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Multiple stories

  • Bullying the Disabled: Several characters experienced abuse, including sexual abuse, specifically because of their disabilities.
  • Central Theme: The theme is disabilities, illnesses, and unusual traits. In some cases, it factors into characters' assaults, and in cases where it doesn't they experience discrimination for it.
  • Disabled in the Adaptation: Many characters who appear either are disabled or their story is connected to someone else's disability. Those who aren't had a temporary illness or condition, like the Dancing Princesses' choreomania.
  • Every Episode Ending: Somewhere at or near the end of each chapter, the speaker(s) ask the Palace audience for help with something.
    • Buttercream and Sugar Sprinkles ask what they should do about their drug-related issues and what they should tell their fiances.
    • Xiao Jiu asks for help to find her father.
    • Peekablue asks for help with making the Palace a safe space so he can get over his agoraphobia.
    • Nezha and Bing ask the group not to let their families know they're meeting each other at the Palace.
    • Geumsaegi asks what to do now he's found out his fiancee's sister is marrying a man he tortured in North Korea. This is mirrored in the chapter featuring Mulmangcho, the man in question, and Oegwipali.
    • Chance asks for help with sneaking out, and he and his friends all ask for help processing their anxiety issues.
    • Eliza asks for help with talking to people and getting over the loss of hearing animals talk.
    • Jefferson wants to help people at the Palace to make up for what Jace did to the kids at the children's ward, so he asks the audience to help him help all of them.
    • Guemsaegi’s sister, named Aeji here, asks what she should do now that she knows he’s in the city and whether or not to have a relationship.
    • Randolph asks if anyone knows what causes choreomania and what to do.
    • Mirabel practically begs for at least one person to believe in her because no one ever did before.
    • The Telerins ask the Palace to tell them where babies come from.
    • ENA asks for help to deal with her issues so they don't get in the way of Moony's problems.
    • Gordon begs for someone to tell him what he's supposed to do with his disorder, as his brothers need him to take care of them.
    • Geomeunjogjebi asks if he should side with Geumsaegi or Oegwipali or withhold judgment as he does for his mother's crimes.
    • Jin Zha asks to be saved in Mandarin.
    • Dr. Wilbur Wonka asks for help to be a better parent to his son, who's currently in psychiatric facility after all that happened to him.
    • The end of Haggard's book asks for donations to fund his psychiatric facility for "troubled youths".
    • Molly asks how she can make it up to Lisa Loud, after barely helping her when the other kids at the study bullied the latter.
    • Rodrick asks Mary Poppins (who he believes to be his mom due to his Fregoli Syndrome) why she can’t just leave him alone.
    • Alberto begs for someone to make the voice in his head stop.
    • Mariposa asks WaddleWorld for advice in regards to her DID diagnosis.
    • Angelina and Ruby ask the group to protect them from the Tatzelwurm.
    • Ace asks the audience if they might know why the Powerpuff Girls are being nice to the Gang.
    • The Dalmatian families call for someone to help Lucky when he faints and Dante when he tries to kill himself.
    • One of the Famethyst asks the others to help her persuade Lace Amethyst to stay with them.
    • The Collector asks the Palace to make sure they don't end up in the psych ward.
    • Mimikyu asks if any members of the Palace have a place she and her friends can stay.
    • Gwen asks if what she did to Will was justified due to his parents raping her mother first.
    • Satsuki asks Mei to be good and "help" the doctor make their mother get better.
    • Alexandra asks for help to get better at not retreating into a fantasy world when things go wrong.

Janghwa (Buttercream) and Hongryeon (Sugar Sprinkles)

  • Big Sister Instinct: Little sister in this case. Sugar Sprinkles is totally blase about killing their stepfather in order to save her sister.
  • Meaningful Name: They take their names from the Korean folktale Janghwa Hongryeon jeon. In the tale, the step-mother frames Janghwa as being unchaste by having her oldest son put a skinned rat in her bed to make it look like she miscarried, then she told the son to drown her in the river to make it look like she killed herself in shame. Buttercream has an actual miscarriage from her step-father abusing her and he almost drowned her, but Sugar Sprinkles saved her.
  • Never Suicide: Their step-father tried to drown Buttercream to make it look like she killed herself so people wouldn't find out that he abused her.
  • No Medication for Me: Buttercream twitches more when she's off her meds, but is afraid to take them because her stepfather sedated her before molesting her. Inverted with Sugar Sprinkles, who takes Buttercream's medication which she doesn't need in order to get high.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Buttercream named her and her partner's pet rabbit Goseumdochi, which means "hedgehog".
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: They both have partners who love them deeply and are concerned for their health. Of course, this ends up being semi-subverted with the reveal that Buttercream's boyfriend is a former Torture Technician.
  • The Stoner: Sugar Sprinkles smokes pot, and was able to find their stepfather drowning Buttercream because she'd sneaked out of school to do so in the woods.
  • Teen Pregnancy: The girls' step-father impregnated Buttercream when she was fourteen, but she ended up miscarrying. Possibly because of the drugs in her system.
  • Tempting Fate: Buttercream is sure their boyfriends will like each other. The reader might recognise that they have reason not to...
  • Womanchild: Buttercream talks in a very cutesy, kid-like way that a few other characters (namely Jasper) take notice of. This is pretty heavily implied to have something to do with the brain damage she sustained as a teenager.

Wú Wěi Hú (Xiao Jiu) and Shushu (Jiang)

  • Abusive Parents: Even before her father married her off and damaged her hearing for escaping, he would beat her for disobeying him.
  • Arranged Marriage: Was forced to be married at a young age at her father's behest.
  • Bystander Effect: A couple passing by Jiu's house heard her father abusing her, but decided it was none of their business and walked away.
  • Dramatic Irony: Jiu believes that her father couldn't have made her get married and she wants help finding him to get permission for an abortion, but due to her amnesia, she doesn't know that her father did make her get married, beat her for trying to run away, and is dead due to her pushing him backwards reflexively.
  • Ear Ache: Her father boxed her ears until they bled, leaving her deaf on one side.
  • Family of Choice: Though Jiu doesn't realize her father was an abusive monster, she and Jiang Ziya do have a close relationship and she calls him "Shushu" which means "uncle."
  • Hard Head: Averted. Her father boxing her ears leaves her partly deaf and suffering from amnesia, and he himself dies when she pushes him over and he cracks his skull.
  • Honor-Related Abuse: Her father beat her for running away from her forced marriage.
  • Leit Motif: Vocaloid's "Hold, Release, Rakshasa and Carcasses".
  • Meaningful Name: "Wú Wěi Hú" means "no-tailed fox".
  • Old Man Marrying a Child: Seems to be what happened to her. Her hallucinatory Mind Screw memories of the incident depict the husband as a three-legged fox with human teeth, so it's hard to tell who he actually was.
  • Teen Pregnancy: Not even teenage. California law states that abortion can only be performed without parental permission if the seeker is thirteen or older, and she's looking for her parents to get permission because she's younger than that.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness: Her memories of the incident are shaky and she only remembers her "husband" as a monster.
  • Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Head injury and emotional trauma left her with almost no memory of her life before she woke up in the desert in a wedding dress.

The Misfortune Teller (Peekablue)

  • Big Damn Heroes: He's able to remember the exact route to the hunting lodge GWF had been hiding out in and help the police pull off a second bust.
  • Breast Attack: GWF cut his breasts off with a hunting knife.
  • Camp Straight: He prefers to dress in women's clothing and speaks in a distinctly camp way, but describes himself as "straighter than a pastor's coke-line".
  • Hikkikomori: Became agoraphobic after getting attacked by the cult.
  • Leit Motif: Vocaloid's "Barisol's Child is an Only Child".
  • Photographic Memory: Not quite the trope as he only remembers things he noticed at the time, but he has hyperthymesia, which is the ability to spontaneously remember prior events in great detail. Not a pleasant condition to have for a torture survivor.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: He still dresses how he did before he transitioned, but is very much a boy.

Heaven's Fire and Hellish Ice (Nezha and Ao Bing)

  • Crime of Self-Defense: Nezha was forbidden from fighting back if the other kids attacked him first because he's a lot stronger than them. This ends up backfiring when older boys assault him and he thinks he'll get in trouble if he defends himself. Bing, on the other hand, did defend himself and killed his abuser, and evidently faced legal consequences since he now wears a tracking anklet.
  • Double Standard: The boys listen to local gossip, in which some assault victims are blamed for not fighting back and others are called "bad influences" or blamed for getting hurt worse when they did.
  • Exact Words: Bing's father said to do whatever he had to do to get away from someone trying to molest him, so he killed his aide for trying to molest him again. Nezha was held down for misbehaving and was punished for fighting back, so he froze during his assault because he assumed the same thing would happen.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Nezha has a lot of anger issues.
  • Helicopter Parents: Ao Guang won't let Bing use the internet or watch TV, and doesn't tell him anything about sex until he's already a teenager.
  • Literal-Minded: Guang telling Bing that "whatever you have to" was on the table to escape from his molester didn't turn out well.
  • Meaningful Name: Fire and Ice represent anger and calmness, respectively. Nezha is angry all the time and gets into fights, while Bing rarely shows emotion and refused to fight back. The "Heaven" and "Hellish" part of their names comes in when Nezha, for once, doesn't fight back during his assault and Bing kills his aide in self-defense once he finds out what he was doing to him was wrong.
  • Sympathetic Murderer: Bing committed a premeditated and violent murder, but he's an autistic thirteen-year-old having undergone months or years of sexual abuse and genuinely thought he was doing the right thing, which is partly why he's not serving a custodial sentence.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Nezha was held down whenever he acted out and was told by his teachers and parents that even if the other person started it he couldn't hurt anyone, and Bing's father did not discuss sex with him until he was a teen, then told him he could do "whatever you have to" to escape if someone tried to touch him. This results in Nezha holding still during his assault out of fear of being punished and Bing not realizing that his aide molesting him was wrong, then, when he found out, murdering him.

Chollima on the Wing (Geumsaegi)

  • Adaptational Name Change: His name is changed to Hwang Gi-sae.
  • Armor-Piercing Response: In "From the Mouths of Babes", when Doug is explaining to Angelica that the Palace is ostracizing Mirabel because her NPD makes her a bad person and how they're usually the ones who hurt people, Geumsaegi says that he wants to see proof Mirabel is a bad person aside from just that she has NPD. Going off of Doug only responding by chewing on his lip, it's clear that Geumsaegi made him think.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: What ultimately caused him to change his mind about South Korea.
  • Deprogram: Hanawon, a real facility in South Korea, does this for him.
  • Destructive Romance: Fell for Oegwipali while living with his family after defecting. Their feelings were mutual, but due to Geumsaegi's past actions catching up to him, Gang's infatuation turns to something much darker. In the end Geumsaegi is left permanently disabled.
  • Heel Realization: He had one in Hanawon.
  • I Hate Past Me: He’s disgusted by his past actions and actively tries to distance himself from his home country.
  • I Have No Son!: Sister, technically. He turned his back on her after she went deaf and allowed his parents to send her away. Now on the receiving end of this trope as he's changed and wants to make amends, but she doesn't want him to be her brother anymore.
  • Karmic Rape: This is how he views what Oegwipali did to him, even having specifically asked him to do it. Buttercream tells him he didn't deserve it, but he doesn't believe her.
  • Love Martyr: Weirdest, most confusing way possible. He confessed his love to Oegwipali and gets down on his knees and tells him to do whatever he likes and that he won't fight back. However it's up for debate whether he's doing this because of his love for Oegwipali or because he feels guilty for lying to him for so long or because he feels guilty for the Cold-Blooded Torture he put Mulmangcho through. Either way, there seem to be some lingering feelings.
  • Meaningful Name: "Chollima on the Wing" is a patriotic song from North Korea; Geumsaegi served in the North Korean military as a Torture Technician.
  • Meaningful Rename: He's taking Buttercream's surname, to make a clear separation between his old life and his new one.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: He defected from North Korea after having served in the army there and tortured prisoners.
  • Only Sane Man: He's one of the few people in the Palace who knows that Jasper is the real abuser and that Mirabel isn't dangerous just because she has NPD.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Referenced. He's ashamed that that wasn't why he didn't directly rape any prisoners; he was paranoid about his coworkers realising he was bi and considered it to be cheating on Goseumdochi.
  • Reformed, but Rejected: He understands he has no hope of the mouse brothers ever forgiving him, but Buttercream assures him they don't need to for him to be a better person going forward anyway.
  • Swirlie: When Oegwipali found out Geumsaegi was the one who killed Mulsajo, he nearly drowned him in a toilet.
  • That Man Is Dead: Referenced in Difficult Conversations. Aeji asks him to promise her that the soldier he used to be is dead and never coming back; he gives his word this is the case.
  • Took the Wife's Name: He takes Buttercream's last name, "Jeon", when they get married to distance himself from his past.
  • Torture Technician: His prior career, which he's horrified by now.
  • Understanding Boyfriend: He and Buttercream have both filled the understanding partner role with each other after revealing their backstories.
  • Unexpected Kindness: He thinks of Buttercream not dumping him as unwarranted kindness, and in turn offers help to get Jasper back on her feet even after she treats him poorly.
  • We Used to Be Friends: With Oegwipali, of all people. Somewhat unusual case in that it was after he'd imprisoned and beaten Oegwipali, who was fairly forgiving. However, it was before he discovered what Geumsaegi did to his older brothers… Geumsaegi also seems to hold this attitude towards his fellow North Korean soldiers.
  • Yes-Man: Part of his status as The Atoner. While his interactions with Mulmangcho are limited, the few times we see them together, Geumsaegi is extremely polite (calling him "mister" and "sir," terms he's never used with anyone else) and will pretty much do whatever he asks. This includes beating up Jasper for making a scene.

The Paranoid Pup, the Oldtimer, and the Hairball (Chance, Shadow, and Sassy)

  • Abusive Parents: Sassy's parents physically abused her and denied her food as a form of punishment.
  • Age Lift: Instead of adult animals, they're human teenagers. Chance nicknames Shadow "Oldtimer" because he acts very adult, but he's only sixteen.
  • Denied Food as Punishment: Sassy's parents took meals away for breaking rules, and in general they wouldn't let her eat much because they thought she was getting fat. This resulted in her developing an eating disorder.
  • Dr. Jerk: At the hospital, the doctor, who was the same one at Chance's juvie and is implied to have abused the other kids there, assaults Chance.
  • Had to Be Sharp: Chance grew up homeless, so he had to steal food to survive. This ended up getting him arrested when he tried to shoplift at a convenience store.
  • Improperly Paranoid: Due to going cold turkey from their anti-anxiety meds, they all begin to believe Laura abandoned them with Kate and run away to get back home.
  • It's All My Fault: Shadow blames himself for his birth father's death because Shadow stopped taking his anti-arthritis medication to save money and tried to help out at his father's handyman job. His hands shook while holding a ladder, causing his father to fall and die.
  • Junkie Parent: Chance's biological parents did drugs.
  • Juvenile Hell: In the juvenile hall Chance went to, inmates were abused by correctional officers and one of the doctors. He was lucky enough to avoid trouble while he was there, but at the hospital, the same doctor ends up raping him.
  • Neat Freak: Sassy's parents punished her for the slightest bit of untidiness, leaving her terrified of dirt and disorder.
  • Never Learned to Read: Fourteen-year-old Chance, having spent his early years homeless, can't read.
  • No Medication for Me: Shadow stopped taking his juvenile arthritis medication as a child because he was worried it cost too much for his father to manage. Later, Shadow forgets the group's anti-anxiety meds when they go to stay with Kate and they begin suffering from withdrawal symptoms, including paranoia, which makes them think that Laura isn't coming back for them.
  • Parental Neglect: Chance's parents never really took care of him and he was left to fend for himself at a young age.
  • Promotion to Parent: There wasn't a younger child involved, but Shadow's birth father had no idea how to raise a child and treated him more like a roommate.
  • Shout-Out: To Search and Rescue Woods - when they're hiking through the forest they see multiple disconnected staircases and hear children crying.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness: It's not clear if the creepy things they see and hear in the woods are real or the result of hallucination from being off their meds.

Daughter Nature (Eliza Thornberry)

  • Bestiality Is Depraved: Inverted. A male sea turtle tried to mate with her, and it's portrayed as completely horrifying because she's a young girl and the turtle was large enough that he could have killed her had he managed to actually do the deed. Doesn't stop people from making memes and crude art about it, sadly.
  • Black Comedy Rape: In-universe. The incident with the sea turtle was caught on camera and live-streamed, resulting in people making rape and pedophilia jokes about it online.
  • Dramatically Missing the Point: Everyone who thought the turtle incident was funny is missing the fact that Eliza nearly drowned.
  • Hearing Voices: Her schizophrenia made her hear animals talk.
  • Honor Thy Abuser: Downplayed. She's not mad at the turtle, because it was just an animal and couldn't possibly have known it was hurting her.
  • Inherently Funny Words: Eliza cites "turtle" being a funny word as part of why everyone interpreted what happened as funny instead of awful.
  • Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Played for Drama. Eliza becomes a laughingstock and a meme because a sea turtle was caught on camera trying to mate with her. This becomes a subject of many Black Comedy Rape jokes online, despite Eliza being a child who could have been seriously injured in the process.
  • Meaningful Name: Her name is a play on "Mother Nature" and she can hear animals talk due to her childhood schizophrenia.
  • Memetic Mutation: In-universe, the internet has a lot of fun with the idea of a human being humped by a turtle, not realising it was traumatising and nearly lethal. "Thornberried" becomes a slang term and numerous pieces of obscene fanart are posted.
  • Person as Verb: The slang term "Thornberried" develops from the sea turtle trying to mate with her.
  • No Medication for Me: Eliza used to avoid taking her antipsychotics because she liked hearing the animals talking to her.
  • "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Sea turtles really have sometimes attempted to mate with divers.
  • Word-Salad Horror: What Eliza hears the animals "saying" in her hallucinations tends to come out as nonsensical and sometimes unnerving.

The Faraday Cage (Jefferson Pierce)

  • Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: Jace altered Ana's records so Pierce didn't know about her heart condition, resulting in her death when he gave her electroshock therapy, and he's felt guilty about it ever since.
  • Electroconvulsive Therapy Is Torture: Averted hard. Pierce is an electrotherapy technician and it's portrayed as safe and very helpful, and is done under sedation. One instance kills a patient, but she had a heart condition Pierce didn't know about at the time.
  • Meaningful Name: Michael Faraday was a scientist that studied electromagnetism. Jefferson is an e-stim technician and was blackmailed by a doctor who was sexually abusive to the child and teen patients.
  • Medication Tampering: Jace gave Anissa and Jennifer the wrong meds to make their symptoms worse, so they'd need more electric treatment and Pierce needed her around.
  • My Greatest Failure: Although it wasn't his fault, he regrets not knowing that Ana had a heart condition before giving her electroshock after her surgery.
  • Taking You with Me: Jace threatens him into confessing to Ana's death and sexual abuse, so he calls the police to tell them what happened. However, at the last second, he adds that Jace was responsible and he was just covering it up.
  • Shout-Out: The story is loosely based on the "Suffer" arc from Jack (David Hopkins).

The Tiger's Mouth - Tiger's Tongue (Oegwipali) and Tiger's Teeth (Mulmangcho)

  • Adaptational Heroism: Unlike in the original show, the brothers aren’t vicious enemy soldiers, simply South Korean soldiers who escaped North Korean captivity.
  • Adaptational Name Change: To "Ji Ma-gang" and "Ji Ma-choe", respectively.
  • Agony of the Feet: Mulmangcho mentions that his foot was cut up before being cut off. He later also manages to stand on a pile of thumbtacks from his murder investigation board with his only remaining foot.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Mulmangcho got his foot cut off in North Korean captivity and later had to have the whole leg removed due to wet gangrene.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Oegwipali seems to have this towards Aeji. He'll also defend his older brother against perceived threats.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Geumsaegi and his one-time coworkers put Mulmangcho through a lot.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Mulmangcho falls in love with Sugar Sprinkles and befriends Gloria and Leona because they beat him at chess.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance: Mulmangcho calls Gloria a slur because she's Japanese even though he likes her; there's still a lot of anti-Japan sentiment in South Korea.
  • Does Not Like Men: Downplayed. Mulmangcho was tortured and raped by men in North Korea, being Blind Without 'Em he has no idea what they actually looked like and has become somewhat suspicious of all strange Korean men. That said, he's fine with his brother and with men of other ethnicities.
  • Enemy Mine: While he usually doesn't want to be in Gi's presence at all, Mulmangcho is willing to get Gi to help him kick Jasper out of the bakery when she refuses to leave.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Although Geumsaegi tortured the brothers, killed Mulsajo, and made Mulmangcho have sex with his brother's dead body, Mulmangcho doesn't think Geumsaegi deserved to get beaten and raped by Oegwipali in turn.
  • For Want Of A Nail: Mulmangcho has Intermittent Explosive Disorder, which went undiagnosed until after he escaped North Korean captivity. This would have prevented him from being able to enlist in the military if it had been caught sooner, which would have prevented his captivity to begin with.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Mulmangcho has Intermittent Explosive Disorder, which causes uncontrolled angry outbursts, and is irritable even after it's treated, though with good reason.
  • Honor Thy Abuser: Downplayed. The brothers despise Geumsaegi and will never forgive him, but recognise that Mulmangcho's sister-in-law loves him and he isn't hurting her, so they're willing to work with him to make sure they never run into each other or risk causing a rift between the sisters.
  • I Love the Dead: Mulmangcho very much doesn't, but was forced at gunpoint to commit incestuous necrophilia.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Mulmangcho mentions being forced to eat Mulsajo's flesh, but considers that a minor issue next to the forced necrophilia.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While his Intermittent Explosive Disorder makes him lash out rather violently, Mulmangcho does have a right to be upset it wasn’t caught earlier, which would have prevented his captivity in North Korea and subsequent torture and rape at their hands.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother: Little brother, but the point stands. Oegwipali goes nuclear on Geumsaegi over what happened to Mulmangcho and Mulsajo.
  • Malicious Misnaming: The brothers' canon names, here, are cruel nicknames their torturers applied to them. Oegwipali just means "one ear", which Gang already had due to a birth defect. Mulsajo means "water wave", and Jo wet himself while being tortured by drowning. Mulmangcho means "forget-me-not", as in the flower, and was applied to Choe in the literal sense when his brothers left him behind during their escape attempt.
  • Meaningful Name: The "Tiger's Mouth" is a Go maneuver where three pieces are placed on the board, two symmetrical and one in the lower middle. Tiger's Teeth and Tiger's Tongue are the eldest and youngest from a set of three siblings. Mulsajo is the dead middle child.
    • Worth noting that the move is used to make what's called a "hanging connection," it's revealed in "Difficult Conversations" that Mulmangcho tried to hang himself.
  • Please, Don't Leave Me: Mulmangcho won't let Oegwipali leave his sight once he arrives back home, despite still being extremely angry at him.
  • Politically Incorrect Hero: Mulmangcho adores Gloria but still uses a racial slur when referring to her.
  • Rape by Proxy: Geumsaegi aimed a gun at Mulmangcho and forced him to have sex with his brother's corpse. Oegwipali tells Geumsaegi this still counts as rape.
  • The Reveal: Geumsaegi's chapter set up that he'd tortured the brothers, but not exactly how. Here, Mulmangcho gives all the gory details.
  • Revenge Is Not Justice: Oegwipali beating and raping Geumsaegi doesn't make anything better, and just makes Mulmangcho afraid of and angry at Oegwipali too.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Oegwipali is ordinary, mild-mannered, disabled from birth, and much more socially aware than his brother. That said he's willing to resort to rape and torture to get even with Geumsaegi. Mulmangcho is a genius with a Hair-Trigger Temper and very little patience; that said, he's the one with the most scruples and the one who belives Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil.
  • Sir Swears-a-Lot: During his medical exam Mulmangcho drops the f-bomb roughly every sentence. He does have reason to be extremely pissed off, though.
  • String Theory: Mulmangcho sets up a corkboard display with photos and red string to theorise about Gloria's murder.
  • Transparent Closet: It was abundantly obvious to Mulmangcho that Oegwipali was gay for years before he actually came out.
  • Tsundere: Mulmangcho appears to be a familial variation, yelling at his brother a lot but obviously caring for him deeply. During his medical examination after he gets out of North Korea, he alternates between screaming at Oegwipali for being a traitor and begging him to stay.
  • We Used to Be Friends: Oegwipali wasn't hurt too badly in captivity and had forgiven Geumsaegi, and indeed they were falling in love. Then Mulmangcho got home...
  • What the Hell, Hero?: This seems to be Mulmangcho’s reaction to finding out exactly what Oegwipali did to Guemsaegi.
  • You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Oegwipali is the more mild-mannered of the brothers. He's even willing to forgive Geumsaegi for torturing him. When he hears that his new friend not only killed one of his brothers, but mutilated and raped the other he's even willing to let Geumsaegi explain himself. Then he forces him to tell him every excruciating detail of what Mulmangcho went through and proceeds to enact it all on him. Geumsaegi is left permanently disabled.

Eun-sae (Geumsaegi's sister)

  • Abandon the Disabled: Her parents left her at a facility for deaf kids after she became deaf due to North Korea's views on disabled people.
  • Color-Coded Speech: What she's signing, which is translated by Oegwipali, is in dark red.
  • Happily Adopted: More than happily, she considers them to be her real family.
  • I Have No Son!: Her family washed their hands of her when she went deaf during chemo. In the present, she's disowned them and has no interest in considering Geumsaegi her brother again after what he did to her.
  • Little Miss Badass: She shot and killed Manny's rapist.
  • Named by the Adaptation: She was unnamed in the original source material; here, her birth name was Eun-Sae and she changed it to Aeji after being adopted.
  • Meaningful Name: "Eun-sae" is her birth name from when she was living in North Korea, and now wants to leave that past behind her as her parents abandoned her.
  • Meaningful Rename: Her original name was Hwang Eun-sae; after being adopted she took a new first name as well as a new last name, and is now Aeji Mouser.
  • Parental Abandonment: Her parents dropped her off at the facility for deaf kids because of North Korea's view on disabled people.
  • Shooting Lessons From Your Parents: When she was younger, her ex-parents taught her how to aim and shoot a gun, which allowed her to grab a weapon and kill the guard that assaulted Manny Mouser.
  • That Man Is Dead: She considers her connection to her old life to be dead, symbolised by writing her old name in red, which in Korea is a traditional sign that either the name's owner is dead or the writer wishes they were.

Die Mondblumen - the Blue Moon (Randolph), Alte Mond (Ashlyn), Hungermond (Blair), Fastenmond (Courtney), Sprießende Grasmond (Delia), Mutters Mond (Edeline), Met Mond (Fallon), Heumond (Genevieve), Kräutermond (Hadley), Gerstenmond (Isla), Jägermond (Janessa), Dunkle Mond (Kathleen), Lange Nachtmond (Lacey)

Los Hacedores de Milagros - Andres (Abuela Alma), Simón Pedro (Pedro, posthumous), Santiago el Mayor (Julieta), Simón el Zelote (Luisa), Juan el Amado (Pepa), Felipe (Félix), Bartolomé (Agustín), Tomás (Dolores), Mateo el Publicano (Camilio), Judas Tadeo (Isabela), Santiago el Menor (Antonio), María Magdalena (Mirabel), Judas Iscariote (Bruno)

  • Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In canon, Bruno and Isabela barely interact. Here, it's revealed they've been working together for a decent amount of time to help rescue Ark victims.
  • Adaptational Sexuality: Isabela is aromantic.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Mirabel became an outcast in the Palace when they found out about her NPD, except for Basil (before he disappeared) and Sherlock Holmes.
  • An Aesop: The whole family serves as a demonstration against empathy based morality. Mirabel is the most obvious example with her story focusing on the plight of people with a Lack of Empathy, but Bruno shows the flipside - how being too empathetic is actually harmful to a person. Alma shows that having empathy doesn't actually stop a person from doing bad things. The rest of the family's empathy causes them to overwork and destroy themselves.
  • Blessed with Suck: Bruno's hyperempathy makes him seem like a very loving and kind person, but there's a selfish aspect to it (which he's not proud of, going by what he says to Mirabel), because he feels everyone else's fear and pain and sadness all the time and can't shut it off.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Mirabel's section is this, coupled with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. She goes off at Alma after months of mistreatment by her grandmother and other Palace members.
  • Cassandra Truth: Mirabel learns about the group traitors and tries to expose them, but due to her NPD, no one believes her.
  • Chummy Commies: They're not perfect, but are certainly very nice, giving people. They're also very explicit members of the Colombian Communist Party.
  • Closet Gay: Isabela is secretly aromantic and in a QPR with Bubo.
  • Commonality Connection: During their chapter in "I Love You", Isabela admits that she should have been way more helpful to Mirabel, as both are in groups that commonly are accused of being incapable of love (being aro and having NPD respectively).
  • Control Freak: Isabela admits that, while Alma does love them, her controlling nature leads her to act harmful if her family doesn't act how she wants them too, which is why she does things like mistreat Mirabel over her NPD or try to push Mariano onto Isabela even though she literally can't fall in love with him.
  • Cursed with Awesome: Bruno tells Mirabel her lack of empathy is a blessing because she can help her loved ones without burning out and suffering like he does.
  • Dehumanization: Mirabel is on the receiving end. Almost everyone around her thinks of her as less than human due to her disability.
  • Dirty Communists: The Madrigals aren't but the trope is discussed. Alma has a lot of trauma stemming from the Colombian civil war in which she and her family were targeted due to being members of the communist party.
  • The Empath: Bruno suffers from hyper-empathy. Instead of Mirabel's inability to feel what other people feel, he feels everything they feel, which is particularly harsh when he spent years in a place as horrible as the Ark.
  • Harmful to Minors: Antonio wasn't abused, but suffers nightmares from hearing other people's stories when the family bring him along.
  • Heroic BSoD: After weeks or months of being treated like a monster by her grandmother and other Palace members, being raped multiple times, and kidnapped by Amelia, Mirabel has a full on breakdown.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Mirabel only wants to help, but the stigma surrounding her diagnosis as a narcissist is such that everyone, including her family and other palace members, view her as a potential abuser and treat her as such.
  • Insane Troll Logic: Nearly everyone mistreats Mirabel under the belief that since she has NPD, she must be a dangerous person who only wants to hurt others, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.
  • Kissing Cousins: Averted; people think Mirabel is a little too close to Antonio, but in reality, Mirabel just cares a lot for him because he's her "Favorite Person" and she's angry that people would think she'd hurt him like that.
  • Lack of Empathy: Mirabel has this in the sense that she doesn't feel what other people are feeling, but that doesn't mean she doesn't care how they feel.
  • Moral Sociopathy: A variant; Mirabel's diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which is also a Cluster B disorder, with the lack of empathy as an analogue to lacking magic. She has no desire to hurt anyone and hasn't done so. Instead, she craves positive attention and becomes depressed when she doesn't get it, fantasises, and struggles to understand people's feelings, though she still cares about them.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: By Shard Times, Alma appears to regret how she treated Mirabel.
  • Narcissist: Played with; Mirabel has NPD, but is not selfish, cares a lot about people despite not understanding other people's feelings, and doesn't want to hurt anybody. However, people think she's dangerous due to the stereotype that people with NPD are abusive and think she's an attention-seeker.
  • Never Mess with Granny: When Jasper tries to get a job at Encanto, here a candle shop, Alma cocks a pistol to get her to leave.
  • No Sympathy: Mirabel is ostracized by her family and Palace members due to her NPD diagnosis outside of Basil (when he was around) and Sherlock Holmes. It's to the point that she tells nobody about being consistently raped by Palace traitors when she comes to work there because she thinks everyone will just see it as her seeking attention.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: Bubo Marquez and Isabela are in a queerplatonic relationship.
  • Rage Breaking Point: After escaping the Ark with Bruno, Mirabel violently unloads on her family for completely ignoring the fact she went missing, that she was raped six times and only focusing on the fact she has NPD and not the fact she isn't actually dangerous.
  • Red Baron: Due to his hiding in the walls and sneaking things to people trapped in the Warehouse he was in, Bruno is dubbed the Ghost by both the guards and the prisoners.
  • Rightly Self-Righteous: Mirabel is clinically predispositioned to view herself as superior. She's also absolutely correct that the other people in the palace are small minded and judgmental.
  • Secret-Keeper: "I Love You" reveals that Mirabel told Isabela about what the Palace Traitors did to her.
  • Sensory Abuse: Dolores is autistic and covers her ears when things get too loud for her.
  • The Unfavorite: Mirabel feels like the unfavourite of the family because her NPD makes her crave praise and envy other people who get it, but she actually seems to become the unfavourite when she's officially diagnosed and her family thinks it makes her dangerous.
  • Workaholic: The entire Madrigal family are the volunteer-work version of this, running themselves to exhaustion and suffering from over-empathy with everyone they help.

La Familia Featherbed - Plumón (Cleo), Pluma Penácea (Teté), Pluma de Vuelo (Maripí), Semipluma (Pelusin), Filopluma (Colitas) and Cedra (Cuquin)

  • Abortion Fallout Drama: After their babysitter tried to abort Cleo's pregnancy with a chicken feather and was caught, the kids' parents refuse to let him interact with them, and they're all distressed and confused about it.
  • Absurdly Youthful Mother: Cleo is eight and is being forced by her parents to carry the birth to term.
  • Babysitter from Hell: Referenced. At first the reader is led to believe their babysitter molested Cleo, got her pregnant, and tried to use a chicken feather to abort the baby. He did try to perform the abortion, but the actual impregnator was a home invader.
  • Children Are Innocent: They really, really don't understand what's going on and the adults in their lives aren't exactly forthcoming. Cleo seems blissfully unaware of the danger she's in.
  • Dude, She's Like in a Coma: Cleo was molested while sleeping deeply enough that she doesn't remember what happened. The same home invader that got her pregnant also molests Maripí while she's asleep.
  • First Period Panic: Cleo got her period at eight and thought she was dying until it was explained to her.
  • Good Girls Avoid Abortion: The childrens' parents believe this, so they won't let Cleo get an abortion, even though she's eight and likely to die if they don't.
  • Maternity Crisis: Cleo gave birth two months early during a Palace meeting, made worse by her being too small and losing a lot of blood. Thankfully, she and the baby survived.
  • Teen Pregnancy: Not even teenaged. Cleo's eight and was impregnated by a home invader, and because of her parents' anti-choice views they're forcing her to keep the baby.
  • Unreliable Narrator: None of the kids really understand what's going on because they're too young, Cleo was sleeping when the molestation happened, and their parents didn't explain anything properly.

The Double Edged Sword (ENA) and her Greatest Gift (Moony)

  • Ambiguous Situation: What exactly happened to Moony isn't clear, although it's heavily implied she was trafficked by the Ark.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Cousin in this case, but Moony is shown to be protective of the Collector, as shown with her ready to confront the crooked cops when she thought they hurt them.
  • Language Barrier: The relatives that Moony is living it with only speak Korean.
  • Meaningful Name: Ena calls herself "Double Edged Sword" because her bipolar disorder and autism make her have mood swings, and she calls Moony her "Greatest Gift" because she helped her with her issues.
  • Mood-Swinger: Ena has sudden changes in mood much like in canon, with her noting that bipolar disorder alone doesn't cause this, but for her, it's caused by her also being autistic.
  • Only Friend: Ena has trouble making friends due to her mood swings and cherishes Moony for being one of her few friends.

An Cunnartach (Gordon)

  • Driven to Suicide: He says he'd rather die than let his disorder cause him to hurt Kimberly. At one point he stands in the bathroom and stares at a razor blade for awhile, but does nothing as Waffle tells him he needs to brush his teeth and he doesn't want to leave his brothers all alone.
  • Love Hurts: He truly does care about Kimberly, but doesn't dare be near her for fear of failing to control himself.
  • Meaningful Name: "An Cunnartach" is Scots-Gaelic for "The Dangerous". Gordon struggles with a pedophiliac disorder and is scared of hurting children.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Mr. Blik and Waffle assume that the reason he hasn't gotten a date yet is that he's gay and closeted. Gordon's okay with them thinking this since he believes they would kick him out if they found out about his disorder.
  • Pedo Hunt: His disorder makes him feel sexual attraction towards children, which he hates himself for, and believes that his brothers would hate him too if they found out.
  • Promoted to Parent: At sixteen, he took charge of the house and finances after Ms. Cramdilly's passing.

Two Women (One-Eye and Leafie), as told by the Halfling Kit (Geomeunjogjebi)

  • Child by Rape: Geomeunjogjebi and Aekku were conceived and born during One-Eye's time in a Korean prison camp.
  • Eye Scream: One-Eye got her eye taken out while being kidnapped.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Leafie offered herself up to One-Eye, Geomeunjogjebi, and Aekku to be eaten, allowing them to survive long enough to escape.
  • Meaningful Name: "Halfling Kit" is Japanese-Korean; he was conceived while his Japanese mother was in a North Korean prison camp. The "Two Women" are his mother One-Eye and Leafie, who gave herself up to keep him, One-Eye and Aekku alive.
  • Posthumous Character: Leafie died after giving herself up as food so One-Eye and her sons wouldn't starve.

The Lotus Eater (Jin Zha), Lian'Ou (Ne Zha), He-Ye (Mu Zha), Lianhua Ban

  • Angst Coma: Jin Zha spends the chapter in a coma and hallucinating after being raped, drugged, and beaten senseless; it's implied he's not as physically injured as he is emotionally, as most of his coma dreams are of his family telling him what a horrible brother he was and he fears waking up to their disapproval.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Jin Zha is willing to do just about anything for his little brothers. They... don't seem to reciprocate.
  • Book Dumb: Ne Zha has poor grades and Mu Zha had to do his homework for him.
  • Disappointing Older Sibling: Mu Zha and Ne Zha don't like Jin Zha because was born in Mainland China. He thinks they think he's a lazy dropout with no job; Guanyin mentions later that he does try but it's hard for mainlanders to find work in Hong Kong.
  • Force Feeding: Jin Zha's attackers forced lotus flowers covered in grease, oil, and capsaicin down his throat.
  • Foreign Queasine: Jin Zha tried making Ne Zha's lunches and there was nothing actually wrong with his cooking, but he stopped when Ne Zha refused them because the other children made fun of him for bringing mainland food.
  • Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Averted. Much of the story hinges on the conflict between Hong Kong and Mainland China. Jin Zha, being a Mandarin speaker born in Beijing, makes him embarrassing to Mu Zha and Ne Zha.
  • Mature Younger Sibling: Middle child Mu Zha took care of cooking, cleaning, and helping Ne Zha with his schoolwork.
  • Mushroom Samba: Most of the chapter is Jin Zha hallucinating after being forcibly drugged.
  • Nephewism: Ne Zha was sent to live with the boys' uncle before Mu Zha left for college.
  • Promoted to Parent: Jin Zha was initially in charge of his younger siblings while his father was working, but he had so many problems when he tried that Mu Zha took over the household duties.
  • The Unfavorite: Their father was disappointed in Jin Zha for being irresponsible; he's not actually as lazy as he thinks they think he is, he just has problems because of prejudice against him.

The Candymen - Sweetstuffs (Augustus Gloop), Sweetgum (Violet Beauregarde), Sweetpea (Verruca Salt), Sweetless (Mike Teavee), Supersweet (Charlie Bucket), Sweet Tooth (Dr. Wilbur Wonka)

  • Adaptational Name Change: The Verrucas are named Verushka and Veronica, since not many people in real life would name their child after a type of wart.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: Both Violets have blueish-grey skin due to argyria, the 1971 one having had it since birth and the 2005 one developing it from being forced to drink colloid silver during her time in the Ark.
  • Better to Die than Be Killed: 1971 movie's Augustus throws himself from a boat that was transporting him, unable to take any more abuse.
  • Boom, Headshot!: 1971 Mike was shot between the eyes.
  • Death by Childbirth: 1971 Violet gets impregnated by one of her clients and later goes through either a miscarriage or premature labor; neither she nor her child survive.
  • Extreme Omnivore: 1971 Charlie has pica. It gets worse after his time in the Ark.
  • Force Feeding: Both Augustus Gloops were used for feeding fetish videos, and the Apex kids were forced to eat 2005 Charlie's corpse.
  • I Am a Humanitarian: When 2005 Charlie died, 2005 Wonka ate parts of his body to make it unsellable to the Ark's necrophiliac clients. As punishment, the guards made Wonka and the other kids eat the rest of the body.
  • Picky Eater: A clinical form; 2005 Verruca has Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, refusing all foods that aren't her favourites.
  • Real Men Hate Sugar: 2005's Mike has a strong distaste for sweets, considering sugar "gay".
  • Significant Name Overlap: The two sets of kids have similar or identical names, leading to the Ark picking up both sets when they originally only intended to take one set.
  • Survivor's Guilt: 1971 Charlie wishes he had died instead of the 2005 Charlie.
  • The Tooth Hurts: 2005 Verruca's gums are bleeding when she speaks onstage because her ARFID made her develop scurvy.
  • Too Desperate to Be Picky: 1971 Charlie developed pica because his family was poor and he didn't get enough real food.
  • Weight Woe: 2005 Violet is anorexic, having started chewing gum to make herself not eat. It's not played for laughs.

Cluster B - the Sociopath (Amalthea), the Psychopath (Lir), Antisocial Personality DisorderFor full list, click here, Borderline Personality DisorderFor full list, click here, Narcissistic Personality DisorderFor full list, click here, Histrionic Personality DisorderFor full list, click here, "Cluster B"For full list, click here, the Disturbed and the Comfortable (Unicorn and Dragon)

  • Always Chaotic Evil: Haggard claims Cluster B people are all dangerous, but it's actually averted. Several of the victims tend to be selfish, emotionally detached, impulsive, and/or melodramatic, but many take steps to mitigate those issues and not even one of them is violent, except when Amalthea kills him and even then it was only so she could escape.
  • Ambiguously Jewish: Their heritage/faith is not stated outright, but Amalthea's surname is given as Shofar and Lir refers to Haggard as "Abba", the Hebrew word, instead of "Dad".
  • Bad People Abuse Animals: Averted; as a child, Amalthea pulled wings off of insects, but this is something that a lot of kids do for fun and she doesn't have any desire to hurt people. She does kill Haggard's guard dog, but only in order to escape the submarine.
  • Blaming the Victim: Social perception of Cluster B people is that they're all violent and dangerous, so Haggard gets praised for taking them out of the population even though he was raping and torturing them and most of his victims weren't violent at all.
  • Dramatic Irony: Haggard brags in his book about how Lir isn't Cluster B like his mother, yet Lir shows absolutely no reaction when finding his father dead.
  • Gaslighting: Amalthea moves things around in the sub to keep Haggard confused and off-guard so she can have a better chance of fighting back.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Haggard lobotomises his victims; Amalthea kills him with his own spike.
  • Innocent Bigot: The four Palace members who make up "Cluster B" don't actually have any Cluster B disorders, and insist that people who have them are dangerous and use ableist slurs against them, like "crazy" or "narc", despite being nice enough people otherwise. Though Donny is also a misogynistic transmedicalist gatekeeper.
  • Karmic Death: Charlie mentions Haggard did get one or two people who actually were violent, including Charlie's parents Lolz and Roffle, who died in the sub because they kept fighting back after their lobotomies so Haggard killed them.
  • Lobotomy: Haggard used to practice lobotomy legally, and now uses it to keep his supposedly dangerous victims under control. He messes up Amalthea's and she's still able to think clearly enough to escape.
  • Manchild: Unicorn from Go Away, Unicorn! is Alice's uncle in this 'verse, and he likes to play horsie and watch cartoons with her.
  • Meaningful Name: "The Sociopath" has Anti-Social Personality Disorder, the narration nicknames the others after their specific subcategories of their disorders, and the group who go by "Cluster B" on the stage take the names of the conditions they were misdiagnosed with. Amalthea's surname is given as Shofar, which means "horn".
  • Moral Sociopathy: Amathea doesn't experience empathy or connection with anyone else except Lir, but she isn't violent or cruel in any way, just detached. The others also all seem to be nonviolent, with one being horrified when he realises he's likely to kill or injure someone during his medical training and quitting.
  • Mythology Gag: Haggard performs transcranial lobotomies on his human victims, i.e. driving a spike into the centre of their foreheads, calling back to their canonical unicorn horns and the mark Amalthea's human form had on her forehead in the movie.
  • Politically Incorrect Hero: The misdiagnosed "Cluster B" assume that real Cluster B people are all dangerous, and most of the rest of the Palace aren't too upset when Amalthea is arrested.
  • Sarashi: Donny wrapped ACE bandages around his chest (which is a very dangerous way to bind) and he was misdiagnosed with BPD over it because he was seen as "self-destructive".
  • Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere: Haggard keeps his victims in a derelict submarine that's still in the ocean, so one can only get in or out at low tide.
  • Shout-Out: Haggard's prior employers include Arkham Asylum and the New Bedlam Rest Home for the Emotionally Interesting.
  • Stealth Pun:
    • Amalthea kills the Red Bull (here a bull mastiff), then drinks an energy drink in a sliver and blue can that Haggard left behind to counteract the Xanax in her system and escape, or "take flight".
    • Haggard's previous book is Emotional Stable; the characters in their respective canons were equines, which are kept in stables, Haggard claims that people with personality disorders are "unstable", and a "stable" is a slang term for a pimp's prostitute collection.

The Clown on the Couch (Molly)

  • Excellent Judge of Character: She never really liked Ratigan to begin with and was right to.
  • Guilt Complex: She felt extremely bad due to not really doing much to help out Lisa Loud when other students started bullying her, especially once it came to light that Ratigan raped her on top of that.
  • Harmful to Minors: She witnesses her friend Major Bedhead be gangraped and castrated. It's implied that she witnessed her parents murder as well.
  • Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: She presents her story to the Palace through the form of a sketchbook.
  • The Speechless: Hasn’t been able to speak since her parents' murder. She instead communicates through a mix of writing and drawings.

Consonance (Susan Heffley) and Dissonance (Rodrick Heffley)

  • Mistaken Identity: Susan thinks that Rodrick is an imposter due to her Capgras Syndrome.
  • Race Lift: Rodrick is Asian due to his actor for The Long Haul being part Asian.
  • Related Differently in the Adaptation: Rodrick is adopted in this fic.
  • Shout-Out: Their story references the "Not My Rodrick" meme, which came about when Rodrick's actor from the first three films had been recast for The Long Haul and people made fun of the new actor's appearance.
  • Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: Rodrick's Fregoli Syndrome makes him think that several people (including a male physician and a male Afro-American baby) are his mother.

The Man-Eater dal Mare (Alberto)

  • Adaptational Name Change: His name is mentioned not to really be "Scorfano" here, as in real life it's an Italian slang term meaning "ugly one". Here, it's a nickname bestowed on him at Pleasure Island when he got too old and scarred.
  • Body Horror: He initially has a fish hook going through his left arm. It's originally implied this is because he was to be drowned after he got too old and "ugly" to be kept by Pleasure Island; later on, it's revealed he did it himself in a suicide attempt.
  • Bungled Suicide: Attempted to drown himself, but ended up washing ashore in Redfish Bay.
  • Good All Along: Kind of. Before The Reveal of who he is, it's set up like there's a rapist living near Redfish Bay and this is what most of the characters believe when they hear Giulia and Luca's story. Actually, the so-called monster is actually just a scared child the two befriended and have been trying to protect.
  • Hearing Voices: "Bruno" is what he calls the actual voice in his head he suffers from due to trauma, rather than a metaphorical name for his second thoughts.
  • Implied Love Interest: It's hinted he has a thing for Luca.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Ghosts do exist in-'verse, but Alberto also hears voices because of his trauma, so it's not clear if the dead kids in the bay really are talking to him. A later chapter confirms that the voice sounds like his dad, so it could just be trauma.
  • Protectorate: Quickly becomes this to Massimo after he's found in the water. The man came to kill what he thought was his daughter's rapist, but when he sees Alberto, he drops everything and carries him to get medical attention. He even refers to himself as "the closest thing to a legal guardian" Alberto has to Dr. Stein.
  • Related in the Adaptation: The Coachman is implied to be his father.
  • "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Luca and Giulia tell everyone there's a monster in the bay to stop them from finding and harming Alberto.

Bandera de Discapacidad - Neurodivergente (Rayna), Fisica (Rayla), Psiquiátrica (Coral), and Sensorial (Anemone)

  • Boomerang Bigot: Despite being disabled themselves, they all participate in a web community that mocks other disabled people, labeling them as "skeezites" or "fakers" and insisting some disabilities are made up entirely. However, they do end up leaving it after realizing the error of their ways.
  • Composite Character: The Guardian Fairies are one body with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The chapter takes place on Webbit.
  • Split Personality: The Guardian Fairies are a system and Mariposa gets diagnosed with DID after the trauma of finding Willa's body.

Room 101For full list, click here

  • Abortion Fallout Drama: Part of the girls' trauma. The staff forced Jenny to have an abortion and Tina performed one on herself with a coathanger before they could do the same to her.
  • Adaptational Sexuality: In early drafts of the show Cam was planned to be gay, so as a Mythology Gag here he prefers men but also likes some girls, including Brandy.
  • All Muslims Are Arab: Averted; Tina's Indonesian and is mentioned to have tasbih beads.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: When Chaz tried to take her recorder, Tina got mad, beat him up, and asked if the reason he was at A. Nigma was because nobody in their right mind would want him. He got quiet, and the following morning he was dead from jumping off the school's roof.
  • Boarding School of Horrors / Juvenile Hell: Combines both, as an abusive reform school for delinquent teenagers.
  • The Bus Came Back: It's revealed Doofus Drake and Si and Am were sent to A. Nigma after their crimes against Louie and Mulan.
  • CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Averted. Barrage performed CPR on Lee and broke all but one of his ribs.
  • Crippling Castration: Some of the female students were forcibly sterilised, sadly Truth In Television.
  • Driven to Suicide: Chaz jumped off the roof and was impaled on the fence when Tina told him that no one wanted him.
  • Hidden Wire: Tina snuck a recording device into A. Nigma to get audio of the abuse going on at the school.
  • If It's You, It's Okay: Downplayed in "Coming Out". Cam strongly prefers guys, and loves Brandy, but doesn't rule out the possibility of interest in other girls. Brandy, conversely, is usually interested in men but has a crush on Kimmie, which Kimmie exploits.
  • Lost Pet Grievance: Biffy saw the Tatzelwurm eat Rumple Kitty Kat. It's implied what he actually saw is VP Victoria feeding Rumple to Priscilla.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's never made clear if the Tazelwurm is actually real or everyone is just claiming to have seen it to cope with their trauma.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
    • Cam's parents sent him to A. Nigma to protect him from GWF, as it's the most secure school in the county. Too bad it's a Boarding School of Horrors.
    • Lee steals a keycard to let everyone out of the dorms, but they suffer a mass psychotic break and beat him almost to death.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The other students beat the shit out of Lee when he found the keycard to escape the school due to suffering a mass psychotic break.
  • Not Now, Kiddo: The police officer who finds Jenny Jergens during her escape attempt dismisses her insistence that the staff will kill her as her being a dramatic teenager.
  • Scarpia Ultimatum: Grayson helps Cyrus and Camilio cheat in math, then threatens to snitch if they don't film themselves doing humiliating and sexual things.
  • Shout-Out: The stories are all based on Emilie Autumn songs and the girls' uniform includes striped stockings.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness: The kids see the Tatzelwurm everywhere and interpret mundane happenings as monster sightings due to their trauma.
  • Traumatic Haircut: Among other things, Grayson blackmails Cyrus and Camilio into cutting off their long hair.
  • Troubled Abuser:
    • Grayson blackmails other students to regain power over someone since he's such a bullying target himself, as well as for revenge.
    • Kimmie witnessed her parents abusing Li and was forced onto an extensive drug regimen, and took it out by manipulating and exploiting Brandy.
  • Word Salad: It's noted that Holger has some form of speech disorder and talks with mangled grammar even in his native tongue.

The Gangreen Gang- Dry Bones (Ace), Bloat (Snake), Active Rot (Arturo), Fresh (Big Billy) and Advanced Rot (Grubber)

  • Ambiguously Gay: Snake may have a thing for Ace, going off his blushing on stage, but nothing is clear. He might also be non-binary.
  • Asshole Victim: They considered what happened to Ricky to be this and don't feel a lot of guilt for not helping him.
  • Beautiful Sexual Assault Victim: Averted pointedly and their intro gets a Take That! at the trope. Mr Sir abused them for the power thrill and to make them scared of him, and it's noted he mostly assaulted the boys orally except for Grubber, the ugliest, who he always turned to face away from him.
  • Blinded by Rage: Ace is horrified to realise he got angry enough to rape Ricky in front of his gang when Ricky attacked Arturo.
  • Body Horror: They intentionally cultivate gangrene to keep themselves safe from abuse.
  • Criminal Found Family: All of them are delinquents who only really have each other and refused to be split from each other.
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: After Ace's accidental leg wound gets infected and Mr Sir turns him away, Grubber gets Snake to hit him with a shovel and get his wound infected too, and the others follow suit.
  • Didn't See That Coming: All of them are completely caught off guard when the Powerpuff Girls apologize for what happened to them.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Downplayed, but they all admit that they didn't think about how the smell from the gangrene they gave themselves would affect them until they were getting queasy from it.
  • Dramatic Irony: Ace reports that when Ricky died, it was an accident and not revenge; Difficult Conversations revealed that Buster's dad sent a hit out on Ricky for what he did to his son.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: It's when Mr. Sir rejects Ace due to the odor of the gangrene he accidentally developed that the rest of the gang come up with the idea of purposely cultivating it on themselves to avoid getting abused.
  • Meaningful Name: They all developed gangrene, and their individual Palace nicknames come from the stages of rot, with Ace and Grubber who were injured first being the final stages and presumably the others coming in order of injury as well.
  • Miscarriage of Justice: They were sentenced to six months at Green Lake, then forgotten about, and only got out after more than a year.
  • Mythology Gag: Ace starts listening to Gorillaz and teaching himself how to play bass guitar, alluding to his role in the band.
  • Properly Paranoid: Once Ricky moved into their cabin, they started having a night watch system under the assumption he might try something. Sure enough, when Billy accidently fell asleep, he attempted to rape Arturo.
  • Reformed Criminal: They all plan to go straight once they age out of the halfway home they're in.
  • Saying Too Much: Snake accidently revealed that Ricky was raped before he died and is forced to claim he did it in order to protect Ace.
  • Self-Harm: Snake used to slit his wrists.
  • Taking the Heat: Snake takes the blame for Ace raping Ricky, not that it ends up mattering in the long run.
  • Tempting Fate: When given the choice between Green Lake or jail, they all laugh and say that Green Lake will be a complete cakewalk and pick that. Needless to say, they soon learn that was very much not going to be the case.
  • Trans Tribulations: Snake doesn't elaborate on his not-so-great childhood, but it's noted that he has an armband with the colors of the non-binary flag and there are scars from cutting himself underneath, implying that he had transphobic parents.
  • Troubled Abuser: Out of rage for both everything Ricky has done, which now includes trying to rape Arturo, and the poor treatment he himself has suffered, Ace raped him.
  • Vocal Dissonance: Here, the soft British accent Grubber affected in "Schoolhouse Rocked" is his real voice, and he doesn't talk much to avoid getting picked on for it.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: They never actually hurt any of the kids they bullied, although they did push it a little.

Spots and Dots - Bright-Black (Penny), Smokey-Black (Patch), Soot-Black (Freckles), Aesthetic-Black (Pepper), Deep-Black (Cadpig), Liquorice-Black (Rolly), Ivory-Black (Two-Tone), Alien-Black (Dipstick), Eerie-Black (Whizzer), Jet-Black (Fidget), Glossy-Black (Jewel), Cat-Black (Missy), Leather-Black (Tripod), Pitch-Black (Duke), the White Spot (Lucky), Navajo-White (Dolly), Dutch-White (Dylan), Oyster-White (Dallas), Seashell-White (Destiny), Pearly-White (Deja Vu), Photon-White (Dawkins), Antiflash-White (Delgado), Bone-White (Dizzy), Ivory-White (DeeDee), Powder-White (Dorothy), Acoustic-White (DJ), Off-White (Diesel), Night-White (Deepak), Abstract-White (Da Vinci), the Black Dot (Dante)

  • Abusive Parents: Hunter calls Cruella "Mummy", and she gives him to the Ark.
  • Adaptational Species Change: As well as the dogs being human, their human owners from the show are now their dogs.
  • Arc Number: Fifteen.
  • Blended Family Drama: The Descheenie and DeWitt kids all get along pretty well, but Dylan suspects his birth father in Dante's disappearance and their half-brothers told him they were better off without him.
  • Driven to Suicide: After he gets the nail out of his tongue, Dante swallows it in what's confirmed by the author to have been a suicide attempt.
  • Ear Ache: Dorothy went deaf from ear trauma caused by an incident on Bonfire Night.
  • Identically Named Group: Played with. The Dimitris, the DeWitt's half-brothers, are actually named Dima, Mikhail, and Trifon here, but the family collectively refers to them as Dimitri (as in Di-Mi-Tri).
  • Important Haircut: Dorothy's head is noted to be recently shaved, in accordance with the Navajo tradition of cutting the hair once when the child is young and then letting it grow.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Dylan mentions his bio dad wasn't a fan of Delilah remarrying to someone who wasn't white, and suspects that might be a motive for him wanting to kidnap Dante.
  • Meaningful Name: Lucky's human name is Benedict, meaning "blessed". The group's nicknames are based on different shades of white and black; most notably, Dutch-White and Navajo-White refer to the nationalities of Dylan and Dolly's sides of the family. Lucky as the White Spot refers to the idiom of a white spot in the memory referring to amnesia, and Dante as the Black Dot refers to the Black Dot Campaign.
  • Misplaced Accent: Lampshaded; Dylan is Delilah's bio son and grew up in England but still has his American accent from the show, and Dolly blames it on him spending so much time looking after the kids from Doug's side of the family. Dizzy is Doug's American child and speaks with an English accent, but she's spent most of her life in England and picked it up that way.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Despite the nicknames, Doug's side of the family actually aren't white.
  • Ominous Hair Loss: Dolly's hair is short, though her family keeps the Navajo tradition of long hair; she had melanoma some time ago and lost it due to the treatments. It's noted in the chapter that it's falling out again, either because of stress over Dante going missing or treatments for a relapse of the cancer or both.
  • Pun: The Radcliffes live in Barking.
  • Race Lift: Both Perdita and Pongo are mixed black and white, and so are all their kids. Anita and Roger are respectively either the step-sibling or half-sibling of Perdita and Pongo, so may or may not be mixed race as well. Delilah and her children are white blonds of Dutch extraction, Doug and his children are Navajo, and Deepak and Dante are adopted, being respectively Punjabi and black Navajo.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Cruella picked up Dante after Hunter let Lucky escape.
  • Tongue Trauma: The Ark guards drove a nail into Dante's tongue through the bottom of his jaw in order to shut him up.
  • Traumatic Haircut: Not exactly cutting, but traumatic hair damage. Doug's side of the family follow the Navajo tradition of never cutting their hair. Dante's is afro-textured and noted to be very puffy and thick, and the Ark ruins it by leaving relaxers in it too long, giving him chemical burns.
  • Uncertain Doom: Since the chapter ends right after he does it, it's unclear if Dante survived his suicide attempt.
  • Unrelated in the Adaptation:
    • Neither family has any relation to the other, while in canon, the family from 101 Dalmatian Street are the descendants of the one from the original film.
    • Only Dorothy is the offspring of both Doug and Delilah, and they only have six other biological children each, with Dante and Deepak being adopted; the other pups aren't their kids here, since human couples are unlikely to be able to produce ninety-nine children. The Dimitris exist, but are the other children of Delilah's ex-husband.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Cruella used Hunter to lure in Dante, but had no further use for him and handed him over to the warehouse as merchandise.

The Sorority Contrapasso - Ira (8XJ), Luxuria (8XG), Avaritia (8XL), Ad Infernos (Amethyst), Hareisis (Carnelian), Gula (Skinny Jasper), Limbo (Lace Amethyst), Fraus (8XH), and Violentia (8XK)

  • Adaptational Name Change: Jasper is Treasure, Skinny Jasper is Noreena, Amethyst is Amy, Carnelian is Cornelia, Lace Amethyst is Lacey, and the other Amethysts are Axel, Gigi, Jay-Jay, Aicha, and Kay.
  • Crippling Castration: All of them except Jasper and Crystal Gem Amethyst were forcibly sterilised when young. Amethyst escaped because she was taken away when she was very young, before the operation happened, and Jasper was operated on but not sterilised because Holly wanted to raise her as a boy. PAIS might have rendered some of them infertile anyway, but they're profoundly angry about not even having the chance to find out.
  • Family Business: All of them except Jasper, Crystal Gem Amethyst, and Lace Amethyst run a spa together. They refuse to give Jasper a job because she helped their mother Holly Blue Agate abuse them.
  • Intersex Tribulations: Every one of the Famethyst has some kind of intersex condition, and Holly had them all operated on and abused them for not being "normal".
  • Posthumous Character: 8XH and 8XK were killed by a train when they tried to get on it with Amethyst.
  • Rape by Proxy: Holly forced 8XH and 8XK to molest Crystal Gem Amethyst to punish them for not telling her where Lace Amethyst ran away to.
  • The Runaway: All of them ran away from home over time in order to escape their mother's abuse.

The Collector

  • Collector of the Strange: Some of the things he collected were body parts (eyes, teeth, and digits) from his victims.
  • Conditioned to Accept Horror: They've been trained to maim and kill people since they were three.
  • Exact Words: The reason that they don't consider themself to be a murderer is because murderers have to want to kill people and they didn't.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: They admit to being a bit jealous that King likes Luz more than them, but they also understand that King does because he's known her longer and admits to liking her too.
  • Harmful to Minors: Apart from their time in the Ark, he witnessed Ace Yu being assaulted while in police custody.
  • Help Mistaken for Attack: He throws a knife at Lilith, which ultimately hits Hooty, due to mistaking her for attacking King.
  • Hidden Depths: They're interested in learning about sign language.
  • Meaningful Name: They are a kleptomaniac who likes to collect things.
  • Only Friend: King appears to be the only real friend he's ever had, mainly due to his upbringing in the Ark.
  • Snuff Film: They were used as a killer for the Ark's snuff movies.
  • Sticky Fingers: The disorder which gets his story put in the Knots collection is clinical kleptomania.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Belos used them for snuff films and then later tried to drown them. The Collector was the one to kill him and, unlike in the show, it was permanent.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Belos has been using him to kill various people he brings into his home and the Collector did it without complaint, although he does understand why it was wrong now.
  • Tyke Bomb: Belos trained them to kill for him since he could hold a knife.

Mimikyu

  • Achey Scars: Her injuries still hurt, and she tries to downplay it but her memory fragments show she is addicted to painkillers.
  • Clothing-Concealed Injury: Her mask, hoodie and gloves cover up the scars that Bill gave her.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Yet another one of Bill's victims on this front.
  • Conspicuous Gloves: She wears gloves even in California heat, because her hands are as badly scarred as her face.
  • Covered in Scars: Her entire body is covered in various types of scars and burns from her torture.
  • Cruel Mercy: She admits that she hopes Bill ends up in prison not just because he's a horrible person who tortured her and several others, but because she knows he'd rather go out with a bang.
  • Escaped from the Lab: It wasn't a lab per se, but after Bill tortured her, she broke a window to get out.
  • Eyes Are Unbreakable: Bill left her eyes unharmed.
  • The Faceless: Even her memory fragments don't show her face, either before or after her disfigurement.
  • Facial Horror: Bill tortured her with chemicals and fire and ruined her face.
  • Forced to Watch: She was made to watch her parents' rape and murder.
  • Found Family: She, Ogrepon, the protag from Magikarp Jump and Scraggy (although they like to pretend they aren't a part of the gang) are all street kids that only really have each other and will do anything for the other members of the group.
  • The Grotesque: She's rendered hideous by her torture, but is still a sweet-natured little girl and very protective and loving to her friends.
  • Harmful to Minors: Bill raped and murdered her parents in front of her and then tortured her.
  • In the Hood: Downplayed; she wears a hoodie, but for full face concealment she needs a mask too.
  • Just Here for the Free Snacks: Admits one of the reasons she comes to the Palace is for the free food.
  • The Kindness of Strangers: Cherri Bomb found her and brought her to the hospital, and Scraggy let her live in the train car with them.
  • Masking the Deformity: She's worn a mask and fully concealing clothing ever since Bill scarred her.
  • Meaningful Name: As she explains to Mary, she based her name off the word "mimic", since she wears a hoodie with a face on it to mimic a cute animal, and added "kyu" at the end to make it sound cuter because she doesn't want people to be scared of her.
  • Morality Pet: She was one to Green, at least until she told Green that Bill didn't care about her.
  • Nightmare Face: After her mutilation, her face is so horrifying that she wears a mask all the time so she doesn't frighten people.
  • No Face Under the Mask: Her face is so badly mutilated it barely qualifies as a face anymore, going by Scraggy's reaction.
  • Scars Are Ugly: Invoked; Bill cut her up so badly to intentionally mutilate her.
  • Soft Glass: Averted. she admits that the shards that got into her skin when she escaped still hurt, despite all the torture she went through beforehand
  • Street Urchin: After she escaped from Bill, she ran away from the social workers who found her in hopes of avoiding an abusive foster family.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She's under thirteen and addicted to painkillers. Justified considering why she's in pain.
  • The Unreveal: We never get a description of exactly what she looks like now.

Strange Bird (Sue Tenny) and Social Butterfly (Gwen Grayson)

  • Adaptational Sympathy: As she's not a supervillain, Sue is treated with far more sympathy than in the film.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Steve Stronghold was implied to have been the The Bully in his youth, but he never went as far as orchestrating a gang rape.
  • Decomposite Character: They're separate people, mother and daughter.
  • Disabled in the Adaptation: Hero Support is made into Special Education and Sue herself is implied to be autistic.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Gwen adores Sue. Unfortunately this love motivates her villainy rather than tempering it.
  • Groin Attack: It's implied that Gwen was going to do something to Will's genitals with a lighter and a hunting knife.
  • Hates Their Parent: Most of Gwen’s issues come from hating other people’s parents, but she has about as much respect for Stitches as she did in canon. And he does seem to be her actual father here.
  • Mama Bear: Sue was worried that Will would rape Gwen like how his father raped her, so she went to Maggie Creek Road with a pistol. When she heard Gwen screaming, she feared the worst and opened the car door ready to fire, only to discover that Gwen was the one assaulting Will.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Gwen's not exactly villainous, but she uses the word "retarded" twice, first about the special ed class Sue was put in and then to refer to people who claim men don't hit women.
  • Rape and Revenge: Steve Stronghold and his friends raped Sue, so Gwen avenged her by getting her friends together and raping his son Will. It’s also pretty much stated she did the same thing to Warren Peace the year before.
  • Sins of Our Fathers: Steve Stronghold was one of Sue's worst bullies and orchestrated her gang-rape, so Sue's daughter Gwen responded by assaulting Steve's son Will.
  • Shout-Out: References the song "Maggie Creek Road"
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Going off the shock everyone has when Gwen reveals Steve was her mother's rapist, it's implied that he's still considered to be something of a hero in this world.

The Has-Been (Satsuki Kusakabe) and the Up-And-Comer (Mei Kusakabe)

  • Innocent Inaccurate: The doctor convinces ten-year-old Satsuki that letting him molest her will help her and Mei's mom recover from her illness. Satsuki really does think it's working since her mother's condition has been improving.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Satsuki claims to Mei that the doctor molesting her didn't hurt and if Mei "helps" too, then their mom will recover, unaware that the doctor was lying to her.

The Baseless Worrier (Alexandra Rover)

  • It's All My Fault: When Jack went missing for a few days, Alexandra blamed herself despite Jack pointing out there was no way for her to help him.
  • The Shut-In: Like the movie, she's agoraphobic, which in this fic is caused by OCD.

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