Fanfic / The Collective

Part of The Calvinverse and set after the rewritten version of Calvin and Hobbes II: Lost at Sea, things are about to be shaken up in The Collective.

The lives of Calvin, Hobbes and their friends are taken through many trials and tribulations when the universe seems to be scheming to keep them apart. Through this separation, they will realize just what they mean to each other, and their lives will genuinely change forever as a result.

Tropes in this fanfic include:

• Adults Are Useless: Only one adult notices the rampaging monster. The rest just assume there was an earthquake.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "And what year were you born?"
• Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 8 ends with the implication that it's Socrates' transmitter chip that the Collective is after... only for the next Chapter to reveal it's actually an equation he has in his brain.
  • Hell, they don't find out about the chip until Chapter 10.
• Big Damn Heroes: Calvin and friends starting at the end of Chapter 10, having un-Transmogrified themselves.
  Calvin: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and various other outer space genders - how about handing over our friend?
  • Not long after, in the next chapter, Calvin calls in the armies of Annkor to destroy the Collective.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: A heroic version; after MTM was sold at a garage sale and then subsequently poked, prodded, disassembled and damaged by Leroy, all he had to say about it once fixed and handed back to Calvin by one of the Kleins was his selling price.
  MTM: I wouldn't have minded it so much, but it was only five dollars! I'm pretty sure my original price was for twenty-five!
• Calvin Ball: Calvin uses this as a form of rebellion.
• Continuity Nod: References to a flying saucer and Dr. Brainstorm taking credit for kidnapping Calvin are mentioned.
  • The Smoke from Season 5 and the references about "them" coming for the tail are brought back up.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Calvin fears that giving the Kleins the power of the equation will act like the Collective. In the next chapter, he pretends to have done this to scare them.
• Foreshadowing: In Chapter 10, certain aliens are not given names, only descriptions. They are actually Calvin and friends Transmogrified.
• Floating Timeline: Finally gets addressed in Chapter 9. Calvin and company have been frozen in time by the Chill Collective since 1985. Then, after the Chills have been defeated, the floating timeline goes with them.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Explored a bit in Chapter 11. As the Kleins prepare to use the equation's power erase all traces of the Chills' influence on the world, Calvin suddenly realizes that not everything they've done was bad - and how can they trust the Kleins won't do something similar with their newfound power?
• Heroic BSoD: Calvin goes into this when informed Hobbes can't go with him to the camp.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Downplayed. After Calvin realizes that without his influence in Obedience Camp, the kids sent there would be turned into Stepford Smilers, he decides to willingly go with Andy (if only to, once again, convince them to rebel). He manages to take down the camp in four days.
• Imagine Spot: Calvin has a moment of Spaceman Spiff-type adventures.
• In Their Own Image: The goal of the Chill Collective. In Chapter 11, Calvin questions the Kleins' plan to use the equation to remove the Collective's influence from the world, remarking that it sounds like they're trying to enforce their own ideals on the universe.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: After Hobbes recaps Calvin on what happened after he left for camp (Specifically how "[Calvin's] dad went off on some sort of tear about how [he needs] to grow up and how [they] can't be friends anymore, and then they had a yard sale where they sold most of [his] stuff"), Calvin's response:
  Calvin: Wait, what?! They sold my stuff at a yard sale?!
• Misery Builds Character: Calvin's Dad still believes in this strongly.
• Mythology Gag: Calvin was born in 1979 and turned six in 1985, the year Calvin and Hobbes was syndicated.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: There's a reason for it: the Chill Collective have kept everyone affiliated with Calvin and company the same age since at least 1985, with the intention of keeping Socrates alive to access the equation in his head. Calvin does not take this well.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Calvin ends up depressed and unmotivated after his friends move away and he's about to be sent to a camp against his will, his parents are unnerved by his lack of retaliation.
• Reality Warper: Anyone with the equation of the universe has this power. Even without it, the Collective is still able to do some strange things (like causing Socrates to faint, which they refer to as "stopping" him).
• Reset Button: Calvin uses the equation's power to undo the events of the story. There are still some effects, though - most importantly, the Collective's influence is gone, and the Floating Timeline is no more.
• Self-Deprecation: So, what do Hobbes, Andy, Sherman, and the MTM remember about "The Five Calvins"?
  "It was really random?"
  "It was unimaginative."
  "Hackneyed, really."
  "Had no place in our continuity..."^Explanation If you're wondering, "The Five Calvins" borrowed the entire plot of "The Five Doctors", and had little impact on the overall plot (aside from having the MTM get broken, leading into its acquiring a voice.
• Shout-Out: The Chills scatter their name across time and space to let the humans know about their "future rulers", which smacks more than a little of the end of the "Bad Wolf" storyline in Doctor Who.
• Significant Anagram: Downplayed - one is teased in the author's notes twice, before finally being revealed in the last chapter^note (though garfieldodie initially forgot about it). The camp Calvin goes to is sponsored by "Latex Finish", an anagram for "Sixth Finale" - the story was initially intended to be the sixth season finale of Calvin & Hobbes: The Series.
• Summer Campy: Calvin is sent to one of these, though it is for Spring Break rather than Summer Break.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Calvin's Dad. He held no sympathy for Calvin's friends moving away, send Calvin against his will to Obedience Camp, and decided to have a yard sale that included MTM and nearly decided to sell Hobbes before deciding to stick him in the attic. He claims this is for the kid's own good, but Mom at least realizes that this isn't going to result in a happy Calvin.
  • This is actually acknowledged both in-story (Calvin's mom pointing out the severity of his actions and influence from the Chill Collective helped lead to this) and in the author's notes (certain strips are brought up and it's been acknowledged that it isn't unrealistic that Calvin's Dad would get a tad grumpier).
• The Unmasking: The climactic scene of Chapter 10 is of Calvin and friends un-Transmogrifying themselves right after the Collective discover Socrates' transmitter chip.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Apparently the idea of a hamster running a huge factory on the opposite end of the world is perfectly normal.
  • Not to mention a fan website for a flying saucer has no problem with their president being a tiger.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Inverted. While influence from the Chill Collective was a contributing factor, Calvin's Dad insists he's doing the right thing by shipping Calvin to Obedience Camp and, as soon as he's gone, selling his stuff at a yard sale (with Hobbes being spared by being placed in the attic), saying the age old "he'll appreciate this when he's older" excuse.
  • Tellingly, Calvin's mom keeps calling into question what he's doing. Time only tells if she goes for broke.
  • Well, in Chapter 12, we never find out. After Calvin reset everything to a month earlier, Calvin's dad (upon seeing the ad for Obedience Camp this go around, minus the influence of the Collective) laughs off the idea of sending Calvin away.
    Calvin's Dad: Oh, can you imagine him in such a camp? He'd reduce the whole place to rubble within minutes. The very idea... It doesn't even let you bring personal items from home!
• Wham Episode: The entire story is this to the verse as a whole, as it provides answers regarding many of its mysteries. For specific moments within:
  • Chapter 8, which provides answers concerning the Kleins, who proceed to gather everyone back together... excluding Socrates, who gets taken by the Collective.
  • Chapter 9. We finally get answers about Socrates' red tail, the Floating Timeline, and Rupert, Earl, and John Howard Chill.
  • Chapter 11 has Socrates performing a Split-Personality Merge with his dark side and regaining his animal instincts, Calvin questioning the Kleins' ultimate plan for erasing the Collective from the universe, and finally grabbing the equation himself.
• Wham Line: When Calvin asks who "the Collective" is, the Head Klein replies:
  "They are known as the Chill Collective."
  • The following conversation occurs not long after:
    The Head Klein: How old are you, Calvin?
    Calvin blinked, thrown by the abrupt change of topic.
    Calvin: Six, why?
    The Head Klein: What year is it now?
    Calvin: 2014.
    The Head Klein: And what year were you born?
    Calvin opened his mouth to speak, but then he stopped, rolling the confusion around his head, trying to figure out what was wrong. He knew the year, and he wanted to say it, but for some reason, he just couldn't reconcile the number with reality. He could feel everyone's eyes on him, waiting to see what he would say.
    Finally, he found himself uttering the truth he'd been unaware of for nearly thirty years.
    Calvin: I was born in 1979... I'm six years old and I was born nearly thirty-five years ago...
  • Near the end of Chapter 10, when the Transmogrifier Gun is used on one of the aliens:
    "What happened? What's he been turned into?" the little grey alien^note Sherman cried.
    "It's hideous!" Magnus cried. "What monstrosity is this?!"
    "I resent that," Andy snorted, getting up and dusting himself off.
• You Have Failed Me: The Head Chill punishes Mangus for screwing up their entire plan by "killing" him... or rather, causing him to vanish abruptly.