"The Core Timeline is an amalgamation of chaos. The so-called real world has been overlapped with the realms of movies, comic books, anime, and more. Fanfictions have literally come to life.
Valentine's Day in the Core Timeline is like the rest of the holidays. A mess fraught with complications and mayhem. This is a day when Roger Hackett wishes to provide some good gifts for those he loves.
And to those who get in the way, they better watch out..."
Someone
With The Skills To Intervene, by marcoasalazarm is one of various stories set on the Coreline Shared Universe.
Currently under construction. Please add tropes as you see them!
This Coreline story contains examples of the following:
- A Simple Plan: Get some rare candy from Orlando as a Valentine's Day gift. Complications include members of all mailing services in Orlando Going Postal at the same time, the rare candy being impossible to transport through super-speedy means, and oh yeah, the Death Eater attack.
- Badass Bystander: Being the Right Man in the Wrong Place, Roger ends up being this to the Death Eaters. As well, a few other bystanders gang up and finish off one of the Eaters after Roger wings him.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Roger, all around. This actually gets him confused with "The Man In The Suit" in the aftermath.
- Book Ends: A Cluster F-Bomb and the question "this world liked to fuck people in the ass, didn't it?" appear at the beginning and the end of the story when things seem to be going pretty wrong for Hackett.
- Boom, Headshot!: The first Death Eater to die gets a shot clean between the eyes, and the narration mentions that the entire back of his head disappeared.
- Code Silver: The climax of the story is a Death Eater attack on the "Wizarding World Of Harry Potter" section of the Islands of Adventure, with the objective to kill a lot of people (Muggles, Mudbloods, doesn't matters, as long as they die).
- Continuity Nod:
- Roger gets a teleporting ride from Chicago to Orlando via the Ferengi that appeared on Coreline: A Tale Of Two Maris and Coreline Operation Endgame.
- The mention of superhero teams getting three-day holidays to try to help them deal with the craziness of the specific days getting in the way of their own celebrating was mentioned all the way back on Rise of the Extraordinary Avengers (Coreline).
- Fame Through Infamy: Discussed as a posibility that it's what the Death Eaters were looking to obtain, and defied by making sure the press won't release any personal information about them (besides literally labeling them "morons").
- Hand Cannon: Downplayed. The gun Roger uses on the climactic confrontation is a .45 Glock, which is a bit heavier than usual for a Glock but in terms of what is standard for this trope it swings more towards the Boring, but Practical. The narration mentions the Death Dealers get cut down in pretty messy fashions.
- Honest John's Dealership: "Honest Liggie's" (the establishment of the aforementioned Ferengi) is a warehouse on one of the dead-end streets deep in Chicago, and Roger mentions that it would be a surprise if a single item on sale wasn't explained as having "Fell Off the Back of a Truck", not to mention that the alleged owner (and sole person who can offer a refund) is an Invented Individual.
- McGuffin: The Wonka Umpa-Sooper-Tastee Chocolate, custom-made by Willy Wonka himself to the client, and described as the best chocolate that you could ever get. The fact that the elements that make it so delicious are (highly delicate) Magitek that cannot be transported by super-tech or magical means (such as teleportation) force Roger to go to Orlando himself to get it.
- Oh, Crap!: The discovery that Roger's Power Nullifier abilities literally killed the magic that was in the Wonka candy. Roger's reaction is a mental Cluster F-Bomb and some amount of My God, What Have I Done?. Thankfully the chocolate is still delicious.
- Only in Florida: The story takes place on the Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando (or rather, the Kingdom Of Orlando. Ruled by King Mickey Mouse).
- Retail Riot: Mentioned in passing that these things on the Core Timeline are up to eleven. The term "block war" (yes, as in the conflicts you need to have Judge Dredd around in order to pacify) is snarkily said would be a more fitting description. The plot is started by Roger having to run out and get the Wonka chocolate that he promised he'd get.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: "Right" in this case being "obtain very valuable and rare chocolate to provide a top-notch Valentine's Day experience to people I love."
- Shout-Out:
- The story's title comes from the Opening Narration of Person of Interest.
- The press' decision to prevent the Death Eaters from getting potential Fame Through Infamy (by calling them "Moron #1," "Moron #2," etc) is directly taken from Forward the Foundation. The narration even says that it worked for Hari Sheldon.
- Talk to the Fist: A non-vocal version. The first Death Eater Roger faces off against acted pretty giddy at the prospect of multiple innocents bunched together like fish in a barrel. Roger shoots him in the head before he can go any further.
- Take a Third Option: When Roger can't get the chocolate delivered in time, since it can't be teleported, he teleports himself to Orlando to pick it up in person and head back with it.
- Take That!:
- One of the things Roger mentions at meeting in passing while he walked through the Islands Of Adventure park was the live-action version of The Cat in the Hat. Roger mentions that seeing that Cat in the actual flesh made him understand why Mike Myers thinks of the role as an Old Shame.
- Teleporters and Transporters: Roger gets a teleportation service to teleport him to Orlando.
- Terrorists Without a Cause: Roger believes that this is what many Death Eaters have devolved to after the Vanishing, with most of them causing slaughter and mayhem for no other reason than appeasing whichever Master they bow to (even if they are not even in the same universe) or because murderous racism is the only thing their minds care about anymore after the shock of Emerging on the Line.
- Valentine's Day Episodes: This story is one of these for Coreline.
- Would Hurt a Child: The narration explicitly says that the Wizarding World section has many children. The Death Eaters are flinging Killing Curses around willy-nilly, and the first one to die is explicitly mentioned was getting giddy about the "fish in the barrel" he discovered.
