The Oops Cycle is an In Nomine fanfic.
In canon, it was briefly mentioned that Kobal, former Angel of Laughter, now Demon Prince of Dark Humor, was given a secret Task by God but never really elaborated on what it was. Moe Lane, one of the more active fan writers for In Nomine back in its heyday, took this idea and ran with it.
Sometime before the Fall, God pulled Kobal aside and explained the War was going to happen and that he might be among those who Fall. After realizing he won't remember this conversation, God explains that should Kobal fall he has a task for him to perform when he becomes jaded towards evil and hands him an envelope and a compulsion to hold onto it and keep it safe until such a time.
Fast forward to the early 1900s, Kobal while being congratulated for causing the Unsinkable Titanic to sink (which neither he, his minions, nor any demon was involved in at all) tidies his office to forget the slump he's been having lately, finds the envelope and opens it.
After having a massive laugh Kobal sets into motion the biggest joke he's ever conceived: redeeming three Demon Princes. And not just any prince or princess. Three of the most mired in evil princes in all of Hell.
The original site was hosted on stormloader.com before being taken down. A Wayback Machine archive can be found here
; some of the original writeups were also preserved on an unrelated site.
Tropes:
- Bad Boss: Malphas. Downplayed. He's actually good to work for... but has a habit of pulling his servitors off of their vacations the instant he finds a job just perfect for them.
- Back from the Dead: Mariel (formerly Angel of Memory and then Demon Princess of Oblivion) is regurgitated during Haagenti's redemption. She ends up being made his first Wordbound (Appreciation) and acts as his Number Two.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Mariel, after becoming the Angel of Appreciation and Haagenti's Number Two, also serves as the rock of sensibility to her Archangel's torrent of eccentricity. She's noted to be the usual person that Haagenti's other angels go to when they need to ask where he's vanished off to this week and to remind him of the important meetings and commitments that he really needs to get to.
- Dragon Ascendant: The Dragon may be a stretch, but the minor Wordbound Leviathan ascends to become Prince of Storms after the death of Belial. He's granted most of Belial's Orphans and his principality (which is promptly flooded).
- Easily Forgiven: His sheer usefulness and massive and quick amounts of undoing his prior work make Saminga almost universally welcomed by even the most skeptical archangels. The worst he gets is Eli and him butting heads over whether the best works are the ones completed or left unfinished.
- Establishing Character Moment: Saminga, fresh off of being made an Archangel, quickly showed his hand to his new allies in Heaven. He let his more skeptical fellows in on the existence of a dangerous relic, a coffin which can turn someone into a undead without any consent and that Hatiphas, the top contender for succeeding Saminga in the Word of Death, has captured one of David's soldiers to use it on. In less than a few minutes Saminga possessed the Soldier (thus keeping their soul from being destroyed), broke free, destroyed the relic, possessed every zombie in the room and proceeded to go to town on Hatiphas and her minions. He then destroyed everything even remotely connected to sorcery in the site before bringing the remnants of the relic back to Heaven and informing the attending archangels there are 127 more of these things. The next few weeks one by one the remaining relics were all are brought forth and destroyed. This killed any doubt of his honesty or that he hadn't become more intelligent.
- Evil Power Vacuum: When a Demon Prince is redeemed, his servants quickly end up crabbucketing themselves to succeed him. Subverted with Malphas, though, as his entire faction's power structure collapses.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: The redeemed Princes are accepted into Heaven, but their former actions mean that many of their new peers still carry deep grudges and suspicion against them. In particular, Jordi, Archangel of Animals, refuses to forgive Haagenti for what he did as a Demon Prince. For his part, Haagenti is understanding, going as far as to ban his servitors from hunting as "your boss has overdrawn that particular account, big time."
- Heel–Face Turn: Haagenti Prince of Gluttony, Malphas Prince of Factions, and Saminga the Prince of Death all redeem and become the Archangels of Gusto, Individuality and Fulfillment respectively. The fact that these were collectively considered to be the least likely candidates for redemption — Haagenti was a hedonistic pit of hunger and famously short on brains, Malphas a profoundly nihilistic solipsist, and Saminga a gleefully evil necromancer and almost certainly the stupidest Prince in Hell — was a central aspect in the grand joke played by Kobal and God on Creation.
- The Immune: Mercurians (who are not allowed to kill humans) of Fulfillment do not generate Dissonnance when they kill Hellsworn Sorcerers and someone who wants to become undead. The tradeoff is that the disturbance in the Symphony is increased by fifty percent.
- Junior Counterpart: Hatiphas, Demoness of Sorcery and Amorsai, the current Demoness of Gluttony are the frontrunners to succeed Saminga and Haagenti respectively as Demon Princes. However, due to setbacks (and actively being hindered by their former bosses), neither has enough influences to obtain their Princedom yet.
- Killed Off for Real: A joint operation of the new Archangels, Gabriel and others manages to kill Belial.
- Redemption Demotion: While most of the new Archangels, having to set up their new organizations aside, are doing well and gain in power, Mariel — once Demon Princess of Oblivion — is bumped down to being a Wordbound angel after Haagenti spits her back up.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Kobal pulls this sometime after Saminga's redemption by destroying his Demonic Heart so he can't be tracked or forcibly summoned and then sending himself to Limbo. This doubles as Karma Houdini as he did this to avoid being captured by the other Princes, as they begin suspecting that he caused the redemptions.
- Villainous Breakdown: All three of the redeemed Demon Princes have this, but the one that takes the cake is Haagenti, the former Prince of Gluttony. After spending centuries devouring and consuming anything in his path, what causes his breakdown that leads to his redemption? Kobal fed him something that gave him indigestion.
- Wham Line: When Malphas is having his breakdown before deciding to redeem, he runs into one of his servants who is also in the process of destroying his Heart in order to escape and redeem. He pulls them aside and leads them to where His Heart is located and then, after smashing his own heart, Malphas, who barely acknowledges other beings exists, genuinely tells him to hurry up and save himself."Your turn." Malphas told him. "I'd hurry, if I were you." — at this, the Renegade Prince stopped, bemused at the words that it thought it would never say and actually mean — "We really don't have much time."
- What Could Have Been: An in-universe example. Many of the Archangels are quite chagrined over missing out on how good an Archangel Saminga could have been if they had elevated him to that prior to the Fall.
- The World Is Just Awesome: Pretty much the thesis of Haangenti's new role as Archangel of Gusto. The world is so vast and wonderful it can't be consumed.
