Misfile

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The four main characters.

"In one little corner of the universe, there's nothing more irritating than a misfile…"

A webcomic by Chris Hazelton, Misfile (first page) is the story of "a girl who was a boy, a Harvard-bound genius missing two years of her life, and the pot headed angel who did it to them" via a Celestial filing accident. In the small hillside town of Tempest, Massachusetts, Boy racer Ash was turned into a girl, studious Emily had the past two years of her life erased—including her admission to Harvard—and angelic loser Rumisiel was exiled to Earth for his incompetence. Fortunately, due to a side effect of the accident, only these three remember the universe-as-it-was. Lucky, because Rumisiel fears his superiors would likely 'correct' the misfile by making it permanent.

Mixing street racing, girl-bonding, and car tuning sessions with angels, supernatural weirdness and the trials and tribulations—from getting hit on by guys to bras—of a boy suddenly transformed into a girl, Misfile defies simple categorization as the two heroines struggle to deal with the craziness that has taken over their lives while trying to get Rumisiel back into heaven so he can fix his mistake. Complications arise, of course, not the least of which is Rumisiel's perpetual slacker nature.

The comic is notable for dealing with a Gender Bender plot in a much less Fan Service-ey way, and with much more emotional depth and serious character consideration, than is the norm. Essentially, if you left out the supernatural and fantastical elements of the story, you'd still be left with a good tale about the challenges faced by a transgender boy dealing with life in a girl's body. Also unusual is the fact that the "old universe", where Ash is a boy with emotionally distant parents and Emily is a college-bound senior with a mean streak, has literally never been seen in the comic, although it's often alluded to.

Has a character page that Needs More Love.

Tropes used in Misfile include:

• Abridged Series: Right here ^{[dead link]}. (Requires a Napalm Luck account to read).
• Aesop: Ash not only gets the usual aesops about sexism and the Double Standard but also gets some unexpected ones about Positive Discrimination. Meanwhile, Ash also provides some unexpected Aesops to Emily due to her outsider perspective on female behavior. Finally, the readers get some insights about the battle between the sexes that Ash and Emily are either too obtuse to get or too proud to acknowledge.
• All There in the Manual: If you really want to understand how the Celestial Depository works and the effects of reversing the misfile, and find out just how Tempest has such a cool mountain racetrack you need to have read the "about" section on the website, read the Ask Ash column, and ordered the print books so you could read the liner notes.
• Almost Kiss: A few times, the first being here.
• Analogy Backfire: Regarding the obvious sexual characteristics of the knight costume Missi made for Ash for Halloween.

Missi: It's for a girl knight. You're my Joan of Arc. Emily: Wasn't she burnt at the stake for dressing like a man?

• Anchored Ship: Emily and Ash's relationship has been drifting closer for a while but hasn't truly gone anywhere.
  • Ship Sinking: Ash/Emily took a huge hit when Ash told Emily she was afraid of going further with her because it might destroy what's left of her original self.
    • …and two days later, Word of God rants: no, "announces" that "they get together… eventually… but in [the author's] own time".
• Animesque: Uses plenty of Anime tropes for its art, including Cross-Popping Veins and the Sweat Drop.
• Apron Matron: Doris—at least as far as the forumites are concerned—fits much of this.
  • Given that Vashiel, the angel who owns a flaming longsword and is an angel of vengeance, thinks that Doris could do something to Cassiel much worse than what he could, at least some in-story regard her as one as well.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Angels? Okay. Ghosts? Why not? People's lives affected by changes in files? I'll give you that one. But a guy who can talk to cars? Get outta here…
  • To be fair the guy looks normal and cars talking back isn't exactly related to ghosts or angels.
• Archangel Gabriel: Rumisiel and Vashiel's father. Seen in flashback only (so far).
• Armored Closet Gay: While the applicability of the word 'gay' to Ash is debatable, Ash still pretends to be a straight girl because she is afraid that coming out of the closet as a girl will carry over to her male life when the misfile is eventually corrected.
• Art Evolution: Over the years, the main characters (of both sexes) have filled out and/or bulked up noticeably, and the girls' anime-style eyes have become much smaller.
• Author Appeal: Amateur street racing in this case.
• Auto Erotica: James remembers having sex with Ash in his car.
• Ax Crazy: Kamikaze Kate.
• Badass Driver: Kamikaze Kate. Ash to a lesser degree. Emily is working up to it.
• Batman in My Basement: Rumisiel literally has nowhere else to go, but he sleeps on the couch. Then to explain his presence, he's passed off as Ash's boyfriend. When Vashiel arrives, he gets the bed in the basement.
• The Beard: Rumi and later Ash, to Rumi's older brother.
• Beautiful Dreamer: Ash watches Emily as she sleeps. Much later Emily watches Ash. These are followed by a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Dude, She's Like, in a Coma respectively.
• Because Destiny Says So: Ash's relationship with Missi may be written into their files—hence Missi's confusion about being attracted to Ash despite not liking girls in general.
• Bedmate Reveal: In this strip, Ash wakes up after a night of drinking to find Vashiel in his/"her" bed.
• Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Rumisiel, at least according to him. He gets some support for this position.
  • Given how she's treated when dealing with any other angel (on official business or not), Cassiel also seems to be one.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Rumi and Ash appear to have this, but in reality he's The Beard.
• Berserk Button: Vashiel gets one that's closer to a 'Berserk Light Switch' from how quickly he can turn it on and off. When Cassiel comes calling and he's the only one home, he threatens to wreck Satan to get to her if she brings any harm to Rumisiel or Ash. From Cassiel's reaction to his reminder not to forget his history, and the simple fact that he can't lie or deceive, he fully means every word of it. The next page, he turns on a dime back to his polite self and offers to get the door for the now terrified Cassiel.
• Beta Couple: Harry and post Character Development Kate.
  • Also, possibly Eponine and Logan.
• Big Breasts, Big Deal: Type 2.
• Big Eater: Missi.
• Bi the Way: The jury's still out on Emily… there have been signs, though she more likely falls under If It's You It's Okay or possibly even Single-Target Sexuality.
  • The jury just came back: guilty on If It's You It's Okay, thought they still haven't rendered a verdict on Bi the Way
  • Missi also fits, saying she likes boys but openly lusts after Ash.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: Turns out angels aren't born, they just sort of...become. They only have genders and so on to interact with humanity. Rumisiel doesn't actually have any biological relation to his brother or father.
• Bond One-Liner: That can be SO addictive…
• Boring but Practical: Vashiel gets a flaming sword. Rumisiel gets a multi-purpose filing tool. Guess which has a better chance of being used in a "real life" (or, Ash's life) situation?
• Brand X: "Beer" and "Cola".

"Buy it! Drink it! Love it!"

• Broken Bird: Kamikaze Kate.
• Cannot Hold Their Liquor: While Rumi's liver could probably be used to sole and heel army boots by now, when Ash and Vash get sloshed it leads to the inevitable results.
• Catapult Nightmare: Well, Catapult Sex Dream, actually.
  • Played straight here and here
    • And here too. *shudder*
• Cat Fight: Cassiel vs. Jenny, at the modeling event.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: The Celestial Filing Depository. Comes complete with corruption and errors.

"Under code 37 'B' of the Emergencies Act I authorize a complete lockdown of the filing depots until further notice."

• Cerebus Syndrome: The murder of several high ranking angels, including "two keyholders" has heralded in a steadily darkening plotline. However, for the most part the story remains dark only when the story focuses on the angels. One might say that the knights of God are in fact Knights of Cerebus.
• Chainmail Bikini: The Halloween costume Missi made for Ash, who naturally lampshades this.
• Character Development: Nowadays, flipping someone off would be considered Out of Character for Emily.
  • Averted with Missi, which is one of the problems with her character. There was that one time in the shower where she mentioned her parents being neglectful and her feeling like an outsider with Ash and Emily, but that revelation seems to have mostly been ignored.
    • You want Character Development for Missi? Would these pages here satisfy you?
• Cheeky Mouth
• Chekhov MIA: Ash's mom. Emily's dad could become one of these, but it hasn't happened yet. The other angels in Vashiel's old division also qualify.
• Chekhov's Gun: The Monster XR.
  • Also, Emily's promise to give Ash a kiss in return for a perfect test score.
  • The pothole in the Old Road where Heather was passed by Emily and lost the race. Ash defeats the jerk Sheldon in a similar manner, though with a different pothole.
• Cleavage Window: Emily seems to like this trope.
• Conflict Ball: Ash, Emily, and Missi seemed to take turns passing it off. Missi cleverly managed to spike Emily and Heather with it at Kate and Harry's wedding, precipitating their grudge race.
• Contemplative Boss: The head of the Celestial Depository in this strip.
• Continuity Nod: When Missi decides to experiment with alcohol, Ash wants to leave, citing a bad experience of alcohol. This is of course referring to the arc a few years back (six months ago) when Ash and Vashiel got drunk and woke up in the same bed.
  • How about this seven-years old continuity nod: Ash makes a jab at irresponsibly smoking on the job; that's what Rumisiel said got them all mixed up with this misfile madness in the first place.
• Cool Big Sis: Kamikaze Kate, after her Character Development.
  • However, Ash is still dreadfully afraid of her even after said Character Development, to the point s/he only accepted to be maid of honor in her wedding because s/he was afraid a refusal would end in her/his murder. Case in point.
• Cool Car: Pick a car, any car.: either inherently cool or made cool through street racing modifications.
• Council of Angels: The Celestial Filing Depository.
• Cross-Popping Veins
• Daydream Surprise: This strip.
• Dead Little Sister: Angelica, Kate's older sister.
• Dear Negative Reader: Chris wrote one after getting a verbal response from this page. In it he reminded everyone that it was his comic, he was doing it for free and he owes us nothing. Also, he informed us Ash and Emily will be getting together at some point in the future.
• Deconstructed Trope: Pretty much every classic Gender Bender trope is deconstructed from Ash's perspective. In other words, it sucks.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Averted in oh so many ways, from a mild subversion like Kate (Ash finds a "friendly" Kate just as terrifying), through straight aversions like Tom and Heather (both of whom hate Ash passionately) to an extreme aversion like Sheldon (who manages to alienate all of his own friends as well). It's only played remotely close to straight with Brent, who made it clear that he respected Ash from the start.
  • Inverted with James. They stopped being friends after he lost to Ash, but that's mostly because he couldn't deal with them not dating in this reality.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Cassiel, possibly. Seen here.
• Did They or Didn't They?: Type 2.
• Different for Girls
• Disappeared Dad: Emily's father, got her mom knocked up and was never heard from again.
• Does This Make Me Look Fat?: Vashiel gives the wrong answer to this question.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Just read this conversation which Rumisiel overhears.
• Don't Think, Feel: This is how Ash drives. Emily can't drive that way.
• Double Standard: invoked after the fight with Tom.
  • Also occurs in the forum. When guys can't take a hint, they're douches. But Missi can shove her face into Ash's cleavage in front of their schoolmates, even though Ash has repeatedly he is not interested in a relationship, well then it's cute and funny.
• Dramatic Wind: When Kate first shows up.
• Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: Well, asleep. Emily kisses Ash.
• Eating Lunch Alone: Emily on the first day of school after the mishap. As a sophomore, she no longer dares sit with her senior former friends.
• Education Mama: Ms. McArthur, to a T. Emily's having to deal with this is a major plot point.
• Embarrassing Cover Up: Rumisiel proclaiming that he and Ash are dating. Further down the line, Ash realizes that this isn't actually such a bad thing, given that it helps prevent guys from asking him/"her" out.
• Embarrassing Slide
• Engineered Public Confession: Done by Rumisiel to Sheldon.
• Everything's Better with Princesses: Lampshaded here.
• Expressive Hair: Missi's pigtails help convey her mood here.
• Expy: This is the cover of Issue 6 of Hazelton's first webcomic, Building 12. Guess which one's the female lead.
• Face of a Thug: Brent might qualify.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Because success ends the story.
  • Potentially, there's a window after the Misfile is corrected where Ash needs to get used to being a guy again. Missi's feelings and how they are affected by him being a boy, his relationship with Emily as well as with his mother, James (who she had sex with but he was just friends with), dealing with Kate (who cooled her jets a lot toward Ash because Ash was a girl), on top of getting used to NOT walking into the girls locker room and other such everyday things. There's a lot of comic to cover, even after the Misfile's fixed; at least a good year's worth, if the author wants to go that route.
• Fan Service: And lots of it.
• Filler Strips: 39 fillers and over 1800 comics. Pretty good record. Fillers usually are for major holidays and 'Day of Remembrance' pages, but there have been extenuating real life issues (such as the artist's wife going into labor).
• First Girl Wins: Not exactly confirmed yet, but on track like a heat-seeking missile.
  • That missile just had a near miss, but Word of God says it's eventually going to score a hit.
• First Snow: While in Tempest, Rumisiel experiences snowfall (from below the cloud line) for the first time.
• Foreshadowing: Emily teases Ash about being uncomfortable being on a "date" (actually a modeling party) with a gay man. Ash "doesn't have a problem" with being around a gay guy. Guess who soon afterwards winds up on an uncomfortable date with a gay man?
• Fountain of Youth: Emily, though on a much smaller scale than usual.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Sheldon.
• Fourth Wall Mail Slot: Email, in this case.
• Game Face: Halos and Wings out guys, it's hero time.
• Gender Bender: The premise of the series.
  • 1st Law Of Gender Bending: Debatable, since it's not so much that circumstances keep conspiring to keep Ash a girl, it's just that the original circumstance is almost impossible to fix in the first place.
  • 2nd Law Of Gender Bending: Brutally averted thus far. Ash does not enjoy being a girl. Even though in some ways it has arguably improved his life (like his relationship with his mother), Ash is very much a boy on the inside, and hates that his body does not reflect his inner identity. However, some in the fanbase believe that beneath the surface, Ash really does enjoy his bent gender, and simply can't admit it yet.
  • 3rd Law Of Gender Bending: Guess who Kate picks to be her Maid of Honor?
• Gender Blender Name: One wonders what would have happened had this not been the case. Also an indication that this is not going to be a typical Gender Bender story since adopting a "girl name" is a classic cliche manifestation of the Second Law of Gender Bending
• Genki Girl: Missi.
• Girls with Moustaches: Emily tries to imagine what Ash would have looked like as a boy, resulting in an image of female Ash with a moustache.
• God Is Inept: Clearly the universe: or at least the angels: have some issues or quirks. The fact that the filing system is said to need manual maintenance and checking counts.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: subverted when both angels urge or condone the same course of action.
  • Hilarity Ensues with said angels when Emily gets stuck trying to climb into her own locked house, and asks Ash to give her a push.
• Green Eyes: Ash and Marie.
• Groin Attack: Any plans of revenge that Sheldon has in mind might be carried out at a higher pitch than his first appearance.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Emily
  • Well, she seems to be over it.
    • And how...
• Have You Seen My God?: God is entirely hands off as far as has been shown. He supposedly knows about the misfile, but hasn't done anything about it. Fans have speculated that God may be playing a deeper game to smoke out some problems in the angelic ranks, place two angels where they can do some good and hopefully cause a little Character Development in Rumisiel.
• Heaven: Where this whole mess started and where Rumi hopes to get back to, if only to fix Ash's file. Looks kinda like a back drop to some old Doctor Who episode.
• Hellistics: Missi causes problems between Heather and Emily, to be solved on the tracks. Emily wins. Heather gets pissed. Heather gets a racing prodigy to try to beat Ash. Said prodigy, Logan, and Eponine, a friend of Cassiel's, hit it off at a party. Cassiel takes it upon herself to try to help Logan win the race with magic (not knowing that she's helping Heather, whom she despises). Rumisiel attempts to keep Cassiel from rigging the race, which causes Logan to crash. The police arrive to check up on the accident, also finding Emily, who they were already looking for since she ran off in the middle of the night to watch said race. Emily's mother blames the night on Ash, forbidding Emily to hang out with Ash ever again, though Molly quickly steps in and takes the blame while also calling Ms. McArthur out on being so overbearing toward Emily. Ms McArthur orders Molly out of the house and grounds Emily for a month. This results in Ash inviting Missi to a movie instead of Emily. Long story short, Ash eats with Missi somewhere. Leaving said eating place, Ash and Missi are approached by two men who seem rather… vehemently interested in them. The subtext seems to imply a threat of rape.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: Emily here.
• Heroic BSOD: Ash, after learning that Rumisiel wouldn't be allowed back into Heaven for 72 years. Complete with Shower of Angst. Ash also has mini-BSOD's whenever he feels he's lost too much to the ongoing flow of girlishness, like when he realizes he's been a girl for a month
• Home Porn Photos: causing Eponine, Logan, and Ash some difficulties.
• Homoerotic Dream: Ash has one about Emily while they were asleep in the same room. Emily figures it out, but she isn't bothered at all--she's had one about a friend of hers too. Not that it says anything about her.
  • No more than having a lesbian dream says anything about Ash, anyway. Sure you want your manhood back, kiddo?
  • One would think that that's still part of the way back.
• Honest John's Dealership: Played straight, but gleefully twisted when Ash turns the sleazebag's own game on him.
• Hot Amazon: Kate. Need I elaborate?
• Hot Dad: Subverted. Ash's father exhibits most of the traits, but his job as a gynecologist is a definite turn off.
  • Not for some of the fans it isn't.
• Hot Mom: Played straight. Ash's Mom is a former lingerie model (see Fan Service) and owns a big house on the beach.
• Humiliation Conga: The universe seems determined to bombard Ash with a never-ending barrage of girliness right up to and including bridesmaid duty (maid of honor, no less.)
  • Ash passes the manhood litmus test on that count, though, as according to the tagline for Made Of Honor, "it takes a real man to become a maid of honor."
  • Sheldon's is more traditional
• I Choose to Stay: It's possible that a situation in which Ash must choose to either remain in a female body or return to his original timeline is on the horizon, since it's heavily implied that Emily would have died on the last night of summer break in the original timeline (see Sadistic Choice, below, for further details).
  • Not necessarily. When Rumisiel gets back into Heaven he can replace Ash's file but doesn't necessarily have to put Emily's pages back. People seem to forget that he is doing that manually, not just hitting a reset button.
  • Part of the theme of the story is that the world of the Misfile is actually a better one. In the end Ash might still choose to go back, because most of the improvements can be made again, knowing how to do them. However, if Emily turns out to be lesbian (And not bisexual or Ashsexual), then Ash may be forced to choose between his old body, and a relationship with Emily.
    • Except that if the misfile gets undone Ash won't remember that it ever happened, so won't be able to use the information to improve his original life.
  • Ash finding herself unable to kiss Emily finally has the latter fed up with the fact that she and Ash can't even be together without using this trope. Her demands to Rumisiel are simple: "You're all about breaking the rules. FIND A WAY."
• Idiot Ball: Although Rumisiel is the most frequent bearer, all three main characters have had their chance at carrying it.
• I Don't Know Mortal Kombat: Averted: Ash. Straight: Vashiel.
  • Ash played it straight in these two strips, with a Lampshade Hanging on the trope as a bonus.
• If It's You It's Okay: Em/Ash, somehow. Either as the (possibly) het Em's one female love, or as the one person that Ash trusts enough to allow to see him/"her" getting all girly.
  • Missi eventually becomes a deconstruction.

"It's not fair, Ash! I don't even like girls! Why do I have to like you?!"

• I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: Missi fantasizes about what she'd do with Ash's figure.
  • "THE POWER OF BOOBS COMPELS YOU!"
• I Have the High Ground: Cassiel likes to do this.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Cassiel.
• Innocent Innuendo: This strip. And this one. And…
  • Emily comes out with one that could be so veeeery interesting… If we didn't pretty much see it coming from a mile away at this point, that is.
• Insistent Terminology: King of the Mountain. Not Queen.
  • Also, it's Ms McArthur.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Ash and Emily walk in on Harry and Kate right on the verge of having sex. Kate takes it rather well, but Ash's initial reaction screamed "Brain Bleach".
• The Internet Is for Porn: Rumisiel has an angelic multi-tool that can do sound recordings, take pictures, and go online. Ash assumes he just uses it to look up porn.

Ash: Let me see your bookmarks. Rumisiel: No! I'm sending it back into the ether! It's not for mortal eyes!

• It's a Wonderful Plot: Subverted. Despite Ash's angst over it, the world does seem to be much better off thanks to the misfile. Of course, the fact that everything IS better just adds to the Humiliation Conga for Ash.
• Jerkass: One wouldn't expect a guy called Sheldon to be such a certified dick.
  • He just reached a new level of low.
  • Also Tom. Insults Ash without provocation, but he's bad at it.
  • Burt has now been shown to be one as well.
• Just Woke Up That Way: How Ash and Emily's transformation took place.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Missi started seeing Ash like this.
• Leet Lingo: It shouldn't be a surprise that Missi has now used this, nor that Emily called her on it.
• Let's Get Dangerous: Rumisiel, especially here and on the two following pages. Vashiel qualifies too.
• Let's Just Be Friends: Emily gets this after her date with Casper.
  • Stunningly, Emily later gets this from Ash, of all people
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: This. With regard to this.
• Loophole Abuse: Emily winning her race with Heather, driving at a blinding 25 mph. Hey, as long as you're in front, right?
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Molly. She describe herself as a bitch.
• Luminescent Blush: Ash wears these often, but never so severely as here.
• Mangaesque: More pronounced before the Art Evolution, but still somewhat mangaesque.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Missi.
• Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Ash starts out this way but eventually gets over it, which only feeds his/"her" fears of assimilation.
• A Man Is Not a Virgin: Inverted; boy!Ash was a virgin and is thoroughly squicked to learn girl!Ash is not.
• The Masquerade: Rumisiel claims that the misfile must be kept secret or his erstwhile superiors will cover their asses by making it permanent. Maintaining it becomes increasingly difficult once Vashiel and Missi join the crew.
• Master of the Mixed Message: Emily. Particularly here.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Largely averted, unless it's Ash's time of the month, but Ash's worst nightmare nonetheless.
• Mistaken for Badass: Not that Ash is bad at racing, but there are some things that just happened by accident.

Brent: "Wow. She's good. There were only inches between her and that light pole." Ash: "HOLY SHIT! I ALMOST HIT THAT LIGHT POLE!"

• Moment Killer: Rumisiel, then Missi.
  • Book ten was littered with these.
• Morality Pet: Eponine appears to be becoming this for Cassiel.
• Ms. Fanservice: Though all the women take their turn, Missi and Cassiel have the highest percentage of their appearances being Fan Service.
  • Not to mention that this is basically what Ash's mom used to do for a living.
  • With her recent reappearance in the strip, is seems that Rachel has taken the lead in "highest percentage"
• Mugged for Disguise: This poor model, who ran into Cassiel when she needed a dress.
• My Beloved Smother: Ms. McArthur makes great efforts to get Emily to study so she can get into a respectable (read: Ivy League) college. The problem is that most of her efforts don't leave room for Emily's growing social life.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: Ms. McArthur overhears Ash telling Emily about his girl self sleeping with James the previous year and believes the worst until Emily assures her that Ash was horrified by the incident and won't do it again. Okay, Ash and Emily aren't dating, but we all know what's going to happen in the end.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Ash goes through a freakout after hitting a girl, which he/"she" views as tantamount to surrendering his manhood in a Call Back to an early strip when Emily told Ash that he can hit a girl only if he is willing to admit to being a girl himself.
  • Emily has one here, after she and Missi piss off Ash enough with their sniping so that she quits talking to either of them.
• Nailed to the Wagon: Rumisiel, by Ash.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: "Kamikaze" Kate.
• No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Ash very much likes Missi, and feels truly happy for the first time since the Misfile while dating her, but becomes extremely uncomfortable upon realizing that Missi is playing the traditionally masculine "pursuer" role in the relationship, always trying to convince Ash to get physically intimate, while Ash is the one who keeps resisting in a stereotypically feminine way. Somewhat justified because Ash is trying to hold on to his male identity despite the Gender Bender, and so whenever he finds himself playing a traditionally feminine role in any context, he sees it as a sign of the impending destruction of his "male psyche". Ash feels much safer being attracted to the more traditionally feminine Emily.
• No Periods, Period: Averted, to Ash's unending torment.
• Nosebleed: Vashiel, whenever he comes into contact with "temptation". "Tissue. Tissue. Tissue." He required no fewer than 8 tissues while dealing with various customers the first day he worked at Dr. Upton's gynecology clinic. He still hasn't learned what the doctor actually does for a living.
  • And the time when Emily quizzed Ash about the erotic dream that involved the two of them.
• Not Hyperbole: Cassiel is close to the devil. Specifically she's his niece.
• Not What It Looks Like: Subverted; it's exactly what it looks like.
• N-Word Privileges: Not exactly the infamous N word, but this trope is invoked during a conversation very early on in the comic:

Ash: Hey! I'm a girl too now, so don't think I can't hit you back! Emily: Oh, so now you accept that you're a girl? Ash: No! Emily: Well then you can't hit me.

• Oddly Visible Eyebrows
• Oh Crap: The look on Sheldon's face when Rumisiel plays the tape.
• Official Couple: While it hasn't happened in the comic yet, Word of God has confirmed Ash and Emily are going to end up together.
• Omake: Not much, though.
• Only Six Faces: mainly averted with the main characters, but when it comes to minor characters there can be much confusion as readers try to ascertain their identity.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: the attempt to represent Harry's Welsh accent comes across as some kind of weird Sarf London… thing
  • Which is why in his initial appearance Emily lampshaded it by saying she couldn't place it… causing him to identify it for the reader. The best part is that implies it's just as weird in-universe.
• Open-Minded Parent: Both of Ash's parents are amazingly accommodating towards what are, from their perspective, complete strangers, as well as their "daughter's" racing habit. Ash's dad knows that his wife left him because he was too controlling, and has resolved not to lose Ash the same way. Ash's mom, on the other hand, is just cool like that.
• Operation: Jealousy: Cassiel has convinced James to act like a couple, thinking that they can get Rumisel to blow up and destroy his relationship with Ash. What they don't know...
• Our Angels Are Different: They are far from perfect.
  • Not just that, the way they look is usually more like elves than Winged Humans. And demons (if Cassiel is any guide) are basically just angels with authority over evil.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Kamikaze Kate's sister.
• Out-of-Clothes Experience: Kate and Angelica.
• Pair the Spares: Cassiel and James. In romantic comedies, this "make the other jealous" setup invariably winds up with the two meddlers falling for each other.
• Peek-a-Bangs: Ash. Not for any of the usual reasons listed on the trope page, he/"she" just wears it that way. Apparently he had the same style before the Gender Bender.
• The Peeping Tom: Ash apparently had a fantasy about peeping into the girls' locker room. However, after a Gender Bender transformation, it loses its appeal and Ash is squicked out when she finds herself on the receiving end of it actually happening.
• Pettanko: Missi.
• Pet the Dog: Cassiel, seen here.
• Please Keep Your Hat On: Subverted. Emily almost always wears a headband in order to hide her widow's peak, which she was teased about when she was younger. Ash, of course, tells her that she looks beautiful without it.
• Pointy Ears: The angels have these. Because they use a certain angelic power, these are only visible to those who know they are angels. This explains why Ash and Emily are the only ones who see them.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Rumisiel's bosses, at least as portrayed by a guy they fired for being a pot-smoking shiftless layabout who may just be an Unreliable Narrator.
• Poke the Poodle: Here. Cassiel's really slipping.
• Pool Episode: #774
  • Prior to that, #493
• Poor Man's Porn: Type B. At least until Ash's dad used one to point out Ash's mom…
• Porn Stash: Ash expects his to have disappeared due to the misfile but is thoroughly disgusted to discover it now contains pornography featuring men. Ash later admits it's hypocritical in her "Ask Ash" column.
• Positive Discrimination: The upside of the Double Standard provides Ash with nearly as many Different for Girls moments as the downside, especially after the fight with Tom.
• Power Perversion Potential: It's hinted that Rumisiel and Cassiel's former relationship fully explored this trope.
• Precision F-Strike: Profanity is relatively rare so when it shows up it is significant. "Goddamn" is particularly significant since angels are much more bothered by blasphemy than mere profanity.
• Pronoun Trouble: plenty of examples right on this very page. According to the "Ask Ash" column Ash accepts female pronouns because otherwise people would think Emily is crazy.
• Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Cassiel.
• Put on a Bus: Done voluntarily by James after he gives up on Ash. He drove home and has not been seen since.
  • Not seen in person perhaps, but his presence was definitely felt during Emily's race.
    • The Bus Came Back.
• The Rant: There is commentary from the artist and his wife (who also handles the business side of the comic). Usually it's about real life problems or con appearances.
• Rapunzel Hair: Kate.
• Reality Warping Is Not a Toy: Bronwyn accidentally makes her relationship troubles worse through dabbling in magic.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ash and Em, respectively.
• Reset Button: The misfile works like this for Emily.
• Ret-Gone: Ash and Emily's pre-Misfile identities.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Ash and Emily and maybe angels.
• Romantic False Lead: Missi.
• Rule 34: Invoked by the forum members ^{[dead link]} (you have to have an account to view this page.)
• Sadistic Choice: "Emily or your manhood" seems to be looming on the horizon.
  • Not necessarily. When Rumisiel gets back into Heaven he can replace Ash's file but doesn't necessarily have to put Emily's pages back. Of course, complications will probably still result, but it doesn't have to be a plain and simple either/or choice.
  • If Ash were to have his file properly placed, but not Emily, that would theoretically leave her alone in the situation anyway, as he would no longer remember anything about her or what's happened between them during the misfile. The memory wipe upon fixing the misfile is a concern addressed repeatedly in Ask Ash. This would mean Emily would have to figure out how to reconnect with Ash without showing that she knows far more about him than she probably should.
    • One possible result of this solution was explored in the beginning of the fanfic Misfiled Dreams. It sucked.
  • It is possible, however, that Ash will be forced to choose between a world where he has a good relationship with his mother, Kate isn't being driven insane by her sister's ghost, and he and Emily are friends, or one where he's male.
  • There is also the distinct possibly that if the misfile is corrected, Emily will be dead. Her (former) best friend Molly was in an accident that left her with a broken hand and foot, but completely destroyed her car's passenger side. Emily thinks that had the misfile not occurred, she would have been in that passenger seat and crushed, giving her even more reason to keep things the way they are.
• Satan: He exists (he's Cassiel's uncle) but he hasn't put in a personal appearance… yet.
• Scenery Censor: Here, executed extremely close to the line with clever use of panel borders.
  • You know, a bit of Fridge Logic strikes on thoughtful viewing of that page. For a guy determined to hold onto his male identity in every possible way, and a bit of a prude for that matter, Ash apparently shaves some rather interesting and unnecessary areas.
    • It's not Fridge Logic, it's Animesque. Word of God states that Ash just doesn't have much body hair.
      • Well… except for "her" legs.
    • Neither does Emily for that matter.
  • Another Scenery Censor, this time via censor bar, here.
• Selective Obliviousness: Ash's father displays a staggering amount considering his daughter's personality appears to have changed radically from the smiling bikini and party dress wearing girl depicted in the family photo album. (It goes without saying that There Are No Therapists of course.) However, since it's explicitly stated that the misfile only changed the universe just enough to make everything seem normal it's possible that the seemingly instantaneous change from Tomboy to Butch actually occurred over a period of time from his viewpoint.
• Shapeshifter Default Form: Type B with Cassiel—when she is appearing as a human she always chooses the same form. Due to Shapeshifting being an Informed Attribute of Angels, Vashiel and Rumisiel are technically a type 1.
• Shout-Out: Emily chooses the Harley Quinn costume while doing Halloween shopping with Ash.
  • At the Halloween party, there's a girl moping over a breakup. Her name? Eponine. (For those of you not familiar with either Broadway musicals or 19th-century French literature, Eponine is the girl on the wrong end of the Love Triangle in Les Misérables.)
• Shower of Angst: Ash, during a Heroic BSOD.
• Shown Their Work: Although Tempest itself is a fictional town, apparently somewhere out in the Berkshires, the scantily-clad-waitress restaurant where Ash worked for a summer on Cape Cod actually exists and was a Hooters at the time the strip was drawn (It's an Irish pub now).
  • Not only that, but Tempest is similar to a small town in the Berkshires, Adams. Count: The local high school is a couple miles walk on a mostly open road (As shots of Ash walking home has shown). The schools sports teams are even called the Hurricanes, and have a lightning bolt as a mascot! The town is also only a few miles away from Mt. Greylock, the largest mountain in the Berkshires. In addition, it's a town in between two small cities (allowing some of the city and town locations shown in the comic to happen in the local area), it snows fairly early in the season (It's snowing just after Holloween in the comics), snows often (As Ash said in the Q&A), and the first snowfall almost never sticks around (As stated by Ash).
• Shy Finger-Twiddling: Rumisiel engages in this here. Missi does the western version here.
• Single-Target Sexuality: One possible explanation of Emily's attraction to Ash. Hotly debated in the fandom.
  • Emily and Ash thought Missi was a case of this when she was first introduced, but it would be impossible to verify if Missi would have liked Ash as a guy.
    • As of June 2011, this seems to definitely be Missi's case. She outright states she doesn't actually like girls, but she still is very attracted to Ash.
• Skinship Grope: Ash invites one from Emily and Emily actually complies, shocking both of them. Turns out Ash was only teasing.
• The Slacker: Rumisiel, started out as a stoner but developed into a slacker. It speaks volumes about Rumisiel's character that this is an improvement.
• Smug Snake: Realistically, Sheldon's plan to discredit Ash with the sexual bribery accusation only works because he has loyal-but-not-too-bright thugs on his team, and he really only needs to convince them (though it does surprise everyone long enough to put Ash on the defensive). Then Rumisiel comes in with the tape.
• Spirited Competitor: Kate, while racing… in more ways than one.
• Spork: Emily resists the temptation to test Rumisiel's Immortality with one in this strip.
• Squee: You can't call yourself an AshXEm shipper if this wasn't your reaction to this or this. But especially this. Also this. Or this…
• The Stoner: Rumisiel, at first. Ash seems to have beat it out of him.
• Invisible to Gaydar: Kay Wheeler, despite being a male model.
• Straw Misogynist: Averted, notably, with the Arthur arc (starting here.) Arthur is a significantly more common type of misogynist; he doesn't try to tell Ash to Stay in the Kitchen, but he refuses to see her as anything but dating material, cannot wrap his head around the idea of hanging out with a girl platonically, and is generally an objectifying ass.
• Strip Buffer: The forums are rife with speculation about the next day's comic, but that comic was completed a week earlier.
• The Sweat Drop: Even Rumisiel's Tshirt and Emily's butt get one.
• Suddenly Sexuality: Another deconstructed trope as Ash, Missi, and Emily all appear to struggling with the implications of their relationships.
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: another possible reason for Ash's relationship with Missi, though admittedly Ash's "disguise" is far better than most. Does not apply to Emily, because she knows the truth.
• Taking the Heat: Molly does this for Emily before calling the old woman out.
• Talk To The Groin Attack
• Tarot Motifs: Bronwyn tries to divine her future with her boyfriend… and lays the Misfile. PERFECTLY.
  • The Hanged Man: Rumisiel. Self-sacrifice for the sake of enlightenment, bindings that make you free, paradoxes, and hanging between heaven and earth: in other words, exile to Earth to learn responsibility, where he has more freedom than he did in Heaven, enhances people's lives by accident, flying around... A Messianic Archetype: he's a friggin' angel. Traps, self-entrapment, passivity, and giving up... yeah.
  • The Lightning-Struck Tower: The Celestial Filing Depot. Umm... "A straight Tower of Babel allegory about pride preceding a fall. Often associated to overly arrogant, prejudiced, and authoritarian organizations (including The Government) which walk to their own ironic demise." Subtle. Also, "...more generically used as an omen of doom and disaster, at least by those who know better than to use Death for that or who think that Death alone isn't ominous enough." Cerebus Syndrome, anyone?
  • The Lovers: Ash and Emily. Romantic relationships. Also signifies standing at crossroad and needing to make a decision. Additionally, the original card had a male and two females: in the context of the Misfile, Female Ash has to choose between Male Ash and Emily.
• Teens Are Short: The adults tower over the main characters, though Ash says he was taller when he was a boy.
  • Ash & Emily, at 5'6" and 5'5", are both at or slightly above average height for women in the US.
• Theme Naming: The vast majority of the angel's names end in "-el," which means either "God is my ___" or "___ of God," depending on exact context.
• There Is Only One Bed: Early on, Ash insists on sleeping on the couch when it comes up. Later on, when she suggests it, Emily suggests sharing the bed. Cue Squeeing from the Shippers
  • Also, at Cape Cod, Marie only prepared one bed for Ash and Em to share. Ash let Emily have the bed and he slept on a cot.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Ash's race against Tom.
• Tomboy: Ash, though, of course, "she's" actually a guy. In a cruel twist, though, he is subject to an intentional in-story slow descent into girlishness. He is well aware of this and it worries him greatly.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ash and Emily.
• Training Montage: Em in this strip.
• Transformation Sequence: Cassiel in this strip.
• Transparent Closet: The other possible explanation for Emily's attraction to Ash. Emily's confusion on this point is a large part of the Unresolved Sexual Tension in the strip. Was running wheel to wheel with Single-Target Sexuality but now appears to be pulling ahead. Also, Ash to anyone even slightly observant (remember, they think he's always been a chick).
  • However, Emily just recently set off a breaching charge on her closet door.
• Ultimate Job Security: Doc Upton. Never mind not getting sued, how does he (and his "nimble fingers")still have a medical license? (Unless, of course, he's deliberately Squicking out the girls.)
  • Nope. Apparently he squicks out everybody.

Missi: "Your dad is freaky-creepy, Ash."

• The Unfavorite: Missi perhaps, as her parents are constantly visiting Tom at college while leaving her alone and apparently unsupervised. She's clearly seeking attention.
  • Rumisiel may be the Unfavorite because he Can't Catch Up.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: James has become this, poor guy.
• The Un-Reveal: Emily asks Ash what boy-Ash looked like, which is something readers have been wondering for years. We only get a vague description and just a silhouette of girl-Ash with arrows pointing where the shoulders would be wider, hips slimmer, etc.
• The Un-Smile: Ramael is often sporting one.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Rumi's and Vash's Unusual Ears.
  • Apparently they use some of their more subtle angel powers to accomplish this.
• Unwanted Harem: Gender Flipped with Ash.
  • That could be read in two different ways.
• Vapor Wear: Angels apparently don't approve of need brassieres.
  • They do wear panties though, if only for Fan Service.
• Volleying Insults: Ash and Tom engage in this before their last race.
• Wacky Racing: Cassiel tries to help Logan do it, with magic no less.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: an act of divine pettiness.
• Webcomics Long Runners: Over 1800 comics so far.
• Webcomic Time: One year of actual time equals approximately one month or so of webcomic time.
  • The comic has been running since March of 2004 and (as of January 2012) is on Book 16. According to the comic, the Misfile happened in March 2004 and it is now December 2004.
• Weirdness Magnet: A lot of weird stuff just happens to all happen in a small town in Western Massachusetts.
  • It's hinted that having a couple angels around is drawing all this to the top.
• Wham! Episode: At first, the consequences of the misfile are fairly comical (or at least nothing major). Then we find out Emily probably would be dead if the misfile had not happened Ouch.
  • The 72 Years arc seemed more fitting to this. Starts here and includes Heroic BSOD and Shower of Angst
    • Oh, he'll beat the snot out of these g... ...HOLY CRAP!!!
  • What happened to that closet, Emily? What happened?
• Wham! Line
  • "I think that guy is an angel."
  • "Ash, I don't want to go back."
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Ash and Vashiel ask this after waking up in the same bed.
• Where The Hell Is Tempest: Yes, it's in western Massachusetts, however it's not explicitly stated where exactly in Massachusetts.
  • It could be a stand-in for Pittsfield, given the fact that they have quite a few similarities.
  • For that matter, it could also be (wait for it)... Ashfield. Or Upton. (Probably not Upton - too central.)
• Why Didn't You Just Say So?: See here, and the following strip.
  • Ditto with this page and the following one.
• The Wiki Rule: Here. It's fairly new and small, so help it out, huh?
• Women Drivers: Averted. Ash is still Queen, no, King of the Mountain, and Kate is not only respected but feared. Emily's initial inability to drive is treated as basic inexperience and is seldom played for humor.
  • In fact, the only guys who invoke this trope (Tom) are shown in a very negative light and usually get their comeuppance.
• Word of God: The author has weighed in on certain questions by the fans in the forums.
• World of No Grandparents: Ash and Emily seem to have no other relatives besides their parents.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Ash. Finally does, and has a freakout after doing so.
• Wrench Wench: Ash and Missi. Emily is a Wrench Wench in training. Kate's obsession with street racing implies that she's a Wrench Wench too, but Harry brags that he did all the work on her latest car himself.
• Yandere: Heather, for James.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Rumisiel will get to go home (and fix the Misfile)! In 72 years.
• You Are Grounded: Emily, courtesy of her beloved smother.
  • Seems it might get better, though, what with Molly not only taking the blame, but also landing some much-needed criticism of Ms. McArthur and redirecting Ms. McArthur's anger from Ash/Emily towards Molly herself, all in a few words.