Fanfic / The Zero Context Series

"In a land where the impossible is possible, zero context is good context."

— From the summary of Taking Out the Trash

The Zero Context series is a fanfic Massive Multiplayer Crossover by Curtis Wildcat that utilizes characters and settings from several abandoned free-form Play-by-Post Games, along with assorted video games and anime.

The series can be found here at AO3, and here at DeviantArt^note though a user account is required to view chapters labeled NSFW. As of July 2021, it consists of the following stories:

Taking Out the Trash: Callista, a seemingly teenage girl who occupies her time with shopping and competitive battling, receives a shocking invitation in the mail: one of her good friends, the sorceress Circe, is getting married to Muffinville's biggest and most selfish sleazeball in a month's time. Believing something to be terribly wrong, she immediately throws together an alliance in order to sabotage the wedding. Much of the story focuses on the chaos that results from her actions. Completed.

Woolgathering: Starts off depicting an average day in the life of Bahija, Missy Coco's overwhelmed secretary and ex-intergalactic warlord. In progress.

And So It Begins: Exclusive to DeviantArt. This one-shot goes "behind the scenes", in a manner of speaking, by visiting the setting's Author Avatar and Yukari Yakumo, the latter of whom has taken an interest in the former's online activities for unknown reasons.

In The Heat of Battle: Takes place years before the start of the series. This one-shot focuses on Callista following her tryout with the PFL as she seeks to get some practice in before starting her new career.

Note: Despite its name, do not put in actual "zero context" examples. Please provide a proper frame of reference when listing tropes. Thank you.

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Tropes seen in the series include:

• Action Girl: The setting has no shortage of these, with the saboteurs being just the start.
• Adventures in Comaland: Callista briefly blacks out due to pain incurred during the fight against Marc. While in this state, she briefly sees and speaks to a sibling who had disappeared under unknown circumstances years before. The heart-to-heart that results leaves her in a state of contentment, the effects of which carry over when she regains consciousness.
• Agony Beam: Marc's Powered Armor carries a weapon called the Neutron Shatter, which kills off any cell nuclei it hits and sets off every pain sensor in the targeted area, turning it an unhealthy shade of gray. Callista's screams indicate that it's not a pleasant experience.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Acutus doesn't hesitate to try and beg when she believes she's about to die at Callista's hands. She's not able to say anything before the latter's attack hits, though, and she ends up surviving anyway due to the setting's rules against permadeath.
• Angrish: Callista temporarily delves into this when Ellen talks about why she defeated Marc's men at the wedding the way she did. The narration describes her as "making a strange noise that sounded like a gurgling balloon animal" before topping it off with a loud and angry groan.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In Woolgathering, the reasons Ellen gives to Acutus for not wanting to join her empire amount to the following: not wanting to hook up with a card-carrying warlord, the resulting transformation she'd have to undergo forcing her to visit a chiropractor regularly due to constant back pain, and the poses that Blue girls are fond of striking making them look like escapees from 90's-era chick flicks.
• Badass Boast: Drew utters one of these to show how serious she and the rest of Circe's Maid Corps are about cleaning right before pulling out a giant mop and bucket from nowhere:
  "Did you forget who you're talking to, Zaps? We're Circe's maids. When there's a mess... we clean it up."
• Badass Creed: An infuriated Circe asks Callista why she betrayed their friendship and set out to ruin her wedding day. The unperturbed mutant answers thus:
  "To fulfill the creed of an old friend. To paraphrase: Kill the darkness. Burn the angst. Purge the bad end."
• Batman Gambit: Essentially what the failsafe in Circe's love potions amounted to. Having past experience with magic backfiring on her, Circe placed contingencies in said products in the event that they were ever used on her. The possibility is left that the contingencies would never be activated, thus leaving her in Marc's thrall for the rest of her life, though it would still be very unlikely given her past experiences with Callista's faction: she knew they wouldn't take her condition lying down. Ultimately, she is able to get mileage out of it.
• Bishie Sparkle: Marc and Acutus' perspective of Callista, much to their eventual detriment.
• Bitter Wedding Speech: Ambush's Gengar, in the guise of a priest, gives the speech at the wedding ceremony. When he gets to "I now pronounce you...", he proceeds to viciously insult both bride and groom before breaking the masquerade, hitting both of them with a Lick attack, and cackling his way off the physical plane.
• Blinded by the Light: In a rush to get somewhere on one occasion, Callista went from no illumination to all the illumination with predictable results.
• Blinded by Rage: After being embarrassed in combat by Ellen and Elk, Circe flies off the handle and tries to kill them both with a Double Spark, no longer caring that one of them had been her friend for years. This overwhelming anger later plays a key role in freeing herself from Marc's control.
• Blood from the Mouth: When Bahija talks to Callista over the phone, the pain of admitting to her that she wants to change and give up her debauched lifestyle is intense enough that the sheep-girl can be heard coughing up blood.
• Can't You Read the Sign?: Happens to Acutus twice in Ch. 7 of Woolgathering. After getting back to Brotherhood HQ after a long day, she decides to scream in rage... completely missing the sign that reads: "If you feel the need to scream ... please refrain from doing so in the lobby or corridors." After subsequently getting blasted to a park, she angrily tears off the uniform she was wearing and raves it at... only to have a sign that reads "Don't rant at damaged clothes in park after closing time" pointed out to her.
  Acutus: Curse you, Ranma Saotome...
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Aldonza and Zapana engage in idle chatter throughout their battle against Marc's crab mech, showcasing their confidence in their abilities, their familiarity with each other, and disregard for what the mech is trying to do to them.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Mini-Lina is introduced in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment during the first chapter, playing video games while a teleconference is in progress. She then disappears from the story until the second-to-last chapter, using the Ragna Blade to annihilate a magic-proof mech that had been giving the saboteurs some trouble.
• City of Adventure: Muffinville. A collection of worlds combined into one location across a thousand square miles and multiple dimensional sub-levels, home to millions of residents from all walks of life and realities. In addition transformations are prone to happening here, sometimes without warning: only one out of 1,300 people keeps their birth species, basic appearance, and gender intact for their entire life, so anything was prone to happening in the city during its heyday.
• Covert Emergency Call: While being accosted by Acutus, Ellen feigns being cold by blowing on her hands and jamming them into her pockets, at which point she discreetly dials a long-memorized number on her smartphone without looking and relies on the noise Acutus was making to try and get her mother's attention. While her rescuer wasn't who she'd intended to find her, it still gets the job done.
• Defeat by Modesty: When attacked by a group of Marc's employees, Ellen takes advantage of the fact that she's still a minor to secure a victory by this trope. Neither the reader nor Ellen herself see the end result, and her attackers flee immediately, but it's clear from Callista and Amber's dialogue that the guests' clothes had been thoroughly shredded.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Viridi's Bouldara^note An original attack, since she didn't show any actual combat ability in her source game is used in conjunction with Missy's Mega Brand to Offhand Backhand some of Marc's security guards across Muffinville.
• Downfall by Sex: The escaped convict who attempted to sexually assault Callista twelve years prior to TotT ended up getting killed by a pack of wild animals a short time later, at least according to the news. Raleigh, who had been along with Callista on a mission to that world at the time, is implied to have been the one responsible as he knew exactly how the criminal met his end.
• Due to the Dead: Callista had spent much of her life since her near-experience with rape bitterly hating the person who nearly did it to her. After the events of the failed wedding, she travels to the universe where it happened and leaves a flower bouquet on his grave, saying that she was finally ready to move on and wishing him a pain-free eternal sleep.
• Enemy Mine: The team-up of the Brotherhood and the Forces of Nature, bitter archenemies, in order to reduce Marc's corporate empire to so much dust. After all the sabotage is complete, their war continues on.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Lust and Pride for Acutus. When Callista showed up to rescue Ellen from her, Acutus fell in Love at First Sight with her and ignored her subordinates' requests not to provoke her, intending to capture her and induct her into her personal harem. When Callista warned her to leave the two of them alone, the warlord gleefully mocked Callista's apparent lack of physical strength, magic, and figure compared to her before daring her to do her worst. Bahija is able to shake off her Pride to an extent, realizing later just how much was being held back against her, but her refusal to give up on Callista continues to set her up for problems as her life goes on.
  • Wrath for Callista. Her personal Berserk Buttons have a chance of leaving her too angry to react in time to potential attacks, which Marc exploits twice in his fight against her.
• Fate Worse than Death: While embedded at the bottom of Spring Crater's Lake, Acutus had no means of escaping or healing her wounds, was unconscious for 22 hours a day on average, and had nothing to do but stare dazedly up at the surface with only non-sapient fish for company. It is noted that she had nothing to eat for over a year, with the Muffin Continent's rules against non-natural deaths being the only things keeping her from starving.
• Gender Bender:
  • Callista was born a male human who was mutated into a Kittenoan, then later wished on a magic crystal to regain his humanity at the cost of a permanent gender-swap.
  • This is Marc's final fate at the end of TotT, transformed into the type of person he misled, deceived and abused throughout his career, with a warning message from Ambush Cat permanently set on her spinal cord.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: The ceasefire that results from the above 'Enemy Mine' leads the heads of both parties to work out their aggression in a night-long Super Smash Bros. Ultimate competition, dragging their respective lieutenants into the crossfire. On the day of the wedding, they even take a break from the goings-on to get in a game of tennis.
• Hand Wave: The author noted that Missy decided to ride to the wedding on a dinosaur... in the middle of winter, when there was still plenty of snow on the ground. He blames the laser cannon on the velociraptor's head for keeping it warm and moves on.
• Hospital Epilogue: Marc wakes up at St. Dogbert's Hospital after being hunted down by Ambush Cat following the wedding attack.
• Humiliation Conga: Acutus goes through one of these starting with the below Beatdown, and ending with the good reputation she'd managed to uphold since her revival being ruined by an embarrassing music video.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: While watching the fight between Callista and Marc from across Muffinville, Bahija abruptly relives all of the pain of the beatdown that she'd been subjected to from the former once before. She's able to overcome her pain when she realizes that Marc made the same mistake of infuriating Callista that she did, though.
• In the Name of the Moon: The wedding saboteurs recite one when they make their presence known, each member contributing to the speech in their own way. It's topped off by Callista delivering a Slasher Smile before giving orders to engage the enemy.
• Jenny's Number: When Ambush has the summoner Jennifer Berra cornered, he starts humming "867-5309" eerily before transforming her. He then pauses to reassure the summoner's frightened kitten before leaving, continuing to hum the song on his way out.
• Jumping Out of a Cake: Attempted as a surprise by Circe's maids during her bachelorette party. The key word is 'attempted'; the person they selected was so apathetic to the whole thing that she fell asleep inside of the cake, then dug her way out the side when she woke up.
• Kill Sat: The oddly named "Cosmetic Moonlight Blaster", used by Callista against Acutus after trapping her behind an energy shield. She recalls a mere fraction of its power as striking with the force of a thousand supernovas concentrated into a single point, using an incident where she got caught in an actual supernova for reference.
• Lemony Narrator: While most of the story is told in a completely serious manner, the narration sometimes takes certain creative liberties. When describing Callista's Angrish described above, it's topped off with "The narrator knows not how this is possible". In Woolgathering, just before Bahija can deliver a Precision F-Strike upon being taken hostage during a bank robbery, the narrator deliberately cuts her off and ends the chapter.
• Literal Metaphor: Bahija's offer to act as a bodyguard to her boss in Woolgathering is turned down, with Missy telling her that she would like her "to tackle something" that day. Bahija is led to believe that she was asked to do something important, but the next scene at a department store shows that she had been told to actually tackle something, the resulting attempt getting her caught in a leglock by Zapana.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Circe gets her shoes sliced apart by Ellen during an attempt to keep her off-balance. She spends the rest of the battle without them, then spawns new ones when re-applying her sorceress attire afterward.
• Mad Love: Bahija towards Callista. Love at First Sight planted the seeds, and being left on death's door for over a year made them sprout. After her revival, Bahija tries to subvert Callista's mind into accepting her, and when that fails she willingly joins the Brotherhood in an attempt to gain her approval. Even after years of abuse from Callista's proxy and knowing that the shopaholic was very happily ignoring her existence at every opportunity, the mere thought of her is enough to leave Bahija in a love-struck daze.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: The relationship between Raleigh, one of the multiverse's oldest beings, and the mortal Harrison family, most notably Ellen.
• Mind-Control Device: The Hapan Gun of Command, which temporarily shuts down the target's mind and makes them more open to suggestion. Marc kickstarts ToTT's events by ambushing Circe with it.
• Mind Rape:
  • After Marc realizes that Callista was telepathic and passively scanning him, he floods her mind with every image he could think of regarding what he wanted to do to her. This causes her to cry out, react as if she were in extreme pain and break off her assault, leaving her open to attack. Once Callista triggers her Super Mode's second stage, however, she puts a complete stop to that tactic.
  • A much less dangerous but no less invasive measure is utilized by Callista to keep Circe's overzealous maids, who weren't in the know about the circumstances surrounding the wedding, from attacking her.
• Mood Whiplash: The segments featuring each saboteur following the conference in TotT are all solemn or thoughtful in their own way while they make preparations for the wedding attack in a month's time, and the music tracks selected by the author fit that ambience. Then we get to Missy and Viridi... who are furiously trying to annihilate each other at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with an upbeat track from said game selected to match.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: The stances of the Muffin Continent's residents are all over the place. People like the Brotherhood embody chaos for the sake of chaos, with Acutus being an admitted nymphomaniac and ex-galactic conqueror while Missy Coco feels that antagonizing Sailor Fuku-wearing people, friend or foe, is a valid use of her time. The Forces of Nature are actively against the Brotherhood, but don't exactly harbor a fondness for humanity in general either. Circe is a wannabe villainess, but rarely bothers anyone and is an active friend of several on the side of good; and Callista's morals allow her to attack a wedding for a friend's sake, whereas someone lawful would have exercised more legal means of nullifying the marriage. "One of the melting pots of the multiverse", indeed.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Marc designed his crab mecha to nullify any magic used against it. However, one of the saboteurs who attacked it not only had a Jusenkyo curse that would have rendered her a powerless human, thus allowing her to continue fighting at full strength once the curse was negated, but none of her capabilities had anything to do with magic at all. This contributes to the mecha's destruction.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivered by Callista to Acutus after the latter provokes her several times over.
• Not Himself: The invitations to the wedding of Circe and Marc immediately puts the protagonists on high alert: not only was the Circe they knew not involved in any romantic endeavors, let alone with a morally bankrupt sleazeball, she was an admitted lesbian—and thus had absolutely zero romantic interest in men. After the situation was resolved, Circe confirmed that their judgments were spot on: Marc had manipulated her into drinking one of her own love potions, ensuring that she would see him as the perfect spouse for her even in the face of everything he planned to do.
• One-Steve Limit: Callista and Kaoru try to use an inversion of this when trying to convince themselves that there's nothing to worry about regarding Circe's wedding. Aside from the sorceress, in-universe there's also a computer programmer and a furniture saleslady with the same name. The possibility is raised that one of Callista's fans has the name as well.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the wedding attack's aftermath, Circe admits to Ookalf that it's worrisome when she goes an entire conversation with Callista without the latter bringing up food or shopping in some manner.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: When notified of Acutus' summoning, Ellen wonders why the cultists think that summoning a malevolent world conqueror from elsewhere in the universe is a good idea. She regrets it when everyone in earshot stares at her in shock.
• Pain to the Ass: Bahija is on the receiving end of this twice.
  • As Acutus, one of Callista's Quantum Cutters wounds her posterior. It is noted that it was the only one that got an immediate reaction from her, since the rest of the strikes had time-delayed effects.
  • As Bahija, Zapana punts her out of a bar by aiming at more or less the same spot.
• The Power of Hate: Used as a failsafe, of all things. While in the grip of a Love Potion, Circe was so overwhelmingly angry at the saboteurs for ruining her wedding that her hatred broke the potion's spell.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: The team of saboteurs in TotT consists of a short-tempered shopaholic and Pokémorph mutant who plays host to a Mind Hive; a whimsical black Maine Coon cat who does whatever he pleases; the cat's quiet and emotionless human daughter; an outgoing alien fox with a wide circle of friends; a laidback alien wolf and retired super-soldier whose greatest loves are alcohol and music; the shopaholic's evil and destructive child double; an overly conservative maid with emotional issues; and the Goddess of Nature, who would love nothing more than to see both Marc and the aforementioned child double six feet under.
• Rule of Cool: Missy's ride to the wedding is a Jurassic Park-style velociraptor with a laser cannon on its head.
• Shout-Out:
  • A local mail carrier is Derpy Hooves as a harpy.
  • The Mungojerrie, a safe zone for the Muffin Continent, is a partially-submerged and downgraded replica of the Eclipse. The ship itself is named for a character from Cats.
  • During the conference when discussing Marc, Aldonza does a decent impression of Xel'lotath.
  • The lullaby Callista hears in Chapter 4 is the theme from Pan's Labyrinth.
  • Missy Coco's arsenal of spells come from the Final Fantasy and Slayers franchises.
  • A slew of these crop up during the saboteurs' imromptu ugliness war, ranging from Cruella de Vil to two houseflies mating.
  • Aldonza references Pod People after she gets away with insulting Marc.
  • Ambush's Mismagius calls out "Fulminus venite!" while using Thunderbolt.
  • Elk Harrison transforms into Pepsiman after drinking soda pop.
  • Anubis Markets exists in the Muffinverse.
  • Claire tells Missy and Viridi to "Fly, you fools" after blasting the crab mech with a rocket launcher. Missy confirms it was intended to be a Red vs. Blue reference, as opposed to Lord of the Rings.
  • The Brotherhood's forces include Imperial stormtroopers, prinnies, and Space Marines.
  • Mini-Lina paraphrases one of Deadpool's victory quotes from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 after she destroys Marc's crab mech.
  • After getting DDT'ed by Zapana, Bahija yells "My horns! She snapped off both my horns!"
  • The weapon that Callista's Shape-Shifter morphs into against Acutus is Nethack's Magicbane dagger.
  • Acutus borrows one of the Joker's "Game Over" quotes from Batman: Arkham Asylum after curbstomping Buttercup in their first meeting.
  • When Bahija is heard coughing up blood over the phone after admitting that she wants to change her ways, Callista mentally feels sorry for Sanji.^note This likely refers to a scene in which Sanji admitted to Ivankov that he was the person depicted in his erroneous Wanted poster, resulting in the same thing.
• Species Subversives: Bahija, Missy Coco's sheep-girl secretary, subverts Sweet Sheep. At first glance she seems meek and nice enough, albeit a bit cranky and downtrodden due to her enemies and her own boss not giving her much respect. Later on when Circe's wedding is attacked, her birth form—that of a gigantic Western-style blue dragon—is revealed, and she's shown to be very powerful, prideful and arrogant.
• Stealth Insult: While Aldonza is catering the wedding in the guise of a ditz, Marc pops in to check on her. She flashes him the "OK" gesture, which he takes to mean that everything's fine. After he leaves, she and Zapana refer to Pod People when explaining the significance of the gesture.^* "It stinks!"
• Super Mode: Two of these pop up during the series:
  • The first is Callista's Nine Lives Emergence, which can only be used in her hybrid form and has at least two tiers. The first one, Aggression, amplifies her speed and reflexes by 9x while bringing her worse emotions to the fore, as well as turning her ears, ruff and tail tip black. The second one, yet unnamed, further enhances her capabilities by an unknown amount, requires her to get her emotions under control to the point of serenity, and turns her aforementioned anatomy white. Regardless of the tier, NLE tires her out to use.
  • The second is Aldonza's Combat Drive; unlike Callista's Super Mode, this increases all of her combat capabilities by an unknown amount and provides her with a Battle Aura. Her orange fur turns hot pink, and the effects of the Drive will only last a short time before wearing off on its own.
• Tag Team: Kaoru lives at the forefront of Callista's mind and can swap bodies and places with her at any time, allowing them to team up against opponents and swap between their respective tactics on the fly.
• Talking to the Dead: Callista engages in this while visiting the grave of the escaped convict who tried to rape her. She knows full well that it's a one-sided conversation, but views it as a form of catharsis anyway.
• Take That!: Viridi gives the Star Wars Legacy timeline a mild one when she notes that the Hapan Gun of Command led to Han marrying Leia.
• Tempting Fate: Acutus actively encourages Callista to do her worst, believing that there was no way that someone without any real strength or magic could harm her. She ends up getting systematically shut down and left virtually defenseless in the face of a Kill-Sat.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Zapana gives Bahija one of these in Woolgathering while illustrating the differences between the two of them and telling her why her attempts at getting hooked up with Callista were doomed to failure. Bahija's utterly unapologetic response prompts Zapana to Head Desk.
• Too Much Information: Ellen tries to notify those with her of what happened when her overprotective mother found out that someone had managed to harm her child. Nearly everyone in the room immediately roars at her to shut up, with Viridi adding that it was TMI on pure principle regardless of what Amber did.
• Undying Loyalty: While Claire is the setting's definitive example, most of her fellow maids are just as loyal to Circe as she is, sometimes to a fault.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Aldonza and Zapana discuss what to do with an extremely durable robot that they're fighting against. The robot's magic-negating armor is rendering their supernatural allies useless, and the two of them have their own problems in fighting it. The suggestion is made to attack it "with the type of magic that doesn't care one whit for magic negation". How they plan to do this isn't clear at first, since everyone's combat capabilities had already been well-established, leaving both the readers and the story's antagonist to wonder what's going on once the subject is dropped. Once everyone is in position a few chapters later, Mini-Lina—who had only one appearance and one line in the story before then—uses the Ragna Blade to bypass the mech's defenses.
• Villainous BSoD: Bahija goes through one of these after fully realizing why Ezekiel hugged her: that for all she was thoroughly unrepentant for her past actions, her misplaced love for Callista meant that if she was told to never do those things again, she would obey her without question.
• Villains Want Mercy: When faced with possible death after intentionally provoking Callista too far, Acutus mentally panics and opens her mouth to beg to have her life spared. She doesn't get any words out before the CMB blasts her.
• Wedding Episode: TotT in a nutshell: Circe is getting married, and Callista and her allies set out to stop it.
• We Need a Distraction: Invoked by Callista when she tells Ellen, who is still at school in the Spamville-verse, to get Elk some soda pop from the vending machine. The resulting chaos from his transformation would culminate in the school closing early for repairs, allowing Ellen to get to the nearest portal to the Muffin-verse in time for Callista's planned conference.
• Worst Wedding Ever: Lampshaded by Circe after the saboteurs smash the wedding.
  "If this is what my wedding looks like, I'm almost afraid to see the honeymoon."
• You Are Already Dead: Callista pulls this on Marc after triggering her Super Mode's second tier, saying the fight was over and utterly eviscerating his Armor the instant she got up without anyone detecting her movements. She takes the time to deliver a short speech about her powers and the responsibility required to use them, along with grabbing a snack from the dessert table. Once Marc finally loses his temper and charges at her, she repeats that it's over... and the Armor completely disintegrates and blows away on the wind.

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