Fanfic / The Morrigan

War rages and unrelenting tenderness alone may not be enough.
^{Book Two Cover}
Covers by Yuri Hunter. Both images used with permission

At the end of hope, a mechanic and a Valkyrie make the choice to run. A Witch from Earth rushes on to her death and revenge, only to find her Thorn destroyed; its sister stolen. The students at Asticassia academy endure another day of classes and little else.

And the Witches of Quiet Zero begin their work, unimpeded.

A year later, Suletta Rembran tries to understand her sister, in the hopes that they can make peace. Two Enhanced Pilots take the first steps to make good their escape and revenge. And Dawn of Fold's new leaders use the only Gundam that works within Quiet Zero's sphere of influence to take back their home from any who would claim it.

The Three Witches' War has begun.

The Morrigan is a Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury fic by Jerkus set in an alternate universe where Sabina Fardin and Nika Nanaura had long carried feelings for each other and, rather than continue to play pawns in a larger game, eloped together, stealing the Lfrith-Ur and escaping to Earth. In doing so, they set in motion a series of events that would plunge the solar system into a three-way war, a war they fight on the front lines in piloting the newly rebuilt Gundam Morrigan.

The fic is in part a continuation of Jerkus' earlier fics, Put Up Your Dukes and Simple Machines. While those exist as their own independent stories, they explore the beginnings of the romantic relationships between Felsi Rollo and Chuatury Panlunch, and Nika Nanaura and Sabina Fardin respectively, which carry over into The Morrigan.

Jerkus has also written Their Fond Pageant, an anthology of (occasionally NSFW) sidestories set in the Three Witches War AU.

The story along with its predecesors and sidestories can be read here on Archive of Our Own.

The Morrigan provides examples of:

Tropes # to K

• Abusive Parents:
  • As in the show, Vim Jeturk. Guel is initially in denial about it, since facing the fact that his father was an abusive bastard would likewise mean that the family legacy he's trying to rebuild is rotten. He comes more to terms with it over time, acknowledging that his father was not a good man, and that his continued attempts at pleasing him were done in an attempt at getting back the father he remembers from his childhood.
  • Shaddiq too has few good memories of his adopted father. While he doesn't mention any specific instances of abuse, it's implied that Sarius was perfectionist and demanding, as he denied Shaddiq's only competitor for heir on the basis of a minor lip deformity.
• Accidental Proposal: In chapter 26, Felsi assures Chuchu that she would come with her if she defected to Dawn of Fold, "sickness and health". A blushing Chuchu asks if she's proposing, and Felsi quickly clarifies she's not - but might in the future.
• Accidental Truth: Norea figures that the best place for Talking to the Dead with Sophie is in the Morrigan's cockpit, since it used to be her Gundam. Given that the Morrigan is Sophie, she's entirely correct.
• Ace Custom: Chuchu and the Grassley valkyries all have unique mobile suits, as commanders of their respective squadrons.
• Ace Pilot: Several pilots are brought up as being extremely good at what they do; Sabina is mentioned as being a very skilled pilot who even Suletta admires, Chuchu and Felsi managed to fight the Morrigan to a standstill, and Suletta beats them all out of the water to the point where Chuchu admits that she wouldn't do anything but run if she had to face her in combat. Even Ericht isn't sure if she could beat her in a fair fight.
• Adaptational Deviation: In the show, the mobile suits that attack Dawn of Fold in "Father and Son" are Zowort Heavys, manufactured by Peil. Here, Guel claims that the attack was done with Jeturk mobile suits (unless he meant "our mobile suits" as Benerit in general).
• Adaptational Expansion: The fic expands a bit on the other Enhanced Persons aside from #4 and #5. #2 is described as dissociative, was apparently religious, and peeled his own face off; #3 was depressed and apathetic after #2's death and was killed for being catatonic; #6 was the most emotive of them but was executed after trying to kill the original Elan. We also learn that #4 and #5 were close friends.
• Adaptational Explanation: The fic in chapter 58 gives a detailed explanation for how Permet Burn works (the painful red markings that appear on characters faces when piloting gundams in the show); All humans in the setting have permet within their body as a result of breathing in particles of it their entire life. This is usually harmless, but upon overexposure to raw permet or worse, the Datastorm, the particles are excited and attempt to form connections with everything, including ambient permet, the machinery around them, and even parts of the body that are needed for it to function. This both causes them to heat up (hence the "burn" part of permet burn), and to cannibalize parts of the body for resources, which is clearly not good for one's health. If this happes repeatedly, it can cause Spontaneous Permet Growth, the permet particles forming clusters and starting to grow and replace parts of the body, a concept that's original to the fic.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: Sechs, one of the children of the coven, is a trans boy.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Peil Grade is less an actual AI and more a very large algorithm, and as such is limited by its code and input. Similar to real-life generative algorithms (often called art AI), it struggles in creating something that isn't based on existing art, it can't truly distinguish humans from each other, and a part of its original code means that it shuts down when dealing with nudity.
• The All-Concealing "I": The second intermission follows Renee Costa as she runs into her ex, Lilique. They have coffee together, and Lilique is surprisingly open about her regrets regarding their relationship, giving Renee hope that they might try again. All of this is told from first person POV to hide that "Renee" is actually Henao, experiencing Renee's memories and personality due to the TAT system.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Just like in the penultimate episode of the show, Felsi stops two feuding friends from killing each other and screams at them for being stupid, even using some of the same dialogue. Only this time, said friends are Chuchu and Nika instead of Guel and Lauda.
    Felsi:You two are so stupid! Are you both trying to die over an argument between friends?! If that’s your idea of a joke, it’s not funny at all!
  • When Norea explains that she can't launch the Pharact due to the presence of Cathedra troops, Elan imagines her being vaporized in the cockpit by a Cathedra sharpshooter, which is exactly how she dies in the show.
• All There in the Manual: Jerkus often runs down the specs of the fic's original mobile suits (like the Morrigan or the Demi-Balor) on their twitter.
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: In-Universe. Petra has grown up with stories where the message is that power corrupts and that wanting power is a bad thing. Lilique points out that an alternate way to phrase that is "be happy with what you have", which doesn't work when "what you have" is functionally nothing, and the people in power want to take what little you do have.
• Ambiguous Gender: The Cathedra honeypot in chapter 19 goes unnamed and ungendered.
• An Aesop: Notrette had a habbit of teaching Miorine lessons any time she could, like that she should always try to learn something even from failure. Miorine applies this lesson to her failed attempt at allying with Nika, turning it into a Xanatos Gambit where she at least opened communications between them and learned something about the Dawn of Fold.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: It's mentioned that the foudner of Peil was a silicon valley magnat with German heritage and an interest in "war memorabilia".
• And Then What?: Shaddiq confides in Guel that he's worried he's been on his quest to help Earth for so long that he's forgotten the end, only thinking about the means. If he reaches his goal, he doesn't know if he'll know it.
• Animal Motifs:
  • The Nemain has an insect motif, having boosters thin as insect wings, spikes in its palms, bit-staves that latch onto an enemy like tics, and its primary weapon is a stinger that injects poison. It goes with its theme of decay and pestilence.
  • Langlands has a general spider motif, namely in how the Glaistig has four legs and can only fight in proximity to its home station, like a spider guarding its web, and Norea's wheelchair/prosthetic can turn into a Spider Tank. This is apparently intentional since Yushura thinks spiders are neat.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Permet from the original anime is of course still a factor in this, and is given a bit of Adaptational Expansion. In addition to being a fictional mineral that can carry information, the fic also gives a few subtytpes, like "Lonely" permet that actively seeks out connections with other permet clusters, or "Dyadic" permet that only communicates with its counterparts. Permet also has some distcintly less natural properties, like preserving the mind of Ericht Samaya after her death. Chapter 52 goes in-depth about the true nature of permet; According to Notrette's research and theories, permet is no mere mineral with unusual properties; It is part of a universe-spanning network, akin to the Mycorrhizal networks created by fungus to share information and nutrients between plants connected to it, except this network spans the universe, what it shares is information rather than nutrients, and it is made up not of mycelium, but of the universe and every living and dead mind that has ever existed, and the mineral is merely small nodes of the network that poke above the "surface". In other words, Permet is actually a manifestation of both the afterlife and the universe's nervous system, and Notrette describes it as the universe speaking to itself.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Nika asks Miorine how she would have felt if her Asura Drop scheme failed and Earth was destroyed, which Miorine has no clear answer to, realizing that she's been doing gambits with billions of lives that only succeeded because she was lucky.
• Attack Drone:
  • Morrigan Rebuild's flechettes are actually bit-staves, but unlike the Aerial's Escutcheon, they have only enough tech and intelligence to pursue a target and return when called. Jerkus also hints that some of the flechettes have special abilities.
  • Nemain's twelve small Cliona drones are smaller than most bit staves, have tendrils of permets following behind them, and are kept inside its bracer when not in use. With these tendrils they can link together to form the Ochain shield, or the Neit whip. They also have the ability to drain the energy of attacks that hit them in both forms, and once charged can attach to an enemy mobile suit to fry the pilot with a datastorm.
• Author Appeal: Apparently the Beguir-Dearg Du exists entirely because of the author's love of vampires.
• Author Filibuster: Jerkus is not subtle about their far left and anticapitalist views.
• Back for the Dead: Delling is revealed to be alive in chapter 38, Rajan's ex-dominicus soldiers having captured him and kept him in recovery on the Ulysses. Then Rajan kills him because he dared to think of his daughter before his empire.
• Badass Creed: The Dawn of Fold motto; Nemo me Impune Lacessit. "None may strike me with impunity", taken from the House of Stewart that ruled Scotland from 1371 to 1714. Not so coincidentally, it's also the motto of the House of Montressor from The Cask of Amontillado.
• Badass Normal: Felsi and Chuchu actually get close to destroying the Morrigan (and may have succeeded had Felsi not ended the fight), while piloting a perfectly ordinary non-gundam mobile suit.
• Badass Preacher: Dani Malone, a priest of the Aeriali, stands out in the open during an attack on her colony, yelling at the massive mobile suits raining terror and destruction that her warehouse is a church, hoping that they'll spare it and the children hiding inside. Even when the mobile suit pilots turns their guns on her, she defiantly stares down the barrel, saying only a simple prayer for help. Her prayer is answered by Norea, who rips the offending mobile suit to pieces in the Beguir-Sidhe.
• Bait-and-Switch: Chapter 8 opens on a dream or flashback seemingly told from Ireesha's example. Then the linebreak hits, and it turns out that Henao was the point of view, as she's experiencing Ireesha's dreams.
• Barehanded Blade Block: Felsi, piloting the Demi-Balor's baori pack, catches and breaks the Morrigan's sword mid-swing.
• Batman Gambit: Miorine pulls of a rather impressive nested one to stop the Space Assembly League from using their Wave-Motion Gun on Quiet Zero. Through Chuchu and Felsi, she provides the Dawn of Fold with evidence that the SAL are planning on doing it, treating the potential destruction of Earth as a beneficial consequence. As Miorine expected, Nika releases these documents to the public, and Miorine immediately condemsn them as fraudulent lies and fabrications, declaring that the Space Assembly League would never do something so heinous. Again as she expected, the SAL immediately put their plans on hold, or they'd lose any and all support they may have had.
• Battle Couple: There are several instances of pilots fighting alongside each other in the same mobile suit; The Morrigan has both Nika and Sabina as pilots, with Nika providing tactical analysis and backup; Chuchu and Felsi pilot the Demi-Balor together with Felsi providing support and flanking in the Baori pack; The Nemain is built to have three pilots, one piloting and two assisting with the permet strain; and during their escape from Asticassia, Elan and Norea pilot the Pharact together, taging in and out of piloting when one gets tired.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Felsi pulls off a variant in chapter 50. Faced with three goons dressed in Dawn of Fold uniforms, she harshly reprimands them for messing up a sensitive operation and orders them to salute their superior officer. Unlike how this trope is usually played, Felsi is a high-ranking officer in the Dawn of Fold and she isn't trying to trick them into following her orders. She just wants to confuse them enough that they let their guard down so she can beat them up easier.
• Been There, Shaped History:
  • Guel's family built the first space elevator and were integral to the early push into space.
  • Similarily, Rajan mentions that his family were there for mankind's first push into space and the rise of the current Spacian culture, not as leaders but as adjutants and supporters. His family goes back way further than that, having had similar roles as advisors, agents, and assistants since the time of the Habsburg Dynasty.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Felsi and Chuchu think that Guel and Shaddiq have this going on. Miorine think they just hate each other, but admit that those are not mutually exclusive.
• Beneath Notice: Suletta's veil makes her blind and robs her of individuality by hiding her face. The silver lining of this is that people tend to forget that she's there and that there is nothing wrong with her hearing, resulting in her overhearing a lot of private conversations.
• Big Bad: There are several characters who might be considered the main antagonists, but most of them are either more tragic or sympatehtic than villainous. Rajan Zahi, on the other hand, is a true believer in the cruel and exploitative systems that have caused so much suffering on Earth and throughout space, who intends on continuing his family tradition of upholding those systems even if it means he has to Take Over the World himself.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: A few intermittently, but probably the biggest so far is in chapter 39, featuring the Dawn of Fold forces going up against the CAUL's 9th Scouting Fleet, most notably because it's outside Quiet Zero's sphere of influence, so CAUL can bring their full forces to bear.
• Big Damn Heroes: During the fight between Nemain and Morrigan on Luna, the pilots are all thrown into the datastorm and nearly drown, with only Sophie remaining aware enough to call out for help. Her call is heard by a group of decommissioned Gundculpa in a nearby Cathedra fascility, which awaken from their slumber and come to her rescue, pulling Morrigan and Nemain apart and giving Sophie a lifeline to drag herself and her wives out of the storm. They die immediately after, their power run out, but Sophie is grateful for what they did.
• Big Damn Reunion: In chapter 38, in a garden surrounded by fireflies, Norea gets the chance to be alone with Morrigan, with the knowledge that she might be Sophie. While Morrigan initially doesn't respond to anything, when Norea trips and nearly falls due to still needing a wheelchair, she's caught by Morrigan's hand, and the eyes flash once to show that it's Sophie.
• Bilingual Bonus: When Shaddiq and Guel drink together, Shaddiq says Sláinte, "Health" in Irish, and Guel answers Na Zdrowie, Polish for "To [your] health". Both are the respective languages' version of Cheers. Later, Petra uses "Salud", which is the Spanish version of the same.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: During a firefight, Suletta asks if Norea can do this since she doesn't want to kill anyone. Norea says obviously not and asks if Suletta is stupid. She later does it on accident, and considers whether to play it cool and say it was on purpose.
• Bloodstained Glass Windows: The fight between Felsi and Reneetakes place in a church on Luna.
• Boarding Party: One in chapter 39, trying to infiltrate a CAUL flagship. They end up losing all their engineers, which were vital for the mission, and Nika jumps in to take their job.
• Brain Uploading:
  • Ericht Samaya, of course, was uploaded into the Lfrith upon her death, later becoming Gundam Aerial.
  • The personality in the Morrigan is Sophie Pulone, though she doesn't quite remember being Sophie until the third book.
  • Chapter 31 strongly implies that the mind of Elan #4 was uploaded into the Pharact.
  • Chapter 35 reveals that Cathedra's pseudo-gundams have the minds of its members uploaded into them, though the process appears to be a good deal less pleasant than Sophie or Ericht.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: In Their Fond Pageant, Nika describes Belmeria as "an excellent doctor. Smart, professional and with a surprisingly good bedside manner. Shame about all the human rights violations."
• Brick Joke: On her way to Earth as part of her decision to become The Hedonist, Norea picks up a bucket of colourful novelty popcorn. Later, Secelia, who's in the same area, mentions that she's only had a bucket of presumably the same popcorn to eat all day. Norea liked it, Secelia found it wretched.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: When a caul soldier accuses Ericht of having killed her mother, Ericht remarks that it hardly narrows it down. That said she is genuinely struck when she hears the actual reason.
• Cain and Abel: Suletta and Ericht are generally just Friendly Enemy. Chapter 22, however, escalates their friendly banter into a violent and borderline murderous fight, as Suletta is furious that Ericht would kill innocents so lackadaisically, while Ericht thinks Suletta is stupidly naïve for not seeing the realities of the war around them.
• Call-Back:
  • Suletta at one point mentions that she's been watching videos of Sabina piloting the Morrigan and is really excited about getting to fight her, admiring her skill. This is the exact same thing Sophie originally did with Suletta.
  • The first Morrigan chapter ends with Morrigan being asked who they are, and not knowing what to answer. The third Morrigan chapter ends again with them being asked who they are, and this time she grins because she knows the answer.
• Call-Forward:
  • In a flashback in the third intermission, Maisie tells Ireesha that she can't die because if she does Maisie will go crazy. Sure enough, Ireesha lives... but Maisie does not, and it has a clear negative impact on Ireesha's mental state.
  • In a letter, Notrette recounts how the first time she encountered a permet entity, it was the voice of her old nanny telling her to "RUN", saving her from an attacker. Many years later, Goodfellow also tends to communicate warnings in the form of the single word "RUN".
  • A flashback shows that Maisie at one point nicknamed Sabina "Bibi", which she told her to stop. By modern times, Bibi is what Felsi calls her, though this time Sabina doesn't stop her.
• Catch-22 Dilemma: Mentioned by name by Nika; In order for the Dawn of Fold to take on the CAUL's larger warships, they have to get big guns. The best way to get those big guns is to steal them from CAUL's larger warships. Which they can't fight without big guns. Nika gets around this by sending a small team of engineers, including herself, to infiltrate a flagship and take it down from the inside.
• Caught with Your Pants Down: Downplayed in that she wasn't actually caught, but in Their Fond Pageant, Nika has just finished masturbating to a video of her wife in the Morrigan when Olcott calls her to ask why the gundam just shrieked and expelled smoke.
  She didn't think there was a technical way to explain that your Gundam had just had a screaming orgasm.
• Central Theme: Using people. Various factions and characters, including Grassley, Dominicus, Shaddiq, Ochs Earth, Peil, and Prospera, use people, especially children, as tools, molding them and cutting out parts of them until they fit their purposes. All of the protagonists are victims of this on some level, and working through it in different manners, wether that be unlearning and recovering from their trauma, continuing the cycle, or breaking it.
  Nika: What Grassley did to you. What Shaddiq continued to do. What Dominicus did to Olcott, and Peil did to Elan, and Ochs Earth did to Norea and Sophie. Whatever other sins I have to commit, I won't ever use people like that.
• Chase Scene: The middle part of chapter 29 consists of Elan escaping the Asticassia police after tazing Secelia because she realized he was a fake.
• Chekhov's Gun: In chapter 24, Miorine mentions a few unusual permet types, namely Lonely Permet, which seeks out bonds with standard permet. Come chapter 31, and we see this in action with the Nemain's primary weapon, the Gae Bolg, and chapter 36 reveals that Aerial is connected to Quiet Zero with dyadic permet.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In chapter 8, Ericht kills a corrupt CEO at the behest of one of his workers, Dani Malone. 42 chapters later, Dani Malone shows up again, having spent the intervening time becoming an Aeriali priest, helped codify the commandments of the Aeriali faith, and established a small church on the Faraday front.
• Child Soldiers: While the main characters are all of age by the time the fic kicks off, Norea, Sophie, Nika, Sabina, and Suletta have all been used as child soldiers in the schemes of adults throughout their lives, and it is one of the things Nika absolutely refuses to do even for the sake of liberating Earth. When she learns that Sedo Wanchek has somehow ended up in a boarding party despite being a minor, she's furious and considers whether to reprimand or kill whoever allowed it to happen.
• Cliffhanger: Chapter 52 ends with Renee holding a knife to Felsi's throat after stabbing her, Lilique telling Renee to stop and Renee freezing in shock, and Petra firing a gun at her in panic.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Much of chapter 32 is about Sabina torturing a former enforcer of the prison colony the DOF just liberated for information on the whereabouts of Chuchu's papa Nanami.
• The Commandments: As the Aeriali become more wide-spread and begin establishing a more proper religion with tennets, some of the priesthood start codifying what Ericht has decreed into proper commandments;
  • First, spoken during her initial reveal livestream; Don't be weird about it.
  • Second, spoken to a starving child she saved; First, feed each other.
  • Third, spoken when said child was persecuted for claiming that Ericht had spoken to her; Protect the children, do no harm to them.
• Connected All Along:
  • A minor case. Guel mentions that his great-grandfather was from Six Points, Chuchu's hometown, and might have played a part in making the place a city.
  • The original Elan Ceres was born to a subsidiary family of Burion, Secelia's company.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Morrigan's internal monologue at the start of chapter 35 calls back to the GUND-Arm promotional video which was how Sophie first learned about Suletta.
    I am Morrigan.
    
    See how I dance!
    
    See how I fly!
  • In chapter 52, Petra remembers that she was the officiant at Felsi and Chuchu's first fight, which happened way back in Put Up Your Dukes.
  • In chapter 58, Belmeria's internal monologue compares Ericht's takeover of Quiet Zero to her first encounter with the Gundam Morrigan, all the way back in chapter 1.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • The officiant at Sabina and Nika's wedding happened to be Chuchu's papa Nanami, and the free port they got married at happened to be what remains of Fólkvangr. Subverted in chapter 60, where Nika muses on how they were both driven there by circumstances that could have no other outcomes; They needed a port that would take them in that was in range, and the officiant needed the same.
  • It turns out that part of the reason for Sabina and Nika's strong connection to the Morrigan is that they both lived near an Ochs Earth factory as children, and ended up breathing in permet particles of the same kind used to build the Lfrith Ur from an early age.
  • Just as Petra is reaching a dead end in her investigation into embezzled armaments she's invited to lunch by Lilique, who's father died while investigating that exact same embezzlement, and Lilique has his notes.
• Cop Hater: Most characters who grew up on Earth understandably has a dim view of law enforcement. Aliyah apparently especially loathes cops, and is happy to delay them when she sees Elan on the run even without knowing the context.
• Cryptic Background Reference: Apparently the Peil CEOs were at one point seven before Peil Grade ordered them downsized.
• Cult:
  • Ericht's worshippers grow into one of these at some point between book 1 and 2, calling themselves Aeriali. As their Dawn of Fold allies grow into a proper government, the Aeriali grow into a proper church with a nascent hierarchy.
  • Peil is describes as a cult worshipping the company's AI, Peil Grade.
• Damned by Faint Praise: Nika describes Felsi's electric guitar playing as "...passionate."
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Just in the fifth chapter, a flashback shows that Kenanji Avery and Maisie May are both dead, killed in Nika and Sabina's escape from Asticassia. The start of the next chapter establishes that Delling Rembran died from his injuries at the Plant Quetta attack.
  • Naji Geor Hija is killed by Ireesha in chapter 15.
  • Golneri, one of the Peil CEOs is stated to have died in an accident between books 1 and 2. She was actually killed by Elan #5, and Kal and Nevola follow her in Ericht's attack at the Peil HQ.
  • Delling turns out to have been alive all along at the end of the second book, but is then swiftly Killed Off for Real.
• Death Faked for You: After their battle with Nemain, Elan and Norea are declared dead by Miorine, who secrets them away to Yushura's neutral Langlands front to offer them a job.
  Yushura: Shame the both of you are dead.
  Beat
  Yushura: Legally! Legally!
• Death from Above: In chapter 9, the Morrigan picks off the bilge rats by climbing a skyscraper and attacking from above.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: A flashback shows that Notrette was a bit of a ditz, but also a good parent who patiently listened to her daughter's woes, comforted her when she needed it and gave her advice and taught her lessons in the process.
• Defector from Decadence: Chuchu and Felsi defect to the Dawn of Fold in the time between book 1 and 2. While they had grown disillusioned with the CAUL for a long time, they make the decision after being captured and getting the chance to talk to Nika.
• Disabled in the Adaptation:
  • Suletta is not technically blind, but she has to wear blinders that flood her vision with junk data, so she might as well be. She uses a white cane for navigation.
  • Nika's permet left arm is only intermittently mobile, needing to keep it in a sling most of the time.
  • Guel suffers debilitating back pains, though it's ambiguous if it's a physical disability, brought on by guilt for not saving Seethia during his time on Earth, or even if he's genuinely haunted by her ghost.
• Disappeared Dad: Chuchu's Papa Nanami was working in space when Quiet Zero's blockade struck, and has been unable or unwilling to get back to Earth. She eventually finds that he's working with a crime syndicate operating out of Fólkvangr that has been supplying Cathedra, but was kidnapped by a mysterious black-clad faction.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • "'I am going to fucking beat you to death,' Secelia said brightly."
  • Elan's reaction to the Peil headquarters being vapourized is a very neutral "Oh no, this is terrible", followed by equally deadpan claims to be completely devastated when confronted about it.
• Diverting Power: The main difference between the Morrigan and other gundams, and why it requires two pilots. When it enters higher permet scores, rather than empowering the entire system, Nika directs permet to the parts that needs it, which reduces the strain on both pilots from deadly to simply painful.
• The Dividual: Invoked. Since the Peil Grade AI has a hard time distinguishing between people who look and act similar, Elan and Norea make a conscious attempt at mirroring each other, styling their hair identically and wearing one of Elan's earrings each.
• Doing in the Scientist: Permet is a bit fantastical already, given that it can preserve the mind of dead witches even after their deaths, but it is at least theoretically reasonable from a scientific viewpoint; A mineral that can preserve and share information, and its more fantastical properties are easily handwaved as weird effects of experimental technology, or hallucinations. Then chapter 52 blows that out the water with Notrette's theory that permet is not a mineral with weird properties, but physical pieces of a vast network that spans the entire universe and is the language in which the universe speaks to and conceives of itself through the minds and voices of every dead mind, which is definitely not within scientific reasoning.
• Double Take: In chapter 58, Sabina tells Nika that she shouldn't be fighting for a while due to her condition. She clearly expects Nika to refuse, so launches into a reasoning for why even after Nika has said yes, before doubling back to see if she heard her right.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • The reader learns way before anyone else that Sophie Pulone and the Morrigan are one and the same. Sabina and Nika suspect that the Morrigan is sentient, but signs of it are infrequent enough that they could be coincidence (implied to be Quiet Zero suppressing her), and they certainly have no idea that she's Sophie.
  • In a flashback set after the Point of Divergence, but prior to their reunion after their breakup, Miorine wishes that for once Suletta would ignore her wishes and just come rushing to get her back. Unbeknownst to her, that's exactly what Suletta did, but just before they could reunite she was stopped and left to float in the void by her mother and sister.
  • At the end of book two, Miorine admits to herself that on some level she is happy that her father is dead and she's free from his influence. Immediately after it's revealed that he's still alive, though he dies again without Miorine ever knowing about it.
  • In book three, the Valkyries go on a Motive Rant saying they want to take away everything Sabina loves and cares about, listing Nika, Felsi, Chuchu, the Dawn of Fold, and a few others. When Shaddiq guesses the Morrigan, they dismiss it as unimportant, not knowing that Morrigan and Sabina are intimate.
  • In chapter 48, Petra and Lilique take Sarius' collaboration with Dawn of Fold and masterminding of the Asticassia and Plant Quetta attacks into consideration of their big theory. As the audience knows, Shaddiq was behind that, but pinned the blame on Sabina and his father.
  • Chapter 59 cuts directly from Ericht, the god of the Aeriali, unleashing devastation upon Luna with no care for the innocents she kills, to some Aeriali children praising Norea as the Saint of Luck.
• Driven to Suicide: It's mentioned that the second enhanced person, Elan #2, ripped his own face off out of despair that God would not recognize him like this.
• Drunk with Power: Discussed. When Lilique explains that her motivation for becoming a CEO is to gain power, Petra is surprised, having grown up with stories where the message is that wanting power for power's sake is a bad thing that bad people want. Lilique sees it instead from the perspective of someone who's grown up powerless her entire life, and wanting the power to ensure safety and happiness for the people she loves is a perfectly noble goal, which Petra has to agree with.
• Dumb Jock: Ericht describes herself and Morrigan as big dumb jocks, admitting that she doesn't really understand how Quiet Zero understands and is mostly just there to hit things.
• Dwindling Party: The scene of the bilge rats going through the empty city in chapter 9 is like something out of a horror movie, with the Morrigan picking off demi-bardings one by one while they barely get the chance to scream over the radio.
• Easy Logistics: By the author's own admission, the most unrealistic part of The Morrigan is that the Dawn of Fold's logistics are apparently good enough that they can fight campaigns in the orbit of Mars with no strain on supply lines.
• Elite Four:
  • Among the Dawn of Fold, the focal characters and best fighters are Nika, Sabina, Chuchu, and Felsi.
  • President Miorine's bodyguards at the onset of the war were three who remained from her father, and one fresh blood. They operate as a well-oiled machinery able to keep her safe against absurd odds.
• Empathic Weapon: The Morrigan is on some level sentient, containing a personality that sees Nika and Sabina as her family, and can feel their sensations, especially through Nika's permet-covered arm. She grows more expressive over time, allowing Nika to feel her "touch" through her arm, and using her internal monitors to express moods.
• Enemy Compassion: When Petra, a high-ranking official of the Benerit Group, ends up at Quiet Zero, she's surprised that it's far from as terrifying as she had always thought. The people working there are kind and compassionate, insisting that she's not a prisoner and will help her get in contact with home once the situation is less tense, and invite her to join them at after-work activities. One even strikes up a friendly chat with her about boots, of all things, and the captain who debriefs her is kind to her. Overall, she finds that the boogeyman of all the CAUL's propaganda is a mostly regular front full of normal people.
• Ensemble Cast: The Morrigan has a huge cast of POV characters. While some are more important to the overarching narrative than others, ultimately it's impossible to point to one single main character. Nika, Morrigan, Suletta, Miorine, Ericht, the Triune, and Norea have arguably the most focus, but Sabina, Chuchu, Felsi, Guel, Shaddiq, Elan, Rajan, Prospera, Yushura, Petra, Lilique, and even some minor characters like Naji, Olcott, Belmeria, the Children of the Coven, and a few unnamed or barely important characters get their own days in the limelight.
• Entitled Bitch: Nugen, one of the Peil CEOs, is this to a T. When Miorine has her arrested for her many, many crimes against humanity, all Nugen can think is that this is not supposed to happen and that Miorine is breaking the rules by going after someone like her. Her plan for "fixing" things also involves randomly killing workers because she doesn't think of them as people.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The SAL still want to use the Wave-Motion Gun from the show on Quiet Zero, but even they have to admit that doing so when there's a solid risk of destroying Earth, and even a best case scenario woud devastate the planet, is a bit too risky. They are warming up to the idea as a last resort, though. It gets subverted heavily later on when a number of SAL documents get leaked revealing that they want the devastation of Earth because it would benefit Space economically.
• Everyone Can See It: After Guel and Shaddiq's makeout session, the tension between them is so obvious that even the blind Suletta asks what's up with them.
• Evil Laugh: Lilique jokes that she's actually only pretending to be nice to manipulate people, before letting out a comical "Mwahahaha".
• Fairytale Motifs:
  • The Morrigan is described as an undead revenant, to form a trifecta with the Aerial (vengeful ghost) and Calibarn/Nemain (savage beast).
  • Grassley seems to model itself on medieval motifs, describing the Valkyries as Shaddiq's "knights" and even designing the outside of their orphanage compound as castle wall.
• Fallen Hero: Jeturk Heavy Machinery started out as a company known for putting their workers' safety and well-being first. By the present, they're one of the worst oppressors of Earth.
• Fall Guy: Because of the circumstances of their escape from Asticassia, and some choice wording on Shaddiq's part, Nika and Sabina ended up taking the full blame for Plant Quetta and the Rumble Ring attack.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Elan and Norea wear one earring each. They actually contain data drives they use to smuggle information in and out of the facility, along with a virus that knocks out the surveillance AI for a short while.
• Faux Affably Evil: How Shaddiq describes Grassley; They act nice, but in reality they're just repackaging old atrocities in shiny new wrapping. The orphanage Shaddiq grew up in was marketed as a humanitarian effort to bring Earthians out of poverty, but was in reality basically a eugenics program.
  But that was Grassley's ethos, writ-large; an opulent facade over clinical violence.
• Fictional Disability: Spontaneous Permetic Growth, named in Their Fond Pageant, is a rare condition where humans develop permet growths across their body, causing paralysis. Prospera suffers it in both her legs, and Nika has a unique benign case in her arm.
• Fingore: As a child, Sophie bit the finger of an Ochs Earth scientist examining her hard enough that she could feel her teeth crack, and he had to have it amputated as a result of an infection.
• Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Felsi and Chuchu apparently do a variant. Whenever one calls Guel and Shaddiq's bickering "palpable sexual tension", the other will chime in with "Palpable".
• Flipping the Bird:
  • Ericht does a hillariously elaborate one when Suletta chops off the Aerial's arm; She tells her sister to look at the lost arm, only to flip her off with it.
  • Norea does this to Elan in chapter 34 despite being in agony from permet burns, which Elan takes as a good sign since it means she's not paralyzed.
  • In chapter 54, Chuchu does this with the Demi-Balor's batori back after the Triune realize she's been remotely piloting the Balor through the entire fight, and then prompty rockets off.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In chapter 53, Chuchu picks up Felsi (wearing a body-concealing normal suit) from a meeting point, noticing that she's slightly out of timing with the signal but brushing it off. A few paragraphs later, we learn that "Felsi" was actually Petra.
• Forced to Watch: During the NEAR attack, the Morrigan turns a destroyed mobile suit's head so that its cameras can view the ensuing massacre, presumably so CAUL high command can watch it later.
• Foreshadowing: Guel mentions offhandedly in book two a list of Old Money families, including the Rembrans, the Zenellis, and the Zahis, Rajan's family. Come the end of book two and it's revealed that the Zahis have a history stretching back hundreds of years of assiting and upholding power structures, and Rajan is looking to continue the family business.
• Fragile Speedster: Both the Morrigan and the Pharact are at different points stripped down to the skeleton for the sake of speed and agility, sacrificing both armour and weaponry.
• Freudian Slip: Miorine nearly calls the Peil CEOs hags before catching herself.
• Friendly Enemy: Suletta and Ericht will fight when the situation calls for it, but they both would much rather just be siblings, and their "fights" are more about distracting each other while the actual battle is fought around them.
• Friendly Zombie: A group of ruined and decommissioned Gundculpa on Luna fit the trope in spirit, being former humans in ruined robot bodies who come to the heroes' rescue when Sophie calls for help.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • The Colonial Allied Unification League, or CAUL, is a coalition between the Benerit Group led by Miorine Rembran, and the Space Assembly League.
  • Near-Earth Asteroid Reclamation inc., or NEAR, which Shaddiq finds redundant.
  • The Dawn of Fold's alliance with Quiet Zero and various off-Earth fronts is called the Near Earth Union, or NEU.
  • Langlands Autonumous Fairgrounds Front, or LAFF. Elan remarks that given Yushura's eccentrism the pun could very well be intentional.
• Gambit Pileup: In addition to the three-way war between Dawn of Fold, Quiet Zero, and CAUL, there is a lot of scheming going on. Miorine has multiple schemes to preserve as many lives as possible, Norea and Elan are working towards their own freedom from Peil, Cathedra remains in the background with their own schemes, and then there's the mysterious black-clad faction who tried to assassinate Miorine and destroyed Folkvángr, and the equally mysterious Goodfellow who opposes them.
• Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Felsi hits Chuchu (or rather her mobile suit) in the head to stop her from killing or getting killed by Nika. She then knocks her out cold to take over command and surrender to the Dawn of Fold.
• Get Out!: Petra tells her fiancé Lauda this after he dismisses her concerns as just hysterics.
• Gratuitous Latin:
  • Miorine describes the dueling system as glorified human trafficking with random bits of latin thrown in, in reference to the Alea Iacta Est^note "The Die is Cast", attributed to Gaius Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon used to initiate duels.
  • Played for Laughs when Elan confesses that he considered the name Nemo, causing Norea to be surprised that he speaks Latin. Elan admits that he doesn't, but liked 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Little Nemo, and Finding Nemo as a kid. They end up using the word "Nemo" as their codephrase to initiate their plan.
• Groin Attack: It's mentioned that Felsi at one point kicked a guy in the crotch so hard that he got "testicular tortion" because he was racist towards Chuchu.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Chuchu's Demi-Balor has pistons in its arms that enhance its punches, fitting with its very punchy pilots. They call the enhanced arms "The Dukes", while Felsi calls the Baori pack's arms "The Duchesses."
• Halfway Plot Switch: Book two begins and ends with major plot twists;
  • The first few chapters reveal that the Space Assembly League are even worse bastards than previously thought, and that Chuchu and Felsi have defected to the Dawn of Fold.
  • The book ends with the reveal that Rajan Zahi is the leader of the mysterious black-clad faction, and the fic's Big Bad.
• Happily Married: Both Suletta and Miorine and Nika and Sabina are married, and while the circumstances they live under can hardly be call happy, they love each other deeply.
• Happy Flashback: The third intermission is a flashback to Ireesha and Maisie enjoying a quiet evening together after being accepted into the Valkyries.
• Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: Elan remarks that every middle aged dad in sports bar has played "Hotel California" with their band, Midlífe Crïsïs.
• Heel Realization: After her father's death, Nika very nearly falls into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge until Chuchu begs her to not hurt Felsi or her squadron, causing her to realize that she's grown far more cold and authorative than even she realized or is comfortable with.
• He Knows Too Much: It's all but stated that Lilique's father, an investigative reporter, was killed because he got too close to uncover Rajan's conspiracy to build an army from embezzled armaments.
• Hidden Villain: The mysterious black-clad faction is kept mysterious throughout all of book two, until the final chapter reveals both the leader and their motivation; Rajan Zahi, who wants to uphold the power system that Delling built.
• High-Class Call Girl: Part of chapter 50 is narrated by a priest who used to be this, having considered it a miracle that she landed a position working for some of the wealthiest people on Earth. Unfortunately, working for wealthy people is not an actual guarantee that those people are nice, and if anything it was even more dangerous because her wealthy clients were above such petty things as consequences for killing sexworkers.
• History Repeats:
  • The Valkyrie attack on Quinharbour is the second time that a renegade Spacian with a vendetta attacks the city behind Miorine's back, and the blame is pinned on Miorine and the Benerit group. Norea notices the parallel and takes great pleasure in being able to do something about it, whereas last time she was Forced to Watch.
  • In-Universe, Shaddiq states that taking out the SAL would require purging their entire leadership, down to minor functionaries, comparing it to the murders of the Romanov family or the French Reign of Terror.
  • Norea and Elan's escape from Asticassia in chapter 31 mirrors Nika and Sabina doing the same two years earlier, including fighting the Valkyries.
  • Nika and Sabina are uncomfortably aware that the Dawn of Fold's alliance with Ericht's cult (later church) is uncomfortably similar to historical revolutions and their religious allies.
• Hive Mind: The Triune Associative Technology system developed by Grassley and tested on Henao, Ireesha, and Renee, while intended to grant combat telepathy and enable them to share the burden of piloting a gundam, functionally makes them a hivemind. While they all retain individual identities, their personalities start bleeding into each other, physically as they start talking with each others' mouths, and mentally as their memories and emotions start bleeding over.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The Corrupt Corporate Executive in chapter 8 bought a high-end pacemaker that ran on Permet despite it serving no purpose, just because it was more expensive. It allows Ericht to kill him.
  • Elan #5 and Norea du Noc, both used as expendable pawns by Peil, are the direct cause of Peil's downfall, secretly working with Dawn of Fold to destroy the main facility, assassinate its leaders, and impersonate its heir to steal their massive fortune (giving half of it to DOF). Just before Nugen is executed, Elan spitefully tells her that none of it would've happened if they had just hired a regular bodydouble instead of mentally and physically torturing him to become a Clone by Conversion.
• Hope Spot:
  • At the end of chapter 52, Felsi nearly gets her throat slit when Lilique enters and shocks Renee enough that she lets Felsi go, seemingly leading to a situation where everyone can get out alive... Except Petra had picked up Felsi's gun and fired it at Renee before she could register what had happened.
  • Chapter 53 have the Benerit inner circle celebrate together because Norea and Suletta have just uncovered the last clues they need to track down Cathedra and wipe them out for good along with all their allies in CAUL. Miorine even assures that she'll protect Shaddiq from the NEU when that time comes. And then everyone receives messages about the battle on Luna, and subsequent Glass Moon Incident.
  “We were so close!” she wailed, only semi-coherent. “We… we were so close, Suletta!”
  • Throughout books 2 and 3, Ericht's Sanity Slippage has slowly gotten worse because of many different factors, namely Prospera working herself to death. Nika eventually realizes and forces Prospera to recognize it too, convincing her to drop her responsibilities long enough to undergo treatment and help her daughter. Things finally look like they're going up... until a Cathedra cell is revealed on Luna, leading Prospera to decide that it's too risky to leave her work now and go back on her promise. This ends up being the final straw that makes Ericht snap and go full A God Am I.
• Human Resources: Cathedra's gundams, the CTX-01 Gundculpa, contain the minds (and sanctified remains) of people.
• Hypocritical Humor: At one point Norea remarks that she thought Nugen's name was Nougat. Elan admonishes her before misnaming her the same way.
  Elan: Norea, please, show some respect. Anyway Nugget is still alive.
• Hysterical Woman: When Petra brings up that she and Lilique have been looking into the mysterious embezzlement of Jeturk assets, Lauda dismisses her concerns, thinking she's chasing ghosts due to the stress caued by her best friends defecting to Dawn of Fold and them having to delay their wedding. Petra is not happy about this.
• Identical Twin ID Tag: Following the activation of her "monuments", some of Ericht's repli-children of the coven have started styling themselves to look differently than the main Ericht, including one who styles her hair like Sabina, and taking on names and even gender identities distinct from Eri.
• I Have No Son!: Sibling example, but still. Guel revealing that he killed Vim, his insistence that Jeturk stop manufacturing weapons used to oppress Earth, and his quiet accusation that Lauda killed children with an attack he ordered causes Lauda to leave, declaring "I don’t know what you are, but you’re not my brother."
• Illegal Religion: As of the third book, being an Aeriali is considered on par with being an enemy combatant in CAUL-controlled territory. Norea is a bit surprised at this, since Spacian culture tends to act tolerant of things like religion and sexuality while hiding their disdain under a veneer of civility. When Cathedra attacks the Faraday front, Norea expects them to execute any Aeriali they find as heretics.
• The Immodest Orgasm: Nika is rather loud when she finishes, which is part of why Nika and Sabina mostly do it in the Morrigan's soundproof cockpit. This is a trait shared by the Morrigan herself, which shrieks and blows its Super Smoke when Nika climaxes inside her.
• Implied Death Threat: Stretching the definition of "implied," in chapter 48 Miorine is feeding some ducks with her uncle and asks him how someone would best go about assassinating her in the spot they're sitting. Rajan says that a fanatic could just walk by and pull out a gun, while a more professional assassin could take a shot from a concealed spot on the domed ceiling, from the forest on the other side of the lake, or from the clocktower behind them. He then asks why she would want to know that, and Miorine says she intends to hunt down whoever tried to recently assassinate Suletta. She then reveals that she had her bodyguards waiting in the exact spots he pointed out, implying that she knows Rajan wants to kill Suletta and not-so-subtly threatening him if he does.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • A spacian named Earlton once told Chuchu that he genuinely prefers the cities of Earth to Spacian colonies because of their grittiness, thinking it was a compliment. Chuchu punched him in response.
  • When Suletta remarks that one of Sabina's tricks during the Grassley vs. Earth Hours team duel could have killed one of her fellow pilots, Saina responds that she did kill that pilot, during her escape from Asticassia.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Suletta learns the true nature of the Elans in chapter 23.
  • In chapter 34, Lauda learns the truth about how his father died and the specifics of Guel's experiences on Earth. He does not take it well, especially since at this point Guel has waited for years to tell him out of fear. Lauda ends up telling Guel that he's not his brother and leaves before Guel can get another word in.
• Intrepid Reporter: Lilique's mother and father were both reporters who met while working on a story, her dad as writer and investigator and her mother as photographer and interviewer. Their most famous work, the Vanadis Papers, was an expose revealing the true financial motives behind the Vanadis incident. It's all but stated that her father was killed because his then current work, Cannibal Capitalism, stepped on a few too many powerful toes.
• Ironic Echo: In chapter 50, Petra dismisses Lilique's concerns about the danger in investigating corporate fraud because they are both powerful and influential in their respective companies, and there are unspoken rules that protect them. "There are rules" is exactly what Nugen said before Miorine had her executed.
• Irony:
  • It's noted several times the irony that Guel, the son of the CEO of a company that manufactures weapons for oppressing Earthians, is far more dedicated to saving lives and sparing Earth as much devastation as possible than Shaddiq, who grew up in the middle of that devastation but takes a "Needs of the many" approach.
  • In chapter 57, Petra is nervous about talking to Chuchu because she expects Chuchu to resent her for having nearly gotten Felsi killed, not to mention having been compliant to the Benerit Group's crimes. When she finally builds up the courage, Chuchu turns out to be equally afraid that Petra doesn't want to be her friend anymore because she left to join Dawn of Fold without telling her, and certainly doesn't blame Petra for having been a cog in a massive machine or being a civilian caught up in a warzone.
• I Shall Taunt You: During their confrontation, Renee gets Felsi off-balance by pointing out that she takes after Sabina's fighting style and asking if she has anything original or if she's just stealing from Earthians. When she notices that Felsi is bothered by it, she digs further, accusing her of being just a rich girl poverty tourist who only helps Dawn of Fold to feel good about herself, and the only thing people like her are good for is dying for the cause. Felsi manages to keep her cool despite clearly being bothered by the accusation, but fires back with an accusation that Renee failed to save Maisie, which really gets her pissed.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: After being stabbed during her fight with Renee, Felsi tells Petra to take the Goodfellow Haro they just discovered and bring it back to the Dawn of Fold and leave her behind since she's too wounded to move. Petra is initially horrified and refuses to let her friend sacrifice herself, but Felsi assures her that she'll just get arrested, since the massive bounty on her head is capture alive.
• Javelin Thrower: Nemain's primary armament, the Gae Bolg, was refitted from the Calibarn's Variable Rod Rifle, replacing its thrusters with a hollow spear containing liquid "lonely" permet. It's meant to be thrown as a mid-range weapon, letting its liquid permet seep into and destroy an enemy mobile suit from within like a poison.
• Jeanne d'Archétype: The unnamed girl in book two that Ericht tells to tell all the Aeriali that they should care for each other. If the fact that she's a young girl who received a message and mission from a deity isn't enough, there's also the fact that she reappears in book two, having been beaten and attacked by Eri's more fanatic worshippers, but still dedicated to spreading the good word.
• Kill and Replace: Not quite that murderous, but Elan knocks out Nolan using painkillers after temporarily disabling Peil Grade, taking his place and keeping him complacent under threat of death as part of his and Norea's scheme to escape.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Maisie May tried to tell Ireesha that she loved her, but was vapourized by the Lfrith Ur before she could.

Tropes L to Z

• The Last Dance: Norea and Elan's battle with the Pharact plays out like one. They somberly realize that they might not be making it out of it alive, and confess their love for each other before agreeing to go out fighting.
• Last-Second Chance: Just before she goes under for her treatment, Elnora tells Ericht that they're both tired and that they can just drop everything. Stop fighting, leave the responsibilities to Nika, just rest. Ericht clearly want to agree, but thinks that their enemies won't let them, and she won't stop until she's cleansed the heavens.
• Laughing Mad: After she killed her first person, Miorine collapses into maddened giggles due to her shock.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: In chapter 51, Felsi and Renee confront each other in a church at Luna. Because they're in a demilitarized zone and both are high-ranking officers in the Dawn of Fold and CAUL respectively, they can't shoot each other, or risk an incident. So, after a moment of banter, they both dismantle and discard their guns, and go at each other with nothing but their bodies as weapons.
  "Will I find you have a knife?"
  "I won't need a fucking knife."
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: On Luna, Petra insists that she and Lilique split up to cover more ground quicker; Getting Lilique access to Jeturk records would take a lot of paperwork, while Lilique's contacts might be less inclined to talk with a Spacian present. Lilique admits the logic, but still thinks it's risky. Sure enough, Petra is attacked by assassins while she's alone, and only survives thanks to Felsi.
• Like an Old Married Couple: Elan and Norea do care deeply for each other, but spend most of their time bickering, shouting, and poking fun at each other. This is especially apparent before their escape from Asticassia, when they fight over the Pharact's controls.
• Literal Metaphor: As a child, Miorine was taught by her mother to always keep something up her hat to use as an olive branch. During her meeting with Nika, she keeps a datadrive with Notrette's research on spontaneous permetic growth in her hat, before giving it to her.
• Literary Allusion Title:
  • The titles of each chapter is taken from a play by William Shakespeare. Titles in book 1 are taken from Coriolanus, a theater about an exiled Roman politician who goes to war against his homeland, titles book 2 is taken from Richard III, and titles in book 3 are taken from Macbeth.
  • Each chapter opens on a quote from a poem, play, or work of literature.
    • Chapter 1 opens on a quote from Coriolanus.
    • Chapter 2 opens on a few stanzas from Emily Dickinson's One Need not be a Chamber to be Haunted .
    • Chapter 3 opens on a line from William Blake's Proverbs of Hell.
    • Chapter 4 opens on a line from Bertolt Brecht's Notes on Philosophy.
    • Chapter 5 opens on a stanza from William Blake's Jerusalem.
    • Chapter 6 opens on a few stanzas from Emily Dickinson's I'm Nobody! Who are you?
    • chapter 7 opens on a stanza from A. E. Housman's Terrence, This Is Stupid Stuff.
    • Chapter 8 opens on a stanza from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Village Blacksmith.
    • Chapter 9 opens on a stanza from William Blake's A Poison Tree.
    • Chapter 10 opens on a stanza from Bertolt Brecht's The Rope Torn.
    • Chapter 11 opens on a stanza from William Wordsworth's To my Sister.
    • Chapter 12 opens on a stanza from Robert Browning's Love Among the Ruins.
    • Chapter 13 opens on a line from Bertolt Brecht's Christmas Legend.
    • Chapter 14 opens on a few lines from Francis Thompson's The Hound of Heaven.
    • Chapter 15 opens on a stanza from Bertold Brecht's To those that Follow in Our Wake.
    • Chapter 16 opens on a line from Coriolanus again.
    • Chapter 17 opens on a stanza from Sylvia Plath's Full Fathom Five.
    • Chapter 18 opens on a couple stanzas from John Keats' Hyperion.
    • Chapter 19 opens on a stanza from W. B. Yeats' The Stolen Child.
    • Chapter 20 opens on a paragraph from Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
    • Chapter 21 opens on a stanza from Bertold Brecht's Svendborg Poems.
    • Chapter 22 opens on a stanza from Lord Byron's The Destruction of Sennacherib.
    • Chapter 23 opens on a stanza from Sylvia Plath's Two Sisters of Persephone.
    • Chapter 24 opens on a stanza from William Blake's The Lily.
    • Chapter 25 opens on a quote from Sayings of the Desert Fathers.
    • Chapter 26 opens on a quote from Dorothy Parker's The Veteran. The chapter is about Chuchu's conflicted loyalties, and the poem is about an old soldier looking back at the foolish bravado of his youth.
    • Chapter 27 opens on a stanza from Emily Dickinson's The Rat is the Concisest Tenant. The chapter continues Chuchu's Animal Motif of a rat, as well as shows that her father was squatting at Folkvangr.
    • Chapter 28 opens on a stanza from Emily Dickinson's Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant.
    • Chapter 29 opens on a stanze from Lenoie Adams' Apostate.
    • Chapter 30 opens on a few lines from William Butler Yeats' The Second Coming.
    • Chapter 31 opens on a stanza from Ingeborg Bachmann's Borrowed Time.
    • Chapter 32 opens on a few stanzas from Percy Bysshe Shelley's To the Men of England.
    • Chapter 33 opens on Mary Oliver's In Blackwater Woods.
    • Chapter 34 opens on a stanza from Oscar Wilde's Ravenna.
    • Chapter 35 opens on a stanza from D.H. Lawrence's The Enkindled Spring.
    • Chapter 36 opens on a few lines from Rabbi Rachel Barenblat's Silence.
    • Chapter 37 opens on some lines from Bertol Brecht's When Evil-Doing Comes like Falling Rain.
    • Chapter 38 opens on a scene from Richard III.
    • Chapter 39, the first in book 3, opens on a quote from Macbeth.
    • Chapter 40 opens on a stanza from Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn's The Golf Links.
    • Chapter 41 opens on a stanza from Percy Bysshe Shelley's The Masque of Anarchy.
    • Chapter 42 opens on a stanza from William Carlos Williams's The Bull.
    • Chapter 43 opens on a stanza from Sylvia Plath's Epitaph for Fire and Flower.
    • Chapter 44 opens on a stanza from James Weldon Johnson's The Awakening.
    • Chapter 45 opens on a stanza from Carol Ann Duffy's Havisham.
    • Chapter 46 opens on a stanza from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Epigrams.
    • Chapter 47 opens on a stanza from William Blake's The Lamb.
    • Chapter 48 opens on a stanza from William Blake's The Tyger.
• Living Emotional Crutch:
  • Norea and Elan keep each other alive and motivated, and without one the other would certainly not be able to go on.
  • The remaining Valkyries (Henao, Ireesha, and Renee) see each other as their only living loved ones and will go to great lengths to keep each other safe and supported, though their relationship gets steadily more disturbing due to the TAT turning them into a Hive Mind.
• The Lost Lenore:
  • Sophie is this to both Suletta and Norea. Suletta blames herself for her death and thinks of her as her would-be little sister, while Norea couldn't find cause to move on after her death, only saved from suicide by Elan convincing her to seek revenge instead.
  • Ireesha clearly didn't take the loss of Maisie well, having gone from The Cutie to a sharp and hard woman who's thin to the point of starvation. Over time it becomes steadily more apparent that her mental state is severely deteriorating without her.
• Love Confession: In chapter 29, while Elan is on the run from law enforcement, Norea jokes that he'll love her for the escape advice she's giving him. He responds that yes, he does love her, much to both their shocks. When they go to fight the Nemain, Norea asks if he meant it, and returns the sentiment.
• Mage Killer: The Witch-hunting Beguir line returns, this time with some nifty new upgrades. The new Antidote system, in particular, focuses on protecting against GUND-format abilities (such as Quiet Zero's override), and the Beguir-Dearg Du can drain permet directly from any mobile suit, gundams included.
• Make an Example of Them:
  • The Peil hags executed Enhanced Person #6 by incinerator, and had the others watch to show them what happens if they are disobedient.
  • The Valkyries execute a rebel leader in chapter 39, rather gruesomely at that, in the hopes of scaring the other rebels out of fighting. It doesn't work and they end up killing them all.
• Malicious Misnaming After the Peil HQ attack, Norea and Elan call Nugen "Nougat" and "Nugget" respectively.
• Masquerade Ball: Yushura hosts one that's a mix of this and a more traditional Halloween costume party in chapter 36. Yushura is dressed as the faerie queen Mab, Miorine as a white witch and Suletta as her wolf-man knight, Nika as a fantasy version of Prospera Mercury, and Sabina as her raven familiar. It also serves as a cover for talks between Miorine and the Dawn of Fold leadership.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In the third intermission, Ireesha enters the datastorm fully and perceives it as an ocean containing everyone who has ever died, even interacting with the souls of Maisie May and Naji Geor-Hija. While the datastorm has been known to contain the spirits of dead witches, it's unclear if what Ireesha saw was the actual Hereafter, or simply a hallucination brought on by a combination of the immense pain and her worsening mental state. Notrette's theory that Permet is actually part of a massive network that preserves and is made up of the minds of the dead strongly hints that what Ireesha saw was real, albeit likely filtered by her own beliefs.
• Meaningful Appearance:
  • The Beguir-Dearg Du is red, reflecting how it has Vampiric Draining.
  • The Morrigan Rebuild's black coloration and cape is meant to invoke a crow or raven.
  • The Nemain swaps Calibarn's white-and-red for purple-and-white, which according to the author is meant to invoke the image of the typical white Gundam hero colour, but bruised and rotted like a corpse.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Demi-Balor has an Eye Laser. Balor in Celtic mythology is a deity with one eye, and everyone who met his sight died.
  • The Beguir-Dullahan's head can split into small "lantern-drones". A Dullahan is a headless horseman, which is often depicted with a jack-o-lantern as a head.
  • The Beguir-Dearg Du can drain the permet from other mobile suits, and is named after a non-historical creature (as in, invented recently) reminiscent of a vampire.
  • The Gundculpa contains the gilded bones and presumably uploaded minds of pirates. The name comes from Mea Culpa, latin for My Fault, used by Catholic Christians when repenting.
  • The Cathedra prisoner ship in chapter 51 is named Náströnd, after a realm in Hel (the Norse afterlife) where murderers, adulterers, and oathbreakers are gnawed upon by the serpent Nidhoggr for eternity. In-universe, the meaning is likely meant to be that the prisoners are the tormented souls being gnawed upon, though for the reader it instead refers to Cathedra themselves.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Invoked by the Valkyries, who mockingly tells Shaddiq that when all his plans pay off he will be "Emperor of everything, holder of nothing." Shaddiq himself is harboring doubts about them, but is too prideful to admit it.
• Mood Whiplash: At the end of a genuinely touching moment of bonding between them, Nika takes Miorine's hat and gives her her mask, hinting that it contains something she might use. The scene ends with Miorine thinking "Did that bitch just steal my hat?"
• Mordor: Luna, in the aftermath of the Glass Moon Incident, has been turned into a desolate wasteland of black melted regolith, with the remains of structurs still visible here and there. The only interruption to the black devastation are blooms of Permet that almost resemble twisted uncanny hands, growing from the moon's many mines.
• More Dakka: Yaya's Glaistig, a modified dilanza sol, is so heavily armed that even Norea is impressed, and it looks like it belongs in Armored Core more than Gundam.
• The Most Wanted: The SAL, in their capacity as interplanetary law enforcement, have bounties on the most influential and known Dawn of Fold members, namely Chuchu after she defects. Deconstructed as the Dawn of Fold are enemy combatants, not common criminals, and putting bounties on them like they were is an overreach of authority which Guel calls them out on.
• Motivational Kiss: In chapter 39, Nika asks Morrigan to give her a good luck. Morrigan does so by applying mild permet burns on her lips and tip of her tongue. Sabina proceeds to spend the rest of the scene hinting that she wants a kiss too.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Once Felsi stops them from killing each other, Nika is horrified as the realization sets in that she had been trying to kill one of her best friends. She gets hit with it again when an imprisoned Chuchu begs her not to hurt her pups, causing her to realize that she's losing herself to revenge.
• Mythical Motifs: Loads and loads to Celtic Mythology.
  • Of the three (so far) original Gundams in the fic, rebuilt from canon Gundams, the first two are named after one of the Three Morrígna, a trio of Celtic war goddesses, while the third is named after a different Celtic divinity.
    • The Morrigan is, of course, the Morrigan, goddess of war and fate and the most famous and recognizeable of the trio. She often appears in the shape of a crow, which is referenced in Morrigan Rebuild's feathered cloak and crow-like shriek. The sound created when the Morrigan expells steam is also often described as a Banshee-scream, and the goddess Morrigan has often been associated with Banshee.
    • The Nemain, rebuilt from the Calibarn, is named for the goddess or personification of the frenzied havoc of war. Nemain's pilots, the Valkyries, are also a Hive Mind of three girls, which fit with how Nemain is sometimes thought to be an aspect of Badb Catha, another war goddess.
    • The Gundam Lugh breaks the pattern by being instead named for the god Lugh, god of truth, law, and rightful leadership, and has a bit-stave shaped as a wolf named the Failinis, after Lugh's hunting dog. It's piloted by Suletta, who's Mythical Motifs is Lugh's son/aspect, Cú Chulainn, reflecting that she has grown from being merely the Hound (which is what Cú means) to the Houndmaster.
  • The Nemain's primary weapon is the Gae Bolg, a javelin that releases "lonely permet" into the victims mobile suit. The lonely permet seeks out other permet clusters, destroying the mobile suit's internal systems in the process and bursting out of joins looking like thorns. In the mythology, the Gae Bolg is the spear of Cú Chulainn which could cause thorny vines to grow through the victim's veins, killing them instantly.
• The Needs of the Many: When the CAUL are planning on launching an attack on greenhouses on Earth, Guel objects since people (Earthians) will die. Shaddiq, who is Earthian himself, argues that it's better that a few die rather than the millions that would die if the SAL got their way.
• The Neutral Zone:
  • The Langlands Autonomous Fairgrounds Front, a massive amusement park owned by Yushura, has been turned into a sanctuary for refugees from either side of the war by Yushura, who left the CAUL with her company at some point.
  • Luna, Earth's moon, is not under DOF control, but also too close to Quiet Zero for the SAL or Benerit Group to maintain more than a very small presence there. As a result, it's kind of a neutral zone and popular vacation destination even during wartime.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: The founder of Peil, a German-American tech billionaire, sounds a lot like real life figures like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg, especially given the sleek, apple-like aesthetics of Peil tech.
• No Gravity for You: This is always a possibility in space, which spacians are well aware of and Earthians need time to adjust to. Most people who are used to zero-g enviroments carry a small cannister of pressurized air known as Way Spray, which let them generate enough thrust to get to the nearest handhold if they lose gravity unexpectedly. Norea exploits this during a firefight, having Elan cut gravity, which she is trained to deal with but her ex-Dawn of Fold opponents are not.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: More a case of a historical event, but the Vanadis Papers, a major expose that revealed the true motives behind the Vanadis incident and that the victims were innocent civilians, resulting in public opinion on Earth turning against the operation, is clearly meant to parallel numerous real-life stories, like Dark Alliance (an expose revealing the connection between the CIA and drug smuggling) and the Panama Papers (a set of leaked documents implicating numerous wealthy tycoons in a large number of crimes).
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: Morrigan considers the Gundculpa vile and abominable, souls forcibly crammed into gundam shells against their will. However, the only evil are those who made them like this, and the souls inside are still fundamentally human. When Sophie calls out for help during the battle on Luna, nearby decommissioned Gundculpa hear her and come to her aid, saving her life and the lives of her wives at the cost of their last powersupply.
• The Nothing After Death: Assuming Ireesha's vision was true, the Ad Stella afterlife consists of floating in a frozen ocean, packed like sardines, with no understanding of time and unable to do anything but watch. Forever.
• Not in Front of the Kid: In a flashback, Notrette knocks her head on a table and is about to swear when she notices that Miorine is there and corrects herself to "fiddlesticks" last minute.
• Nouveau Riche: The Jeturks have been rich for four generations (since Guel's great-grandfather), which is nothing compared to the Grassleys or the Rembrans.
• Numerical Theme Naming: Ericht's repli-children, once they start becoming more independent, seem to take names from their numbers; Alphie (Alpha, the first), Sechs (Six in German) and Nona (Ninth in Latin) are the ones so far named.
• Occupiers Out of Our Country: The Dawn of Fold's goal is to make Earth independent of the CAUL. They succeed over the course of the second book, liberating Earth and a number of near-Earth colonies, and establishing the Near Earth Union as a new provisional government. When Miorine tries to offer her a deal that would in effect make Earth an equal member of the CAUL, she makes it clear that she did not liberate Earth just to make it part of the same system again; Earth doesn't want a seat at the table, it wants to flip the whole thing.
• Odd Name Out: The third original Gundam introduced in the fic, Gundam Lugh, breaks the previous pattern by not being named after one of the three Morrígna.
• Official Couple: Suletta and Miorine are married, of course, going by each others' last names. Sabina Fardin-Nanaura and Nika Nanaura-Fardin have also tied the knot, and Felsi and Chuchu are together. Elan and Norea get together in the second book.
• Ominous Walk: The Morrigan takes its sweet time approaching a downed Demi-Barding in chapter 9.
• Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Whoever is in charge of the Space Assembly League is never seen, though they appear to be a senate of some sort.
• "Open!" Says Me: In chapter 51, Renee kicks down the large mechanically locked doors to a church.
• Operation: [Blank]: Operation: Asura Drop is an attempt by CAUL to retake some Earthian hydroponics facilities from Dawn of Fold in order to prevent more widespread destruction from the SAL using their superweapon. It fails miserably, accomplishing none of its goals, resulting in the deaths of a beloved enemy leader and a lot of civilians, and the defection of a skilled field commander to the enemy.
• Orbital Bombardment: The Glass Moon Incident. After the last tethers of her sanity snaps, Ericht respons to the Cathedra presence on Luna by giving the population two hours to evacuate (the civilians that is, Cathedra forces she kills on sight) before directing her gundnodes to cover the entire surface in hailfire. The audience is only treated to a small shot of it on Norea's phone, but in the aftermath, the entire surface has been turned into a plane of black glass (or fulgurite) with the burned skeletons of human structures poking out. The only interruption to the devastation are blooms of permet that grew out of the moon's many permet mines towards Aerial at the height of the bombardment.
• The Paladin: The Cathedra pseudo-gundams are evocative of the archetype, having chainlink tabards and a reliquary containing the remains of the people who gave up their minds to become part of the machine.
• Perilous Marriage Proposal: While being treated for a stabwound, Felsi jokes that she was gonna propose to Chuchu right after this mission. Except she wasn't joking and was actually going to propose to Chuchu soon, though she hasn't bought a ring. Unfortunately that will have to be delayed since Felsi has been left behind on Luna to be arrested, with Petra threatening to spill the beans to Chuchu if she doesn't send a message to show she's alive within a week.
• Perpetual Smiler: Maisie May is noted to have almost always smiled when she was alive. Which, given that she was sociopathic and made no attempt at hiding it, is noted to have always felt cold and false rather than comforting.
• Point of Divergence: The most notable divergence between the fic and canon is that Nika and Sabina knew each other from childhood and had long pined for each other. The more direct point of divergence from canon events is that they stole the Lfrith Ur to escape Asicassia during "The End of Hope", and destroyed the Lfrith Thorn in the process, preventing Norea's rampage.
• Poke in the Third Eye: Played for Laughs. When Ericht reveals that she can hears the thoughts of any permet ghosts within Quiet Zero's sphere of influence, Morrigan responds by chanting "penis" over and over in her head. She later gets into more explicit detail to force Ericht to spill the tea about Prospera's relationships.
• Polyamory:
  • Chuchu's six dads are an intricate mess of relationships that only sometimes form a polycule.
  • Both Sabina and the Morrigan are at severeal points described as Nika's lovers, plural. Their Fond Pageant shows that Nika and Sabina are happy to include the Morrigan in their sexlife, and it's even tagged "Sophie/Nika/Sabina" and "Polyamory", with Jerkus describing Nika and Sabina as Sophie's wives. In chapter 35, Ericht teases Morrigan by calling Sabina and Nika her girlfriends and the third book drops the pretense and outright describes the three of them as wives.
  • The Grassley valkyries are... messy, but their relationship is certianly some degree of romantic.
• Poor Communication Kills: Lilique and Renee broke up because Lilique said she couldn't stand seeing Renee be mean to her favourite person. Renee reacted to this with jealousy, whereas Lilique had actually meant to imply that Renee was her favourite person, and she wanted her to stop her self-deprecation. When they meet again, Renee says that on some level she did know what Lilique meant, but her self-esteem issues were so bad that she could not bring herself to accept that Lilique truly did love her.
• Posthumous Character: Delling Rembran died after Plant Quetta, and has been dead for a while by the time the fic kicks off. Likewise, Maisie May died at the Point of Divergence. Delling is actually alive, but dies soon after he is re-introduced, without anyone knowing about it, so it's a moot point.
• Pretentious Latin Motto: The Dawn of Fold use "Nemo me impune lacessit", None may strike me with impunity. Except it's not their motto, but a codephrase Norea requested Nika put into her speech. It's actually the motto of the House of Montressor from The Cask of Amontillado, one of Norea's favourite novels.
• Propaganda Piece: It's mentioned that after their defection, Felsi and Chuchu's faces have adorned posters calling them traitors.
• Psychic Glimpse of Death: After they they're tapped into the TAT system to read their thoughts, which kills them, the Cathedra Honeypot gives the valkyries the sensation of their death.
• Purple Is Powerful: The Nemain has gotten a new purple-and-white colour scheme to contrast the Calibarn's White and Red and Eerie All Over.
• Rags to Riches: Guel's great-grandfather, the founder of Jeturk Heavy Machinery, started out as a miner who grew sick of his friends dying to unsafe equipment. He used stolen and salvaged junk to make his own mobile suit, and sold the patent for a pretty penny, using the money to buy the mine he worked in and the income from that to establish his company.
• Rape as Backstory: Downplayed. At one point when Notrette was young, one of her father's business partners followed her into the woods. She doesn't say what he wanted, but he was either intending on killing her or sexually assaulting her. She was thankfully saved due to the warning of her long dead nanny.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Suletta gets one from Ericht in chapter 22, with Ericht calling her out for treating the war like a petty squabble where she can just play along without ever comitting to anything or accepting what needs to be done. Suletta has some grievances in return, but is too furious to formulate them.
• Recursive Fanfiction: Out of the Mouths of Babes, by Pega_ace, a Perspective Flip showing Morrigan's thoughts during the events of chapter 15.
• Regional Redecoration: It's mentioned that California no longer exists, and the region is now called Arizona Bay. The pacific northwest also has something called "The Floodlands".
• Relationship Upgrade: As of chapter 38, Norea and Elan are officially dating, though Norea prefers the term "partner" because she thinks dating sounds childish.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Most of the Mobile Suits introduced in the fic are named after creatures and people from Celtic mythology and folklore.
  • The first two original Gundams in the fic are named after the Morrígna, a triumvirate of war goddesses in Irish mythology. The Morrigan after the goddess of war and fate, and the Nemain after the goddess of frenzied havoc. Their weapon systems have names from Celtic myth and folklore:
    • The Morrigan's sword is Fragarach, the sword of high king Nuada Airgetlám; It's beam vulcan wrist-shooters are Tathlum, after the slingstone of the god Lugh; and the the vampiric blades taken from Beguir-Dearg Du is Weregild, after an old judicial system in Scandinavia where the perpetrator of a murder could pay money equivelant to the dead person's value, to prevent blood feuds.
    • The Nemain's bladed Trichome bracer is named after hairs and spiky growths on plants; The Cliona drones after Clíodhna, the queen of the Banshees; the Ochain shield after the shield wielded by Cú Chulainn's uncle; the Neit lash after a war god married to the mythical Nemain; Catha's Eye after Catha, the Irish word for carrion crows; and the Gae Bolg primary weapon after Cú Chulainn's spear.
  • Demi-Balor is named for Balor, the one-eyed king of the Formorians in Irish mythology.
  • The Beguir-Sidhe is named after the Celtic term for faeries, the Beguir-Dullahan after the original headless horseman, and the Beguir-Dearg Du was supposed to be after a creature reminiscent of a vampire, but does not actually exist in the folklore.
  • The Glaistig is named after a ghost or faerie in Scottish folklore, also known as a Green Lady, known for haunting and guarding a single location.
  • The Cathedra pseudo-gundam, the Gundculpa, is named after the latin phrase Mea Culpa, "My fault", which is part of a Catholic prayer of confession.
  • The Gundam Lugh is named after Lugh, hero-god and father of Cú-Chulainn. It also wields a spear named Gae Assail, after Lugh's mythical spear, and has a bit-stave named Failinis, after Lugh's hunting god.
  • The Darilbalde Lir, a mass-produced version of Guel's Darilbalde, is named after Lir, an Irish god (or possibly Anthropomorphic Personification) of the sea.
  • Olcott's Zowort, Caturix, is named after the war god worshipped by the Celtic Helvetii people of the Swiss Plateau in the time leading up to their subjugation by Julius Caesar (as attested in his Commentaries on the Gallic War).
  • After being rebuilt by Langlands, the Beguir Sidhe gets some new toys to play with, with their own theme naming. It's Cohuleen cloaking system, and the Druith enhancement on it, is named after cohuleen druith, a magical cap worn by the Merrow of Irish folklore that gave them the power to dive beeath the waves. The system that allows its legs to shift between different modes is named Baobhan, after the Baobhan sith, female fairies with goat legs.
• The Remnant: Cathedra is not entirely defunct as an organization quite yet, being still dedicated to their mission of eradicating gundams under the command of Sarius Zenelli, but they have been reduced to little more than well-funded space pirates.
• The Reveal:
  • While it was previously hinted at, chapter 11 makes it clear beyond doubt that the Morrigan contains the mind of Sophie Pulone.
  • Chapter 35 reveals that the reason Aerial can operate outside of Quiet Zero is that she has a "monument" installed in her chassis, though it requires charging every so often.
  • Chapter 38 reveals that the black-clad faction, ex-dominicus soldiers, is working for Rajan Zahi, who's family has been working to uphold power systems for centuries, a family tradition he intends on continuing even if it means taking power himself. He also has Delling Rembran, still alive, on his ship, but that doesn't last long as he soon kills him for being "corrupted" by love for his family.
  • Chapter 57 reveals that "Faceless", the assassin who attacked Suletta, is the former Enhanced Person #2.
• Revenge is Sweet: Discussed. Prospera is of the opinion that whoever said that revenge is meaningless was a liar, and that revenge is both cathartic and stops further harm. That said, she also warns that revenge only soothes the pain of loss as much as any other distraction, and one should always put their surviving loved ones first.
• Revenge:
  • Norea is positively ecstatic at the chance to hunt down the Morrigan, since it was built from the wreck of her dead best friend's gundam. Subverted when she actually gets the chance, as she decides to put her ideals before her revenge, and that Sophie would be happy with the Morrigan anyway.
  • The Grassley Valkyries are almost entirely motivated by a desire for revenge against Sabina, who killed Maisie. For this purpose, they inflict as much pain they can on both Sabina and the people around her. They also blame Shaddiq for Maisie's death, but haven't made any moves against him yet.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Dawn of Fold are ultimately heroic and their enemies are worse, but they do not shy away from the darker sides of revolution, including executing enemy leaders with Cruel and Unusual Death, Cold-Blooded Torture, and other violence.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: Shaddiq sarcastically asks if Guel isn't having his servants cook for him. Guel, aware that it was meant as an insult, doesn't let Shaddiq get to him and instead responds sincerely that he enjoys cooking.
• Rule of Symbolism:
  • Chapter 19 have the Valkyries stand in a circle around a man they're about to kill while in an overgrown grove with wicker dolls hanging around them, evocative of witch covens performing human sacrifice.
  • Cathedra mobile suits are modified to be heavily armoured at the front but not the back, meaning that retreat is inadviseable. Chuchu thinks it fits their image as fanatic crusaders.
    "With your shield or on it, and all that."
  • In chapter 47, Suletta rescues a group of enslaved Aeriali children, who mistake her for Ericht, their goddess. Ericht is worshipped as a protector of children, but hasn't been able to fulfill that promise because of the war and her own deteriorating mental state, making Suletta appear in her more compassionate aspect.
  • In chapter 53, after the big battle between Renee and Felsi which ended with Petra shooting Renee in the back. Since Lilique is Renee's ex and Petra is Felsi's best friend, the narration describes how they find themselves dragged in opposite directions to take care of their respective loved ones, symbolically reflecting how despite the growing attraction between them, there is an insurmountable gap that just grew wider.
• Running Gag: Every time someone is on Luna, they will inevitably buy popcorn at the same stand outside a church. Chapter 51 even reveals that it's a bit of a historical monument, the oldest privately owned bysiness on Luna.
• Save the Villain: In the fight on Luna, the Valkyries and Morrigan and her pilots alike are thrown into the datastorm. While Morrigan and Nika can save themselves and Sabina, and the Valkyries too can get out, Renee is too injured to escape, and drags her sisters down with her (metaphorically speaking). Sophie wants to leave them all to rot, but Nika insists on going down to save Renee, reasoning that Renee is Sabina's sister, and her dying would only cause their wife pain. Morrigan eventually relents and pulls all six of them back to reality.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: During the war meeting in chapter 20, Elan and Norea have a short discussion about whether the enemy flagship resembles a cow or horse more.
• Shared Universe: Parts of Jerkus' earlier fics, Put Up Your Dukes and Simple Machines, are canon to this fic up until the Point of Divergence, and events from both are referenced frequently.
• Ship Tease:
  • If chapter 47 ends with a bit of Ho Yay between Lilique and Petra, then chapter 48 dives headfirst into this territory, with Petra blushing when Lilique smiles at and compliments her, and finding herself distracted by the smell of Lilique's perfume when they are standing close together.
  • In a Dramatis Personae on twitter, Jerkus reveals that Yushura apparently has a certain interest in the Nemo couple (Elan and Norea), but isn't sure if she will pursue yet.
• Ship Of Theseus:
  • Norea notes that the Lfrith-Ur has been so thoroughly rebuilt and modified into the Morrigan that it can hardly be called the same mobile suit, directly referencing the Ship of Theseus.
  • Briefly discussed in chapter 52 when Notrette notes that the minds that make up the universe-spanning network that permet is part of are not mere copies or imprints of long dead people, because if they were then there would've been manifestations of still living people, but there have only ever been "permet ghosts" of the dead. Because of this, she concludes that the minds in the datastorm truly are a continuation of the original person.
• Shown Their Work: The fic includes a lot of allusions to Irish and Celtic mythology, well as historical events ranging from the infamous to the obscure, and the works of William Shakespeare. After Notrette's research notes become a factor, the fic also starts involving a lot of accurate botanical concepts. The author just so happens to be an academic.
• Sigil Spam: The Aeriali Cult stamps Ericht's blue handprint on all of their mobile suits.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet:
  • Nona, one of the Children of the Coven, is a Perky Goth who likes to appear either with skeleton makeup or as just a skeleton wholesale.
  • When Petra goes to Quiet Zero, she's surprised that it looks like a regular front because she half expected a bunch of skulls decorating everything going by Prospera's fearsome reputation.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: One of the trades spacian industry deal with is prisoner labour, arresting Earthians for minor offenses and putting them to forced work in the most dangerous jobs, even buying and selling prisoners for work. It's slavery in all but name, and worse, there's an entire sub-market for children. After Norea and Suletta discover an ex-Dawn of Fold cell that have been ferrying these child slaves, Norea throws up from a mixture of disgust and trauma from her own childhood, having been in a similar position before she was brought to Ochs Earth, and resolves to kill everyone responsible.
• Smug Snake: Nugen, upon being arrested for Peil's many crimes, is shocked because consequences are only supposed to happen to underlings, not powerful and influential people like her. She even rants at Miorine that she's making a mistake by breaking the unspoken rules that protected them both from stuff like this, but Miorine doesn't care and signs the execution order. She's also confident that she can tell the difference between Elan #5 and Elan Ceres, only for them to completely fool her into an Engineered Public Confession.
• The Sociopath: Maisie May was officially diagnosed with high-functioning sociopathy as part of the Grassley orphanage evaluation program. In a flashback to her and Ireesha's interractions, she needs Ireesha to point it out when she does something hurtful, at which point she'll apologize not because she feels remorse but to indicate that she won't do it again.
• Sole Survivor: Played for Laughs: When Ericht destroys the Peil facility, one of the people in her chat (going by the handle Replyguyver) was really excited about being killed, only for Ericht to avoid the part of the facility he was in. He types a disappointed "damnit" in the chat afterward.
• So Proud of You: Morrigan expresses her pride in her two pilot-wives; In Sabina for having grown from the cold and pragmatic woman she was originally to someone who truly cares about lives before the mission, and in Nika for having learned that rage and fury are not bad things when used to protect their loved ones.
• Space Whale Aesop: Petra muses that if she could go back in time to her Asticassia days, she would tell herself to stop being a bully because you never know which of your classmates is gonna grow up to be the military dictator of an entire planet.
• Spared By Adaptation: Norea du Noc is still alive in this continuity, the Point of Divergence being just before the events that killed her in canon. Likewise, anyone killed or injured during her rampage in End of Hope (like Petra Itta) are presumably fine.
• Spotting the Thread: Lilique and Petra working together are really good at this, deducing in chapter 48 that Rajan Zahi or Sarius Zenelli, possibly both working together, have been building a private army using armaments embezzled from varius Cathedra companies, using Vanadis survivors turned mercearies as middle-men.
• Stealth Expert: The Beguir-Sidhe can render itself invisible to even advanced sensors like the Pharact's, which is made even better when it operates under water where visibility is low.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Played for Laughs. Chuchu's giant hair pompoms give her a massive blindspot behind her, meaning that Felsi can sneak up on her easily. She generally uses it for harmless pranks, but in one case shows up next to her girlfriend having read a private letter without Chuchu realizing she was there.
• String Theory: Lilique sets up a corkboard in the private shuttle she and Petra use to get to Luna in chapter 48. Petra initially thinks it's old-fashioned, but ends up using it just as much as Lilique while they're piecing together their theory as to what happened to the missing shipments.
• Super-Persistent Missile:
  • The Dullahan's missiles can be directed by its Lantern Drones, allowing them to trace targets with impossible accuracy.
  • One of the special flechette bit-staves in Morrigan Rebuild's cape is the Silver Arrow, built to be stronger and sharper around a core of permet taken from Nika's arm, which lets her control it with extreme accuracy.
• Super Prototype: A Darilbalde Lir is mentioned at one point, a version of the Darilbalde (which was this trope) meant for mass production. It actually is this itself, since the Jeturk designers are working on balancing the capabilities vs. cost.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In chapter 52, Petra fires a gun at Renee as the big cliffhanger in one of the most shocking moments of the story. In the next chapter, we see that Renee has a fleshwound but is otherwise perfectly fine, since Petra is a civilian who hasn't held a gun in years and a single shot to the body is usually not immediately fatal.
• Synchronous Episodes: The end of chapter 57 and the start of chapter 58 take place at the same time.
• The Syndicate: Chuchu's Papa Nanami works for the Hannya crime syndicate, a sort of mafia and arms dealers that have supplied Cathedra with weapons.
• Take That!: The Peil Grade being unable to create original art or distinguishing between humans, along with its many other flaws, is evocative of AI art programs.
• Third Eye: The Nemain's Catha's eye is mounted between the former Calibarn's crown, and, at permet 4, can be used to "see" the flow of permet links in another mobile suit, which works like a kind of Combat Clarivoyance.
• Throne Made of X: In Eri's address in chapter 36, she's sitting on a throne of mangled and broken mobile suits.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: In the climax of chapter 15, Morrigan throws her heat-knife and misses Ireesha by inches, allowing her to kill Naji.
• Time Skip: There is one of a few months between book 1 and 2, giving enough time for Dawn of Fold to rebuild and the war to escalate.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Discussed. When Petra is surprised that Chuchu isn't doing her usual "Spacian turds" routine, Chuchu explains that a lot of her and Felsi's issues alike back in Asticassia were the result of being a kids going through emotional times, a crush they didn't want to acknowledge, and just being bad at being people.
  "Petra, Felsi and I were kids. I was away from home for the first time, scared, missing my dads, and nursing a crush I didn’t want to admit to. And I’m sure you don’t need a reminder of what Pineapple was going through back then. Of course we weren’t nice to one another; we were bad at being people. But you and me? We’re adults now. Things have changed. I don’t have the time to get angry at every little thing anymore."
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: During their fight, Morrigan stabs Nemain with their Weregild blade and uses it for the opposite of what it usually does; Instead of draining Nemain's permet, they instead pump it full, pushing its pilots far past safe permet scores and throwing them into the datastorm. This also happens to be what the Nemain's cliona bits do, and the result is essentially the Triune and Morrigan trying to drown each other by overfeeding.
• Transhuman: A bit of a theme throughout the fic, ranging from enhanced humans like Norea, Sophie, and the Elans, to people who's use of the GUND-system have somehow changed them in other ways, like Sabina and Nika, and Brain Uploaded witches now inhabiting the bodies of giant mechas, like Ericht, Sophie, and Elan. There is also the Triune, who's implants turn them into what something like a Hive Mind. We eventually learn that everyone in the setting is some degree of transhuman, as the local Applied Phlebotinum, Permet, is so omnipresent that everyone spends their life breathing in miniscule particles that are normally harmless but may have strange effects under certain circumstances, such as when using the GUND-format or anything like it.
• Tricked into Escaping: After Nugen is arrested and scheduled for execution, Elan Ceres apparently tries to smuggle her out, asking where they might find contacts that would help her. As soon as she tells him, he reveals himeslf to be Elan #5, and the whole thing was a gambit to trick her into telling them where her contacts were.
• Truth in Television: One of the grossly unethical things done by the Benerit group for profit is arresting people for minor offenses and put them to work in what amounts to slave labour. This is very much real and a common criticism of the American judicial system, which still allows slavery if the slave is an inmate.
• Troll:
  • In the first Their Fond Pageant story, Sophie freezes Nika's arm just as she finishes masturbating, resulting in Nika going around with her hand stuck in a rather obvious and embarassing position.
  • In a flashback, Elan #4 is trying to learn "Hotel California" on the guitar, much to #5's annoyance. He proceeds to sneak lyrics of the song into the conversation as much as he can.
• Übermensch: According to Miorine, Delling fashioned himself a "Nietzschian Overman beyond the trivialities of human emotion" before his death.
• Unbroken Vigil: When Norea wakes up after a month-long coma, she finds Elan waiting by her bedside. When he realizes she's awake he scrambles over so fast that he falls out of his chair.
• Vampiric Draining: The Beguir-Dearg Du can drain its enemies of permet through the permet blades attached to its arm, boosting itself and its pilot's sisters. To drive the point home, Ireesha accidentally stabs the pilot so the blade is bloody when it comes out. Nika later salvages it for use in the Morrigan, giving it the same ability.
  Norea: Get your own, asshole!
• Virtual Ghost:
  • Sophie still "lives" as the personality in the Morrigan, though she can't communicate with anyone beyond implications.
  • Chapter 31 strongly implies that Elan #4 still "lives" in the Pharact.
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Chapter 24 shows in a flashback that, while Suletta already proposed during the events of the show, Miorine said yes shortly after the Benerit HQ attack at Yushura's amusement park thanks to some prompting from the latter.
• War for Fun and Profit: War Partitioning is an economic concept apparently thought up by Sarius Zenelli involving waging proxy wars across Earth and profiting off of them. The exact mechanics of them are left vague, but they have left Earth in a near constant state of warfare for decades. Averted for the ongoing Three Witches' War, which put an end to war partitioning and is a massive economic loss to the spacians.
• We Used to Be Friends: Chuchu and Nika were at least close to friends at one point. Then the whole thing with the Morrigan happened, and there's little good blood between them anymore. When they meet again, they nearly kill each other, with Chuchu calling Nika a terrorist and liar, while Nika calls Chuchu an oppressor and class traitor.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 57 starts out as a Breather Episode, focusing on characters reacting to recent events, some heartwarming relationship building and reunions, and one surprising but ultimately inconsequential revelation. Then the final scene has Ericht go completely off the deep end after Prospera goes back on her word to undergo lifesaving treatments, going full A God Am I mode and declaring her intent to burn away everything that she perceives as a threat to her mother until "the heavens are silent."
• Wham Line:
  • From chapter 31; "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair...". Since an earlier flashback showed that Elan #4 was learning "Hotel California", this seemingly confirms that he exists in the Pharact in the same way as Ericht and Sophie.
  • From chapter 51; "ELNORA." So far the only character who refers to Prospera as Elnora has been Notrette, who was believed dead for years. So the mysterious Goodfellow using that name for her strongly hints that they are one and the same, especially since Goodfellow also says they have a hard time using words, which is a known problem with people who have been Brain Uploaded into the datastorm.
• Whole Episode Flashback:
  • Chapter 5 is entirely a flashback to Nika and Sabina's escape from Asticassia, the Point of Divergence for the fic.
  • Chapter 11 recounts the events after chapter 5, as they made their way to Earth, with the slight twist that it's all told from Lfrith-Ur/The Morrigan/Sophie Pulone's perspective.
  • Chapter 33 flashes back to show the immediate aftermath of the second Quinharbour attack on Nika's side of things, and how Chuchu and Felsi elected to join the Dawn of Fold.
• With Us or Against Us: There are rumours among the SAL that Guel has sympathies for the Dawn of Fold because of his time as their prisoner of war, and many demand that he prove his loyalties. I reality, Guel's sympathies lie less with the Dawn of Fold and more with Earthians in general.
• Wrench Wench: Nika is of course one of the best mechanics in the world, able to rebuild and retrofit the Lfrith Ur using nothing but scraps. Felsi has also picked up mechanics to help her girlfriend modify her mobile suits to work better, and while she's not as good as Nika she's a pretty good mechanic herself.
• You Shall Not Pass!: During the Faraday attack, Norea saves an Aeriali priest from the attacking Cathedra mobile suits and draws a line on the ground in front of the church, telling the Cathedra "No further."
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: In chapter 51, Renee and Felsi are both pointing guns at each other during a confrontation on Luna. Renee tells Felsi to surrender, but Felsi scoffs at it, since they're in a demilitarized zone, and shooting a member of the Dawn of Fold leadership would get Renee in too much trouble. Renee relents, tossing aside her gun... but points out that the same applies to Felsi.

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