Roleplay / CDT Space Liner

Space Liner is one of the "casual" threads from Character Development Thread.

The thread takes place aboard the IMS Carpe Noctem, a high-tech cruise liner... IN SPACE! The ship has no fixed destination, just wandering endlessly throughout the cosmos and picking up and dropping off passengers along the way. Characters typically arrive in one of three ways: on their own starship (which there are parking spaces for), in pods that travel to and from their place of origin, or by teleporting in (often inexplicably) via the Teleportation Station. The place is mainly staffed by robots of all shapes and sizes, but there are countless nameless human(ish) NPCs as passengers and even assistants to the robots on occasion. Being an enclosed space, it has fixed locations, but a few of the empty areas are up for interpretation. Quite a few areas of the ship are abandoned, and other areas have the gravity modified or even turned off.

The layout of the ship is based on that of the MS Queen Elizabeth, but features facilities that would only work in a futuristic space setting. Despite this, though, characters of any background or origin are welcome, so long as they're not so freakishly huge that they'll compromise the integrity of the ship (yet those characters can be floating around outside the ship).

The thread can be found here. It started in February of 2017 and ran for a year and a half, before tapering off in August of 2018.

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Space Liner contains examples of:

A-B

• Adorably Precocious Child: Lucina's dolls are this by definition, since they were meant to fulfill occupational roles, which in Emille's case is a Politically-Active Princess. Subverted with Carlotta because she doesn't seem to have an occupation, but nonetheless is independent.
• Aerith and Bob: Inevitable when there are so many characters from different backgrounds and even universes. But on a smaller scope, there's a family of humanoid amphibians encountered by Robin and Glitch at the Holodeck simulation. Their names are Mhr'bll, Khr'll and Linda.
• Affably Evil:
  • Enkar Zaa is written with the intention of being the sort to pull a decent Grand Inquisitor Scene. As such, he's a wistful but friendly man happy to share a (non-alcoholic) drink with anyone, presenting himself as a boring government bureaucrat and generally putting on a charming face in any topic not involving politics or philosophy.
  • Lucina, who is quite a pleasant person to be around if you can handle her excessive cheer. But then in the conversation at the Starlight Restaurant she talks about executing a bunch of people by locking them in a Death World, and approves of Jake's offer of punishing the soul of the man who molested Emille. Shireen points out the immorality of the latter.
• Always Identical Twins: Averted with the Geppetto twins, who are fraternal despite being the same sex. This helps emphasize the fact that they are completely opposite personality-wise.
• Angel Unaware: None of the people at the Starlight Restaurant group (which, for the record, include a witch, a demon, and a demon witch) seem to realize Shireen's divine allegiances until the last moment. And even then Lucina has mistaken her for a demon. It helps that the psychopomp has an unassuming appearance, introduced herself as a Linguistics professor, and didn't showcase her powers.
• Appendage Assimilation: Rebecca apparently uses this as a form of regeneration, since her body continually rots. When Sinistrina offers to help her heal, she refuses, mentioning that she could just stitch on new flesh if she had to.
• Authority in Name Only: What Max's been relegated to. At the sickbay, Cecilia disobeys a direct order to stop pestering Gabriel and Anna with the offer of her medical services when she gets too abrasive with them, reasoning that: a) They are on shore leave and are not members of the military; b) They are not aboard the Afalina; and c) With Bergmann, in addition to her status of the airship's medic, also being a priest of incarnation of Science, matters concerning potential research are beyond Max's area of authority. He can only counter that by pressuring Gabe into refusing Cecilia's help, to no avail.
• Autocannibalism: Implied to be what happened to an insane student of hers in a story Shireen told in Starlight Restaurant. The student's nickname was Ouroboros. Phagora and Lucina are appropriately disgusted by that.
• Badass Longcoat: Junko wears a black one with red flame embellishment above the hemline as a part of her magical girl attire.
• Bad with the Bone: What seems to be Gabriel Jones' special power, given his right arm is coated in black bone and how parts of his body use it as armor. Though technically he's restricted to his right arm and face for growth points, along with the claim he needs calcium to fuel it.
• Ban on Magic: The gods of Rebecca and Phagora's universe placed one after defeating the local demons, and Lucina placed a similar ban upon Solevaille after getting rid of Sinistrina. In both cases, the one responsible placed the ban so that they would be the only ones around who use magic.
• Banister Slide: Syrni Sandra tried and failed to slide down the curved banisters at Nebula Lobby. She fell off because polished metal and leg chitin were too slippery together.
• Battle Strip: Upon entering Club Pluto and encountering Kittan (who in her initial form looked like a crazed, demonic woman with a sword), Kokoro strips out of her clothes in preparation for transformation. Much to the chagrin of Conrad and Ryya.
• Becoming the Mask: Carlotta is undergoing this. She was created by Sinistrina and tasked with keeping an eye on Lucina's court, but shows a clear preference for the court (and Solevaille in general) over the Deathly Glade, and seems ashamed of certain aspects of her creation.
• Berserk Button:
  • Lucina does not like it when the topic of having a witch for a sister is brought up - she almost gave Emille (who was prepared for it) a good slap in the face for doing so.
  • Downplayed example with the numerous ways Junko's managed to irritate Miss Loki with things she's said, like accidentally insulting the concept of harem kings.
• Bilingual Backfire: Kittan apparently knows Japanese, much to Kokoro's surprise; the former immediately understood and asked about the latter's transformation phrase.
• Black-Hole Belly: Phagora has this in conjunction with a Buzzsaw Jaw. She demonstrates both at the same time in the Starlight Restaurant by devouring an entire roast pig by unnaturally stretching her jaw, while her belly remains the same size.
• Boring, but Practical: In heat and frustrated by a Non-Verbal Miscommunication, Jen Jara bluntly explains to Gabriel Kardos and Ethoya Uvalex that she was trying to flirt with Gabriel. Then Jen Jara directly asks Gabriel if he's interested in her. The answer is no, but Ethoya is. A few minutes of honest communication and logical thinking prevented a tangle of unrequited interest.
• Born of Magic:
  • All of Lucina's Living Toys, including Emille, were brought to life by being given "artificial" souls. Sinistrina did something similar with Carlotta, though the state of her "life" is a bit more complicated.
  • The Discoverer of Subversions creates a tiny humanoid in the palm of his hand during the conversation in Club Bizarre.
• Bouncer: An echolocating bouncer bot throws Jen Jara out of the Black Hole Lounge for not following proper check-in procedures.
• Bullet Time: A necessary tool to describe two speedsters sparring is to describe time in slow motion whenever they speed up.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Kokoro has "Awaken! Eye of Chaos!" in Japanese as her transformation initiator.

C-D

• Can Only Move the Eyes: Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara stung each other and ended up temporarily paralyzed.
• Canis Major: Gabriel Kardos is capable of transforming into a white Malamute the size of a large tiger.
• The Captain: Max Ahlstrom, the captain of the Afalina airship, which is a rank down from his time in the military, where he held the chiliarchos rank.
• Cast from Calories: Phagora's Super-Strength becomes more powerful the more she eats beforehand.
• Cast from Hit Points: How Cecilia's powers work: she heals her patients at the expense of her own life force.
• Cat Girl: More specifically cat boy, as the demon Jake Ronso sprouts whiskers, ears, a tail, and cat eyes. Curiously enough, Jake initially looked more human first, making something of a show sprouting his catlike features before the Starlight Restaurant group.
• Cessation of Existence: According to Rebecca, this is the fate of all necromancers when they die; due to how much their souls have become corrupted, they do not get an afterlife.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: The meeting with Jake and Lucina shook Shireen up a little, and she needed a cigarillo and a pep talk from her superior to regain her confidence.
• Collector of the Strange: Cecilia, if her behavior at the Sickbay is anything to go by. She obtained two items - a piece of Rolph's carapace and Gabriel's bone mask. Max, a seasoned soldier, in his thoughts describes the rest of her collection as "gruesome".
• Comes Great Responsibility: Dante states this as the reason for his approval of Ban on Magic.
  Dante: You don't give a kitchen knife to a child - he will cut himself with it!
• Cool Shades: Worn by Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara to protect their eyes from bright light. Zig-Zagged because the lenses automatically adjust their tint based on how much light there is.
• Creepy Doll: Maybe not that creepy given their pleasant appearance and nature, but the dolls in Lucina's court might still qualify, especially since they're living. Especially Carlotta, who was created by a necromancer and has something of a dark aura about her underneath her innocent appearance.
• Crisis of Faith: Cecilia did not take well the fact that she's retained her powers despite their source (her patron deity, Sophia) being absent. She even lashes out at Gabriel for the relatively harmless joke he made. Which he mostly directed at himself anyway.
• Cross-Cultural Kerfluffle:
  • Jen Jara thinks an interspecies miscommunication is happening when her attempts to flirt with Gabriel Kardos fail and Ethoya Uvalex unexpectedly does something that Jen Jara interprets as flirting with her. Before any further misunderstandings and frustrations happen, Jen Jara starts an honest dialogue to sort things out.
  • Gabriel Kardos was just checking the sharpness of the blades on his fans. When the blades drew his blood and the blood turned into feathers, he didn't know that deliberately shedding feathers in front of a Viporis was a flirty gesture in their culture.
  • Ethoya Uvalex, on the other hand, quickly and correctly inferred that offering a feather to Jen Jara was a flirty move.
• Damaged Soul: Rebecca is an interesting case - her soul was already damaged before her death, having been corrupted by dark magic. Her only option to preserve it was to turn herself into a lich.

• Dark World: Enkar and Ethoya, who (sort of) come from the same world, both consider Earth to be this to their world. Enkar pities anyone from "the Dying World", while Ethoya all but expects them to attack her.
• Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes:
  • Having spent the past three years in the dimly-lit Deathly Glade, Sinistrina is bothered by the ambient bright light about the pool deck while crossing it.
  • Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara have Cool Shades glued to their faces to protect their eyes from bright light.
• Detect Evil: The demon lords of Dring (and anyone related to them, like Phagora) can detect their associated deadly sin within people, but not any other type of evil. Meaning Phagora can detect gluttonous tendencies in people.
• Didn't See That Coming: Jen Jara initially approaches Ethoya Uvalex in the mindset of "drive off the rival female" and is quite surprised when Ethoya does a quick inference and flirtatiously offers her a feather.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Shireen's Geas of Lucina includes one, to quote:
  Shireen: The collective pain and grief caused by the cruelties done by you, or in your name shall be returned to you tenfold.
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: Defied by Syrni Sandra, who knocks before entering the combat zone so she doesn't startle anyone waiting there.
• Double Entendre: Not a sexual one, but in response to Phagora (a child of a Gluttony demon lord) saying that doesn't mean to corrupt anyone in the Starlight Restaurant 1F group, Shireen, just finishing her trip to the Liner, and thus very hungry, jokingly says, "you can corrupt me anytime you like".
• Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal: Alluded to:
  Asking Ceallagh about [sex] had its hazards: she wouldn't stop at mere descriptions.
• Draconic Humanoid: Four of them: Ryya, the Eastern Dragon styled senjai; Conrad, who is similar in appearance to Ryya; Kokoro, whose transformed state has a winged salamander look; and Kittan, in her apparent true form as Leviathan. All of them are even in Club Pluto together.
• Dragged Off to Hell: By coming to the Carpe Noctem, Iragan and Ora were evading punishment. Eventually, as evidenced by the third voice that interrupts their narrating, they're noticed and taken away for more severe disciplinary actions.
• Dramatic Irony: The narration describes, in detail, the ways in which Enkar Zaa comes from the Josef Stalin school of revolutionary thought. He makes an effort not to say anything that would out himself.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: The angel Kittan is clearly annoyed to be treated as if she's a random know-nothing jerk, despite (supposedly) being at Club Pluto merely to pragmatically dispose of the dead bodies before anything (like a zombie outbreak) can happen.

E-F

• Ear Worm: Jen Jara gets Dance Magic Dance stuck in her head when she first sees Gabriel Kardos. Then she manages to get the song stuck in Syrni Sandra's head, and even Gabriel's, as well.
• Eating Optional: This is true of Rebecca, Sinistrina, Emille, and Carlotta; they can eat and taste things, but don't need food to survive.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita: Worn by Lucina and all her dolls, as well as Ayako. Though only Ayako's style could be considered Gothic (or close to it); Lucina, Emille, and Carlotta's outfits are more in line with Hime, Classic, and Sweet, respectively.
• Elemental Hair Colors:
  • Subverted when Natalie mistook Junko's white hair for her having ice-based powers when she actually has fire-based ones, double subverted when Junko stated that her hair turns red when she transforms.
  • Played straight with the Geppetto twins: Lucina, with power over light and life, has blonde hair, while Sinistrina, with power over darkness and death, has black hair.
• The Empath: Shireen is an overly narrow and somewhat recursive version of this: she can sense the capacity for compassion, her domain, in others.
• Erudite Stoner:
  • Nemaforte is just about always high on one of her herbs, and yet, she has a keen understanding of said herbs and magic in general, and still manages to remain sufficiently coherent (if eccentric) to run an herb shop. The "Spiral of Pleasure" tea that she drank even made her better able to listen to what Magistralis and the One Who Brings Horizons, two clearly otherworldly beings, were saying.
  • Shireen the Linguistics professor, if her possessing a cigarette case with cannabis leaf engraved on it is any indication.
• Exotic Equipment: Implied for Viporises. The reason Jen Jara ducks into the gender-neutral restrooms instead of the ladies' restrooms is because she considered the possibility of her genitalia being mistaken for a phallus.
• Exotic Eye Designs:
  • Conrad has golden slit eyes, looking like spiderwebbing cracks of gold are forming. Interestingly enough, this seems to be because of his soul being unusually powerful.
  • Kokoro's eyes in her transformed state only have pupils; the rest consists of an ever changing mix of red and orange.
• Expy:
  • Emille is based off of Shinku from Rozen Maiden. Wearing a fancy red dress, being very snobbish and particular about her tea, having a drive to use magic, being defiant yet loyal(ish) to her master... and even being given a ring as a source of her power. Fiona apparently noticed this and mentioned Rozen Maiden when she met Lucina.
  • Loki Laufeyjarson's outfit was inspired by the various Doctors.
  • Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara were inspired by Kim Possible and Shego.
• Face of a Thug: It's been said that Max's Facial Markings only enhance his resemblance to some malicious spirit.
• Fantastic Drug: Nemaforte has a large collection of these in her herb shop, some of which come in the form of strange potions and incenses. Also overlaps with Fantastic Flora as the herbs are extraterrestrial and grow in a place of eternal night.
• Fantastic Racism: Discoverer of Subversions seems to have no proper respect for soulless beings, as he has clearly expressed doubt when it comes to The Muse's relevance on the subject. Perhaps Justified, however, as souls are explicitly the person themselves in his native universe and by that definition The Muse wouldn't count as a person.
• Fighting in All the Wrong Places Index:
  • Fighting outside of designated combat zones is against the rules on board the IMS Carpe Noctem.
  • Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara, unaware of this rule when they boarded the ship, scuffled on the stairs. The robot crew tried to tell Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara this rule in person, but resorted to delivering the message over the PA system when they couldn't keep up with the Teleport Spam.
• Finger-Twitching Revival: Invoked by Syrni Sandra moving her fingers to test how much the paralytic has worn off.
• The Force Is Strong with This One: Sinistrina notes that Conrad contains a lot of ether.
• Foreign Queasine:
  • Lucina and Phagora have an averse reaction to Shireen ordering quwyrdaq - beef offal roasted with onions, potatoes, carrots and pumpkin.
  • Subverted when it comes to Minerva and Shireen's reactions towards Rolph's mentioning of maggot pies; the former just assumes its a delicacy of his race, and the latter merely dislikes the texture (she prefers horseflesh pie).

• From the Latin "Intro Ducere": When Phagora introduces herself, Lucina remarks on how that name contains the Greek root phago, meaning "eat"... and then extends that to her own name containing the Latin lux, meaning "light", and how Emille's full name is French for "Emily the Red". To which Shireen wonders if she's a fellow linguist.

G-H

• Genius Bruiser: Halberd is quite large and strong for a human... and he's also the Gadgeteer Genius of the Black Cat Bandits.
• Geometric Magic: Rebecca's version of Animate Dead involves this - drawing several symbols on the floor with chalk.
• Getting the Boot: An echolocating bouncer bot ejects Jen Jara from the Black Hole Lounge for not following proper check-in procedures.
• Gilligan Cut: Jen Jara's ejection from the Black Hole Lounge is presented this way.
  Jen Jara: Can't I stay here for just a bit longer?
  One precisely targeted boot later, Jen Jara tumbled out the door of the Black Hole Lounge...
• Glad He's On Our Side: Syrni Sandra witnesses Gabriel Kardos outspeeding Jen Jara (and coincidentally making it clear he could also out-speed any older and faster Viporises). She thinks to herself it's a good thing he's friendly and just sparring.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Lucina is revealed to be not as good as she claims to be, acting like a combination of Knight Templar and The Caligula as queen of Solevaille (what with her carefree and hammy attitude and penchant for capital punishment, under the pretense of making Solevaille more well-known).
• Gold–Silver–Copper Standard: Shireen has three cigarette cases: the gold-plated one, containing cigarillos, the silver-plated one, containing cigarettes without a filter and a cigarette holder, both cases having a stylized tobacco leaf engraving on them, and a third one, bronze-plated, with cannabis leaf engraving on it.
• Guardian Angel: Although Shireen's occupation is titled Psychopomp, essentially, she is this - a nonhuman in service of a deity, whose task is to guide, teach and protect mortals on their path of life.
• Hammerspace:
  • Loki's coat has pockets that are Bigger on the Inside.
  • Joshua's personal portal that apparently contains an insane number of tacos.

• Handy Feet: Kokoro has these, which makes sense as she doesn't have any arms in human form.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: How Servants!Loki initially made her appearance, pretending to be yet another of Natalie's figurine replicas.
• High-Class Glass: Winky, despite being a wooden puppet. He sports a monocle and wears a top hat and a fancy suit. Fitting given his (former) position as mayor of Solevaille.
• Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Nemaforte sells various herbal substances at her shop that can do this.
• Hilarity Ensues: When a pair of liches decide to hit the spa.
  Attendant: Er, ma'am? I don't think our facilities are equipped to touch-up full scale undead rot.
  Rebecca: Consider this a challenge.
• Hint Dropping: When Ethoya Uvalex shows up and exchanges a tense and wary look with Gabriel Kardos, Jen Jara responds by taking one of the feathers made from Gabriel's blood and stroking it across her chin. She thinks she's sending a back-off message to Ethoya while declaring her intent to flirt with Gabriel, but instead, Gabriel gets weirded out and Ethoya offers one of her own feathers to Jen Jara. This drives Jen Jara to throw subtlety out the window in frustration and bluntly explain herself.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: Because she is undead, Sinistrina uses the figure of speech "for the death of me" instead of "for the life of me".
• Holy Hand Grenade: The magic that Emille acquires in the Spirit Room is of this type - vanquishing evil with holy light. This does not go well for Phagora, who had been teaching her about magic there, since she's half-demon and thus very averse to said light.
• Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Jake Ronso says his mother is the Rider of Famine, whilst later claiming to be the second Rider of Conquest. Thus, it would seem being a Rider isn't necessarily inheritable, given he isn't Famine as well.
• Hot Springs Episode: Substitute hot tubs for hot springs on the pool deck.

I-K

• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Gabriel Kardos was just checking the sharpness of the blades on his fans, but when the blades drew his blood and the blood turned into feathers, Jen Jara thought he was showing off for her and flirted back by picking up one of his feathers and playing with it. This weirded him out.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Very carefully implied by Enkar when he decides to see whether or not Jinsui is sympathetic to Enkar's perspective.
  Enkar: But you agree a great many things the innocent and naive may never understand or forgive you for are necessary to combat the great disease [of fascism]?
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: After spotting Ethoya Uvalex flirting with Jen Jara, Syrni Sandra delivers the obligatory warning to Ethoya.
  Syrni Sandra: Ethoya, a moment of your time please.
  [off to one side so others don't hear]
  Syrni Sandra: Consider this the obligatory warning. Jen Jara is not biologically my sister, but we know each other so well, we might as well be sisters in spirit. If you ever do anything to hurt her you'll rouse the wrath of the entire Web of Friendship.
• I Have Many Names: Jake Ronso has at least three- The Demon General of Greed, The Divine Beast Ziz, and The Second Rider of Conquest.
• I'm Okay!: After her alarming fall off the banisters, Syrni Sandra teleports to safety and reassures the crowd.
• I Need a Freaking Drink:
  • Loki Laufeyjarson heads over to peruse Nemaforte's wares after getting a headache trying to interact with the Nameless Songmind.
  • Spoken almost word-for-word by Halberd, who immediately heads up to Club Neptune for a drink upon arrival to relieve the stress over the Sky Pirate malfunctioning.
• Inconvenient Attraction: Syrni Sandra realizes she's going into heat soon after being warned that Gabriel Kardos isn't interested in flirting.
  Syrni Sandra [thinking]: Oh, This Is Gonna Suck...
• Inconvenient Itch: Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara suffer from these while paralyzed. Jen Jara gets a medic bot to scratch behind her ears, but Syrni Sandra steadfastly suffers in silence because her itch is caused by the tape anchoring her IV drip, which she doesn't want disturbed.
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • In the Stellar Spa, Sinistrina tells Rebecca and Dante that she cannot feel pain. Immediately after that, the cream that had been applied to her face starts to burn her skin, causing her much discomfort.
  • On the Pool Deck, when Lux informs Emille that Sinistrina is on the ship, Emille denies it, explaining that she is dead and cannot possibly be on the ship. Immediately after that, she sees Sinistrina (and Rebecca) pass by.
• Interactive Narrator: Orain, but she can only interact with Discoverer of Subversions, due to the way how his powers work.
• Interspecies Romance: Rikyu, a human, starts hitting on Mari, an oni, over drinks at the Dark Matter Lounge.
• Intoxication Ensues: As a result of Loki taking a larger than proscribed dose of the Cosmic potion.
• Kaleidoscope Eyes:
  • Loki Laufeyjarson's eyes are either green, gold, or purple or some combination.
  • In her transformed state, the entirety of Kokoro's eyes, barring her pupils, act like a red and orange lava lamp.
• King of All Cosmos:
  • Those expecting vast and cosmic perspective from Ethoya tend to be disappointed. For all her power as a fragment of the pantheistic Xayu, she's a cheerful hedonist who has an aversion to navel-gazing and answers deep philosophical questions only with parables, riddles, and general strangeness she doesn't always fully understand herself. She also starts the thread mildly stoned, and never fully recovers.
  • Unsurprisingly, this is true of any given universe's version of Loki.
  • Dante Hisakawa, the all-powerful incarnation of Time, Change and Decay, is also an incredibly sleazy Lounge Lizard.

• Knight Templar Big Brother: Lucina is a Knight Templar Twin Sister to Sinistrina. According to what she tells Jake at the Starlight Restaurant, one of the reasons why she transformed Solevaille into a kingdom of Living Toys was to give Sinistrina something good to do with her magic, in an attempt to pull her out of the misery she always felt. She even invited her to rule alongside her at first.

L-M

• Lady Looks Like a Dude: When Lucina first sees Shireen, she thinks Shireen is a man from her hair and the way she dresses. Whoops.
• Lady of Black Magic: Sinistrina is a lady of literal Black Magic. In the Galaxy Apparel store, she engages Gerald in a mature and proper fashion while Casting a Shadow and raising spiders from the dead. Naturally Gerald does not take it well. In Club Pluto, she casually throws around life-draining shadow spells while interacting with the group there in a similar manner.
• Large Ham: Lucina, given her loud and showy manner of speaking, cheerful demeanor, and tendency to draw attention to herself. Ham is also her favorite food!
• Layman's Terms: Employed by Cecilia when she was explaining her powers to the Sickbay group. The manipulation of biochemical processes inside Anna's organism is "lending her my life energy".
• Lemony Narrator:
  • Ira and Ora, when narrating, often wander off to completely unrelated to current events topics, make observations concerning characters' actions and make sarcastic remarks on everything, including each other.
  • Iragan is an exaggerated example: large part of his narration is trivia, often unrelated (not to mention unneeded) to current events or characters. And he doesn't actually narrate current events. He simply can't.
• Literal Genie: A sci-fi variation with Holodeck 2, which Robin and Glitch were using: first, Robin asks for a visit to a tropical beach. Holodeck simulates an empty, wild oceanic beach for her. Then, Glitch orders the beach to be filled with people of the planet where this beach is located. A crowd of humanoid amphibians appear. Lastly, Robin tells the Holodeck's AI to fast-forward the simulation time until the evening. It does so, but the simulation was not paused, and a freaked out crowd of frog-people buried Robin, frozen in place, in wet sand up to her neck, so she wouldn't overheat.
• Lonely Doll Girl: Both of the Geppetto twins. Lucina, being The Sociopath, makes up for her lack of consideration for others by creating Living Toys for herself and others to enjoy. Sinistrina was isolated because of her magic and became a Living Doll Collector of animated corpses.
• Mad Artist: The Muse seeks to turn the entirety of existence into a Stable Time Loop as part of a grand artistic project guided by an intuitive sense of beauty.
• Mad Mathematician: The Muse's sense of beauty is based in a mathematical perspective of the universe, and it frequently references mathematical concepts, even when it's unnecessary or counterproductive to whatever point it's trying to make.
• Made of Good:
  • Ethoya. Sort of. In theory. In practice, long-term contact with the physical universe — especially the city of Oriyith — and the sometimes askew Uelane definitions of good mean she's just as capable of flaws and sins as any mortal, though it's also a lot more likely to come back to haunt her if she oversteps herself.
  • Lucina claims to be this. She is sorely mistaken.
• Magical Gesture: Sinistrina is particularly fond of these; most of her spells involve either a simple hand gesture or a motion with her staff. Upon arriving at Club Pluto, she uses both at once: first leaning her staff forward to send a shadow into the club, then beckoning with the hands reaching out of it to re-animate a corpse. The main exception to this is re-animating her spiders, which involves no additional motion on her part.
• Magical Girl:
  • Ayako, Junko, and Kokoro are all magical girls working for AEGIS.
  • Natalie is a Slime Girl, who while not possessing any magic, is a fan girl of magical girls. She's even developed her own transformation sequence and magical girl persona.
• Magic Mirror: There's a whole fiasco revolving around one between Lucina and Sinistrina - the former of whom had a permit for one, the latter of whom emerged from one.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Discussed by Lucina. For example, Emille Laroux is French for "Emily the Red", which makes sense since her outfit and hair are both red.
  • The name Ethoya Uvalex means "Golden Parrot" - fitting given her golden bird wings.
  • Sinistrina von Schwarzwald^note Schwarzwald being German for "blackwood" is quite a fitting name for a black-clad witch from a Death World who uses Black Magic. This actually overlaps with Meaningful Rename, since her actual surname is Geppetto. (Which is itself a meaningful name given the association with toymaking).
  • Ayako's name is Japanese for "pattern child". Fitting for a magical tailor girl.
  • Orain and Iragan's names mean "present" and "past", respectively, reflecting the fact that the former narrates in present tense and the latter in past tense.
  • Phagora, chef of the Starlight Restaurant and daughter of the Demon Lord of Gluttony, has a name based on the Greek root phago, meaning "eat".
  • There are a few characters who have names based on Latin roots/words. Mancipium, Conrad's soulless bodyguard, is based on the Latin word for slave. Striga is Latin for witch, which she actually is. Light-oriented White Magic user Lucina has a name containing the Latin lux, meaning "light". Anima, Sinistrina's spider familiar, is Latin for soul.
  • The name of the incarnation that Cecilia serves to is Sophia, which means "wisdom". She is, of course, the goddess of Knowledge (among other things).
  • It's revealed that the names of all of the Shattered World's incarnations must be meaningful.
• Menacing Stroll: Gabriel Kardos, showing off his Super-Speed, strolls up to Jen Jara and closes the distance as she flinches away at supersonic speeds.
• Mid-Battle Tea Break: Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara take a mid-battle restroom break. Justified, as they've been fighting for two hours prior to boarding the ship. The break is extended when Syrni Sandra books a room before joining Jen Jara in the Combat Zone.
• Miscarriage of Justice: Shireen voices her concerns that this is what will happen if Lucina agrees to Jake's offer to punish the soul of a man who molested Emille. The soul takes a form of a gem, so there are no (for Shireen, at least) means to determine if it's the right person's. Furthermore, the punishment Jake proposed has a lot of potential for spiraling things out of control. Unfortunately for her, Shireen has misjudged the situation, as justice is not what Jake's offering in the first place.
• Mistaken for Exhibit: At the entrance to the Starlight Restaurant, Albert has taken Jake, Fiona, Lucina and Winky for street performers, not the least due to Lucina's hamminess working too well. Robin couldn't stand the sight of his embarrassment.
• Mistaken Nationality: Though Gabriel Jones looks like he might be Hispanic, he claims that isn't correct- admittedly of his own prompting, with neither Minerva or Tigris seeming to care about his actual ethnicity or nationality.
• Mobstacle Course:
  • Lampshaded by Syrni Sandra as she leaps and bounds through the crowd immediately after dodging off the teleport pad she arrived on.
    Syrni Sandra: Scuze me, pardon me, ritual combatant coming through.
  • Gabriel Kardos, in his giant Malamute form, weaves through the crowd while rushing Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara to sick bay.
• Motive Rant: Lucina gives one to Jake after he keeps berating her for her cruelty to her people (after she had just been placed under a geas by Shireen). Two, actually: one explaining the struggle she went through to have her living dolls be accepted into Solevaille's society, and another explaining why she banished Sinistrina to the Deathly Glade.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Jen Jara is shocked and embarrassed over her previous flirty behavior when Gabriel Kardos tells her he's already got a woman in his life.
• My God, You Are Serious!: At first Syrni Sandra thought Jen Jara was bantering when Jen Jara expressed an interest in sparring Gabriel Kardos. Later in Sick Bay, Syrni Sandra finds out that Jen Jara was serious, when Gabriel Kardos accepts an explicit offer. Syrni Sandra expressed her momentary dismay.
  Syrni Sandra: Oh dear, Jen Jara was serious about that.
• My Sensors Indicate You Want to Tap That: Spoken by Glitch, to Shireen, regarding Robin. Since it was the result of Shireen's superior messing with them all, he's mistaken.
• Mystical White Hair: Asked about by Natalie, pertaining to Junko's white hair, stating that those who have white hair are usually of a supernatural persuasion, or genetically altered. Junko is of the former, being a Magical Girl.

N-O

• Naked People Are Funny: The end result of Kokoro stripping before transforming: Conrad immediately and awkwardly apologizes for not realizing Kokoro's Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing, Ryya gets flustered and embarrassed, and Kokoro herself gets embarrassed at all the attention she got. Fortunately Mancipium and Sinistrina came to her rescue and provided a modesty curtain for her.
• Never Heard That One Before:
  • Rebecca's response to Carlotta's "Are you dead?" question, though it's merely a groan. Much later she tells the Club Pluto group not to call her a zombie.
  • Sinistrina has a similar reaction to being mistaken for a vampire. When Conrad remarks on it being potentially rude to ask if she and Rebecca are revenants, she consciously averts this trope by saying that she is flattered that Mancipium didn't call her a vampire instead, having anticipated this trope coming up.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Said verbatim by Junko in response to Miss Loki mentioning one person's efforts in making wendigos sexy.
• Non-Indicative Name: Anima, Sinistrina's spider familiar, is named after the Latin word for soul. However, as a Voodoo Zombie, she has no soul.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: Averted for female Viporises, their chests are flat and nipple-less because they are marsupials, therefore their mammary glands are located in the pouches on their bellies instead of on mounds of flesh.
• Non-Verbal Miscommunication: Gabriel Kardos was just checking the sharpness of the blades on his fans, but when the blades drew his blood and the blood turned into feathers, Jen Jara thought he was showing off for her and flirted back by picking up one of his feathers and playing with it. This weirded him out.
• Noodle Implements: Western Amalgamated's dimensional scanning and portal device is cobbled together from "a stolen magical diadem, an antique 20th-century CRT TV, and a water tank full of jellyfish".
• No One Should Survive That!: Lucina's reply to Jake telling/showing her that Sinistrina is still alive^note technically false as she's actually undead, explaining that she had been trapped in the Deathly Glade for three years.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Minerva's exhibiting a few signs of this when gives Gabriel a surprise hug. Twice.
• Not a Morning Person: Ayako is this, being very groggy after waking up, until she walked into a door, (painfully) bringing her to her senses.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Lucina, Sinistrina, and Carlotta never use the term "lich", instead referring to lengthy terms such as "sorcerer who becomes immortal by storing their soul inside an object". Justified from their perspective, as they are from a time period before that term existed. Averted with Sinistrina once she learns the term from Rebecca.
• Oh, Crap!: Jen Jara finds out the hard way that her Super-Reflexes can't keep up with Gabriel Kardos's Super-Speed. As she watches him saunter towards her faster than she can scramble away, she thinks, "Yikes!"
• Oh, My Gods!: Loki Laufeyjarson mentally swears by "Freya's shaved cat" when meeting the Discover of Subversions, who knew she was a) a god, and b) planning mischief.
• Older Than They Look:
  • In contrast with young-looking characters who have fantastic ages, Gwion appears to be somewhere in his mid forties to early fifties but is actually closer to seventy-six.
  • Hadia looks like she's in her twenties, but is more around her forties, minimum, with Western Amalgamated biotechnology to thank for her looks.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • There are at least three different versions of Loki mentioned. Two of said Lokis are (presumably) passengers on the Carpe Noctem: the Servants of Humanity ESPER Director Loki; and Loki Laufeyjarson, member of AEGIS. Both of whom are female.
  • There are two Gabriels: the mecha pilot Gabriel Jones, and the demon-slayer Gabriel Kardos.
• Our Angels Are Different: The shapeshifting Kittan Christian claims to be one, and even briefly takes the appearance of one. In actuality, she is the Divine Beast Leviathan, Rider of Famine. Who may or may not actually be an angel.
• Our Demons Are Different:
  • Jake Ronso is a Demon Lord of Greed, though given he claims to have two angels for grandparents he could qualify for Our Angels Are Different as well. Nonetheless, the fact he's also descended from the First Human and the Rider of Famine makes him stick out
  • Phagora is the half-demon daughter of the Demon Lord of Gluttony (different group). Naturally, Jake strikes up a conversation with her.
  • Mari and Kiryu talk a bit about the differences in their respective world's oni, due to Mari not meeting Kiryu's expectations of one. In his world, oni are evil ogres with horns who torment the dead in Jigoku. Mari is a cheerful, buxom, Hard-Drinking Party Girl.
• Our Liches Are Different: Discussed by Rebecca and Carlotta, the former of whom is a lich, the latter of whom was created by one. They can use very similar types of magic (necromancy included), but Rebecca's phylactery is more like a Heart Drive, while Sinistrina's is an entire house - or more specifically, the pictures on its walls (Rebecca lampshades this by telling Carlotta that Sinistrina took a different approach to protecting her phylactery than she did). They also are on opposite ends of the Sliding Scale of Undead Regeneration; Rebecca is clearly rotting and apparently can only "regenerate" by attaching pieces of flesh to herself (see Appendage Assimilation above), whereas Sinistrina does not rot and has a Healing Factor.
• Our Souls Are Different:
  • Rebecca and Carlotta have a discussion about this, discussing whether souls can be seen and who can see them, and where they reside. According to Rebecca, only mages can see souls, and Carlotta agrees. They also agree that the soul normally resides in one's body, but can be placed inside objects as an Immortality Inducer (to which Ryya wonders how that works). Carlotta apparently came to life by gaining a soul of her own - this is confirmed by Lucina with the dolls she brought to life.
  • Phagora, Lucina, and Jake have a discussion about the form a soul takes. According to Phagora, souls can be stored inside crystals (like the one Jake presented), but take the form of colored smoke. According to Lucina, souls are made of a smoke-like substance called ether, but does not come in colors.
• Our Zombies Are Different: A wide variety of zombies discussed about in Club Pluto. You've got Sinistrina and Rebecca, who are both liches who can raise Voodoo Zombie servants; Kittan's on a crusade to prevent a Zombie Apocalypse of Plague Zombies; Kokoro explicitly mentions this trope when it comes to magic and viral zombies; and everyone seems to have a general consensus that stereotypical Hollywood zombies are a dumb idea. And then Sinistrina decides to revive a dead horned jaguar.
• Out-Gambitted: Jen Jara prepares to ambush Syrni Sandra in the Combat Zone. Syrni Sandra guesses that Jen Jara is waiting in ambush, and tricks Jen Jara into approaching an opening door. Then Syrni Sandra ambushes Jen Jara.
• Oxymoronic Being: Loki Laufeyjarson is a four-foot-tall Jotunn.

P-R

• Percussive Therapy: Junko unleashes some of her anger on a punching bag after recalling dealings she had with Jerkass Gods, among other frustrations. The bag ended up getting burnt. And kicked in half across the room.
• Pivotal Wake-up: Non-vampiric example using mostly-mundane muscle. Jen Jara is physically fit enough to quickly spring from flat on her back to standing, she uses this skill in the midst of a sparring session.
• The Plague: Rebecca and Sinistrina both died from one, though of completely different types. Rebecca's was an infectious plague causing fevers and the like, whereas Sinistrina's was a Mystical Plague caused by the life-draining mists of the Deathly Glade. And they both gained the power to inflict this on others from it.
• Pluto Is Expendable: The IMS Carpe Noctem has a club named after each planet of Earth's solar system (barring Earth itself). They had to shut one down to use as morgue overfill... and of course it's Club Pluto. It makes some sense, as Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld, so Club Pluto is an appropriate choice for a graveyard.
• Poisonous Person: Carlotta is one on the inside. When she falls apart after lifting a heavy barbell, Phagora and Junko help put her back together, but when Junko accidentally touches some of the black "glue" used to hold her together, her fingers start to decay. Fortunately a quick rinse in the sink halts its progress.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Lucina and Sinistrina. They are a textbook example of Red Oni, Blue Oni, Good Witch Versus Bad Witch, and Life/Death Juxtaposition. Lucina is cheerful and showy and uses White Magic, whereas Sinistrina is jaded and cynical and uses Black Magic.
• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: While Aubrey is familiar with the mentioning of Excalibur and Loki, due to being sent to Terra Nova long before Night of the Living Dead (1968) came out, he isn't familiar with the term "zombie" when Joshua uses it.

• Power Echoes: Shireen, briefly. When reciting the words of her Geas, Shireen's superior's voice is added to hers, speaking with her in unison.
• Present Tense Narrative: Orain narrates this way.
• Psychic Static: Loki Laufeyjarson starts playing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" in her head to see if the Discoverer of Subversions is reading her mind.
• Pulling Themselves Together:
  • Rebecca did this with her arm when it fell off as she was trying to lift something.
  • In the fitness center, Carlotta falls apart after carrying around a really heavy barbell for too long. Good thing the pieces of herself can be pressed back together, though she comes out weaker than before.
• Puppet Permutation: Apparently Winky used to be human, before being turned into a marionette.
• A Rare Sentence:
  Junko: Well, maybe your Tiamat isn't like my Tiamat... *Beat* Now there's something you don't say every day.
• Rape as Backstory: Emille has this, which Lucina explains as the reason why she doesn't like to be touched and reacts so strongly to Jake's wondering about her being Lucina's biological daughter. Jake, despite being a demon, treats this as very serious, even going so far as to offer to punish the offender's soul for it.

• Really 700 Years Old:
  • After being called a young man by Iragan, Discoverer of Subversions states he is over two million years old.
  • Ever since he was freed from his prison, Iragan is both this and Really Was Born Yesterday. He first became aware of himself "at the dawn of the Existence", but it is his first time entering the physical world. His current form of an old man is not indicative of both of his spiritual (several billion years) and physical (a couple of minutes) ages.
  • Both Lokis have ages measured in millennia, Miss Loki claims to be older than recorded history, and Loki Laufeyjarson is well over a thousand years old.
  • It's been implied by Iragan that Shireen is much, much older than how old she appears to be.
• Regal Ringlets: Lucina and Emille have them - appropriately so, since they actually are royalty. (Lucina's are specifically Ojou Ringlets.) Carlotta's lack of them is an indication that she's of a lower rank and/or the black sheep of the court.
• Restraining Bolt: Shireen's Geas of Lucina has this purpose, since, with Geppetto being a socipath in a position of great power, in order to limit the damage she can do to her subjects, "her integrity needs to be awakened, her eyes to be opened, and her ferocity to be curbed".
• Retcon:
  • Despite having all smoked conventional cigarettes in previous threads, Teri, Sophia, Wolfe and Gwion all are now revealed to have always "vaped" - in Teri, Sophia and Gwion's case, to the exclusion of smoking cigarettes. This has nothing to do with the change in lifestyle of their Author.
• Revenant Zombie: Conrad and Sinistrina present a case of Our Revenants Are Different:
  • The revenants of Conrad's universe are people who stubbornly held onto their souls after their death. However, doing this for too long makes them grow mad, to the point of becoming mindless monsters. Part of Conrad's job is to kill them once they reach that point.
  • Sinistrina's "revenants" have a Soul Jar that she made for them (at one point she calls them "failed liches" because of this). However, since their soul is mostly disconnected from their body, they act more like a Voodoo Zombie.
• Revive Kills Zombie: The healing and rejuvenating face cream that a Stellar Spa attendant uses on Sinistrina ends up giving her third-degree burns instead.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: Shireen's current appearance, courtesy of her divine superior. Her only distinguishing feature are her striking almond-shaped grayish blue eyes
• Rip Van Tinkle: After spending a short while paralyzed and hooked up to a saline IV drip, Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara need to use the bathroom.
• Robot Girl: There are two definitive examples aboard the ship: Natalie, a Slime Girl made of nanomachines, and the more traditional robot girl, Minerva.
• Robotic Reveal: Invoked twice by Minerva, who openly admits that she is a gynoid.
• Rummage Sale Reject: Loki Laufeyjarson's attire consists of a black and gold longcoat with floral embroidery, a blue waist sash, neon green waistcoat, yellow dress shirt, khaki skirt, and hot pink sneakers.
• Running Gag: Whenever one of the Black Cat Bandits mentions their SMILE system, Warren deliberately acts as if they are talking about actual smiles, often while smiling himself.
  Warren: (smiles) "Why yes, I am an expert at [figuring out the SMILE system], as you can see." *Beat* "What? That joke never gets old!"

S-T

• Sarashi:
  • Mari stated that she wore a sarashi when she was younger, and less busty.
  • Junko has a red sarashi under her Badass Longcoat as part of her Magical Girl outfit, along with Handwraps of Awesome.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Due to the context (earlier scanning of his soul determining that he is a Time deity) Dante's snide remark about "tan and sun" went straight over Sinistrina's head, with her mistaking it for a prophecy of sorts.
• Searching the Stalls: Subverted. Syrni Sandra considers looking for Jen Jara in the restroom, but realizes searching the stalls won't work because Jen Jara can teleport to a stall that's already been searched.
• Seen It All:
  • So, a Gluttony demon child (Phagora) eats a whole roasted pork in one go, stretching her mouth to unnatural levels. Shireen's reaction? Raise her eyebrows, have a sip of her hibiscus tea and berate the young girl for her table manners, which she, by her own admission, finds the second most disgusting thing she's ever seen.
  • A huge snow-white Malamute brings two paralyzed Viporises into sick bay and transforms back into a human. The sick bay staff execute their medical duties with no comment.
• Serious Business: Lucina and Emille take tea very seriously. Apparently in their court it is considered peasant-like to use teabags, and a "cardinal sin" to pour tea before it has finished brewing.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Mari and her viewpoint on swimwear in the hot tub. Or lack there of.
• Shapeshifter Mode Lock: Loki Laufeyjarson had his shapeshifting powers sealed due to flipping off a Genius Loci. Now he's stuck as a little girl.
• Shout-Out:
  • When explaining her wares, Nemaforte says that some of her herbs can "bewitch the mind, ensnare the senses, and even put a stopper in death". Which is the exact same thing Professor Snape says as part of his introduction to his Potions class.
  • The sickbay has an Emergency Medical Hologram.
  • Enkar is described as going to books "like a plundering soldier", a description borrowed (or plundered?) from Friedrich Nietzsche describing "the worst readers".
  • Shireen almost verbatim invokes Gordon Gekko's most famous quote when talking to Jake the Greed demon.
  • Gabriel Jones occasionally make outright references, like using "Captain Americaing" to describe Shield Bash. Servants!Loki is only slightly more subtle, like calling Natalie an even more powerful Armitage or rather blatantly referencing Metroid when describing fellow Division Leader Gottfried.
  • When offering her healing services to Gabriel, Cecilia asks for a pound of his flesh as a payment, referring to the Eldritchian bone matter he's coated in.
  • Under the assumption that Discoverer of Subversions is reading her mind, Loki Laufeyjarson begins mentally singing "Never Gonna Give You Up".
  • Lucina and Sinistrina have the surname Geppetto... which is the name of the toymaker from The Adventures of Pinocchio.
  • Ethoya mentions Xeqa the Crucifier — who somehow ascended to the Xayusa pantheon — has a skull throne.
  • Loki Laufeyjarson initially nicknames the Discover of Subversions "Captain Nemo", due to his steampunk powered armor. However, when the nautilus themed Nameless Songmind shows up, Loki changes her mind, giving the nickname to the Songmind, and calling the Discover "Zachariah Webb".
  • Upon hearing Kittan refer to herself as the Divine Beast Leviathan, Kokoro immediately thinks of the Final Fantasy Summon.
  • One of the headlines Ayako mentions is "Giant Aquatic Reptile prompts Tokyo Evacuation".
  • The Annoying Laugh of Shireen's superior is rendered exactly as Brazilian Night's.
  • Dante's description is essentially Gollum's final riddle to Bilbo Baggins.
  • When the Sky Pirate is literally spiraling out of control towards the IMS Carpe Noctem, a tractor beam halts its movement, creating a glow around it and pulling it into the hangar. Halberd then lampshades this by saying, "What is this, Star Wars?" (It's the exact thing that happens to the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope.)
  • Panther has a pair of Mystripets named Jessie and James.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: During their debate on the nature of souls, free will, and meaningful existence, the Discoverer of Subversions tells the Songmind that "we soulful beings, we're capable of giving ourselves a purpose that validates us personally." The Songmind responds by throwing the Discoverer's own earlier words back at him, reminding him that the Discoverer's people have "too much power to ever be satisfied" — and that implicitly, their precious souls have been no help in curing this all-consuming ennui.
• Slime Girl:
  • Natalie is composed of some sort of Gray Goo, allowing her to alter her form and coloring.
  • Kokoro's transformed state has aspects of a Slime Girl, due to her body being made of tar. Her legs end in piles of tar which get pulled back into her body.
• Sneeze Cut:
  • A pair of them happen in response to Natalie mentioning giving a bazooka to a child. Lampshaded in the first cut.
  • One Web of Friendship member in a different character development thread causes the Void Maidens (who are also members of the Web of Friendship) to simultaneously sneeze.
    Moquoql (in the Adventure thread): Huh, so that's where Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara chased each other to.
    Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara (in the Space Liner thread): Achoo!
• The Sociopath:
  • Lucina. She's shown to have little regard for the well-being of the people of Solevaille, even going so far as to carry out executions for the pettiest of crimes in order to establish order in the kingdom. She's more concerned with her own ambitions for the kingdom. She does seem to care about Sinistrina to some extent (and more evidently, the dolls in her court), though she had no qualms about executing her as well. Even with her Geas in place (courtesy of Shireen), she continues to mention punishments - until she realizes that that would trigger it.
  • Cecilia, despite being a healer, shows little concern for emotional well-being of her patients and their loved ones (when Gabe throws a self-loathing fit, she annoyedly tells him to stop pitying himself), treats her profession mainly as entertainment, and has an ego the size of small planet. She isn't shown to be particularly charismatic or being a good liar, though. Yet.
• The Soulless:
  • Mancipium (mostly) lacks a soul, and therefore acts in a hallowed, almost robotic fashion when interacting with people.
  • The Songmind is utterly devoid of a soul, and takes pride in this. In theory, it's because it decentralizes its thinking to prevent "inefficient" human-like sapience.
• Soul Power: Lucina, Sinistrina, Rebecca, and Jake all have different variants of this:
  • Lucina and Sinistrina can craft "new" souls out of "ether" to make Living Toys. They can also see souls and identify who they belong to... but cannot communicate with them.
  • Sinistrina can extract souls from people by trapping them in the black mists she channels.
  • Rebecca can contact the souls of the dead for information... but cannot passively see them.
  • Rebecca and Sinistrina can store souls inside objects, which was necessary in their case because they are both liches (and necromancers).
  • Jake can extract souls from the world of spirits(?) in the form of crystals.
  • On a lesser note, there's also Striga, who managed to bind her soul to the crystal on her Magic Staff. Said crystal is similar to a Haunted Fetter in that sense, but also has characteristics of a Soul Jar, as pointed out by the Discoverer of Subversions when he notices the dual nature of her soul.
  • Apparently Shireen has this power too, being a psychopomp, but she never uses it in the thread.
• Space "X": Just to start off, you've got Space Liner, where almost every single amenity is space themed. And with Loki and Sakura getting into a discussion about the ship's sushi bar, you end up with space sushi, space fish, space tempura, space shrimp...
• Strange Salute: Viporises hold their hands palms-up with their stinger-thumbs folded under their stingerless thumbs. It's their equivalent of a handshake.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: Nemaforte. Her ordering of words in a sentence is inconsistent to say the least, and she frequently uses malaprops or other strange wording in her speech.
• Sufficiently Advanced Alien: The Muse is not magical — the distinction is a matter of life and death — but it's quite capable of replicating feats beyond most mages through ultra-fast calculation, Gray Goo, an alien creativity, and an intuitive capacity for casual faster than light and time travel.
• Super-Strength: Junko, Phagora, and Carlotta all have this as an ability. Appropriately, they all demonstrate it in the Fitness Center. Especially jarring in the case of Carlotta because she's a doll with the look of a little girl.
• Technically Naked Shapeshifter: Ethoya is one of these, her outfit is crafted from her feathers. This time around, it's a step above her usual attire.
• Teleport Spam: Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara spam their teleports a lot:
  • Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara do a few teleports between Decks 2 and 3 in their first appearance, as part of their ritual combat. The robot crew members are not amused, so they use the PA system to order the combatants to take it to the Combat Zone.
  • While the fight is temporarily on hold, Syrni Sandra does two teleports in rapid succession to save herself when she falls off the stair banisters.
  • Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara teleport a few more times in the Combat Zone before simultaneously stinging each other, which ends the fight.
  • After Lucina un-paralyzes Syrni Sandra and Jen Jara, Jen Jara shows off by doing a series of teleports around the sickbay bed.
• Terse Talker: Max sometimes omits personal pronouns and uses simplified sentence structure when talking.
• Theme Twin Naming: The Geppetto twins were named Dextrina and Sinistrina, from the words dexter and sinister meaning "right" and "left", respectively. The former doesn't like her name and changes it to Lucina.
• They Call Him "Sword": They call The Big Guy of the Black Cat Bandits "Halberd".
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Even though she said to Phagora that the quwyrdaq she ordered, but didn't finish, was too filling, it's revealed later that Jake's and Lucina's personalities simply made Shireen sick to her stomach. She laments the loss of food, too.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Syrni Sandra realizes she's going into heat soon after being warned that Gabriel Kardos isn't interested in flirting.
  Syrni Sandra [thinking]: Oh, this is gonna suck...
• Threat Backfire: When Sinistrina discusses revenants after Mancipium brings it up, Conrad says she's not one (according to him), and that if she were, he'd have to kill her. Sinistrina is entirely unfazed (despite Mancipium also threatening her with a glare), instead asking him about what his definition of revenant is despite him being obviously afraid of the topic.
• Time Abyss:
  • The Songmind, due to its time manipulation, is vastly older than the physical universe it inhabits, having looped through it many, many times already.
  • Only relatively younger, Ethoya Uvalex can't put her finger on how old she is, but she came to be aware of herself around the time humans started cave painting.
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: The Songmind exists in a Stable Time Loop; what has happened will happen, and what will happen has already happened. Even in its "blinded" state, it refers to events relating to its ascension — the creation of the loop — in simultaneous past and future tense, because it was both the beginning and the end of the universe.
• Too Much Information: Provided to Junko from Mari via text message when the former innocently asks the latter about a website.
• Touched by Vorlons: More like "Went Diving In a Dead Angel", as Gabriel Jones tells of how he acquired superpowers by just shoving his arm into a dead Eldritch Abomination.
• Transformation Sequence:
  • Natalie invokes her own custom made one to show off to Junko, raising up a cylinder to envelop herself and then letting it unpeel before spinning into a dress.
  • Junko has a much faster one, consisting of being briefly Wreathed in Flames after bumping her fists together.
  • Kokoro's consists of a bit of Body Horror in order to transform.
  • Emille has one while using her Transformation Trinket to become human, consisting of her human form breaking out of a porcelain "shell" and having fancy clothes appear on her Magical Girl-style.
• Transformation Trinket: Jake gives Emille and Winky one each, allowing them to transform freely between human and doll. Emille's is a ring; Winky's is a medallion.
• Translation Convention:
  • Discussed by Miss Loki in regard to whether Junko was speaking English, or whether this trope or Translator Microbes was in effect. Subsequently subverted by Junko when she states that learned how to speak English in school, and further averted when Junko mumbles something about someone being an idiot in Japanese.
• Translator Microbes:
  • Mostly implicit, but explicitly noted by the Discoverer when the Muse's Starfish Language strains them.
  • Also noted by Shireen, when, upon meeting Robin (she's from the same world, but from different country), the latter praises her Common.
  • Averted by the bits of Gratuitous Japanese used by Junko and Kokoro, as well as the Gratuitous Latori used by Nemaforte.
  • Wolfe wonders if they are in effect and, if so, why is he hearing words in other languages - notably Portuguese and Finnish.
• Trapped in Another World: Sinistrina had been trapped in the Deathly Glade for three years, and only emerged recently on board the ship.

U-Z

• The Unmasqued World: The setting Ayako, Junko, and the other members of AEGIS hail from is this; it originally had governments using Plausible Deniability to cover-up the supernatural, until it got too out-of-hand.
• Uranus Is Showing: Implied to be the reason why Club Uranus got renamed to Club Bizarre.
• Vain Sorceress: Sinistrina seems to be rather concerned about her appearance, immediately insisting on changing into her old dress from the simple robe she arrived in to draw less attention to her Undeathly Pallor. And one of the first places she thinks about going to is the spa. There's also the fact that she takes measures to avoid rotting.
• Verbal Tic: Winky loves to start his sentences with "I say".
• Wasn't That Fun?: Syrni Sandra enjoyed being whisked away by a magical malamute, and expressed interest in a repeat experience.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: In Anna and Gabriel's (former) universe, artificial humans were treated as less than human, and subject to horrible treatment or worse.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?:
  • Nemaforte's thick accent, marked by annunciation and tall vowels and airy, barely-pronounced R's.
  • Enkar's Kykzavi accent is described as "sort of like a Russian who had learned to speak English in Jamaica".
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Junko's general tactics in combat is to either throw fire at her opponent, or hit it really hard. Or both.
• Who Needs Their Whole Body?: Sinistrina talks about this in response to Kittan mentioning preventing a Zombie Apocalypse by chopping up corpses, explaining that a corpse does not have to be completely intact in order to be re-animated. It is subverted with her version of Animate Dead, though, as she has a harder time re-animating corpses when they are in pieces than when they are whole... unless she pieces it back together first.
• Why Didn't I Think of That?: Lucina says this to Jake during the discussion about putting the doll molester's crystallized soul into a new doll, referring to placing souls inside of objects to get around the fact that dolls shatter if intact souls are placed in their bodies. Also a subtler version when Jake brings up the punishment in the first place.
• Wrench Wench: Robin van Segher is a female flight mechanic of the Afalina airship. She even (jokingly) threatens to hit Glitch with a wrench for lying to her.
  Robin: I left my wrench in my other cocktail dress.
• Your Vampires Suck: In the Stellar Spa, Sinistrina mocks vampires for their practice of biting into people's skin and sucking out their blood (calling their method "utterly barbaric"), after mentioning that she drinks blood herself. Subverted, though, in that she's a lich rather than a vampire, though the spa attendant mistakes her for one.

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