Rookie Mistake

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Rookie Mistake is a shared universe, loosely based in the world of Spy vs. Spy. It can be found mostly on y!gallery, and consists of art, writing and role-playing.

There are spy agencies that don't officially exist, where everyone wears the same color and fedoras are standard. Also, for some reason, there's a lot of same-gender romance.

Find most of it here ^{[dead link]}.

Tropes used in Rookie Mistake include:

• A Boy and His X: After Shaun the Battle-Sheep was introduced, Mac is hardly ever seen without him.
• Abusive Parents: Several characters had them.
• Acceptable Breaks From Reality: James Bond tech, robots and psychics? Why not?
• A Father to His Men: Laz, White and Purple.
  • Labrador tries to be.
• All There in the Manual: A lot of character and background information is told through doodles and comments instead of in-story.
• Alternate Universe: Too many to count.
  • Addressed down below in folders. Also, 64 main ones.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Some of the younger spies.
• Animal-Eared Headband: Catnip has one.
• Anything That Moves
• Artificial Human: The Blue android Rock is one of these.
• Artificial Limbs: Purple agency is full of these.
• Ascended Extra: Gary wasn't supposed to be more than a parody of what not to do...
  • Bud and Ten when they got their own storyline.
• Author Appeal: Tons of it, and openly acknowledged.
• Back from the Dead: Cipher. Poor, poor Cipher.
• Badass: Many characters, but especially notable with the entire Purple Agency.
• Badass Long Hair: Played straight with Puce and Azrael.
  • And to a lesser extent Miri though he is not showcased very often.
• Badass Normal: All the characters who aren't robots or cyborgs.
• Badass Spaniard: Maroon.
• Bald Women: Huang He of Yellow.
• Berserk Button: Don't mess with a spy's significant other. A few others have their own.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Just because Narcissus is breaking your fingers doesn't mean he can't be polite about it.
• Bishonen: Too many to count.
• Blinding Bangs: Boddy, Bee, Candy, Isaac, Audubon, and Derek.
• Boisterous Bruiser
• Born Unlucky: Cipher, Cerise, probably others.
• Broken Bird: Several. Most notably, Bird.
• Canada, Eh?: The location of the Red agency, as well as the homeland of several characters.
  • This trope is actually averted in that aside from the occasional hockey fan none of the agents carry any of the mentioned stereotypes. Red agency is even ahead of the curve many time since their purpose is to sell to other agencies.
  • Played semi-straight with Rouge, who has stereotypes Canadians associate with Quebec.
• Canon Immigrant: Fredo, who is originally from the Necropolis 'verse.
• Can't Have Sex Ever: Ethan; he has a fear of it.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Several people, including Terrance who is practically a different person under the influence. There are also several folks who can really hold their booze.
• Carpet of Virility: Wolf has this in SPADES.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Mostly thanks to y!gallery's rules about female characters, but a lot of it is probably Author Appeal as well.
• Cat Smile: Vogue, all the time. And sometimes others.
• Characters As Device: Benny was a plot device for Watson and later Bill was a plot device for Benny. Incidentally, both Benny and Bill are ascended extras.
• Character Development
• Character Overlap: Many of the writers have brought in characters from their original works to be spies, or as bit parts.
• Chase Fight: Used from time to time, an example of sorts is in this fic ^{[dead link]}.
• Cheerful Child: Kevin is a toddler, but counts.
  • Mac is a robot, but also counts.
• Childhood Marriage Promise: Lucky and Earl.
• City of Spies: New York City is the central setting of most stories. Explicitly stated as neutral territory.
• Cliff Hanger: Some author's story chapters have this. Heck, some of the community straight up has discontinued stories.
• Closet Key: Lucy had no interest in men (or anyone, really) before Maroon.
  • Terrance had no interest in anyone either until Blondie.
  • Roan to Lag.
  • Martin, like Lucy, recently discovered he has a sexuality.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Cloudy, obviously.
• Companion Cube: Terrance and his stuffed hippos.
• Convenient Coma: Benny, Lilac, and a few others.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The agencies.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: The Lady in Gray once had someone deported to Mexico despite their not being Mexican or knowing a word of Spanish.
• Crash Into Hello: Boddy and Duchess.
  • Kiwi and Seamus as well.
  • And now Gary and Wolf.
• Crazy Prepared: Most spies to some degree.
  • Ceil, notably, constantly comes up with implausible scenarios he might have to protect himself from and readies himself for them.
  • Switch, if you count all the random in his pockets.
• Creepy Twins: Mary and Sue, who are very close and named For the Lulz.
• Cute and Psycho: Bird was built on this trope.
• Cute Bruiser: Quite a few.
• Cute Mute: 22 and Fuchsia.
• Cuteness Proximity: Patrick and any animal.
• Dangerous Workplace
• Deadpan Snarker: Natasha/Katya/the door proves to be a master of this here.
• Depending on the Artist
• Disguised in Drag: Almost everyone at some point.
• Do Androids Dream?: This is addressed in varying degrees by different characters.
• Does Not Like Men: Hummingbird. Also Noodle, but this is specifically Asian males she dislikes.
• Don't Tell Mama: Benny has kept his mother in the dark about most everything he has done ever, and despite this and police having knocked on her door, she readily believes any explanation he's willing to give no matter how vague...or even non-existent.
• Dragged Into Drag: Everyone has to crossdress. Whether they like it or not.
• Dreadlock Rasta: Brandy has the hair, at least.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Miri, Julie, Barbie and Bambi all fill this trope. And only Bambi really appreciates it.
  • Frosty as well, though in his case people usually can't tell which he is.
  • Puce- Long hair, long nails with airbrushed designs, feminine build, and wardrobe that is at best androgynous.
  • New character Cupcake, though that's mostly thanks to plastic surgery.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Most characters have to.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Yellows in New York.
• Everyone Knows Lucky: It's uncanny really.
• Ethical Slut: Blank was one in college, and Wolf and Strawberry are now.
• Extreme Melee Revenge: This was the basis of the Blood Feud story line.
• Eyepatch of Power: Sported by a few characters; notably Seamus.
• Eyes Always Shut Paper.
• Faking the Dead: Robin of Red faked his death to wipe his slate clean before joining the agency.
  • Carmine of Red did this as a quick way to break up with her husband.
  • Kiiro of Green faked his death to escape Yellow.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Blank's "dad" turns out to be his uncle, and vice versa.
• Fetish Fuel: Oh my god, yes.
• Fiery Redhead: Blanche, Switch, Firefly. Seamus probably counts.
  • Irish was a serious bitch.
• Foe Yay: Most especially with the original Black and White, though they've mellowed with age.
• Forgets to Eat: Jostaberry and Cloudy.
• For the Lulz: Any Crack Pairing with Benny and another male. Also Moron's lisp.
• Freudian Excuse
• Friends with Benefits: Some couples here and there, most notably Molotov and Gale until they weren't.
  • Mallard and Icterine until they too weren't.
  • Same with Bud and Ten, until Bud pulled his head out of his ass.
• Gay Groom in a White Tux: Averted with Maroon and Lucy, who wore purple and blue.
  • Played straight with Bud and Ten.
• Gentle Giant
• Give Her a Normal Life: Benny tried to do this with Katy.
• Glasgow Grin: Glasglow, naturally.
• Government Agency of Fiction: The agencies.
• Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: The Lady in Gray. Purple as well, at least to Frosty.
  • Reule, a character heavily based on the Little Red Riding Hood story, broke ties with Wolf after she caught him "eating" her grandmother. That's why it's called a bedtime story.
• Gray and Grey Morality: The characters are mostly nice enough, but they kill and steal for a living.
• Halfbreed: A few characters, though rarely a plot point.
• Handsome Lech: Cas. Oh dear god Cas.
  • Arguably Wolf, though he's not everyone's cup of tea.
• Happily Adopted: Blank and Scamp, with White.
• Happily Married: All the characters who are, including the Lady with both her husbands.
• Has Two Mommies: Several of the couples have (or will have) children. Played straightest with Kevin, Lester, and Film.
• Hates Being Touched: Dove, Ceil, and Olsen.
• Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: Benny and Mulberry are some of the rare straight males.
• Hearing Voices: Ceil has one voice that tells him everyone is trying to kill him.
  • 24 has several voices in his head that talk to him. As do 64 and 36.
• Hello, Nurse!: The White medic Angel is most definitely one of these.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Vodka and Henry.
• Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Due to the color coding.
• Honorary Uncle: Mac has a whole giant adopted family, whether they know it or not.
• Humans Are White: Fully averted in the sci-fi 'verse.
• Identical Grandson: For some reason, all the Graham men have the exact same coloring, and even the cowlick!
• I Have No Son: The majority of Switch's family denies they're related to him.
  • Purple legally disowned his family.
• I Want Grandkids: Owl's grandmother wants GREAT-grandkids.
• Informed Judaism: Justified, since most of the characters are non-religious and only identify as such culturally.
• Insatiable Newlyweds: Maroon and Lucy. Going mere days without it drives Lucy to throwing coffee at people.
• Instant Sedation
• Interface with a Familiar Face: Rock Rock's outer looks are based on that of a human agent, who was killed in the late 70's when the Berlin Wall was still up.
• Interrupted Suicide: This applies to both Maroon and Nero.
• Latin Lover: Intentionally invoked with Cupcake.
• Lego Genetics: Anything Ethan has ever made.
• Locked in a Room: Once happened to Switch and Sonar.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: 400 plus and counting. AND COUNTING.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Miri and Glasglow.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Miri reeks of this trope.
• Long-Lost Relative: Gemini and Nothing, Seven and Lizard. Sterling, Pyrite and Stormy. Zeus and Boomer. Wraithe and Marcus. Black and Sonar. Laz and several others, although with a few he's only a Parental Substitute.
• Love Confession: Moron ^{[dead link]}. Unfortunately he gets shot down every time. Not surprising considering his skewed view of proper Love Interests due to Parental Incest. So he goes ahead and confesses to Duck, Labrador, Chiffon and Benny.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Strawberry and Wolf, though not everyone in-universe likes him. Blank isn't as much of a maniac, but it is his favorite topic of conversation.
• Made of Iron: Notably with Blank.
• Mad Scientist: Yes. Every agency's got at least one.
• Magical Database: DB, more literal than most.
• Magic Feather: Thumper and his horseshoe pendant which he believes protects him from accidents.
• Magic Genetics: The Graham family.
• Malaproper: Wolf, notably.
• Mama Bear: Played straight with most spies turned moms.
• Manly Gay: Got a few of these.
• Masochism Tango: Black and White, Owl and Taz.
• May-December Romance
• Meaningful Echo: "Families are weird," for Harry's establishing comics.
• Meaningful Name: If they aren't named after a particular shade of color, chances are it's this trope.
• Messy Hair: Ceil's hair is always uncombed as part of his plan to keep himself as unattractive looking as possible.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Made by Ethan, with love.
• Motor Mouth: Spunky and Catnip.
• Mr. Smith: Played with. White's last name is actually Smith.
  • Not to mention the agents Smith and Wesson.
• Naked People Are Funny: Periwinkle's running gag.
• New Age Retro Hippie: Cloudy is like this in personality, though he was born too late.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Robot spies, cyborg spies, cyborg ninja spies...
• Noodle Incident: Something happened in Malta, but it's not all that clear. Just that the Black agency doesn't touch it if they can help it.
• Older Than He Looks: Scamp, whose growth is a bit stunted. All the Grahams.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: At first, but most characters get real names eventually. Averted with Seamus, Harry, Gary and probably a few others.
  • Happened twice with Amy. His codename was originally Amethyst.
• Organ Theft: Martin was narrowly rescued from this.
• Papa Wolf: Most spies turned dads.
• Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Ethan, Amethyst, Martin, and Nero and Lucy pre-relationships.
• Parental Abandonment: Azrael, Frosty, Maroon, and Duck.
• Parental Incest: Kiwi, which lead to him being a Self-Made Orphan. Moron until he was saved.
• Parental Neglect: With Blank and Audubon, though this wasn't intentional with at least one parent for each of them.
• Parental Substitute: Labrador with Duck and Moron.
• Patron Saint: Lucy was named for St Lucy, patron saint of the blind.
  • Blank carries a St Jude medallion given to him by his grandmother.
  • In several universes, Maroon invokes/is associated with Mary Magdalene, patron saint of prostitutes.
• Pedophile Priest: Father Johann to Lucy, and implied with other children.
• Penal Colony: Red's South African base is one of these crossed with a Bedlam House.
• Perverse Sexual Lust: Several characters make jokes about various fictional crushes.
• Phrase Catcher: "Good talk, Cloudy."
• Poirot Speak: Wolf, faked.
• Properly Paranoid: They are spies.
• Put on a Bus: There is a man named Nicolas who appears and has several mentions but vanishes later and is never mentioned again.
  • Two Black agents. One gets shipped off to another office branch away from the central point of most stories and another elopes to another country with his boyfriend.
  • A few writers have left the club permanently.
• Raised Catholic: Lucy, Blanche, Seamus, and Kiwi. Blank's grandmother.
• Raised by Grandparents: Earl and Owl were both raised by their grandmother, Sonar was raised by both grandparents.
• Reassignment Backfire: Both Black and White were "promoted" to training rookies and overseeing missions. This gave them the power and camaraderie over the younger agents they needed to kill their bosses and take over.
• Remember the New Guy?: Played straight when new characters are introduced as having been spies for years.
• Rapunzel Hair: Seamus' hair grows crazy fast and so is just kept long. Amalthea was made that way.
• Retcon: A few times, most notably with Lilac.
• Ridiculously-Human Robots: Several.
  • And even in a very male character dominated group, two of them are girls.
    • One, Anne, is also a deadpan nudist.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Nero after he thinks his boyfriend dies. Fortunately Blank gets better.
• Robo-Family: Played straight with Mac, who actively acknowledges the other androids as family members.
• Robosexual: Played straight with Bruce, Snipe and Lester.
• Rule of Cool
• Running Gag: Puce destroying cars, Blank getting hurt, Laz having kids, and probably many others.
• Scary Black Man: Mentioned almost word-for-word with Bruce (who isn't even black). Played straighter with Igazi, though his scariness has little to do with his race.
• Sex Is Evil: Nero and Lucy both believe this, before they learn.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Lucy, with Maroon.
• Silver Fox: Purple and Amontillado fill this.
• Skunk Stripe: Skunk has one.
• Slap Slap Kiss: A few couples have this dynamic.
• Smug Smiler: Benny.
• Son of a Whore: Bambi and Mulberry.
• Speech Impediment: Moron speaks with a (admittedly growing worse) lisp and Cipher speaks in a slow, stuttery Funetik Aksent. Frosty also has a stutter sometimes but it is rarely emphasized.
• Split Personality: Triad of the Blue agency. Agent Gemini suffered this but his personalities were separated into multiple people.
• Spot of Tea: Earl.
• Spy Couple: A lot.
• Spy Bot: Pick an android, it's likely they were built for this purpose.
• Stalker with a Crush: Tulip, Duck, Lucky, and formerly Bird.
  • Tulip and Lucky even got to marry their stalkees.
  • Played creepily with Frosty and Kabroi.
• Stalking Is Love: Related to the above. Several examples.
• Starbucks Skin Scale: Frosty is often described as "mocha."
• Strangled by the Red String: Most couples where one character is owned by author Essande seem to appear out of thin air.
  • Ribbon and Nothing.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Always a favorite, but Fuchsia, Blank, Thumper and the Blue Firebug squad stand out from the pack.
• Ten Little Murder Victims: The basis of Closed Circle ^{[dead link]}.
• The Insomniac: Josta forgets to sleep, and Walter has an actual medical condition. Garnet gets about an hour of sleep every night due to recurring nightmares. Spinel drugs himself heavily to sleep.
• The Jinx: Jinx's mission partners always get harmed in some way.
• The Klutz: Corey, and as a child; Thumper.
• The Lancer: Lydia to Lester.
• The Quiet One: Watson and Cipher.
• The Speechless: Cerise, who communicates in charades, Emoticons, speech bubbles, and rarely sign language.
  • Gopher.
• The Stoic: Badger.
• The Unfavorite: Model's backstory.
• The Voiceless: 22, Fuchsia, and in earlier stories Watson.
• The Woobie: Several characters to varying degrees, but most notably Frosty.
  • Lester, despite his creator originally intending him to be an Eeyore, is one of these.
• Those Two Bad Guys: Schwarzwald mercenaries Mary and Sue when they show up in stories.
• Troubled but Cute: Yes. A lot.
• Weaponized Animal: Shaun the Battle-Sheep. To quote Mac every time he shows Shaun to someone new: He's got a cannon in his back!.
• White Anglo Saxon Protestant: Quite a few, including the Graham family.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Miri, Azrael and Snow play this straight.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Bambi, Vivian, Switch, and Vermilion.
  • The pink/blue 'verse has this as a matter of course.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Several spies have phobias, such as Switch's fear of cats and Moron's fear of the dark.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Flora, Jared, and Thumper.
  • Despite everything, Narcissus still manages to fall under this.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Benny, although he tends to omit important info.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Benny because of his dad. Thumper and Paper because chivalry isn't dead. And Ilya.
• X Days Since...: All the departments in the NY Red labs have an accident counter sign as a competition between themselves.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Averted. Any unusual hair colors are explicitly stated to be dyed. Except for Gary, who insists that his hair color is natural, but Word of God states is a weave.
  • He's now upgraded to a White-Haired Pretty Boy!
• Younger Than He Looks: Not really, but a running gag with Purple is that his file eternally says he's 35.
  • Snow fits this, with his prematurely gray hair.

---

Necropolis

Basically the Superhero version of Rookie Mistake.

• Affably Evil: The Violet Sovereign, when he was still an active villain. He's still affable, but YMMV on the "evil" part.
• An Ice Person: Ljod, whose name literally means "ice."
• Catboy: Cat.
• City of Weirdos: Yes.
• Dating Catwoman: Played straight with Cat and Hellhound.
• Dream Within a Dream: Played straight with Taras whose power is literally dreaming of dreams.
• Homeless Pigeon Person: Oddmund; An abused runaway who was adopted by a Katbeast.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The Face Stealer.
• Mega Neko: The Katbeasts. Large felines made by scientists, created to be pets for the rich people. At least until they grew too big. There is also Baby the Katbeast, who was made by Ethan in the main Rookie 'verse
• Faceless Goons: Grey Matter has an endless supply of them. Fredo is one of them in this 'verse. Specifically they are of this variety.
• Near-Death Experience: When Kiyoshi had a close encounter with the Face Stealer but then saved himself. Also this happens to Taras when he gets killed in a dream and he almost dies in the real world.
• No One Could Survive That: Hound and the explosion that kills him.
• Oddly Small Organization: Hench Co., a privately owned organization who put together monsters, potions and machines for villains with a busy schedule. The entire operation is handled by three mad scientists who have a rarely seen boss who only comes in for progress reports.
• Puberty Superpower: Kiyoshi, granted this kicks in at the ^{[dead link]} last possible moment.
• Secret Identity: Well duh.

Closet Dust

The American West. Not quite as historically inaccurate as actual westerns, but research is for losers.

• Bar Brawl: All the time, but Seamus breaks it up quickly.
• Cavalry Officer: Black claims to have been one.
• Chinese Laborer
• City Slicker
• Clerk: Jade is one.
• Clueless Deputy: Tim just does what he's told...
• Gay Cowboy: Yes.
• Meek Townsman: Irv might qualify.
• Outlaw: Black and his boys are this.
• Preacher Man
• Rancher: A few.
• Railroad Baron: A few have made trouble off screen.
• Saloon Owner
• Shop Keeper
• Slap Slap Kiss: Explicitly White and Black's relationship here.
• The Sheriff: White.
• The Bartender: There are a few bars in the main town, but Seamus is the most common example, as well as being the Saloon Owner.
• Undertaker: Rock has this job. ^{[dead link]}