Decembersville

A stubborn 11-year-old girl named Sophia is less than amused with the idea of her spending her summer at her grandparents' house; especially with that weirdo Darkslaw around just to annoy her. But then one fateful night, Sophia finds herself walking into Decembersville, a hidden city of freaks and monsters, with no hope of returning home!

In order to survive the freaks-only world, she turns to a kind ax-handed boy named Zero, an anxious clock-like circus performer named Pendulum Tin, and a shiftily devious gangster werewolf, all trying to keep her safe from the vengeful vampire Count Merry-Go-Round, the evil overlords of Decembersville, the von Pyre Bros., and the terrifying ringmaster behind a dark scheme: the Meowsician.

Throughout the journey, Sophia learns through the morals of courage, friendship and love to try to restore peace to the corrupted city.

An online novel in the works which can be found on deviantART. Featuring a large cast and showing how humans just cannot get it through their heads that discrimination is bad. As of 5/20/11, Chapter 55 is out, and the story has been placed on a schedule consisting of one chapter every few weeks.

The story was written over about a year and a half, so there is a large improvement in the storytelling and writing style.

You can begin reading the story here:

This work contains examples of:

 * Accidental Heroine: Sophia
 * Adorkable: Pendulum Tin
 * Adults Are Useless: Considering her human folks don't seem to do much and every other adult in the story is mad to a degree.
 * The Alcoholic: Chimabell drowns his sorrow in liquor whenever he's depressed. It may actually stem into Can't Hold His Liquor territory, since he grows paranoid and unpredictable pretty quickly, but we aren't told how much he drinks at one time.
 * Animal Motifs
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Guess who...
 * Art Evolution: There is a noticable improvement between the earlier chapters and the later ones.
 * Author Appeal: Writer has a thing for misunderstood characters, monsters, romances, pretty Victorian cities, rather much everything the story is made of.
 * Badass Normal: One can probably expect Azgda Malakov to be this, whenever she makes it to Decembersville, given that she's commited so much genocide against Freaks without much trouble already.
 * Berserk Button: As the story progresses, the sheer mention of Sophia or how she could "help him" will send Chima into an almost-Unstoppable Rage. Also, Sophia herself will become enraged whenever she's belittled or given an insulting nickname.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Bella seems to be edging towards this in the later chapters.
 * Blessed With Suck or Cursed With Awesome: YMMV with Zero the ax-handed sweetheart.
 * Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Butterflies are representative of happiness and purity in the story, and usually hang around those who are idealistic and good.
 * Break the Cutie:
 * Chekhov's Gun: Someday, that Clock Tower will mean something.
 * Chekhov's Gunman: Ivan and Malakov will probably mean big trouble later on, it's just a matter of when they actually GET to Decembersville. (And they will probably come at the worst of times.)
 * Cheshire Cat Grin: Andante and Chimabell, to a lesser extent.
 * City Noir
 * Clear My Name: Sophia again.
 * Clock Tower: Decembersville has one, and will probably play a larger part deeper in the story.
 * Cowardly Lion: Pendulum Tin. So much so that if he gets anxious enough, he will start spewing gibberish, and someone will have to slap him in order to snap him out of it.
 * Creepy Crossdresser: Bella had to crossdress as part of losing a bet. The disturbing part was that he started to like it.
 * Crap Saccharine World: Decembersville itself.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: See Hidden Badass below
 * Dartboard of Hate: Chimabell acts out this trope, complete with Zero's picture. He's one of those people.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: The fact that the seemingly villainous have some light to them. Being stuck in a world where monsters are like normal people helps this trope as well.
 * Dope Slap: Bella gives Chimabell these.
 * Down the Rabbit Hole: Sophia is accidentally pulled into the town of Decembersville after she and Darkslaw are attacked by Vultures.
 * Drink Order: Bella and Campara are usually portrayed as drinking hot tea, as a symbol of their aristocracy.
 * Emotionless Girl: Sarah,
 * Evil Albino: Pretty much every antagonist in this freaking thing, but mainly the Meowsician.
 * Evil Brit: Andante
 * Fan Nickname: Meowsy for the Meowsician.
 * Fantastic Racism: The story pretty much revolves around this. The conflicts between Freaks and humans are what drives the story.
 * Flower Motifs: Merry's blue roses represent Kerasell
 * Freudian Excuse: The von Pyre Bros. get this, full stop.
 * Friendless Background: Many Freaks went through this one time or another.
 * He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Meowsician, at least at first.
 * Hidden Badass:  You have to admit, that's kind of awesome.
 * Humans Are Bastards: Many of the Freaks, good or bad, have been discriminated against or looked down upon them at one time or another. Guess who did it?
 * The Hunter: the Winter Cult as a whole.
 * Grandparental Obliviousness: Averted. A section of one chapter is dedicated to Sophia's grandparents (along with Darkslaw's father) and the police searching for the missing children. Kind of there to make it clear that Sophia is no orphan, that's pretty much all.
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Ivan embodies this trope, sending it into more nightmarish levels at times.
 * In-Series Nickname: Pixie, from Darkslaw, sometimes crosses into My Name Is Not Durwood territory, when Sophia is particularly irritated.
 * In Your Nature to Destroy Yourselves: The Meowsician brings this up while explaining to Sophia that humans destroy everything around them, including themselves.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Bella von Pyre seems to be swaying towards this, while his brother seems to be walking the opposite way. Also, Melloni Collie.
 * La Résistance: There is a small underground resistance that rebel against the von Pyres' rule, which believe Sophia to be the answer of compromise between humans and Freaks.
 * Large Ham: Most share a slice of the ham, but Merry-Go-Round takes the cold meat.
 * Leitmotif: An odd written example, but "Scarborough Fair" makes recurring appearances throughout the story.
 * Light Is Not Good: The Meowsician actually dresses in all white. Whether this is because he views himself as the good one or not remains to be seen, though.
 * Lovable Coward: Pendulum Tin
 * Military Brat: Ivan could probably be seen as this.
 * Muscles Are Meaningless: Many of the smaller or thinner characters pack more punch than one would expect. Sometimes even the other characters are surprised. Justified in most of them being supernatural in some way.
 * Non-Action Guy: Sophia as a younger girl version, and quite possibly Zero.
 * Nice Hat: Plenty in Decembersville, Tin and Chimabell's for example
 * Our Vampires Are Different: Count Merry-Go-Round sways towards the more traditional version of vampires, and since Decembersville is without a sun, he doesn't have to worry about being burned. Also, it seems like he can super-heat his claws to melt metal, as he did when saving Zero and Sophia from the Runaway Train
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: Most werewolves, like Melloni Collie, reside in gangs (which act as a pack) and their transformation form is close to the more humanoid, but still beastly, side of the scale. Also, they only transform during the full moon.
 * Older Than They Look: Chimabell is thirty-three, although he looks more in his late twenties--maybe. Also, many readers are surprised that Ivan is fifteen.
 * Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: According to Word Of God and promotional material,  Counts as a Woman Scorned, too. Someone's totally screwed...
 * Psychopathic Manchild: Chimabell, and
 * Punny Name: LOADS. You have the von Pyres, for one. Also, Meowsician is pretty straightforward in meaning. Then, there's Darkslaw and Darkchovi (which sound like coleslaw/anchovi), Melloni Collie sounds like "melancholy" along with his last name being a breed of dog. "Malakov" also sounds vaguely like "molotov." Finally, Merry-Go-Round and Kerasell.
 * Also, in music, "Andante" means a "moderately fast" tempo.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Between the Meowsician and Chimabell.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Chimabell and Bella, Pendulum Tin and Mellon, and Merry and Andante, to a degree.
 * Rich Bitch: Campara von Pyre.
 * Runaway Train: A random, ghost train, which pretty much wanted to splatter Sophia, Zero, and Count Merry for... no reason?
 * Shout-Out: In the first chapter, to Harry Potter, also constant, more obscure ones through the story.
 * Sir Swearsalot: Bella von Pyre, especially when he's first introduced.
 * Slasher Smile: Admit it, the first time you saw Andante, you thought he would jump up and start murdering people for no apparent reason, too. Though this could be considered an amped up Stepford Smile
 * Switching POV
 * Talking Animal: Meet Andante, a talking, smiling, organ-demon-cat.... thing. With a British accent.
 * Tank Goodness: Darkly subverted. The Winter Cult, coming from the last chapter they were featured in (and if this Troper's memory serves), they have a TANK. And the police officer who pointed them out didn't seem to care. Supposed to be humorous.
 * Theme Naming: Melloni and his stepbrother Emylli. There's also Darkchovi and Darkslaw (Dark + coleslaw; dark + anchovi). Also, Chimabell, Bella, and Campara ("Campara" being one letter away from "Campana," which is Spanish for "bell") are names pertaining to bells. Finally, there's Count Merry-Go-Round and Kerasell ("carousel"). You know you're destined for each other when your names are synonymous.
 * Trapped in Another World
 * Tunnel Network: Where the rebellion stays.
 * Unfazed Everyman: Sophia again. She's totally normal, especially at the beginning of the story.
 * Verbal Tic: Used literally; Ivan stutters before he begins to speak, although we haven't actually seen it yet.
 * Villainous Breakdown: It's bound to happen to most of them eventually, and  has already met
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Taking the discrimination that flies around between humans and Freaks, the Meowsician probably started out like this. However, from what we're witnessing later in the story, he's either crossed the Moral Event Horizon or is heading towards it at high speed.
 * What Is This Feeling?:  encounters this when he feels
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Freaks of Decembersville
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: Taking the discrimination that flies around between humans and Freaks, the Meowsician probably started out like this. However, from what we're witnessing later in the story, he's either crossed the Moral Event Horizon or is heading towards it at high speed.
 * What Is This Feeling?:  encounters this when he feels
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Freaks of Decembersville