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Five Man Band is undergoing a wick-cleaning project, so zero-context examples, roles with little to no context, and examples featuring groups of more than five, will be deleted.
Deleted line(s) 66,72 (click to see context) :
* FiveManBand: The main escorts of the Mamayev Kurgan.
** TheLeader: Viktor
** TheLancer: Grigori
** TheBigGuy: Dimitri
** TheSmartGuy: Stellar/Dimitri
** TheChick: Ana
** SixthRanger: Stellar, arguably, being the only non human in the team.
** TheLeader: Viktor
** TheLancer: Grigori
** TheBigGuy: Dimitri
** TheSmartGuy: Stellar/Dimitri
** TheChick: Ana
** SixthRanger: Stellar, arguably, being the only non human in the team.
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Up To Eleven is a defunct trope
Changed line(s) 35 (click to see context) from:
** Taken UpToEleven with the reveal that the PER's founder was a misanthropic doctor named Jacqueline Dionna Reitman. In other words, she shares the same initials as Chatoyance's real life name (Jennifer Diane Reitz). For that matter, the names even sound similar.
to:
** Taken UpToEleven Exaggerated with the reveal that the PER's founder was a misanthropic doctor named Jacqueline Dionna Reitman. In other words, she shares the same initials as Chatoyance's real life name (Jennifer Diane Reitz). For that matter, the names even sound similar.
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Cut trope and no trope slashing.
Changed line(s) 14,15 (click to see context) from:
* HateSink: Dr. Jacqueline Dionna Reitman, the founder of the PER and TheQuisling to all of humanity. Sure, the Solar Empire ponies aren't exactly slouches when it comes to the war crimes and atrocities they've committed, but it's also clear they are [[spoiler:little more than pawns in the BiggerBad's master plan]]. Reitman meanwhile was a selfish opportunist who sold out her species for her own desires.
* HeroicSacrifice[-/-]LastStand: It's explained that TCB!Lyra was captured by the Empire in the aftermath of the famed "[[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds Battle of Thunderchild]]", wherein she commandeered a magically-enhanced CoolShip off the coast of Iceland to give the refugees there time to evacuate from the approaching Imperial forces. The diversion succeeded at the cost of the prototype ship's destruction and her getting taken prisoner before she could leave the area.
* HeroicSacrifice[-/-]LastStand: It's explained that TCB!Lyra was captured by the Empire in the aftermath of the famed "[[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds Battle of Thunderchild]]", wherein she commandeered a magically-enhanced CoolShip off the coast of Iceland to give the refugees there time to evacuate from the approaching Imperial forces. The diversion succeeded at the cost of the prototype ship's destruction and her getting taken prisoner before she could leave the area.
to:
* HateSink: Dr. Jacqueline Dionna Reitman, the founder of the PER and TheQuisling to all of humanity. Sure, the Solar Empire ponies aren't exactly slouches when it comes to the war crimes and atrocities they've committed, but it's also clear they are [[spoiler:little more than pawns in the BiggerBad's BigBad's master plan]]. Reitman meanwhile was a selfish opportunist who sold out her species for her own desires.
*HeroicSacrifice[-/-]LastStand: HeroicSacrifice: It's explained that TCB!Lyra was captured by the Empire in the aftermath of the famed "[[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds Battle of Thunderchild]]", wherein she commandeered a magically-enhanced CoolShip off the coast of Iceland to give the refugees there time to evacuate from the approaching Imperial forces. The diversion succeeded at the cost of the prototype ship's destruction and her getting taken prisoner before she could leave the area.
*
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[[foldercontrol]]
Changed line(s) 4 (click to see context) from:
* AllThereInTheManual: This side-story expands on the history of the war.
to:
* AllThereInTheManual: This side-story expands on the history of the war.war, revealing the finer details of what's happened through interviews and narration.
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None
Added DiffLines:
[[folder: ''Case Files'']]
-> '''First Published:''' Mar. 31st 2014
* AllThereInTheManual: This side-story expands on the history of the war.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Marcus delivers a couple to the founder of the PER after she was captured, first asking her why she hasn't taken the potion for herself if she claimed to hate humanity and being a human so much. He then asks just how the Solar Empire ponies could be kind and peaceful if they're stealing humanity's home, vaporizing all of its history into nothing, and committing the worst kind of MindRape imaginable. She can't answer either of those, and instead resorts to hurling insults at Marcus and telling him that he will bow to Queen Celestia one day.
* CassandraTruth: One of the factors that led to the Harriet Thomas Foundation (a support group for people whose loved ones left them after getting ponified) becoming the Human Liberation Front was that the HTF's founder, a reverend named James Thomas (Harriet's father), failed to get the FDA to take his concerns about the potion seriously.
** As with TCB!Lyra - she was seen as crazy at first, or no different from the potion-happy forces of the Solar Empire.
* ContinuityNod: TCB!Lyra's commemoration of Queen Elizabeth and public declaration of her defection from the Solar Empire is lifted from the Asia Side Story.
* DarkMessiah: Dr. Jacqueline Dionna Reitman, the PER's founder, was regarded as a "high priestess" by her more fanatical followers.
* DocumentaryEpisode: This side-story is described by Redskin as being like "something you would see on [=TruTV=]".
* HandWave: According to the PER chapter, the reason that there were so few interviews with PER members is that most of them are dead, because "[[BerserkButton in the presence of most anyone that did not support the Solar Empire, their lifespan was best measured in minutes]]."
* HateSink: Dr. Jacqueline Dionna Reitman, the founder of the PER and TheQuisling to all of humanity. Sure, the Solar Empire ponies aren't exactly slouches when it comes to the war crimes and atrocities they've committed, but it's also clear they are [[spoiler:little more than pawns in the BiggerBad's master plan]]. Reitman meanwhile was a selfish opportunist who sold out her species for her own desires.
* HeroicSacrifice[-/-]LastStand: It's explained that TCB!Lyra was captured by the Empire in the aftermath of the famed "[[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds Battle of Thunderchild]]", wherein she commandeered a magically-enhanced CoolShip off the coast of Iceland to give the refugees there time to evacuate from the approaching Imperial forces. The diversion succeeded at the cost of the prototype ship's destruction and her getting taken prisoner before she could leave the area.
** HowDareYouDieOnMe: Thinking back, Marcus can't help but express this sentiment, though he quickly relents and admits the depth of his grief.
* KangarooCourt: TCB!Lyra's "trial" after being captured by the Solar Empire amounted to little more than this.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: The disgust which most characters express for the HLF's actions pales next to their utter contempt for the PER.
* {{Magitek}}: The creative ways the PHL find to combine technology and magic to further the war effort are lovingly detailed.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Dr. Reitman's initials make it clear that she's an unflattering stand-in for Chatoyance herself.
** The same goes for the pony supremacist unicorn Catseye, whose physical description matches Chatoyance's profile picture on Fimfiction.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: HLF supporter Senator Patrick Goleman seems to have been this.
* OhCrap: Lyra's reaction to finding out that the Harriet Thomas Foundation had become [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic the HLF]]:
-->... Lyra was on record as looking in fear for a couple seconds, saying simply, "This won't end well."
* ReassignedToAntarctica: What Marcus's reassignment as Ambassador Lyra's bodyguard was meant to be...
** ReassignmentBackfire: ... before he helped her shape the PHL into an effective military force.
* RetiredMonster: Some of the interviewees are former HLF members, such as Andrew Silas, Dayoung Tengku and Viktor Kraber. Granted, Andrew Silas' only crime was graffiti tagging Buckingham Palace, Dayoung Tengku only stuck with the HLF after they saved her from the PER and [[DefectorFromDecadence she left pretty quickly]], and Kraber is not [[TheAtoner anywhere near]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone okay with]] [[ShellShockedVeteran his past misdeeds]], and [[WordOfGod Word Of Fluffy]] is that he's suicidal due to the sheer guilt. Nonetheless, there's plenty of HLF members that qualify. There's also PER defector Ernst Kasparek, who left due to a crisis of conscience.
* ShownTheirWork: The mentions of landmarks in Riga, such as the Daugava and Cathedral Dome, are actual places.
* TakeThat: Again, several of them are applied to Chatoyance and to the TCB subgenre as a whole.
** TCB!Lyra acted as one against Chatoyance's version of earth as a diseased hellhole and her HumansAreBastards views:
-->'''Lyra:''' (to Aegis) "I've seen most humans, and I've visited many places all over Earth. Let me tell you this: they're not living in some dystopia where everything is owned by a greedy minority and every religion is some corrupt scam church like so many newfoals claim! Sure, it isn't perfect, but it's not as though they're riddled with kill-happy criminals, murderers, terrorist fanatics, and whatever else you can think of! They seem happy!"
** An unintended example popped up in Andrew Silas' interview where he mentions having known some trans individuals who came to regret going through with a sex reassignment operations (unlike the newfoals who never stop telling people how great ponification is no matter how long it's been since they were converted). Chatoyance once infamously put up a "support" website for transpeople advising them to ''cheat'' on psychiatric tests that would determine whether they were really trans and thus qualified for surgery. There probably are people out there that took her "advice" to heart...
*** [[http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/368799/okay-now-thats-pretty-funny According to Doctor Fluffy]], it ''was'' unintentional, but he thought the coincidence was funny and ultimately made it a straight TakeThat retroactively.
** Taken UpToEleven with the reveal that the PER's founder was a misanthropic doctor named Jacqueline Dionna Reitman. In other words, she shares the same initials as Chatoyance's real life name (Jennifer Diane Reitz). For that matter, the names even sound similar.
*** Also, while she's in federal custody, she gets punched in the face by an FBI interrogator (with an "audible crack" to go along with it) and receives a vicious TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Marcus.
** One PER agent being interrogated in a flashback clip is named Mikhailovitch. Mikhailovitch is the Russian equivalent of "Michelson," making him a Russian equivalent of Michelson from Chatoyance's infamous story ''The Speed of Right''. He even mentions another PER agent named Morely.
* TechnoBabble: A magical variant was given to Aegis while he was talking to TCB!Lyra. He did not understand it at all.
* TruthInTelevision: That mention of the "[[MoreDakka fire hedgehog]]"? That's [[http://englishrussia.com/2008/07/06/the-fire-hedgehog/ based on a real thing]].
* TurnInYourBadge: Spitfire quit the Wonderbolts after an argument with Rainbow Dash... which was quickly followed by ''the entire 'old guard' of the Wonderbolts''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: ''Adrift'']]
-> '''First Published:''' Nov. 24th 2014
* BadassCrew: Subverted with the Mamayev Kurgan's crew. While they are armed and dangerous, they consist of a bunch of misfits given control of an aging Russian ship.
** Downplayed in Segment Two. While the crew managed to subdue the SAS raiders, they suffered larger losses and only won due to the SAS team being convinced to lay down their arms in exchange for medical equipment.
* TheCameo: Stellar spots a wounded Aegis in the aftermath of the car bomb.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Stellar has some shades of this. For instance, he inexplicably thinks there are humanoid robots in St. Paul's Cathedral.
* {{Celebrity Paradox}}: A variant of this trope is used. As [[spoiler:Sherlock Holmes]] is stated to be a living person in the Spectrumverse, the interviewer (implied to be [[spoiler:Mycroft Holmes]]) is utterly perplexed when Stellar mentions [[spoiler:''Sherclop Pones'']].
* CelebritySurvivor: Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
* {{Continuity Nod}}:
** Stellar mentions and witnessed the aftermath of the car bomb meant to kill Lyra, and saw a wounded Aegis on the scene as well.
** The USS Gerald R. Ford is mentioned to be in the North Sea; it appeared in the same location in the Europe side story.
* {{Crossover}}: The detective Stellar runs into is very heavily implied to be [[spoiler:Sherlock Holmes]]. His name, "William Scott", matches [[spoiler:Sherlock's full name in the [[Series/{{Sherlock}} show]]]] - William Scott [[spoiler:Sherlock Holmes]].
* CrypticBackgroundReference: The end of the first segment show several related files. While the first few file names have something to do with the chapter, the meaning of the last one (named Project Eris) isn't explained.
* CuteClumsyGirl: Ana.
* DeadpanSnarker: The interviewer. As he's heavily implied to be [[spoiler:Mycroft Holmes]], it's rather natural.
* TheDreaded: The Special Air Service is this to Viktor and the rest of the human crew.
* EpicFail:
** Ana somehow ending up in Blackburn ''through the London Underground''.
** Stellar and the smugglers failing to identify ''a foreign head of state'' on board their ship.
* FailedASpotCheck: Stellar and his fellow crewmates managed to miss the fact that they have a foreign president (and an old, abdicated king) on board. The interviewer lampshades this repeatedly.
* FramingDevice: The whole story is presented as an interview recording.
* FiveManBand: The main escorts of the Mamayev Kurgan.
** TheLeader: Viktor
** TheLancer: Grigori
** TheBigGuy: Dimitri
** TheSmartGuy: Stellar/Dimitri
** TheChick: Ana
** SixthRanger: Stellar, arguably, being the only non human in the team.
* TheGhost: The smugglers' boss. And to an extent, the organization the smugglers work for isn't named.
* InSeriesNickname: The interviewer is called the Umbrella Man by Stellar.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: See NoodleIncident below.
* LighterAndSofter: Somewhat less dark in tone than the other Spectrumverse stories, in stark contrast with ''Light Despondent'' and ''Last Train''.
* LowerDeckEpisode
* MacGuffin: The stolen missiles are a downplayed variant.
* TheMenInBlack: The interviewer is called one of these by Stellar.
* MotorMouth: Stellar Wind, for some parts of the interview.
* NoodleIncident: The interviewer has had a run-in with Aegis before. He doesn't want to talk about it.
* NoNameGiven[-/-] OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Interviewer refuses to give away his name, resulting in Stellar deciding to call him the Umbrella Man.
* ObliviousToLove: It's implied that Ana has feelings for Stellar. He doesn't notice.
* OneWordTitle
* ThePollyanna: Stellar is this, combined with UnfazedEveryman.
** StepfordSmiler: However, he also has a lot of inner pain and sadness, making him sort of a SadClown.
* RagtagBandOfMisfits: The smugglers. And by extension, the rest of the passengers.
* SuddenlyShouting: Stellar does this when talking about Viktor Kraber, who is still a member of the HLF at this point. Apparently, Kraber managed to blow two bureaus into oblivion, and killed most of the ponies in Innsbruck, Austria.
* VodkaDrunkenski: Crewmember Nikolai Belinski. [[spoiler: His drunken behavior leads to a shootout between Jokowi's guards and the crew, as well as the SAS raid]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: ''Many Faces Of Mankind'']]
-> '''First Published:''' March 05th 2015
* AscendedExtra: Yael Ze'ev reappears here.
* ContinuityNod: There's a mention of a guy named Polmont throwing a bottle at Reverend James Thomas' face, which was referenced in ''Light''.
* CallForward:
** Yael claims that the reason she hates the HLF so much is that the thought of contending with them during evac when the barrierfalls scares her. She namedrops both Atlas Galt and Truro, Nova Scotia in this, foreshadowing the events of ''Last Train''. There's also a mention of possibly getting [[GenderBender genderbent]] while being ponified.
* DocumentaryEpisode: Though unlike ''Case Files'', this story reads as an extended magazine article with several different interviews interspersed here and there.
* TheUnreveal: Kraber and Aegis have a CrypticConversation about whatever it was that ponified Verity. It reveals... absolutely nothing.
[[/folder]]
-> '''First Published:''' Mar. 31st 2014
* AllThereInTheManual: This side-story expands on the history of the war.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Marcus delivers a couple to the founder of the PER after she was captured, first asking her why she hasn't taken the potion for herself if she claimed to hate humanity and being a human so much. He then asks just how the Solar Empire ponies could be kind and peaceful if they're stealing humanity's home, vaporizing all of its history into nothing, and committing the worst kind of MindRape imaginable. She can't answer either of those, and instead resorts to hurling insults at Marcus and telling him that he will bow to Queen Celestia one day.
* CassandraTruth: One of the factors that led to the Harriet Thomas Foundation (a support group for people whose loved ones left them after getting ponified) becoming the Human Liberation Front was that the HTF's founder, a reverend named James Thomas (Harriet's father), failed to get the FDA to take his concerns about the potion seriously.
** As with TCB!Lyra - she was seen as crazy at first, or no different from the potion-happy forces of the Solar Empire.
* ContinuityNod: TCB!Lyra's commemoration of Queen Elizabeth and public declaration of her defection from the Solar Empire is lifted from the Asia Side Story.
* DarkMessiah: Dr. Jacqueline Dionna Reitman, the PER's founder, was regarded as a "high priestess" by her more fanatical followers.
* DocumentaryEpisode: This side-story is described by Redskin as being like "something you would see on [=TruTV=]".
* HandWave: According to the PER chapter, the reason that there were so few interviews with PER members is that most of them are dead, because "[[BerserkButton in the presence of most anyone that did not support the Solar Empire, their lifespan was best measured in minutes]]."
* HateSink: Dr. Jacqueline Dionna Reitman, the founder of the PER and TheQuisling to all of humanity. Sure, the Solar Empire ponies aren't exactly slouches when it comes to the war crimes and atrocities they've committed, but it's also clear they are [[spoiler:little more than pawns in the BiggerBad's master plan]]. Reitman meanwhile was a selfish opportunist who sold out her species for her own desires.
* HeroicSacrifice[-/-]LastStand: It's explained that TCB!Lyra was captured by the Empire in the aftermath of the famed "[[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds Battle of Thunderchild]]", wherein she commandeered a magically-enhanced CoolShip off the coast of Iceland to give the refugees there time to evacuate from the approaching Imperial forces. The diversion succeeded at the cost of the prototype ship's destruction and her getting taken prisoner before she could leave the area.
** HowDareYouDieOnMe: Thinking back, Marcus can't help but express this sentiment, though he quickly relents and admits the depth of his grief.
* KangarooCourt: TCB!Lyra's "trial" after being captured by the Solar Empire amounted to little more than this.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: The disgust which most characters express for the HLF's actions pales next to their utter contempt for the PER.
* {{Magitek}}: The creative ways the PHL find to combine technology and magic to further the war effort are lovingly detailed.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Dr. Reitman's initials make it clear that she's an unflattering stand-in for Chatoyance herself.
** The same goes for the pony supremacist unicorn Catseye, whose physical description matches Chatoyance's profile picture on Fimfiction.
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: HLF supporter Senator Patrick Goleman seems to have been this.
* OhCrap: Lyra's reaction to finding out that the Harriet Thomas Foundation had become [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic the HLF]]:
-->... Lyra was on record as looking in fear for a couple seconds, saying simply, "This won't end well."
* ReassignedToAntarctica: What Marcus's reassignment as Ambassador Lyra's bodyguard was meant to be...
** ReassignmentBackfire: ... before he helped her shape the PHL into an effective military force.
* RetiredMonster: Some of the interviewees are former HLF members, such as Andrew Silas, Dayoung Tengku and Viktor Kraber. Granted, Andrew Silas' only crime was graffiti tagging Buckingham Palace, Dayoung Tengku only stuck with the HLF after they saved her from the PER and [[DefectorFromDecadence she left pretty quickly]], and Kraber is not [[TheAtoner anywhere near]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone okay with]] [[ShellShockedVeteran his past misdeeds]], and [[WordOfGod Word Of Fluffy]] is that he's suicidal due to the sheer guilt. Nonetheless, there's plenty of HLF members that qualify. There's also PER defector Ernst Kasparek, who left due to a crisis of conscience.
* ShownTheirWork: The mentions of landmarks in Riga, such as the Daugava and Cathedral Dome, are actual places.
* TakeThat: Again, several of them are applied to Chatoyance and to the TCB subgenre as a whole.
** TCB!Lyra acted as one against Chatoyance's version of earth as a diseased hellhole and her HumansAreBastards views:
-->'''Lyra:''' (to Aegis) "I've seen most humans, and I've visited many places all over Earth. Let me tell you this: they're not living in some dystopia where everything is owned by a greedy minority and every religion is some corrupt scam church like so many newfoals claim! Sure, it isn't perfect, but it's not as though they're riddled with kill-happy criminals, murderers, terrorist fanatics, and whatever else you can think of! They seem happy!"
** An unintended example popped up in Andrew Silas' interview where he mentions having known some trans individuals who came to regret going through with a sex reassignment operations (unlike the newfoals who never stop telling people how great ponification is no matter how long it's been since they were converted). Chatoyance once infamously put up a "support" website for transpeople advising them to ''cheat'' on psychiatric tests that would determine whether they were really trans and thus qualified for surgery. There probably are people out there that took her "advice" to heart...
*** [[http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/368799/okay-now-thats-pretty-funny According to Doctor Fluffy]], it ''was'' unintentional, but he thought the coincidence was funny and ultimately made it a straight TakeThat retroactively.
** Taken UpToEleven with the reveal that the PER's founder was a misanthropic doctor named Jacqueline Dionna Reitman. In other words, she shares the same initials as Chatoyance's real life name (Jennifer Diane Reitz). For that matter, the names even sound similar.
*** Also, while she's in federal custody, she gets punched in the face by an FBI interrogator (with an "audible crack" to go along with it) and receives a vicious TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Marcus.
** One PER agent being interrogated in a flashback clip is named Mikhailovitch. Mikhailovitch is the Russian equivalent of "Michelson," making him a Russian equivalent of Michelson from Chatoyance's infamous story ''The Speed of Right''. He even mentions another PER agent named Morely.
* TechnoBabble: A magical variant was given to Aegis while he was talking to TCB!Lyra. He did not understand it at all.
* TruthInTelevision: That mention of the "[[MoreDakka fire hedgehog]]"? That's [[http://englishrussia.com/2008/07/06/the-fire-hedgehog/ based on a real thing]].
* TurnInYourBadge: Spitfire quit the Wonderbolts after an argument with Rainbow Dash... which was quickly followed by ''the entire 'old guard' of the Wonderbolts''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: ''Adrift'']]
-> '''First Published:''' Nov. 24th 2014
* BadassCrew: Subverted with the Mamayev Kurgan's crew. While they are armed and dangerous, they consist of a bunch of misfits given control of an aging Russian ship.
** Downplayed in Segment Two. While the crew managed to subdue the SAS raiders, they suffered larger losses and only won due to the SAS team being convinced to lay down their arms in exchange for medical equipment.
* TheCameo: Stellar spots a wounded Aegis in the aftermath of the car bomb.
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Stellar has some shades of this. For instance, he inexplicably thinks there are humanoid robots in St. Paul's Cathedral.
* {{Celebrity Paradox}}: A variant of this trope is used. As [[spoiler:Sherlock Holmes]] is stated to be a living person in the Spectrumverse, the interviewer (implied to be [[spoiler:Mycroft Holmes]]) is utterly perplexed when Stellar mentions [[spoiler:''Sherclop Pones'']].
* CelebritySurvivor: Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
* {{Continuity Nod}}:
** Stellar mentions and witnessed the aftermath of the car bomb meant to kill Lyra, and saw a wounded Aegis on the scene as well.
** The USS Gerald R. Ford is mentioned to be in the North Sea; it appeared in the same location in the Europe side story.
* {{Crossover}}: The detective Stellar runs into is very heavily implied to be [[spoiler:Sherlock Holmes]]. His name, "William Scott", matches [[spoiler:Sherlock's full name in the [[Series/{{Sherlock}} show]]]] - William Scott [[spoiler:Sherlock Holmes]].
* CrypticBackgroundReference: The end of the first segment show several related files. While the first few file names have something to do with the chapter, the meaning of the last one (named Project Eris) isn't explained.
* CuteClumsyGirl: Ana.
* DeadpanSnarker: The interviewer. As he's heavily implied to be [[spoiler:Mycroft Holmes]], it's rather natural.
* TheDreaded: The Special Air Service is this to Viktor and the rest of the human crew.
* EpicFail:
** Ana somehow ending up in Blackburn ''through the London Underground''.
** Stellar and the smugglers failing to identify ''a foreign head of state'' on board their ship.
* FailedASpotCheck: Stellar and his fellow crewmates managed to miss the fact that they have a foreign president (and an old, abdicated king) on board. The interviewer lampshades this repeatedly.
* FramingDevice: The whole story is presented as an interview recording.
* FiveManBand: The main escorts of the Mamayev Kurgan.
** TheLeader: Viktor
** TheLancer: Grigori
** TheBigGuy: Dimitri
** TheSmartGuy: Stellar/Dimitri
** TheChick: Ana
** SixthRanger: Stellar, arguably, being the only non human in the team.
* TheGhost: The smugglers' boss. And to an extent, the organization the smugglers work for isn't named.
* InSeriesNickname: The interviewer is called the Umbrella Man by Stellar.
* LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain: See NoodleIncident below.
* LighterAndSofter: Somewhat less dark in tone than the other Spectrumverse stories, in stark contrast with ''Light Despondent'' and ''Last Train''.
* LowerDeckEpisode
* MacGuffin: The stolen missiles are a downplayed variant.
* TheMenInBlack: The interviewer is called one of these by Stellar.
* MotorMouth: Stellar Wind, for some parts of the interview.
* NoodleIncident: The interviewer has had a run-in with Aegis before. He doesn't want to talk about it.
* NoNameGiven[-/-] OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Interviewer refuses to give away his name, resulting in Stellar deciding to call him the Umbrella Man.
* ObliviousToLove: It's implied that Ana has feelings for Stellar. He doesn't notice.
* OneWordTitle
* ThePollyanna: Stellar is this, combined with UnfazedEveryman.
** StepfordSmiler: However, he also has a lot of inner pain and sadness, making him sort of a SadClown.
* RagtagBandOfMisfits: The smugglers. And by extension, the rest of the passengers.
* SuddenlyShouting: Stellar does this when talking about Viktor Kraber, who is still a member of the HLF at this point. Apparently, Kraber managed to blow two bureaus into oblivion, and killed most of the ponies in Innsbruck, Austria.
* VodkaDrunkenski: Crewmember Nikolai Belinski. [[spoiler: His drunken behavior leads to a shootout between Jokowi's guards and the crew, as well as the SAS raid]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: ''Many Faces Of Mankind'']]
-> '''First Published:''' March 05th 2015
* AscendedExtra: Yael Ze'ev reappears here.
* ContinuityNod: There's a mention of a guy named Polmont throwing a bottle at Reverend James Thomas' face, which was referenced in ''Light''.
* CallForward:
** Yael claims that the reason she hates the HLF so much is that the thought of contending with them during evac when the barrierfalls scares her. She namedrops both Atlas Galt and Truro, Nova Scotia in this, foreshadowing the events of ''Last Train''. There's also a mention of possibly getting [[GenderBender genderbent]] while being ponified.
* DocumentaryEpisode: Though unlike ''Case Files'', this story reads as an extended magazine article with several different interviews interspersed here and there.
* TheUnreveal: Kraber and Aegis have a CrypticConversation about whatever it was that ponified Verity. It reveals... absolutely nothing.
[[/folder]]
