In a galaxy far, far away, a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits are scraping by, smuggling not-necessarily-legal things to not-necessarily-legal places, whith an occasional firefight along the way. Then one day, a Mysterious Waif who alternates between being shy and kicking much ass drops into their lives...
No, Sean Wang's Runners
is not Firefly. Not even inspired by Firefly (see author's account). But there are similar Star Wars meets western vibes there.
Tropes:
- Action Girl: Sky is more than able to pull her own weight in everyday operations of the Ragtag Bunch of Misfits. She makes a point once by bending a spoon, Effortless Amazonian Lift is not a problem to her and she generally contributes most by her Super-Strength.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Bocce encounters a pack of weird alien wolves. He doesn't even need to tame them to play catch (and Big Damn Heroes).
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: Sky has no idea who she is or where she's from. She's also sweet (despite her The Big Guy role in the group), kind and naive. Almost like she Really Was Born Yesterday...
- Artificial Human: Sky and her "sisters" may be these. We really don't know yet.
- Asteroid Miners: Ril and Roka have a hideout in an abandoned asteroid mine.
- Bandito IN SPACE!: The hilariously inept green guys at the beginning of "The Snow Job". They even have the hats!
- Bar Brawl: The brawl starts in the bar, but gets out to the street pretty quickly.Bar owner: Hey! Who's gonna pay for my window?!
- Barrier Warrior: One frequent use of Bocce's shapeshifting power arm is creating shields.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: Climax of The Snow Job
- Beware the Nice Ones: Bocce, the sweet, friendly guy who welcomes Sky into the team despite others' misgivings or indifference, will give in to Revenge Before Reason at the mere mention of Kaagan-Vas. They killed his father.
- The Big Guy: In the Brimia crew, the role is shared between Bennesaud and Sky.
- Big Damn Heroes: In The Snow Job, Bocce rides an alien-dog-pulled sled right into the climactic battle to save his friends.
- Binocular Shot: A star-warsy one here.
- Boarding Party: Our heroes, when scavenging the Tique Amara. Also a tactic favoured by pirates.
- Bookends: The gang having dinner in The Snow Job.
- Bounty Hunter: They exist and are likely to target the gang, so Grissom says.
- Braids, Beads and Buckskins: The Ulon Dosi, native to Ciceron, have very much this sort of aesthetic, along with quite a lot of badassitude.
- Casual Interplanetary Travel: Our heroes are broke and search for work by travelling on a spaceship.
- The Captain: Roka.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Cember, Ril and Bennes tease each other, joke and make bets while fighting.
- Cattle Drive: The Snow Job consists of driving Ciceron yak. Ostensibly.
- City Planetoid: Oniaka city station. Vaguely inspired by India, according to
Word of God. - Chekhov's Line: Several, in The Snow Job.
- Chrome Champion: The blue girls, Sky among them, are able to turn into these at will, complete with Super-Strength.
- Cloaking Device: Standard pirate trick.
- The Conscience: Bocce, for Roka mostly.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Candy Bandit, natch. Cember is a quippy, funny, flamboyant, not very threatening-looking alien guy who can can shoot through a fingertip-sized opening.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Bocce's lost his father in a pirate raid, Bennes used to work for a dhama, until something was demanded of him that he dissaproved of, a bit of Roka's is shown in his Flashback Nightmare.
- Deflector Shields: Common on ships (essential in Space Battles) as well as around individuals ("body shells").
- The Don: Called "dhama" in this universe. The Brimia crew, being crooks, deal with them more than they probably ought to.
- Double Caper: Dhama Hes couldn't have been lying, suave buisinessman that he is, could he? He didn't technically - he just neglected to tell the protagonists that the stolen cattle wasn't his to begin with.
- Effortless Amazonian Lift: Silver Sky has no trouble lifting Bocce.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Bennesaud throws a rock.Ril: You missed!
Bennesaud: I did?
An avalanche ensues - Exact Words: The end of Snow Job. They were supposed to bring back forty heads of cattle...Dhama Hes (upon being given literally just the heads): Very clever.
- Extended Disarming: Ril, the Walking Armory:They put weapons on the table.
Doorkeeper: All your weapons.
Ril puts another weapon on the table.
Doorkeeper: And the buckle knives.
Ril puts them on the table. Doorkeeper just stares. Ril puts another knife on the table. Doorkeeper keeps staring.
Roca Do you want to just meet us inside?? - Evil Is Hammy: There is a Black-and-Grey Morality in effect, but still... Hamron seems starved for the scenery.
- Fan Film: The DAVE School has prodused two animated shorts based off of Bad Goods. One in 2006, the other in 2015
- Fantastic Drug: Crush. Very addictive, and naturally the mob is selling it and not taking "no" for an answer. Double duty as a Fantastic Explosive. Going Cold Turkey will kill you gruesomely.
- Fantastic Slurs: "Horn-Beak" is one for Ril's species.
- The Fighting Narcissist: Hamron the Handsome, dreaded pirate and ladies' man.
- Flashback Nightmare: Roka has an understated one, with no dialogue, to drive his Survivor Guilt home.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Brimia crew, besides leukine Bocce and Sky, who doesn't know herself yet, consists of:
- sanguine: Cember: the Candy Bandit and Fun Personified who looks good in firefights
- choleric: Ril: gruff Knife Nut, frustrated over not running the ship, does not think things through, loves guns as much as he loves knives, bit of a Troll
- melancholic: Roka: very smart, analitical and serious, responsible, levelheaded captain with hints of Stepford Snarker
- phlegmatic: Bennesaud: Gentle Giant, quiet and reliable, smart, but not bragging about it, relaxes by reading
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Flamethrowers are used in The Snow Job, to deadly effect.
- Game-Breaking Injury: A broken leg, to be exact, which confines Bocce to the ship at the end of Damaged Goods and for a part of The Snow Job because healing technology is expensive.
- The Gunslinger: Cember. Ril, while quite Trigger-Happy, just doesn't have the flair.
- Hand Cannon: Averted for Bennesaud, whose usual guns are tiny (in proportion to him).
- The Heart: Bocce.
- Heel Realization: Roka actively avoids having one. He tells Bocce so after the gang finds clues of Superhuman Trafficking they might be committing.Roka: It's not our job to know.
- Honest John's Dealership: The anglefishman sells ships on Oniaka. He's basically Stan IN SPACE!.
- Humanoid Aliens: Many flavours, one with vestigial radial symmetry. Bocce could pass for human (if not for the arm, but it's not a trait of his species). Sky is a Green-Skinned Space Babe.
- Identity Amnesia: Sky is introduced having no idea who she is, where she comes from, or what, indeed, is her name. It's Bocce who names her "Sky". It's quite possible that she Really Was Born Yesterday ans has nothing to remember in the first place.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Baso's initiation into Kaagan-Vas consists of killing his own father and sister. He has absolutely no problem with that.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Cember can shoot through a fingertip-sized opening. He's so sure of this he makes large bets on his own skill and casually wins them.
- Inertial Dampening: Trumped by Rule of Funny, otherwise played straight.
- Intimidation Demonstration: Pacifies Ril. Makes Roka grumble about how much forks cost.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Ril in The Snow Job, protesting the fact they didn't get paid. Again. And are completely broke:Ril: THAT'S IT! I can't DO this!! I can't believe we TOOK the beetles!
Roka: What was I SUPPOSED to do, Ril?! They couldn't PAY us!
Ril: We can't LIVE like this, Roka!!
- Last-Name Basis: Ril only ever refers to Cember as "Cember" once. Every other time it's "Kogi".
- Lured into a Trap: The gang, having missed the significance of the Chekhov's Gun a couple of pages earlier, walks right into this one... Oh, Crap!
- MacGuffin Super-Person: An entire shipload of possible Human Weapons...
- Mexican Standoff: How we meet Grissom.
- Mistaken for Junkie: While Keyla needs crush for research (on curing addicts), her father
forms conclusions of his own. - Minor Injury Overreaction: Harmon. It would be sad, if it wasn't so hilarious.Harmon: My beautiful face!
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Silver Sky. Also quite strong.
- Off Bridge, onto Vehicle: In the Damaged Goods. Less than graceful, but at least no-one got hurt.
- Old Friend: Grissom, to Ril and Roka.
- Only in It for the Money: Why Roka is in the business.
- Opium Den: The ruined village of Ulon Dosi (ruination in this case caused by most of the population being addicted to crush).
- Perpetual Poverty: Money's tight for Brimia crew. This is a source of tension. Especially when they don't get paid. Again.
- Power Fist: Bocce has some sort of blue energy arm. That shapeshifts. Very handy.
- Retired Outlaw: Grissom, at least for now.
- Reduced to Root Beetles: In The Snow Job. Cember actually likes them, though.
- Revenge Before Reason: Harmon has an issue to set with the Brimia crew. Also, if you're Kaagan-Vas, keep as far away from Bocce as possible.
- The Rustler: There's a gang of these on Ciceron. The gang gets hired to rustle a herd of cattle back from them.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Not their fight.
- Shout-Out: Flying out of Oniaka. Millenium Falcon, anyone?
- Snowball Fight: The crew play a bit upon arrival on Ciceron, where it's very snowy.
- Snow Means Death: Frozen-to-death guy in the establishing shot of Ciceron.
- Space Clothes: Refreshingly averted for everyone except Sky, the one person able to pull modest Future Spandex off. The rest of the crew dresses more like Han Solo.
- Space Fighter: Ships like Khorusya Brimia have one or two "Mosquitos" for discrete landings and dogfights.
- Space Police: In Jondhi space (Space Navy? Space Coast Guard?) - they give our heroes some trouble.
- Space Pirates: At least two distinct groups, Harmon's one comes complete with a Boarding Party as their favoured tactic. The Kaagan-Vas seem to be Always Chaotic Evil.
- Stab the Salad: In their very first scene, Cember's fully intending to kick Roka's ass in a cardgame.
- Standard Starship Scuffle: Khorusya Brimia vs. Space Pirates, with dogfighting and star-warsy Explosions in Space
- Street Smart: None of the crew is exactly dumb: Roka and Bennes are tacticians, Ril gets to play the mechanic, Bocce got into the crew because he thinks on his feet, and Cember's a good shot and experienced in fights.
- Super-Soldier: The blue-silver girls, most probably.
- The Syndicate: The Six Tal'Dhamas organize the crime in this universe.
- Those Two Guys: Cember and Bennesaud, best pals since having been on the same pirate crew.
- Token Human: Bocce (or Human Alien, since there seems to be no Earth around).
- Used Future: Not really future, more like a galaxy far, far away. But still.
- Wretched Hive: The ironically named Free Kespa.
