Chernobyl Curs

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Welcome to Pripyat, the heart of the zone of exclusion surrounding the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Though long since abandoned by humans, the city’s dog population thrives. However, the population is getting out of control, and in the tradition that has grown here over the decades a tournament is being held to cull the numbers. Can you survive?

Chernobyl Curs, abbreviated as CC, is an Original Character Tournament on Deviant ART. It is set in the city of Pripyat, the town most affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, where all humans have deserted. The OCT is restricted to dog characters and whatever non-combatant animal companions they happen to have.

Tropes used in Chernobyl Curs include:

General tropes

  • Abandoned Area: By humans, but not wildlife.
  • All There in the Manual: A lot of the background information, such as why the dogs are fighting, the round introductions, even character back stories, and explanations for how their abilities work (if any) is rarely flat-out stated in most of the entries. Some choose to incorporate the backstory of the tournament and round introductions into their round, while others don't. Some characters with extensive backstories never have it brought up in-story. It can make the tournament hard to follow if you're not already involved, but this is true for most OC Ts.
  • Amplified Animal Aptitude: These dogs have higher cognitive ability than real dogs, but by how much depends on each writer/artist.
  • Anyone Can Die: It's an OCT full of wild, presumably desperate dogs in a tournament that has no rules. Anybody can be killed at any time - though it only becomes canonical if the killer moves on.
  • Art Shift
  • Battle in the Rain: Potentially all of Round 2.
  • Beware of Vicious Dog: ...Well what were you expecting?
  • Big Badass Wolf: Averted. Wolves (and dogs that look like them) are expressly forbidden in the rules.
  • The Cameo
  • Carnivore Confusion: So can those rabbits/birds/rats/cats/etc talk to the dogs or not? Depends on the writer/artist.
  • Chernobyl Disaster
  • Deadly Game: No, it's not a pageant, Adele.
  • Dream Sequence: Used often as flashbacks.
  • Empathic Environment: Potentially all of Round 2.
  • Everything Makes a Mushroom: A few artists have depicted the Chernobyl disaster this way. While explosions did occur, they were not the type that could produce mushroom clouds.
  • Expressive Ears: Well, they are dogs.
  • Flanderization: Because of the difficulty of portraying the little details someone else's character correctly, especially when you don't know the full extent of their motivation and backstory, cameos can occasionally result in this.
  • Forbidden Zone: Pripyat itself, at least for humans.
  • Furries Are Easier to Draw: Except with dogs; possible reason for the stunning turnout for this OCT.
  • Graying Morality: Happening as the story goes on and characters lose the idealism they had at the tournament's start. The best example is probably Tyson's reaction to watching Vendel die.
  • Great Offscreen War: While not exactly a war, the previous tournament is often regarded in this manner.
  • Ghost City
  • I Love Nuclear Power
  • Intellectual Animal
  • Join or Die
  • Killed Off for Real: Until the round announcements are made you don't know which entry is canon and who may end up dead. Once the announcements are up, expect to see this trope showing up.
    • Occurs also before a round is canon. In Round 4 of Caesar's entry, it first appears that Spoon may still have a chance of being alive after he wondered off. Balloon later confirms that he's dead after she finds his corpse.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters
  • Magical Abortion: Averted hard in the case of Speakeasy, who starved herself in order to force a miscarriage in a realistic and deliberately apalling way.
  • Mistaken for Pregnant: The opposite happens, where Untoten is mistaken for being fat.
  • Most Writers Are Human: Mostly Point #2
  • No Sex Allowed: The penalty the imposed on those who lose the tournament; assuming they aren't killed obviously.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: In the wild an open wound can kill an animal in days. Some dogs here shrug off major cuts and broken bones.
  • Population Control: The premise behind the tournament.
  • Real Song Theme Tune: The title names for each match up.
  • Ship Tease
  • Sliding Scale of Animal Communication: Harry aside, either Level 3 or Level 7 depending on the writer/artist.
  • Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: All over the place.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Pripyat becomes one for round three thanks to an ice storm that covered the entire city in an inch of ice overnight.
  • Take That: Characters belonging to people who drop out of the tournament without submitting have a habit of showing up in the background of Speakeasy's entries in the Blind Pig. As corpses for Bloodybeard to chop up and distribute to the staff to eat.
  • Talking Animal: Justified
  • There Can Be Only One
  • The Social Darwinist: The dogs who believe the tournament is the best way to manage the population issue.
  • Viewers Are Goldfish: Many people begin their round with the lead-in scene, that has already been provided by the host before the round even began. Justified, however, as there are plenty of spectators who only follow one or two competitors and never read the lead-ins.

Character Tropes

  • Abusive Parents
  • Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: 'Cartoon' depends, but some dogs are accessorizing quite well.
  • Aerith and Bob: Lairynth and Mark.
  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: Averted with Vendel because of his self-imposed religious duty. Leads to some humorous discussions
    • Averted again with Caesar who is asexual.
  • And Call Him George: Literally with Nonsensical and her companion, George the tin can.
  • Animal Testing: Several of the characters; Elkona, Rosco, Cusith, Lairynth, and Mark.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: How Beyra got her job as tournament host.
  • Artificial Limbs: King as well as Kayd.
  • Ascended Extra: Iza has very limited involvement in most of the rounds with Marcus, but takes a dominant focus for a good portion of Round 3.
    • Bloodybeard was originally supposed to be a reoccurring background character.
    • Balloon was originally one of the auditioners but because of extenuating circumstances her creator had to drop out. Later, her creator becomes one of the tournament judges and Balloon can be seen in cameos as one of Beyra's helpers.
    • All of the aids may be considered this after the group picture.
  • Asexuality: Caesar
  • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: More like attention deficit... ooh sexy! Dart volunteers to join the tournament in place of another dog, and on the way there promptly gets distracted following a handsome german shepherd.
    • Spoon is also frequently distracted by shiny objects. Or any object created by humans for that matter. He spent a good fifteen minutes during the first round wearing a human shoe for no other reason than his own amusement.
  • A Wizard Did It: It has become something of a running joke for Captain to explain any minor detail of inconsistency. How do all the dogs in the various auditions keep knocking over trash cans that should have been blown over by the wind decades ago? Captain has OCD and obsessively picks them up!
  • Badass Normal: While some of the dogs have 'abilities' a good many go without.
  • Bawdy Song: Speakeasy is prone to these
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: In the beginning of Round 3, Shotgun expressed annoyance that there hadn't been much bloodshed. Well, he got his wish. Unfortunately a lot of it was his.
  • Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Cryus had shades of this.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Ronnie and Antonio
  • Berserk Button: There are a couple dogs who seem to have these. For instance, do not under any circumstances get within three feet of Hiru and say anything remotely romantic to her; don't mention Beyra, Marx's father, or the last Tournament to said Marx's face - unless you're prepared to run really fast.
  • Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Nasaya's mother is killed days after she was born.
  • Blatant Lies: Boar meat eh?
  • Blinding Bangs: Hiru and Bloodybeard
  • Blood Is the New Black: Bloodybeard, much like his nickname suggests.
  • Body Horror: A lovely example here
  • Bow Ties Are Cool: Kingston
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Have you noticed these ominous posters which one can happen to find around Speakeasy?
  • Break the Cutie: What will likely happen to the younger/more innocent competitors.
  • Broken Bird: Vendel's entries have strongly indicated that Beyra may be this.
  • Bully and Wimp Pairing: Hiru and Yoru
  • But I Can't Be Pregnant: Speakeasy finds out the hard way that there are consequences for sleeping around with everything that moves. Even if none of the critically undernourished whores you live with ever seem to suffer said consequences.
  • But Not Too Foreign: A lot of the dogs come from different countries (France, England, and America to name a few) but somehow ended up in Pripyat, Ukraine.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Marcus comes close enough to this trope with his constant trusty stick companion.
  • Catch Phrase: Captain is very 'bi-winning' and he will remind you of this once per page.
  • Cats Are Mean: Soot
  • Celibate Hero: What Vendel wishes he could be.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Do not eat the boar meat...
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Holly and RJ... yes.
  • Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Hiru=blue eyes and blue font, Yoru=red eyes and red font.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Speakeasy, you really shouldn't be so happy about the tournament's penalty... Although that dance is fun to watch.
  • Companion Cube: George to Nonsensical.
    • Conall with Myne and Vendel with Daloris, although it's unclear if Myne and Daloris are real spirits or not.
  • Conveniently an Orphan: Many characters
  • Covered with Scars: Savior and Rok
  • Dark and Troubled Past
  • Death by Sex: One of the random 'female workers' at the Blind Pig apparently suffers this after sleeping with Lucy.
    • Later revealed that she wasn't.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Occasionally occurs
  • Demonic Possession: Tyson amusingly mistook Stan for a demon manipulating Benny when he first saw the wolfhound's shadow form.
    • Gavin, on the other hand, suffered from the real deal until he was killed by Marx.
  • Dog Stereotype
    • Big Friendly Dog: The Great Danes in this tournament are some of the friendliest faces around.
    • Dogs Are Dumb: Dunce
    • Old Dog: Dogs 6+ years of age: Baikal, Savior, Avi, Mancs, Ben, Beyra, Kingston, Cu Sith, Bosso
  • The Ditz: Steve just wants to be friends.
  • Eternally Pearly-White Teeth: Averted; several characters are specifically mentioned as having yellow or decaying teeth.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: Except Lucy
  • Everything's Better with Rainbows: Captain
  • Eyeless Face: Borf
  • Eyes of Gold
  • Eye Scream: Tyson suffered this during round two.
  • Evil Twin: Savior is sort of unintentionally this to Vendel.
  • Foreign Cuss Word: Holly and RJ like to use those. Gizmo as well. Ronnie sure knows her Italian.
  • Foreign Language Title: Vendel's audition is "Para Bellum", Latin for "Prepare for War".
  • Gender Equals Breed: Both played straight and subverted.
    • Nasaya is a female Afghan hound mix and Rico is a male doberman. Meanwhile Kazra is a male Afghan hound, and Mugsy is a female doberman.
  • Gender Blender Name: Lucy.... or is it?
  • Give Him a Normal Life: Nasaya's mother died fighting in the tournament in hopes that if she won her daughter would have a better life. Nasaya ends up fighting in the same tournament, wanting revenge.
  • Gratuitous French: Adele
  • Gratuitous German: RJ, who only seems to know the words "Scheiße" and "Schwester", as well as the expression "zum Henker".
  • Gratuitous Italian: Ronnie
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Gizmo
  • Gut Punch: A lot of people guessed that the reason Speakeasy doesn't eat is because of the black bile that corrodes her stomach. They were wrong. She's actually starving herself on purpose to not get pregnant, a trend that started when she forced herself to miscarry a litter.
  • Gutted Like a Fish: Victims of the Blind Pig. Especially those who ended up as no-shows after deadline.
  • Guys Are Slobs: One or two random male extras in Ronnie's entries fit this.
  • Harmless Freezing: There are several occasions of Deltora using his ice powers to freeze someone in a solid block of ice, and yet they come out of it surprisingly well each time.
  • Hellish Pupils: Averted by Vipen, who has snake eyes but is fairly nice.
  • Hermaphrodite: Speakeasy and Lucy.
  • Hot-Blooded
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: The backstory for a few of the competitors.
  • Identical Twin ID Tag: Nikolai and Victor; they were even more so before Nikolai's scar was added to help distinguish them more.
  • Imaginary Friend: Aurelie to Hazel? Vendel and Daloris? Conall and Myne? George and Non? Are they insane or is it real. There's something wrong here either way.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Dante, Rok, and Bosso
  • Ironic Name: The name of the dog who enjoys killing and eating other dogs, lies about the food he 'sells', runs a brothel, and deceives another dog into taking his place in the tournament? Angel.
  • It Gets Easier: Antonio says something along these lines to Ronnie after she kills Ajn.
  • Lampshade Hanging: Buckshot, in referrer to Harry's anthropomorphized arms.

Buckshot: "How is he doing that?!"

  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Marcus has this for the first six months of his life, Cara has no memory of her life before she met Rico, and Nonsensical has no memory period.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Lucy and Speakeasy.
  • Love Triangle: There may be a few of these in the works.
  • Mama Bear: Nasaya has this with Dax.
  • Meaningful Name
  • Mismatched Eyes: Wink, Zasha, Spoon, Lairynth, Othos, Rico, Dart, Vladimir.
    • This does not include characters with odd-eyes due to blindness.
  • Multiple Head Case: Molotov
  • Nice Hat: Kingston does not like it when people mess with his hat.
    • Conall's skull mask, which is supposedly possessed, might also qualify.
  • Nightmare Sequence: Caesar and Ronnie in Round 3.
  • Non-Human Sidekick (or non dog side kick): George, Stan, Ashby, Soot, Lambert, Jin, "Bird", Trinity, Rei, Chip, Tod, Jera, Vera, Candice, Mook, and Akmen. In words, a lot.
  • Nonhumans Lack Attributes: Both played straight and averted, depending on the individual artist.
    • Amusingly lampshaded in some miscellaneous art of Speakeasy, who is intersex and the exact genitalia she may have is ambiguous.
  • Nonverbal Miscommunication: In a flashback of Speakeasy as a puppy she appears to agree to "work" for the Blind Pig in exchange for food. It turns out that because her mother was a mute she had never acquired language and thus had no idea what Bosso was saying. She only recognized the word "food" and reacted in a positive manner. Later on when she's introduced to a 'client', she has a freak-out moment and nearly kills the guy.
  • Older Than They Look: Beyra's age has gotten poked at a few times. No one seems to notice that Bosso is the same age as Beyra, so much so he kept getting left out of the Old Dog trope.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Bosso, Bloodybeard, Spoon/Spork/Sputnik/etc, Savior
    • Later revealed that Bloodybeard's real name is Pigeon, and Bosso's real name is Angel.
  • Perpetual Smiler: It takes a lot to get rid of Bosso's smile.
    • Lucy finds a way.
  • Pregnant Badass: Untoten probably qualifies.
  • Punny Name: Justin Tyme.
  • The Quiet One: Nonsensical
  • Rape as Backstory: Hiru's brother attempted this on her, resulting in Yoru (her other personality)
  • Raised by Humans: Several character, but in particular Vendel who uses this reasoning for why he can read, quote the bible, and believes in the preachings of God, despite being a dog.
  • Raised by Dudes: Speakeasy's personality makes a lot more sense when you think about where she lived and her prominent parental figures.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: This is a good sign that you should leave Hiru alone.
  • Retired Badass: Beyra
  • Roof Hopping: How the match between Zasha and Rakta-Pa ends. She makes the jump. He doesn't.
  • Scars Are Forever
  • Scenery Porn: Spoon and Dunce's entries can fall into this
  • She's Got Legs: Speakeasy might very well be part giraffe.
    • Nasaya, Nonsensical, and Dash make a good case too.
  • Silent Partner: Soot with Captain. Ashby with King as well.
  • Skunk Stripe: Hiru/Yoru
  • Slap Slap Kiss: Ronnie and Antonio have shades of this.
  • Sleepyhead: Caesar, maybe a tournament of death isn't the best place to be constantly dozing off...
  • Split Personality: Hiru and Yoru, and arguably Avi and Iva.
  • The Chessmaster: Bosso, who tricks Speakeasy into entering.
  • The Insomniac: Erx
  • The Mafia: Ronnie's pack
  • The Nicknamer: Speakeasy
  • The Runaway: Jet, and to some extent Ronnie (to avoid being killed)
  • The Stoic: Nonsensical
  • The Unintelligible: Marcus is a cross between this and The Speechless; he is mostly silent but when he does occasionally say something, it's difficult to understand.
  • The Un-Reveal: Bloodybeard spends two days chasing Speakeasy around the city in order to warn her about the true nature of the tournament, and just as he has found her and is about to reveal the truth, Bosso steps with a veiled threat and Bloodybeard is forced to clam up for his own safety. Dick move, Bosso.
  • Think Happy Thoughts: Captain (has this dog ever stopped being happy?)
  • Thinking Out Loud: Why, Balloon, why?
  • Third Person Person: Nonsensical
  • True Companions: Some of the dogs still have pretty close ties with their packs during the tournament, even when contact is explicitly forbidden by Beyra with possible disqualification as punishment.
    • Two dogs from Untoten's pack bring her food despite the risk, rain, and cold in Round 3.
    • Speakeasy has regular interactions with the Blind Pig, and Bloodybeard has been keeping an eye on her.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Marx
  • Wolverine Claws: King's attached gloves.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: In canon, the reason why Beyra pairs Untoten with Walter. (Of course, all of the matches are randomly drawn from a hat)
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: A few dogs have blue or bluetick coats, which is a type of coloring in dogs.
  • You Killed My Father: Or mother, whatever the case it seems that a lot of the contestants are motivated by a desire for revenge against Beyra for deaths of loved ones in the previous tournament.

The Character Summary (during auditions)


The Character Summary (past auditions)

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