Still Waters Series: Difference between revisions

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[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5154708/1/Still_Waters_2_Another_Turn Still Waters 2: Another Turn] - Now that the incidents from before have been dealt with, the school tries to fall back into its old rhythm. However, miles and miles away in a secret location, a team of scientists and engineers are poring over the remains of a certain robot with potential military applications...

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== General ==

* [[Academy of Adventure]]: Mahora, without a doubt. From psycho fire mages to robot armies invading to vampires enslaving delinquents, it seems that the campus can hardly go for more than three months without some weirdo showing up.

** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5367472/1/Still_Waters_2point5_The_Ace_of_Spades Ace of Spades] for Madoka

** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5455394/1/Still_Waters_2point7_The_Queen_of_Light The Queen of Light] for Natsumi, Ayaka, and Chizuru

** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6115017/1/Still_Waters_2point7b_How_to_Fight_Zombies How To Fight Zombies] for Misora

** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5368724/1/Still_Waters_2_point_9_For_Absent_Friends For Absent Friends] with the [[Original Character]] Max.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: Much of the information about character backgrounds, newly developed powers, certain events, and other things can be found in the various short stories and story collections. The writer encourages the readers to ask questions, and will [[Word of God|confirm or deny]] anything asked short of major spoilers.

* [[Bash Brothers]]: There are several examples through the stories.

** Max and Jennifer are hinted to be like this in Still Waters 2.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: All three of the main stories have elements of this, with several people in each dying horribly or suffering terrible fates.

* [[Delinquents]]: They show up all the time, and are treated like [[Mooks]].

* [[Elemental Powers]]: This is an important aspect of the series, especially in Still Waters 1.

* [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]]: Naturally (considering the source material), but expanded [[Up to Eleven|even further]].

* [[Fictional Document]]: There are several; ''Dog Boy Koujirou'' and ''Magical Teacher Onion-sensei'' are both manga written by Haruna, and ''The End Time Prophecies'', an enormous collection of prophecies with dozens upon dozens of volumes compiled by Merlin IV, hundreds of years ago.

* [[Mega Crossover]]: So far, the stories have featured characters, ideas, and groups from [[Mahou Sensei Negima]], [[Tsukihime]], and [[Love Hina]], with hints of things from other continuities as well.

* [[Slave Race]]: The Oni certainly have this going on, at least in Japan and especially in Kyoto.

* [[Swivel Chair Antics]]: Pretty much any time a character's sitting in a chair of this type throughout the series, they'll kick off the floor and spin around a few times.

* [[This Is Reality]]: Used quite a few times throughout the series, with various characters telling each other "That only happens in manga, this is real life" or similar things.

* [[True Companions]]: The entire first class is like this, as well as smaller groups within it; as the series goes on, other characters are added as well.

* [[Vagueness Is Coming]]: Occurs a few times throughout the series.

 

== Still Waters 1 ==

* [[Bag of Holding]]: Kaede uses one to {{spoiler|carry the unresponsive Arvel after Madoka's attack on him}}.

* [[Bloodless Carnage]]: Justified twice: first, they were all drowned, and second {{spoiler|they weren't real people}}.

* [[Catgirl]]: One shows up briefly at the festival.

* [[Cave Behind the Falls]]: In the secret valley near Kyoto; there's no hidden treasure, just a shrine to the spirit guarding the valley.

* [[Crash Into Hello]]: How Max meets Akira.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: The qualifying round for the tournament at the festival, in chapter 8.

* [[Dirty Business]]: What {{spoiler|Max}} thinks of his mission.

* [[Dirty Old Man]]: Played straight by Konoemon, averted by Max

* [[Evil Former Friend]]: Okay, Max Linell was childhood friends with the other members of his section of the American Division. Of his childhood friends, two could be considered "evil": Arvel (who is more psychotic than evil), and Guy, Max's rival all the way from childhood on through adulthood. Guy's intense jealousy of Max's time with Rikki combined with his own constant failures at one-upping Max all through his life have pushed him over the edge, ultimately resulting in a duel to the death during the climax of Still Waters 1.

* [[Fingore]]: Only a brief mention in Chapter 18 (happens via baseball bat), but considering the detached horror of the scene, it's still effective.

* [[Fountain of Youth]]: Max takes an age changing pill, turning him 18 again and revealing him to have surprisingly looked like a [[Troubled but Cute|bad boy]] at that age.

* [[Friendship Moment]]: Between Madoka, Misa, and Sakurako. When they find the scene at the bridge to Library Island, Madoka snaps and heads off alone into the city. Rather than escape across the bridge to Library Island where there is confirmed safety, Sakurako and Misa both decide to follow Madoka back into the city, where they've seen terrible things and even been attacked rather than let her go alone.

* [[Harmful to Minors]]: Many of the girls come across scenes of horrific violence (bodies, scenes where people fought and died, blood splashes) starting in chapter 18; how they react depends on the individual character when pushed to their psychological limits by what they've just seen.

* [[Hell Is That Noise]]: In-universe. Again, from the scene in Chapter 18; Misa will never forget the sound of {{spoiler|a [[Batter Up|baseball bat]] hitting Marlin's head}}.

* [[I Don't Think That's Such a Good Idea]]: This is Max's reaction to Negi inviting Max (a man in his 20s who Negi barely knows, fellow mage or not) to come into an all-girls middle school; Max's intention was to point out how bad it might look for anyone who didn't know what was going on (meaning pretty much '''''everyone else''''') to see him hanging out there. He does it again moments later when he finds out the girls are making a [[Maid Cafe]]. Negi just thinks it's nice to see them so energetic.

* [[I Have Your Wife]]: Guy kidnaps Yuuna for the purpose of using her to get Akira to do what his boss wants.

* [[Inevitable Tournament]]: It's the Mahora Festival, ''of course'' there's a tournament.

* [[Instant Cosplay Surprise]]: Happens to Akira, resulting in a [[Megaton Punch]] for Max.

* [[Love At First Sight]]: {{spoiler|More like 'Elemental attraction at first sight' when Max and Akira meet up for the first time and, in Max's eyes, she changes instantly from "Mission Target Who Just So Happens To Be A Girl" to "Okochi Akira"; for Akira, he immediately becomes someone she just can't leave alone. It helps that they're actually very compatible with each other}}.

* [[Not Quite Dead]]: Several characters, notably {{spoiler|Max and Yuuna in chapter 20}}.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Pretty much every remaining villain's reaction upon {{spoiler|Eva's}} arrival.

** For Negi, it wasn't someone kidnapping a student, it wasn't even people running around trying to burn down Mahora. For Negi, it was when he finally realized that the enemy was going to use his students as bait and kill them in front of him to draw him out. What follows is a magically-enhanced [[Punched Across the Room|punch]], and a quick retreat by the enemy in question.

* [[Regime Change]]: Occurs within the Max's section of American Division after Max is sent on his mission; the old leader, Wilder, is forcibly retired and the new leader, Oscar Marshall, takes over and immediately begins to change everything.

** Max's "Hero Unit" costume in the festival, first mentioned in Chapter 10, is based heavily on the character Balmung from the [[.hack]] series, complete with wings. Max's reaction? "I look ridiculous."

** The character design of Marlin is based heavily on the character "Bear Walken" from the [[Gungrave]] anime.

** Guy Sculler's character design is very similar to Dante from [[Devil May Cry]].

* [[Things Get Real]]: Happens for Negi and some of the others in Chapter 17 when they realize the extent of what's going on in Mahora, happens for Misa in Chapter 18 when she freezes up and has to watch Madoka protecting her and Sakurako; for Konoka, she realizes the seriousness of the situation when she finds an abandoned teddy bear in the middle of the road.

* [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works]]: From the infamous scene in Chapter 18; Sakurako pulls this off with a [[Crowbar Combatant|Tire Iron]]. The victim gets a bad case of [[Blood From the Mouth]].

 

== Still Waters 2 ==

* [[BFS]]: Briefly discussed in-story. Max Linell's pactio weapon vs. Asuna's; Max's is bigger, but neither one can be considered small.

* [[Cranial Processing Unit]]: This is how the first prototypes of the Tanaka copies are built. This design decision is quickly changed when its disadvantages become apparent.

 

== Still Waters 3 ==

* [[Atop a Mountain of Corpses]]: This is the way Asuna makes her intro; local [[Vigilante Man]] Urashima Taro is told that a stranger is in town beating up all the delinquents, so she goes to put a stop to it, only to find Asuna seated comfortably on top of a pile of unconscious street kids and delinquents. Cue [[Hopeless Boss Fight]].

* [[Bad Future]]: This is what the multitude of groups working desperately to fulfill various prophecies are trying to avert.

* [[Gambit Pileup]]: A careful reading of the prologues, epilogues, and everything between will reveal a handful of large organizations, each with their own plans and featuring several powerful members with ''their'' own plans. Who comes out on top or becomes the [[Big Bad|biggest bad]] or even survives the next book is still up for grabs, though.

* [[The Grim Reaper]]: Sophie sees a vision of Death in the form of a giant vulture with a skeletal neck and head protecting {{spoiler|Maple Birdsong}}.

* [[I Have the High Ground]]: Kagami does this with a street light during the defense of Mahora in the Intruder arc of Book 1 in order to get a good angle to [[Wave Motion Gun|Twilight Breaker]] the current bad guy ''through the ground''.

* [[I Like Those Odds]]: hinted at during the second prologue of the first book (Chapter 0, Time) at the preview of the final battle, as well as several times during the series as a whole.

* [[Innocent Cohabitation]]: Negi and Asuna, and (possibly) Max, Jennifer, and Akira.

* [[Knife Fight]]: Features quite a fight between [[Sociopathic Hero]] Gilles and [[Knife Nut]] Raddyn Sayard high up on a [[Rooftop Confrontation|rooftop]] in Chapter 32a and 32b.

* [[Modesty Towel]]: Asuna is seen several times in one; in Chapter 3 of Book 2, it almost wasn't big enough and she nearly lost it.

* [[Skinship Grope]]: Several of the characters like to do this. Yuuna in particular can't seem to keep her hands to herself, and neither can Ayumi when it comes to her extremely attractive bandmate Kara.

* [[Starter Villain]]: Jonus Hart

* [[Vulnerable Convoy]]: Misora's group ends up guarding one in the latter part of the "Misora In The Magic World" arc in Book 1.

* [[Worf Effect]]: Fate suffers this at the hands of Chisame, of all people. When she first froze him in place with a bizarre form of magic and then ''dropped a mountain on him''.

* [[Abandoned Warehouse]]: Featured quite often in this story; the final showdown happens in one.

* [[A Friend in Need]]: Nelle's situation puts her in this position, and her friends Liliana and Reiko must decide what to do.

* [[Big No]]: By Madoka in chapter 4, when {{spoiler|after viciously beating Misa and knocking out Reiko with ease, Nelle is about to kill Misa}}. {{spoiler|Nelle}} gets her turn in chapter 4 when {{spoiler|Madoka starts trying to forcibly remove the mask}}.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Madoka, well known now as a fighter, gets ''owned'' by Nelle, who is wearing the mask.

* [[Demonic Possession]]: Via evil mask.

* [[Rich Bitch|Kogal]]: What the villain uses as an insult in an attempt to goad Madoka into a fight. It almost works.

* [[Schoolgirl Lesbians]]: Madoka and Misa show heavy hints of this in chapter 4.

* [[This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself]]: This is what it all boils down to in the end: Madoka versus Nelle, one on one.

* [[Unwilling Suspension]]: This is what {{spoiler|Nelle does with the people she's collecting while the mind control powers of the mask take effect on them}}.

 

== For Absent Friends ==

Set some time between Still Waters 2 and 3, this tells the story of the original character Max Linell's journey to America, with Negi, Takahata, and Shizuna, to say goodbye to the past.

* [[The City Narrows]]: Where Max, Rikki, and the others lived before they became involved with the American Division. Max and Negi go there in the present day.

* [[Flash Back]]: Each chapter contains several flashbacks, helping to flesh out several of the original characters.

* [[Personal Effects Reveal]]: Many years delayed from the owner's death. The character wasn't even out of the teens at the time of death, and the items in her "treasure box" reflect this.

* [[To Absent Friends]]: The title of the story is a direct reference to this.

** Max considers the group built around himself, Akira, Jennifer, Yuuna, and Makie to be this.

** Max used to belong to another group of these as a child that included such people as Guy and Rikki, among others. Now only he and Byron are left on Earth (Nil and Marlin are in the ermine camp in the magic world), and they've been out of touch for years.

* [[Bratty Teenage Daughter]]: This is what Rosalind sees Chizuru as.

* [[Closed Circle]]: The whole story takes place over several days on a small island in the Pacific, miles from anywhere.

* [[Haunted Castle]]: Most of the story takes place in one, complete with a [[Secret Underground Passage]], [[Golems]], [[Geometric Magic|massive magic cirlces]], and the list goes on.

* [[Killed Off for Real]]: One character falls several hundred feet into the ocean, crushing most of the bones in {{spoiler|her}} body in the impact, and is then hit by a very big chunk of the castle {{spoiler|she}} just fell off of, dragging the body to the sea floor.

Negi's class has finally graduated high school, and everyone is moving on to bigger and better things. In the midst of all this, Misora is left hanging around the church in Mahora, until she receives a message calling her back to Rome...

* [[Badass Creed]]: The Code of the Defenders

* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: Type V, magic based zombies. In the setting, they're called "ghouls".

* [[The Church]]

** '''The Guardian Agency''': A group whose purpose is to guard specific items, people, or places from any number of things.

** '''The Special Exorcism Agency''': A group whose purpose is to remove dangerous unnatural beings.

* [[This Is Reality]]: Used in chapter 4 by Nina.

 

== A Robot's life ==

* [[Break Out the Museum Piece]]: Chachamaru is forced to do this after a precision hit by F7D does severe damage to her current body.

* [[Creating Life]]: This was the Professor's aim in creating the robots; he {{spoiler|1=succeeded with FX8-a but realized he had created a monster and refused to activate her. The other robots only work because they have souls attached, and thus don't count}}.

* [[Flawed Prototype]]: Most of the Professor's robots are this; each one is built by hand, and each generation improves on the problems and fixes the mistakes of the previous.

* [[Personality Chip]]: All of the Professor's robots are built with an "emotion center", which is what makes them different from normal robots. Turns out they're {{spoiler|souls}}.

* [[Robots Enslaving Robots]]: This is FX8-a's intent toward F9A and Tanaka unit 1125.

* [[Tin Can Robot]]: The older models are big, bulky, and in no way can be mistaken for a human, as shown by units M2A, N2B, and the vast majority of their shut down former companions.

* [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]: Why FX8-a killed {{spoiler|1=N2B and M2A}}. {{spoiler|1=M9H}} just got in the way.

 

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[[Category:Fanfic]]