. Brushstroke a.k.a. Miko
- Achievements in Ignorance: The PRT believes she is this, since Sunny tends to act on her own.
- Badass Normal: She didn't trigger in this fic, but she didn't lose her ability to seriously fuck with villain plans.
- Color-Coded Character: Often wears red and white – traditional colors for a shrine maiden.
- Insistent Terminology: She's not a cape, she's a miko.
- Locked Out of the Loop:
- When it comes to realizing that some people around her – like her father or her dog – have superpowers, she takes surprisingly long.
- While Taylor knows Sunny is special, she has no idea she is an actual goddess.
- She took a really long time to realize everyone in Brockton Bay thinks she's a cape.
- Miko: In spite of not being of Asian descentnote .
- Morality Pet: Quickly becomes this to Oni Lee, and later to the ABB as a whole.
- Not Wearing Tights: She doesn't bother to hide her identity or have a costume, outside of her tendency to wear red and white, which is less a costume and more a uniform. Of course, there's the little matter of her not being a cape to begin with...
- She sometimes wears a painter's mask if she has to visit the PRT on official shrine business, but that is mainly to help the employees recognize her.
- Politeness Judo: Thanks to her lessons from the Baachan Collective.
- Protectorate: The ABB really doesn't like when someone tries to mess with their Miko. Nor does her father, noted (and feared) Protectorate hero Chessman.
- Silk Hiding Steel: The Baachan Commitee started to give her lessons in being a Yamato Nadeshiko, and she took them to heart.
Sunshine a.k.a. Good Dog a.k.a Amaterasu-Ōkami
- Angel Unaware: She's a goddess disguised as a wolf.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Sunny's usual disposition is laid-back and trollish. Mess with what's hers, however, and you'll find out that she's the goddess of Shinto pantheon, without any obligation to restrain herself.
- Big Friendly Dog: She likes to play fetch, peekaboo with babies, and chase flies. You bet she's this.
- The Dreaded: Lung really doesn't want to arouse her temper. He already tanked a lightning bolt once, he doesn't care for a second round. Considering how he went toe-to-toe with Leviathan in the past, that says a lot.
- The Gadfly: Just read how she took down the major players from the Empire. And it was all to force Lung on the legal path. And troll the Protectorate, of course.
- Lady Drunk: Loves her sake, so much that she makes it snow when Taylor threatens to cut her fridge's energy supply.
- Oh, Crap!: She outright panics when Taylor notes the veil between the living world and the spirits is going to get thinner on Halloween.
- Physical Goddess: The goddess of Shinto.
- The Power of the Sun: Her main domain. Due to her presence, Brockton Bay is significantly more sunny than usual for the season.
- This Is My Human: To Asian characters, it's very clear that Taylor is her servant. They mainly leave her alone because of that – wouldn't do to piss off a powerful goddess by attacking her priestess.
- Weather Manipulation: Yes. She made Brockton Bay a sunnier place by her sheer presence and is able to conjure a Bolt of Divine Retribution. After the Merchants attack Taylor's home, she cranks the sunniness up to an uncomfortable degree in their territory while hunting down Skidmark. Also buried the shrine grounds (and only the shrine grounds) in snow in revenge for Taylor threatening to unplug her sake fridge.
Asian community
Oni Lee
- Dark and Troubled Past: His sister is implied to be dead, caught in a crossfire between parahumans.
- Empty Shell: A consequence of his power, which made him forget everything he was as a person. He can't even remember his own name.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Still an enforcer for a gang without any reserves about killing. But there is one thing he refuses to compromise, and that is harming or threatening Taylor since she's a shrine maiden – you just don't waste a priestess.
- And as Character Development starts to settle in, another one appears: He has no problem hurting or be hurt by the ones who chose the superhero scene, but he will protect Dinah, who did not chose that life, from those who who wish to drag her into it.
- The sanctity and neutrality of the shrine are major deals to him, to the point that he makes sure to thouroughly clean his weapons before he visits the shrine to make sure there is no blood on them.
- The Gadfly: Lung is sure his subordinate arranges some situations to cause him discomfort. Frankly, it wouldn't be so far-fetched.
- Odd Friendship:
- He is a skilled assassin and second-in-command of the ABB. Despite this, he regularly visits and has tea with Taylor at the shrine, even when he doesn't have any gang related business with her.
- With Dinah Alcott. Saving her from being kidnapped by Coil's henchmen played a major role to make her trust him.
- Sanity Strengthening: Starts to remember bits and parts of his life after meeting Sunny – such as that his family came from Fukuoka, or that his big sister sold charms and was named Kiyoko.
- That Man Is Dead: After regaining pieces of his past, he sadly muses he can't be the boy his sister knew even if he wanted.
Lung
- Always a Bigger Fish: Realized that when Sunny didn't take kindly to him threatening Taylor.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Kind of. He said he could only afford to reform the ABB if the Empire wasn't in the business. One week later...
- Boxed Crook: Against his will. It's a work in progress for Sunny, and poor Lung is utterly horrified by the fact he can't do anything to escape.
- Evil Is Petty: Is he ever.
- Not So Above It All: Sometimes, Sunny's antics are just too much for him to deal with while perfectly sober.
- Oh, Crap!:
- His reaction when Sunny wiped the Empire capes, since he swore he would try to go legit for this.
- Followed by learning to which goddess the Shrine belongs.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Oh boy...
- Wicked Cultured: He knows proper conduct and rules about tea ceremony, he just refuses to give a shit.
Yuuta, Souta, and Haru
- Becoming the Mask: They decide to protect Taylor from her bullies in order to gain credit with Oni Lee, only to realize she's actually a nice gal to hang with and find themselves actually becoming friends with her.
- Cadre of Foreign Bodyguards: As they want to curry favor with Oni Lee, they resolve to crack the bullying against Taylor down: after verbally handing Emma her ass, they close the ranks around the miko - if you're constantly surrounded by allies, you're less appealing as a target.
- Foil: Yuuta becomes one to Shadow Stalker when he saves Emma Barnes from an ambush by a Jorougumo – he was right there to help her when she was assaulted. Except that Yuuta is not The Sociopath and is actually interested in helping Emma instead of just using her.
- Former Teen Rebel: They start as eager aspirants to the ABB, but slowly come to settle down with the community's revitalization.
- One Degree of Separation: Haru mentions a cousin of his attending Cornell, who always stresses for the exams. Now go and re-read Bakuda's backstory.
- Those Three Guys: Often hanging out together.
The Baachan Commitee
- Affectionate Nickname: Baachan is Japanese for "grandma", and using that word has to be earned.
- Apron Matron: An entire band of this!
- The Mentor: Collectively mentor Taylor in tea ceremonies and other cultural things.
- My Beloved Smother: Yes, Yuuta is totally under his Baachan's thumb. This is a very strong thumb, okay?
- Politeness Judo: One of the many things they teach to Taylor.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Many of them were this when younger, and are teaching it to Taylor.
Protectorate
Danny Hebert a.k.a. Chessman
- Adaptational Badass: He had the potential to trigger in the source material but never did. Here, the Queen Administrator shard stayed with him instead of going to his daughter.
- Can't Spit It Out: Danny has trouble having anything beyond the most basic conversation with Taylor. Does seem to be improving a little after he ends up being outed to her as Chessman.
- It Runs in the Family: Taylor's "powers" are supposed to be a case of this – which is actually canon since she inherited the potential to trigger from him. More straight is the fact that both flat-out refuse to lie down when something they care about is on the line.
- The Minion Master: Used on figurines, dolls, or miniatures, his power grows them to full size and gives him an army.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: His entry on the cape scene? He crashed one of the Empire's meetings with three Sherman tanks as retaliation for Hookwolf attacking the Dockworkers Association.
- Papa Wolf: When Merchant grunts invaded his house to abduct Taylor, he went absolutely nuclear on their sorry asses. Finding out that Lung had slapped her makes him consider murdering Lung, despite it being months after it happened and being told Sunny had punished Lung for it right after it had happened.
- Paranoia Gambit: According to a post by the author, this is one of his major impacts on Brockton Bay. It's fairly well-known that Chessman can activate his Pawns at a distance, and nobody knows exactly how many he has hidden around the city, ready to activate if needed. Particularly since it's also known that he likes to use activated-but-not-full-sized Pawns to smuggle inactive Pawns into locations that no human could get at.
- It also helps that his need to spend time working on and playing with his Pawns to strengthen them is not well-known, which means that most of the villainous gangs overestimate his ability to absorb and replace his losses.
- Parents as People: Totally unable to talk with his daughter about the things that matter. But when he has to act to protect her? He will be there.
- Secret Identity: Taylor thought he was a mere paperwork grunt for the PRT until the Merchants' assault against their house.
- Too Awesome to Use: A definite issue for his power. Because the strength of his Pawns is proportionate to how much time he spends playing with or working on them, and because his powers don't give him any special ability to repair damaged pawns, it can take him a long time to get replacements for ruined Pawns up to snuff.
Armsmaster
- Armor-Piercing Question: He asks himself if he's actually demanding papers from a dog. It kick-starts his growth.
- Character Development: Later on, he starts realizing that he's not turning out how he had hoped when he first joined the Protectorate.
- Not a Morning Person: Unfairly averted, and the whole Protectorate hates him for this.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: He never really forgave Sunny for making him stop right in his tracks while he was pursuing Taylor and giving the wolf pets. Sunny just wants to be petted again.
- Stalker without a Crush: He set cameras around the shrine and followed Taylor to take photos of her. While hiding. Chessman is not impressed.
Velocity
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He let himself be distracted by Asian grandmas both times he was sent on watch duty around the Pawprint Shrine. Admittedly the Baachan Collective are some very formidable grandmas.
- Food as Bribe: When Taylor offers him some dango in exchange of keeping Legend around long enough for her to get his autograph, he accepts immediately.
- Nice Guy: Very genial and polite, something which appeals to the Baachan Commitee.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently found himself roped into dating some nice Asian girl. Or did she outright become his fiancée?
- Not a Morning Person: As unfairly averted for him as it was for Armsmaster. His fellow heroes are quite pissed off about it.
- Super-Speed: As indicated by his name.
Others
The Henricks
Taylor and Danny's neighbors.- Character Witness: Old Man Henrick serves as this for Taylor, being the former school superintendent. When Blackwell and Mr. Barnes try to accuse her of ordering gang attacks, Mr. Henrick storms in and stands up for her.
- Cool Old Guy/Cool Old Lady: Both of them certainly count.
Dinah Alcott
- Damsel in Distress: She was about to be abducted by Coil's minions when Oni Lee rescued her.
- The Gadfly: She decided to invite Oni Lee to dinner until her mom finally bends under annoyance.
- I Owe You My Life: The reason for her Odd Friendship with the main lieutenant of the local Asian gang.
- Refuge in Audacity: Casually asking your parents if a supervillain can stay for dinner is certainly this.
- You Remind Me of X: When Oni Lee interacts with her, he draws a comparison with his sister Kiyoko, who's hinted to have become a casualty from a parahuman conflict.
