Level, stylized leveL, is a webcomic by Nate Swineheart.
The first iteration focused on Cael, an apparently-normal boy living in the massive futuristic metropolis of Level. Plagued by strange dreams, he decides one day to take home a school computer to research the possible causes. His plans are stymied, however, by his violent cousin Reagan, who shows up to take him shopping and then to a game of Gravball, on the suggestion of Cael's mother.
From there, everything goes quite insane. leveL went on a big hiatus from July 2010, then rebooted on August 1, 2013
on a brand-new website (you can still read the old version under "Extras").
The reboot explores the dystopic city of LeveL more, a sprawling metropolitan utopia, technologically advanced and socially just. Three years after the Holopaque Storm, a mysterious event that shook up the city of LeveL, triggering a war between the Tiern and UnTiern, the only eyewitness of the Storm, Cael Dalton, is being assigned a new therapist. At the same time, an equally mysterious optimist Rain has a package to deliver.
The Continuity Reboot has:
- All There in the Manual: Here you can find information on the Tiers.
- The Anti-Nihilist: Rain tells it beautifully:Rain: We're more than the awful things we endure. Just because the world around me is awful doesn't mean I have to be.
- Combat Parkour: Rain's style of fighting, awfully flashy and heavy on Three Point Landings, but gets the job done.
- Flashback Cut: Empaths induce these when touching you. May be used as a distraction, although sometimes A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read.
- Layered Metropolis: Level, partially built of Hard Light on higher levels, with a slum nearer ground.
- No Medication for Me: Reagan leaves her patient the choice of whether he wants to be medicated or not. He chooses medication, but might soon regret it.
- Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Wryn's ghost? Or whatever the thing is? for Cael. Though he might be Not So Imaginary Enemy just as well.
- Odd Couple: Neurotic, artsy Cael and his best friend, rougish Wryn.
- Painting the Medium: The site layout colours change with the proceedings of the story.
- The Pollyanna: Rain. When we meet him in Bad Guy Bar, he avoids several mishaps and ends up with a beer bottle in his hands (which he promptly gives away):Rain: Free drink, how nice!
- Power of Trust: When they bond over music.Cael: If our spots were reversed [...] would you trust me?Reagan: (releases his bounds) Play me the song.
- Recurring Dreams: Cael has recurring Nightmares of Flying. Whether they're psychic or Dreaming the Truth remains to be seen.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The choleric Reagan and her quietly optimistic assistant Jordan. They even wear tops in their respective colours.
- Roof Hopping: The long Chase Scene starting here.
- The Scapegoat: The UnTiern, for the Holopaque Storm. This resulted in civil war, which is still raging at the time the story starts.
- The Teetotaler: Rain "doesn't smoke and orders tea in a bar".
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Rain avoids killing and calls Emory out on it.
- Wrong Side of the Tracks: Sprawl. Some sectors get UnTiern (cut of from the Tiers system), making them even more of that.
- Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: The whole plot (or, at least, Cael and Wryn's involvement in it) started by them doing something they weren't supposed to.
