History DarthWiki / CardiansRural

+* [[spoiler:BecomingTheMask: Because of her arrangements with Finnegan, she now cannot survive on anything but human flesh, and has begun to think of all of the mimics as her children.]] [[spoiler:To compound this further, as of Season 3, she has begun physically transforming into a mimic-like creature herself: her hair has begun falling out, and she cannot speak in her regular voice without difficulty, as her default speaking voice is now that of the last person she has killed and eaten.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Played very straight. Lallo is all but confirmed outright to at least have P.T.S.D., and seems to exhibit symptoms for other neurodivergent conditions and mental illnesses.

* AmbiguousDisorder: PlayedForDrama, as it becomes more so the case [[spoiler:the deeper she falls into Finnegan's influence as the mimics' new caretaker/"mother": her labelling them as her children and bonding to the creatures accordingly is clearly some degree of trauma response and coping mechanism, and clearly the symptom of a serious neurodivergence, likely some degree of P.T.S.D. What exact condition she's suffering as a result of her mental trauma, however, remains unclear.]]
* [[spoiler:BecomingTheMask: Because of her arrangements with Finnegan, she now cannot survive on anything but human flesh, and has begun to think of all of the mimics as her children.]] [[spoiler:To compound this further, as of Season 3, she has begun physically transforming into a mimic-like creature herself: her hair has begun falling out, and she cannot speak in her regular voice without difficulty, as her default speaking voice is now that of the last person she has killed and eaten.]]

* Thirdly, there are the various kinds of fae and True Fae that deal in taking humans for their own purposes, whether its for [[ToServeMan food,]] [[TheMostDangerousGame sport,]] [[SexSlave various kinds]] [[ColdBloodedTorture of "fun",]] or servitude. [[FateWorseThanDeath Not even death]] [[AndIMustScream is guaranteed]] with these creatures, as they are likely to render their hapless victims into twisted shells of their former selves, [[AmbiguousDisorder mentally compromised in some way]] at the very least, if not [[EmptyShell outright broken.]] The majority of these creatures that were once human become referred to as fae themselves, with those taken and "remade" by the Fae becoming changelings.

* OrificeInvasion: Attempted this on a captured [[spoiler:Carly]], to the horror and curiosity as to why of the P.C.s. [[spoiler:Then they found out [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong w]][[BabyFactory h]][[BreedingSlave y]][[PeopleFarm ...]]]]

* TheyDo: [[spoiler:With Bo.]]

The small town of Carlsville in the state of Wisconsin seems ordinary enough on the surface: a quiet rural neighbourhood, and a happy community. However, [[TheMasquerade this is only the surface layer to Carlsville,]] for not only do the little town and its surrounding areas play host to a variety of creatures of the night, but it also contains the headquarters of the Rural division of [[{{Roleplay/Cardians}} The Cardians Syndicate]], who protect the innocent everyday human from the horrors that walk among them, no matter the cost or the method.

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: This is to be expected, due to Hellings being the overall boss of the combat-oriented section of the division. It largely stands true, as well, as Hellings is the most capable member of the whole division in any combat situation.

** [[spoiler: NotSoAboveItAll: As of the mansion roleplay session, he joined in on the game of "Two Truths and a Lie" that Lemons proposed to everyone, much to everyone's surprise. He would even smirk deviously when his lies were successful.]] [[spoiler:He also joined in on giving Theo a comforting group hug after he heard about his home situation and decided what to do about it.]]

* [[spoiler:ForgivenButNotForgotten: After the first Player Character mission, and Tomoe volunteering himself to take the blame for the insubordination and resulting casualties, Hellings had a one-on-one talk with him about his actions and their consequences; four days of house arrest for Tomoe, under the watch of Henderson and Natalie. Hellings also made it clear that physical harm would likely be the next step if Tomoe repeated his actions.]]

* [[spoiler:KickedUpstairs: His anger issues and unwavering code on the killing of any even thought to be a supernatural landed him in a transferal to becoming an Ace for the Carlsville division from his previous placement, according to Arthur. A replacement Ace of Clubs was sorely needed after Roderick Lafleur's death, and Hellings fit the bill, so Aubry accepted the transfer.]]

* [[spoiler:ProfessionalKiller: Was this, both before and after he joined his previous Cardians division. In his old division, he was a hitman.]]
* [[spoiler:RageBreakingPoint: Hit this after Chaney, then Julia, then Lemons, then Theo and Henderson, then Natalie and Arthur with a disobedient Tomoe, all ran off into the unnatural darkness separately, with the latter groups disobeying orders to either remain in the house or prevent others from leaving. He then proceeded to toss around the furniture in the main house room in his anger.]]

* YourWorstNightmare: The second of the dreams Theo had involved a creature within a reflection stalking and attacking him.

* TheTeam:
** TheStoic: Tomoe.
** TheSmartGuy: Henderson.
** TheFace: Lemons.
** TheChick: Natalie.
** TheBigGuy: Sal.
** TheCutie: Theo.
** [[spoiler:TheSixthRanger: River.]]

* The fact that Hellings, having been left permanently scarred and physically impaired since the events of Season 1, managed to fight off an attacking Gargoyle. Granted, if the Player Characters hadn't arrived in time, he would've died from his injuries, but the fact that he managed to put up a fight at all, never mind fend off the Gargoyle, is a testament to how strong Matthew Hellings Sr. is. [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority There's a reason he's the Ace of Clubs.]]

* MeddlingParents: He comes all the way from England to Carlsville (in Wisconsin) because River didn't call him at a scheduled date and time. Granted, [[ItMakesSenseInContext this was because a Hedge portal had absorbed the voicemail he sent with said date and time,]] but he didn't know that, nor did River until it was too late.

* HundredPercentAdorationRating: It's hard not to like Theo. Even someone like [[DeadpanSnarker Able]] [[JerkAss Makani]] enjoys his company. [[spoiler:It's this quality that allows him to get close enough to Fustrarime to warn him of the division's arrival, and to make the deal to save everyone, precisely because the Fae cares about him that much.]]

* [[spoiler:TheAgeless: As a result of becoming a changeling after living out the remainder of his human life in Fustrarime's realm.]]

* [[spoiler:BackFromTheDead: After dying in Fustrarime's realm, the Fae saves his life by making him a changeling, and allows him to return to Carlsville, with the option of coming back to him at any time.]]

* [[spoiler:EmotionEater: As part of his new changeling biology, he can do this do to replenish his Glamour.]]

* [[spoiler:HappilyMarried: To Bo/Fustrarime, because of their relationship and Theo's lifetime spent in Fustrarime's realm.]]

* [[spoiler:MayflyDecemberRomance: His relationship with Bo, aka Fustrarime, is revealed to be this once it becomes clear who and what Bo really is.]] [[spoiler:Zigzagged, however, once Theo comes back as a changeling, beings that are [[TheAgeless technically immortal.]]]]

* [[spoiler:OlderThanTheyLook: He is now chronologically in his late eighties or early nineties, but because of his new changeling biology, he has his young body back. This means that the others have trouble grappling with the fact that Theo has lived for between 80 and 90 years, because not only does he look no different outwardly from when they last met, he also returned to Carlsville roughly two weeks after saying goodbye. Theo himself has undergone a minor attitude change because of this: older and more authoritative characters no longer intimidate him, as he knows that he is not only older than them but that he has areas of experience and expertise that they lack.]]

* [[spoiler:TheyDo: With Bo.]]

* NamesTheSame: Natalie the vampire was created by the Game Master, or [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Storyteller]]. Natalie Cole is a Player Character created completely separately from this by one of the Players.

* AnAxeToGrind: Tomoe has great skill with axes and hatchets. Natalie even bought him an ax to use, [[spoiler:until it was broken in the fight with Dagmar.]]

* AnAxeToGrind: Used one to kill the vampire Natalie some time after she'd bitten and fed on Tomoe. It hangs in his office, and is ready to use in a variety of situations, from self-defense to punctuating a point, as Tomoe found out.

** SniperRifle: His previous [[WeaponOfChoice weapon of choice.]] [[spoiler:In Season 2, it becomes no longer "previous" when he takes Vokil's gun.]]

* WeaponOfChoice: Her pocket knife. [[spoiler:As of most recently, she has gained a machete.]]

* SniperRifle: Her [[WeaponOfChoice weapon of choice,]] to where she is rarely seen without it. She even uses it, or rather the scope, as a makeshift monocular.

* UncannyValley: His smile and his eyes make sure everyone he meets experiences this even a little.

** The secret itself turns out to be uncovered by [[spoiler:Jason of all people in Season 3]], and even then [[spoiler:he]] only discovers part of it, which is as follows: [[spoiler:Richard has never loved Julia. From high school into college and beyond into marriage, and even the birth of two kids, the relationship has been completely one-sided, and he has been caught between how stifling the relationship is for him, and how awful he would feel if he left her.]] WordOfGod is that, furthermore, [[spoiler:the reason that this is the case is that Henderson is secretly gay, and only pursued a relationship with Julia as an experiment and attempt to fit in.]]

* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu: Her snark and sass being a key component of her personality, Natalie isn't one to be afraid of figures with any kind of power that's greater than hers. Dagmar, Finnegan, Vayne, and even [[spoiler:Fustrarime]] have received unashamed tongue-lashings.

* HatesBeingTouched: Even a simple pat on the shoulder or a handshake unnerves, and even scares, him.

* CheerfulChild: Does pretty much everything with a smile on her face. [[DissonantSerenity This unnerved Sal, as she kept up her cheerful demeanour in the house Sal was trapped in.]]

* ItAmusedMe: A much less villainous, but perhaps still morally ambiguous example, though still frustrating to the characters this trait of Chaney's surfaces towards. She is largely interested by whether or not something will prove to be "fun", unless it's absolutely do-or-die important, and even then the Player Characters are unsure if this can be relied on. Sal, in particular, fell afoul of this when he met her in the Martiarch's house. She helped him in the end, but only after she giggled at his begging and pleading.

* [[spoiler:DeadGuyOnDisplay: Sal basically had some arts and crafts fun frolicking in the body parts he created after killing Dagmar creating a display of his victory. His teammates were less amused and more horrified.]]

* {{Muggles}}: They're all basically normal people, with normal jobs and lives.

* Firstly, [[EldritchLocation there's the Hedge itself: a shifting, chaotic mess of lands]] that only keeps certainty of locations based on where portals, set up by either changelings or more powerful fae, are situated. Everything else is a disordered mish-mash of different biomes, climates, [[AlienGeometry and even physical properties, with some parts of the Hedge being stacked on top of each other; burst through the ground of one part of the Hedge and you'll likely end up beneath it within a different part with its own sky.]] [[NarniaTime Not even the flow of time is consistent in the Hedge:]] sometimes [[YearOutsideHourInside you can spend less than an hour in there and three weeks have passed outside,]] sometimes [[YearInsideHourOutsidethe inverse is true, and very occasionally neither will be, with time flowing normally relative to you, with little rhyme or reason as to which you'll be stuck with. The only sort of consistency from this is that people that enter within a short enough timespan of one another at the same entry point have the same relative experience of time.

* JadeColouredGlasses: Pretty much everyone in the division either already wears them, or slowly dons them over the course of the campaign.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: In at least two instances thus far, the Player Characters, and even their more senior fellow Cardians, have come across a monster that did not seek to attack them, and they have been split as to whether to kill them outright, capture them, or just let them go.

* [[spoiler:IllGirl: Infinity was very much this in life; she was partially deaf-blind and frail. And this was before she contracted bloodsoil, much less became its literal embodiment and central intelligence...]]

* NiceHat: Has a wide-brimmed hat. This is his main physical identifying feature.
** EyeObscuringHat: A side effect of the wideness of his hat's brim, and possibly its size too.

** Tomoe is a [[NoSocialSkills socially-distant]] former child soldier who's spent the last few years of his life drifting, so lacks [[BookDumb basic general knowledge]] and social skills, and not only has serious self-esteem and confidence as a result of his former life, he is also dangerously lacking in intelligence and common sense while suffering from undiagnosed P.T.S.D. Taken UpToEleven in later episodes when [[spoiler:he develops schizophrenia after killing the mimic babies]].

* KnifeNut: She usually carries around her trusty pocket knife in her bag. She also picks up a machete in Season 1. [[spoiler:And in Season 2, she gets a cold-iron knife.]]

* DualWielding: Her knives, when she fights.

* KnifeNut: Revealed her combat style as using a pair of knives [[spoiler:in the fight with the mandrakes to save Carly]].

* KnownOnlyByTheirNickname: He was known only by his username, as Sal didn't actually ask him his name, for a good while.