The Last Voyages

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
No warnings, no second chances... until now.

Heaven is not what it is said to be.
Hell is not what it is said to be.
The saved are not forever happy.

The damned are not forever lost.
—"Oran" by Steve Mcdonald, describing the story of St. Oran.

Throughout space and time travels a barge, commanded by the mysterious Admiral, a figure often spoken of but never seen. The Admiral has collected together a group of unique people. He has set them a task.

There are two kinds of people. There are the inmates, lost souls who have died. Presented with the harsh reality of how very near to utter annihilation their souls have come, they are given an option: live as an inmate aboard the barge, endure the trials set before them and learn from them, and be eventually granted a second chance at life.

They are governed, cared for and protected by their wardens, individuals of moral character (in most cases) given the task to look after them and stand as their moral compass during their time aboard the Barge. They have struck a deal with the Admiral. In exchange for their service, conditional upon redeeming and graduating their inmate, the Admiral will give them one thing. One thing that they need desperately enough to stay on the barge. Some are former inmates.

As well as each others company, wardens and inmates have to deal with Ports and Floods. Ports are where the barge docks in different worlds, of varying levels of safety and sanity. Floods are where random phenomena and occurrences strike the barge itself. There are normally two or three of these kind of barge events a month.

A journal based Livejournal RPG, in operation since 2008. Application rounds take place monthly. Further information can be found here.

Tropes used in The Last Voyages include:

Tropes that apply to the barge as a whole

  • 0% Approval Rating - The Admiral, and rightly so.
  • All Just a Dream - This is the preferred way of dealing with being on the Barge for some Inmates.
    • This was a particularly pungent trope for Mal Cobb.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents - One flood temporarily replaced Inmates with their parents.
  • Amnesiac Dissonance - The amnesia breach caused a lot of this
  • Anachronism Stew - The Barge has aliens that have perfected time-travel living with people who don't know what washing machines are.
  • Anyone Can Die - Because anyone can be revived from death on the Barge with the equivalent of a week-long hangover from hell, serious business often goes down at least once a week.
  • The Atoner - Inmates are on the Barge to make up for what they've done in life.
  • Back from the Dead - see Anyone Can Die.
  • Big Bad - There's not really one for the overarching game, but during big events certain characters fill the role:
    • In Masterworld, The Master (shockingly enough). Judas and Iago were his Co-Dragons.
    • In the Four Horsemen plot, Arthas Menethil.
    • Cobra Commander has served two stints as one - first during his nanomite takeover, and then again a year later when he forced the Barge to crash in the Land of the Dead.
    • For Halloween 2011, the usurper masquerading as the Admiral was eventually revealed to be Randall Flagg.
  • Big Good - The Admiral. Maybe.
  • Black and Grey Morality - The main conceit of the Barge isn't as cut-and-dry as you'd think. Wardens don't have to be paragons of morality to get their jobs done, a lot of crimes go unpunished by authority figures, and the ports and floods cause serious trauma - and sometimes even death - to Warden and Inmate alike. A case can even be made for the Admiral having Orange and Blue Morality, since no one knows what he is or what his standard of "redeemed" is; if anyone complains about him too loudly, they receive a cookie.
  • The Bridge - Mysteriously, the Barge doesn't seem to have one... or maybe it just hasn't been found yet. It's there, it's just incredibly difficult to get to.
  • Common Tongue - Barge denizens come from a multitude of different places and times, but there hasn't been an arrival yet who couldn't speak or understand English.
  • Convenient Coma - Barge comas, which are normally due to players being busy OOC.
  • Criminal Doppelganger - An occupational hazard as a Warden. An Inmate might turn up with your face.
  • Cycle of Revenge - Since death is rarely permanent, many Inmates achieve these with each other.
  • Dark and Troubled Past - Oh-so many of the Inmates. Occasionally some of the Wardens. This is basically what the Inmate files are.
  • Death Is a Slap on The Wrist - There's a week long 'death toll' which is basically a hangover from hell, but death has no major side effects after resurrection.
  • Deal with the Devil - Some Wardens see their deal with the Admiral as this.
  • Enforced Cold War - Enemy Inmates are often forced into this due to their Wardens and even the Admiral interfering.
  • Everything's Better with Dinosaurs - The Jurassic Park port. Yes, the Barge actually docks at Jurassic Park.
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks - Warren White left behind his pet shark, which now resides in a common room.
    • We Named the Monkey "Jack" - The shark was named Warren, after the inmate. Hilarity will inevitably ensue now that Warren the Inmate is on the same boat as Warren the shark.
  • Evil Versus Evil - Some of the Inmates would rather tear each other up forever than get with the program.
  • Failure Is the Only Option - No one's every going to REALLY escape from the Barge/kill the Admiral/take over the ship. Because that would break the game, donchaknow.
    • Magnificently subverted when Randall Flagg kicked the Admiral's ass and took over for Halloween 2011.
  • For Science! - The motive driving the actions of a certain few Inmates.
  • Fountain of Youth - One flood turned all the Inmates into kids between five and thirteen, while the exasperated Wardens had to keep them all from running with scissors and pulling each other's hair.
    • And another, later flood, pulled the same trick on the Wardens, forcing their perplexed Inmates to take care of them.
  • Freudian Excuse - Quite a few Inmates have one.
  • Gender Bender - One flood swapped everyone's genders.
  • Gilded Cage - Arguably the Barge itself.
  • Good Is Not Nice - Wardens, though nominally on the side of good, are often a morally ambiguous lot.
  • Heel Face Brainwashing - The Inception cast has the potential to do this, but hasn't done so yet.
  • Heel Realization - Often key to the more stubborn Inmates' redemptions.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen - The Admiral is known as a voice and, OOC, an icon of a captain's hat. Wardens, who have presumably seen him in person to make their deals, usually claim to not be able to remember what he looked like.
  • Hilarity Ensues - Kissing floods, gender-flip floods - floods seem to exist to make hilarity ensue. Ports or Breaches are usually much more serious.
  • Hollywood New England - The Bostonian characters have their accent sneak into their posts. Fun to read, and apparently even more fun to write.
  • Identical Stranger - Since there are no restriction on characters played by the same actor, this is fairly common. A good current example is Robert Capa and Jonathan Crane.
  • Ignored Epiphany - Happens reasonably often for Inmates.
  • Karma Houdini - Happens fairly often. Sometimes inmates vanish from the Barge without being redeemed, sometimes wardens get away with offenses with only a slap on the wrist.
  • Kissing Under the Influence - The Admiral places mistletoe all over the Barge during Christmas - ANY two characters caught underneath will find themselves first-basing it.
  • A Lighter Shade of Grey - Quite a few of the Wardens fall under this trope. They usually have darker grey Inmates which means the whole place ends up an example of Grey and Gray Morality.
  • Might as Well Not Be in Prison At All - Played with. The Barge is rather luxurious and inmates have access to many amenities no conventional prison would ever make available to them, but they are also barred from many areas and can be sent to the much less fun Level 0.
  • Mirror Self - one of the most famous and character-developing floods; this troper wasn't even there for it and knows lots about it.
  • Mood Whiplash - Mostly avoided because of the space between barge events, but still a possibility with some ports and floods.
  • No One Sees the Boss - The Admiral, for the Inmates.
  • Not What I Signed on For - The floods and ports effect everyone on barge, including the Wardens. Many aren't pleased by the Admiral letting that happen.
  • Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping - A meta example, since some character accents can be hard to maintain.
  • Police Are Useless - Averted, many of the Wardens who were previously in the police force are very competent.
  • Resurrection Sickness - On the Barge, it's called a death toll.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here - Most Inmates would love to but can't. Some Wardens occasionally do.
  • Self-Restraint - A few Inmates are happy on the Barge and intentionally stall their progress because they don't want to leave.
  • Shadow Dictator - It's not hard to see the Admiral as one.
  • Space X - The OS-19 port's premise.
  • Super Empowering - The Admiral has the power to remove and restore the canonical abilities of any Inmate. He typically only does this at the request of a Warden. On the character side, Arthas can turn Barge denizens into Death Knights and Cobra Commander used to do this through his nanomites.
  • Villainous Friendship - Occurs frequently between Inmates.
  • Wagon Train to the Stars - The Barge. Ports and breaches often have elements of Trapped in Another World.
  • We Want Our Jerk Back - The Admiral is by no means popular, but in the plots where he's ousted this tends to occur fairly quickly.
  • What Did I Do Last Night? - The amnesia flood was full of this.
  • What Happened To The Inmate? - On a meta level, this can happen often, what with character drops and all.
  • Year Inside, Hour Outside - While on the Barge, Time Stands Still in the worlds where Barge denizens come from.
  • You All Meet in a Cell - Everyone on the Barge, technically. This fits Inmates a bit better than Wardens.
  • You Can't Go Home Again - Often subverted by graduations but some characters still have this, whether it's due to world destruction (West), faith (Howie) or some other reason.
  • Zen Survivor - Many Wardens and Imates have achieved this after going through an awful lot of floods, ports and general barge horrible.

Tropes that apply to current characters on the barge

  • Action Mom - Sarah Connor.
    • Lua Klein has begun to think this way of her warden, Amanda Young.
  • An Ice Person - Arthas Menethil.
  • Anticlimax Boss - Randall Flagg. After all the trouble he causes, he slinks off and gets shot. By Jim Profit, no less...
  • Archenemies - Amanda and Hoffman, Arthas and the Riddler.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil - Viserys, Arthas
  • Artifact of Doom - Frostmourne, Arthas's soul-devouring sword. He can use it to turn other Barge denizens into Death Knights. The Marquis' Lament Configuration also qualifies.
  • Asexual - Castiel, as an angel, avoids things sexy. Seventh Doctor gets nervous at the implication of sex. And the Sixth Doctor's equally O.O at the idea. Vasilia Aliena is openly asexual after an awkward intervention by her also-asexual warden Sherlock Holmes.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority - Rayne and Arthas pretty much do as they please, since they're each strong enough to thrash ninety percent of the people on the Barge.
  • Authority in Name Only - Some wardens are significantly weaker than their inmates. The Marquis De Sade and George Crabtree rely on trust and being decent people to keep their inmates from overpowering them.
  • Ax Crazy - Several. Richie Gecko is the leading contenders. Perry has shades of this, but he keeps it under slightly better control.
  • Badass Adorable - Claire Bennet and Arya Stark.
  • Badass Family - The Batfamily, of course. Most of them are on the Barge.
  • Badass Grandpa - Iroh, the quiet and Zen fellow over there sipping his tea, also happens to be one of the most skilled Firebenders in history.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit - Agent K. Miss Parker is a Hot Chick in a Badass Suit.
  • Badass Mustache - George and his fake mustache. "LOOK WITH YOUR MUSTACHE EYES." Mirrorverse Braxiatel has a badass mustache.
  • Badass Normal - The Barge has its share of these: The Batkids, Dean Winchester, Heero Yuy, Jason Bourne and Perry Dawsey are the more obvious examples. For the ladies, Miss Parker, Sarah Connor, Amanda Young and Cassie.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People - Barron Sharpe can erase and rewrite memories. He's a conman. What a coincidence.
  • Bald of Awesome - Arkady and Riddick
  • Beard of Evil - Rhade in the mirrorverse flood had a beard. The "evil" part is subverted because, as he was an inmate at the time, his mirrorverse self was a better, more moral person than his normalverse self.
  • Berserk Button - Arthas' reaction to any instance of mind possession by an evil force is frightening.
    • Watch what you say about John Kramer and Jill Tuck in Amanda's presence if you value the general arrangement of your face.
  • Beware the Nice Ones - Tim Drake, full throttle, as both The Joker and Jason Bourne learned to their peril.
  • Big Brother Bully - Viserys Targaryen during his life was this to his sister Daenerys. Though, to be fair, she did get him killed.
  • Big Brother Instinct - Dean Winchester and Dick Grayson live for this. A lot of the Barge boys have recently rallied around Arya Stark, including Jesse Pinkman and Arthur Pendragon.
  • Big Brother Mentor - Dick Grayson to Tim Drake.
  • Big Eater - Dean Winchester.
  • The Big Guy - Dean and Luke Cage.
  • Bond One-Liner - Buffy does this. For example, after defeating a Virtual Reality Grid Computer Game version of Arthas she quipped "Game Over."
  • Break the Haughty - Viserys's entire stay on the Barge can be summed up as this, with a Trauma Conga Line thrown in for good measure.
  • Broken Bird - Wanda's Barge stay summed up in a single trope. And It Got Worse.
  • Buffy-Speak - Is unsurprisingly spoken by Buffy.
  • The Caligula - Viserys Targaryen was well on his way to becoming one before he got here.
  • Cain and Abel - Hoffman and Amanda, respectively.
  • The Chessmaster: Amanda and Hoffman have both tried to become this. Results ranged from unexpectedly effective to abject failure.
  • Chivalrous Pervert - The Marquis de Sade was redeemed and came back as a Warden. He is very much this trope.
    • Dean Winchester and James Kirk also qualify.
  • Child Soldiers - Heero and Arya.
  • Circus Brat - Nightwing's backstory.
  • Cluster F-Bomb - Kitchen Nightmares with Paddy, Parker, Malcolm Tucker.
    • More recently this has become Sarah Connor's shtick.
    • When Amanda is panicked or upset, she lapses into this.
  • Consummate Liar - Jim Profit holds the crown. Braxiatel is allergic to telling the truth plain and clearly.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture - Slick wanted to do this to Bourne. Thankfully, he was outvoted.
  • Combat Stilettos - Rayne's stiletto heels are quite literally designed for combat. They are metal spikes to impale people with. Miss Parker always fights and trains in stilettos as well.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive - Profit is an Inmate, sans actual corporation, buuut.
  • Crazy Prepared - Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Dean Winchester, Jason Bourne, and Agent K are all this to varying degrees.
  • Creepy Child - Arya Stark. This is a girl who's bedtime prayer is a list of all the people she wants to kill.
  • Cute Bruiser - Claire Bennet. Hey, anyone brave enough to warden Armand...
  • Cycle of Revenge - Amanda and Hoffman were caught in one. Ended by Amanda's graduation.
    • Arthas and the Riddler
  • Dark Action Girl - Shego, Sarah Connor and Miss Parker fill this role.
  • Dead Little Sister - The motivation for Hoffman's villainy.
  • Deadpan Snarker - Bourne's a surprising example. More conventional snarkers include Arthas, Buffy, Dean, Angua, and Shego. Braxiatel and Narvin sometimes get in on the deadpan snarking act, especially at each other.
  • Death Trap - These are Amanda and Hoffman's stock in trade.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? - Dean Winchester has built a lifestyle out of this. As has Buffy.
  • Disproportionate Retribution - Amanda threw hydrogen peroxide into her former warden's eyes for conversing with Hoffman.
  • The Dragon - Rinzler was the chief enforcer for CLU in Tron: Legacy
  • Drugs Are Bad - Just look at Jesse Pinkman.
  • Everything's Worse with Bears - Bears don't leave Prefect alone :(
  • Evil Prince - Arthas, naturally.
    • Sort of subverted once you get to know the guy.
      • Subverted only because he got his soul back.
  • Extreme Omnisexual - James T. Kirk, of course.
  • Eye Scream - Woodchat Shrike Amanda taking out Hyena Hoffman's eye. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • Fallen Hero - Arthas, Sirius Black, Mark Hoffman.
  • Face Heel Turn - The reason Gaeta is an inmate. And why Rhade was before he graduated to warden.
  • For Science! - Two words: Fanfic Crane.

Fanfic Crane: Science, my good man. Science.

  • Four Eyes, Zero Soul - We're looking at you, Dr. Crane.
    • This also applies to Walter White, but he's good at hiding it.
  • Free-Love Future - Subverted by Chief Stildyne. His universe has a lot of things wrong with it: the monolithic and failing government overshadows the day-to-day lack of hetero (or homo) normativity in all but certain cultures.
  • Future Badass - Claire and Dean both have badass future counterparts, but they don't know about them yet.
  • Genius Bruiser - Most Barge denizens assume Perry's a brainless brute, but he's smarter than he lets on.
  • Genre Savvy - Several, though the crown currently goes to Dean Winchester.
  • Good Cop, Bad Cop - Costigan and Dick during OS-19, while looking for information about David and Kirk. Although really, which one was which is up to debate, as while Dick acted more friendly and social he also dangled a guy off a building to get info while Costigan just interrogated them.
  • Good Is Not Nice - Dean's a mild example. Bourne's an extreme one. The Riddler and Narvin have both ended up on people's 'The Admiral has bad judgement picking wardens' lists.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs - Perry has killed people this way.
  • Grumpy Bear - Dr. McCoy, who's succeeded Martha Jones as the head of the Barge's infirmary.
  • Guile Hero - Tim seems to be the only Batkid that has really inherited this part of Batman's repertoire.
  • Healing Factor - Three characters all from the same canon - Adam Monroe, Claire Bennet, and Sylar. Adam and Sylar have graduated, leaving Claire as the resident Barge healer.
  • Heroes Love Dogs - A common theme. Jim Kirk has a dog named Aristotle, Claire Bennet has three dogs, and Jon Snow has a wolf.
  • Hero-Killer - In one infamous thread, Arthas slaughters every Warden on the Barge, one after another.
  • Hitman with a Heart - Jason Bourne, at least in the beginning. It's the whole reason he came to the Barge in the first place.
  • The Hunters - Dean and Buffy.
  • I Just Want to Be Badass - Wanda Maximoff.
    • Also Walter White, which makes Jesse's trope pretty ironic.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal - Claire Bennet and Jesse Pinkman take a lot of points in this. Also Cissie King-Jones, the retired heroine.
  • I Just Want to Be Special - Viserys and Raistlin.
  • Immortality - Claire Bennet, the vampires, and the Time Lords are essentially immortal.
  • Impoverished Patrician - Viserys, who was aptly known in his time as the 'Beggar King'.
  • Improvised Weapon User - Bourne is the king of this. More surprisingly, his inmate is picking up on this too.
    • Don't forget the Baroness torturing someone with pieces of furniture and Arthas killing four wardens with a screw.
    • It's a prison setting, so almost any weapon an inmate would be armed with will be of the improvised kind
  • Ineffectual Death Threats - Surprisingly enough, Heero hasn't made a single one, despite being the poster boy for this trope.
    • Finally gets to give a death threat to David. Given his track record, David's got nothing to worry about.
    • David later himself gave death threats to Bourne and Claire during his Villainous Breakdown while trapped as a rat. Time will tell if they're ineffectual.
      • Spoiler: They weren't.
    • Jesse got in trouble for explicitly threatening Barron and Richie. Except for some Good Old Fisticuffs, nothing has resulted from these threats... yet.
  • Jerkass - Quite a few of the inmates. Among the wardens, Bourne's gradually becomes this as time has gone on. If there was a trope called, "Crowning Moment of Jerkass," he'd have about a dozen.
  • Inferiority Superiority Complex - Buffy suffers from this a little.
    • Amanda is nearly consumed by this.
  • Interspecies Romance - Agent K (human) and Narvin (Time Lord)
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy - Not romantic, but unusually harsh. Amanda's warden deal consists of giving her surrogate parents, John and Jill, a happy ending with their biological child. This requires the erasure of the time she spent with them from history, meaning they won't remember her as a part of their family at all. Cue angst, since their approval and affection were the only things keeping her going for the past few years...
    • Something Chief Stildyne rarely wants to talk about. But he wouldn't be here if he weren't head over heels enough to throw his career away in order to save the beloved servants of and never see the (straight, unhappy in the military, vicious torturer type) man he loves again.
  • Jerk Jock - Perry carefully cultivates this image.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Jesse Pinkman. Definitely a jerk, but protective of kids and nice to his girlfriend.
    • Riddick, canonically. He has a thing about kids.
  • Karmic Transformation - Bourne did this to David as punishment for impersonating him, trapping him in the form he hates the most - a rat. Though it was only for a few days, it pretty much shattered any chance of trust ever forming between them.
  • Kick the Dog - Bourne constantly does this. (though he claims he's actually shooting it.)
  • Klingons Love Shakespeare - General Chang, obviously.
  • Knight Templar Big Brother - Dean's a tragic example. Dick Grayson has a slightly happier story.
  • The Kirk - Three guesses who, and the first two don't count.
  • Kirk Summation - Ironically used by Tim on David to save Kirk. And it works.
  • Legacy Character - Nightwing and Robin, of course.
  • Life Isn't Fair - Bourne had a tendency to tell David this. We later learn that it's more or less his life philosophy.
  • Little Miss Badass - Arya Stark
  • Loveable Rogue - This is Dean Winchester through and through.
  • Mad Scientist - With Rex gone, most of the resident Barge scientists are well-meaning types, like the Seventh Doctor and T'Pol.
  • The Man Behind the Curtain - During Halloween 2011, the Admiral was overthrown and replaced by an impostor. That impostor was ultimately revealed to be Randall Flagg.
  • Manipulative Bastard - They could make a club. There's Profit, Iago, Hoffman, Barron, Slater... the list goes on and on.
  • Manipulative Bitch - Amanda, Merope, and Lua Klein are the best current examples.
  • The McCoy - The real McCoy, at that.
  • The Men in Black - Agent K, so MIB his canon is called MIB.
  • Mind Rape - Narvin's modus operandi. And he's a warden.
  • Misogyny - Perry's a mild misogynist.
  • Morality Pet - Drake Stone plays this for Arthas.
  • Murder Is the Best Solution - A number of Inmates feel this way. Perry is a prominent example, except he usually goes ahead and murders instead of just suggesting it.
  • Nay Theist - Dean has seen angels, demons, and gods. That doesn't mean he acknowledges the divinity of any of them.
    • Angua takes a slightly different approach: like many Discworldians, she doesn't bother to believe in the gods because she knows they exist.
  • Nerd Glasses - The Scarecrow wears a pair as Jonathan Crane. Walter White also wears glasses.
  • The Nicknamer - Kay. If he gives you a nickname (e.g. Slick, Darlin', etc.) you know he likes you.
  • Noble Demon - Arguably Arthas. He's not above killing (or enabling others to kill), but he's not malicious and has genuinely tried to help Drake and David graduate.
  • No Indoor Voice - The Sixth Doctor.
  • Odd Couple - Bourne and Nygma - arguably the worst two wardens on the Barge - have formed an unlikely friendship.
  • Official Couple - Trip and T'Pol are engaged/technically married by Vulcan customs anyway.
    • Tim and Shego played this straight for a few months and then subverted it when they broke up.
    • Agent K and Narvin are engaged, much to the chagrin of -
    • Lord Rassilon. Less so his fiancee Omega.
    • Claire Bennet and Jesse Pinkman are getting a weird reputation as "those two nice kids."
  • One-Letter Name - Agent K and Professor X (although he's still young and mostly called "Charles").
  • Only Known by Their Nickname - 21, Agent K, Heero Yuy, Jason Bourne, and Mr. Pink. All aliases, and none of their real names have ever been revealed.
    • Jason Bourne has shared his first name (David Webb.) with Costigan and Claire.
    • 21 reveals his first name in his letter to Santa (it's Gary.)
    • Agent K has told his real name to Narvin ( Kevin Brown)
    • Miss Parker to such an extent her name isn't even in her file. She told one person (Paddy) it, and another got her initial when they left. (Snape.)
  • Orcus on His Throne - Arthas to some degree. Justified in that his powers, while still setting him head and shoulders above most of the Barge's residents, are still severely restricted from their godlike original levels.
  • Overt Operative - Narvin casually introduces himself to everyone as "Coordinator Narvin of the CIA"
  • Panthera Awesome - Chang has a baby panther.
  • Parental Substitute - Hoffman played this to David for a time in order to to manipulate him. He eventually wised up to it.
    • John Kramer, though not present on the Barge, continues to drive Amanda's actions as her surrogate father.
    • Rassilon tried to play this to Narvin, with ultimately massive failure
    • Walter White destructively fills this role for Jesse both before and during their time on the Barge. Sarah Connor has also taken on the role of Jesse's surrogate mother.
    • The Seventh Doctor for Vasilia
  • Pet the Dog - Wardens and inmates alike are prone to getting these from time to time.
    • Tim Drake's came when he found out what Bourne did to David. The Batfolk are big on this trope.
    • The Riddler may have handled it in his usual style, but he did exhibit genuine compassion for Profit when he was 'poisoned'.
    • Perry's awkward comforting of Sveta after he found about about the curse and how it ended.
    • Heero told Olive he'd kill anyone who tried to go after her like they did to Sveta.
    • Arthas has one of these every so often with Drake and David.
  • Plucky Girl - there's a Perky Blonde Squad on Barge, the flagships of which seem to be Stephanie Brown and Cissie King-Jones. See also Buffy, Angua, Claire...
  • Poisonous Friend - Brax and Rhade. Braxiatel is the poisonous friend to Romana and Benny in canon. Rhade is the poisonous friend of Dylan Hunt. (Ironically, Brax and Rhade are themselves friends and Brax poisoned Rhade, taking the phrase "poisonous friends" to a literal extreme.)
    • Gaeta may view himself as a subversion of this re: Gaius, in that he considers his own moral code to be vastly superior to Gaius's.
  • Poisonous Person - Poison Ivy
  • Power Perversion Potential - David uses his Bourne morph to score a kiss with Claire.
  • Princess in Rags - Arya.
  • Private Detective - The Riddler went legit as a private eye before coming to the Barge.
  • Psychic Dreams for Everyone - Viserys has intensely disturbing dreams which may or may not be this. Buffy also has prophetic dreams occasionally.
  • Reverse Mole - Heero went along with David for a while to get information about his plans.
  • Ridiculously-Human Robots - Played straight between the T-X, Rinzler, and CLU.
  • Robot Girl - The T-X.
  • Royally Screwed-Up - Viserys is the walking personification of this trope. It's more complex where Arthas, the Barge's other resident royal, is concerned.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something - Holy crap, Arthas. A royal who fought on the frontlines, killed Orc Blademasters, and tracked down demons to the uncharted north to slaughter them brutally. And that's just the shit he did before he came to the Barge.
    • Having realized his weakness, Viserys is now attempting to remold himself in this image.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers - Inmates who have powers frequently attempt to get around the Barge's rules through the use of them. David probably is the patron saint (or patron sinner, as the case may be) of this trope.
  • Seen It All - As the oldest Inmate on the Barge, Arthas can now lay uncontested claim to this title.
  • Serial Killer - More than a few inmates were serial killers before coming to the Barge: Amanda and Hoffman are the best examples. Also Hannibal Lecter.
    • And then some inmates become serial killers on the Barge.
  • Shadow Archetype - As a panfandom game, there are some interesting examples:
    • Arthas Menethil is an obvious shadow counterpart to Elric considering he's an Expy of Elric cooked up by someone who apparently completely missed the point.
    • Mark Hoffman. It's not too obvious since the two don't interact much, but he's clearly Will Graham's dark counterpart. Both were children of poverty who went into law enforcement and were traumatized in the line of duty. But while Graham resolved to fight the darkness within, Hoffman embraced his darkness and became a serial killer.
    • David Harris is an interesting case in that he can be considered a Shadow Archetype to two characters: Heero Yuy and Will Parry. David and Heero, sworn archenemies, parallel and invert one another in history - both were pulled into war against their will, but Heero was pulled into war from a young age and accepted it, while David was pulled into war as a teenager and rejected it. Both are antisocial personalities but in opposite ways - Heero is a introverted recluse while David is an extroverted jerk. Even in the team dynamic they invert one another - Heero gathers a team around him, living up to his codename, while David as the sixth Animorph rebels against and eventually betrays his team.
    • The Riddler is Tim Drake's shadow counterpart, an older Tim without the noble driving force and with a personality much more disposed towards self-interest and endless gloating.
    • Jesse Pinkman and Lua Klein are arguably a subversion in that they actually have the same bad traits, but each would probably claim that they're total opposites if confronted with it.
  • Shapeshifter Identity Crisis - David goes through one after spending days morphing, demorphing, and remorphing his warden almost continuously.
  • Shrinking Violet - the character of Lua Klein is a deconstruction of this trope.
  • Showing Off the New Body - David resolves to use Bourne's body to find the Admiral. What does he actually end up doing? Mostly showing off and being a giant troll.
  • Sinister Shades - Agent K, particularly during the mirrorverse event, when he was the sociopathic version of the character from the original comic books.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps - Heero, full throttle. Subverted by Jesse, a wannabe tough guy who almost always wears long sleeves that hide his tattoos.
  • Smug Snake - Nygma holds the crown for wardens and Lucius Malfoy for inmates. Barron Sharpe's a close runner-up.
  • Spot the Impostor - When David kidnapped and morphed Jason Bourne. Slade and later Will Graham were able to see through his masquerade - the rest of the Barge was clueless. Rhade could smell that Rachel was female even in morph as a marine.
  • The Sociopath - Jim Profit, Walter White (covertly), and possibly Mark Hoffman.
    • Amanda was believed to be one by most before her true nature made public appearances.
  • Stepford Snarker - Amanda Young.
  • The Stoic - Bourne and Heero are the most repeat offenders. Gaeta tries, but has to work at it.
  • Taking Up the Mantle - With Bruce gone, Tim has taken it upon himself to be the Barge's Batman.
  • There Are No Therapists - ... except for Dr. Crane, but you'd have to be crazy to hop on his couch.
    • And now also Hannibal Lecter. You'd have to be even 'more crazy to hop on his couch.
  • Token Evil Teammate - The Riddler is a warden. Most of the other wardens are dumbfounded by this.
    • A little subverted, now that he's returned as an inmate.
    • T-X as a warden.
  • Token Minority - Mozenrath, Iroh, Luke Cage, Simone Betheson, and Richard Riddick.
  • Too Clever by Half - The Riddler. Here's a character with an intellect on par with the Batfamily, but it's hindered by his unpleasant personality and compulsion to get himself involved in conflicts.
  • Took a Level in Badass - Sarah Connor between Terminator and Terminator 2, effectively becoming her complete opposite, and might this Troper add, having no hesitation in breaking Silberman's arm, threatening to pump him full of Drano, or stabbing him in the knee with his own pen. What a distance from the quiet waitress in pink, the Damsel in Distress of the first film.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass - Bourne's gradually become harsher and more antagonistic as time has gone on, though it's not entirely clear if this can be attributed to his trials with David or just him revealing more of his true personality.
  • The Unfettered - Irving Braxiatel is a perfect example, delibrately putting aside his morals to save Gallifrey, regardless of how many genocides it takes. Achilles and Bourne bring up the vanguard.
  • The Vamp - Poison Ivy can vamp it up when she wants to.
  • Villain with Good Publicity - Amanda, ironically thanks to Hoffman himself.
  • Warrior Prince - Arthas is the ur-example; Viserys is a wannabe.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist - Arguably Bourne. Certainly a lot of the other wardens now see him as such.
    • This is sort of also how Gaeta wound up on the Barge.
  • Wicked Cultured - Braxiatel embodies this trope. And Hannibal Lecter. As does Rhade to a less extreme extent.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity - Raistlin. Wanted to make himself a god.
    • Rassilon. Founder of Time Lord society, around a billion years old, also complete nutcase.
  • What Did I Do Last Night? - Prefect and his inmate Barron Sharpe get drunk and paint a terrible, terrible mural. They remember it, but agree not to talk about it.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome? - Many ports, but OS-19 currently holds the crown. From Arthas soliciting Draenei hookers to Bourne kicking the motherfucking Drode a This Is Sparta dropkick, this port has it all.
    • Dick also dangled a guy off a building to get info on where David and Kirk were while Costigan watched and generally had an awesome time kicking ass and taking names.
    • Tim Drake later gives Bourne a much stronger one, exposing his choice of punishments to the rest of the Barge.
  • Why Did It Have To Be Water? - Badass Normal Bourne only has one fear - large bodies of water.
  • You Are Number Six - Sixth Doctor, Seventh Doctor (although they never in canon go by number names and characters on the Barge don't always know what "number" Doctor each is, but players use the numbers OO Cly for convenience). Seven-of-Nine. 21.
  • You Cannot Grasp the True Form - Castiel's angelic form explodes heads, burns out eyes...is generally not good for human life forms. So he goes around in a human suit.

Tropes that apply to characters that were formerly on the Barge

  • Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder - After Wichita left the Barge, Rex eventually gets together with Iago. And then she came back. Eventually subverted.
  • Anticlimax Boss - Cobra Commander at the end of the nanomite incident. After all the trouble he caused, he pretty much gave in and surrendered without a fight.
  • Archenemies - Jim Kirk and William Cooper. They eventually got over it. David and Bourne. They didn't get over it.
    • Past archenemies include Rachel to David, Slade to Dick, and Sirius to Snape.
  • Animorphism - David. Obviously.
  • Artifact of Doom - Will Parry's Subtle Knife.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents - Bruce Wayne when trying to deal with Costigan and Sylar to make sure they weren't threats to Dick and Tim and generally meddled in their affairs.
  • Always Save the Girl - Bruce again, of course. Lampshaded by Hayley.
  • Asshole Victim - Harold Lauder got a nasty welcome to the Barge, but as anyone familiar with his canon knows, he kind of had it coming.
  • Authority in Name Only - Summer Finn, Olive Penderghast and Johnny Cade were all great examples.
  • Ax Crazy - Bellatrix Lestrange, Rachel Berenson, Sylar.
  • Badass Bookworm - Arthur deliberately cultivated this image, even going so far as to work in the library.
  • Badass Family - The Fire Nation royal family. Iroh (who is still on the Barge) is considered to be one of the best Firebenders in history, Zuko came seriously close to overpowering a Death Knight and Azula was not to be messed with either.
  • Batman Gambit - Guess who's stock in trade this was?
  • Batter Up - Donny Donowitz's shtick, of course.
  • Berserk Button - Do not get on Edward Sexby's bad side. Just don't.
    • If you see Achilles helpless or vulnerable, he will kill you. It's just that simple.
    • Don't call Otto West stupid.
  • Beware the Nice Ones - Hayley Stark, as the Scarecrow found out the hard way.
  • Big Badass Wolf - Remus Lupin turned this trope magnificently on its head - he was a werewolf, but he couldn't induce the transformation at will, and he was generally a pretty nice guy.
  • Big Brother Mentor - William Cooper to Hayley and Heero; Costigan to David for a little while.
  • Big Damn Hero - Will Parry got his moment when he saved David from vampire Hoffman.
  • Bonnie Scotland - At one point there was an oddly disproportionate number of Scotsmen on the Barge: Neil Howie, Malcolm Tucker, Montgomery Scott, and James "Destro" Mc Cullen.
  • Bounty Hunter - In OS-19 Patrick Kenzie got a history transplant and became one of these.
  • The Chessmaster - David and Bourne in a way - pretty much their whole time as pairing was made up of the two of them trying to out-manuever one another. David loses in their first two face-offs, manages an ultimately pyrrhic victory in the third, and finally comes off better in the fourth.
  • Chivalrous Pervert - Biff sort of fell under this trope.
  • Cluster F-Bomb - Malcolm Tucker. Even when he got his memories and story rewritten for Master World, his language didn't change one bit.
  • Cooldown Hug - Wally West gives one to David during his breakdown. Served as Wally's Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
  • Consummate Liar - Achilles gave Jim Profit a pretty good run for his money while he was here.
  • Creepy Child - Will Parry, at least when he was younger. Even witches were afraid of him.
  • Daddy's Little Villain - Slick was a rare male example.
  • Dark Action Girl - The Baroness, oddly enough, was this instead of the trope that's actually named after her original cartoon version. And, of course, the page illustration, Shego.
  • Deadly Doctor - Rex Lewis/Cobra Commander.
  • Deal with the Devil - Dr. Facilier conned plenty of people into making these in life. He spends a lot of his time on the Barge thinking about the ones he made, how they went wrong, and how to get by without their benefits. (He's also the picture on the trope page, natch.)
  • Defrosting Ice Queen - Denise sort of fit this.
  • The Dragon - Costigan to Rex. He was perfectly ready to beat the crap out of a kid for Rex's sake.
  • Drugs Are Bad - Costigan was addicted to painkillers, and constantly shifted between backsliding and wanting to stay clean.
  • Dystopia Justifies the Means - The Master, Iago and Judas in Masterworld.
  • Equal Opportunity Evil - Dame Petronilla . She even once described herself as such.
  • Even Evil Has Standards - In a humorous example, the meticulous eater Rex Lewis is horrified by Impostor Bourne's bad table manners.
    • The Riddler to Eddie Brock after the latter took a shower with Rex Lewis's corpse nearby. It was even lampshaded by Nygma himself: "You were naked and washing yourself while a dead body was in the room. There's no sugarcoating that."
  • Everything's Worse with Bears - Rachel's main battle morph, of course, was her grizzly bear.
  • Evil Redhead - Achilles brought a healthy dose of this to the Barge.
  • Evil Overlord - Leezar was an affectionate parody of overlords everywhere.
  • Expy - Arthas got to meet (and sort-of-befriend) the character of whom he's an Expy, Elric of Melniboné.
  • Failure Hero - After two failed stints as a warden, Wichita saw herself as this. Ironically, the Admiral himself seemed to agree, since she left the Barge shortly after her inmate was reassigned.
  • First Girl Wins - Wichita. Or was she?
    • Spoiler: She wasn't.
  • Gender Bender - Loki's magic let him do this to people. And to himself.
  • Genre Savvy - John Connor was purposely raised to be this way.
  • Glory Days - The fact that Gellert was in jail and thus has burnt up much of his lifespan by now was a source of much angsttttt.
  • A God Am I - Loki, Coyolxauhqui, Persephone, and Mr. Wednesday really were gods.
  • Gold Digger - Dame Petronilla. Mainly back home, but still.
  • Handicapped Badass - Will Parry, sort of. He lost two fingers to the Subtle Knife, but it didn't really slow him down.
  • Heartbroken Badass - John Connnor was a literal example.
  • Heel Face Mole - The Baroness faking a redemption, like she did at the end of her movie in LV canon.
    • O'Brien pulled a similar fakeout, which lasted a solid couple of months before he couldn't keep it to himself anymore.
  • Hero-Killer - Sylar was the original Barge deathbringer, before Arthas came along and stole his crown.
  • Hilarity Ensues - Victor Frankenstein playing Pokémon.
  • Identical Stranger - Since there are no restriction on characters played by the same actor, this is fairly common. Former examples include Remus Lupin and John Watson, Will Graham and Bruce Banner, Rex Lewis and Arthur, Bruce Wayne and John Preston.
  • I Just Want to Be Badass - Deep down, this is David's motivation.
  • I'm a Humanitarian - Clapet, as Blonsky found out the hard way.
  • Immortality Bisexuality - Jack Harkness and Una Persson, amongst others.
  • Inhuman Human - Victor Frankenstein had a sneaking suspiscion that everyone who got brought back from the dead was this.
  • Kick the Dog - Coyolxauhqui's murder of Remus Lupin.
    • O'Brien's torture of Sveta Nazarova.
  • Knife Nut - Eddie Brock, who later mentored the equally psychopathic Slick.
  • Literal-Minded - Mega Man was adorable, but also kinda clueless.
  • Love Triangle - Rex was caught in one with Iago and Wichita.
  • Mad Scientist - Rex Lewis/Cobra Commander was by far the most prominent and straightest example. The Rani was another, and to a certain extent Findthee Swing (with his obsession with cranial measurements) very nearly qualified as a third.
    • Bruce Banner was a heroic variant.
  • Manipulative Bastard - The Master, Adam Monroe, Sylar, Rex Lewis and Achilles de Flandres are the best examples of manipulative bastards from days gone by. Malcolm Tucker did his level best to be one.
  • Manipulative Bitch - Atia of the Julii, Chloe Sweeney, and Rachel Berenson were all fine examples, but the absolute master of this trope? Hayley Stark.
  • Master of Illusion - Loki.
  • Messianic Archetype - John Connor. Just look at his initials.
  • My God, What Have I Done? - Findthee Swing got one of these; fraid this troper missed how it came about, though. He got a major power rush from using a gun, killed someone and freaked out.
    • The Rani also had one after the first Mirrorverse flood, and a number of smaller ones following subsequent hijinks.
  • My Greatest Failure - Will Graham still feels this way about John Doe's excruciating murder of Sgt. Howie.
  • Nanomachines - Cobra Commander's nanomites brought vampires back to life, gave demons back their powers, electrically shocked creepy stalkers, and generally did whatever the plot required.
  • The Nicknamer - Malcolm Tucker. Parker was "Scully", Paddy was "Baldrick" (after a flood that resulted in Malc getting nicknamed "Edmund"), and when Columbus was his warden, Malcolm made a habit of calling him by every major Ohio city and town (Cleveland, Livonia, even Wright-Patterson Air Force Base) except Columbus.
  • 90% of Your Brain - The source of Slade's powers.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe - Owlman.
    • Otto West is arguably one of the trope's great exemplars, in canon and in game.
  • Not So Harmless - Cobra Commander during the nanomite incident and again when he wrecked the Barge, temporarily killing everyone in the game. Seriously, this guy got mileage unlimited out of his harmless scientist act.
  • Official Couple - A few: West and Billy, Adam Monroe and Judas, Buffy and Spike, Hayley and Merlin, Mal and Costigan.
  • One Steve Limit - Subverted: at one point there were four characters named Eddie - (Eddie Nygma, Eddie Brock, Eddie Russet, and Eddie Spinola).
  • Only Known by Their Nickname - Rachel refused to tell people her real name throughout her tenure, and instead went by Xena.
    • There were also two Armands. Bonus subverted in that there were what, six muns named Kim?
    • Mr. Orange, Mr. Wednesday, and Slick.
  • Parental Substitute - Heero Yuy had two daddies during his inmate stint, Slade and Cooper. He also had a maternal figure in Una Persson (as a result of her literally being his mom during the Wild West breach). Zuko also had Iroh, but that one's canonical.
  • Pet the Dog - Wardens and inmates alike are prone to getting these from time to time.
    • Ariadne's warden stint with Heero was one long Pet the Dog moment.
    • Bruce Wayne in the aftermath of the badcanon flood, when he pleads to the Admiral to let him save ASBAR Dick Grayson from that thing.
    • Similarly, Jason Todd got one when he protected Dick Grayson, Age Twelve from his psychotic caretaker.
    • Cooper hugged Heero in the Isla Nublar port after Heero took a velociraptor off a cliff with him.
    • Cobra Commander had a small one when he spared Billy Costigan and his warden from the nanomites.
    • O'Brien and Sveta had a bunch of Pet the Dog moments, although they were invariably creepy and highly questionable with regard to his motivations.
    • Malcolm Tucker and his warden Claire, occasionally.
  • Playful Hacker - John Connor, with a heavy emphasis on the latter as opposed to the former. Before him, Kevin Flynn played this straight.
  • Playing with Fire - At one point the Barge had a good chunk of the Fire Nation's royal family here.
  • Plucky Girl - Svetlana Nazarova and Angelica Sexby, amongst others.
  • Porn Stache - Gabriel didn't rock it. But he should have. Otto West did, until he shaved it off as a sign of his redemption.
  • Preacher Man - Not a preacher technically, but Sgt. Howie is by far the most devout member of the Barge.
  • Private Detective - Patrick Kenzie. And at one point there were two Sherlock Holmeses.
  • Properly Paranoid - Costigan. Which isn't surprising, considering his canon.
  • Rebel Leader - John Connor
  • Redheaded Hero - Wally West.
  • Reluctant Warrior - Will Parry, full throttle.
  • Psycho Electro - Elle Bishop is the Ur-Example.
  • Serial Killer - Achilles, John Doe, and Sylar are classic examples.
  • Shadow Archetype - As a panfandom game, there are some interesting examples:
  • Sinister Shades - Slick's got a pair, and he never takes them off. Ever.
    • Sheldon Sands also had a pair.
  • The Sociopath - Achilles de Flandres, Slade Wilson and John Doe. The Joker.
  • Sociopathic Soldier - Rachel Berenson, Jason Bourne, and possibly Emil Blonsky.
  • Southies - Billy Costigan, Patrick Kenzie and Donny Donowitz were the big three.
  • Super Speed - Wally again, obviously.
  • Token Minority - Martha, Toshiko, Mozenrath. The Barge needs more color.
    • Facilier (though Creole is technically mixed-race) and Iroh puts the characters of color at a whopping five. This is the sad case with Western fiction in general, of course...
      • Roxy! And Judas is middle-eastern, even though his PB isn't. Seven. (woo?)
        • Judas is rarely actually portrayed as middle-eastern in any of the interpretations of the musical he's from.
      • Tyr. Eight.
  • Totalitarian Utilitarian - O'Brien and Beatty, pre-redemption. Also John Preston.
  • Triang Relations - Edward Sexby, Angelica Sexby, and Una Persson ended up in a pretty solid Type 8.
  • Trickster Mentor - Once he became a Warden, Loki made this his modus operandi.
  • Violent Glaswegian - Malcolm Tucker, although his violence was largely verbal.
  • Virgin Power - Required for Leezar's ritual, The Fuckening.
  • Warrior Therapist - While he was around, Batman was the king. Of course. Slade had the potential for this too, though he never really got to make use of it.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy - Slick, of all people.
  • What the Hell, Hero? - Costigan to Bourne when he trapped his Inmate as a rat.
  • You Look Familiar - Costigan recognized Bourne when he first met him. This didn't end well.
    • Mal's confusion of Costigan with Cobb ended very, VERY poorly for both of them. May be an example of Beware the Nice Ones, and a consequence of Mal's in-canon Break the Cutie. (But they still ended up as a couple all the same...)
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