Playing With / Secret Chaser

Basic Trope: A character who follows around another trying to protect their Secret Identity.

• Straight: In the hit series Midtown High, Pete Perkins is constantly trying to prove that local Jerk Jock Flash Young from Coney Island, New York, is actually the famous Jnr. Welterweight and Welterweight Boxing Champion Eugene Thompson from Poland Springs, Maine, but time and time again, Pete is constantly proven wrong.
• Exaggerated:
  • There is undeniable, irrefutable evidence that Flash and Eugene are one and the same, yet somehow nobody believes Pete despite Eugene's fraudulence as a boxer pretty much being an open-and-shut case.
  • Pete Perkins will know Flash Young's secret identity, even if he has to kidnap him and give him the third degree (with additional tools or force as needed).
• Downplayed: Pete has a feeling that Flash and Eugene are the same person, if not at the very least relatives, but he gives the two the benefit of the doubt.
• Justified:
  • Pete genuinely has reason to believe Flash and Eugene are one and the same; From having similar body types (Flash and Eugene are around 6'4", 145 pounds with a lanky but Heroic Build), to similar facial structures (Flash and Eugene bear a Lantern Jaw of Justice, Tsurime Eyes, and Big Ol' Eyebrows, while bearing a vague Japanese ethnicity), and even similar hairstyles (Flash and Eugene bear inky-black, slicked back hair, although Flash's hair is more like a pompadour with high volume and swept upwards while Eugene's more like a flatter mullet with less volume and simply swept backwards), while there's also the very fact that Flash has been skipping classes on the same days Eugene fights his opponents. The only differences is that Flash and Eugene have wildly different personalities; Flash is a thuggish, Barbaric Bully who dresses like a typical delinquent, while Eugene is a Sharp-Dressed Man (though he's definitely a snobbish, arrogant asshole) who only picks out the best of the best of Italian Suits.
  • Pete is an aspiring journalist who sees this as a way to get his big break. After all, what better way to make a big break than by killing two birds with one stone and exposing the nationally famous Eugene Thompson as a complete and utter fraudulent identity created by none other than his high school bully?
  • Because of his own Dark and Troubled Past, Pete has a Berserk Button about people keeping secrets from him. Any secrets, including lies of omission (so he himself is extremely thorough and very precise with his words). It does not matters why, it does not matters how, it does not matters the consequences, hell hath no fury like an angry Pete and you will tell him or else.
• Inverted: It's pretty much plain obvious that Flash and Eugene are the exact same person, with everyone perpetually pointing it out and being completely unfazed by Flash's constant attempts to hide it (to the point where Flash straight up drops all pretenses too), and yet Pete never remotely suspects him. In fact, he may even suffer from Scully Syndrome and reject the notion that Flash and Eugene are even remotely similar.
• Subverted:
  • Pete eventually reveals that Eugene is a fraud and is actually Flash, with heaps of irrefutable evidence to back him up...
  • Pete finds out that Eugene and Flash are two completely different yet identical strangers...
  • Pete finds out that Eugene and Flash are decidedly not the same person, only relatives...
• Double Subverted:
  • ...But he's still brushed off as being delusional. So much for all that evidence.
  • ...Except that this Eugene is a football player, not a boxer. It's Eugene T. Thompson from New Jersey instead of Eugene Thompson from Maine. While New Jersey Eugene and Flash look similar, there's still evidence that Flash is the Maine Eugene.
  • ...However, it's revealed that Flash had been pretending to be his relative Eugene all along.
• Parodied: Flash doesn't even change much to disguise himself, as he keeps his pompadour high, speaks with a thick brooklyn accent (despite stating himself as being from Maine), and often brags about knocking out some of the greatest welterweights around (including Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns, "Sugar" Ray Leonard, "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, and even Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran, and lightweight Duran at that) once he gets back to Midtown High. Pete is utterly flabbergasted at how the heck does nobody realize that Flash and Eugene are one and the same and how Eugene hasn't even been outed as a fraud after Flash made such bold statements.
• Zig-Zagged: Whether or not Pete catches on that Flash and Eugene are one and the same is Depending on the Writer.
• Averted:
  • Pete doesn't catch on, and is just as oblivious to Eugene's true identity as everyone else.
  • Pete convinces everyone that Flash and Eugene are one and the same.
  • Flash and Eugene are Identical Strangers.
  • It's clear cut that Flash and Eugene are decisively not the same person. Whether or not it's relatives or Identical Strangers is Depending on the Writer.
• Enforced: Rule of Funny, also to set up a status quo.
• Lampshaded: Pete's Boss, John Joshua Johnson, wonders why he's so obsessed with proving Eugene's fraudulence.
  John: Pete, what the heck is making you so adamant that Eugene's a fraud and is actually Flash friggin' Young in disguise!? I mean, for all we know, you might just get confused because identical strangers are a thing! Remember that kid, Bob Riley, and how we got you two confused?
• Invoked: Flash decides to mess with Pete a little by making a few clues and leading Pete on that Flash and Eugene are the same person, but he never outright confirms that Eugene is a fraud, solely for the purpose of driving Pete crazy in a very amusing manner.
• Exploited: Flash decides to take advantage and ruin Pete's reputation and morph it into making him look like a crazed Conspiracy Theorist.
• Defied:
  • Flash threatens Pete to stop trying to blow the former's cover as a fraud in the ring.
  • Coach Stan Roswell initially brushes off Pete's concerns of Eugene's fraudulence, but he notices that Flash, being the gifted athlete that he was, only approaches Roswell for a Boxing Lesson, and soon after that he goes missing for a few days, only returning after the nationally famous Eugene Thompson knocks out yet another welterweight boxer. By the time Thompson had defeated all Four Horsemen of the Welterweight division, Roswell had figured it out: Flash and Eugene are one and the same! Flash wasn't going for a Boxing Lesson for the fun of it, he was doing it because he was knocking out welterweight after welterweight! Eventually, with Pete's help, Coach Roswell manages to get out the word that Flash had been skipping school to take on the Four Horsemen!
• Discussed: Those Two Guys Harry and Eddie talk about Pete's conspiracy theory.
  Harry: "Don't you ever think Pete... Might actually be right?"
  Eddie: "Pete? Being right? What are you, crazy!? No way Flash and Eugene are one and the same."
• Conversed: "Poor Pete! Literally nobody listens to him, even when there's solid evidence to back his claims!"
• Implied: In the near future, during the Turn of the Millennium when Flash had retired, he remarks that he had boxed before his Junior Middleweight debut, stating that he actually competed in the Jnr. Welter and Welterweight divisions, before offhandedly snarking that there was some kid who tried to blow his cover back then. We never know exactly what he means by this.
• Played for Laughs:
  • Eugene and Flash are two completely different people with different appearances. Pete still thinks they're one and the same.
  • Pete had finally been successful in exposing Eugene's fraudulence after defeating the last of the Four Horsemen, just in time for Flash to come back to school... Greeted by nervous smiles, and the occasional accidentally calling Flash "Eugene". The fact that the local Jerk Jock is capable of knocking out the very best boxers around the globe pretty much made him The Dreaded. Likewise, when he finds out that Pete had leaked Eugene's fraudulence, he's just as mortified as everyone else.
• Played for Drama:
  • Pete is dead tired of everyone ignoring the fact that Eugene is quite literally a fraud. Likewise, Flash is constantly nervous about his cover being blown wide open one day.
  • Flash tends to come back to school looking like he just got the beating of a lifetime, and often tends to make excuses of getting into accidents. People, from students to faculty, believe that he's actually suffering under a rough home, and everyone's brushing off Pete's theory that Flash isn't under a rough home and is instead beating people in the ring (sometimes there's one who manages to put up a decent fight before being put down). Flash doesn't know which theory he should follow more; The Abusive Parents theory is just flat out false, and the boxing theory is pretty counter-productive, as there's a reason why Flash made a Secret Identity to even begin with: He's barely older than 15!
• Played for Horror:
  • Eugene is a Serial Killer, and Pete fears that Flash might actually be Eugene. Sure enough, when Pete is trapped in the gym room with Flash, Pete has to either just let Flash beat him down without saying a word, or reveal the truth about Flash's secret identity and risk getting absolutely maimed and mauled beyond recognition.
  • Instead of Eugene Thompson, Flash adopts the supervillain persona "Electro-Man". Pete discovers this, and is utterly horrified when Flash finds out that Pete knows that Flash and Electro-Man are one and the same. Cue the above scenario, except with the addition of getting shocked to a fried skeleton.
• Deconstructed:
  • Pete finally manages to reveal the truth about Flash's secret life as Eugene Thompson in front of the entire school. Congrats Pete, you managed to piss off the exact same guy who could easily use you as the weight for his bicep curls! Now prepare to get absolutely clobbered in front of the entire school.
  • Flash had a very good reason for that secret^note ex. he needs the purse money for his elderly mother's cancer treatment. It's most definitely not cheap, being sick in America, and minors are not allowed to fight anywhere that supplies plenty of money — at least not without greater risks like being approached by certain people who order you to screw your career if you want to live and now Pete, by exposing it to the world, has ruined his life^note ex. Fighting officials blacklisting Flash for life and demanding the purse money back — and with all of that money gone on medical bills, they will sue Flash to oblivion (literally for poor Ms. Young and the shock it will give her).
• Reconstructed: Before Flash can even lay a finger on Pete, the school faculty simply proposes that this secret is kept only in Midtown High. It will never, EVER be leaked out to the world. Thank goodness for them to save your cake, Pete!

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Call me a Secret Chaser, but I'm definitely sure the Laconic Page is actually the Main Page in disguise!

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