Witches Reign

Here. Characters find themselves in Balamb Garden twenty-one years after the events of Final Fantasy VIII. Thanks to the sorceress Ultimecia's attempts to make time one single moment, people from different worlds were drawn into the unnamed world of FFVIII thanks to the resulting "Time Compression."

As either Cadets, Instructors, or SeeDs, characters are expected to learn the rigors and rules of a top-notch mercenary organization and accordingly work with it until they can find a way back to their homeworlds. That, however, is much easier said than done.


 * A Degree in Useless: Averted: every major (even the less physically-dependent ones like Intelligence) is important in some way.
 * Academy of Adventure: Even without the shenanigans of time compression, Garden teaches kids how to use magic and mystical forces as well as the usual Spy School fare.
 * All Animals Are Domesticated: Subverted: Claire is mildly weirded out by the fact that this world's chocobos are not, unlike the XIII world's.
 * All Elections Are Serious Business: Grell threatens to kill people who don't vote for her for Homecoming Princess; Tom thinks something would have exploded if she or Sharpay hadn't won their respective titles. Subverted by all the other SeeD candidates, who didn't care about or want their titles.
 * Amazon Brigade: The game roster consists of a disproportionate number of cute, friendly, capable girls.
 * Bag of Sharing: If the school has access to one canon Guardian Force, every character can junction it.
 * Beach Episode: Kiden throws together a weekend trip to the beach. Intoxication Ensues.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Espio. One reason not to mess with Tobias.
 * Boss in Mook Clothing: Averted. Most of the cast slaps the crap out of the poor T-Rexaurs in the training center without breaking a sweat.
 * Class Trip: While Garden is on break in Esthar, students are invited to the presidential palace and to Odin's laboratory.
 * Competence Zone: Subverted. The minimum age for taking the SeeD field exam is 15, which many of the younger kids, heroes or deadly assassins in their own canons, are not impressed with. The maximum age for attaining SeeDship is 25, but the Headmaster seems to have turned a blind eye to several of the older characters, and some of the immortals are outright lying about their ages.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Barnaby considers Pinkie Pie one.
 * Dull Surprise: Seifer-mun's reaction towards everything. Including you.
 * Elaborate University High: Balamb Garden, reprising its role from its home series.
 * Eyepatch After Time Skip: Tobias, though it's less a typical eyepatch and more of a medical one.
 * Fantastic Racism: Many of the natives of the VIII world do not look kindly on off-worlders, most notably an NPC Girl Posse.
 * Fantastic Religious Weirdness: Played totally straight with Damian.
 * Food Fight: During the superpowers event, fuelled by Zephyr's sudden ability to generate baked goods and Kiden's sudden invisibility.
 * Fundraiser Carnival: Subverted: The carnival was originally just part of homecoming, but then the Garden Festival Committee decided to give the funds to charity.
 * Guest Fighter: Impulse holds a superhero party, attended mostly by the DC and Marvel casts, but also Miracle Mikuru, Pinkie Pie, and Luki.
 * Played with when enemies from other worlds start turning up and destroying things... including Com Mons from Pokémon in the tall grass.
 * Gym Class Hell: Jecht's swimming class.
 * Heroic BSOD: Espio goes through one when he sees his home reality implode.
 * High School Dance: Valentine's and homecoming dances are added to the graduation ball returning from the original game.
 * Hypocritical Humor: Sharpay breaks curfew to have a New Year's countdown with Tom, and clears out the secret area to do so by telling everyone off for breaking curfew.
 * Informed Islam: Subverted with Damian Razem. Although he seems like a Muslim who's more show than tell, his constant use of Arabic and subtle obedience towards his religion indicates that he's more than just talk.
 * Instant Fanclub: That same NPC Girl Posse happen to be Trepies, and also think Snow is quite good-looking.
 * Is That A Challenge: By Mewtwo to Bulla, quoting the original film.
 * Leaning on the Furniture: If there is any furniture, it's Seifer's now.
 * Military Superhero: Played straight for any of the characters from either the DC Universe or Marvel Universe, as they're superheroes who have graduated or will graduate and work for Garden as part of its mercenary force.
 * Mistaken for Pregnant: Espio leaves his turnip stash in Marco's dorm room without telling him; Marco leaps to the conclusion that it is a message from Grell in vegetable language.
 * The Napoleon: Zim, since his classmates are mostly normal-human-sized... and he ran into Snow not long after enrolling.
 * Next Sunday A.D.: Despite being set twenty-one years after Final Fantasy VIII, it appears that Science Has Not Marched On.
 * Reality Subtext: Until the game's move to Dreamwidth, when the characters receive wireless-capable laptops and much of the world outside Garden also gets a technological upgrade.
 * Organization with Unlimited Funding: Now that students are sponsored by outside groups, Garden has the money to quickly build an adults' lounge on a newcomer's request while they have the dorms renovated.
 * Papa Wolf: Marco. Another reason you don't mess with Tobias.
 * Remember the New Guy?: Characters applied as SeeDs have at least a year of handwaved history within the setting, and including CR in this handwave is an option.
 * School Play: The drama classes put one on every quarter, having so far performed Romeo and Juliet set in the first Sorceress War and Cats.
 * Shipper on Deck: Did they talk to each other? Miss Tattler ships it now.
 * Standard Status Effects: The subject of an entire event within the game.
 * Subject 101
 * Super Powers For A Month: The focus of an event - some powerless characters received powers, some had new powers swapped for their old ones, some swapped powers with other people, and some unlucky sods were Brought Down to Normal. Powers received include:
 * The Empath: Selphie absorbs the emotions of anyone she touches and can't turn it off.
 * Flight: Joe, Dick; Danny Masters gets Clark Kent's flight.
 * Friend to All Living Things: Squall and Sharpay, with the latter's friendliness extending to bugs and monsters. Equius also receives Tavros' friendliness.
 * Healing Hands: Tom.
 * An Ice Person: Riku.
 * Intangible Man: Clark Kent gets Danny's ghost powers in return.
 * Invisibility: Kiden, who also starts turning things she touches invisible.
 * Mind Over Matter: Cid Raines.
 * Prehensile Hair: Goose.
 * Playing with Fire: Rolo gets Zuko's Firebending; Espio also gets firepowers.
 * Super Speed: Danny again.
 * Super Strength: Danny again; Tavros gets Equius'.
 * Time Stands Still: Zuko gets Rolo's Geass, making people think this has happened.
 * Winged Humanoid: Rinoa gets stuck with the wings from her Angel Wing Limit Break all the time.
 * X-Ray Vision: Redglare.
 * Teacher-Student Romance: Nothing has developed exclusively in the game, but Snow is the Martial Arts Instructor, and Serah is just a student.
 * Thanksgiving Episode: Danny invites people to celebrate it with him at the last minute.
 * Timey-Wimey Ball: Time compression is the cause of, and solution to, every issue that needs a handwaving.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Garden at large and baked goods.
 * Espio has an obsession with turnips. He'll eat them, hoard them, steal them, talk to them, threaten people with them and generally takes it to a ridiculous level. Even the Headmaster has noticed that he loves the things.
 * Two-Teacher School: Averted! Many SeeD PCs are instructors.
 * Welcome Back, Traitor: Seifer, after the entire events of Final Fantasy VIII, had no trouble getting back into the Garden and resuming his classes. Not everyone has welcomed him, though.
 * Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: Applies to practically half the cast, but special mention goes towards Zim for publicly asking for people's DNA samples on the BBS where the teachers could spot him... and Damian for hitting a weapon at Souless!Colette and getting attacked with freaking Judgment in retaliation.