A Life Is Strange fanfic.
When Max wakes up from her vision in Mr. Jefferson's class, she doesn't even have time to think about it before things start getting weirder. She’s briefly possessed by a future version of herself, who writes down the answer to Jefferson's next question before giving up control again. Soon, the process repeats, with future Max carefully manipulating present events in order to save as many lives as possible and take down the conspiracy surrounding the Dark Room.
Due to Max actually turning in her "Everyday Heroes" assignment, she’s paired up with Victoria for a group project, resulting in Victoria following her into the bathroom and witnessing Nathan shoot Chloe. Max and Victoria then have to work together to save Chloe and figure out what is going on, all while following strange instructions from Max's future self.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Chloe's baddassery is significantly increased in this fic; apparently Future Max somehow managed to improve her relationship with her stepfather David, who has been taking her shooting and giving her combat training as a bonding experience. Chloe utterly demolishes Victoria in a fight (despite Victoria having some martial arts training), she gets a perfect headshot on Nathan in several timelines, and one of the reasons she was expelled from Blackwell is because she defenestrated a football player.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- David, Chloe's stepfather, is much calmer here than in the original game and has a much better relationship with Chloe. It's mentioned that he's going to therapy and taking medication for his PTSD. Once again, it's implied that this was one of future Max's manipulations. Not only is he helpful directly in the course of the story, but he helped train Chloe into becoming the badass she needed to be.
- Due to extensive meddling from Future Max, Chloe has turned from a counter-dependent delinquent into something of an Action Girl Bully Hunter with a propensity for defenestrating particularly nasty people.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: In the game, Chloe hates David's guts while David is trying to discipline her only to keep crossing the line into abuse. Here, David has had therapy and pharmaceutical treatment for his PTSD and is much more patient with her. Not only that, but teaching her how to fight and use a gun at the gun range has served as effective bonding time for them. Chloe still doesn't completely respect him — calling him more toned down nicknames like "step-dork" — but she’s clearly trying not to start anything, even providing advice to hire female staff for more efficient security and getting him signatures from Max and Victoria when he asked for them. This is all implied to be because of Future Max's meddling.
- Badass Driver: One of future Max's edits was to encourage Chloe to learn defensive driving. Her excuse was what happened to Chloe's father, but the truth is that she knew the Prescotts would try to arrange a car accident that could be avoided by a sufficiently skilled driver.
- Bad Future: Wherever Future Max is from, it seems worse than any of the game's endings, and she’s utterly ruthless in preventing it from coming to pass.
- Berserk Button:
- The first sign of Future Max taking over in Jefferson's class is that she suddenly looks absolutely murderous, to the point that everyone in class notices and Jefferson even uses it as part of his lesson about Hidden Depths. Apparently the first thing she did was brutally kill Jefferson, then rewind time so no one remembered.
- Present Max suddenly gets angry when Chloe says "the lady doth protest too much," and can't explain why. Since that was the line Jefferson used as part of his Victim-Blaming that drove Kate to suicide, it seems that it pissed Max off so much that her emotions bled in from another timeline.
- Birds of a Feather: Warren is a bit of a perv who spends too much time around the girls' dorms looking for Max. When he decides to ask out Brooke instead, Victoria points out that they'll probably get along, since Brooke often has her drone (with its high-def camera) hanging around the boys' dorms.
- Brain Bleach: When Victoria sees a picture of Chloe's mom when she was younger, she openly remarks how she looked a lot like Juliet. Since Chloe had made-out with Juliet earlier that day to help her get back at her boyfriend, this disgusts her like crazy.
- Call-Forward:
- Victoria has a brief fantasy of Jefferson "disciplining" her. In the game, Victoria (depending on Max's choices) and Max discovered that Jefferson will start lecturing even when he's sexually assaulting a girl he's about to murder.
- Future Max justifies keeping everyone in the dark about her plans by obliquely referencing the time she got Victoria killed in the game by telling her the wrong thing at the wrong time.
- Closet Key: Ever since Chloe had helped Juliet get her boyfriend back through Operation: Jealousy, she’s continued to ponder upon it to the point of writing a short story inspired by her, referring to Chloe as "Cupid in combat boots" while being fully aware that she doesn't usually feel this way towards women. Granted, Chloe was surprised how quickly Juliet was to agree to it in the first place.
- The Conspiracy: The one major change from the game that Future Max didn't cause is that the Dark Room has more people involved. In the game it was just Jefferson and Nathan, bankrolled by Nathan's father but apparently nothing else. Here, Nathan's father is directly involved, he has his personal hatchetwoman helping Jefferson eliminate problematic individuals, and there are a number of "little helpers" that are aware of the full extent of the Dark Room. This conspiracy is why Future Max has to go to such lengths, as in her future most of the conspirators were never discovered.
- Defeat by Modesty: Inverted. When David accuses Chloe of stealing his gun, she insists that she doesn't have it on her, quick to strip completely naked just to prove it. It successfully chases him away, while Max and Victoria can’t help but stare at how toned she is.
- Disaster Dominoes: One of Future Max's tricks. She leaves Present Max a note that she should wave at Victoria in class, knowing that Victoria (who has just witnessed Max's time travel powers) is utterly terrified of Max's hand, will have a panic attack, fall, and crack her head open on a desk—just so Present Max can save her. It's lampshaded that it probably took a lot of tries for her to get this right.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Warren is convinced that Max will fall for him if he just keeps doing nice things for her. He’s completely oblivious to her subtle hints that she's not interested. Victoria says she's too nice and needs to set clear boundaries; while Max finds her suggestions too brutal, she does agree with the basic idea.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: A number of people besides Max have dreams of the tornado. Future Max also has Present Max make a social media post about dreaming about the eclipse, the whales, and the double moon, in order to get her a reputation as a Seer so that people will be aware of the tornado and get to safety.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Warren is stunned speechless when he sees Juliet and Chloe making out. Chloe is also aware of this trope, and is careful to select the proper photos for Operation: Jealousy to "show Juliet at risk of being stolen away by some mysterious fem fatale, not furnish some local hick with delusions of getting a threesome."
- Future Badass: Though we didn't get to see it, From Future Max was able to kill Jefferson and steal the sim card from his phone before reversing time. And she apparently did it without Jefferson getting any hits in, since Present Max didn't notice any new injuries after.
- Insane Equals Violent: Nathan is even worse here than in the game. Not only does he kill Chloe when given the opportunity, but he confronts Victoria in the parking lot instead of Max, knocks her down, and brutally stomps her skull in.
- I Was Just Joking: Juliet mentions she's going to make Zach jealous by flirting with Logan. Chloe says Logan's a sleeze, so she should go for someone else—like Chloe herself. She's shocked when Juliet thinks it's a fine idea.
- Leg Focus: Taylor. When Chloe mentions that she saved a girl from getting date-raped, all she has to say is "sexy legs" for Max and Victoria to instantly know who she's talking about.
- Lethal Harmless Powers: Max's ability to bring objects back with her when she reverses was mostly just to make certain parts of the game less annoying (though there are a couple puzzles that rely on it). Here, it's pointed out that if Max killed someone and soaked up all their blood in something she owned and then reversed time, her victim would suddenly be exsanguinated without a mark on them. The first hint that Future Max killed Jefferson in one timeline is that he suddenly feels anemic (because about a pint of his blood got soaked into Max's hoodie).
- Living Legend: Chloe Price has accumulated quite the reputation in Blackwell ever since she had been expelled for gravely injuring members of the football team, being held up as something of a ruthless Bully Hunter with the physical strength and skill to kick the ass of anybody causing trouble or gets in her way. Whenever someone gets on her shit-list, the student body refer to her form of justice as "paying the Price."
- Mental Time Travel: Future Max uses her photo time travel ability to leave notes for Present Max. Present Max is vaguely aware of what happens when Future Max is in control, but sometimes everything is so hectic she doesn't even notice.
- Mortal Wound Reveal: Max and Victoria don't succeed in freeing Chloe from the track switches, and after the train passes, they see her hopping on one foot. Subverted in that Chloe is fine; due to Future Max's meddling she was wearing combat boots that allowed her to undo her laces and free herself instead of cowboy boots.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Max, Victoria and Chloe respectively.
- Omniscient Morality License:
- Future Max clearly believes in this strongly, between her ability to see the long-term consequences of her actions and her ability to rewind time in the short term. She sets up a fatal accident for Victoria just so present Max will save her and gain her trust.
- She orders Victoria to jam the lock of the door to the roof. While she doesn't say why, it's clearly in order to make it easier for Kate to get up there for her suicide attempt.
- Operation: Jealousy: Juliet decides to win Zach back after he cheated on her by flirting with Logan. When Chloe expresses doubt that will work, Juliet just says "I know my man." She turns out to be right, though Chloe convinces her that Logan is a bad choice.
- The Perfect Crime: Since things in Max's possession travel back in time with her, she can easily just grab something, reverse time, and from the perspective of her victim it will have suddenly disappeared. Victoria points out she could do this with blood to kill someone with no trace.
- Physical God: Victoria's first thought when witnessing Max's time travel powers is that Max is a goddess who could erase her from existence with a wave of her hand. She has a panic attack when Max just politely waves at her... which is exactly what Future Max intended.
- Pragmatic Hero:
- Future Max is ruthless and utterly committed to her goals. In just the first few chapters, she personally murders one person and sets up the death of another, knowing both will be reversed, in order to get a sim card and improve her relationship with Victoria, respectively.
- Victoria is a lesser version, without the omniscience. Her counter-coup at the Vortex Club leverages blackmail and obscure rules to set up as many things in her favor as possible, and Future Max describes her ruthlessness as the contingency plan to save as many people as possible if all else fails.
- Retroactive Preparation: Implied, though we only ever see the effects. It seems like future Max's standard reaction to a problem is to go back in time and tell Chloe to train for it. She learned unarmed combat, marksmanship, and defensive driving just to name a few.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: David of course, though he's already in therapy by the time the story starts (unlike the game, where he doesn't start going until the end). Future Max is also compared to David more than once, as she looks like a soldier who has been fighting a war alone for a very long time.
- Stupid Sexy Flanders: Victoria seems to have this opinion towards both Max and Chloe, unable to help herself crushing on them in-spite of how often she clashes with them.
- Tsundere: Victoria, to both Chloe and Max. She even uses some of the most famous tsundere lines, which she blames on a recent anime binge.Victoria: I-It's not like I did it especially for you, or anything!
