Rock Paper Scissors (webcomic)

"In a near-future society, 18 year old Reilly Fay's life is spared ...but on one condition, she must work for the psychopathic killer infamously known as Mr. Friday."

Rock Paper Scissors is a popular Smack Jeeves webcomic written by smackjeeves user "hiruda," set in fictional Radio City, U.S.A. Its main protagonist is a girl named Reilly Fay who, through her own misadventures, ends up having to work for Career Killer Jack (AKA: Mr. Friday) only to find out that he may not be all he seems. Meanwhile, the local police force has been trying to crack down on the activities of Mr. Friday and of the Cavellos crime syndicate led by a man known only as the Doctor. Paths cross when it turns out that Mr. Friday and the Cavellos are connected and Reilly must struggle to stay safe in a world that is suddenly much more dangerous than she had ever realized.

The comic is ongoing, updating sporadically - whenever hiruda (the writer/artist) has time. At the moment, eight chapters have been finished and Chapter 9 is under way. It went through substantial Art Evolution and hiruda has announced plans to redo the first chapter in acknowledgement of this. The genre could be described as three parts criminal fiction, two parts psychological thriller, one part science fiction, and one part Slice of Life. It has a fast-paced plot, entertaining characters, and loads of visually pleasing official art. Also has a character list here. It has Multiple Demographic Appeal and Needs More Love.

To avoid confusion, on this wiki page, the Doctor will not be referred to by his real name (Mr. Friday) but by his given alias. Likewise, the Career Killer persona of Mr. Porter will be refered to as Mr. Friday.

Tropes used in Rock Paper Scissors (webcomic) include:

Action Girl: Argent D'Artois, who is a capable swordswoman
- Dark Action Girl: She is eventually revealed to have been this all along.
Adorkable: Thomas, quite often. Also Mr. Friday can be, when he's not killing people. Reilly also has her moments.
Affably Evil: The Doctor is usually very polite, and has also shown to be very kind to his son Louis.
Art Evolution: Indeed. Compare this page from Chapter 1 to this page from Chapter 8 for a good example.
All There in the Manual: Quite a bit can be learned about the characters by reading through supplemental materials in hiruda's Deviant ART account as well as her formspring^{[dead link]}.
The Atoner: Jack Porter, after he regains control. He wants to protect Reilly and save the Doctor from his madness.
Ax Crazy: Mr. Friday, of course. Thanks to the Doctor, who is also this trope.
Badass: Andy Lee.
- Argent is also a great, albeit more subtle, example.
Berserk Button: For Mr. Friday, it's being disobeyed. Specifically by Reilly.
Big Bad: The Doctor.
Bishonen: Ben. It is practically Played for Laughs. Also Mr. Friday, when he isn't drawn in a comedic style, is this. As are Louis, Thomas, Andy, Mr. Porter, and the Doctor, who looks as handsome as Mr. Porter beneath the mask and cloak. Pretty much most of the male characters. The only exceptions seem to be those who have aged significantly, and Reilly's friend Glen.
Blond Guys Are Evil: Louis, the Doctor's son, who also works as a Cavello member.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Mr. Friday was brainwashed by the Doctor. He used to be a kind psychiatrist named Jack Porter. The Doctor's real name was Mr. Friday, and he was originally Mr. Porter's patient.
Break the Cutie: By the time Chapter 8 hits, Reilly seems to have gone through this due to Mr. Friday's treatment and the things she's been forced to see.
- And then there's Sonia who was broken even worse. See her entry for The Woobie. And compare how she looks on this page, before her husband and son disappeared, with her appearance and behavior on this one - after. She looks like she's about to reach her breaking point.
Career Killer: Mr. Friday.
The Casanova: Louis Lark, though it doesn't work on Argent.
Cerebus Syndrome: And freaking how! Starts about half-way through Chapter 5 and goes full-throttle in Chapter 8. Not that that's a bad thing...
Character Alignment: Hiruda provides this handy chart! Warning: Possible spoilers.
Character Development: Reilly has been going through it. She is now a lot more world-weary than she was in chapter 1.
Cloudcuckoolander: Mr. Friday, quite often.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite being, in hiruda's words, a "jolly old dork", Mr. Friday is pretty good at fighting. He also has great balance.
Cute Shotaro Boy: Louis was one when he was younger. This is expected as he is now a Bishonen.
Determinator: Andy just doesn't give up when he's chasing a criminal, sometimes to a hilarious extent.
- Also Mr. Friday counts, especially if his character sheet here^{[dead link]} his anything to go by. His resolve is his strongest trait.
Dual-Wielding: Andy does this with guns. His aim is about average though.
Enfant Terrible: As of Chapter 9, Louis is revealed to have been one of these. He ran Mr. Porter over with a car simply to help his father, and has shown other early signs of socipathy.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It may be too early to tell, but the Doctor seems to genuinely love his son. And, at least at a young age, Louis seemed to love him too. Then again, they both show blatant signs of being psychopaths, so this relationship seems rather suspect.
- Also subverted with the fact that, the Doctor showed few signs of actually caring about Sonia, left her, and then had her killed for cheating on him.
A Father to His Men: Police Chief Strausser, who actively worries about Thomas as well as his other fellow officers. He also seems to think of Argent as a daughter, since she used to work under him.
Fighting From the Inside: Mr. Porter tries to do this despite being brainwashed. The first time he did this was when he told Reilly a story about a "magician" named Mr. Porter because he wanted her to know his real name, even if it had to come out as some strange brainwash-fabricated story. Later, he starts to fight off the Mr. Friday persona completely. He has started to resemble his old self as of recent chapters.
Gonk: Glen.
Guns Akimbo: Andy.
Happily Married: Reilly's parents.
Humanoid Abomination: The Doctor appears to be this. In fact, the only reason is isn't placed directly into Eldritch Abomination territory is because we know he is human. Or at least, he used to be. All the same, it's hard to really tell what he is at this point. For all anyone knows, he may be an embodiment of madness.
Jerkass: Louis likes being mean to people. Also Andy, though to a lesser extent.
Mad Scientist: The Doctor. He's quite a genius at designing robots and used to design robots for Probotics but is absolutely insane.
The Mole: Argent seems to be this.
Nice Guy: Thomas, though he has been shown to have difficulties with his brother Phil.
- Also, Jack Porter. He's probably the nicest character in the whole comic, which makes The Reveal of his back story all the more tragic.
Old Shame: Long ago,Hiruda wrote a comic about characters that Mr. Friday and Reilly are now expies of. She really doesn't like her old comics and has apparently removed them from the internet.^{[dead link]}
Opposites Attract: Played with. Andy and Argent. They got married a while back. Aside from being somewhat similar-looking, their personalities are complete opposites. A love of videogames was the only thing they really had in common. However, it didn't last long and they eventually divorced because of their personal differences. It is unknown whether or not they still have feelings for each other.
Overlord, Jr.: Louis is the Doctor's son and seems to work as a front man for the Cavellos at times. However, he's a bit of an odd version of this trope as he doesn't really seem evil so much as apathetic towards what his father does. He seems more interested in dating hot women than any evil schemes, though he is cooperative and does what his father tells him to do. It is unclear whether or not the Doctor plans on having Louis take over for him. In fact, it is unclear whether or not the Doctor can even die.
Psychopathic Manchild: Mr. Friday is extremely immature and silly. He also kills without any remorse.
Sickeningly Sweethearts: Ben and Donna. Very. Played for Laughs of course.
Slasher Smile: Mr. Friday wears this, quite frequently. It is his signature "whale-teeth smile."
Soap Opera: Andy loves them. The cheesier the better.
Super-Deformed: In its comedic moments, along with a few funny backgrounds added in.
Tentacle Rope: Somewhat hilariously, Mr. Friday has used his many coat tails for this purpose once or twice - once to restrain Reilly and once to trip up Andy.
There Are No Therapists: Averted nicely, for the most part. Jack Porter was a good psychiatrist and the Doctor (formerly Mr. Friday) seemed to confide in him freely. However, once Mr. Friday went all the way off the deep-end and became the Doctor, there was really nothing Mr. Porter could do to save him. He has since implied that he regrets not trying harder and wants to make the Doctor sane again.
- Justified when it comes to Reilly, who is very independent and probably just doesn't want to worry her parents by seeking out psychiatry. She's been broken slightly but seems to be trying to deal with it and restore her life.
Trigger Happy: Andy, who does not seem to care much about aiming so long as he is firing bullets into the air. Somewhere near his target. Preferably.
Villainous Breakdown: The Doctor starts to have one here. It resulted in him running away from a chance to kill Reilly, who knew too much.
Wham Chapter: Chapter 7, in which it's further shown that Argent has apparently betrayed interpol and defected to the Cavellos. Reilly gets attacked by Cavellos for knowing too much. Mr. Friday saves Reilly and the Doctor comes in to try and kill her personally. It then turns out that Mr. Friday's other persona (Mr. Porter) may have been the only person who the Doctor ever feared. A Wham, indeed.
Youngest Child Wins: Inverted. Hard. Thomas and Phil, as shown here have some issues. Apparently, Phil wanted Thomas' position as inspector. He didn't get it.
Yandere: The Doctor goes in this direction for Sonia. He has her killed for cheating on him with Jack Porter. This, despite the fact that the Doctor had just abandoned her and taken their son with him without any given reason!