Oneiroi Series

The Oneiroi Series by Water-Smurf was started as a Crack Pairing idea on the Order of the Stick forums, and since then, it has turned into a multi-story epic that requires a chart to make sense of.

The premise of the series begins when Vaarsuvius, instead of escaping from Xykon with O-Chul, gets captured and starts to fall in love with Redcloak while he tries to interrogate him/her. After that, it got worse, and everything bad that could possibly happen to Redcloak, Vaarsuvius, and everyone else involved, happens.

(And apparently, another story the author wrote, a Mijung/the-goblin-who-first-fell-into-the-Snarl-and-thus-brought-the-Dark-One's-attention-to-it (otherwise known as Yutrin) story has been confirmed to be canon. This means that any of the separate stories on this old diagram could be canon.)

Interestingly enough, the series has a lot of Mood Whiplash if you read the separate endings. The Tiasal Ending is very light and fluffy while the Deirdre Ending makes the readers want to kill themselves. Your Mileage May Vary, of course. The Downer Ending provides an interesting character study of a broken mind (and the Cuties she's tearing apart) while the happy ending makes you feel good.

Has a WMG page.

Tropes:

 * Action Girl: Tiasal, Aula,.
 * Aborted Declaration of Love: Sort of. Redcloak admits his love to Vaarsuvius, but it's in a language doesn't speak.
 * Adaptation Expansion: Sort of. Vaarsuvius's past and parents are expanded on, and . But otherwise, not really.
 * All Men Are Perverts: Notably averted. Before they slept together, Redcloak had no idea which sex Vaarsuvius was and never made an attempt to find out. Even afterwards, all of his sexual advances were, at heart, affectionate and rarely purely lustful. And in the Deidre Ending after many long years of not seeing Vaarsuvius (and presumably not getting any), he had a chance to sleep with a beautiful woman who Word of God says that he was eying . He vehemently rejected her advances.
 * Along those lines, Terentius specifically does not want to sleep with an attractive woman who's showing obvious interest . And the only reason is putting the moves on Deirdre is so he can manipulate her more effectively. Come to think of it, Redcloak, Vaarsuvius, Master, the elf with the molten eyes, Tsukiko, and Deirdre are the only ones who have ever been remotely perverted or interested in sex. The former two only do it with each other, Master was only interested in kids, the nameless elf only raped someone for a sick sense of vengeance, Tsukiko is a necrophiliac, and Deirdre has more than a few screws loose, so it's not completely lust that drives her. Hell, there are only a few guys on that list anyway. So yeah. Averted.
 * All There in the Manual: There's a lot of extra info about the series on the forums. The author puts a lot of subtext in there and has a lot of background info that's not actually obvious in the stories, so she just posts it all outside of them.
 * Ambiguous Innocence: Tiasal has a touch of this.
 * Ax Crazy: Deirdre~
 * Babies Make Everything Better: No, they really don't.
 * And they're making things a lot more difficult for Mijung and Yutrin.
 * Bastard Bastard: Deirdre's not a nice woman.
 * Beast and Beauty: Redcloak and Vaarsuvius, though who's the beast and who's the beauty depends on the species of the observer.
 * Berserker Tears: Octavius started to cry while he was beating up his little sister and shouting that it was her fault that their parent was dead.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Seriously.
 * Bilingual Bonus: If you speak classical latin or are EXTREMELY familiar with Greek mythology, the titles provide hints to the story.
 * Greek mythology really helps out with picking up hints and foreshadowing in Dumped on the Rooster (a story that seems to be canon but may or may not be). Like the mention of
 * And now, a love for puzzles and lyric reading helps out too. I wonder why the author puts this stuff in a fanfiction?
 * Blood-Splattered Innocents: During Deirdre's Start of Darkness, she . The victims' innocence is debatable, though.
 * And now it's official.
 * Break the Cutie: Every Cutie is broken to tiny pieces. Then put back together just to be broken again.
 * Break the Haughty: Poor, poor V.
 * Broken Bird: Tiasal, Deirdre, Vaarsuvius, Redcloak, Inkyrius, and everyone else who gets more than a page of spotlight.
 * : Word of God (and a side note from Blackwing) says that Vaarsuvius and Redcloak.
 * Child Eater: Word of God says that, after they give birth, grown servant girls are cooked and served to the rest of the servant kids. Master needs to die.
 * Children Are Innocent: No, they're definitely not.
 * Children Raise You: Elan really grew up after . The rest of the Order have a similar reaction, and surprisingly enough, Belkar actually mellows out a little. It's implied it's because of her.
 * Complete Monster: Master.
 * Cowardly Lion: Yutrin is so wussy, he has a mini BSOD of fear when Mijung snaps at him. But when you think about it, he is actually pretty badass. Despite his fear of Mijung (and humans in general), he stays with her and takes care of her because she's pregnant and needs him, even though he's convinced she can and will kill him. He's still chicken, though.
 * Creepy Child: I can't be the only one who thinks Tiasal's creepy, even before the whole fiasco.
 * Cute and Psycho: Deirdre.
 * Daddy's Girl: Tiasal has a special attachment to her father, though it hasn't gotten to the point where her mother's left out. Deirdre is a very dark version of the trope.
 * Dark Action Girl: Deirdre.
 * Dark Magical Girl: Yes, Deirdre's this too. One of the rare examples where one character has both sides, though she leans further towards being a Dark Magical Girl.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Even the characters who didn't have one in canon have one here.
 * Dead Little Sister: Terentius and Octavius thought they had one.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen: As things go on, especially in the continuity dubbed the 'Tiasal Ending', V loses the edge and loosens up.
 * Deliver Us From Evil: birth was the last thing  needed to decide to Heel Face Turn.  murder helped, though. It's implied that he was already getting a little shaky on his resolve when.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Redcloak reaches it after Right-Eye isn't too far behind.
 * Deus Angst Machina: One has to wonder if the author has some serious problems against women, men, families, and everything else possible.
 * Disappeared Dad: Justified. He was sort of dead at the time.
 * Double Standard Rape Female On Male: Averted so very hard.
 * Played with in the cast. Tsukiko and Xykon treat it like it's one big joke, but they don't think it, whereas gets physically ill when he thinks too much about it and takes it gravely seriously, though he's much more sympathetic towards the rapist than he probably would have been had the sexes been reversed.
 * Downer Ending: Can you say Deirdre Ending loud enough?
 * Driven to Villainy: Deirdre.
 * Ethical Slut: Aula and Tiberius. Word of God says that they had an open relationship and slept with people other than each other, leading to one really nasty grudge following their child.
 * Evil Is Sexy: Deirdre's description boils down to 'Crazy bombshell with an Electra Complex who you'd still do'.
 * Face Heel Turn:
 * Fantastic Racism: Redcloak starts out hating humans and elves (his self-proclaimed "species-ism"), but gets better as the story goes on. His mother, however...
 * Fantastic Romance: Three guesses, first two don't count.
 * Femme Fatalons: Deirdre has some nasty claws because of her goblin blood.
 * Father, I Want to Marry My Brother: When she was younger, Tiasal thought that she would grow up to marry her father, one of her uncles, one of her cousins, or one of her brothers.
 * Gauze Gauze Kiss: Redcloak was in charge of healing Vaarsuvius (to the point where could survive interrogation) when they started the whole thing.
 * Love Goddess: Aphrodite in Pawns of the Gods. She's the bitch who
 * Hallucinations: Tiasal in the Tiasal Ending have these, but they're well controlled with medication. Deirdre in the Deirdre Ending has tons and is completely and utterly insane.
 * Hands-Off Parenting: It's implied that Aula and Tiberius worked like this, but they seem to be loving people, so it's possible that they were actively involved in their child's life but still held onto unorthodox philosophies.
 * Happily Married: V and Redcloak in the Tiasal Ending.
 * Happiness in Slavery: Deirdre and Xykon's relationship has a disturbing hint of this, as does Deirdre and Terentius's relationship.
 * Harmful to Minors: Tiasal gets exposed to pretty much everything a kid her age shouldn't be. So to the servant children. is exposed to her parents constantly and knowingly having sex in front of her (and inviting her to join).
 * Hearing Voices: Tiasal hears a few, and for the most part, they go away with meds. Deirdre hears lots of voices and they never go away.
 * Heel Face Turn: While it wasn't shown on-screen,
 * Imaginary Love Triangle: Crim (brainwashed(?) Redcloak) has a crush on Elf (V) but thinks that his brother has a thing for her and is convinced that he can't compete, so he's not going to make a move.
 * Insane Equals Violent: The only completely bonkers character so far has been extraordinarily violent and unusually high-functioning for such a serious schizophrenia case.
 * It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It: points to this rationale as the reason for raping .  manipulates the situation so the victim can't help but get physical pleasure from the rape, maximizing the trauma sustained.  But on it's own, the trope is averted hard.
 * I Want Grandkids: Redcloak comments that his mother was "always going on about grandchildren".
 * Jekyll and Hyde: Tiasal and Deirdre.
 * Karma Houdini: Xykon has ruined Redcloak's, Vaarsuvius's, and everyone in their families' lives, encouraged Deirdre's insanity, actively kept her father from finding out about it so he'd never give her the medication she needed, goaded her into, ruthlessly manipulates her against her living family, and is currently encouraging her to , putting in the position where, with Xykon's prodding, Dierdre will  him, and is using his power over her to, what looks like, initiate a sexual relationship so he can more effectively manipulate her. To say nothing about what he does in canon. And so far, he hasn't gotten an iota of comeuppance.
 * Kissing Cousins: Deirdre has a thing for family members, and it's implied that Tiasal had a crush on Abram.
 * Kiss Kiss Slap: Redcloak and Vaarsuvius were very conflicted in the beginning.
 * Like Father Like Son: More like 'Like Parents Like Child'. Both of Deirdre's parents fit the tragic hero archetype. She just had a little too much tragic and not enough hero.
 * Lima Syndrome: Redcloak developed feelings for V really quickly while s/he was captured.
 * Lolicon: Master is very into this.
 * Lonely Together: That's how V's and Redcloak's relationship starts.
 * Love Dodecahedron: Deirdre is the embodiment of this trope.
 * Love Epiphany: Redcloak has one in a dream, and Vaarsuvius has one a long, long time afterwards. It takes them a while to admit to it.
 * Love Redeems: Well, it redeemed
 * Manly Tears: Most of the main men get a few in there. Terentius when he thought his sister died. Redcloak when
 * Men Don't Cry: Averted. Water-Smurf likes making the characters cry, apparently, and doesn't shy away from it.
 * Missing Mom: Justified. She died because she had difficulty with childbirth and then tried to join in a fight against Tsukiko and Xykon. It didn't turn out well.
 * Mistaken for Cheating: After he takes several weeks-long trips to Gobbotopia in the Tiasal Ending, Vaarsuvius starts worrying that Redcloak's losing interest and, since they hadn't had sex in while, she suspects he's getting up to something while he's gone. ("I am told that young men do not tend to stay so chaste unless they have another to satisfy them.") In a variation of the trope, the suspicion isn't that strong and she's easily reassured once they actually talk it over.
 * Mood Swinger: Deirdre has elements of this.
 * Moral Event Horizon: Some people feel that flew right past when . Most of the readers seem to still be sympathetic, though.
 * Nobody Thinks It Will Work: Well, did you really think anyone would?
 * No Name Given: Does anyone know what Master's name is?
 * No Periods Period: Averted with a scene where
 * Not Brainwashed: Well, sort of not. Xykon manipulates Deirdre like hell and uses every psychological trick in the book, but Xykon hasn't made her into anything she wasn't already. He just directed her fury and insanity towards people she was already angry at and used that to make her dependent on him.
 * : Tiasal Deirdre
 * : Redcloak does not take kindly to someone threatening.
 * Pair the Smart Ones: Redcloak and Vaarsuvius are both extremely intelligent people, and Aarindarius, who's stated to have some romantic and sexual feelings for Vaarsuvius, is also on that level. It doesn't look there are any genius/non-genius pairings, unless you
 * Parental Incest: Aula and Tiberius demonstrates a weirdly endearing version of the trope, which squicks readers deeply.
 * Pedophile Priest: Master.
 * Pervert Dad: Tiberius, probably. Aula to a greater extent, though she happens to be a pervert mom.
 * Precocious Crush: It's implied that Tiasal had a crush on O-Chul. It's understandable.
 * Primal Scene: has walked in on Redcloak and Vaarsuvius an unknown amount of times and has seen Aula and Tiberius get intimate once, but unlike most uses of this trope, it doesn't look like it's disturbed her at all. She's pretty nonchalant about the whole thing, actually. When  sees Aula and Tiberius a few (thousand) times, however, it heavily shapes her sexuality and few of gender, self, and intimacy as an adult. But to be honest, they offered to let her join a few times.
 * Racist Grandma: Redcloak's mother does not like non-goblins. She's willing to give Vaarsuvius a chance, though.
 * Rape As Drama: The author to like this trope a disturbing amount. It makes you wonder...
 * Actually, the author handles this trope in an interesting way., who was a victim of rape years before, at first seems like the rape was a little pointless save for to add a dimension of character development. Then she actually demonstrates that it served a purpose when and when she explains that she no longer sees it as a source of shame, but a source of pride, since she was able to survive and thrive in life afterwards. It's an interesting deviation from what most (attempted) tactful rape stories do, ie showcase how broken and horribly the victim was affected decades afterwards.
 * Possibly redone in a more traditional way if one thinks that, when acts deeply traumatized and has an obviously severe case of PTSD.
 * Ready for Lovemaking: Vaarsuvius pulls a weird version of this when she and Redcloak have a fight during a short oneshot set in the Tiasal Ending.
 * Redemption Equals Death: Not only did he Face Heel Turn, but apparently, he earned the possibility of his forgiveness when.
 * Resentful Guardian: Not resentful, per se, but there was a note of negative feelings in the people around Tiasal, from the Order to her brothers and Inkyrius, her brothers more than anyone, but it's not because she took away their lives. (A lot of them were settling with kids anyway.) It was mostly because of the circumstances of her birth, . After betrayal, Tiasal starts focusing way more on that spark of unrest to the point that it seems like they all hated her unequivocally. Deirdre blows it way out of proportion and honestly believes they all hated her.
 * Secret Relationship: Do we really need to get into which one we're talking about?
 * Sex Equals Love: Redcloak and Vaarsuvius got really close once they finally slept together.
 * Sex Face Turn: After Redcloak slept with Vaarsuvius, he was much more receptive to changing his alignment. (No, wrong alignment.) This makes one of the rare situations where the man is the one doing the turning and the woman's converting.
 * Sex Slave: The servant children.
 * She Is All Grown Up: Everyone's reaction when they meet Deirdre after they meet her years after they thought she was killed.
 * Shotacon: Again, Master.
 * Sickeningly Sweethearts: Aula and Tiberius. No debate.
 * Slap Slap Kiss: Vaarsuvius and Redcloak's relationship had a rocky start...
 * Split Personality: Tiasal and Deirdre have a really nasty one going on.
 * Stockholm Syndrome: That's an explanation of how Vaarsuvius and Redcloak became so close, but it's debatable whether or not they're genuinely attracted to each other at first or if it's just that.
 * Tears of Fear: Well, certainly tears of pain...
 * Technical Virgin: was technically never deflowered before she, but she.
 * Tell Me About My Father: More like Tell Me About My Parents.
 * That Man Is Dead: While she's never actually said it,
 * Considering that the descriptions seem to imply that it could be more literal than one might think.
 * Through the Eyes of Madness: No one's sure what's real and what isn't when Deirdre's doing the narrating...
 * Trauma Conga Line: One for everyone.
 * Used to Be A Sweet Kid: Deirdre, which is probably the most tragic part of her story.
 * The Vamp: Deirdre. Full stop.
 * : Deirdre.
 * Also, Word of God says that there is a slim possibility that Servius was Word of God also says that Servius's mother, who knows about the circumstances, considers this is a fitting karmic punishment for  because the latter slept with her husband.
 * Wife Husbandry: relationship with Deirdre has a note of this.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Tiasal is very mature for her age, seeing at Word of God says she's roughly at the equivalent of eight years old when she's fifteen. So are the servant kids under the Master, from what we've seen of them.
 * With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The does this to Deirdre, though she already was crazy, just slightly less so. Word of God says that it's doing this to  too.
 * Woman in White: Two creepy children who fit: one is the ghost of Snow, one of the servant children who (it seems) was murdered soon after giving birth to a stillborn. The other is a Mysterious Waif who we have no idea about, she just wants Elf to remember being Vaarsuvius for some reason.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Deirdre, debatably.
 * ...That is to say, the "Destroyer Of Worlds" part isn't debatable, but the "Woobie" part is? Because she's definitely Destroying Worlds.
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Deirdre, debatably.
 * ...That is to say, the "Destroyer Of Worlds" part isn't debatable, but the "Woobie" part is? Because she's definitely Destroying Worlds.