A World Less Visible
is a collection of short stories set in a fantasy version of the modern world. It is extremely LGBT friendly and somewhat heavy on the kink elements, bordering from time to time on erotica.
In a World Less Visible, vampires, werewolves, and demons are real, lurking at the edges of reality. Some hunt humans. Some protect them.
Provides Examples Of:
- Abnormal Ammo : Erilon and Laura apparently provide Michaels with eighteen different types of enchanted ammunition for the various supernatural threats they deal with, enabling him to avert Guns Are Worthless
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: True of most werewolf packs. Adam manages to effectively take over a werewolf pack despite not being a werewolf himself by delivering a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the pack alpha that leaves the entire pack wondering what just happened.
- Badass Crew : What forms when Magda's Ragtag Bunch of Misfits meets up with The Team working with Gabriel
- Because You Were Nice to Me : Zeke gives Jared five million dollars and a fresh start rather than dragging the other man along on his quest.
- Bedmate Reveal : Khait and Abigail are shocked when they wake up in bed together and realize they did not have sex the night before.
- Bilingual Bonus : Ignacio throws out the occasional phrase or word in Spanish, and Adam does the same with French.
- Buffy Speak : Tobias lapses into this, particularly when he's had a couple beers.
- Bullying a Dragon : Watching Matthias try to threaten Jim Gordon is absolutely hilarious for everyone who knows who Jim Gordon really is
- But Not Too Gay: Averted. Several of the main characters are openly gay or bisexual.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Definitely this.
- Cast from Calories: Most magic appears to work this way, meaning that the witch characters tend to be big eaters.
- Chekhov's Gun : More like Chekhov's sword. Gabriel begins teaching Ash to sword fight. A few chapters later, when Gabriel gets taken out of the fight, it turns out he left his angelic sword for Ash to wield.
- Covert Pervert : Daniel makes at least a token effort at the covert part
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable : Handled fairly realistically. It gets the heart going, but the recipient still needs medical care and it takes him days to recover, and the one performing it notes that he broke the recipient's ribs performing compression.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass : Ash has a lot of issues and generally comes off as a bit loopy. Then he takes up Gabriel's sword and proceeds to wipe out a group of vampires without breaking a sweat
- Curb-Stomp Battle: What generally happens when Gabriel and Matthias come out to play.
- Deadpan Snarker : Several characters, but Gabriel especially. Ash sometimes manages to be one even on the days he can't manage human speech.
- Despair Event Horizon: Ash crosses one. He gets better. Zeke crosses one as well. He doesn't.
- Did You Just Romance Cthulhu? : Ted and Gabriel. Not long after the events of Storm's Mercy, Adele and Jormun are apparently dating
- Distracted by the Sexy: Quite possibly Khait's favorite tactic, and he doesn't always have to use 'the whammy' to employ it.
- Divine Date : A couple different versions. At least Abigail knows Khait is a demon when she starts dating him.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. Sima is definitely treated like the monster she is.
- Ethical Slut: Erilon actively encourages this kind of behavior. She is a succubus, after all.
- Embarrassing First Name : Ash and Michaels (Bernard and Lloyd, respectfully) prefer not to go by their given names.
- Good Is Not Soft: The main characters are the good guys. That doesn't stop them from having rather high body counts.
- Heroes Prefer Swords : Gabriel is teaching Ash how to wield a sword
- Hidden Badass : Jim Gordon and Gabriel Williams really don't come across as anywhere near as dangerous as they actually are.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse : The Four Horsemen function as the big goods of the series, as their purpose isn't to destroy the world but instead to defend it against threats that cannot be faced with mortal means. Gabriel is the Fourth Horseman. Eventually, Ash, Michaels, and Khait become the other three
- I Gave My Word : Once Jormun promises Coraline he will help her brother, he goes all in, even risking his own life to take on Merlin one on one knowing full well how much stronger Merlin is.
- Interspecies Romance : Several. Human/werewolf. Angel/human. Werewolf/witch. Demon/human.
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night : Zeke can't stop himself from lampshading that his story really did begin on a dark and stormy night.
- The Kindnapper: Technically, Magda and Stephan kidnapped Ash. Daniel did the same with Anna. Neither victim minds at all.
- Laser-Guided Karma : Adam functions as the laser by making sure Sima walks right into the paths of Matthias and Magda
- Living Emotional Crutch : At first Ash has trouble even functioning when Stephan and Magda aren't around. He's slowly getting better.
- Mad Scientist: Zeke's magical talent is that his machines work ridiculously well, even when they shouldn't work at all.
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: While Matthias is a tough-as-nails alpha with anger issues, his boyfriend Daniel is a sensitive healer who hates violence.
- Masquerade : Supernaturals hide their nature from ordinary humans. It's even stated that werewolves have a tendency to hunt down the rogues that endanger the masquerade.
- Master Swordsman : If Gabriel breaks out a sword for actual fighting, things just got real
- Morality Chain: Anna and Daniel are this to Matthias. Daniel is well aware of this, and ends up apologizing to Matthias when he feels he failed in that role. Bridget is an almost literal morality chain for Khait, as he has no choice but to obey the rules she lays down for him.
- Morality Pet : Gabriel's crew as a whole may serve as this to Erilon. She even affectionately calls them her pets. Christophe intentionally makes himself a morality pet for Lykos.
- Muggle Power : Though the Cabal seems to have a lot of supernaturals in it's ranks, the majority of its members seem to be ordinary humans.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown : Both Matthias and Gabriel are quite capable of delivering these, though Matthias is a much more vicious fighter than Gabriel is. However, when Matthias hurts Michaels, Gabriel delivers one to Matthias.
- Older Than They Look: Matthias looks 25. He's 107. Magda looks 40. She's nearly 400. Ryuu looks to be in his 60s, but claims to have been around for the Cretaceous period. Gabriel appears to be 25, but may in fact be much older. Lykos is another case. He's clearly much older than he looks but never states how old.
- Our Mermaids Are Different : Yalathanil can apparently take a humanoid shape, though he is still notably inhuman.
- Our Werewolves Are Different : Being a werewolf is hereditary, and they come in three different flavors. They can turn into actual wolves, but it's the hybrid or 'were' form that makes them dangerous.
- Pet Homosexual: Inverted. Michaels lampshades that he is effectively the group's pet heterosexual.
- Physical God: Dragons appear to be this, if Magda is telling the truth.
- Pitbull Dates Puppy: Matthias is an alpha werewolf with some minor anger management issues. His boyfriend, Daniel, is a skinny twink and Empathic Healer who tends to throw up around violence.
- Predator Turned Protector : A lot of werewolves see humans as simply prey. Magda absolutely does not, and Matthias is coming around to her way of thinking
- Pretty Boy: Gabriel's in-universe nickname is Detective Pretty Boy.Gabriel: Are we done objectifying me now?
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Michaels and Gabriel function as this. Rather than bust teens for smoking pot, they give the youngsters a pop quiz and send them on their way.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: According to Adele, one of these is how Jormun got his reputation as a harbinger of apocalypse.
- Security Cling: Ash does this a lot, but both Daniel and Laura get in on the act. Ted also has his moments.
- Team Dad: Ted acts as a father to his little group of crazy people. Michaels ends up Laura's actual adoptive father.
- Unstoppable Rage: Alpha werewolves can do this, but they aren't always so good at telling 'friend', 'foe', and 'innocent bystander' apart when they are in this phase.
- Vitriolic Best Buds : Khait and Lykos have a history, and snark at each other often. However, when the chips are down they fight side by side without hesitation and come to one another's defense. Michaels and Gabriel have a much more light-hearted version.
- Weirdness Magnet : One quickly starts to feel really bad for poor Professor Kravitz. It's possible attracting chaos is his superpower.
- The Worf Effect : Jormun and Matthias both take some serious beatings, though they do put up good fights and in a couple of those cases, do better than they expected.
- You Are Not Alone : Having telepathic demons and angels looking out for them certainly improves the confidence of several characters.
