Dept Heaven Apocrypha

A fan-created Alternate Continuity to the Dept. Heaven series, usually referred to simply as "Apocrypha". This uniquely-told and unabashedly bizarre creation is a (mostly) linear narrative constructed through an online roleplay... or wait, maybe it's the other way around, just an online roleplay that's wound up creating a mostly linear narrative.

Whichever the case, the story has been going for a year now and is still continuing strong. The basic premise is that characters from any and all Dept. Heaven games arrive as students of, or teachers at, a vast interdimensional school that accepts talented students from the ages of six to twenty-six. This school, the Collegium Caelum as it's formally called, has been producing excellent warriors, mages, healers, and scholars from time immemorial, and its many students are watched over by its two headmasters, Ursula and Hector.

Due to the nature of the medium, the cast tends to fluctuate a little, and in order to keep the continuity from collapsing in on itself, many characters are Not as You Know Them. Apocrypha also finds itself flirting with near-constant Development Hell, as inevitably something will be interfering with one or another of its creators' lives and putting one or another of the plot threads on hold. This is balanced out, however, by the fact that the creators are all quite good writers, many of whom also happen to be tropers fond of placing lampshades on their own actions.

As of this writing, the story's main characters are:
 * Nessiah, a prickly transfer student struggling to acclimate to the school despite new disabilities and a slew of progressively more disturbing and horrific secrets. One of the central characters of the story's first and third arcs.
 * Milanor, a backwater thief sent to Apocrypha unwillingly to get some formal education. The experience is proving to be more of an eye-opener than he first expected.
 * Kylier, Milanor's long-standing girlfriend and emotional support—although maybe their relationship isn't as healthy as it appears to be. Recently she's been having trouble keeping her foot out of her mouth.
 * Ledah, the taciturn president of the Student Council. It's common gossip in the school that he's not on good terms with his family.
 * Fia, a young girl from Riviera who is displaying unprecedented power in her holy magic—and is having trouble controlling that power. The central character of the second arc.
 * Seth, the headmistress' cheery younger sister, for whom Apocrypha is her first taste of the world... among other things. Has a reputation as a troublemaker.
 * Monica, a village girl with big dreams. She's close friends with Fia, Seth, and Ein, and tries to help them with their problems. She has a planned storyline... that has been repeatedly postponed and will only start after the conclusion of the current plot and Nessiah's next event.
 * Meria, a well-traveled mercenary sent to Apocrypha because of family problems. She has connections to many different stories within the school.
 * And as of late September, Ein, an amnesiac, wingless angel who—unbeknown even to himself—once had a connection to Ledah. His arrival should bring Ledah's plot out of Development Hell.

There are several other characters as well, and new cast members are always welcomed, for anyone that wishes to get involved. An up-to-date backlog of the story thus far can be found here. Just be warned that the subject material can get mature in every fashion.

A Character Page is under development.

"Kylier: ...So how was he? Milanor: What. Kylier: Th-that's not what I meant!"
 * Abusive Parents: Ledah, possibly.
 * A-Cup Angst: An interesting case with Meria - her own cup size is average, bordering on gifted. Despite this, she still manages to be smaller than her three sisters, the elder two especially, and has been shown to be spiteful about it.
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: Seth has a log to this effect. It's plot-significant, the fact she's able to be comfortable with her own body again is a milestone in dealing with her issues after
 * Adults Are Useless: Particularly against a Villain with Good Publicity.
 * All of the Other Reindeer: Nessiah and Meria apparently both had to deal with this as kids.
 * All There in the Manual: It's not necessary to enjoy the story, but things will make one hell of a lot more sense if you're familiar with series mythos and trivia (this includes the canon bible and the drama CDs).
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Seth gives an in-universe one of Meria, but quickly admits it was said in anger and not entirely fair.
 * Altum Videtur
 * Angst Coma:.
 * Anguished Declaration of Love
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Hector, destroyer of favorite shirts.
 * Asexuality: For all intents and purposes, Ledah is asexual—this is one of the many issues he's been left with after . Word of God is that he is technically bisexual, but just cannot bear sexual contact after what he's been through.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other:, who have been shown to completely loathe each other, are suspiciously quick to worry about each other's well-being when . Possibly a case of Enemy Mine.
 * Ax Crazy: Meria.
 * Beleaguered Childhood Friend: Meria's pissed to find out what happened to Nessiah.
 * Berserk Button: If you value your life, your 'nads, and the arrangement of your face, never suggest to Meria's face that she Really Gets Around.
 * Beta Couple: They're main characters, but Milanor and Kylier fit most of the other characteristics of this trope.
 * Birds of a Feather: Lampshaded by Fia when discussing.
 * This may also be in effect for.
 * Blessed with Suck: Poor, poor Fia.
 * Boy Meets Ghoul: Gender-flipped and made more complicated by the fact that
 * Break the Cutie: Fia's plot seems headed this way. This is also backstory.
 * Butt Monkey: Fia, arguably. Nobody knows what to do with her, at first. When things finally start looking up, her best friends start abusing her. Except it's much more complicated than that.
 * And then there's Seth, who started out OK. Then things just got worse from there.
 * The Call Knows Where You Live
 * Can't Have Sex Ever: Meria and, most likely--.
 * Lately it seems they may be taking some creative measures to work around this without stepping on too badly.
 * Cartwright Curse: Every relationship has ever had that might become serious has ended with an abrupt breakup or the death of the significant other. It has not done much for  inclination to get serious, or  self-esteem.
 * Cast From HP: What tends to happen whenever Nessiah expends more power than his chains really allow. Also,.
 * Seth's powers are a variation - if she ever depletes her magic reserves entirely, she dies.
 * Caught with Your Pants Down: Variation - Kylier walks in on Milanor trying to tidy up after he and Nessiah made a huge mess of the sheets.
 * Taken to an extreme when she later interrupts them in the act...
 * Chaos Architecture / Geographic Flexibility: The school has no official floorplan, so players invent rooms, corridors and settings as required, leading to some minor inconsistencies, such as exactly what furniture is in Milanor's room at any given point.
 * Character Development: All over the place.
 * The Charmer: It works on Meria, anyway.
 * The Chosen One: . Maybe Fia, too. And probably Ein.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Not that his circumstances (or Kylier) have ever really helped, but Nessiah fits this to a T.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Meria achieves this when her rage takes hold. In a particularly memorable example, more than five percent of a single post was instances and variations of the word.
 * Milanor also has one when he hears . It does a good job of showing just how bad the situation's getting - not only is he not known for such outbursts, he does it in front of the headmistress.
 * Comedic Sociopathy: Fia and Milanor tend to get the brunt of this, although no one's really immune. The former still gets our sympathy, at least—when hilariously terrible things happen to Milanor, we just point and laugh. He can deal with it.
 * Cool Big Sis: Eudy.
 * Cooldown Hug
 * Cosplay Otaku Girl: Several characters seem to be into cosplay (if the Samhain events are indicative of anything), but Meria in particular stands out—not only did she cosplay as Beatrice, she went out of her way to be in character, too. And got Fia doing it, too.
 * Creator Breakdown: Recently, one of the players has been going through this behind the scenes.
 * At least one of the creators is always on the verge of one at any given time.
 * Cute Mute: As of this writing,, who has aphasia.
 * Also, Vienya.
 * Darker and Edgier: Relatively. Dept. Heaven does address issues like slavery, racism, insanity, and depending who you ask, rape; but it does so with subtlety and tact. Apocrypha approaches these taboos and more with all the subtlety of a freight train with an atom bomb strapped to the front fender.
 * Demonic Possession: A large part of.
 * Demoted to Extra: Ledah and Monica.
 * Department of Child Disservices: Just ask Nessiah...
 * Development Hell: Ongoing and persistent.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: The way is pretty much a direct reference to the way that.
 * Double Entendre: Seth uses several to tease Monica at one point.
 * Drop What You Are Doing: Ledah's response to.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: Meria's reaction to was to grab a friend and get completely smashed.
 * Dumb Struck:.
 * Dysfunction Junction: Lampshaded by Meria in the same conversation as below.
 * Elevator School: Most people can't afford it, though.
 * It's also an Elaborate University High, and one of the colleges is a bonafide Wizarding School.
 * Empty Shell: in the first part of the Surfacing arc of his plot.
 * Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Seems to be the case for most relationships so far.
 * I'd like to contest that - for a long while, all sexual encounters were one-off for various reasons. It's only recently that one couple - - have been sleeping together regularly.
 * Everyone Is Bi: Holds true for most of the cast, although there are a few characters who are stated explicitly to be completely straight (Fia, Monica) or completely gay (Nessiah).
 * Although, Nessiah is gay
 * Everyone Meets Everyone
 * Extreme Doormat: Ledah. Lampshaded by Meria in a conversation with Aegina.
 * Fan Disservice: The sex scene and the rape scene.
 * Fantastic Racism: Apparently the Red Sage has been getting some of this from those darn NPC students.
 * Flanderization: In Yggdra Union, Monica's resemblance to Joan of Arc was largely implied through subtext and side materials. Here, her player is self-admittedly determined to play this up for all it's worth, including Shout Outs from Monica's username ("callmejeanne") to a few scenes that might as well be from the classic book A Personal Recollection of Joan of Arc.
 * To be fair, one battlefield's worth of spotlight isn't much to play a character on... but that's still an awful lot of lampshades.
 * Forgotten Childhood Friend: Ledah, poor thing.
 * Freudian Slip: Kylier has a massive one while discussing Milanor and Nessiah's particularly good morning.

"Meria: I'm starting to think they pick us for scholarships based on how fucked-up we are rather than how much talent we have... Aegina: What makes you say that? Meria: Most of the people I've met so far at this school have got issues. ... Not the students' fault, but hey. You just have to wonder sometimes why the faculty doesn't make sure we get counseling or something."
 * Idiot Ball: ...whose idea was it to let the deeply disturbed kid put half the student body into a waking dream?
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Monica to Nessiah.
 * Monica does it again, complete with slap and lecture, to a bluescreening Seth.
 * Good Bad Girl: Meria.
 * Greater Need Than Mine: Meria uses it as an excuse to avoid discussing her own problems, though considering what her friends have been going through, it's probably valid to some extent.
 * Kylier lampshades this, using it as a vicious personal attack during an argument.
 * Hair-Trigger Temper: The Red Sage.
 * Hates Being Touched: Nessiah. He's gotten a little bit better about that, though.
 * Hearing Voices: Monica's is the godly sort.
 * The Heart: Yggdra.
 * Heel Face Turn:.
 * Hellfire: 's fire magic can burn through anything, including souls.
 * Hero Looking for Group: Fia needs outside interaction to get anywhere in her story. Much advertising was done. She has since acquired the crude basics of a party. There was much rejoicing.
 * Heroic BSOD: Milanor after the phantasmagoria event, and Seth after . Nessiah had one during the confession thread, but it was the source of much hilarity and didn't last too long (comparatively).
 * Seth goes through another two in rapid succession during a conference in Ursula's office. The first,, she recovers from quickly. The second, , not so much.
 * Hilarity Ensues: This is what happens when you get a couple of Kleptomaniac Heroes in the same room... and have Meria arrive at precisely the wrong moment.
 * Hotter and Sexier: Veiled and not-so-veiled sex references have been in Dept. Heaven since the beginning. Sexual content in Apocrypha is very, very not veiled.
 * How Do I Shot Web?: Fia's plot features this trope gone horribly wrong.
 * I Am Who?: Nessiah . After the phantasmagoria event, he starts to regain memories of this, which adds to his Sanity Slippage.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Nessiah and Fia.
 * I Just Want to Be Special: Monica.
 * "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Milanor's face-off with.
 * Idiosyncratic Episode Naming
 * Image Album: Available here.
 * Interrupted Suicide:, although no one knows how serious was about it at the time. This character has definitely thought about it, though.
 * Interspecies Romance: . Maybe. Probably.
 * More subtly, you have human Milanor and Kylier with angelic Nessiah, and sprite Seth with angelic Meria.
 * It Got Worse
 * "It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It": Part of a sadistic and sickening Mind Rape that . This is what finally succeeded in shattering 's mind.
 * It's Not You, It's My Enemies: The Temporary Love Interest's excuse for leaving.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Meria.
 * Journey to the Center of the Mind: The phantasmagoria.
 * Kimodameshi: What Meria initially mistakes Monica's search for for.
 * Kissing Under the Influence: See Interspecies Romance example.
 * Knight in Sour Armor: Discussed (and later frantically denied) by Meria, lampshaded by Fia, and then played straight, though non-romantically.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Take this conversation, for instance--

"Run that by me one more time?"
 * Large Ham: The Red Sage.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Ein.
 * Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Amusingly averted. Fia would love to do this for
 * Le Parkour: Preferred sport of Seth.
 * Love Freak: Monica.
 * Love Hurts
 * Luminescent Blush: Nessiah, among many others.
 * Magnetic Hero: Monica. She knows almost every active character and is friends with almost everyone she knows.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Fia . Whatever her intentions are, they're anything but completely innocent.
 * Marshmallow Hell: Inflicted upon Nessiah by (who else?) Meria—just as friendly teasing, considering Nessiah's preferences.
 * Meaningful Name: In religious context, "Apocrypha" tends to refer to documents outside Biblical canon. (It's also the name of a song the administrator likes.)
 * Measuring the Marigolds: Ledah first appears to be a fairly textbook example, but his few childish moments seem to indicate otherwise.
 * Played a little bit straighter with Roswell and Aegina, though.
 * Meet Cute
 * The Medic: Fia still goes around healing people despite herself.
 * Melodrama: But of course!
 * Mental World: The phantasmagoria is a straighter example.
 * Meta Guy: How many tropes has Meria lampshaded so far?
 * The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: An unfortunate side effect of the Gender Bender incident. While Nessiah's sexuality remained the same, the fact that he was stuck in a female body meant that he was attracted to Kylier while in it. Which would have been fine, except that she wasn't as careful as she should have been. Even after an entire year, he's still not over it.
 * Mind Rape: Oh god, the Mind Rape...
 * The Mole: Possibly, although it's a little early to tell whether or not this is Fauxshadowing. was also supposed to have a combination of this role and assassin.
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: Apparently, although having thought it through logically,.
 * No Name Given:
 * Noodle Incident: Milanor and Kylier's first time is often referenced, but never fully explained. Kylier apparently also has one involving children that's behind her dislike for them.
 * No Periods, Period: Averted. Meria's are so bad she has to take painkillers for them.
 * Real Life Writes The Friggin' Plot. Just ask her player.
 * Nosebleed: Milanor has one thinking about Kylier and a gender-bent Nessiah.
 * Not So Different: Though not antagonists, Kylier and the Red Sage quickly realize this about each other.
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Milanor and Kylier both have vaguely Australian accents, owing to their player's nationality. This isn't usually that noticeable, except for moments like Milanor using the expression 'kangaroo court'... when Dept. Heaven doesn't even have kangaroos.
 * Odd Couple: Meria and Ledah, bffs. Enough said.
 * Official Couple: Milanor and Nessiah. (And Kylier.)


 * Oh My Gods
 * Onee-Sama: To all appearances, Kylier has just become one to a sawn-off, perpetually angry demon loli. This will probably be good.
 * Ostentatious Secret: The name of.
 * The Other Marty: Due to a lack of source art, some of Seth's icons are recolorings of Ganaha Hibiki. She's half-jokingly credited as an actor in the icon notes.
 * Panty Thief: A passtime of Milanor's early on, though not an exceptionally perverted or unlikable example. Being otherwise busy and a general increase in maturity have curbed this habit, but apparently most of the school's female population still holds it against him.
 * Person of Mass Destruction: Seth can destroy things just by thinking about it, so she's extremely careful about who/what she uses her powers on.
 * Poor Communication Kills: Meria attributes to this.
 * : Meria.
 * Put on a Bus: Any dropped characters, although Cierra is the most Egregious example—her player pulled her out of the story during an argument with the administrator, and as that player got permabanned, it's highly unlikely she'll ever be brought back.
 * Rape as Drama: Making up a large part of . When any incidents are written out, the players purposely made them as full of Nightmare Fuel as possible.
 * Room Full of Crazy: Many areas in the phantasmagoria, but Nessiah's workshop in particular. It Got Worse.
 * Running Gag: Vienya haet vending machines.
 * And they hate her right back.
 * Also, the school's orientation maps appear to be chronically out of date.
 * Sanity Slippage: Nessiah.
 * Say It with Hearts: Cierra did this a lot.
 * Schizo-Tech: While the level of technology in the Dept. Heaven canon is more or less on par with the Middle Ages, students of the Collegium have access to such conveniences as cell phones, showers, and (possibly) modern-day drugs.
 * It IS in Asgard, though, and Asgard is shown to have highly sophisticated technology in the Riviera dramas.
 * Schoolgirl Lesbians
 * Sharing a Body: . They're different genders. It's awkward, and getting more so.
 * Shock and Awe: Nessiah.
 * Shout-Out: The Take That Me Memetic Mutation comes from comparing the early part of Nessiah's story to the Tatarigoroshi-hen chapter of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, but there are other more subtle ones to games, anime, and music.
 * Particularly in the Halloween/Samhain event, in which Yggdra cosplayed as Marisa, Durant as Setsuna, and Kylier as Rydia.
 * The Samhain event for 2009 has so far featured Ursula cosplaying as Blair, Monica as Iris, Vienya as Toeto, Seth as Iji, the Red Sage as Vita, Ein as Will, Rosary as Byakuren, Serene as Komachi, Meria as Beatrice, and Fia as Battler.
 * Don't forget the usernames, either: Monica's is a reference to Joan of Arc, and Aegina's to a weapon in Knights in The Nightmare.
 * ...Meria's is actually a reference to the More Dakka trope itself.
 * The Red Sage's is Ludicrous Gibs. If This Troper's instinct is to believed, this may be a warning of what someone would end up facing if they get her very angry...
 * Cierra's username is based off the Bottle Fairy trope, only the British spelling of "fairy" was used instead.
 * "Would you catch me?"
 * ".........Thank you for being born."
 * In a recent monologue, Nessiah has referenced both Fruits Basket and Baroque.
 * One of Seth's battle litanies references, of all things, Warhammer 40,000
 * Shower of Angst: The first thing did after finding out  was hide in the shower for hours and cry. The getting drunk and body count happened later.
 * Soap Wheel
 * The Speechless: Vienya—for now, at least. Even her Image Song is an instrumental version of a voiced song!
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Those ever-contentious Knights in The Nightmare Romanizations. The administrator finally just said that whichever a character's player preferred was fine, as long as everyone could stick with it.
 * Split Personality Takeover: Done out of necessity by.
 * Squishy Wizard: Nessiah. To a lesser extent, Roswell.
 * Status Quo Is God: Averted and averted hard. Character relationships and alliances are in a constant state of flux.
 * Stepford Smiler: . Perhaps because this character doesn't act anything like your typical example, most people would not believe the issues has.
 * Suddenly Sexuality: Deconstructed. Milanor's revelation that he's bisexual puts him in a very subtle Heroic BSOD and makes him constantly question his sexual identity, which winds up causing a lot of problems in his relationship with Nessiah.
 * Sugar and Ice Personality: Ledah.
 * Supernatural Angst: Fia. Really, where to begin with her...
 * Super OCD: Ledah. He's a more serious example than most.
 * Sure Why Not?: Kylier's last name, Schofield, was used by her player in an unrelated project. Another player used the name here, making it official.
 * Sword of Plot Advancement:, Monica's long-awaited Plot Coupon.
 * Tastes Like Friendship: Feed Vienya, and she will love you forever and ever.
 * Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Kylier and Meria.
 * Theme Twin Naming: Maria and Meria.
 * They Do:.
 * Tourettes Syndrome: Meria, when in a bad mood.
 * Token Mini-Moe: Vienya, the Red Sage, and Nietzsche.
 * Tradesnark™: The Mailer Daemon?.
 * Triang Relations: Milanor, Nessiah, and Kylier. And it just keeps getting more and more complicated.
 * There's also, especially if you count the fact that . At any rate, it's at least a Type 9.
 * This ratchets into full-on Love Dodecahedron proportions when one takes into account that, and the latter may have lingering feelings although.
 * And now, we have.
 * Troubled Fetal Position: Nessiah is found doing this quite a lot, especially as the It Got Worse trope was stalking him for quite a while. had her share of it, too, and Kylier acted like this briefly while under her blunt trauma migraine.
 * Tsundere: Nessiah. Meria has shown hints of the non-romantic version, too.
 * UST
 * Vapor Wear: is stated to be unable to stand wearing tight clothing because of his negative body image (among other things), which includes underwear. A much more traditional example would be.
 * Verbal Tic: Nessiah's "mii". Originally, "mi" was just a nickname for Milanor (who'd answered to it enough times when Nessiah only got the first syllable out for it to stick), but . It seems as though even once this is over with, it's going to remain a permanent tic.
 * Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where Seth's apparently taken to keeping her phone.
 * More amusingly, Nietzsche does a variant of this and holds hers under her bikini strap.
 * Villain with Good Publicity: Hector.
 * We Need to Get Proof:
 * What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Poor Ledah.
 * In a variation, is actively curious about love and wants to experience it, which is his reasoning for.
 * What Measure Is a Mook?:
 * White Magic: Fia.
 * Who Would Win: Seth and Aegina discuss a possible battle between Ursula and Hector.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Nessiah is intensely achluophobic. Hector likes to leave him in pitch-dark places.
 * Would Hit a Girl: Milanor, who has recently shown no regret slapping Kylier when she steps far enough over the line.
 * Yandere:, so much.
 * Yaoi Fangirl: Kylier seems to be becoming a bit of one, even if she'd rather not admit it herself yet.
 * You ALL Share My Story