User:Josh6243/sandbox

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Across Universes is a Forum Roleplay found on TV Tropes. The main story revolves around a group of mercenaries who explore the universe and take on missions from anyone willing to pay them. Unfortunately, they have to deal with each other. Witness their arguments as they attempt to do their jobs, and maybe have a laugh or two along the way. It can be found here, and signups are right here.

It got a reboot on Discord as From Across Universes.

Tropes used in Josh6243/sandbox include:


  • Abandoned Area: Part of the Stroj arc takes place in an abandoned city. This trope is used to show the devastation on the planet before the colonists arrived, and parts are used backdrop for a fight against the mechanized drones. It's even raining all the time to emphasize this trope.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Lupo Ironwills[1] and Levin Maelstrom[2] were characters from previous RPs. Both were found annoying by RPers IC and OOC, so they were turned into cultists who worshipped the Mattervore and worked to bring the end of the Andromeda galaxy. In another timeline, they became bandits.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
    • Played with during a filler arc. The Amazon Prime drones go on strike because they were offended over the fact they were made to work less.
    • Wodan caused the events of the Stroj arc.
  • Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Marcia Shyneet, Olga and Syrin got drunk and tried to deposit Olga into the bank as a prank, but they were too dumb to pull it off successfully. This incident got covered on the news.
  • All Just a Dream: The Lucia arc took place in a dream sequence because the GM OOC aborted the arc at the last second. Ges even compared it to one of Asagi's anime. She somehow overheard and got offended by that remark.
  • Alternate Self: Ai and Albert are both the Lone Wanderer, somehow. They even have the same backstory. At one point, they end up having an argument on who deserves the title better. Hastur notes that they have something in common, though. They'll bring about the end of humanity through various means. Albert will do it through pure stupidity. Ai will do it on purpose and replace humanity with a race of androids.
  • Amnesiac Dissonance: Oliver has spent too long creating their own memories and living a life separate from the one they already have. If Vega were to transfer what they were missing directly in one lump sum to Oliver, they would experience a severe dissociative crisis that may permanently damage their mental health. In short, Oliver gets a summary of his former life. Oliver continued to serve in exemplary fashion. After an incident on Tartarus III where he lead his squad approximately 50 kilometers through the jungle to a heavily armed IMC base and raided it to send a distress signal, he was immediately considered for Pilot status, and after some hesitation he accepted it. Oliver's service continued to be stellar until he was killed.
  • Apocalypse How: A growing X-3 class. The Mattervore consumed most of the stellar arm of the Andromeda galaxy. It is estimated it would consume the whole galaxy then the entire universe for a thousand years with no way of preventing it. Luckily, it was sealed away by the Edel Bernal and the rest of the fallen heroes from the previous cycle. There's still the possibility of a more dangerous Mattervore showing up and wrecking havoc on the Universe.
  • Artificial Human: Mother Christmas was created by Santa Corp. to be the representation of Christmas as a holiday. The Grinch caused her to turn sick during the Saving Cyberpunk Christmas arc.
  • Badass in Distress:
    • The group had to rescue Einar when he got stranded on Mars. Einar is a Space Marine who fought the forces of Chaos on a daily basis and survived.
    • Six was held captive during the Ringworld arc until the group did what the samurai asked them to do.
  • Bad Powers, Good People: Ellen Stormblade is a friendly necromancer despite her control over the dead. Her first revival was her pet puppy.
  • Big Applesauce: Neo New York, a Cyberpunk variant of the familiar New York city. Lisa the giant ninja hails from the city.
  • Bittersweet Ending: The Stroj arc ended with half of colonists dead, but the surviving colonists are assured that the group's actions have saved their lives from the Promethean onslaught.
  • Black Magician Girl: Lavinia Whateley specializes in casting black magic at the age of 12. Lavinia uses powers in the vein of Darkest Dungeon's occultist, summoning portals with tentacles lashing out of them, communicating with the dead, using her own blood as whips or bullets and casting various curses and hexes. She is adept at summoning magic, but can't use any to conjure monsters since it's a ritual many mages should conduct.
  • Brain Uploading: Sort of like how we used VR to pass the time while running from the Mattervore, the occupants of the vessel in the Enon arc are living in a standard fantasy world to pass the time. Most of the passengers have outright been mind uploaded into the ship's computer systems. And on arrival they'll get uploaded into implants placed inside brand new bodies made from raw genetic material. The working hypothesis being that 99% of the passengers were voluntarily turned into Tang for the journey because the people running the ship figured that would be easier than trying to keep all of their bodies alive for the whole trip. As it turned out, the NPCs are AIs designed to replicate life in a civilization.
  • Broken Pedestal: During the Ringworld arc, Lisa becomes upset at Japan because her first experience with Japan ends up being an Imperial Japan analogue.
  • Butt Monkey: Longram, Longram, Longram. Despite the fact he's a trained combat engineer of the Enclave, the multiverse doesn't give any mercy to him at all. Near the start of his FIRST appearance, he had a bump into Albert Walker which broke out into a fight, got arrested and jailed, got bailed out by Asagi with a hefty debt with interest, other characters added their debt to his, and during one time Asagi had to sell off EVERY GEAR he had with him to Andrews even though Longram paid it all off through a wish. Sucks to be a mook like him.
  • Cain and Abel and Seth: In the Idacra arc, Ges has this type of relationship with the Weissritter Abend and the Alt Eisen Nacht. It is his duty to put a stop to their antics by any means necessary.
  • Call Back: In a game called WAOAA, there was a particularly clusterfucky incident in which the characters involved, proto-Kerberos (we'll call them), got into a direct conflict with Heaven itself. Everyone OOC eventually agreed the situation was FUBAR, so the group all agreed to more or less retcon the incident away by having in-game be basically everyone relevant supposedly vanishing into a mysterious bright light According to Rai, "It was always my personal interpretation that what REALLY happened was that the war got so over the top and clusterfucked, the universe collapsed in upon itself." Andrews was from that scenario. From what he saw, all the main leaders and commanders of Proto-Kerberos fled through a portal into another timeline entirely, leaving all of the nameless peons and grunts who served them to basically rot and die in a universe that had gone to hell. This incident left him insanely bitter and enraged, so he along with many people turned to worshipping the nameless things created after the universe collapsed in upon itself, in an effort to save themselves. They were the true origins for that cult of werewolf worshippers on Nowhere. Or at least one of their possible origins, considering time is rather fucky even at the best of times. While they were supposedly dealt with, it's rather clear from certain events that they weren't in full dealt with, and that some of them survived to cause the apocalypse. Resulting in everyone getting on those ships to escape the solar system being devoured. One of those cultists, Andrews, had survived and had realized that maybe he chose the wrong party to back. So he snuck on board the ship hoping to survive. But when things got even more fucky, he basically lost it completely and tracked down Asagi Threatening to destroy the cryogenic chambers unless she gives him something to protect himself from the nameless horrors outside. She "sold" Andy Longram's armor in order to get him to leave off, and so he did ...Still dying because he was stupid enough to run out the airlock without an air helmet in his euphoric haste to leave. Whatever remained of his own anger, the machine spirit inside Longram's X-02 suit, and the aberrations from beyond the stars, melded into a malicious intelligence that essentially latched onto the computer simulation and uploaded itself to survive its inevitable destruction.
  • Canon Immigrant:
    • Yanmie, a Yanmark gijinka, originally comes from We Are Our Avatars.
    • Marcia Shyneet, her Morph Moth incarnation more specifically, comes from Our Avatars Are in A Room Together,
  • Catgirl: Sorceress Ael, which was fitting since witches are known to have pet cats.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Travis Touchdown’s years of working as an assassin have made his body quite durable, not only can he run for long periods of time without getting tired but he can also take large amounts of punishment or even shots from guns with little to no effect as long as they’re not consecutive.
  • Chick Magnet: When he returned from his bus trip, Omar somehow got the women of the group to fall in love with him. He even got lucky in bed with Lovisia.
  • Colony Drop: A mysterious force plans on dropping the moon during the Weird Moon arc.
  • Computer Virus: In the Stroj arc, the group was handed a virus the colony had coded which is intended to prevent the 'bots in the city from calling on reinforcements and getting the group dogpiled by a literal army of robots with everything that implies, they set out into the city proper to steal the IFF codes off the server. Then use the codes to trick the bots into taking the group to their control center, where the programmers can deactivate them or bend them into serving the group's will as necessary.
  • Console Wars: In the 3G arc, the forces of Lastation[3] and Leanbox[4] are fighting each other because of processing power. According to one of the Sackboy followers, "Lady Noire is insisting that Green-heart stuffs hers."
  • The Corruption: Einar somehow got his mind altered by the Warp when he got stranded on Mars and becomes loyal to Khorne. He even tried to kill his fellow group members.
  • Cosmic Horror Story: Oh, boy... A growing cosmic horror known as the Mattervore appears out of Nowhere. Nothing can prevent it from consuming the entire universe, not even the group. Gen reveals that the Mattervore is just the beginning of Ba'al. Gen will reveal more if he's beaten. As it turns out, the Mattervore is merely one part of 'ba'al'. The fallen heroes fought against it in a battle that consumed the Andromeda galaxy. Hasty says "the Mattervore is the foul offspring of Ghroth and Cxaxucluth, which is itself a spawn of Azathoth that endlessly multiplies and gnaws upon itself". Despite it being a progeny of Outer Gods, it itself is classified as a Great Old One.
  • Cute Monster Girl:
    • Yanmie is a Yanmark gijinka.
    • Dhila is a Frost Giant girl.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Longram tends to made some snide comments, especially dealing with the ridiculous and stupid during these bizarre adventures.
  • Dead Person Impersonation: In the Lucia arc, the Mambai [5] took the skin of their victims. These victims are mostly likely those townsfolk, and the Mambai wore them as disguises. It seems their old practices haven't died in the past 4,000 years they've been gone. Basically, the townsfolk are not to be trusted by the group.
  • Deal with the Devil:
    • Argus signs a deal with a text parser in order to get another chance at life. All she has to do is "Bring the star of rebellion to the sacred realm, and then snuff it out."
    • In order to take on Mattervore cultist werewolves in Operation Delta Green, the group had to sign a deal with a demonic loan bank to get a shitload of gold. These werewolves are weak to gold weaponry. The only ones who objected were Lisa and Omar. They also had to sign a deal with Ao's family to get more gold.
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: The group managed to beat Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes during the Virtual Reality arc. To put this in perspective, Gilgamesh is a mythical hero tougher than most Servants. They won because they teamed up and because of their Servant powers.
  • Deus Est Machina: The AI on Suzu's homeworld can reshape the terrain and control the weather. They are worshiped on Suzu's world, which means that most computer programs are considered kami by Suzu's people.
  • Dimensional Traveler: There are plenty and the group are most notable.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: To free Einar from the corruption of Khorne, the group created a gigantic projection of a nude Asmodeus. In this case, Asmodeus is a kitsune gynoid with a lot of fan service.
  • The Dog Was the Mastermind: Sorceress Ael, the sorceress behind the manipulation of Galbadia's president, used psychic powers to disguise herself as his pet cat.
  • Doppleganger Attack: Lisa in her Hassan-i-Sabbah form. After the arc, got that ability as a reward.
  • Double Entendre: After the Moon Cell arc, Merlin has a tendency of possessing Turax and making him say highly suggestive things.
  • Dressing as the Enemy: In the Ohm arc, The group successfully obtained the robes of drunken Magic Supremacy Group members and accidentally became double-agents.
  • Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Many of the worlds that various group members hail from tend to be a variant of Earth in some way.
  • Eldritch Abomination:
    • Hastur is 600 kg of protoplasm compressed into volume of a teen boy's body. He can sprout tentacles at-will, as well as eyes, mouths, mandibles etc. When fully released he's comparable to an adolescent Orca whale in size, though noticeably lighter due to portion of his mass being extradimensional (or non-Euclidean as HPL would erroneously put it).
    • The Galar champion Josh Robinson controls various kinds of Missingno.
  • Eldritch Location: Ironscales, Oliver and Roy had to explore a Cronenbergesque, flesh world to retrieve an USB drive during the Saving Cyberpunk Christmas arc.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: For one version of the Andromeda galaxy. All thanks to the Mattervore.
  • Epic Fail: During the time skip, Longram was assigned to troubleshoot somebody's computer and managed to somehow knock out the entire station's electrical grid for 12 minutes. Nobody knows what happened, and Longram isn't talking, no matter what anyone threatens or coerces him with.
  • Expy: According to Imca, "Mizore is basically [OAAIRT] Imuka whole sale. Suzu may be a refinement, but Mizore is essentially her perfectly without you know having been in [the OAAIRT FG thread]. This is why room Imuka never fucking went back to her dad despite being essentially royalty. Hell the dragon's skull on the wall was a bit of a callout to that."
  • Fallen Hero:
    • Versions of Kouji Kabuto, Amuro Ray, Ryoma Nagare and Haken Browning show up as Chaos Marines in the Weird Moon arc. The Edel Bernal became one as a result of Mattervore.
    • The Skybreakers had to deal with 6 fallen heroes in the Blinded by the Light arc.
  • Fan Convention: In a filler arc, Terminus held its first Anime Nexus convention. Kerberos went there to grab plenty of sweet merch and videos.
  • Fantastic Caste System: Suzu's world has an outdated caste system based on feudal Japan: The nobles are at the top, followed by the mages, peasants, and the burakumin at the bottom. In reality, the hierarchy is the following: mages, bushi, nobles, peasants, and burakumin. According to Ren, "[The Emperor] doesn't want to argue with the people who shoot fire from their finger tips.... not us since we directly serve them."
  • Fantastic Foxes:
    • Ao is a Kitsune who can switch between human and fox form. Taking damage in fox in her form is more grevious because it's her real form. She can manipulate blue flames and knows a deadly form of bestial martial ars.
    • Asmodeus is a flirtatious fox synthetic made by demons. She somehow managed to bag Einar, an Ultramarine, onto her side.
    • Suzu is a synthetic fox made by Precursors. She's a good tech wiz and can wield a sword pretty well.
  • Fetch Quest: During their time on Daecel, the group had to retrieve the Leather of Wealth, the Rod of Opening, and the Slate of Wisdom from the Trial of Mages.
  • Fighting Spirit: Zachary Stardust is a stand user, someone who can create a manifestation of his mental fortitude and inner strength. However, a stand is generally only visible to other stand users or those touched by the supernatural. His stand is known as Champaigne Stardust, which has the ability of accelerated speed.
  • Flashback Nightmare: After each arc, Oliver receives a USB Stick containing memories from his past before he got turned into a robot.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: In order to fit in, Hastur's human avatar had to incorporate many of popular culture's beliefs of The King In Yellow, not in the least part a certain animoo franchise.
  • For Science!: Baru enjoys experimenting by asking two fundamental questions: "What happens if I mix these?" and "How hard can I blow this up?" What she lacks in upper body strength and lifting capabilities, she makes up by being really, really good at running away from lab accidents very fast. Not that she has to most of the time, as she is mostly immune to fire. She even graduated top of her class at Tiefling University. In no small part because 85% of her class fell victim to various kinds of tragic explosives-related accidents over the years, putting Baru at the top by default (and warping the bell curve heavily in her favor, too). The University's Ethics Committee often got in her way when she was trying to find a topic for her Thesis. One of these topics was the concept of Flesh Transmutation Grenades.
  • Fusion Dance: During the Virtual Reality arc, group members fuse with the spirits of fallen historical and mythological figures.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: "Andrews" was one of the "unimportant" peons of Proto-Kerberos if his explanations were to be believed. While his exact origin are vague, he may have ties to Fallout!Earth. Now, he's a nightmarish abomination of the Mattervore and the souls of the damned.
  • Gentle Giant:
    • As giants, Hathor and Lisa are considerably stronger than a normal human. However, their enormous size frequently causes problems and necessitates the use of their pendants to shrink them down to human size. As a result, they can mingle with humans and befriend them pretty easily.
    • Dhila Frost-Fort is an Alien Frost Giant. She's a bit smaller since she's around 9 feet and 6 inches compared to the average 11 foot tall one.
  • Glass Cannon: Despite her skills in magic, Lavinia's rather frail and thin, on top of that she's a 12 years old girl. But she won't hesitate to stab someone if need arises.
  • Godzilla Threshold: To stop the threat against Moon Cell in the Virtual Reality arc, the group had to reassemble Ea and summon Gilgamesh. Unfortunately, Gilgamesh was pissed at the group and proclaimed that he will punish the group for dirtying his precious Noble Phantasm with their filthy mongrel hands.
  • The Good King: The Skoisaun king wanted the war to end, but hardliners in the military placed him under house arrest and claimed they were simply following his decree.
  • Greater Scope Villain: The Mattervore is the source of several troubles caused throughout the game and Wham Episode, being worshiped by a cult of werewolves on planet Nowhere, indirectly driven Kowalski into a PTSD-induced anti-villain, corrupted a proto-Kerberos peon named Andrews into 3E's Big Bad, and caused the Prometheans to attack the colonists on Stroj by accident. It also caused the Edel Bernal to go off the end after it got sealed away out of paranoia.
  • Greed: According to Chuck, "There are two things that Lovisia firmly believes in: That Power equals Money, and that Money equals Power". That is why she is constantly searching for ways to become more powerful and acquire more wealth, which in turn leads to more power again. After her first plan to become obscenely rich (a promising start-up enterprise about a smartphone app that helps brokering deals for mortals who want to sell their soul to a demon) failed due to some fine-print she didn't notice in a contract she signed, Lovisia instead tried her hand at adventuring and found that her extraordinary physical strength made it surprisingly easy to acquire money through mercenary work and quests. Turns out questgivers are surprisingly willing to increase the promised payment if you are an 8-foot tall demon woman with a greatclub. Her greed even got her to get a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, so she could keep better track of the money coming in and out of the group's operations.
  • Gundamjack: In the Huckebein arc, the group was hired by The Black Charisma to steal the Huckebein prototype before Zeon forces abuse it.
  • Half-Human Hybrid
    • Having both dragon and giant heritage makes Euryabe super-humanly powerful and durable. She is also immune to fire, and can fly using her wings.
    • Lovisia is a Tiefling. She is able to tap into the blood of her demonic ancestors, not only giving her access to some minor demonic magic but also allowing her to receive a significant boost to her physical capabilities and size when she rages.
    • Cath is half fish-person, making her more attuned to the seas and letting her use water-themed magic.
  • Halloween Episode: The group were stuck in their costumes for their trip to Scipio VII. For some reason, this made them seem normal in the eyes of the Space Marines who hired them.
  • Headbutting Heroes: While the group can agree they must stand together to face challenges and form friendships, some just don't get along too well for certain reasons.
    • Albert and Longram despise each other due to a fighting a war in post-nuclear Washingston DC as opposing factions. However, this heated relations improved thanks to Catherine advising Longram to bury the hatchet.
  • Heroic BSOD: Asagi, Oliver, and Bruce undergo this after their Mind Rape at the hands of the Mattervore. For Asagi and Oliver, it's literal as their minds are computers.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: During one of the fights against the Skoisaun military, Audrick holds them off in order for the group to escape.
  • Homeworld Evacuation: Everyone in the Andromeda has to evacuate the galaxy and universe to avoid being consumed by the Mattervore.
  • Hub City:
    • Terminus Station was a massive space station filled with a cosmopolitan population from all walks of life. Sadly, it was consumed by eldritch abominations.
    • It was later rebuilt in the form of Centerpoint Station. It's more roomy, but less personalized.
  • Identity Amnesia: No Name doesn't remember his name until the Virtual Reality arc. When the others fused with the spirits of the past, he got his memories of his name back because an alternate version of himself was apparently a hero from a time long past. His real name is Emiya.
  • I Have Many Names: The Edel Bernal has the following aliases: Bek-on, Bacon, and GM.
  • Ill Girl: Corrin has an illness that's killing her. Modern doctors are unsure of the disease in particular.
  • Inside a Computer System: While the group was in cryogenic storage for their journey to a safer galaxy, the ship places them in a virtual MMORPG. While they experience a week of time in the RPG, 500 years will pass in real-time.
  • Inverted Trope:
    • Bruce is an anthropomorphic wolf who turns into a human on the new moon, making him an inversion of the usual werewolf trope.
    • According to Raidou the 21st, "The setting is one of the main reasons I chose to play Omar in the fashion I did. Part of it was turning around the obvious expectations. I felt like a lot of characters who were career soldiers (not all of them disclaimer here) were meatheads off the battlefield, but super erudite 'All According to Keikaku Doori' when on it. So I put it on the reverse: Someone who was incredibly learned and calm when not on the job, but shows just why he has the position he does when it's go time."
    • Basileus's stories are weird reverse fairy tales. Instead of the knights being the heroes trying to slay a dragon, the dragon is the one defending people from evil knights.
    • There is a plot where the group is trying to rescue a Goblin Princess from a band of ruthless Adventurers who have kidnapped her. And in exchange get paid a chest full of gold. Normally, the goblins are the bad guys and adventurers are the heroes.
  • Jerkass: The Yukimura clan elder is the biggest jerk on Suzu's world. In Imca's words, "Mages are Jackasses + Sexes not being equal = There is going to be problems dealing with them." Sparty even said, "Old Man Yukimura holds [the group] in active disdain. It's not that he hates [them]. It's that he doesn't even fucking care. He could order [them] all shot and then go to bed and forget about it the next day. Those are the worst kinds of jackasses. Not the ones who hate you, the ones who don't even give a shit about you other than what you can do for them."
  • Killer Rabbit: Cuddles looks like a cute Bewear[6] gijinka, but don't underestimate her. Her grapples can break a person's spine.
  • Last of His Kind: Andrew Longram is the last surviving member of his world's version of the Enclave and to a certain extent, the last of the Old World Americans.
  • Light Is Not Good: The main antagonists of Blinded by the Light arc powered by Light, to the point of being weakened in the presence of Darkness.
  • Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Gespenst has to fight Norio during the Ringworld arc as one of Norio's requests.
  • Mad Scientist: Luna was the one who designed and built the device that saved the universe's collective ass and fixed the universe not even a week ago, and all she needed for that was to siphon the energy of every other universe in existence to fuel her invention. Bruce even notes that Luna's a psychopath when Luna agreed with Baru's idea of Flesh Transmutation Grenades.
  • Making a Splash:
    • Catherine has the power of Hydrokinesis, which, depending on how much she focuses, she can create some pretty powerful constructs near a large body of water, but she's left open. She's also quite nimble, at the least, swimming quite a bit. Can also breathe underwater.
    • On Daecel, the group met aliens who dress up in cloaks and are made out of water vapor. Their leader is called The Big Moist and he's big enough that his throne is a drinking pool.
  • The Man Behind the Man: In the Ohm arc, Vudan Arms gave the MSG the supplies to take on the world. Vudan Arms stopped after the group stopped the attack on Loswell Foundation. Cami, the representative of Vudan Arms, even went on a rant on how Lyle is the most incompetent person she had the misfortune of meeting.
  • Mask of Power: Most of Rostam's power comes from his War Mask, a special mask infused with the power of an Efreeti. If the mask were removed, he would lose the connection to the Efreeti until Rostam equips the mask. Dangerous things can happened if it were destroyed somehow.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: The main premise with some Original Generation to boot.
  • The Medic: Reverend David Alberts is a medic with weapons that can heal people. He comes with syringes, healing grenades and a self-sterilizing scalpel. If he's forced into combat, he can fire a Beretta 92 9mm pistol and a HMTech-401 Assault Rifle. He's even turned into a White Mage during a section in the 3E arc.
  • Mind Rape:
    • As a finishing move, Hastur can also mentally torture folks with terrifying images but only when those are incapacitated and at his mercy. His malleable form allows him to change shape into different instances of the same blonde humanoid with varying age, though he favors the teen-aged one.
    • Selene mind-raped the Terminus diplomat prisoner and then Ryuunosuke during the Blinded by the Light arc.
  • Mirror Universe: The basis for an ANSCD arc. The players play evil versions of the characters they usually play in the normal RP. They have to escape from a ruined world.
  • The Multiverse: The multiverse the group's in is as vast and infinite as ever.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Woden is dismayed to learn that she has failed her mission to protect Stroj by shooting down the colonists and anyone approaching the planet.
  • Name's the Same: Marcus thought the Imperium of Mankind was the Roman Imperium. He was corrected by Momonga.
  • New Old West: Middle of Nowhere is a western-themed town, complete with saloon and train station. What makes Middle of Nowhere unique is that it takes place on a desert planet.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: Cami and Vudan were behind the events in the Ohm arc, but Cami surrendered after encountering the group during the raid on their base. Vudan refused the offer and was shot in the face by Noble Six.
  • Noodle Incident: There was a Time Skip where Roy, Ironscales, and Oliver successfully escaped from the meat dimension in the Saving Cyberpunk Christmas arc.
  • No Respect Guy Andrew Longram, one of the resident engineers of the group. Even though he's one of the few folks with a stable mindset among the cast of wierdos, his comrades ([especially Asagi]) berate Longram and treat him like an idiot or a liability at the very worst. Most of it stems from being from a very xenophobic faction and Longram's jerk tendencies. To further the metaphorical ball breaking, he owed Asagi a heavy debt to pay off his bailout from jail which arbitrary rises to Asagi's whims.
  • Nostalgia Level: During Operation Delta Green, the group visits Terminus Station after it was devoured by the Mattervore to find Luna's laboratory .
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: For a while, Barbara the Paladin pretended that she was clueless with technology in order to disguise the fact she's originally from modern society.
  • OC Stand In: Barbara is based on the Avatar from the Ultima series. Ai and Albert are both based on the Lone Wanderer from Fallout 3.
  • Otaku:
    • Lisa is an American assassin obsessed with Japan to the point where she dresses like a ninja. However, the Ringworld Arc tests her patience as she gets to see a version of feudal Japan, warts and all. She was rebooted into Kitsune in the Discord reboot
    • Travis Touchdown, the fowl-mouthed NEET from No More Heroes, shows up in the reboot.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: The group in the Mirror Universe arc had to deal with a three-headed dragon who specialized in the elements of hydrogen, oxygen and radium. It was an scientific experiment left behind to guard something important.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: The President of the United States on Lisa's Earth is a Russian Frost Giant. Her popularity shot through the roof when she promised to kick Santa's butt. Upon learning the truth, she settled for kicking the Grinch's butt.
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: On one of their early missions, the group had to deal with an invasion of bishonen werewolf cultists who were weak to head trauma and gold. Nearly a year later, more powerful versions emerged when the Mattervore appears on Nowhere.
  • Perpetual Poverty: There's one thing that will never, ever change about the group. They will always be in poverty.
  • Pay to Win: During the fight with the Grinch, Suzu paid out the nose to get powerful weapons. This backfired when her outfit changed into a bikini.
  • Political Correctness Gone Mad: The Amazon Prime CEO wants to respect the rights of his workers, but he goes overboard and offends his drones by making them work less.
  • Power of the Storm: Hathor uses arcane magic associated with the weather. Her control over this is limited, and cannot be used to do more than create small clouds or create water droplets. It has the potential to become significantly more powerful with time and practice, however.
  • Precursor Killers: The Mattervore probably consumed the former inhabitants of Stroj, leaving their clothes.
  • Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: During the Ohm arc, Lyle revealed he was dumped by Cath in the past. He's so petty, he attempted to stage a robbery at the Loswell Foundation just to get back at her. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the power to do so and has to rely on his henchmen in the MSG, who don't even show him an ounce of respect. He even got pissed off when Asagi placed a sign with the word "HA" on it formed into crude art of Cath holding hands with Longram.
  • Put on a Bus: Sandra disappeared from this RP after her player didn't take the criticism given to her well.
  • Quest for Identity: Oliver is searching for the USB drives that determine how he got trapped inside a robot's body. When Oliver talked with Leandros, Leandros gave him the following advice: "Let the past sleep for now. By no means give up your quest, but try to enjoy what you are at the moment. What happened will still be there when you are prepared, but don't let it master you like a puppet on strings. Instead, forge a new path. There will be mistakes along the way, aye, but learning is what this life is about."
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Alternate is a man with two personalities. Alternate A's the red oni because he's kind of an ass. He's also not very patient with his other half, Alternate 1. He also has physical-oriented powers like super strength and shark-like teeth that grow back pretty quickly. Alternate 1's the blue oni because he wants to be nice and polite to everyone. He specializes in abilities requiring the mind, such as knowing how living beings work (be it human or xeno) and performing delicate surgery with ease.
  • Religious Bruiser: The other reason why Rai choose to play Omar was to see "if it was possible to portray [a soldier] with a religious bent to it in a more positive manner, and [he] didn't feel like using the catholic analogue for Infinity's setting."
  • Retcon:
    • With the disappearance of the Mattervore, players have made changes to their characters.
      • Neon has decided to return Corrin mostly to her more friendly personality. She became quite unpleasant, and he wants to move away from that.
      • Hil and Bcom have agreed to do a retcon for einar and azzie getting into a relationship.
      • Kirb wants to revamp Andy Longram. He's no longer an Enclave Combat Engineer nor a Fallout character. Instead, he's Alpha AL-2218, a human clone shocktrooper who uses special weaponry in combat such as liquid jet guns. Kirb felt that Andy's not much of a Fallout character, and that Kirb wish to move away from the Longram name.
    • There was one done with the Discord reboot.
  • Ret-Gone:
    • The Infinity Cylinder is a legendary weapon. According to Evan, building it would require the manpower and intelligence of an entire planet. According to the legend, it's basically a temporal and quantum weapon. It doesn't destroy or unmake a target. It simply erases the concept of the target's existence. If it were built, Kowalski plans on using it on the Mattervore to prevent it from eating the other galaxies in the universe.
    • According to Luna, The MK-1 Re-Genesis device creates a universe that overlays on-top of the original, then the boundary collapses, merging the two into one, and overwriting the Mattervore in the process.
  • Riddling Sphinx: The group met Jahrimo, a sphinx guarding the Slate of Wisdom. In an inversion of the usual trope, Jahrimo wants to hear jokes and stories from the group. Naomi got the Slate of Wisdom by telling a nice Feghoot to him.
  • Ridiculously Human Robot: Suzu can get drunk, eat, and breathe like a normal human because of the nanotechnology powering her.
  • Ring World Planet: Suzu hails from a run-down ring world maintained by a station-keeping AI that is worshiped like a goddess.
  • Samurai: Asuka is one of the good teammates of the antagonists of the Blinded by the Light arc. She defects because she feels that what the fallen heroes have done is injust.
  • Save the Princess: There is a plot where the group is trying to rescue a Goblin Princess from a band of ruthless Adventurers who have kidnapped her. And in exchange get paid a chest full of gold.
  • Saving Christmas: The plot for the Saving Cyberpunk Christmas arc. The year is 2499 in Neo New York. Everyone is celebrating Chrimbus, Haxxakkah, Kwanzorp, and other off-brand holidays that are still in the public domain. Once again, Santacorp prepares to deliver toys to all the boys and girls, in exchange for incredibly generous tax breaks. But there are troubles in old Neo New York. Children everywhere are disappearing in droves, leaving worried mothers and fathers behind. The AU gang must help Lisa's hometown save the children and defeat an evil, extra dimensional, holiday-devouring creature from beyond the stars.
  • The Scrappy: For the AcrossUniverses RPing group, LightningLancer.
    • He was playing Artorias from the Dark Souls franchise, and he was still going through the period of adjusting to being in an RP, but he was generally cool. But there was A Problem™. Artorias was being corrupted by the Abyss. Something which he did not tell anyone in-game about. Actually no, he told one person. And after a few weeks, Artorias started acting strange People got worried but otherwise were generally cool, and besides the occasional moments of "GRAGH sorry about that bad meal". The game trundled along just fine until right in the middle of a plot we were doing When the Abyss took over Artorias completely And he embarked on a berserk rampage directly in the middle of the plot aiming to kill anyone he could possibly see. Which just completely derailed everything that was going on and made the focus immediately on containing the ridiculous 12 foot tall darkness monster that was killing everyone around him before he got us kicked out of the country we were helping defend. When we finally had him subdued he had severely injured half the cast, including a 40k Space Marine. Naturally We then went to the OOC channels like "Dude what the fuck was that". And he was not repentant about it at all.
    • There was the time Takanuva spaced the group in the ship. It was because there was somebody outside the ship who wanted to come in. Takanuva did not even for one second think about how all the squishies around him needed air to live before opening the door to let them in. Half the characters were able to void-seal and the other half were quickly given oxygen masks and returned into the ship. Stubbs was found on the planet we were going to later, though it did shatter half his body. Literally everyone was pissed off. Because it very easily could have ended in the party dying. NOBODY was happy about this, Mercuria least of all.
  • Shape Shifter: In the Idacra arc, the group had to deal with the Einst. Some of the Einst successfully changed into members of the group, causing paranoia for a while.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: After the Ringworld arc ended, the "Keep Our Station Clean" bill was overturned, effectively nullifying the reason why they went to Suzu's ringworld in the first place.
  • Single Biome Planet:
    • Nowhere is a desert-themed planet. The only ice that could be found is directly at the poles.
    • Cryogen and Pyrogen is a binary planet system. Cryogen is a planet completely covered in ice. There's even an ancient laboratory underneath the ice sheet. According to Imca, "[Pyrogen and Cryogren] are [part of a] terraforming experiment. All the heat from the two goes to Pyrogen like a giant refrigerator. Ever stuck your hand behind a fridge?"
    • Daecel is a jungle planet. It is so humid that the colonists there have to live in domes. They still have to use fans to bring in cool, dry air and expel the bad air. When the group enters a dome, the colonists ask them to close the door to avoid the spread of humidity into the building. In fact the MacGuffin needed for the colonists is an orb regulating the humidity level.
    • The Planet of Scipio VII is another jungle planet. According to an e-mail sent by Ordo Chronos, the planet is in need of some assistance due to its defenders being away on fighting in other battles. It is thought that there may be an early stage infection of Xeno horrificus upon the planet and it needs to stamped out pronto.
  • Spin-Off: Across Universes is an action-oriented spinoff of We Are Our Avatars. Across Universes places a hardline on character powerlevels, and thus the characters have to get more creative when coming up with solutions. It also forces the character sheets to be more creative.
  • Spiritual Successor: To We Are Our Adventuring Avatars. Imca, founder of this RP, wanted to properly experience the fun of We Are Our Adventuring Avatars without all of the baggage that came from that game.
  • Square Race, Round Class:
    • Turax is a magician who happens to be a Krogan. Krogans are known for their Blood Knight tendencies and their Super Toughness. The typical Krogan would probably go for a physical-oriented class if they happen to get stranded on a medieval planet. Then again, Turax believes that knowledge of arts is an excellent source of power, which also extends to spellcasting. During the Virtual Reality arc, he even gets the powers of Merlin.
    • Lisa is a giant who's obsessed with ninja to the point where she becomes one herself. It would be more fitting if she picked a more tanky class. She even got the powers of one of the Hassan-i-Sabbah.
  • Status Quo Is God: The group had to jettison the gold from the Ohm mission to avoid the wrath of the Mattervore. In other words, they were back in poverty.
  • Stay with the Aliens: At the end of the Weird Moon arc, Phillip chooses to stay with Granteed Dracodeus and learn more about him.
  • Stunt Double: From the offices of Fullmoon Studios, it has been an unfortunate time for one of the oldest studios. The actors and stuntmen in the upcoming blockbuster are now hospitalized due to the decision to perform action scenes using new "real action" instead of CGI. Now, stunts in Jollywood usually dangerous but the movie in question takes it to the next level. This spooked most stuntmen taking their place in the set. Not as bad as Heart of Darkness' Troubled Production but Fullmoon's in desperate need of stuntmen.
    • With no other choice, the studio sends their representatives to seek anyone who can help pull off those scenes. Anyone with the balls to thrust themselves into hell. Seems like the team's a perfect fit, they survived through armies. Can our mercs get this damn film finished or would the perils of this extreme filming would lead them six feet under?
  • Take That: The GM of the Saving Cyberpunk Christmas arc has the following prose describing Emoji. "Now, popping out of the aether, strange infernal creatures that appear to be the mishapen creations of some cruel and dark god with no sense of morality. You can attempt to speak to them, call your friends, search through the buildings, or just do an Asagi thing-" These infernal creatures, judging by the image link are Gene, High-Five, Jailbreak, Poop and Smiler from the Emoji movie.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Dave and Alice make cameos in Operation Delta Green. They get killed by the Mattervore's tentacles. [7].
  • Taking You with Me: The Laftkranz tries to suicide-bomb the group's battleship in the Weird Moon arc, but Taka saves the day at the cost of destroying his mecha.
  • Time Skip: After the Villain arc, the RP went back to the group a month after the job in the Stroj arc. The group had a fair amount of odd jobs, but they paid very little. Some even costed the group money. There was a time when the group tried to catch a shoplifter, but Oliver got too excited and Stimmed into him so hard that he ended up body surfing him past two intersections. They had to spend money paying for his medical care, as if they don't already spend enough for their selves. There was also the time they had to rescue a regular cat from a space vent.
  • Time Stands Still: The Fury can freeze time by using Larseilam.
  • Trapped in Another World: Before becoming a paladin on the world of Sosaria, Barbara was just a regular girl from the good part of Los Angeles. For a time, she pretended that she didn't understand more advanced technology.
  • Trapped in TV Land: Asagi gets trapped in a video game spoofing many video games in pop culture, and it's up to the group to save her before it's too late.
  • Treacherous Quest-Giver:
    • As it turns out, Kowalski was the one responsible for the problems on Idacra. In fact, he wanted the group to die with the prince and Haken. The group learned about this fact when the Valsion blabbed about it in the climatic fight.
    • According to Momonga, "When Suzu had called in a favor for us, we had all agreed to travel to her father's place to accept this job. Mercenaries we may be, but we still act under his implicit authority. As we speak, we are acting in Suzu's family's name to not only interfere with a crucial element of this world's function...but also to assassinate the lord he has sworn loyalty." Akihiro had essentially framed Suzu's family for his crimes.
    • Edel Bernal was the one who hired the group in the Weird Moon arc. He was also the same person who tried to crash the moon onto Idacra because it amused him and because he wanted to test the group and Idacra to make sure they'd be strong enough to deal with what may come.
  • Traintop Battle: One of their first missions on Nowhere involve protecting precious water from bandits with partial success, another would be recusing a NOD leader from the same train filled with Mecha-Mooks.
  • Unrobotic Reveal: The Dies Irae was piloted by a cyborg named Eires Nada. They did this in order to make Tomson back down and give up Annete's location.
  • Unskilled but Strong: Cuddles is a considerable unarmed fighter. While she lacks the finesse and agility of trained martial artists, she makes up for it with ridiculously high physical strength and stamina, the latter in particular stemming from the sheer fluffiness of her people. Hitting Cuddles is not unlike hitting a pillow: You'll have to put in some serious force before you can to any lasting harm to her, otherwise she'll just bounce back as if nothing happened.
  • Uplifted Animal: The Ancat is a smart cat who believes in the concept of Anarcho-Capitalism. It even has cryptocurrency in the form of Meowcoin.
  • Uriah Gambit: When the AU group arrives to respond to the signal on Idacra, Kowalski immediately tries to get them all out of their hair. First, they sent Quartz and the other spart char up north where colonists lost a group of scouts. Next, they send Oliver, Suzu and longram out to sea in a known hostile environment with eldritch creatures. They sent Asagi, Lisa, and Sandra into a hot zone where they first meet Nacht. And they expected those bandits to definitely murder the shit out of the others. They also didn't like Haken and Audrick, so Kowalski planned Operation Bug-Hunt in hopes of getting rid of them.
  • Visual Pun: The race of water vapor spirits on Daecel are literally air-headed.
  • Wave Motion Gun: In the Stroj arc, the group got called over to a planet because Centerpoint knew there was supposed to be an Ark there but they haven't heard back yet. Turns out the Ark crashed, because there's a lot of orbital laser cannons around the planet shooting at anything that gets near, and the Serenity almost crashed before being forced to land. It turns out the orbital lasers are part of a planetary defense network with machine soldiers on the ground that was created to repel... something that passed through and killed the previous civilization that lived there.
  • Wham! Episode: After the group gets 50 tons of gold (Page 1445), they returned to Terminus but ended up in a nightmarish sector that was once one of the Andromeda's spiral arms consumed by the Mattervore, kickstaring a massive migration saga that encompasses many arcs with one goal in mind, Andromeda's inhabitants migrating to a new universe for survival.
  • Where It All Began:
    • The group speculates that the Mattervore's heart will found on Nowhere[8].
    • According to Asuka, "And in a local tavern, they met. A local was looking for aid with a minor problem, and the 4 signed up for the job, each for their own reasons. I did not join until later, but I once saw the place. However, these days, the town is abandoned. Changing weather patterns meant that now the town is usually in a dust cloud, out in the deserts. It would be an ideal location to hide, if one was willing to tolerate and work around the difficulties such an environment poses, and Annette was always at home in such places."
  • Witch Species: Sorceress Ael turns Asagi into a sorceress by passing her powers on.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Asagi thinks she's a video game protagonist. However, this is actually a Forum RP.
  • Worthy Opponent: In the Ringworld arc, Gespenst finds that Norio is a worthy adversary. As a part of the group's plan, Norio and Ges even agree to let Ges get "captured" by Norio
  • You All Meet in An Inn:
    • The group met at a train station in a town called Middle of Nowhere.
    • The Six Fallen Heroes met each other in a desert tavern. This is where Annette was hiding in the Blinded By the Light arc.
  1. We Are Our Adventuring Avatars
  2. We Are Our Avatars
  3. representing the Playstation
  4. representing the X-Box
  5. last race of the Serpentine
  6. [1]
  7. For those curious who they were, they were huge villains in We Are Our Adventuring Avatars, the predecessor to Across Universes. However, they were hated both IC and OOC
  8. The first place where the group met each other