Fanfic / Shadowchasers: Backwater

Shadowchasers: Backwater is a trilogy of fanfics written by 7th Librarian and part of the Shadowchasers Series.

In a world where the vast majority of humanity is kept in the dark about the existence of Shadowkind- living myths, legend and fairy-tales, among others, the town of Backwater, Nebraska as it a city populated entirely by nothing but Shadowkind and the humans can see past the veil. Safeguarded by a permanent team of eight Shadowchasers, Backwater is a living city where the wonders of the modern world and grand mysteries of the magical world collide.

The prelude to the trilogy is Shadowchasers: Twice-Told Tales, an introductory fanfic for the team's eight members. It is an anthology piece, but several different chapters set-up or hint at the future plot, so it is considered part of Shadowchasers: Backwater.

Knightfall, the 1st in the trilogy is currently running. A demonic knight has declared Backwater to be the sight of his last crusade and he will consume the city in ash and fire as an offering to his gods. The Shadowchasers stand ready to battle against him, but this 'Skeleton Knight' is not alone. Old enemies and even older evils have stake in this crusade and will do anything to ensure its success...

The trilogy also has a companion fic called Backwater Parallels writted by Scarlet Weather.

Tropes found in Shadowchasers: Twice-Told Tales:

• Anachronic Order: The present day scenes and flashbacks featuring the Backwater Shadowchasers are set during different time periods and are not told in any specific order. If the details given are any indication, the chronological order of the flashbacks seem to be: Tsuki -> Kenshin, with Maria's and Rave's flashbacks possibly taking place close to each other, and Tsubasa's, Guren's Fayte's and Rayearth's taking place afterwards in unknown order.
• Ascended Extra: Judy has more key appearances in Twice-Told Tales than she did back in Shadowchasers: Soulscape.
• Bad Future: A major plot in Fayte's featured chapter involves Judy from an alternate future wherein all signs of magic on Earth have been disappearing one by one, causing Shadowkind to be sent back to wherever they originally came from.
• Big Good: Jalal Stormbringer, naturally, being the founder and leader of the Shadowchasers. It is mentioned in Twice-Told-Tales several times that Rayearth is the team's leader and is this for them on a more personal level. In Fayte's featured chapter, there is also Judy from an alternate future in which she has succeeded Jalal as the leader of the Shadowchasers.
• The Cameo: Standard in any Shadowchaser story, Divine (see below) and Maximilian Pegasus make cameo appearances in Rave's and Kenshin's featured chapters respectively.

• Continuity Cameo:
  • Rave appears in the remake version of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Thousand Year Door and in her debut chapter, Divine serves as a support character. The bookends for each chapter also tend to showcase Adrian the Librarian, members of the Library Arcanium's staff, Jalal Stormbringer and his ward, Judy.
  • In the flashback chapters starring Adrian himself: The Shadow Queen, Lyrius, Melissa, Leopold, Maria, Vladimir, Crump, Doopliss, Bobbery and Vivian make appearances.
• Continuity Nod: This fic makes several references to other Shadowchaser stories as well as Yu-gi-oh! The Thousand Year Door: Redux (which is established as a part of the Shadowchaser universe continuity)
  • The incident which caused Maria to inadvertently trap her parents in a permanent illusion is the major plot point of Shadowchasers: Colors of Madness Shadowchasers. Maria herself and Thaddeus Kleig made appearances in that fic as well.
  • In Kenshin's featured chapter, the Great Gold Wyrm card that Jalal used in Shadowchasers: Power Primordial is mentioned, with the explanation on how Jalal managed to get I2 to creating it for him.
  • Rave's featured chapter is filled with these:
    • Lan'tao mentions Divine's issues with Louis DaPen, who was the secondary antagonist from the original Shadowchasers fic.
    • Lan'tao mentions that he's been selling his daughter's souls to Jalie Squarefoot (the main antagonist of Shadowchasers: Ascension Shadowchasers: Ascension) for immortality.
    • When Judy reads the Code of Index, she sees that one of Jalal's questions was 'What is this generation's Shadowchild?'. The Shadowchild was first mentioned in the Shadowchaser Files and is a person with great potential for good or evil that arrives one every 500 years. Jalal had to personally defeat the last one.
    • Lan'tao says that he had to promise the Queen's soul to Demogorgon for the arm that lets him wield the Champion's sword. Demogorgon was briefly mentioned in several Shadowchaser files and is one of Graz'zt's most hated enemies.
    • Phoenixia mentions and explains to Judy the Origin Universe and Morgana's Kin to Judy. Both were mentioned in the Morgana's Kin Shadowchaser file and Leslie Garret, the Shadowchaser's liaison with the Kin, appeared in Shadowchasers: Ascension.
  • Madripoor is the main setting of the flashback in Rayearth's featured chapter. Madripoor is the criminal-infested island where Raven (from the original version of Thousand Year Door and Redux) originally came from before escaping.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Arguably, this whole fic counts as one for the Backwater Shadowchasers before their proper story in Backwater.

• Flashback: The majority of Twice-Told Tales is told through using these, mostly by Adrian.
• Gender-Concealing Writing: In the prologue of Fayte's featured chapter, this is the case with the conversation between the leader of the Shadowchasers and the Librarian, omitting any use of pronouns despite readers knowing who they already are. This is to hide the fact that the ones talking are actually Judy and Emily from the future, who at that point, have inherited their successors' positions.
• Hunter of Her Own Kind: Penelope, one of Dracula and Fayte's allies who appears briefly in Fayte's chapter, a vampire who, centuries ago, hunted down and killed the cruelest remaining members of the race. (Well, most of them.)
• Legacy Character: Dracula, who plays a big role in Fayte's featured chapter. In this reality, the character is not one being, but a title held by the vampire who rules the vampire race. The current Dracula is female and appears as a teenage girl who dresses in a modern, trendy outfit. (She tells Fayte that she "figured it was time for a change".) And this one seems a great deal more benign than most versions. (The exhibition at the end of the chapter states that Fayte's membership in the Shadowchasers was due to a request she and Penelope made with Jalal.
• Magical Library: The Librarian Arcanium, the library that Adrian manages. It is 'located between time and space' and connects to the entire Multiverse. Adrian fulfills his duty by pulling a The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday in order to help people, though the reasons for the when and hows of such are only known to him.

• Mood Whiplash: The chapters tend to deviate from being Darker and Edgier like in Tsuki and Rayearth's chapters and Lighter and Softer like in Tsubasa's, Maria's, Kenshin's, Guren's and Rave's chapters. Others like Fayte's chapter and Adrian's chapters seem to go for the middle ground.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Lampshaded by the author himself in the trailer of Backwater shown in the final chapter of Twice-Told Tales. The trailer contains several scenes whose contexts are probably either misinterpreted and/or incomplete.
• Official Couple: Fayte and Tsuki. Lesser examples in this fic include: Adrian and Mei, and the Shadow Queen and Lyrius.

• Ret-Gone: In Fayte's featured chapter, this happens to the Judy from the alternate future after she kills Hugo Cylas, preventing the Bad Future she originates in from ever happening. Although the end of the chapter seems to show a different future in which things are a lot better.
• Sequel Hook: The whole fic in genral, but special mention goes to Fayte's chapter, which has a plotline that the author confirms will play a major part in Backwater.
• The Squad: Par for the course for a team of Shadowchasers, but special mention goes to Fayte's team of Renfields, known as the Watchguard. A passing mention of them in Fayte's introductory chapter says that they were currently nursing broken limbs. after putting a pair of ogres in the ICU.
• Spit Take: Jalal almost has one when Adrian tells him that Tsuki, a succubus, wants to join the Shadowchasers.
• Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: Moderately high in all areas, but not extreme. (Some vampires who appear in other stories rate far lower, but Dracula seems to be purposely trying to improve their PR, while Fayte is playing up the classic image for all it's worth.)

Tropes found in Knightfall:

• Ascended Extra: The whole Backwater team to an extent. While they were the main focus of Twice-Told Tales, their appearances were mostly limited to their featured chapters, which were mostly told from Adrian's point of view. In this trilogy however, they take center stage.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Trueman makes a return as a Hidden Agenda Villain after his disappearance since Power Primordial.
  • Hebi-Na also makes a return since her appearance in Soulscape.
• Evil Versus Evil: In the first part of the fic, Trueman and Skeleton Knight seem to be fighting each other as much as they are the heroes. (Maybe even more so.)
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Hebi-Na's Heel–Face Turn and Trueman's return.
• Mood Whiplash: Chapter 4 begins with some humor coming from Tsubasa's relationship with Hebi-Na only for the chapter to end with Solex having Kastleneid brutally raped then killed after his loss to Tsuki.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: This fic seems to emphasize this Trope; each time the crime has occurred (both in Tsuki's backstory and with Solex) the perpetrator is depicted as the darkest type of villain; the first example was instrumental to Tsuki's Heel–Face Turn, while the second disgusted her, and given that she's a demon who was born and raised in the Abyss, that's really saying something.
• Shout-Out:
  • In Chapter 1, Kenshin almost tricks Tsubasa into participating in a gag coming from the machinima Red vs. Blue. Tsubasa then mentions how he was called Caboose for a week the last time he fell for it.
  • The monsters in Maria's Marvel deck are directly based on Pokémon.
  • In Chapter 3, Threepiece plays the song "Robot Riot" from Phineas and Ferb while he and Rave deal with the junk dragon.
  • In Chapter 4, Kenshin uses the Nyan Cat meme video to distract Jalal while working. Jalal apparently doesn't get it.
  • In Chapter 5, after Kenshin destroys Jimmy-the-Lock's Red-Eyes B. Dragon, she replies with "It looks like your dragon... (puts on a pair of sunglasses) went down in flames. (YEEEAAAAAHHHHHH!) Much to Jalal's chargin and the techies' amusement.
• Take That!: Towards The Twilight Saga, after Phoenixia burns a copy of one of the in books the Library (telling Mei it was an accident), Achan claiming he never heard of it, and Phoenixia telling him it's "Something you should never, ever subject yourself to."
• Time Skip: This fic (as well as the rest of Backwater) take place 10 years after the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds (2 years after the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue shown at the end of the series), making it currently the latest stories in the Shadowchasers timeline.
• Wham Line: Minor one in Chapter 7, where Cathy shows up in the Library and it turns out Adrian is her father. The author claims to have done this to explain her wealth (despite living alone without parents) in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, along with her unexplained ability to communicate and command cats.

Tropes found in Backwater Parallels

• A Day in the Limelight: For Kastleneid, who serves as one of the main protagonists of the fic.
• Rape as Drama: Actually done realistically, believe it or not. Even though what happened to Kastleneid happened in the "core" fic, her reaction to what happened to her is how it often is: a trauma that she can't escape from where she sees her attacker in every shadow, and fears it could happen again. And it really doesn't help that Truman is making it worse.