The Open Door

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Note: This is a noncanon sequ- err, sidestory to Thousand Shinji, and as such, will contain unmarked spoilers for it. You have been warned.

The Mega Crossover sequel to Thousand Shinji, The Open Door (alternate FanFiction.Net link) takes place twenty five years after Thousand Shinji, after Earth has been unified and Canon 40K technology introduced. At the beginning, a "representative" of Tzintchi is sent to negotiate with Kyon in Haruhi's universe, the eponymous 'open door'. It goes on from there and gets progressively more Crazy Awesome as more and more universes are drawn into it via the new Chaos Gods' quest to defeat the Necrontyr and the C'tan.

Officially dead.

Tropes used in The Open Door include:

"We are Chaos. Raise your shields and give us a good fight. We will sacrifice your souls to our gods. Your culture will burn. Resistance is amusing."

  • Badass Bookworm: Washal the Pale.
  • Badass Longcoat: Lars, when he's wearing his Commissar uniform.
  • Back from the Dead: Alicia and Precia Testarossa.
  • Battle Couple: Lars and Skuld.
  • Berserk Button: You do not hurt children while New Chaos is around. If you do, you deserve what you get.
    • Also shown with the charmingly named Praxis warship The Bombardment of Delhi. It's summed up with just one line: "Arya had been born in Delhi."
  • Beware the Nice Ones: "Right now Belldandy was saying, 'Hurt Keiichi here and I'll introduce you to an eternity of pain'."
  • Bigger Stick: It is impossible to deny that New Chaos owes a lot of their superiority to the canon 40k tech available to them... but there are even bigger sticks out there, and newChaos either treads very lightly in their universes or simply does not go near them at all. This Dangerously Genre Savvy avoiding of bigger fish has allowed them to avoid serious threats thus far, and makes them look unbeatable, perhaps unduly.
  • Boring Invincible Hero: Accusations have popped up, especially in earnest after an Eva defeated a Bolo in chapter 64. Then again, given the strategic considerations, a case can be made for...
  • Break the Haughty: At one point, a guinea pig drow mage is "plugged" into the Weave and gets a shock from seeing the power of Humanity from Lars' native universe.
  • Car Fu: More accurately, supertank fu; in the first simulation against Ashley and her Eva, Scipio popped a wheelie to get the Eva off, while in the simulation against the Necrontyr, Ashley created a ramp using her Eva's AT field for Scipio to land on the Necrontyr barge.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: While they do eventually get cybernetics and mutations, Divine Assassin training was supposed to bring out the full human potential.
  • Chekhov's Armoury: Academia Nut set down a few possible universes to visit early in the story, as well as starting some subplots off that have yet to be fully manifested.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Kyon in the interlude chapter.

"Fuck, they won't even let a motherfucker swear where I come from!"

  • Combat Tentacles: Part of Lars' arsenal, apparently part of standard daemon "equipment".
    • Oh, they're not just for Combat, as Skuld comes to appreciate...
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu: Both played straight and breached. Often, the outnumbered New Chaos forces triumph, but the Alicia versus Nanoha + Vita fight has the outnumbered side on the ropes until a retreat to The Cavalry is made. It could be a Deconstructed Trope, as the conversation between Ali, Rong-Arya and Toji reveals, since their low population forces them to equip every soldier well and feel each loss more severely.
  • Continuity Nod: Chapter 62 refers to a beyond-screwed-up military clusterf**k as a "Tokyo-3" -- a term that was coined during the latter chapters of Thousand Shinji. Also, Shinji apparently got 'round to writing that "Chaos - Fuck Yeah!" pamphlet mentioned in Thousand Shinji...
  • Cool Ship: The Stiletto.
  • Cosmic Horror Story: The story can be seen as a discussion on how (relatively) benevolent Eldritch Abominations ascended from humans may treat their followers. Certainly some of the people they visit, like the Erinyes, see them this way, as incomprehensible Outside things. Also, Academia Nut apparently agrees with the WMG that Kyon is to Haruhi as Nyarlothotep is to Azathoth.
    • Actually, he makes a case for the reverse.
  • Cosmic Plaything: Lars.
  • Creepy Child: Gunnhild. Made out of a combination of the accumulated evil of a soul eater that draws in ambient emotions spending a while in Hell, the daemon that spent that time in the Ah! My Goddess Hell, the soul of a Drow cleric, and a hyperactive goddess. And she is both creepy and awesome. And likes practical surgery.
  • Culture Justifies Anything: Alicia attempts to defend the soul-eating thing by citing differences in their cultures.
  • Curb Stomp Battle: The Defence of Bloodhaven. Tens of thousands of Ori warriors versus an Evangelion, 600 Space Marines, a Dark Magical Girl, a few dozen Daemons and a frigging Primarch. No contest.
    • The Stiletto tanking nBSG Cylon city-killer nukes even without its shields, slaughtering the invited boarding party and then taking out two Resurrection Ships with a single shot.
    • When Lars got pissed, the Nesme Siege quickly turned into this. Including Lars EATING three gods and forcing the gods to parlay out of raw terror. It was at this point that reviewers started getting unhappy.
    • The battle with the Praxis is like this, culminating in Rong-Arya wiping out their entire civilization. With a video.
  • The Dark Times: the Extinction War definitely qualifies.
  • Dark Magical Girl: Alicia, but Dark Is Not Evil. Yes, that Alicia.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: New Chaos... kind of. They're less evil than what they're fighting, anyway.
    • Also Skuld.
  • Demonic Possession: New Chaos does this as part of officer training.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Quite brutally crossed
  • Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Hi, pit fiend. Meet Chaos-runed, Skuld-enchanted god-killer shotgun shell fired from Skuld's mentally shadow magic-crafted eight-gauge. Bye, pit fiend.
    • And most of the Underdark.
      • No, no, no.. The Underdark went up errr... down when the 'everything in, nothing out' spell blocking the entry to Skuld's cul-de-sac finally went boom in thermonuclear fire. the pit fiend exploded shortly before that, and may have triggered it, but its death didn't even disturb the roof.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Lars accidentally does this when he shoots one of Lolth's breasts off.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: When boiled down to its essence, the story is basically one group of Eldritch Abominations' quest to find a way to Punch Out an opposing group. Lars also takes down three deities from the Forgotten Realms after Skuld enters the portal to the Far Realms.
  • Didn't See That Coming: Tzintchi has inherited Tzeentch's flaw, and sometimes the newChaos forces encounter things they fail to foresee, whether or not they pay for it.
  • Dramatic Thunder: Buffy's appearance at the end of chapter 35 is underlined by a convenient bolt of lightning.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The heroes. Fortunately, they're far more benevolent... for given values for benevolent. Opposing groups also show up, such as one creature from the Far Realms.
  • Emotion Eater: Lars. It seems to be a natural daemon ability. He can't turn it off, either. Even if he wants to.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: NeoChaos may have anarchic "laws", but be a child abuser and they will fuck you up. Among a few others.
  • Everything's Better with Penguins: God-Emperor Penguin Pen-Pen.
  • Expy: Academia Nut has said that Washal the Pale's battlemech resembles "a combination of an Enforcer III and a Firestarter Omni". Also, the Whispered resemble the group of the same name from Full Metal Panic!, amongst others.
    • Some have compared newChaos to a much darker version of The Culture, what with both being dangerously powerful civilisations trying to influence others. Your Mileage May Vary so, so much.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: The fittingly-named Hall of Torment is used for people whose evil is deemed by the New Chaos gods to deserve the worst punishment.
  • The Fettered: newChaos is utterly devoted to the protection of children, and caught child abusers often find that the question isn't whether they're fucked, but how bad.
  • Gambit Pileup: What is happening in the Forgotten Realms universe. Word Of Academia Nut even linked to that article.
  • Genius Bruiser: The Sons of Kensuke describe themselves as being more gadget- and tech-oriented than the other chapters.
  • God Was My Co-Pilot: Asukhon Was My Fellow Trainee.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Whatever happened to Selvetarm is not known... and Academia Nut insists on having it that way, for readers to imagine for themselves.
  • Grand Theft Me: What happens to Marella.
  • Hand Cannon: Fusion pistols. Fusion pistols, people.
  • Heroic BSOD: Fate goes into one after learning that Alicia and Precia are not dead. Readers are waiting for Academia Nut to get to the consequences of this.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: New!Chaos might be trying to stop the C'Tan from eating all the souls of humanity and enslaving the universe, but they don't seem to have a problem with their own people eating the souls of their enemies. Right, Alicia?
  • Hollywood Cyborg: Cybernetic augmentation is rather common. Comparisons are made when the Stiletto crew meets the nBSG crew.
  • Homage: The Ghost Riders, complete with the wind "singing" the theme.
  • Humongous Mecha: Washal the Pale appears in this to fight Marella's silverfire golem. It qualifies as his Crowning Moment of Awesome. Oh, and did we forget to mention that New Chaos is now mass-producing Evangelions?
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: The Colonials are told to do this against the Praxis.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Discussed. "Your Blood War can be summed up with the two most evil phrases my people know. .... You devils however have 'Because I had to' on yours." And yes, the author has declared evacuating to another universe to not be an option.
  • Incendiary Exponent: On Rong-Arya. "Worse yet, there was one human female that appeared to be on fire with no ill effects who was mowing through Centurions single handed...."
  • Inertial Damp(en)ing: Present on the Stiletto and presumably other newChaos spacecraft. Also part of Space Marine armour to allow them to use their rail launchers.
  • Infernal Retaliation: Appears on an iron golem that had been set on fire to little effect.
  • It Got Worse: The Time of Troubles, is much, much worse than in canon Forgotten Realms. And the Buffy Verse segment involves, among other things, fricking Horus. Yes, that one.
  • It's Raining Men: New Chaos has a launcher for its Space Marines, clearly a Homage to the Angry Marines.
  • Jack of All Stats: The Sons of Toji explicitly describe themselves as drawing a balance between the specialisations of the other Space Marine chapters. Ashley also notes that her Eva lacks any real bells and whistles, leading her to seek assistance from the new!Battlestar Galactica crew.
  • Just a Stupid Accent: Rong-Arya and bridge crew adopt a faux-pirate accent when fending off Borg boarders. Then there's Brigadier General Stuart Scott, very Indian but with a thick Scottish accent.
  • Knight Templar: Discussed but not yet actually seen. "The greatest evil is not committed by a devil or a demon; it is committed by a saint." Although you might consider that newChaos has the "thinks itself right" part down quite right.
  • Littlest Cancer Patient: Mentioned in the interlude.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: And that's just the canon ones...
  • Lower Deck Episode: A few have shown up, such as the chapter focusing on Johan and Kirilae.
  • Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: All of New Chaos has the protection of children as part of their philosophy, justified by the New Chaos gods' experiences when they still were human.
  • Mexican Standoff: "Do you think you can kill both of us without killing your comrade?"\x9D Said by Toji to Nanoha about Vita.
  • Mister Seahorse: Happens to Lars, but he would tell you that even so, Skuld is still the father.
    • Deconstructed: Lars was already carrying the concentrated core of emotions that could potentially become a daemon with just a bit more emotion. Skuld just happened to accidentally fertilize it, adding something different to the daemon while doing so. So biologically Lars is the mother and Skuld is the father, insofar as biology can be applied to goddesses and daemons. (Technically, Lars doesn't have a gender.) Well, he still tends to think of himself as male, but his sex is fully optional. And rather fun for all concerned.
  • Morality Kitchen Sink: Probably the best way to describe the morality in play here. New Chaos are pretty damn dark grey by any objective standards, yet compared to canon Chaos - or for that matter even the lightest grey of the canon 40k factions - they are practically saints. Of course, there are less grey factions around, and with the Lyrical Nanoha gir- people around there are also "white" factions.
    • Then again, 99% of all villains are saints compared to canon Chaos.
    • Ironically, this is what makes New!Chaos so much more reprehensible to many readers than their canon counterparts. Canon!Chaos's excuse for being evil is that they're essentially the Ultimate Evil of the 40,000 'verse; they're expected to be irredeemable Complete Monsters, and they fulfill that expectation by Crossing the Line Twice to become the ultimate symbols of violence, hatred and depravity. New!Chaos, on the other hand, doesn't cross that second line and doesn't get the moral immunity that comes with it; they're supposed to be humans, and the readers judge them like humans, and they've crossed so many Moral Event Horizons that many readers call them the true villains of the series regardless of how much more evil the C'tan or Canon!Chaos are supposed to be (and it doesn't help matters at all that they frequently wind up fighting and curb-stomping pure white or light grey factions like the TSAB or The Federation).
  • More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Part of Lars' arsenal, apparently part of standard daemon "equipment".
  • The Multiverse
  • Mundane Utility: Your super-competent assassin teams not out slaying enemy leaders? Use them as crimefighters and bodyguard detail.
  • Mythology Gag: "Had Tzintchi ever sat in his Eva before his ascension crying about how he wanted to run away? Never!"
  • Naughty Tentacles: Skuld seems to like them.
  • Necro Non Sequitur: One of Jose's kills goes off in this way.
  • Nigh Invulnerable: The Stiletto, at least with regards to nBSG Cylon city-killer nukes, which it tanks even without its shields. Justified due to the severe technological superiority.
  • Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: NeoChaos is a near perfect example of this, and openly states that they largely choose to visit universes where their abilities are to their advantage. In a less deliberate example, Lars is sent to the Ah! My Goddess universe, where his origins give the local deities fits.
  • Not So Invincible After All: Ashley and Scipio getting trashed by simulated Necrontyr seems meant to be a big slap in the face of the "NeoChaos are utterly invincible" whiners.
  • Nuke'Em: Attempted by nBSG Cylons with city-killer nukes against the Stiletto.
  • Obviously Evil: "At that moment space seemed to unfold and vomit forth a ship, a lurid device of black and white, shaped like an arrow or blade of old and of a distorted, organic Gothic architecture. Statues of dull metal dotted the hull and depicted half molten figures wailing out in agony or various demons and monsters of a more superstitious age doing unspeakable things to each other. The entire thing seemed to be a dedication to all that was loathsome and unclean in the universe." Note again that this is referring to the the protagonists' flagship.
  • Oh Crap: Ashley on realising that she and Scipio are about to be tested against a simulation of the Necrontyr.
  • Omniscient Immorality License: The fact that they're fighting Eldritch Abominations is treated by both the author and many of the characters as an excuse for New Chaos to commit whatever unspeakable acts of depravity they want and get away with it. Needless to say, this is extremely grating for many readers.
  • Physical God: Skuld, after she's taken the Shadow Weave from Shar.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Precia tries to warn Alicia that Nanoha and Vita should be properly explained to, but Ali is not having any of that, which leads into their fight.
  • Power Echoes: Available to most daemons; Lars and Skuld briefly compete in "a 'whose voice can get more reverb' pissing contest".
  • Powered Armor: Used by Space Marines, of course. Shyft seems to have a Steampunk take on the concept.
  • Psychic Powers: Mostly the domain of Tzintchi and his followers, but the other newChaos gods and their followers make use of it too.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Rong-Arya and the Stiletto crew want to go on this after the Borg destroy the New Syracuse nursery, but are talked down by Tzintchi himself.
  • Rock Beats Laser: The nBSG crew outfighting the Praxis. Yeah, they had fire support from the Stiletto, and the Colonials were in some ways more advanced than the Praxis, but still.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: Regrettably marring the story every now and then.
  • Shiny New Australia: For the Colonials.
  • Shotgun Wedding: Lars and Skuld do this.
  • Shout-Out: "Always angry, all the time."
  • The Siege: Against Nesme by most of the Forgotten Realms gods.
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: The "energy gradient" roughly charts the "power level" of universes in technology and magic, but some readers have noted that it is not foolproof.
  • Spanner in the Works: Leman Russ, who kills Ahriman, in the grand tradition of his Legion-turned-Chapter.
  • The Spartan Way: Divine Assassin training, presumably Space Marine training too.
  • Speak of the Devil:

"Don't mention [the yaoi fangirls]! You might summon them!"\x9D

Sitting upon a throne of spotlights, Lars cried out, "I'm not! And do you know how fucking long it took me to steal all of these?"