Webcomic / Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures

Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures is a comedic, character-focused Animesque Furry comic, mostly told in a Slice of Life gag-a-week format but with a slowly unfolding Myth Arc and some dark elements in the backstory. It started off as a joke among a group of players in an early MMO (Furcadia) that the author, Amber M. Williams, knew; the cast consisted at first of their own characters.

At first following loosely connected arcs, the main plot could be said to start off in Chapter 11, when Merlitz meets the succubus Aaryanna, who turns out later to be hold a vendetta against his friend Dan. From this will eventually come a series of revelations and connections involving some of the mightiest creatures in the world. However none of this will stop the cast talking about their troubles at the inn of Lost Lake.

It has been running since 1999, though with a hiatus of more than a year.

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This webcomic provides examples of:

• Adorable Fluffy Tail: Despite looking like a purple anthropomorphic cat with fairy wings and antennae, Mab has a long fluffy tail that looks more squirrel-like and she is quite proud of. In fact she left the fae world because the new queen decreed that nobody could have a fluffier tail than herself and she refused to change it.
• Affably Evil
  • Fa'Lina, to the point that some wonder if she's even evil at all. Although, evil or not, Fa'Lina is an utter bitch sometimes, and not just because she's a poodle. And kidnapping someone "for their own good" is still kidnapping.
  • Kria is a bit too affable.
• A God Am I: Double Subverted by Jyrras who tries hard to convince Lorenda he's not playing God in his lab, with mitigated success.
• All Crimes Are Equal: Albanion is well known for handing out Fae curses at the most minute perceived slight towards Queen Nutmeg. Refusing a hug (while having a spear in the chest), running out of Nutmeg's favorite cookies, sneezing in her general direction... of course, this is pretty much par for the course for his Cloud Cuckoo Lander race. Or it may be part of a deeper scheme...
• All There in the Manual: The Demonology 101 pages. They give useful information on the races and the cubi leaders, much of which found its way into the main story long after they went up.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Mostly averted by Word of God.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents
  • Kria hands down, as she demonstrates here and here. And she outdoes herself here.
  • And we also have Moira who reminds Jyrras that he will always be her baby boy.
• Amazon Chaser: Amazons are Dan's favorite type of person. Evidently his tastes in women are similar to his father's since his father's first wife (Alexsi's mother) was an Amazon.
  • One of the door-to-door religious witnesses who got an eyeful of Wildy liked what he saw.
• Ambiguous Gender: Mink and Fluffy. Whether Mink's a male or a female without Non-Mammal Mammaries has yet to be confirmed, thanks to the use of gender-neutral writing, and in a Reader Mail, Amber admitted that not even she knows what gender Fluffy's supposed to be. And apparently, Mink's gender is "a non-issue."
  • Mink had to check for themself when asked. They still didn't know.
• Ambiguously Gay: Abel
  • Jossed after Jyrras comes out about his orientation. Abel is asexual.
• Amoral Attorney: Jyrras's mother, Moira Gianna. Kria not only recognizes her, but admits being only second most evil next to her. She even causes Kria to have a Even Evil Has Standards moment.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Dan's reaction when he discovers that he's become what he used to hunt as an adventurer.
• Angrish: Kria brings this out of Lorenda quite often just by being herself.
• Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Dimanika.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "In all your millenias of living have you ever been truly alive?"
• Arranged Marriage: Wildy has one set up for a certain age and her father has so far found five possible candidate husbands whom she finds acceptable. When Dan points out how weird this sounds to him, she replies that not having your marriage arranged sounds weird, backwards and impractical to her.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Kria's hobbies are "chaos, destruction, hiking" while Regina's are "mayhem, murder, jewelery-making".
• Art Evolution: Just look at the first comic and the last comic — you could never tell they were the same artist!
  • Lampshaded after Dan has become an adult cubi: he is shown a photo album picture of an old strip to demonstrate that yes, his powers have made him sexier.
• Artistic License – Economics: Handwaved in this strip.
• At Arm's Length: Dark Pegasus does not do hugs.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Warp Aci are especially prone to this.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Well at least Biggs thinks so. In more ways than one.
  • Abel also does it to disturb Dan.
• Attractive Zombie: Kria Soulstealer meets a handsome Undead at a bar and starts trying to get drunk so she won't feel weird for hitting on him.
• Author Appeal: The fact that two of the main characters are male, are relatively well-built, and walk around shirtless most of the time probably has nothing at all to do with this trope.
  • Though a shirt doesn't leave any room for wings, and Cubi were even more persecuted during his childhood than during Dan's. The Beings aren't going to cater to monsters.
• Author Guest Spot
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Wildy actually cares about Dan; they're even hugging.
• Back from the Dead: Dark Pegasus. Thrice prior to the series, then a fourth time that Dan tries (and fails) to stop after killing him for the third time.
• Badass Boast
  • "I am Daniel Ti'Fiona: warrior for hire, slayer of the Doom Knights, bringer of peace, friend of beer-wenches! And I am here to save H-Ann from evil!"
  • Kria has a rather impressive one too.
• Badass Normal: Dan, back during his adventuring days. Inferred, from his being called out of retirement, vanquishing Dark Pegasus, and because Regina fears to face him without a weapon in hand. He loses the "Normal" once his Secret Legacy is revealed in Chapter 14.
• Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: Kria is disappointed that her daughter doesn't go on rampages or smash furniture:
  Lorenda: I hate you! I'm going to my room!
  Kria: Lorenda! You get back down here and throw a tantrum in this room full of rare fragile vases or else!
• Bag of Holding: Matilda has a belt designed to sneak food into movie theaters that can hold a whole lot of stuff. Matilda sells these kinds of things for a living. Mab originally went to her store to find one to LIVE IN. The sword she gave Dan as a gift during that visit also has one in it. Someone does live in it at one point.
  • Mab eventually gives the same treatment to Dan's closet.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Mab can apparently breathe in space. Just don't point out that she should need a space suit, she hates nitpicking.
• Beat Panel
  • Triple trouble. See Abel's Big No below.
  • Double panel for young Pyroduck. Never expect a direct answer from a phoenix oracle.
  • Dimanika sets a new world record: Six panels and 15 minutes!
• Bear Trap: Mab catches some of them and tries to explain them away as aggressive earrings
  Alexsi: They're not on your ears Mab.
  Mab: Very aggressive earrings with very bad aim!
• Beware the Nice Ones
  • Both Mab and Dan have exhibited this.
  • Lorenda Soulstealer, at least early in the series, where she actually does eat people on occasion.
  • Kria Soulstealer... though, after about the 900th comic, when she stops being so actively depicted as a literal maneater, she's still not exactly "nice" so much as "Affably Evil".
  • Jyrras always showed some shades of this, but it comes out in a big way when he pulls out a semiautomatic he'd designed and delivers an ultimatum to some adventurers threatening Abel and Alexsi.
    • Indeed, Kria learned painfully that Jyrras is much more dangerous than he looks and becomes respectful of him, but rather than being scared by the experience, she becomes excited.
• Big Beautiful Woman: Lorenda becomes a model, to Regina's dismay. Piflak the Clan Leader is also quite rubenesque.
• Big Brother Instinct: Dan is really overprotective of Alexsi sometimes. Despite being the younger sibling by about two years. Dan shows shades of a Knight Templar Big Brother in this strip.
  • Biggs also has this, believe it or not.
• Big "NO!": Little Abel no likey homework. Also counts as a Poke the Poodle moment for Kria.
  • Kria no likey boring trade agreements.
  • Regina no likey fat cow Lorenda being a fashion model.
• Big Red Button: Subverted.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Poor Lorenda.
• Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: As of strip 1940, mildly anglerfish-style.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality
  • Demons and Fae, at least, amongst the Creatures, both have this going on. Fae are, well, they're The Fair Folk. Demons believe strongly in Social Darwinism and thusly not only are fine with eating anyone too weak to keep them from doing so, are stated to generally not have a concept of "revenge" on the individual level. By their viewpoint, any Demon weak enough to be killed by another race deserved to be killed.
  • Demons, in particular, regard the concept of a generational grudge as deeply barbaric: "Not every race is blessed with civility."
  • On occasion used for laughs. For example, Jyrras's mom sees Kria Soulstealer as perfectly justified for eating her bull lover and the filly he was cheating on her with before destroying the farm, given that he was cheating on her while she was pregnant with his baby.
  • When Kria sees Dan trying to kill her niece Regina, she does nothing to stop him and laments that if she'd only been younger, Dan would have sworn to kill her instead.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: SAIA has self defense and combat courses. Cubi are naturally Unskilled, but Strong, but they often lose to Weak, but Skilled opponents, as they are too emotional and fight like "a drunk in a bar".
• Brain Bleach: Dan wants some here and Jyrras wants some here.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: One of the best uses is through an issue in this comic.
• Breaking Speech
  • Abel receives one here, from Dream!Pip who taunts him about his 'become a monster' fear.
  • And again in his side-story here, from Destania who says his friends lied when they said all the bad stuff so far wasn't his fault.
• Brick Joke
  • A retroactive example: in some of the early comic strips, there is a joke about babies appearing out of nowhere. Guess how Mab got her daughter.
  • In the Janus Bond book, Dan and Lorenda managed to set the hallway on fire while fighting. The comic's title was "You'd be amazed at what can be set on fire." Nearly four hundred comics later, Abel and Dan manage to set the cabbage on fire.
  • Remember when the first thing Dan did when Abel started to teach him was shapeshift his headwings into pacmen? Apparently, it's now one of his party tricks.
• Bridal Carry / Security Cling: After a failed assassination attempt, Kria grabs Sherri and flies off, holding her like this; Sherri grabs on because they're pretty high up, and she's pretty sure she doesn't bounce.
• Bring My Brown Pants: Regina had this kind of reaction, when she discovered that Dan had awakened as an Incubus since she last fought him.
• Brown Note: Supposedly Dan's Gag Penis, though it only appears to have that effect on straight men and his relatives. It even works on adventure encounters!
• Brutal Honesty: Zezzuva usually sends a diplomat to SAIA for good reason.
• B-Side Comics: Abel's Story. A backstory comic for Matilda is (as of early 2013) just getting started.
• Bus Crash: Merlitz, apparently
• Bullying a Dragon: Abel really should have known better than to shoot off snarky quips to Destania consequently pissing her off and ensuring himself a smackdown from her. This page and the few afterwards show her brutality as the head of the Terror and Pain Department of SAIA.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: With Kria shrugging off an attempted assassination and wanting to relax on the beach, Sherri wonders if explosive death traps are part of an average day for a demon.
  • Judging from comic #1497, this is also the case for "Kria does something shocking at a party she hosts". As well as "Kria does something shocking" in general.
• But Liquor Is Quicker: Kria does this to herself when she meets a handsome guy who happens to be undead; she hopes she can get drunk enough that it doesn't seem so creepy.
• By the Lights of Their Eyes: Happens to Dan, Matilda, and Aaryanna as they enter Cyra's private sanctuary in Comic #1943
• Call-Back
  • Comic #1444 is actually called "Aw yeah. Callback to comic 761 in effect." In both comics, Kria is trying to calm someone down, and after considering her normal options of dealing with problems, almost all of which involve violence, she settles on the only non-violent thing she knows: shopping.
  • Dark Pegasus uses a spell to kill an undead in a flashback, which Kria reuses to kill another undead here. It is also lampshaded by Amber.
• Came Back Wrong: Dark Pegasus' sister comments sadly that every time he returns, he's a little more... changed.
• Cannot Dream: Adult Cubi are supposed to suffer from this. Abel comments on needing to talk to Fa'Lina about the whole thing.
  • Aaryanna theorizes that this is because Abel hasn't been eating emotions lately. He's becoming more like a Being since he's not feeding like a Cubi should.
• Carnivore Confusion: Even beyond the fact Demons and some Cubi (at the very least) eat Beings, there are also non-sapient animals running around that are eaten for meat. The author's notes state that there is something of a taboo against eating "equivalent" species (dog-Being eating a non-sapient dog, for example), but otherwise nobody makes a big deal out of it. The Creatures do tend to throw this fact around when Beings object to being eaten by them.
• Catchphrase
  • Abel has "Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate! Hate!" Not that he's the first to use that line.
  • "That is not the proper way to use a [cooking instrument]"
  • "Agh! Teeth, teeth, teeth!" Usually when Pip is around Dan.
• Cerebus Retcon: In the Twink arc, one gag has Daniel seeing his mother there. Much later, this becomes a major plot point.
• Cerebus Syndrome: While retaining its comical roots, the strip has become... darker. Though the secondary arc in chapter 24, most likely the darkest one thus far, is actually a flashback to Dan's first outing as an adventurer.
  • Abel's backstory described in a two part side comic is very grim. Matilda's backstory is surprisingly harsh for such a happy go lucky character.
• Chekhov's Gun
  • Practically called out by name by Mab here. See The Chessmaster below.
    • It may have simply been Foreshadowing, now that Jyrras has revealed a new weapon: A pistol, which Mab was pretending to hold.
  • A less ominous one can be seen here about Cubi powers.
    • Subverted immediately with another one, about some creatures being immune to said power
• Chekhov's Gunman
  • Abel was taught magic by Kria Soulstealer; the two have yet to meet in the main comic.
  • Dan's father. For starters, it's implied that Abel knows him. Well, he definitely knew his former wife. You know, the mother of his boss... and the killer of his dad.
  • Genesis (Gen) and Merlitz' former adventuring party.
  • Looks like they're gonna meet.
  • Remember the Mythos from Strip 1327? Guess who they're sheltering.
• The Chessmaster: Mab, of all people, who, as a member of an immortal and nigh-omniscient and omnipotent race, appears to be running at least one major gambit with some very sneaky behind-the-scenes and direct manipulation. The true motives and goals are yet unrevealed, as is if these gambits are even linked. It appears that the plot is mostly to do with keeping her friends alive as long as possible. Just how far this will go, and for how many friends, is yet to be seen.
• Childhood Friends: Dan with Wildy and Mab. Jyrras met Dan during the former's childhood and has been friends since.
• Christmas Rushed: In-universe, Dark Pegasus rushed his big undead army project to try and crash a royal wedding with it, while it was supposed to take a few more years of meticulous work. This led to the creation of a free undead race instead of loyal slaves.
• The Clan: There are several for the Cubi race.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: It seems the whole Fae realm runs on this. When science-minded Jyrras goes there, he steps on a circle hovering in midair and promptly falls. Once someone mentions knowledge of his secret lab, he starts flying. Just needed motivation!
• Clothing Damage: An explosion during her fight with Melahta completely destroys Kria's clothing, and burns all her fur off, leaving her as naked as a furry could possibly get.
• Comforting Comforter: So far we have three instances: Abel to Jyrras, Pyroduck to Alexsi, and, bringing the first one full-circle, Jyrras to Abel.
• Comic-Book Time: Though the strip has been going strong since the beginning of the 2000s the strip implies itself to have only really progressed by days, weeks or months at a time rather than the many years it has been running.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Kria is a bit of a specialist.
  • Regina takes after her aunt in this regard.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Pyroduck was hoping he could talk to the mythos his father sent to kill him so that he could avoid having to kill her in self-defense. He didn't like Mab swooping in and wiping her out of existence instead.
• Continuity Nod: Several.
  • Notably Dan's unusual brand being discovered later by Abel
  • Dan is twice mentioned to have a stash of high heels under his bed "to improve his balance". In a flashback of his first adventure, Dan sprains his ankle while wearing high heels and decides to find a way to keep that from happening again.
• Contractual Genre Blindness: Dark Pegasus isn't so much genre blind as he prefers the "classic ways" of doing things whenever possible. Not being a stupid villain, however, leads him to only fall in the clichés when facing Dan, as he knows that Dan believes in a fair fight. This is probably why Dan has managed to kill him before the series started. Twice.
• Conversation Casualty: During a flashback to the first meeting between Dan and Dark Pegasus, Dark Pegasus kills a girl with a blast of magic in mid-sentence.
  "I offer this advice to you two: If you're going to destroy something... do it mid-dialogue. They always expect you to finish talking first."
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Death by Shonen-ai.
• Correspondence Course: Wildy became a shaman by way of one.
• Costume Porn: Alexsi almost always wears pretty dresses; Dan often also wears dresses (often not by choice) and at one point what seems to be a version of a Vietnamese ao dai; Lorenda now works at a clothing store. One of the comic titles mentions one of the usual motives:
  And you thought it was because Amber just liked drawing colourful clothes..
• Costume-Test Montage: Dan's, courtesy of Abel, starts here.
• Crapsaccharine World: While fuzzy, comedic and with pastel colors (see image above), the world is flat out one of the most brutal, depressing, unfair settings you will ever find. People are free to rape and torture as they please, casual murder is routine and is treated as comedic, a race of Jerkass Gods run around creating havoc with impunity and the Demons roam Furrae unchecked to torment mortals for eons. Winterweir is freaking Equestria in comparison. This strip states that the vast majority of races don't live to die of old age because Furrae is such a tough world (although old age for them would admittedly be hundreds or thousands of years old), with the Vampire race going extinct due to it. And it turns out a big part of why Biggs San does all of his shady manipulative crap is because he thinks the world as it is sucks and is determined to change it no matter what.
• Crush Blush: Jyrras sports one when it is revealed that he has developed a crush on Abel.
• Cuddle Bug
  • Mab loves hugging. She keeps a list of things she has not hugged yet so that she doesn't miss a single one. It's over 38 pages long! Don't ask us how she managed to hug death.
  • Mink introduces himself to Dan this way.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Dan vs. Falina, Played for Laughs.
  • And Merlitz vs Abel, which, according to Aaryanna, is the worst Cubi that anyone can pick a fight with.
• Curse Cut Short: Amber is tired of drawing the same bland green backgrounds for Wildy and Biggs' conversation so she moves it to a park for ice cream. Fluffy points out the obvious flaw:
  Fluffy: Oh! Great idea! Rather than a single room you can now you can spend the next five pages drawing outdoor scenery with folks in the background!
  Amber: FAAAAAAAAAAA—
  • Biggs gets one that covers five panels long:
  Biggs: FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA— Oh hey! Ice cream!
• Cursed with Awesome: Dan seems to think Fae curses of vengeance fit this. Makes sense, since a Fae curse discourages anyone else from harming the target — Fae really don't like kill-stealing. Fae are also capricious enough that they tend to forget about their targets for years, and the eventual "revenge" is usually little more than a harmless prank. Dan once had such a curse. He abused the hell out of it. But then the Fae called in their revenge. So now he loses all his feathers whenever he eats shellfish.
• Cute Little Fangs: They sneak in from time to time. Mostly on cats.
  • Amber has now proven that Cute Little Fangs do not belong on a horse.
  • But they do make Dan so adorably cute!
• Cute Monster Girl: Arguably, Matilda. At least when compared with everyone else.
  • Confirmed here with what a male member of the Blue Volcano Mythos looks like. Females aren't as colorful as males but they are smaller and less monstrous-looking over all.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Kria is willing to forgo Dark Pegasus' revival, for a price... and has the bill to prove it.
• Darker and Edgier: Abel's Story is much darker than the main comic.
  • Since earlier in the series there's a foreshadowing/lampshade of this here.
• Darwinist Desire: It's stated that for demons fighting arenas double as speed dates. For instance, Kria really can't help herself when she meets Dan.
• Dating Service Disaster: A dating service file sorting error matched Jyrras' parents for a date because it failed to tell apart regular kangaroos from kangaroo rats, leading to a Tiny Guy, Huge Girl match that was also Love at First Sight. They are still Happily Married. Not only that, they got pregnant again in their sixties. The subsequent Parental Sexuality Squick got Jyrras reaching for the Brain Bleach. His sister seemed just fine with it though.
• Deadpan Snarker
  • Abel and, to a lesser degree, Jyrras.
  • Devin, from what we've seen of him.
  • When he's not The Unintelligible, Pip shows traces of this. Maybe. A rare example seen here, hinting at being far more than we've been let on to believe.
• Death Is the Only Option: Zezzuva's plan to prepare her clan for another war with the dragons involved integrating an Insectis clan into her Cubi clan, expanding their numbers to 40,000, greater than the other Cubi clans combined. The problem with her plan is that she isn't strong enough to lead such a large clan, so she will transfer her power and position to an Insectis, which involves her demise.
• Deathbringer the Adorable: Trope Namer.
• Death Is Cheap
  • As noted above, Dark Pegasus just won't stay dead. Of course, this is largely thanks to his sister reviving him with the ritual he developed. Kria points out that he would stay dead if they just cremated the corpse. It's also arguable how "cheap" death is, since Kria says he comes back slightly more wrong every time.
  • Death is only figuratively cheap. Resurrection is costly, and Kria has the bill to prove it.
• Defeat by Modesty: When the inn is attacked by adventurers who heard a cubi was there, Wildy takes one of them out by tearing off her clothes. Wildy didn't mean to tear off her clothes, but it still lead to the invader grabbing whatever she could to cover herself and running away.
  • However, it is not the trope that defeats her, it is having to fight a ferret.
• A Degree in Useless: When Fa'Lina explains to Abel that he's following Dan back to Lost Lake, he objects that he will miss his classes. In tennis and grass growing.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: There's a reason why Dan remains friends with Wildy...
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The culture Matilda comes from has very strict views on what males and females should be, to the point that her tribe's chieftain decided that because she fought her brother and won (well, supposedly, anyway), she clearly "[had] the soul of a male". As the author notes, it's rather telling that to them, this makes more sense than the idea of a male killing himself.
• Deus Angst Machina: Abel's backstory, as seen in his side comic.
• Didn't See That Coming: Used utterly sincerely when someone heard Abel's snark!
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Here.
• Did You Die?: A couple times — example.
• Did You Just Have Sex?
  • Alexsi seems quite happy here...
  • All but confirmed here.
  • Evil Jyrras in Wildy's novel is oblivious to all the obvious clues, however.
• Dismissing a Compliment: Dan's attempts to cheer up Aaryanna falls flat, but she appreciates him trying.
  Dan: "Oh hey! ....looking good?"
  Aaryanna: "I look like Hell stuffed into a flight suit."
  Dan: "Well it's a good look for Hell?"
  Aaryanna: "I'll give you points for genuine effort. Thank you for your attempt at a complement."
• Distinguishing Mark / Glamour Failure: Most Cubi have a Clan mark, which they cannot conceal with shapeshifting. They can, however, cover it with clothing or even make-up.
• Distracted by the Sexy: clotheslesscubiclotheslesscubiclotheslesscubi...
• Divine Birds: The Phoenix Oracles are avians charged with being Lawful Neutral overseers of the realm, which is loosely based on the multiplayer online game Furcadia. There is nothing that they don't know or cannot divine; however queries from adventurers result in very cryptic answers. In fact, when one party comes to Lost Lake Inn seeking the one responsible for the demise of Merlitz, their statement that a Phoenix Oracle told them plainly that a cubi at the inn killed him, Pyroduck is rightfully dubious.
• Dominant Species Genes: Cubi in regards to most other races. Cubi often interbreed with non-cubi and if they're more powerful than the other parent the kids are full cubi. Rather than hybrids like half-demons.
  • Being a cubi is explicitly stated to be bloodline-related but not genetic in any meaningful sense: A non-cubi can be turned into a cubi by having a child with someone who is already a cubi, which is not how Mendelian heredity works at all.
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: Demonstrating your stealthiness is not the best way to impress Kria.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Devin, in Abel's Backstory.
• Doomed Hometown: Insectis usually live as a collective in a hive, but Chicki revealed her hive was destroyed by a rival hive while she was on a scouting mission.
• Doomy Dooms of Doom: Behold Azlan's squeaky koala doll OF DOOM!
• Double Take: Dan is walking down the halls, shirtless, annoyed by Nact'larn stealing his robe, Dan doesn't bother to stop and talk to some other students in the halls, other than to tell them who took his clothes. After a few more steps, Dan stops.
  Dan: Did that thing have hands for a face?!
• Dragon Rider: Alexsi, here.
• Dramatic Irony: Mehlata is head of security on Trik'na Island, and is in charge of Kria Soulstealer's safety during her visit; but the first time readers see her, she is trying to assassinate Kria.
• Dramatic Thunder: Invoked by Fa'Lina when Aniz attempts to assure Abel that SAIA is actually a safe place for Abel despite bringing him there through less than ideal methods.
• Dream Walker: Cubi are revealed to have this ability. The utility is limited: Cubi can mostly observe and make small alterations to the point most use it for recreation in the modern-day. Furthermore, there are beings in the dream world who are much better at it who can scare the Cubi.
• Driven to Suicide: Matilda's elder brother chose to kill himself rather then accept the responsibility of leading their tribe. Matilda does not take it well.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Dan, with his long hair, fluffy wings, and dress robe, gets mistaken for a woman all the time. Sometimes he hates it, but sometimes he uses it to his advantage...
  • Inverted with Quill, the Cubi giraffe; she looks so much like a man that, if it weren't for the title of the strip in which she appeared, one would easily think she's a gay man. Admittedly, the fact all Cubi are Gender Benders means it's possible she really is manifesting in male form.
    • She's not. Amber stated on the forums that Quill was never well endowed to begin with, and her increase in muscle over the years her breasts even smaller.
  • This is a persistent problem for Taun clan.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Much of it can be explained by Rule of Funny and Rule of Cool, but still...
  • Despite her protests, at first Lorenda seems almost as dangerous as her mother, meeting Jyrras after killing some predators stalking him, moving in with him after being evicted for killing and eating everyone else in her building, and as soon as she's settled in killing two door-to-door salesmen for being door-to-door salesmen. Contrast to when Jyrras is under the Fae curse, and she harmlessly knocks out the paparazzi. It was suggested in that early story arc that Beings followed the normal food chain, and the Soulstealers' demonic heritage only explained why a cow and a horse eat meat, whereas it's later established that all Beings are omnivores, preying on non-anthropomorphic animals, but only Demons and other Creatures eat sapient beings, and indeed, even this is later downplayed.
  • A joke is made early on about Mab being caught up in in eighties nostalgia, when later knowledge about the history of Furrae ("guy" is an older word than "man", a flashback to the seventeenth century looks very much like the twentieth, etc.) makes the similarity in eighties fashion seem essentially pure coincidence, and a date of 1991 making the nostalgia joke seem odd, though this used to be acknowledged in this comics discontinued Katbox description where it implied that Mab's love of the 80's was a multiversal thing that confused people. And Mab's Sailor Moon doll is much more recent than the eighties.
  • When Aaryanna first appears, it seems Succubi are a kind of Demon (indeed, she even calls Destania a "Demon" at one point) who act like typical Succubi and Incubi and necessarily feast on the innocent. All this flies hard out the window when we meet Abel and Fa'Lina...
  • Relatedly, the whole "special incantation" hoax disappears after the 500s, as the soul-eating succubus trope got downplayed.
  • In the 700s, Kria was a mercenary (whose then-current mission was wedding bodyguard). For the last thousand or so strips, she has been a high public official (and de facto royalty) of Zinvth.
• Ear Worm: Happens to Kria here.
  Kria: I'm going to have their advertising jingle stuck in my head forever now...
• Easter Egg: A number of secret pages have existed on the site at one time or another, with a warning that mentioning them on the forums would result in a ban, containing plot-relevant future information, including a bio of Rose with a number of insights into the Fae, and Fa'Lina's bio before it was posted officially. However, likely due to the attention from outside sites such as these, all that haven't been posted openly have been taken down, with one exception (a page on human/creature hybrids, found via the grey arrow on the "last" page of the hybrid sequence, confirming that humans once did exist and hinting that their fate would become relevant later on).
• Eccentric Mentor: Fa'Lina fits this trope perfectly, as her semi-omniscience gives her the desire and opportunity to play a very odd mentor. While she always tries to help those involved with her, she prefers teaching them lessons in the most ironic ways possible. And muffins.
• Elaborate University High: SAIA is a combo of this and a Wizarding School, since it covers topics both magical & non...
• Eldritch Abomination: While not seen in the series proper, it seems these do exist in the 'verse, in one form or another...
• Emotion Eater: What the Cubi are revealed to be (that implied by the name being a stereotype) once they're seen more in focus.
• Emotionless Girl: Zezzuva, which is strange when one considers she's a succubus, and one leading the clan of Envy no less.
• The Empath: Cubi.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Turns out Dan's mother is a Succubus, and the inherited powers have started to kick in.
• Engineered Heroics: Demons have their own evil take on this, engineered rampages. Instead of rampaging in existing locations and earning the ire of whomever is protecting them, some demons will create remote towns for the purpose of rampaging there later. Regina, someone who fails at rampaging, is disturbed that some demons are faking it, and it not surprised her father is one of them.
• Erotic Dream: Discussed and/or invoked in the series on Cubi mind abilities as a Mundane Utility. It also happens accidentally sometimes.
  Abel: Just focus on an emotion and a dream should generate from that.
  Jyrras: Nice! Nice... Okay... A dream with good feelings....
  -FIVE SECONDS LATER-
  Abel: Sorry. Sorry. This one is on me. I always forget about this....
  Jyrras: I am never going to live this down.
• Even Evil Has Standards
  • A two-fer in this comic, while Kria talks to Jyrras' mother — a lawyer, and thus more evil than she is.
  • Fa'Lina, while not voicing any objections to a whole class around torture, squelched Destania's plan to get children involved, and she's none too pleased with the treatment that Destania gave to Abel in his backstory. There was also a memorable moment where she punched Aniz repeatedly for his bad, bad parenting.
  • Wildy might be the most violent Alpha-bitch you may have the (dis)pleasure to know, but even she has a limit to how much violence you can use when killing a random, unnamed cameo-character.
  • Abel isn't evil so much as a sardonic asshole, but even he thinks that Wildy's treatment of Jyrras, regardless of how well intended it might be, is way too "take for granted" in their friendship for his taste.
  • Biggs San (Wildy's brother) is the leader of a WHOLE city of mercenary thieves, and is currently working with Destania to wipe out the dragon race. However, as he's eager to point out, being willing to let her adoptive daughter die solely for being associated with one dragon is crossing the line, regardless of her hatred of the species.
    • Not only this, but Biggs, realizing how just far Destania is willing to go for her revenge, warns her in no uncertain terms that if his sister gets injured by her (Destania's) hands she will lose her job and much more.
  • The reasons why Dark Pegasus decides not to turn children into undead combine this with a touch of Pragmatic Villainy.
  • Demons, specifically Kria & Dark Pegasus, see themselves as more civilized than Dragons, due to the latter's obsession with Revenge. Dragons carry grudges all the way to genocide, whereas demons prefer to kill the one who pissed them off and then let it go.
  • Regina has never been good at rampaging, no matter how hard she tried, but she's never faked a rampage, which she considers cheating.
• Everyone Is Related: Almost everyone in the series has deep connections to the Ti'Fiona and Soulstealer families.
• Evil Brit: Dark Pegasus is voiced by a British man in the DMFA Radio Project. Why? "Because the villain always has to be English".
• Evil Overlord: Dark Pegasus
• Exact Words:
  • Mink telling Dan that he will never want for another bed after spending a night in his room. Possibly Mink's room is the reason why most Cubi don't sleep.
  • In Matilda's backstory side arc, following the death of her father and the death of her brother, what she says to her sister and to her tribe leader is, technically, true.
• Expert in Underwater Basket Weaving: The Succubus And Incubus Academy has several courses that seem to specifically teach useless skills. Such courses mainly serve as excuses for the succubi and incubi to stay in school for as long as they want, since they're mostly immortal. Abel is a prime example and gets called out on it, to which he replies that grass-growing is "a rewarding and therapeutic activity."
• Extreme Omnivore: Dimanika and Piflak have a friendly rivalry going. At Piflak's party, Dimanika eats the punch bowl, again. On top of that, she eats only the punch bowl, the bowl shaped punch and the ladle are still in place, floating over the table. She's also shown herself capable of eating the contents of her word balloons, her favorite food is listed as asbestos and it's claimed she may have ascended from the time she was, not winning/competing but, 'eating a pie eating contest'.
• Face Doodling: Biggs to Wildy after he drugged her drink to avoid yet another beating from her. Later, Wildy is seen cleaning off the ink.
• The Fair Folk: The Fae usually seem friendly and carefree to outsiders, but can turn hostile following codes that are utterly alien to the rest of the setting. Visiting their realm is a surreal experience to non-natives.
• False Cause: In character example by Dan here.
• False Reassurance: After a failed assassination attempt on Kria, Mehlata, the head of security reassures her that she'll be safe from now on; however, everything she says has a double meaning because she's the assassin.
  Mehlata: I'm most certainly going to be responsible for any harm that befalls her!
• Fantastic Arousal: Apparently, Matilda's race finds large, blue, frilly things very attractive on males.
  Matilda: "Eeeheeheehe...Dat wingspan...
• Fantastic Racism
  • There's a lot of tension between Beings (effectively humans) and Creatures (everything else with magic powers) from a long, not quite over history of Creatures considering Beings to be prey. Different kinds of Creatures have had outright racial warfare.
  • Dark Pegasus despises the Undead and considers them his greatest mistake. Seeing a fashion article that considers the Undead to be popular hits his Berserk Button, and he decides to put all of his other ambitions on hold to finally deal with the Undead once and for all.
  • Even among people who accept Creatures, there is considerable racism against the Undead, as Devin explains, particularly in the case of hospitals assuming that Undead must be there to turn dying patients.
• Fantasy Gun Control: "I mean, who knows what kind of device one can make with a fully natural material?!" "Bang."
• Fat and Proud: Lorenda the Demon-Cow
• Fire Keeps It Dead: Kria points out that fire is useful for making sure something you've killed in another way stays dead.
  Kria: "The (resurrection) ritual requires a full body. And someone seems to keep putting one in the ground. Cremation, Daniel. It works wonders."
• Flat "What": Pyroduck's reaction when he lost his ball and asked where it was. Having an Eccentric Mentor parent who speaks in a Cryptically Unhelpful Answer will do this.
  • Abel's reaction to being told his mother is dying and he is about to visit her to say his final goodbyes.
• Flipping the Table: If Destania's reaction to finding out that the Blunt Object Brigade didn't kill Abel is any indication, creatures like demons and cubi are capable of not just flipping tables, but solid oak tables at that.
• Fluffy the Terrible / Killer Rabbit: Do not screw with Pip. Seriously. It's a really bad idea.
• Forgiveness: Fa'lina to Hizell, despite him killing her entire clan, she forgives him because she doesn't want to live the rest of her live in hatred. She also points out that forgiving doesn't mean forgetting; she's not going to try and make amends with him, and she opposes what he is doing. Fa'lina actually pities him, believing he is a prisoner of his own hatred, and in a sense, living her life free of hatred is a kind of Cruel Mercy towards him.
• Four-Fingered Hands: All the Beings and being based races have them. Averted sometimes, such as when Dan was turned into a human, he had five fingers, and Maltilda has two (no thumbs).
  • And yet when Amber draws herself, she has only four fingers. According to Fluffy it's because Amber secretly believes she's a Fraggle.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Often there are several plot lines running concurrently in the comic, which means that the story is moving along at a glacial pace. Heading into 2014, we have the following:
  • Dan is at SAIA, which leads into the Cubi clan meeting.
  • While Dan's away, Alexsi was nearly killed by adventurers thinking she's the Cubi who killed Merlitz.
  • Those two hint at a new Cubi/Dragon war.
  • Kria is visiting the island of the Undead, and has her own assassin to deal with.
  • A side story showing how Matilda was exiled; being a side comic released on Mondays, it is the only one not interrupted by the other plots.
• The Full Name Adventures: Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures, but Dan is not his full name.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: Abel Dimitri Rewanz.
  Abel: Oh crap...Middle name used. This only means bad!
• Gag Penis: Implied that this is how Dan once took out a horde of Ice-Orcs with one slip of his loin cloth. (Also the implied reason for Dan's Brown Note effect.) Mind, this can also be interpreted as "no one wants to see Dan's junk, period".
• Gambit Pileup: Several factions — most of them with nebulous motives — are known to be making plots involving the main cast, including Destania and Biggs, the Creature Council, Fa'Lina, Mab and possibly Kria and Pyroduck. And Dark Pegasus, while he's alive anyway...
• Gender Bender: Dan and Abel a few times, for various reasons. The characters treat it as crossdressing, with phrases like "look female", even though the art makes it clear it's..."total", though only externally.
• Gender Equals Breed: Jyrras and his sisters. Their dad is a kangaroo mouse while their mom is a kangaroo. Yes, he gets glomped a lot by his much bigger siblings, why do you ask?
  • Though when beings and creatures (demons, etc.) interbreed their offspring look like their being parent with creature traits tacked on, regardless of gender. For example Lorenda is a half-demon cow, her mother is a demon mare and her father was a bull being.
  • And then there's the issue of body type: children will always take on the type of their mother; i.e. a taur mother will always have taur children, same with bipedal and serpentine body types. Amber made the rule on the fly when she considered a taur being born to a non-taur mother.
• Genius Loci: The SAIA Librarian is bound to Library in all possible ways...
• Genki Girl: Mink. While he/she fits the energetic, enthusiastic Motor Mouth description, the "girl" part is still up for debate.
• Genre Savvy: Fa'Lina, who "prefers cliche arrangements which are in [her] favour".
• Giant Spider: And they quote poetry and Shakespeare!
• Gilligan Cut: Comic 597, Abel: "I don't want to go. And I know you won't force me, so unless you have a trick up your gloves, this matter is closed." Cut to Abel walking down the hall with his luggage.
  • The story behind it is revealed here.
• Glamour Failure: Fae and Cubi can both shapeshift, sometimes imperfectly. Jyrras has tried to synthesize it with his Patches, with varying success.
  • Cubi can't hide their clan markings by shapeshifting, although clothes and makeup work.
  • Nutmeg screws up her impersonation of Albanion, and Mab catches it.
  • Invoked by Destania when she impersonates Biggs. He calls her out for using his old hairstyle and she mentions she meant to give Dan at least ONE clue he wasn't talking to the real Biggs.
  • When Dan had to pass as Alexsi, Abel forgot to change his eyes. This may become relevant someday.
• Glasses Pull: Amber answers a letter pointing out that Jyrras is sometimes seen without his glasses. Amber then does a dramatic glasses pull when she delivers the shocking news that glasses can be taken off. DUN! DUN! DUN!!!
• Good Angel, Bad Angel
  • Parodied here.
  • And then... well, I don't know what this would be, but it does make Mab rather sexy.
• A Good, Old-Fashioned Paint Watching: Not only is grass watching Serious Business to the fairies, but Mab is the five years running champion.◊
• Good Parents: Abel's mother, May.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Kria once had all her fur and her right wing blown off, but she seems rather unfazed by it. She doesn't grow her hair and wing back, but instead gets them magically regenerated.
  • Somewhat subverted with Regina: One of her wings is skeletal for fashion purposes, and every so often she has to get it re-skeletonised.
• Gory Discretion Shot
  • Hennya's death in Abel's Story. The carnage is far more heavily implied than shown.
  • This scene is repeated (in a dream) here.
  • It wasn't exactly discreet. the comic here It was shown, but it was a silhouette.
• Go to Your Room!: Inverted with Kria and Lorenda when Lorenda goes to her room, but Kria wants her to throw a temper tantrum in a room full of fragile vases like any bad adolescent demon should do.
• Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress
  • This is a problem when the scientific-minded Jyrras ends up in an Alternate Dimension that runs on Clap Your Hands If You Believe. As soon as he thinks that he should by all rights fall, he does.
  • Averted — briefly — by Dan, only to have the levitating Fi "discover" gravity here.
• Great Gazoo: The Fae are an entire race of them.
• Groin Attack
  • Narrowly averted, several times, here..
  • Inverted (thankfully off-panel) by a SAIA combat student. Judging by the instructor's reaction, this isn't even the first time it's happened.
• Growing Wings: Cubi grow a second pair of wings on their head when they come into power. They are also rumored to grow a third pair when they reach a different power level.
• Hair Wings: Cubi have miniature “headwings” (as well as a regular pair) in their default form. Dan discovered he was one by having them grow in. Instantaneously.
  “Miss, you have a bat in your hair!”
• Hand in the Hole: Dooooo eeeeet...
• Hard Head: Dan
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Pip, and, to a slightly lesser degree, Wildy.
• Hidden Agenda Villain: Fa'Lina's agenda is so well hidden we can't even be sure if she's a good guy or not. Of course, that all depends on whether you consider her actually evil or not.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Agent Chazore, one of the best in Kria Soulstealer's Stealth Department. Would you really expect this to be great at stealth? Lampshaded by Kria.
• Hot Librarian: Aaryanna here. No, she's not librarian, but she was visiting a library and it's a classic routine.
• Humanity Ensues: Dan's brief stint with one of Jyrras's patches.
• Human Hummingbird: Warp Aci actually but Fi is just so excited!
• Hurricane of Puns / Pungeon Master: Apparently, the undead are vulnerable to this.
  • Seems it's a racial trait.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Dan can hide BFS in his clothes. Alexis hides a giant mallet in hers. Though somewhat justified by their preferences for loose, baggy clothing (though usually a robe in Dan's case).
• Hyperspace Mallet: Alexi has one, she sometimes uses it on patrons who try to skip out on their bill.
• Hypocritical Humor: Nact'larn is talking about how under-dressed Dan is, while wearing his clothes that she stole.
• I Am a Monster: Dan is afraid his developing Cubi powers may turn him into one.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The title of each strip is a humorous commentary on its events, of the type that certain other webcomics reserve for Alt Text punchlines.
• Idiot Hero: Dan, so very much. Though he's progressed over the years from "idiot" to "kind of dense."
• If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Before leaving for SAIA, Dan makes it clear that if anything happens to Alexsi, Pyroduck and Abel will die; he's not worried that they will do anything to Alexsi—she and Pyroduck are already dating—it's that Dan is very protective of his sister, and with him gone for a month, is passing responsibility for her safety to them.
• I Gave My Word: Kria Soulstealer promised her brother, Aleph^note Dark Pegasus' real first name that she'd perform the resurection rites every time he died, and has, despite the Came Back Wrong factor. Though she was negotiating with Dan to destroy Aleph's body before the rite, when Regina came in and unintentinally spoiled things.
• I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Fa'Lina has tried to use her large breasts to lighten the mood, but it seems everyone is immune to it, and she wonders what's the point of having them.
  • Matilda also looked Dan straight in the eyes and told him to call her. When he asks if she was trying to hypnotize him, she retorts that she would've held Dan's head a foot lower.
• I Have No Son!: When Pyroduck attempted to reconcile with his estranged father (a very powerful Dragon), his father said that he would only take Pyroduck back in if he slays five hundred Cubi to avenge the deaths of five of the father's sons. He considers Pyroduck one of those five slain sons.
  • Destania feels this way about her stepdaughter Alexsi after discovering the latter is dating Pyroduck (Pyroduck's estranged father is her archenemy). She didn't care that the adventurers she sicced on Abel might have hurt or killed Alexsi in the crossfire (and Alexsi was the first to be hurt), calling her an expendable "traitor".
• I Know You're Watching Me: When Pyroduck decides to turn in, leaving Mab alone in the inn, she talks to Pip about how there are rules, and how dangerous it is to try pushing the boundaries of said rules, before turning to Hizell and shattering his scrying orb.
  • Discussed earlier between Kria and Dark Pegasus. After Hizell attacked Abel, but let him live, Pegasus told Kria to treat Abel as if a scrying spell was put on him.
• I'm a Humanitarian
  • One of the reasons Beings and Creatures don't get on so well is that Creatures are often quite willing to eat Beings. Lorenda and Kria Soulstealer both eat a number of Beings in the series. At least, during the early strips.
  • The last time someone killed a member of Piflak's clan, she killed them, turned their bones into a pipe organ that to this day hasn't needed tuning, and the rest were baked into pies.
  Mink: They were the most delicious pies ever created...
  • Dark Pegasus created the Undead with this in mind, thinking it would be a good battle strategy to have your minions recover damage by eating your living opponents. Most Undead were disgusted by the idea of sinking their teeth into a living thing, though some creatures with fast regenerative abilities made a lot of money.
• Immortality Begins at Twenty
  • They're not actually immortal, but pretty much every species of creature seems to stop aging in their mid to late twenties.
  • Fa'Lina seems to be a bit older.
  • Cubi can shapeshift. Cyra explicitly shapeshifted to fit Dan's expectation of his grandmother, even though she first appeared around Fa'Lina's age and hundreds of feet tall.
• Immortal Procreation Clause
  • Cubi Clan leaders, while not truly immortal, are unable to have children of their own.
  • The Fae have their own version: no Fae can have children unless auctioned/given the soul of a voluntarily deceased Fae to "recycle" for their own child, keeping their population at a constant number at all times. It's not that the Fae can't have children without the donation of another Fae's soul. It's that they choose not to, since without said donation, the kid is... well... soul-less. The result is not pretty. Or, at least, it's horribly depressing: without a soul, the kid has no emotions and no magic — and no motivation to do anything. They're termed Hollows, and the only one shown so far shows up in Demonology 101, in what looks like a padded room. To quote Demonology 101, "they're more or less, empty husks". Also motivating the prohibition of Fae/anything relations that would lead to kids being born is the fact that Hollows always die on the 21st hour of their 21st birthday... as if having a kid who is magically null, and also void of all emotion, weren't depressing enough.
• Implied Death Threat: The series has a few, but the absolute best comes from an unlikely source.
• Impossible Shadow Puppets: Is it cheating to use Cubi wings?
• Impossible Thief: While Piflak is around, no pants are safe.
• I'm Standing Right Here: Aliph Soulstealer is arguing with Bella Dahna, an adventurer, over Regina's recent emotional outburst in a store. The shopkeeper assures Regina that her uncle has been butting heads with the Dahna family for generations and nothing ever comes of it; although rumors are spreading that the fights are a sign of Unresolved Sexual Tension between them.
  Aliph & Bella: We. Are. Literally. Standing. Right. Here.
  Shopkeep: Please note how they didn't deny iiiiiiiiiit~
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Seen here.
• Informed Ability: Dan's pre-Cubi powers badassery. (Well, he did take out Dark Pegasus on-page once.)
• Insane Troll Logic: In an in-universe Spy-parody fanfic by Wildy, the Boss warned her spy that Jyrras' hideout is so well hidden that no other agent managed to find it and come back alive... all that while she hands him a file with blueprints, scans and photographs of the hideout and a plan to succesfully infiltrate in it. When the agent points out that Jyrras' hideout isn't that secret, his boss insists it is because of the agency ease in study it.
  • The Faes, being what they are, do this a lot, like this.
  • And let's not forget about Regina, who somehow, believed that tricking Dan in the past in order cause mass-murdering and than vowing that she would kill his loved ones wouldn't piss him off. As it turned out, it did!
  • Utilized quite well against Kria.
  Kria: Give me one good reason why we shouldn't go off after them!
  Sherri: Um... because you're a crazy psychopath who thrives on chaos? Which means the most chaotic and unpredictable thing you could do is listen to me?
• Intergenerational Friendship:
  • Between Dan, Abel/Aary who are 'hundreds' of years older than him.
  • Between Dan (25) and Mab, who may be older that that worlds civilisation.
• Interspecies Romance: Shows up quite frequently throughout the comic:
  • There are Worldbuilding comics dedicated expressly to discussing some of the mechanics about this.
  • Lorenda Soulstealer is the end-result of a tragic one between Kria (zebra-striped demon-mare) and a bull (who she ate for cheating on her with a a cow whilst she was pregnant).
  • Jyrras not only stems from one (male kangaroo rat and female kangaroo paired by dating company misfile), but is himself attracted to both Lorenda (demon-cow) and to Dan & Abel (incubi-cats).
  • Dan (male incubus-cat) becomes boyfriend to Matilda, a Mythos taur.
  • Alexsi (female cat) eventually gets into a relationship with Pyroduck, a dragon who disguises himself as a Cartoon Creature.
• Ironic Echo: A favorite of Fa'Lina who enhances her performance with puppets.
• Ironic Echo Cut: Lampshaded and parodied.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: A good example from Wildy-San's book:
  Dan: At least I don't have four stomachs, little cow!
  Lorenda: I'm not little!
• I Taste Delicious: Played with or parodied in that Lorenda (a half-demonic carnivorous cow) loves eating hamburgers.
• It Makes Sense in Context: Sometimes even in-universe!
• It's All About Me: Regina. We find out later that her father, Malle Darkblood, is even worse. When Dark Pegasus offers to take full guardianship of Regina, Malle convinces himself that it's just an attempt to show him up.
  Kria: I- You- ...is that a floating nameplate?
  Malle: Well yes. I was informed there are some in this city who might not know who I am.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Abel explicitly discusses this with Dan at one point.
• I Want Grandkids
  • Fa'Lina is very excited about Pyroduck's relationship with Alexsi for this reason. She just wants to hear the pitter-patter of little feet. Or the whoosh-whoosh of little wings, as the case may be.
  • Cyra may be this, though in her case it's great grandkids. Seeing her only family left alive are Destania and Dan, this isn't surprising.
  • May, Abel's mother, apparently desires them as well.
    • And unlike Cyra, May won't get any, and Fa'Lina cannot have children.
  • Piflak has also been planning to get one of her own.
• I Will Tear Your Arms Off: The reason why Matilda was exiled, according to her. This is later revealed by Fluffy to be Metaphorically True for Dan's benefit: she was indeed exiled for tearing her brother's arm off and beating him with it, but only because, due to the society's hypermasculine values (and the fact that they can regrow limbs), the act earned her a commutation of the execution she was due for disobeying him in the first place.
  • The second explanation is also shown in Matilda's backstory to be Metaphorically True, as her brother had killed himself first.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Abel, Devin, Wildy.
• Jive Turkey: It occasionally shows up in- or out-of-universe, notably here with the Warp-Aci Fy, and here with a fan-letter in incomprehensible Leet Speak.
• Karma Houdini: The second cornerstone of the setting. An example: A female cubi for thousands of years had systematically raped, mutilated, slaughtered entire families and untold inoccents left and right without a single shred of empathy. Then she got in to teaching and she had to be forcefully restrained from torturing children to death by the Headmistress as a form of education. Who is this demon that makes Mr. Rictus look decent? Dan's mother, who is in quest to eradicate the Dragons. And she is treated sympathetically or at least with slapstick comedy. OH DEAR MORALITY.
  • Other examples include the entire Soulstealer family. Though at least Dark Pegasus is treated as a villain and has died repeatedly.
  • The first example seems to be in the process of being subverted. She's alienated herself from most of her race and her employer tells her in no uncertain terms that if she does something he REALLY doesn't like, he will not hesitate to kill her.
• Kids Prefer Boxes: So do Warp Aci.
  • And minidragons seem to prefer crumbs. At least now we know why Pip keeps getting his head stuck in the toaster.
• Killer Rabbit: The Mows can digest any non living matter, though they usually stick to fabrics and such...
• Lame Pun Reaction: Kria's reaction to an undead pun. It's not that she found the pun was that bad, but she thought that Devin was the only one who made death puns, and finds out all undead do it, while visiting the island of the undead.
• Lampshaded Double Entendre: "Most likely because all adventurers are known for their impressive swords! Now... I have not seen his sword in action myself... but I can assure you that it is most likely of fine quality".
  • "You two like to get a little 'yiffy'! Don't ya? Eh? Yiff yiff!"
• Large and in Charge: Fa'lina to a considerable extent. Then we have Cyra. Full Stop.
• Last of Her Kind:
  • Fa'Lina is the last of her clan, and due to the Immortal Procreation Clause, that's not changing any time soon. When attaining Tri-Wing clan leadership status, a Cubi loses the ability to bear children. Lacking a regular Cubi to create more clan-affiliated Cubi usually drives clanless leaders insane, though Fa'Lina seems to have staved off madness by taking care of the SAIA students as her own clan and loving Pyroduck as her own son.
  • Aniz was also left the last of his clan by the dragons c. 1500, and Destania was already the last ordinary Cubi of hers when this happened. Both of them went on to have children, but with Aniz dead, Abel is now ostensibly the last of his own clan.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: It's difficult to talk about almost anything in later chapters — including the existence of three or four major characters — without giving away a major twist in Chapter 14. In fact, seeing any one of the majority of the strips that so much as feature the main character himself afterward will be enough to give it away.
• Less Embarrassing Term: Dan wears a robe, not a dress!
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Dan got called out of retirement to vanquish Dark Pegasus, again.
• Likes Older Women: Dan, even if it is only Kria.
• Limited Wardrobe: Dan eventually overcomes it, but at the time...
  Abel: Yes. How foolish I was to assume you had more than one outfit to wear.
• Loners Are Freaks: Abel, Abel, Abel.
• Longest Pregnancy Ever: Jyrras' mother, Moira, is announced as being pregnant with his little brother in comic #612, some 282 comics after being introduced in comic #330. She doesn't give birth to little Conner until comic #1534, some 922 comics after the announcement. Lampshaded by Abel when Jyrras hears she's gone into labour:
  Wait. Your mom was still pregnant?
• Look What I Can Do Now!: The last time Regina met Dan, she mopped the floor with him, but not this time.
• Loony Librarian: The rabbit-octopus librarian at the Succubus And Incubus Academy. While her main body is stationed at the front desk, tendrils of herself worm their way beneath the floor and into hollow columns. There, lapine faces appear at eye-level openings, from which this librarian can survey the entirety of the room with no blind spots.
• Losing Your Head: Sherri, when Mehlata cuts off her head. Being undead, her voice was magically generated anyway.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Subverted in Abel's Story #1.
• Luminescent Blush: With Jyrras, naturally, being the frequent initiator of this trope as seen with these three examples (though the last will most likely require closer inspection).
• Mad Eye: Mehlata gets one when Kria Soulstealer appears behind her, because she was sure Kria was killed by the bomb she planted under her chair.
• Mad Scientist: Jyrras. Who has created, among other things: the aformentioned Deathbringer, a Griffin-shaped Humongous Mecha, and the Mows. (Well, it was in his lab, though he wasn't there at the time...)
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Referenced and averted.
• Man in a Kilt: Dan on this page. Also, Fanservice.
• Major Injury Under Reaction: Kria's reaction to the attempt on her life that left all her fur burned off and an entire wing torn off? Cheerfully declare she's having the best day ever.
• Marshmallow Dream: Abel manages to play this one perfectly straight.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Jyrras has six older sisters and one younger brother.
• Mercy Kill: Pyroduck asked Mab if she thought her erasure of Hizell's assassin was cruel. Mab lists off several ways she could've stopped the mythos without killing her: brainwashing, turning her into a harmless animal, turning her to stone or trapping her in a mirror. While she doesn't say that killing her was the best option, she points out that there was no good option.
• Metaphorically True: Aaryanna sought Dan when an Oracle told her "The life of Destania has ended at the hands of Daniel Ti'Fiona.", thinking Dan killed her favorite teacher. Destania is Dan's mother, who gave up her murderous ways and settled down after giving birth to him.
  • Matilda's story as to how she was exiled is an elaborate case of this; every piece of her story is true, but put together as a lie. Her story says she had opposed her brother and talked back to him, and was facing death for her actions, so she tore his arm off and beat him with it, which made the elders view her as a male; as her species has strict guidelines over male and female behavior, he got an appropriate sentence of exile. The truth: She was angry at her brother who committed suicide, and was accused of his murder and facing the death penalty for that. The tearing his arm off was part of her violent outburst, but the elders interpreted that to mean she had a male soul. The Mythos were descended from a pair of brothers and a sister, while Matilda was a second sister, yet she had the personality of the original second brother, so they treated her like it. The punishment for a brother killing the other was exile.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Cyra accidentally killed everyone in a city she was trying to take for herself, starting a millennia-long war.
• Mistaken for Gay: Subverted with Regina. She's upset because Lorenda is attractive, and Dark Pegasus grabs the phone book and starts looking up therapists. Regina thinks he's trying to "cure her lesbianism", but he wants to cure her chronic whining.
• Mistaken for Pedophile: How Regina experienced her first meeting with Dan: He lured her to a stranger's house, started asking highly personal questions about her family and race, and had these "creepy" ideas about "taming... dangerous creatures", so she decided to leave for her own safety. And then he tried to prevent her from leaving.
• Mister Seahorse: Fluffy answers a viewer question: if an Incubus shapeshifts into a woman, can he get pregnant? The answer is no, shapeshifting is purely cosmetic.
• Mood Whiplash: The dark, grim and moody Fae arc is immediately followed by the general wackiness the cast is known for. Amber also seems uncomfortable letting a strip into the main series without a gag, so any dramatic installment will end with one featuring her and Fluffy, often apologizing for the lack of a punchline.
• Mood-Swinger
  • Fa'Lina. Or, as the Alt Text puts it, "watch out for those bi-polar right hooks".
  • Albanion as well.
  • Also Kria. Even in mid-press conference.
• Moral Myopia
  • Kria cares about her family and immediate acquaintances, but tends to randomly kill other people on a whim. She's also extremely protective of Lorenda. Most other demons apparently consider her to be applying the correct morals to the random strangers she kills, and to have a moral lapse for the people she knows, but in practice, it's a common lapse.
  • Aaryanna, likewise, goes around killing Beings for fun, and knows that Destania at least has no moral qualms with torturing children, but still accuses Destania's alleged killer of Van Helsing Hate Crimes. Unlike Demons, most Cubi aren't like this, although they do tolerate it.
• Morality Chain: Destania's family had a marked influence on changing her for the better. Leaving them to go searching for her husband, however, leads to her planning to commit genocide, killing and torture over petty grudges, threatening her families loved ones and even a willingness to be party to the deaths of that self-same family so long as she doesn't have to witness or directly order it.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Ink is this on a good day. On a bad one, he's an "egotistical, calculating, raving lunatic."
• Motor Mouth: Mink, frequent purveyor of panel-filling monologues. Also Cyra, in her first opportunity to talk with her grandson. While the former is canonically androgynous, the latter is undeniably female: the author gets in some Self-Deprecating Humor with the caption.
• Mundane Utility: Cubi Combat Tentacles and Voluntary Shapeshifting are useful as extra hands and disguises, respectively, and apparently a clan with a fear affinity makes horror movies. More understandably, so does the lust-affinity clan. Their clan symbol is prominently featured on Lorenda's Cubi porn DVD.
• My Eyes Are Up Here
  • Inverted by SAIA's female head combat instructor who's taken a liking to a much shorter male student, when she catches him not wearing a shirt.
  • Played straight and lampshaded in this strip.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: "Did... did it just get colder in here?"
  • "Gnngh! Fi! I felt a cold chill. You know why? Because you lost all my original clothes and I still don't have any new ones!!!"
• Naked People Are Funny: When Kria gets all her clothes (and fur) blown off, she doesn't care that she's standing in the middle of the road, completely naked. Sherri is the one who's too embarrassed to look at her, and thinks she should quit before something else goes wrong.
  • Even Amber found drawing the naked Kria to be hilarious.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: Thanks to Dimanika, Hizell has no idea that Dan, Cyra's grandson is attending SAIA. Her clan has been releasing fake rumors about Cyra for decades, and Hizell's spies have given up on investigating them.
• Nerdgasm: Aaryana apparently has a thing for architechture.
  Aaryana: I'm sorry Dan, I must now seduce your girlfriend.
• Never Gets Drunk: Demons have a high tolerance for alcohol, which works against Kria when she tries to get plastered.
• Ninja Looting: Mab gets in on the fun here. ^*Polearms are probably not even a class weapon for Fae.
• Ninja Prop: When Malle Darkblood first appears in the comic, his name appears on the page so viewers know who he is. The very next panel shows that it's an actual floating nameplate that he brought because he heard that there were people who didn't know who he was.
• No Bisexuals: After coming to terms with his crush on Dan, Jyrras immediately becomes convinced his attraction to Lorenda was just a mechanism of denial. For what it's worth, Abel's choice of language suggests he doesn't entirely believe him (which is justifiable given that Abel also sensed that Jyrras has attraction to Lorenda in the same day that he found that Jyrras has a crush on Dan).
  • It's probably also worth nothing that Devin calls Jyrras "bi-desperate" during a phone conversation with Lorenda.
• Noble Demon: Abel, almost certainly.
• Nobody Poops: It appears the undead don't, and any bathrooms they have are for the benefit of visitors who do, though that doesn't mean they're placed in convenient locations.
  Kria: I can't believe that a thirty story building only has a single bathroom on the ground floor!
• No Fourth Wall: The early strips.
• No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Sort of. When the gang sneaks into SAIA, there's a panel of Mab and Pip having tea with Dr. Ink. A similar thing happens in a later arc, with Fi and Devin.
• Noodle Implements: Mab's Brownies.
• Noodle Incident
  • Azlan saying "And that was the first and last time I took Neni to [place]!" It has become a Running Gag.
  • Also, Abel's banishment from the SAIA library.
  • It's never explained how Dan defeated a roomful of Deathknights with a spork.
  • ...and to this day, Mab can't order potato skins.
  • ... and that's the story of how Dan got this hat!
  • Jyrras has had repeated "laminator accidents".
• Not So Omniscient After All: The Phoenix Oracles. There are forces that exist outside of their vision. The Phoenixes don't know their names, but they know that they exist and that they don't want to be seen.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Mab may not be as ditzy as she seems. Same goes for Pip.
• Officially Shortened Title: Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures frequently refers to itself as DMFA.
• Offing the Offspring: While her step-daughter Alexsi wasn't the primary target, Destania doesn't care that the adventurers she tricked into attacking Lost Lake might have harmed her too because of Alexsi's relationship with Pyroduck. As far as she's concerned, Alexsi is "compromised, a traitor, and expendable." Her current employer thinks this is cold even for her.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Fa'Lina breaks into an unseen musical dance number between this strip and this one. Dan thinks it was an impressive number.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Fa'Lina pulls one off in Abel's Story part 2. When Abel wakes up in SAIA's infirmary with Fa'Lina on the bed next to him, he tries to slip away while she's ranting about her boobs; he makes it as far as the door, and finds Fa'Lina already on the other side.
• Oh, Crap!: Regina realizing that Dan got a whole lot stronger since their last fight. Comes with Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises as a bonus.
  • "The inn has ferrets!!!"
  • "... who's that?" ABEL KNOWS.
• Older Than They Look: Lots, including Dan's mother (7026), Fa'Lina (9288), and Mab (considered young for a Fae she's older than the Cubi race)
• The Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Lampshaded. And subverted: the phoenix is grouchy because her flaming head ruins the ominous lighting.
• Omniscient Morality License: Fa'Lina comments that being nigh-omniscient has the side-effect of turning you into a sociopathic Jerkass. With what little we know of Fa'Lina, though, she could easily just have been that way before she became so powerful. Considering her signature emotion is hope, she may very well just be putting on an act.
• One Degree of Separation: The entire cast seems to be connected through Fa'lina, Kria, and/or Destania.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: While at a diplomatic and business meeting in Trik'na, Mehlata wants Kria dead. The other person in the room is unaware of Mehlata's homicidal intent.
• One-Gender Race
  • Succubi of the clan Nact'larn, the closest to the familiar Succubi and Incubi, although it's suggested they're in the habit of turning themselves male when... the situation warrants it. That comes from one of the classic legends about succubi/incubi.
  • Also Phoenixes, seeing as they don't really need to reproduce.
• Organ Dodge: To kill an undead, one has to destroy the brain. When Kria disintegrates Mehlata's head, it doesn't kill her because she had moved her brain to somewhere else in her body.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Kria asks Aliph for advice he is very suspicious, asking who she is and what did she do to his sister?
• Our Dragons Are Different: There are actually two kinds of dragons, the feral dragon/winged anthro shapeshifters, and the interdimensional dragons that Mab considers real dragons (one of whom is Pip).
• Our Zombies Are Different: For the most part the undead are pretty much the same as they were before they died. Except they don't need to eat and have to keep their bodies stitched together. However very old undead, when they became self-aware, emerged as entirely new people from their living selves.
• Ow, My Body Part!: Presumably, Amber's squeedily spooch is located somewhere in her neck.
• Painting the Medium: Several characters' speech balloons have highly distinctive styles and it's unclear what they represent.
• Perpetual Frowner: Abel. Be worried if he smiles. Be terrified if he laughs.
• Pet the Dog: Kria gets quite a few in Abel's Story. She also gets one in the main comic... sorta..
• Phony Degree: Wildy got a shaman degree from a home learning course, though she does have actual shamanic abilities. ^*At the time, it was implied that buying the Phony Degree actually caused her to develop shamanic powers. In context, the strip reads as a joke about MMO Gs like Furcadia, which allow you to buy new abilities and skills for your characters. Earlier in the chapter, it was explicitly stated that Aliyka bought herself a $29.95 Race Lift.
• Please Get Off Me: Happened to Dan during his first adventure.
  Dan: If it isn't too bold of me, perhaps I can suggest you three make your plans include you three getting off my spine?
• Please Shoot the Messenger: Hizell believes that Fa'lina's teaching has made Pyroduck soft, so he sends a messenger with an ultimatum, kill the messenger before she kills him.
• Psychic Static: Fa'Lina recommends two methods for avoiding mind reading from cubi telepathy: either memorize mind-numbingly dull textbooks or make yourself seem like an unappealing target. The first currently provides the page picture.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!
  • This comic.
  Abel: What. Did. You. Call. Me?
  • And this one.
  Abel: You! Beeped! My! Nose!
• Punctuation Shaker: Several names have apostrophes in them with no indication of what they represent.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes:
  • Deebs uses this in a non-canon arc to get Jyrras to... well, just see Saving Christmas below.
  • Speaking of Jyrras, his status as the absurdly cute thing means he gets them whenever he's the slightest bit disappointed.
  • Even Abel can put on a decent pair if he has a good enough reason.
  • And Mab convinces Jyrras to partake in her adventure using these. After reeling in from it, Jyrras is quick to note how his usual tactic was used against him.
• Put on a Bus: Merlitz. Azlan as well to the point where he isn't even mentioned on the cast page.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Mab discovers that winning tastes like dirt.
  • Before that, Mab attempted to remove the tourists from her Glen, and after one Being went too far by pulling her antennae, she vanquished with them... and her Glen.
• Rage Quit: Abel vs. Jyrras
• Raised Hand of Survival: Page 1250 has Lorenda, Abel and Jyrras spend an evening watching a horror movie that's a Shout-Out to fellow webcomic creator Chalo's Las Lindas series. At one point, the bony hand of Moira Linda bursts from her grave. This scene scares Abel into the sofa cushions.
• Random Drop: After rescuing Alexsi from Biggs, Mab calls dibs on the dropped loot as if it were an MMORPG quest, and wins a voulge. This is Mab we're talking about.
• Really 700 Years Old: 7000-year-old succubus Cyra, Dan's grandmother.
• "Reason You Suck" Speech: In Abel's Story, delivered by Aaryanna to Abel.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: The undead are animated corpses, they can lose body parts and can still function even with non-organic replacements — Devin has gold arms and Sherri is stuffed with sawdust. The only exception is the brain, which holds the memories and personality of the person.
  • And it is specifically the brain rather than the head that is essential, which Mehlata uses to her advantage.
• Resentful Outnumbered Sibling: Jyrras has six sisters who, thanks to Gender Equals Breed, are all quite a bit larger than him, which compounds the fact that he was the last of them to be born. He resents their treating him like some kind of living doll. His little brother Conner, born in Comic #1534, will have to go through the same thing as he grows up.
• Retired Badass: Dan, who is a retired adventurer. Because of the humor, readers tend to lose sight of this.
• Retired Monster: Destania
• Retool: Chapter 16, building on The Reveal in Chapter 14, makes Cubi almost as central to the strip as adventurers, introducing such central characters as Abel and Fa'lina.
• Revenge by Proxy: When Cyra killed a very powerful dragon, the rest of the Dragon race declared war, hunting down Cyra's children. And when Fa'Lina tried to protect Cyra's daughter, Destania, they imprisoned Fa'Lina, and slaughtered her clan.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Mows, most of the time...
  • Jyrras, if he gives Puppy Eyes.
  • Deebs, especially if she gives aforementioned Puppy Eyes.
  • Chibi Abel. And deliberately so.
  Amber: I will not rest until I kill a diabetic with this website.
• Right Behind Me: a comedic example happens here, and the page after.
• Robo Speak: Macy, Jyrras' robot daughter, who also acts like a TV Teen.
  Macy: Initiating response three. But Daaaaaaad!
• Rooting for the Empire: In-Universe — Undead and Demons tend to do this when watching horror movies.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: Amber used to leave a lot of spelling mistakes in the dialogue, especially "of" for "have" after an auxiliary and "weird" as "wierd". It's improved in later strips.
• Running Gag
  • Abel would like you to know that he is most "definitely" not touching you.
  • Speaking of Abel, there are also his Sucker Punches.
  • Adding that someone has a cute butt when describing what one likes about somebody.
• Sarcasm Mode: Abel's switch is fused in the "on" position.
• Saving Christmas: Referenced in a non-canon bonus arc. Rather hilariously, Deebs wants to save Christmas so much that she gets Jyrras to kill Santa (again) just so she can do it. Given her name, it could be considered sinister...
• Scary Librarian: Well, she sorta IS the Library...
• Scenery Censor
  • Happens in this strip.
  • Happens earlier here, too.
  • Happens even earlier here.
  • Which is a Continuity Nod to the even earlier strip here
  • An arm and a random piece of paper fluttering in the wind here.
• Schizo Tech: According to the background, Furrae has widely varying technology levels, where modern cities and medieval towns can be a short walk away from each other. Then there's Jyrras and his Humongous Mecha and Magitek, but he's been advised by some to not release his best technology too soon...
  • The most advanced technology seen is a space station, which could be dismissed as Mab using her powers to travel to another dimension for a gag. Being so far outside the level of technology seen in the rest of the comic, means no one has even thought of looking for Cyra there.
• Serious Business
  • Hungry Hungry Hippos is a wild, wild race.
  • The Dark Pegasus shirts for no one!
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Expect any winged Creature to wear one of these at least once, though that is generally not for Fanservice. Fa'Lina may be a more traditional example, however.
• Sexy Whatever Outfit: Amber did a bonus Halloween comic for a friend which centers on an actually pretty modest sexy angel costume, though a couple moms think it's inappropriate for handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.
• Shirtless Scene: Dan usually wears a robe but sometimes goes without, like the time it was stolen by a succubus, so he switches to a kilt, which is better... somehow.
  • Wildy knows she's supposed to wear a shirt out in public, but it seems she goes topless while lounging around her house, she's flashed people because she didn't bother with putting a shirt on when she goes to answer her door.
  • And now inverted, with Biggs wearing a shirt! And he's not happy.
• Shout-Out: Many.
  • Pip. Pip's appearance, general personality and temperament pretty much make him Mab's answer to Flinx's minidrag.
  • Also, look carefully at what is exposed of the Clan Mink page. Can't see it? "Status: This was a triumph! I'm making a note [obscured by speech bubble] success!!"
  • To what the frig kind of book does Oolong stock in that library these day!
  • This comic contains a shout out to a certain song.
  • Florence plushie
  • Ruby and Max appear twice.
  • Las Lindas: the horror movie!
  • The entire wardrobe montage.^note InuYasha and Kagome, Captain N and Princess Lana, Harry Potter and the 4th Doctor, [[{{Pokémon: The Series Jessie and James]], and Wally/Waldo. With bonus allusion to tentacle rape and several Wholesome Crossdressers.
  • The bottom of this page references a scene from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
  • The characters play Candy-Land Adventures in #1453 and #1460. Candy Land is a simple children's game. Candy-Land Adventures transforms this game into an RPG like Dungeons & Dragons, complete with rolling dice, fighting monsters, and arguing about the rules. Roles include Peppermint Paladin and Rogue of Red Hots.
  • #287 references The Princess Bride.
  • "Demonology 101", Cubi Mind-Abilities, Page 2 quotes some lawbook. The quote is from the United States Constitution, Article 1, Section 5.
  • See how many you can find in this Halloween comic.
  • In this strip where the Taun clan representative recounts how he gave "a sucker punch right, and then 22 consecutive sucker punch rights!", it's entirely possible that he was killing Andy Samberg in a boxing ring.
  • And Warhammer 40,000, which seems to be an in-universe miniature line.
• Show Within a Show: Wildy's... interesting book.
• Significant Anagram: Jyrras messes around with Malle Darkblood's floating nameplate to spell out "llama lobed dork". Kria prefers "ballroom elk dad".
• Similar Item Confusion: Merlitz tries to convince his teammates that he has seen an actual human, but none believe him. Worse, they presume Merlitz has lost his mind, and oust him from the group. The team leader asks The Ditz for a pink slip to formalize the outplacement, whereupon she undresses, and offers her pink slip as it's the only one she has.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Apparently, what Aaryanna wants with Abel.
• The So-Called Coward: Kria Soulstealer. While visiting Trik'na Island, the land of the undead, Kria is the target of an assassination attempt. When it fails, the assassins are shocked that Kria retreats instead of coming after them, so they believe that she's scared of them; in reality, Sherri, the undead diplomat, convinced her to not chase her would-be assassins, and Kria was very willing to kill them in all kinds of horrible ways.
• The Social Darwinist: This is the major reason the world is a crapsaccharine one. Creatures such as the Demons have imposed a system where Might Makes Right (which naturally favors Creatures over Beings due to them being Long-Lived and more inherently magical) and crimes like murder can be bought off with blood money. The only recourse Beings have found is to form an organization of Adventurers who train to kill off hostile Creatures. This system has locked everyone, Creature and Being alike, into certain roles even if they aren't wholly comfortable with them. Ultimately, this system has detrimental effects on everyone regardless of whether or not they are the strong (though the weak obviously get it worse).
• Something We Forgot: After Fi gets a power boost that causes them to grow significantly, they begin trying to eat the smaller members of the cast. After saving Jyrras from this fate, Dan realizes that the similarly sized Wildy is missing and it's subsequently shown that Fi did indeed eat her, teleporting her to a random deserted island as Warp-Aci don't actually need nutrition. Offscreen Dan, Abel and Jy seemingly decide to focus on shrinking Fi first but Abel, through his approach and attitude, first causes Jy to leave it to them, then Dan and Fi to utterly forget about her. A couple story arcs and an in-universe week later, Wildy shows up, much to Abel's extreme displeasure, having worked herself out of the situation and simply assuming they didn't figure it out in the first place.
• Soul Eating: Cubi are notorious for eating souls; they don't need to do it, but it can give them enormous power both physical and magical. It's a big part of their bad reputation.
  • This is not limited to them, and one other creature powered by souls is central to a very important event in the distant backstory.
  • It is specifically mentioned that Fae souls, which would presumably be the most powerful, simply cannot be consumed in this way; the Fae are just a very different class of creature.
• Spanner in the Works: Sherri has interrupted two assassination attempts on Kria, both by accident. First they blew up the carriage that Kria would have been on if she wasn't outside talking to Sherri, and then when they set up a trap expecting Kria to hunt them down, Sherri convinces Kria to not go after them. Not only that, but they are now underestimating Kria, thinking she's a coward.
  • Kria herself, though this one may be a result of the entire country.
• Spikes of Doom: While Kria does believe in placing spikes in her pit trap, she finds that placing them on the floor lacks originality.
• Spit Take: Instead of being expelled from the mouth, it comes Abel's nose.
• Square Race, Round Class: Agent Chazore is one of Kria's top spies, though she can't understand how a winged demon with rainbow-colored fur can do stealth.
• Squee
  • Dan's reaction when Abel shows him that magic could let him wield eight swords at once.
  • Fa'Lina at the thought of having grandchildren.
• Start of Darkness:
  • The second half of Abel's Story has Aniz's, as told by Fa'Lina.
  • In the main comic itself, we learn Dark Pegasus's backstory, or at least how Aliph became Dark Pegasus.
• Statuesque Stunner: Quill towers over everyone, especially Jacob who bemoans being the target of her affection.
  • Zezzuva stands at least three heads taller than Dan. Also, spoiler warning.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Apparently, even easels are ninjas now.
• Stealth Pun: Lorenda's starsign is Taurus, and she's part cow.
• The Stoic: Zezzuva.
• Stripperiffic
  • Have you looked at Albanion's outfit?
  • Azlan is forced to wear one by Neni at one point. He's also forced to wear one by Wildy, in exchange for the return of his lost wedding ring. He got it from Neni, though.
  • Mab gets put in one in an earlier arc.
  • Ahem. Mink trumps all of them with nothing but a loincloth on.
  • Abel gets pretty close with his miniskirt and boots.
  • Proposed as a solution for the Taun gender confusion problem.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders
  • "...maybe you should go to a restroom to change..."
  • Kria gets a taste of this as well.
• Succubi and Incubi: Despite the name, the Cubi race are not really demons, and while they feed on emotions their (clan-dependent) affinities for specific ones range all over the map. It's explained that the clan Nact'larn, who fit the trope much better, have a tendency to hog the spotlight. Kria Soulstealer on the other hand definitely plays with the classical depiction every now and again, though mostly for laughs. Aaryanna, who was introduced before the rules for Cubi were really developed, also plays it more-or-less straight.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Jyrras's inquiries in magical contaminants in materials have found some highly consistent properties that may lead him eventually to create a theoretical all-natural material with no contaminants whatsoever. Mab is apparently behind this, carefully manipulating towards this goal.
• Suicide Mission: The messenger Hizell sent to Pyroduck knows she has no chance against a full-blood dragon, and is only alive because Pyroduck is a pacifist who tries to talk her down. The whole plan was that to Hizell, a real dragon is a killer, and wanted Pyroduck to kill the messenger to prove himself. The messenger only goes through with it because if Hizell isn't satisfied, he'll just send more until Pyroduck becomes the monster Hizell wants him to be; and if the messenger was threatening enough to provoke Pyroduck, she'd be the only one to die.
• Superhero Trophy Shelf: The walls of Dan's room are covered with weapons displays. No telling how many of these are souvenirs, since it's been shown that Dan appreciates swords.
• Super Window Jump:
  • Dan did one off panel.
  • Kria has no use for doors when there are perfectly smashable windows to fly through.
• Synchronization: The mythos that Hizell uses for messengers are all linked empathetically with each other. Kria ponders if one of them could pass along a punch.
• The Talk + Too Much Information = Brain Bleach (a Running Gag)
• Tastes Like Purple: Lorenda eats an unseen overly cute mascot and hears magenta.
• Tempting Fate: Subverted. "Shows what you know, universe! Trying to bury me with girls only makes everything better!"
• Telepathy: Cubi can hear thoughts. YES they can!
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. When Dan brings up the issue of therapy after barely surviving helping his grandmother through a panic attack to Aaryanna she informs him that one of the clans at the SAIA institution has some of the best counselors in the world. This also seems to be the adventurers' view as well.
  Dan's father (as quoted by Dan): Daniel Ti'Fiona, I love you but I don't know anything about that. I'm a professional with a sword. It sounds like you need a professional with a doctorate in head sciences. They're really good about that.
• This Banana is Armed: Subverted here.
• Three-Point Landing: Here.
• Time for Plan B:
  • "Plan B? Isn't that the one you waste time eating muffins?"
  • After Mehlata's plan B (a bomb planted under Kria's chair) fails, her accomplice asks if it's time for plan C. She decides to skip all that and go to Plan H, the H is for "off with her Head".
  • With Destania, the B always stands for bloodshed.
• Timmy in a Well: Referenced several times, and subverted here.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Jyrras' parents.
• To Be Continued... Right Now: When Jyrras' new sibling is born, Amber cuts it saying she can use this as a Cliffhanger for a few strips, the next panel has the nurse announcing it's a boy. Amber is not pleased.
• Took a Level in Badass: Dan, from Regina's perspective. Recently, Jyrras did so in this comic.
• Too Much Information: It turns out the strange mythos on the space station are actually a male/female pair with the male being a symbiote attached to the female's back. Enja offers to explain more about her species' reproductive cycle; but Aaryanna, Matilda, and Dan decline.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The undead choose Sherri to guide Kria Soulstealer because they know Kria eats people that piss her off, or whenever she gets the munchies, and Sherri was considered the least likely to get eaten as she's mostly stuffed with sawdust. Kria's reaction suggests they guessed right.
• Toplessness from the Back: Mab gets this a lot, as do many other girls.
  • A mixture of this and scenery censor in Merlitz's origin arc when his fellow adventurers fire him for being "wierd and crazy".
  Nitemyste: Seeing 'humans' is just too wierd and crazy.
  Gen (naked): Here Nitemyste! Sorry, but the only one I could find was the one I was wearing!
  Nitemyste: Paper! Pink slip as in paper Gen! Paper!
  Gen: Oopsies!
  Merlitz: You think I need a break?
• Transhuman Treachery: Dark Pegasus created the undead race in hopes of creating an army at his beck and call, and was disappointed when this didn't happen; instead the undead revived with their memories, personalities and free will intact, and joining an evil army was not the first thing on their minds.
• Transparent Closet
  • Lorenda and Jyrras' sisters figured out that Jyrras was gay before he did.
  • And Abel learned of his crush on Dan simply by proving to Jyrras he could read his mind, though he wasn't trying to find anything specific. He didn't even realize how important that detail was until the terrified Jyrras fainted.
• Trademark Favorite Food
  • Fa'Lina and muffins.
  • Also, Cubi don't actually need to eat physical food, so most only eat a couple of favourite foods for pleasure. This appears to be the case with Dan and ale.
  • Aaryanna loves toast.
• Two Scenes, One Dialogue: Possibly in the last two panels.
• The Unintelligible: Pip. Usually...
  • Also Skirmish, whose band of adventurers are recurring extras from way back.
  Pegasus: I have to confess something, Skirmish. I have no idea what you actually say. I kind of just assumed Nite did and played along.
• Unreliable Narrator: Matilda in her own backstory. She's claimed previously that she had torn off her own brother's arm and that had got her exiled. It's revealed in her backstory that her brother killed himself after their father died, unable to cope with the stress placed on him. That was when she cut his arm off. Although the elders thought that she killed him.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Dan pulled one off on Biggs early on; apparently it wasn't the first time that happened to him.
• Vagueness Is Coming: Every answer given by Phoenix Oracles, unless you catch one on her lunch break.
  • Although the Oracle on her lunch break is likely Destania in disguise.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes
  • In theory, adventurers like Dan et al. are a necessity of a broken judiciary; in practice, it's not uncommon for them to consider Creatures Always Chaotic Evil, although Creatures' perception of this is exaggerated somewhat by their own Moral Myopia toward Beings. At the very least, SAIA, run by the relatively upright Fa'Lina, openly has an adventurer-slaying department, and Mink's mother's death seems to be a legitimate example.
  • Dan swears vengeance on Dark Pegasus after seeing him obliterate in cold blood an undead adventurer who had become his friend. This was the catalyst that drove Dan to kill him multiple times and try (unsuccessfully) to keep him dead.
  • Speaking of the undead, most of them moved to Trik'na Island to avoid this; that a handful of undead formed a cult and tried to start a Zombie Apocalypse, only made matters worse.
• Verbal Tic: Fi's "Ch-ya!" Apparently it's a racial tic among the Warp Aci.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Mink is terrified of what Piflak is going to do when one of her clan was murdered. First s/he hides in Jakob's shirt, then s/he hides in Fa'Lina. Fridge Brilliance when you consider that squids (Mink's tail and "ears" have suction cups) possess an affinity for squeezing into tight spaces when scared. Many underwater divers have reported smaller ones slipping inside their masks!
• Villain Has a Point: Mehlata's assassination attempts on Kria are because the Soulstealer family is one of the most evil in the world, which does make Mehlata a Hero Antagonist as opposed to a villain, but she is still the antagonist. Later Kria reaffirms that demons are Social Darwinists and if Mehlata didn't try to kill her, that would be taken as a sign of weakness and they would be invaded.
• Villains Out Shopping: Or playing poker.
  • Occurs en masse in the yearly evil beach party.
  • Invoked by Kria multiple times as a way to spend time with and comfort some of the less murderous people she associates with.
  • Amber has stated on page comments that she loves drawing these to see what sort of mundane things her bad guys are doing.
  • Kria's internal dialog when thinking of a way to respond to any given situation will slip in one of these among the violent thoughts.
  Kria's mind: murder murder murder murder murder murder murder murder murder SHOPPING
• Villainy Discretion Shot: Most Cubi and demons.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Dan and Wildy-San.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Several races in Furrae have two forms, but Cubi are the masters of this. And the Fae are the Grand Masters, but we don't see them using it so much, while Cubi use it for combat and to disguise their nature.
  • The medal goes to SAIA's shapeshifting class teacher Change who keeps changing forms not only in every single frame she is in, but is in constant flux within several of those.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Several. Helloooooooooo, Dark Pegasus...
• Wall of Text: Mink is SAIA's resident provider of these, and one of the reasons why his friendship is (in Abel's description) inherited through attrition.
  • Sherri, the sawdust filled undead from Zinvth, is more than capable of these when the occasion arises.
  Mehlata: I remember a time when cutting off someone's head ended a conversation...
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Owona only got a page of the Clan Leaders sidestory with a small amount of information prior to her first mention in the main storyline... where it's revealed that she's just been murdered.
• Wham Episode
  • Chapter 14. The revelation that Dan is an incubus is so central to what comes after that it's hard to even talk about later arcs without giving it away.
  • In the Queen Mab arc: Wait, Mab is planning something?
  • The Fae arc. Wait, you mean at least two characters are going to die?!
  • When we discover that Pip can not only talk, but is a creature on par with a Fae in terms of power who has been masquerading as a mere animal the whole time.
  • More recently — these strips, despite the fact that it was a dream.
    • Cubi can't dream. Said Abel right before he woke up. If it isn't a dream, then what is it?
    • Turns out it is a dream. Abel's becoming more being-like due to a lack of emotion feeding.
  • Chapter 30, aptly titled "And Then Everything Went Wrong". To elaborate, The Blunt Object Brigade attack Lost Lake under the belief that a Cubi murderer they're hunting is there. The murdered victim? Merlitz. Although they're driven off and no one is (seriously) hurt, Pyroduck is confused that the Phoenix Oracles would give them such a straightforward answer, so he calls one and she confirms that it wasn't true. She then says that she doesn't know what happened to Merlitz. The Phoenixes, famous for literally knowing everything that was, is, and ever will be, have no idea what happened to Merlitz.
  • The Cubi Conference. The Dragons are revealed to have committed genocide on both Humanity and the Angels in order to preserve their rule over the world, and the Cubi declare open war against them to prevent the same thing happening to them. And that's before it's revealed that one of the clan leaders has been murdered... by Destania working with Briggs.
  • While we know logically that Fa'Lina is near-omniscient and that Mab is WAY smarter than she acts, it's very easy to forget underneath all the silliness. That is, until folks like this guy show up and we remember (spoiler warning) the last thing Fa'Lina told Abel before leaving SAIA.
• Wham Line
  • "Destania must be so proud to have an incubus like you for a son!"
  • "Jyrras... known Dan since childhood... came to rescue him... have had a slight crush on him since..."
  • Pip revealing his ability to speak, and that he and Mab have been manipulating the mortals this whole time.
  • "We weren't trying to attack folks! We're trying to track down and kill the Cubi that murdered Merlitz Meshaiko." — during Wildy's fight with Nitemyste as he and his compatriots attack Lost Lake.
  • More accurately, wham text, but still, Abel's father, Aniz Siar, is pronounced deceased for twenty-seven years, killed by Quintinga Ti'Fiona. In other words, Abel's father, whom he'd vowed revenge on, although having cryptically told Dan it was "no longer an option", was killed by Dan's father's first wife, Alexsi's mother; bear in mind also that Dan's mother was a bitter former lover of Abel's father.
  • What is the most frightening thing you can ever hear from a Phoenix Oracle, someone who can, with absolute accuracy, see everything that has happened and everything that will happen? I Don't Know.
  • A relatively minor example, but still quite surprising: Biggs used to be Bridget. Quite surprising, given his brash attitude and constantly shirtless appearance. Which might very well be the point.
• Wham Shot: In Matilda's Side Story, combined with Mood Whiplash.
• What Does This Button Do?: Always idiot-proof your lab!.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Abel calling out Dan on not staying at SAIA to train properly, pointing out that not learning to control his Cubi powers made it more likely that he'd lose control and truly become the menace he feared.
  • And he just gave Dan another one over how he plans to use Matilda to keep an eye on Alexsi.
    • And Dan actually listened.
  • Abel gets one himself in his sidestory, when Aaryanna spells out to him that he could've easily defeated Aniz (and, possibly, saved his mother) if he had actually taken advantage of what he's learned at SAIA, but instead he chose to seclude himself and be a brooding loner.
    • And now Destania's getting in on it too, reminding Abel of just how many people have died or otherwise had their lives ruined because of him.
• Whip of Dominance: Head combat instructor Quill has a domineering persona and is skilled with a whip, and she's shown to like using on her lover Jacob for kinky reasons while Dressed Like a Dominatrix.
• Widow's Weeds: The first time we see Piflak her wings were black, but later on she appears with light beige colored wings. She tells Dan it was because she was mourning a friend who had recently died. A cutaway shows it inverted for a Cubi with naturally black wings.
• Wiki Walk: In universe example.
• Winged Humanoid: cubi, demons, angels, fae and dragons in humanoid forum.
• Worth It: Mehlata knows she'll get caught for assassinating Kria Soulstealer, but it doesn't matter, the Soulstealers are a family of destructive and evil demons, and what happens to her is inconsequential to being able to kill even one of them.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Fa'Lina, for all her flaws and malice, refuses to hurt any child or to let anyone do that in her presence, as Aniz and Destania found out the hard way. However, the most notable exemple of this is her adoption of Pyroduck, son of an exceptionally ruthless dragon who betrayed and wiped out Fa'lina's clan during the Cubi-Dragon war. Pyroduck was kidnapped by Cubi and offered to Fa'lina as retribution for the deaths. She adopted him as her own son and gave him to the Phoenix oracles to protect him from the other Cubi.
• Xanatos Gambit: Biggs (or rather, Destania disguised as Biggs) hired Dan to (once again) slay Dark Pegasus, this time for good. Biggs explained that Dark Pegasus is a pain in his ass and that he needed to be stopped, so he needs to send Dan to do the job for him due to Dan's fame for killing Dark Pegasus. When Dan points out the possibility of Dark Pegasus killing him, Biggs retorts that Destania wouldn't allow her son's killer to escape unpunished. Either way, Dark Pegasus would be killed and, as Biggs pointed out, he would win in any case.
  • Dan attempts this with Wildy to avoid any disaster in a party with the Soulstealer family. It didn't work.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Wildy, originator of the idea of "Death by Shonen-ai."
  Dan: I don't think I can kill him... or want to anymore...
• You Are What You Hate: Dan for a while after learning he was an incubus and spending some time in denial about it. He eventually gets over it.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Oracles will sometimes tell people they have a choice, it doesn't mean you can change your destiny, but how you get there. You can either fight fate, and lose, or accept it and make life easier for yourself.
• You Keep Using That Word: Mab and Pyroduck get into an argument over the definition of "killing" and whether or not it includes "removed from existence entirely".
  Mab: Oh my goodness fiiiiine! If you're going to be pedantic about the definition!
• You Never Asked: During the all All Hail Queen Mab story arc, it is revealed Mab has a daughter. When questioned about it by Jyrras, she simply responds "No one ever asked."
• Your Vampires Suck: One letter in the Fourth-Wall Mail Slot (strip 510) asked about vampires, only to be told that vampires used to exist in Furrae but are now extinct, having been crowded out by more efficient predators like demons and cubi.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The Big Bad Dark Pegasus tried to trigger one in the Backstory, but the zombies turned out to be just too nice to work for him. Even the method of transmission is Lighter and Softer: bites and scratches infect you with The Virus, but it stays in remission unless you die before it wears off, which it does quickly, and the bites and scratches aren't any more likely to be fatal than any other injury. The zombies show up once in a while, although they mostly keep to themselves. They do have a representative on the Creature council though. Nonetheless there's Fantastic Racism towards them for fear of this, and from the aforementioned Big Bad, for the exact opposite reason. Plus there's some cultish group of undead that keep trying to turn him into an undead to take his place as their leader. He's not too thrilled at the idea, unsurprisingly.

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