Sleeping with the Girls

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Is eight hours of sleep too much to ask for? Let's find out...

A deconstruction of the Self Insert fic, Sleeping With The Girls is about a normal guy (albeit one who's been through boot camp) being thrust into various fictional worlds by an unusual mechanism: He 'jumps' to each world the moment he falls asleep, and he wakes up in the same bed as a female character. Naturally, Hilarity Ensues.

And before you ask, no. There has not been a single sex scene. The title is just like that.

Discussion of the story can be found in the corresponding Spacebattles.com forum threads:

And now it has even an opening theme!

The fanfiction.net version of the second volume can be found here. It has not been updated since June 2010.

A possible Visual Novel was discussed in February 2012 - February 2013 here.

(Please note that this page will contain spoilers.)

Tropes used in Sleeping with the Girls include:
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: The SI's portal. Justified because it's a two dimensional object in a three dimensional universe.
  • Accidental Pervert: The guy is randomly teleported into girls' beds whenever he falls asleep.
    • When Washuu walks in on him in the bath, he actually hangs enough lampshades at each point of the gag process so as to walk her through how the phenomenon works.
    • In Volume II, he begins noticing that the pattern of beds he ended up in from the first "loop" is repeating itself.
  • Action Survivor: The SI, natch.
  • All the Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary: The S.I. refers to many tropes by name.
  • The All-Concealing "I": Used to conceal the SI's name.
  • Anti-Magic: The SI took a full power blast from Zoicite, causing Zoicite to think him dead, and only got winded. Later, one of the Number Cyborgs shot him with a pure magic blast, and not only did it not do any good whatsoever, but he didn't even notice when it happened.

"What? NO FAIR! I HIT HIM! I HIT HIM!"

    • It has been noted, however, that while he's immune to the magic itself, he can still be killed by mundane-physics secondary effects, like superheated air, fast-moving tangible projectiles, enhanced physical strength, rubble, etc.
    • Also, while he is immune to magic, the armored suit that Washu gives him is not. And since it links directly into his nervous system... well, he can now be hurt by magic, but the effects are lessened.
    • In addition, the more food, air, and water he intakes from magic-affected universes, the more magically-affected matter replaces his body mass. Eventually, he would become completely vulnerable to magic. (Though it takes about 7 years to completely replace a person's body mass with new material, so it would be very gradual.)
      • This point is made evident when Sailor Moon tries to heal the SI in the second SM arc. When she does, she's only healing the water in his body, which would be one of the first things to be replaced.
  • Ascended Fanboy: The SI is quite possibly the most realistic example for his situation. He's a fan of each of the anime represented in the story, but he's scared to death due to how weak he is.
  • Attack Its Weak Point: one of the few ways that the SI has been able to survive so far is by going for the weak points of characters, be they emotional or physical.
    • In Love Hina, he played on Motoko's fear of turtles.
    • He used Hild's love of her daughter to escape her wrath.
    • He noted that Zoicite's teleportation made a noise, and learned to follow that noise to aim properly.
    • When Shampoo was trying to cave his skull in, he splashed her with cold water, turning her into a cat.
  • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: In chapter 7 of Volume II, the SI is planting a bug in Motoko's room when he notices how unshaven he is in one of her mirrors. He promptly forgets where he is and immediately starts shaving with predictable results.
  • Author Avatar: The author outright admitted that he based the main character on himself.
  • Axe Crazy: In Volume II, Chapter 21, Luna gets casually curbstomped by Kunzite, who then kicks her while she's down. The SI is not amused.

SI: SENBEI! HIT HIM, NOW!

  • Badass Normal: The main character has to be, to survive.
  • Badass Unintentional: He's just trying to survive the various worlds he ends up in (and barely at that) but still manages to be a badass.
  • Bait and Switch: This conversation between the SI and Urd.[1]

Urd: Why would (my mother) keep you a secret from ME?
SI: I don't know, why don't you GO TO HELL-
Urd: EXCUSE ME?
SI: -AND ASK HER?

  • Batman Gambit: The crazy plot the SI concocts to get Urd to acknowledge Hild as her mother. However, because the SI is new at this and extremely sleep-deprived, it fails. Spectacularly.
  • Bedmate Reveal: Partially; both the SI and the audience know that he's ended up in some girl's bed each time he jumps, but whose bed has made for points of suspense. The girls are, in order and spoilered for your convenience:
  1. Aeka Masaki Jurai
  2. Motoko Aoyama
  3. Ritsuko Inoue
  4. Rei Hino
  5. Shampoo
  6. Marller
  7. Confirmed to be Asuka Langley Sohryu on the Spacebattles forums.
  8. Quattro
  • Berserk Button: Don't hurt the SI's friends if you know what's good for you, Kunzite.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: The S.I. is a really nice guy in most situations. But when sleep deprivation takes over and he snaps, watch out.
  • Bland-Name Product: Wcdonalds appears in the Sailor Moon universe. The SI does not take the trope's usage well.
  • Blessed with Suck: You'd think his situation would be awesome, but the girls he meets usually try to kill him in a bloody manner.
    • Washu's HEV suit makes him stronger, but doesn't provide the Required Secondary Powers, and takes away a bit of his Anti-Magic.
    • Remember those awesome nanites? The ones that heal you up, good as new? The first incarnation did heal you... slowly... and it drains your own body's reserves to do so. It nearly cooks the SI in his own sweat and causes severe dehydration. The second incarnation appear to be working much better... until in the second Ranma ½ arc, where it's revealed that the toxins that they are producing as a by-product of their healing are starting to cause his kidneys to fail.
  • Break the Haughty: The SI's defeat of Motoko and his subsequent refusal to fight her in the first loop has had...interesting effects on her psyche.
  • Breather Episode: The Tenchi Muyo! arcs tend to be this. They have Washu, supplies, friendly people who aren't trying to kill the SI, and more. In every other world (save for the unknown world skipped in the first volume) the SI has had to fight for his life.
    • To a lesser degree, the Those Who Hunt Elves arcs can also count as this. While the main cast did initially attack, things were quickly sorted out and they became friendly. He has had virtually none of the major plot problems the other worlds have had, and due to their similar story of being shoved into another world, they not only sympathize with him, both the SI and Luna receive both training and a weapon from them.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: The SI noticed that he'd almost instinctively gathered plenty of items that, when he left the world he got the item in, was almost invariably useful in another world.
  • Chunky Salsa Rule: Practically one of the main points of the story. The main character is from our world, and this trope would definitely occur if he gets hit with one of the "Comical," attacks, like a Megaton Punch.
    • Also why he got a helmet in the second Sailor Moon arc.

S.I.: "There are monsters on the prowl, and I don't want my head smashed in like a watermelon."

    • After the battle with the youma-fied Rhett Butler, it proves its worth. Without it, the text mentions that he would have had his eyes and nose ripped out by a single paw swipe, had the helmet not stopped it. Sadly, the helmet was destroyed in the process.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: Washu provides the SI with a special outfit in the second volume that can temporarily increase his strength by factors of 2, 4, 8, and 16 times his normal strength. Additionally, it also serves as protective armor. On the other hand, it doesn't provide the increased resilience that would keep him from accidentally injuring himself while using the extra strength, and because it comes from a universe where magic works, it doesn't share the SI's Anti-Magic properties; wearing it makes him more vulnerable to magical attacks.
    • Example: In the second Love Hina arc, he punches a wall so hard it crumbles at 8x strength. After Naru leaves, he collapses to the ground in pain because he broke several bones in his hand for that stunt.
    • Example Two: In the second Those Who Hunt Elves arc, a stun spell that would have simply passed through him harmlessly under normal conditions now causes him immense pain.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Compared to the people the SI meets, he has a very filthy mouth.

S.I.: "'Fuck' is a unique word in Drilleese. It is used, often several times in a sentence, as a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, and possibly even as a conjunction. All at the same time…"

  • Combat Pragmatist: The SI. This snippet says it best: "Zoicite had no sense of fair play. Well how about that, neither do I."
  • Conflict Ball: The SI deliberately passes on this. In fact, his number one rule is "Don't piss off the locals." However, when someone seems determined to believe him to be a bad guy, he once snarked, "Welcome to the wonderful world of stupid. You want to be stupid, I can be stupid. But guess what? I'm winning, because I'm only pretending to be stupid, while you're the one actually getting pissed off."
  • Cool Gun: The Mossberg 500 Tactical the SI borrows from Ritsuko.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The SI. To quote a line from the second Sailor Moon arc,

S.I.: It's a magical healing ray. Somehow, I don't think it will hurt him.

  • Deconstruction: Did you not read the main description?
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Motoko becomes a friend of the SI right at the end of his time at the Hinata House.[2] This qualifies because when he first showed up, Motoko violently attacked him, and he defeated her.
  • Defictionalization: The author, after making the "Mo' Dakka Fo' Life," idea, went and made the real shirt. He's selling them online.
  • Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: In the second volume, Washu provides the SI with specialty shotgun rounds in addition to standard ones; The Yellowjacket rounds (sabot razor darts), Backlash (essentially a Warhammer 40,000 Bolter round), and the Goodfellow (has a tiny string of antimatter contained within).
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The SI kills Zoicite. Let me restate that. A bog-standard human, armed with nothing more than a shotgun, a grenade, and his wits, kills a Dark General, a being of pure evil who is impressively skilled with magic.
  • Face Palm: Airi's reaction when the SI mentions an easy way to make money that the entire group overlooked before he pointed it out.
  • Fan Nickname: On the Spacebattles forums, the SI is referred to as "Walker", short for "sleepwalker".
  • First-Person Smartass: The SI, again.
  • Genius Ditz: Junpei is implied to be this when it comes to martial arts and medical matters because "if he was a straight-up moron, he'd never learn how to fight as effectively as he does."
  • Genre Savvy: The Self Insert. Though he later becomes determined to be Dangerously Genre Savvy when going up against the villains of each world.
    • Although his knowledge of each world he jumps into is important, quite possibly of more importance is his knowledge of the conventions that guide each world.
    • A hint at the end of chapter 8 of volume II (as well as talk on the Spacebattles forum) indicates he has realized that his knowing the conventions of each world not only lets him predict how specific events can turn out, but also how to manipulate them in his and/or others' favor.
      • He actually walks Washu through how a perverted joke works in real time in the second Tenchi Muyo arc.
  • Glass Cannon: The SI is capable of defeating and even killing his opponents, but one good hit...
    • Made especially evident in the second Sailor Moon arc, where it lists all his injuries sustained in the two fights he's had in that arc so far. Concussion, Four broken ribs, Two fractured ribs, Whiplash, Potential Spinal Compression, Minor Pulmonary Edema, and a Torn Rotator Cuff. This was all with the HEV suit and a helmet.
  • Godzilla Threshold: The antimatter rounds given to the SI in the second volume.
  • Guile Hero: The SI is starting to turn into this.
  • Gun Porn: Chapter 8 of Volume 1. There is a long scene about guns between the SI and Ritsuko.
  • Hammerspace: The SI's new super suit has a neat little portal that gives him access to his own pocket storage universe.
  • Hot Scientist: The SI knows that Washu could be this, if she wanted to.
  • I Call It Vera: Partway through the battle with Zoicite, the SI starts referring to the shotgun he's using as "Mossy".
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Averted. The SI has gone through boot camp, which does teach proper firearms safety. He also warns Usagi away from touching "Mossy".

"That thing killed a Dark General. Imagine what it could do to you."

  • Improvised Weapon: Part of the SI's charm is that, due to his Genre Savvyness, he can think outside the box and come up with nifty ideas that, while the other characters would probably never think of them, still fit perfectly within the various rules of magic. For a good example, see the "Facepalm," entry above.
    • In the battle against "Grumps," he has Sailor Mars use Motoko's knife as a focus point for her priest powers, amplifying them and curing Rei's grandfather instantly.
  • Ironic Echo: In the second Sailor Moon arc, Usagi throws the SI's "Magical Healing Ray" remark (see Deadpan Snarker above) back at him as a reason for her to use her powers on him, despite his reservations.
  • Lampshade Hanging: The SI actually hangs enough lampshades to fill a decent sized warehouse, particularly when discussing narrative conventions with Washu and Tokimi—immediately followed by an Accidental Pervert moment with Washu, which he pretty much walks her through. And he refers to tropes by name in his inner monologue.
  • Laser Blade: The magical beam sword that the SI picks up in the first Nanoha arc, then subsequently gives to Mokoto in the second Love Hina arc counts as one.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: Usagi, after seeing the news broadcast in the second Sailor Moon arc.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Ayeka's response to finding out that some of the more "Fanservice-y" moments of her life were shown in the anime the SI watched, and that not only has he seen it, millions of other people have as well.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: Luna is slowly starting to turn into this, just to keep the S.I. from losing it.
  • Magic A Is Magic A: When a person or object goes dimension hopping, it retains the properties it had in its home universe. For example, slapstick violence leaves the SI seriously hurt. On the other hand, a magical blast can't harm him because magic doesn't exist in his world, although the shrapnel and other secondary effects of a magical blast would harm him. To put this in Nanoha terms, Signum could severely injure him regardless, while he'd be immune to the Starlight Breaker.
    • A simpler example, for those who are not familiar with Nanoha terms: At one point, the SI gets attacked with a blade made of pure magic. It doesn't do anything at all, and simply passes through him harmlessly. Not five minutes later, he gets punched in the head hard enough to give him skull fractures, knocking him out.
  • Manipulative Bastard: In many of the worlds he ends up in, the only way the SI could survive was through liberal use of dirty fighting tricks, Flaw Exploitation, and even a literal Deal with the Devil in one world.[3]
  • Megaton Punch: The SI is very worried about being hit by one of these because his body is still subject to real-world physics even when he's in a world that runs on the Rule of Funny.
    • The point is driven home repeatedly, though none quite as pointed as when he points out that one of Mokoto's attacks vaporized a tree, and would have reduced him to a fine red mist in the second Hina arc. He openly compares it to a hand grenade to Kitsune during the first arc, albeit with very broken Japanese.
  • Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Lampshaded when the SI realizes the implications of his having left a Rainbow Crystal in Jail's hands.

GOD DAMMIT I'VE FUCKING KILLED THEM! GOOD GOING ME! I AM BECOME MIKE NELSON! DESTROYER OF WORLDS!

  • Mistaken for Gay: The SI once comments that in Real Life he treats women with such respect that some people have gotten this impression of him (he isn't).
  • More Dakka: As of Volume II, thanks to Washu giving the SI Bolter Rounds and antimatter bullets to the SI.
  • Mr. Exposition: The SI tends to fill this role when explaining the various worlds to Luna. Volume II, Chapter 20 has him diving into this trope full scale to the Sailor Senshi.
  • The Multiverse: The SI has no control over where he ends up. Interestingly, not even Washuu knows how it's being done.[4]
    • The world's he's visited are, in order:
  1. Tenchi Muyo!
  2. Love Hina
  3. Those Who Hunt Elves
  4. Sailor Moon
  5. Ranma ½
  6. Ah! My Goddess
  7. Confirmed to be Neon Genesis Evangelion on the Spacebattles forums.
  8. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
    • Furthermore, during the Ranma ½ step in the first loop, he followed Mitoto Kuramitsu around and ended up in his own home in the "real" world (out of sequence).
  • Munchkin: The SI has to be this (acquiring useful items, making friends with physical powerhouses) as a matter of survival. He realized it as early as his first time in the Those Who Hunt Elves world. His asking Spacebattles merely solidified this tendency.
  • Murphy's Bed: The SI tends to land in the beds of particularly volatile girls. The author has admitted that this is because he finds those types of characters to be the most entertaining.
  • Mutilation Conga: Not as severe as some on that page, but accumulates injuries and illnesses in virtually every world and is beaten like a piece of meat by the time the loop starts to repeat. Played for drama and laughs almost at the same time.
  • Naked First Impression: When confronted with Luna's human form, the SI found this trope in play. His rather understated reaction almost managed to make the joke fall flat.
  • Naughty Tentacles: Does not appear, but rather is mentioned and used for a joke. In the second Sailor Moon arc the SI returns Moon's wand after it reacts violently to the glove he obtained from Jail, joking that he'd rather not having it summon Cthulhu (a giant tentacle monster) to a universe where the main characters are young girls in miniskirts. He is nearly shocked stupid when both Rei and Usagi suddenly look extremely embarrassed at this statement and hide it badly. Rather then question them on just what the hell those 14 year-olds had been reading, he took the "I don't even want to know" route.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The SI lands in the middle of a Sailor Moon episode, and prevents the event that causes Sailor Moon's Big Damn Heroes. Thus, he and Sailor Mars are left to fight the Monster of the Week without Sailor Moon's help. (For those unfamiliar with the franchise, Sailor Moon is more or less the only cast member that can purify possessed people. While others can kill, she is the healer, a skill noted in the second Sailor Moon arc.)
    • Spanner in the Works: On the other hand, the SI kills Zoicite, something that wouldn't happen for a while without his appearance.
    • Later on and more seriously events result in him leaving one of Sailor Moon's rainbow crystals in the hands of Jail, thus potentially dooming two universes at once if he can't fix things on the next run through.
    • Also, the unintentional effect the SI had upon Motoko's mental state in the first Love Hina arc, which he has to personally resolve in the second.
    • And, while no one can dispute that putting down a being of pure evil like Zoicite is a good move, it causes the Dark Kingdom to up their timetable considerably, and serves to provoke his/her lover, Kunzite. In the second Sailor Moon Arc, the SI then proceeds to unintentionally prepare Kunzite to fight, not the Sailor Scouts/Senshi, but the far more dangerous and worrisome foe of Jedi Knights, who the SI has built up to Super Soldier levels in his descriptions. So when Kunzite shows up to fight the Senshi, he isn't underestimating them,[5] he is heavily overestimating them, and comes loaded to bear for their battle.
  • No Name Given: So far, the main character has not been named. Word of God states that no name will ever be given.
    • However, given that the fans need some way to refer to him, the SI has developed a Fan Nickname: Walker, based on "sleepwalker" since he "walks" from universe to universe when he sleeps.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: He accidentally pulls Luna with him into the Ranma universe. She's now pretty desperate to return home.
  • Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Inverted. Boot camp or no, humans are not made for slapstick violence.
    • This trope is played with, lampshaded, inverted, played straight, double subverted, played double-straight, and back again.
    • Played straight in the following cases:
      • Motoko's knife (nicknamed "Sting," by the SI) was super effective against "Grumps," in the first Sailor Moon Arc.
      • Senbei, in the second Sailor Moon Arc, is described by Ami as being "Stronger than all the youma we've faced to this point COMBINED." For those not in the know, in the Ah! My Goddess universe, he's considered about as much of a threat as Team Rocket.
      • The SI's anti-magic makes him able to survive and beat opponents who rely on magic, such as Zoicite, elves, and some of the Numbers' attacks.
    • The Medium Transfer Principle runs on this.
  • Not So Harmless: After the SI interferes with the normal plot progression in the Sailor Moon world, the forces of the Dark Kingdom demonstrate that they're capable of causing a lot more damage than they actually did during the show itself (in which they were more concerned with MacGuffin hunting).
    • It didn't help that the SI really built up the foes that they believed they were going to be fighting, so they stopped underestimating their foes.[6]
  • Not with the Safety On, You Won't: The SI screws up a flank because of this trope. Fortunately, the safety's off by the time Zoicite notices him.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: When he realizes just how much damage his knowledge could cause in the hands of Jail Scaglietti, the SI instantly clams up and feigns ignorance regarding the world. Fortunately, Luna follows his lead, while Senbei doesn't have a clue what's going on anyway.
  • Oh Crap: The SI's reaction to ending up in the Oh My Goddess world... with Marller. He later has the same reaction upon realizing that he's in the Nanoha universe, alongside Quattro.
    • Luna and Mokoto's reaction when they realized Senbei was going to stop their fight.
    • The SI later has the reaction again when he realizes that his bluffing of Kunzite is going to lead to timetables moving up faster than Sailor Moon is prepared for.
    • The SI has this reaction when he finds out that the pills he has taken in order to keep him up contains ritalin.
    • In a more humorous example, Rei's grandfather rapidly shifts his reaction to the SI's appearance from "Get Out Of My House and Away From My Granddaughter" to this once he realizes that the SI is about to start vomiting.[7]
  • One of Us: the author. He lists tropes by name in many cases.
  • The Quest: Crystallizes in Volume II with the SI's overriding goal being to fix everything he accidentally messed up in the first loop.
  • Painting the Fourth Wall: The Author put a scene in Volume I, Chapter 15 of the SI accessing the Spacebattles.com forums to talk about his adventures, and asked real forum-goers to contribute to the resulting scene.

"...Why does this sound like one of those Role Play threads where you wake up in bed with a girl from fiction?"

  • Pervert Revenge Mode: A physical law in the worlds that the SI ends up in. And since the SI frequently ends up in the beds of Tsunderes and doesn't have the kind of protection that normal anime males do from Megaton Punches...well, it gets crazy.
  • Rage Against the Heavens / Rage Against the Author: If the SI ever manages to get his hands on who or what is responsible for putting him through all of this, it's not going to be pretty.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Based on a "Not What It looks like," moment in a the second Those Who Hunt Elves arc, Judge thinks that the SI is attempting... "untoward actions" on an elf. The SI very strongly objects, and Judge thankfully agrees that this is probably not what it looks like. He still attacks anyway, because the SI was strong-arming said elf. The SI even states outright,

SI: 'Oh FUCK NO!' "You don't seriously think I was trying to-" I began. "No. NO! Do NOT lump me into the same category as that kind of pond scum!"

  • Read the Freaking Manual: Washu gives the SI an instruction manual to go with the super-strength-granting clothes. Of course, in a rare moment of Genre Blindness, he doesn't read it until after he ends up doing something that the instructions would have warned him against...
    • He does give the justification that he normally would, but his circumstances are far from normal, and he hasn't had much time to look it over. And, to make matters worse, every time he did try to sit down and read it, something always interrupted him...
  • Required Secondary Powers: The SI's power suit can give him increased strength, but not the extra resilience required to use that strength. And the nanomachines Washu gave him may speed up his body's healing process, but it kicks his metabolism into overdrive, burning through loads of energy, nutrients, and water. Plus, at the rate the SI is being injured, those nanomachines can't keep up with filtering out the extra toxins in his bloodstream, leading to a near kidney failure in the second Ranma ½ arc. His reaction to learning this is not a pleasant one.
  • Rule of Funny: One of the SI's greatest enemies. What in one world is subject to rule of funny, such as Motoko launching an attack on a perverted male, sending him flying, becomes very dangerous to one without the rule's protection. He openly states that some of the attacks launched for "Comedy Reasons" would turn him into a bloody red mist.
    • In the second volume, he's starting to spot "Rule Of Funny," events, and is working them to his advantage. He walks Washu through a perverted gag in real time.
    • In the second Love Hina arc, he manages to weaponize the rule of funny to his advantage, by utilizing no less than four plans, all working at the same time!
  • Running Gag: Washu has a tendency to respond to the SI's thought-narration even from several universes away. The SI generally responds the same way every time.

SI: Dammit, don't read my mind! It's rude!

  • Sanity Slippage: The effects of sleep deprivation eventually start to include a little bit of this.
  • Self Insert: Again, duh.
  • Sheathe Your Sword: Only by refusing to fight back later does the SI prevent himself from getting into a suicidal fight with Motoko after he beat her after waking up in the Hinata House for the first time.
  • Ship Tease: The SI and Sailor Mars, though the author's note implies that they're just Fire-Forged Friends.
    • This also applies to the SI's relationship with Luna. As the story progresses, Luna starts obviously crushing on the SI, while he thinks of her as merely a close friend (and will continue to do so).
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Invoked when the SI passes on an M-16 and goes for the Mossberg 500 Tactical shotgun.
    • Later becomes justified when Washu provides him with upgraded futuristic ammo, including flechette, bolter and antimatter shells. A shotgun is simply far more versatile in the type and caliber of ammo it can be loaded with, without changing the gun itself at all.
  • Shout-Outs:
    • The SI refers to the Kzinti Lesson after being reminded that being outside while Mihoshi is lifting off is a Bad Idea. Well, he doesn't really refer to it so much as shout the phrase loudly and repeatedly at himself while running for cover, but hey, still a shout-out. Literally.
    • His super suit is called the HEV Suit.
    • It's a story about an anime fan who hangs out on the Spacebattles forums being teleported through multiple anime worlds. There's lots of shout outs.
    • At one point in the second Hinata Arc, he says "If things get any more impossible, I'm going to have to break out the pointy shades." He also quotes the memeticly catchy song "Row Row Fight Da Power" in the Home Arc of volume one.
    • In the Those Who Hunt Elves arc of volume one, he claims that he has UNLIMITED BUCKSHOT WORKS.
    • Multiple shout outs to Warhammer 40,000.
      • He has a shirt that says "More Dakka Fo' Life," that has an Ork skull on it. The author has a picture of what it would look like on his Deviantart Page, and is apparently selling copies of the shirt online.
      • One of Mossy's new rounds are essentially Bolter Rounds (noted in text).
      • Senbei, while driving a tank through the Hinata, cries out "For the Emperor!" while driving a miniature tank. This is one of the standard battle cries of the Imperial factions.
      • In the second Love Hina arc, he claims the existence of a cockroach "Heresy," and performs "Exterminatus," on it. Though in this case, "Exterminatus" refers to smashing it with cookware, and not a Earthshattering Kaboom.
    • The Magical Sword gathered from Nanoha's universe in the first Nanoha arc, when given to Makoto, acts similar to the Beam Saber from Super Smash Brothers.
    • When talking about the portal to the pocket dimension Washu gives him in the second Tenshi arc, many references to Portal are made, including GLaDOS's infamous statement, "Speedy Thing Goes In, Speedy Thing Comes Out." Portal is also mentioned when he talks about Washu's computer in the very first story arc.
    • The SI references glassing during the second Those Who Hunt Elves arc.
      • In the first trip through the Hinata, Mecha-Tama is apparently sporting a Plasma Pistol. Shortly after its appearance, Keitaro makes a sound that the SI compares to "A lone Grunt facing down the Master Chief."
    • Usagi, in the second Sailor Moon arc, announces her intention to "Love and Tolerate the Shit out of the Dark Kingdom." Barring the part about the Dark Kingdom, this is the Brony Fandom's unofficial motto.
      • A particularly interesting case of a shout out, because the story takes place sometime of March 2010, months before the show she's referencing came out. Also one of the very few times that the shout out was accidental, as most of them are deliberately invoked by the Genre Savvy SI.
    • Shortly before the above example, the SI is exposed to Usagi's healing powers. For a moment, he thinks that it works, before attempting to move his neck and letting out a cry, then saying "Nope, still broken." This is very similar to a scene from Princess Mononoke, where Koroku the Ox-Driver enters the home of the Forest Spirit, in which he feels no pain in his broken arm, leading to a nearly identical reaction.
    • In the first Ah! My Goddess arc, the SI directly quotes the Sniper from Team Fortress 2, on whether or not he has any feelings towards a supposed plot.
    • The first Tenchi Muyo arc involves the SI making a Douglass Adams' Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy-type entry for Washu's lab, even going so far as to mention Vogons (of the same series).
      • After watching a Soap Opera with Washu, the SI asks if he can have his brain beaten out by a lemon wrapped around a gold brick.
    • One show that the SI starts to watch is Lock'N'Load with R. Lee Ermy.
    • At one point Haruka is compared to Slappy Squirrel.
  • Shown Their Work: When the SI was running from Sailor Mars, the author got an actual map of the Real Life area surrounding the shrine to plot out the SI's route.
  • A Simple Plan: The SI keeps running into the problem that, because of the laws of comedy, all of his plans are doomed to backfire in "humorous" ways.
  • The Sleepless: The SI is barely able to scrape together five minutes of sleep each time he jumps. By the end of the first loop he is a very paranoid, barely-holding-it-together wreck.
    • While the Second Loop still has this, he was able to catch twenty eight hours of uninterrupted sleep in the Tenchi-verse, and is able to get more sleep when he lands due to less misunderstandings.
      • Luna definitely helps in this regard, as she is able to catch naps without being sucked away, and has been shown explaining things to the people the SI warps to the side of, allowing him to get more sleep, and avoiding this trope (or at least staving it off).
  • Sliding Scale of Realistic Versus Fantastic: Invoked by the SI when he explains to Luna the concept of different realities having differing averages of lethality. He calls it the "Grit Factor". Love Hina is probably a 3. Sailor Moon is somewhere between 4 and 5. Real Life is a 7. Berserk would be a 10. Luna has a Freak-Out when the possibility they will end up in Berserk hits her.
  • Smart Ball: Junpei. See Volume 2, Chapter 12.
  • Solid Gold Poop: Almost literally. The SI points out to the main cast of Those Who Hunt Elves that they can sell the toilet paper Pichi craps out in order to make piles of gold.

Junpei: So this animal's crap is worth a crap-load of money?

  • Summon Bigger Fish: Senbei serves this purpose in the series.
  • Team Pet: Both Luna and Senbei end up jumping with the SI because they were each basically too close to him when he fell asleep.
  • Tempting Fate: The characters around the SI do this often, much to his dismay.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Senbei
  • Too Dumb to Live: The SI starts getting like this once he gets really tired, and he starts paying more attention to the coolness factor rather than the danger factor.
  • Took a Level in Badass: The SI is trying to do this...
    • He's also trying to get others he's allied with to do this as well. Specifically, in the second Sailor Moon arc he starts giving the Senshi ideas on inventing new attack patterns, using their powers for more appropriate combat roles, or just plain putting more energy into their attacks. He outright cheats and gives Mercury the name of her Season 2 standard attack, and somehow she figures out how to do it with no other information than a description of what it does.
  • Translator Microbes: Washu gives the SI nanobots to teach him Japanese. He ends up learning spoken Japanese but not written Japanese. Washu is confused about this, as they were supposed to teach him reading, too, but the lack of sleep the SI had been suffering up until that point was at least partially to blame for this. Time will tell if the lengthened sleep times in the second volume will help him in this regard...
  • Trapped In TV Lands
  • Troll: in the second Sailor Moon, arc, the SI accuses Tuxedo Mask/Kamen of being this to Usagi.
  • Tsundere: Many of the girls who find him in their bed are this. Of course, being that the protagonist isn't the guy they're dere for, he generally gets quite a bit of the tsun. The SI admits that he likes these characters best for their entertainment value, and wonders if this is the reason he keeps waking up with them.
  • The Big Guy: Ryouga during his brief trip to the SI's home dimension. The SI was actually worried that Ryouga might bust down a wall in the SI's house out of sheer inattentiveness.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Washu's antimatter bullets. Also, the SI's plan on how he would ideally deal with some of the threats he's been coming across involves glassing them with an orbital bombardment.

Washu: If you need more than three, you have bigger problems.

  • This Is Sparta: When explaining an elf her chances to revenge on Those Who Hunt Elves.[8]

SI: Let me make this absolutely clear. YOU. CANNOT. WIN.

  • Unfazed Everyman: The main character has absolutely no special abilities, no magic powers, and had to get a medical nanobot injection just to survive the first two worlds he ended up in. Of course, he's also been through boot camp and knows his way around firearms, so that's one small advantage.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Invoked.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Mercury's Computer from the point of view of the SI. While at the time, it was amazingly advanced, with current (Early 2010, in-story) technology such as Smart Phones, iPads, and other such examples of technology, the Mercury Computer seems rather plain and boring to him.
  • Upgrade Artifact: The nanobots and protective suit Washu gives the SI after the near-disastrous first loop's conclusion.
  • Voice with an Internet Connection: Washu (whom the protagonists meets and befriends on the first "jump", and stays in contact with via a transdimensional communicator) has a bit of this.
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: Volume 2, Chapter 17:

The next few minutes were not exactly the highlight of my life. And it's not something I'd really like to get into too much detail about, and I'm sure nobody really wants those kind of details anyway. But for the sake of accuracy, I did indeed spend this time worshiping the All-Powerful Porcelain Goddess.

Luna: This is surreal. I can see myself panicking, but the way this episode is cut, it's obvious that Rhett Butler has the final crystal piece.
SI: Now imagine how much more dangerous you are for knowing that one fact.

    • Later, characters start realizing the implications of that. For example, the characters he teleports to have shown at least slight embarrassment upon realizing that they're his favorite fictional characters. Ayeka makes another connotation shortly afterwards: that the SI has seen all the fanservice-y moments that she's gone through, and not only has he seen it, but so have millions of others. She immediately orders that no one ever speak of this again.
  • Weak but Skilled: When it comes to the personal power of any combatants shown, no one in the story is weaker than the SI, who likens himself to the Red Shirt, but through intelligent application of what skills he has, he can punch far above his "weight class." It helps that his Genre Savvy mental processes, due to every native inhabiting each fictional world being bound by the conventions governing said worlds, make him seem like an utter lunatic to the natives.
  • We Could Have Avoided All This: Minor example. The SI tries a variety of tricks, bribes, and Blackmail to get Haruka to help him. Turns out all he had to do was ask nicely.
  • White Mage: The SI tells Usagi she is this, by name, in order to make her understand what she's really good at. Very effective because of how much of a gamer she is.
  • Word of God: The author gives much of what is being planned on the Spacebattles discussion thread(s).
  • Worthless Yellow Rocks: Played with in the world of Those Who Hunt Elves. Gold is the standard of currency, but the toilet paper that the protagonists' pet produces as waste is worth a virtual fortune in this medieval society. When an elf looses a massive amount of money in the second arc, they offer to pay her off with a few rolls of the stuff. The elf then reveals that the SI's Swiss Army Knife would be worth a fortune in this world, while remaining much cheaper in any of the other worlds.
  • Xanatos Roulette: The SI's plan to bypass the laws of comedy and talk to Motoko. He actually needed to resort to diagrams to explain things.
    • Kitsune, in the second Love Hina arc, expresses a desire to try this, knowing what she now knows about the Rule of Funny. The SI says that he knew things about each and every one of the girls that Kitsune does not, details about their lives she doesn't, has Medium Awareness, and he's Genre Savvy, which Kitsune has only recently become... and he still failed. He invites her to try, as long as he gets to watch from somewhere safe, like orbit, or the moon.
  • You!: Grampa Hino's reaction to the SI's reappearance.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: subverted, in that the SI is so used to the appearances of everyone from the shows and manga, that in the second Sailor Moon arc, he is unable to recognize Ami without her unusually hued hair. Also lampshaded by Luna.
    • It plays itself straight in other universes, where people like Washu and Ryoko keep their strange hair. It seems that hair strangeness is dependent on the universe in question.
  1. ↑ first arc
  2. ↑ At the end of the second Love Hina arc.
  3. ↑ Ah! My Goddess, first arc
  4. ↑ Chapter 12 of Volume 2 revealed that Washuu could find out what's going on if she adopted one of her reality-breaking forms, but won't because that would negate the challenge and thus, in her mind, the fun.
  5. ↑ Which played a significant role in how they managed to kill him in canon
  6. ↑ The Dark Kingdom thinks that instead of just the Sailor Senshi, they are now also fighting Jedi, and all that that entails.
  7. ↑ Second Sailor Moon arc, volume II, chapter 17
  8. ↑ Those Who Hunt Elves, second arc
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