History Fanfic / TheKeysStandAlone

* CatchPhrase: "Don't fuck with Nine Thousands!"

* EnemyScan: ''Everyone'' seems to have this, so that one of the very first things a newcomer needs to get is a masking amulet. Because the four initially lack such protection, their extreme power is on display for the whole world to see, which causes them no end of problems (and almost immediately gets them nicknamed the Awesome Foursome). On the other hand, the reaction of one woman as they pass in front of her scanning device provides them with a personal CatchPhrase for the rest of the book.

* OverNineThousand: John overhears some vaguely supervillain-ish people [[EnemyScan scanning the other three]], at which point they scream the exact lines from ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. From then on, the four ironically refer to themselves as being "Nine Thousands" whenever they talk about going up against someone, or they need to complete a difficult task. They even gain a CatchPhrase:

* SenseLossSadness: Taken UpToEleven with Ringo. Quite often he is unable to use his mindsight thanks to nearly everyone and everything being masked, and he becomes so depressed (and {{Wangst}}y) when he's blocked that, among other things, he's easily manipulated by the Guardians. Conversely, when he gets it back, he becomes intoxicated with joy.

* {{Telepathy}}: John proves unable to do anything except talk with his water-telepathy; he can't even take information from an unwilling mind.

* RealityEnsues: The four are quite aware that just because they're insanely powerful doesn't mean they're good at adventuring. In particular, George and Ringo make lousy disguised spies because they're always accidentally revealing things about themselves. And Ringo finds during the incident at Boidan Valley that he's terrible at nonmagical surveillance.

''Keys'' is just as {{Troperiffic}} as ''Strings'' was, possibly more so. There is, of course, trope overlap between the two books. Here are some of the more important ones in regards to ''The Soft World'' (and there will be many, many more in the individual trope pages):
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* WhatIsEvil: The four have several discussions about the new presence of good and evil in C'hou, classifying things as "good good", "good evil", "evil good" and "evil evil". They come to the conclusion that they're the only good goods in the world (even classifying the gods as evil good), and they struggle with the ethical implications of supporting an evil good or good evil Power Group.

->''“Y'know what we'd prefer?” [[Music/JohnLennon John]] put his hands on the little man's shoulders, gently turned him around, and gave him a small shove. “If you just got your IRS outta here. We've better things to do than stand about talkin' nonsense with you.”''

->''With a very sad look, the little man turned back to him. “Are you gentlemen intimating that you aren't going to pay your rightful tax? I must warn you that on confirmation of nonpayment, I am authorized to employ penalty methods.”''

->''“Penalty methods! Oh, no!” John slapped his hands to his face in an exaggerated show of fear.''

->''The little man said sternly, “Your feeble attempt at levity is noted. I will give you one more chance to pay your entry tax. Otherwise I will implement the penalty methods.”''

->''They smirked among themselves. “Go to it,” said [[Music/PaulMcCartney Paul]], folding his arms over his chest.''

->''“As you wish.” He dropped his briefcase and backed up.''

->''Then he started to grow. And as he grew, his shape bulged outward, turned purple, sprouted horns and fangs and claws, developed a scaly hide, and grew and grew and GREW—''

->''—and seconds later the no-longer-laughing four were staring up in shock at a giant, slavering purple monster that grabbed John in a hand the size of a phone booth and lifted him towards its mouth!''

Alternating between trying to figure out what's expected of them and earning enough money to survive, they endure various annoying encounters until they finally manage to meet with the much-enfeebled Pyar gods, who tell them they've been brought over to lend their formidable magic to one of the Power Groups and help them defeat the Black Tower. The four ''really'' don't want to do this, but they have no choice—if the gods die, they're stuck there forever. Though their distaste is tempered by their promised reward: if they do support the successful Power Group, they'll be given a way to take their magic home with them.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Tayhil.

* ArcWords: “Speak the problem and it will be solved.” The entire world seems to be swimming in Arc Words (labeled Gods Chat by [[Music/GeorgeHarrison George]] after he hears that the Pyar gods might be providing them) in graffiti, on message boards, etc, but this particular phrase comes up most frequently, and the four lampshade it on occasion.
* AutoKitchen: The Infinity chain of restaurants serves as a fast-food Auto Kitchen wherever one appears; you can literally go in and order anything you want and get it in minutes.
** The Anything store is an “Auto Kitchen” for ordinary items.
* BadassPacifist: The four, especially Paul, essentially define this trope. They manage to solve most of their problems, and their quests, without resorting to violence; and early on, simply by walking around and having stuff bounce off them (as well as being power-scanned by all and sundry), they earn the nickname “Awesome Foursome.” They also destroy as many weapons as they can.

* BullyingADragon: The four are known to be some of the most powerful individuals on C'hou—at ''least'' powerful enough to be able to get a white key on their own, an operation that usually takes dozens of people (and they'd be more freaked out if they knew that Paul did it mostly by himself). While most people are ''waaay'' too sensible to cross them, they tend to get attacked a lot anyway. Being [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifists]], they school their attackers in creative and often humiliating ways.
* TheCallHasBadReception: This is as annoying as all hell to the four when it turns out that instead of being “nice and straightforward” about what they want the four to do, as was the case in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', the Pyar gods usually just throw riddles and (crappy) poems and mysterious statements at them and expect them to figure out what's required.
* CatchPhrase / SharePhrase: “Don't fuck with Nine Thousands!”

* {{Courier}}: Paul and George get thrust into this role by the Guardians. After the “debacle” by George and John the previous day, the only mission that the Guardians will give them is a boring courier mission to a distant coastal town. Though things get a lot livelier when the recipient of their delivery turns out to have been missing for several days.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Since the four pretty much viewed C'hou as a CrapsackWorld in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', they are initially pleased by the changes wrought by the Pyar gods when they return. The new city Tevri'ed is beautiful and full of interesting things, money is easy to make, and the guards are friendly and helpful. In particular they like the new inhabitants, the G'heddi'onians, who are pleasant and civilized. Less than a day later, they've been jumped five times by both outworlders and inhabitants, and within a few more days they thoroughly hate the “Geddies,” who viciously turn on the four when they don't act heroic in the proper way.
* DeerInTheHeadlights: Played with. Paul, both awed by [[HumongousMecha Lord Equus]] and trashed out of his mind, simply stares at the approaching horse mecha until it kicks him over the valley.
** Also, when Paul is grabbed by the Octo-Bot and slammed around in the cave, George and John can do nothing except fall over laughing.

* DeterioratesIntoGibberish: When the four use the white key to visit the entrapped Pyar gods, they're told that the key endowed the gods with temporary coherence. After a brief and mostly unhelpful conversation, the three gods sink into gibberish before fading away. Later, when John is powering their boat through the Hungry Sea, he starts to spout gibberish as well. [[spoiler: This is actually an important plot point, since it points to the curse of incoherence that was placed upon the Last Wizard centuries ago. When they encounter her, they figure out that the [[ArcWords ubiquitous saying]] “Speak the problem and it will be solved” is finally relevant in this situation, and George breaks the curse on her by telling her that she's cursed not to be able to speak.]]
* DirtyMindReading: Inverted. Any time the four think their minds are being read, they deliberately think things like “Fuck you!” to see if the supposed telepath reacts. Most of the time nothing results, so either their minds are not being read, or the telepaths are inured to that kind of thing.
** Except when the unfortunate John has an extremely one-sided telepathic conversation with Trelayna, where she first chides him for using profanity in his thoughts, then yells at him for slandering her with half-formed ideas.

* DramaBomb: In ''The Keys Stand Alone'', there's a doozy. John has just rescued Ringo and himself from a roomful of nasty psionics, and they're currently lying on their “default” mesa, with John laughing hysterically at his triumph. But Ringo is still under the psionics' mental influence and demands to be taken back. When John tries to snap him out of it, Ringo ''throws him over the side of the mesa''. While John is still wearing his cloak and, hence, his wings are bound. Which ''does'' snap Ringo out of it. This little event causes a seismic shift in the way the four deal with the Power Groups from then on.
* TheDreaded: The Black Tower and its minions the Tayhil. Both are synonymous with death and destruction.

* DreadfulMusician: Terb the bard is a Dreadful Musician with a magical lute. Only professional musicians are immune to it and can hear the music for what it really is—and George is so annoyed by the pub crowd's approval of the lousy music that he gets up on stage with his guitar to show everyone what ''real'' playing is.

* EnemyScan: ''Everyone'' seems to have this, so that one of the very first things a newcomer needs to get is a masking amulet. Because the four initially lack such protection, their extreme power is on display for the whole world to see, which causes them no end of problems (and almost immediately gets them nicknamed the Awesome Foursome).
** On the other hand, the reaction of one woman as they pass in front of her scanning device provides them with a personal CatchPhrase for the rest of the book.
*** Don't fuck with Nine Thousands!
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Sort of, if you accept that the four are the only “good goods” on C'hou. Everyone else is baffled by their refusal to kill or even harm things.
* EvilTowerOfOminousness: The Black Tower.

** Knowing that outworlders have a tendency to attack other outworlders, and that people who are unjustly attacked and win get to keep their opponents' stuff, Paul successfully gets the mine-robbers to attack him—literally just by standing there and politely asking them questions—after which the four mop the floor with them and get a bunch of useful stuff as well as more than enough money to pay off their library fine.
* FunetikAksent: Played for some ironic effect, when different outworlders have different weird accents that are visually depicted—and where people are always commenting on the four as having weird accents. (At one point they're referred to as “those four guys with the funny accents.”)
* GadgeteerGenius: Theecat Stefnable. He describes himself as a “genius tinkerer and rogue for hire.”
* GottaCatchThemAll: The Nine-part Key.
** Also the set of instructions as to how to put the Key together and use it.
* HeroicBSOD: Ringo has one after he throws John over a cliff (he was still suffering the effects of being very subtly {{mind control}}led).
** Similarly, Paul has a BSOD after he goes to high strength and throws his captor through several trees.

* HumongousMecha: The “Lord Equus” form of Theecat's equibots.
* IShallTauntYou: Or, in the case of the four “I shall make myself an easy target so you will attack me, I will defeat you, and I will take all your stuff.”
* ImNotAHeroIm: In a case of ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, George says this several times, and the others agree with him. All four hate being singled out to go on quests and perform heroic acts, especially when there are lots of other powerful, competent outworlders around to do these things—not to mention the city guards, who never do anything in these situations despite being the local cops. As John puts it, “We can't solve everyone's problems.”
* ImpossibleTask: The Tipaan arc is centered around an impossible task given by the Circle—the four have to somehow retrieve an extremely well-protected musical instrument.

* ItsUpToYou: This trope appears several times and makes the four crazy. Example: Paul and George (accompanied by the Guardian Spectrem) travel to the village of Chandalla to deliver some supplies to a botanist. Upon arriving, they're told the botanist has been missing for two days, and the mayor begs them to find him. To which George says, “Wait, we're just here to give him some stuff. We're not detectives.” But Spectrem firmly pledges their help. George asks him why the guards haven't already gone looking for the guy, or why they would expect these delivery men to suddenly become part of a search party. Spectrem's answer is an irritated, “How should I know?”

* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: The four openly reject this trope. They're always being asked to do things like locate missing people and save dying children. George and John in particular make a point of asking “Why do ''we'' have to do this when there are guards around, or other outworlders around, who could do it?”
* MuggingTheMonster: Oh, do the four love this trope. It comes into play ''every time someone attacks them'', and they make quite a bit of money this way, thanks to the Blameless Victim Revenge Law—-if you're attacked for no reason and you win, you legally get to keep anything you want off the attackers. And since the four never once initiate an attack or do anything to encourage one besides walking around.... They call it “fishing.”

* NiceGuy: Played with. Whereas the four are [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifists]] and fiercely cling to that status despite the semi-war waging around them, and they're not depraved or anything, they aren't portrayed as “Nice Guys,” even Ringo, who, despite having that status in [[Music/RingoStarr real life]], in the book is having major addiction problems that screw with his overall Nice-Guyness. However, ''compared to everyone else there'', they come off as the Nice Guys, particularly Paul, who takes care to be polite to everyone who isn't actually attacking him. (It must be noted, however, that underneath the veneer of politeness Paul is often seething with anger or jealousy and needs his “background noise” to keep himself on an even keel.)
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: The four practically live this trope, getting chased by mobs or fined because they didn't save the day in the right way. Things get to the point where they simply refuse to help anyone out any more (also partially because they neither want to be considered heroes nor want to do anything except take down the BigBad so they can go home—and if they could get home some other way they'd gladly do that and leave the world to rot).

* TheOnlyOne: The four get so sick of this trope that they basically end up saying, “No, we're ''not'' the only ones who can do this. Fuck off.”
* OnlySaneMan: Actually, the only sane ''men'' are the four, who seem to be the only ones on C'hou who notice the sheer insanity of how the world works; for example, they explore a monster-infested ruin and and ask reasonable questions, like “Why don't the monsters eat each other? What do they live on? Why did they design the place so crazily? Why are treasure chests just lying around?”
** [[spoiler: Later it turns out there are plenty of other sane people; it's just that they have a reason for pretending not to notice the insanity.]]
* OurCentaursAreDifferent: [[VoluntaryShapeshifting George]] becomes a centaur frequently, both to carry Ringo and to trot along with serious stamina and still be able to talk. In that shape he's extremely hairy, he's terrified of things that smell like predators, and he has good hearing and night vision. He defaults to a heavy warmblood horse-half rather than a sleek Arabian, so he's not very fast (though he could certainly do a sleeker one if he wanted).
* OverNineThousand: John overhears some vaguely supervillain-ish people [[EnemyScan scanning the other three]], at which point they scream the exact lines from ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. From then on, the four ironically refer to themselves as being “Nine Thousands” whenever they talk about going up against someone, or they need to complete a difficult task. They even gain a CatchPhrase:
** ''"No, wait," John said, a note of weary but evil craft in his mental voice. "They ''should'' know what hit 'em. Teach 'em not to fuck with Nine Thousands."''
* ThePerilsOfBeingTheBest: Experienced by the four after a trio of baddies scan them and discover how outrageously powerful they are. This leads one of the baddies, the [[SuperStrength super-strong]] but quite stupid Lieyla, to immediately stalk after Paul and hit him, since she'd been spoiling for a fight and didn't think he could take ''her'' punch. (Boy, is she surprised when [[NighInvulnerable he bounces back up]] and asks why she did that.) Anyway, from then on the four worry that they're going to be targeted by “every prat with something to prove.”
* PokeInTheThirdEye: In a rare example of a hero poking a villain, Ringo turns out to do this naturally to unshielded telepaths who try to read his mind while he's using his mindsight. Besides giving them the mental equivalent of a sunburn, he also instantly addicts them to his mindsight! He's also so “loud” and pervasive that if he's looking at someone that mental scanners are trying to locate, they have to raise their shields so strongly to protect themselves that they can perceive only him.

* PortalNetwork: The jump gates.
* PowerEqualsRarity: In spades.
* PowerHigh: While all of the four experienced Power Highs in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', by ''The Keys Stand Alone'' only Paul and Ringo still do in significant ways. Paul gets high off the “background noise” of his magic. He is not, however, addicted to it. Ringo, on the other hand, is so thoroughly addicted to his mindsight that he goes into withdrawal when he's blocked and thinks he'll kill himself if he has to go back to Earth without it again.
** Paul also discovers that absorbing energy gives him a rush as well—-and, when he was hit by two lightning bolts in rapid succession, he also got drunk and had an orgasm.
* PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime: Lampshaded to hellangone. Right from the start the four encounter a poem carved in a wall. John immediately sneers at how bad it is, and complains that if it's meant for them, he does not want to be communicated to that way. They soon run into more poems and lines of poetry, all bad (“Hooray, more shitty poetry!” John cries at one point). When they find out that the gods wrote some of this stuff, John sniffs, “Well, now we know they ain't the gods of poetry.”)
* PunchPunchPunchUhOh: Lots of people, including the muggers, Lieyla of the “Terrible Trio,” Spectrem of the Guardians, and the mine-robbers at Boidan Mine, find out what a waste of time it is to try and hurt [[NighInvulnerable Paul]].

* SequelEscalation: The four return to a C'hou now loaded with monsters and threatened by an all-encompassing evil; they have to help defeat it and save the planet and the lives of three gods. Rather a bit bigger than “Find the three pieces of the Vasyn to remove a curse from the continent of Ketafa”!

* SharePhrase: After John talks about teaching muggers not to fuck with Nine Thousands, all four end up using the phrase “Don't fuck with Nine Thousands” on multiple occasions.
* SheatheYourSword: This is pretty much how Paul wins--er, ends battles. Since he's both an ActualPacifist and NighInvulnerable, he just stands there or walks along and lets people pound on him until they give up, get distracted, or get captured by one of the others.

* SignatureMove: John has two: dehydrating people and binding them up with warm ice. Both are nonlethal and carefully calculated to do no real harm.
** Paul might have a Signature Move, if standing there and getting hit until one of the others thinks of something to do is a “move.”
* SmallStepsHero: Various takes on this trope. Although the overarching task is to defeat the Black Tower, both the Guardians and the Circle spent an awful lot of time doing the small stuff, like rescuing kidnapped babies, looking for missing people, and intervening in disputes, which is drastically drawing out the conflict. By contrast, [[spoiler: the Focus]] sneers at this “dust work” and is committed to the larger task only, reasoning that all the bad stuff will stop when the Black Tower goes down. Although the four are not normally so callous as to ignore pleas for aid, they're terribly burned out from being begged for help, which seems to happen every five minutes. Thus, they find themselves agreeing with [[spoiler: the Focus]] and joining them.
* SomedayThisWillComeInHandy: The four are advised to collect the sayings, poem lines, and other bits of graffiti and trivia found just about everywhere. They're told that these strange things are the feeble attempts of the gods to communicate with the outworlders and have meanings that might not become evident for a long time. George dubs them Gods Chat and keeps a list of sayings. As it turns out, one specific phrase is crucial to ''everything.''
* SomebodyElsesProblem: The G'heddi'onians and their guards appear to feel that the marauding hordes of the Black Tower and the impending death of the Pyar gods are Somebody Else's Problem—that is, these problems are there for the outworlders to fix.

-->Suddenly the Scheme-Maker thumped her fist on the table and grinned. “So! Seems impossible to touch Cloud Horn. Recalcitrant owners. Deadly consequences if caught stealing. Can't give much in way of resources, since seems like a waste. Have to use own gear. Still, only Key mission now. Welcome to try. Want?”
-->The four looked at one another, knowing they were all of the same mind. “I reckon we'll have a bash,” said Paul. “We're a bit good at the impossible.”
-->“Especially the impossible at a luxury resort,” murmured John.

** Chapter 24, when the boat that three of them are in falls apart in rough water—and George's ring chooses that moment to stick, and he drowns.

* WhatIsEvil: The four have several discussions about the new presence of good and evil in C'hou, classifying things as “good good,” “good evil,” “evil good,” and “evil evil.” They come to the conclusion that they're the only good goods in the world (even classifying the gods as evil good), and they struggle with the ethical implications of supporting an evil good or good evil Power Group.

** The skahs (aka the Natives), who have no concepts for “good” and “evil,” sneer at people who tell them when they're behaving in a good or evil fashion. “We don't listen when they say those stupid things.”

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: Played for laughs, where people often make note of the accents of the four as being really weird—-when ''every single outworlder on C'hou'' has a weird accent!
** Even other characters recognize this as ridiculous; when Terb mentions that John and George have funny accents, Folse brushes him off with “So does everyone.”
* WhoWritesThisCrap: John complains a lot about the rotten poetry clues they keep getting. When someone tells him the gods wrote the stuff, he says, “Well, now we know they ain't the gods of poetry.”
* WildCard: Although in their own minds the four are the only true “good goods” in the rebooted C'hou, they are TrueNeutral to everyone else, and they spend some time trying to figure out which Power Group to join in order to further their own goals, which are to get home and bring their magic with them. They ''do not'' want to be on C'hou, especially in such a violent situation, and they ''do not care'' about the Black Tower and its evil; as George puts it, “These aren't ''my'' fights... get it?” But ''everyone'' views them as the keys to victory/winning the Black Tower quest, and there is considerable infighting between the Power Groups (at first) to gain control of them—until everyone gets pissed off at the four (and vice versa) for various reasons.
* WorldOfBadass: Probably the revamped C'hou qualifies, given that there are over 20,000 outworlders who have been selected by the gods to help them overcome the Black Tower; 50,000 live-for-combat skahs; city guards who are tougher than a good percentage of the previous two groups; and some of the G'heddi'onians, like the wizards who rule the city of Daarthayu.
** Ironically, the four most powerful people on the planet are [[BadassPacifist Badass Pacifists]] who only occasionally slide into (resolutely nonlethal) MartialPacifist territory.

* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: The entire reason the four adopt the SharePhrase “Don't fuck with Nine Thousands.” Though they almost always end up saying it ''after'' schooling someone in why they should be left alone.
* ZombieAdvocate: Being [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifists]], the four strongly oppose killing-—well, everything, but most specifically for trope purposes, the Tayhil, the murderous snakemen who are the chief minions of the Black Tower and the #1 enemy of all other humans on C'hou. Indeed, the four are so concerned that all the baddies will be wiped out when the Black Tower falls that they're willing to use the wishes the Pyar gods promised them to save the creatures.

* SecondHandStorytelling: Happens several times to emphasize just how superior the four are to most of their opponents, and how meaningless most of the fights are; the fights are so one-sided and trivial that there's no point in depicting them directly. Like, for example, when John and Ringo effortlessly take out four ninjas about to ambush them in their hotel room; the reader sees only the CrowningMomentOfFunny aftermath.

* ARealManIsAKiller: Averted hard. For example, George's stubborn refusal to participate in a battle even as a courier ''really'' horks off Bayr.

[[caption-width-right:350:Cover art by [[TheDesertPeach Donna Barr]]]]

* ZombieAdvocate: Being [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifists]], the four strongly oppose killing-—well, everything, but most specifically for trope purposes, the Tayhil, the murderous snakemen who are the chief minions of the Black Tower and the #1 enemy of all other humans on C'hou. Indeed, the four are so concerned that all the baddies will be wiped out when the Black Tower falls that they're willing to use the wishes the Pyar gods promised them to save the creatures.

* NotInThisForYourRevolution: The four ''do not want'' to be part of the struggle against the Black Tower and the Tayhil, but they have to in order to get home. Getting home is their one and only goal; saving the world is incidental, especially after they come to detest the people they're saving.

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: The four practically live this trope, getting chased by mobs or fined because they didn't save the day in the right way. Things get to the point where they simply refuse to help anyone out any more (also partially because they neither want to be considered heroes nor want to do anything except take down the Big Bad so they can go home—and if they could get home some other way they'd gladly do that and leave the world to rot).

* HeroicBSOD: Ringo has one after he throws John over a cliff (he was still suffering the effects of being very subtly mind controlled).

* {{Demihuman}}: There are plenty, though not the standard ones, though there are some of those amongst the outworlders. Among many others, C'hou is now home to demihumans such as Brillymen, Gashans, and Svenjaya. Most humans take a dim view of these folks (e.g., the Svenjaya are indentured servants on the flying island of Tipaan).
* DestructiveSavior: The four get something of a reputation for this. Example: To create a diversion, John backs up all the toilets in the Border Crossroads Inn. While he's careful to prevent them from overflowing, the stench lingers. Also, the escaping guests cause a lot of damage by puking and so forth.

* NiceGuy: Played with. Whereas the four are [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifists]] and fiercely cling to that status despite the semi-war waging around them, and they're not depraved or anything, they aren't portrayed as “Nice Guys,” even Ringo, who, despite having that status in [[RingoStarr real life]], in the book is having major addiction problems that screw with his overall Nice-Guyness. However, ''compared to everyone else there'', they come off as the Nice Guys, particularly Paul, who takes care to be polite to everyone who isn't actually attacking him. (It must be noted, however, that underneath the veneer of politeness Paul is often seething with anger or jealousy and needs his “background noise” to keep himself on an even keel.)

* OurCentaursAreDifferent: [[VoluntaryShapeshifting George]] does a centaur frequently, both to carry Ringo and to trot along with serious stamina and still be able to talk. In that shape he's extremely hairy, he's terrified of things that smell like predators, and he has good hearing and night vision. He defaults to a heavy warmblood horse-half rather than a sleek Arabian, so he's not very fast (though he could certainly do a sleeker one if he wanted).
* OverNineThousand: John overhears some vaguely supervillain-ish people [[EnemyScan scanning the other three]], at which point they scream the exact lines from DragonballZ. From then on, the four ironically refer to themselves as being “Nine Thousands” whenever they talk about going up against someone, or they need to complete a difficult task. They even gain a CatchPhrase:

* ImpossibleTask: The Tipaan arc is centered around an impossible task given by the Circle—the four have to somehow retrieve an extremely well-protected musical instrument. (Paul: We'll have a bash. We're a bit good at the impossible. John: Especially the impossible at a luxury resort.)
* InfallibleBabble: Averted. The four are bombarded with sayings, poems, rumors, and suchlike. Only a tiny handful of them prove crucial to their success.

->''“Y'know what we'd prefer?” John put his hands on the little man's shoulders, gently turned him around, and gave him a small shove. “If you just got your IRS outta here. We've better things to do than stand about talkin' nonsense with you.”''

->''They smirked among themselves. “Go to it,” said Paul, folding his arms over his chest.''

The ActualPacifist four are by no means thrilled to have been dropped into this suddenly ultraviolent setting, especially since they're attacked five times the first day they're there. And, like in ''Strings'', they don't know why they're there. One thing they do know, however, is that they need money, and quickly, because the pouch of coins and gems that Ringo still had is now almost worthless. They also learn that they damn well better mask their magic, because everyone is scanning them and finding out just how powerful they are... and reacting accordingly.

* ArcWords: “Speak the problem and it will be solved.” The entire world seems to be swimming in Arc Words (labeled Gods Chat by George after he hears that the Pyar gods might be providing them) in graffiti, on message boards, etc, but this particular phrase comes up most frequently, and the four lampshade it on occasion.

-->''“Y'know what we'd prefer?” John put his hands on the little man's shoulders, gently turned him around, and gave him a small shove. “If you just got your IRS outta here. We've better things to do than stand about talkin' nonsense with you.”''

-->''With a very sad look, the little man turned back to him. “Are you gentlemen intimating that you aren't going to pay your rightful tax? I must warn you that on confirmation of nonpayment, I am authorized to employ penalty methods.”''

-->''“Penalty methods! Oh, no!” John slapped his hands to his face in an exaggerated show of fear.''

-->''The little man said sternly, “Your feeble attempt at levity is noted. I will give you one more chance to pay your entry tax. Otherwise I will implement the penalty methods.”''

-->''They smirked among themselves. “Go to it,” said Paul, folding his arms over his chest.''

-->''“As you wish.” He dropped his briefcase and backed up.''

-->''Then he started to grow. And as he grew, his shape bulged outward, turned purple, sprouted horns and fangs and claws, developed a scaly hide, and grew and grew and GREW—''

-->''—and seconds later the no-longer-laughing four were staring up in shock at a giant, slavering purple monster that grabbed John in a hand the size of a phone booth and lifted him towards its mouth!''

''The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World'' is the first half of the long-promised sequel to ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', ''or The Big Pink Job'', perhaps the most noteworthy Beatles fanfic out there. ''Keys'' is equally as long, as funny, as original, and as epic as ''Strings'', and is just as much of a noncompliant fantasy to boot.

Ten weeks have gone by on Earth, so it's now June 1980. The four (or as our world knows them, Music/TheBeatles) have had varying reactions to coming home; as we learn throughout the book, two of them handled the transition better than the other two. But for now, ''Keys'' starts superficially like ''Strings'' did: the four unexpectedly wake up again on the planet C'hou, though this time they (think they) know what's going on. And they're all delighted to have their magic restored to them.

Ten weeks have gone by on Earth, so it's now June 1980. The four have had varying reactions to coming home; as we learn throughout the book, two of them handled the transition better than the other two. But for now, ''Keys'' starts superficially like ''Strings'' did: the four unexpectedly wake up again on the planet C'hou, though this time they (think they) know what's going on. And they're all delighted to have their magic restored to them.

* APokeInTheThirdEye: In a rare example of a hero poking a villain, Ringo turns out to do this naturally to unshielded telepaths who try to read his mind while he's using his mindsight. Besides giving them the mental equivalent of a sunburn, he also instantly addicts them to his mindsight! He's also so “loud” and pervasive that if he's looking at someone that mental scanners are trying to locate, they have to raise their shields so strongly to protect themselves that they can perceive only him.

* SenseLossSadness: TakenUpToEleven with Ringo. Quite often he is unable to use his mindsight thanks to nearly everyone and everything being masked, and he becomes so depressed (and {{Wangsty}}) when he's blocked that, among other things, he's easily manipulated by the Guardians. Conversely, when he gets it back, he becomes intoxicated with joy.

* SheatheYourSword: This is pretty much how Paul [[strike wins]] ends battles. Since he's both an ActualPacifist and NighInvulnerable, he just stands there or walks along and lets people pound on him until they give up, get distracted, or get captured by one of the others.
* ShowyInvincibleHero: All four to a point, but particularly John and Paul. Because they're [[Actual Pacifist Actual Pacifists]], the point of the story isn't that they always overwhelm their opponents. In fact, they're trying ''not'' to fight and very much resent it when they have to engage in combat, so they do their best to make every battle a showy CurbStompBattle (albeit a non-harmful one) in an effort to discourage people from attacking them. It doesn't work.

* LexLuthorSecurity: The four unhappily run into this twice. They take a penthouse suite at one of the most expensive inns in Tevri'ed, and the management promises them complete security. Of course they're attacked by ninjas who come ghosting through the walls. The next night they stay in the same room at half price, with the management swearing it won't happen again... and they're attacked ''twice'' (though not by ninjas, so technically management was correct). After that they give up on inns entirely.

* CatchPhrase/SharePhrase: “Don't fuck with Nine Thousands!”

** Also, when Paul is grabbed by the Octo-Bot and slammed around in the cave, George and John can do nothing except fall over laughing.

* HeroicBSOD: Ringo has one after he throws John over a cliff (he was still suffering the effects of being very subtly mind controlled). **Similarly, Paul has a BSOD after he goes to high strength and throws his captor through several trees.

* Invisibility: In sort of an inversion, nearly everyone is invisible to Ringo when he uses his mindsight because everyone is masked. He does manage to compensate somewhat by focusing on the dust people stir up in the air and the skin flakes and hairs they shed.

Not In This For Your Revolution
The four ''do not want'' to be part of the struggle against the Black Tower and the Tayhil, but they have to in order to get home. Getting home is their one and only goal; saving the world is incidental, especially after they come to detest the people they're saving.
The Notable Numeral
The Awesome Foursome.
The Only One
The four get so sick of this trope that they basically end up saying, “No, we're ''not'' the only ones who can do this. Fuck off.”
Only Sane Man
Actually, the only sane ''men'' are the four, who seem to be the only ones on C'hou who notice the sheer insanity of how the world works; for example, they explore a monster-infested ruin and and ask reasonable questions, like “Why don't the monsters eat each other? What do they live on? Why did they design the place so crazily? Why are treasure chests just lying around?”
[[spoiler: Later it turns out there are plenty of other sane people; it's just that they have a reason for pretending not to notice the insanity.]]
Our Centaurs Are Different
George does a centaur frequently, both to carry Ringo and to trot along with serious stamina and still be able to talk. In that shape he's extremely hairy, he's terrified of things that smell like predators, and he has good hearing and night vision. He defaults to a heavy warmblood horse-half rather than a sleek Arabian, so he's not very fast (though he could certainly do a sleeker one if he wanted).
Over Nine Thousand
John overhears some vaguely supervillain-ish people scanning the other three, at which point they scream the exact lines from DragonballZ. From then on, the four ironically refer to themselves as being “Nine Thousands” whenever they talk about going up against someone, or they need to complete a difficult task. They even gain a CatchPhrase:
''No, wait'', John said, a note of weary but evil craft in his mental voice. ''They should know what hit 'em. Teach 'em not to fuck with Nine Thousands.''
The Perils of Being the Best
Experienced by the four after a trio of baddies scan them and discover how outrageously powerful they are. This leads one of the baddies, the [[SuperStrength super-strong]] but quite stupid Lieyla, to immediately stalk after Paul and hit him, since she'd been spoiling for a fight and didn't think he could take ''her'' punch. (Boy, is she surprised when he bounces back up and asks why she did that.) Anyway, from then on the four worry that they're going to be targeted by “every prat with something to prove.”
A Poke in the Third Eye
In a rare example of a hero poking a villain, Ringo turns out to do this naturally to unshielded telepaths who try to read his mind while he's using his mindsight. Besides giving them the mental equivalent of a sunburn, he also instantly addicts them to his mindsight! He's also so “loud” and pervasive that if he's looking at someone that mental scanners are trying to locate, they have to raise their shields so strongly to protect themselves that they can perceive only him.
Politeness Judo
Works intermittently. Paul gets quite a bit of information from Geddies and guards by being polite... but it backfires when he tries to be nice to a band of adventurers, and they almost immediately attempt to beat the shit out of him.
Portal Network
The jump gates.
Power Equals Rarity
In spades.
Power High
While all of the four experienced Power Highs in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', by ''The Keys Stand Alone'' only Paul and Ringo still do in significant ways. Paul gets high off the “background noise” of his magic. He is not, however, addicted to it. Ringo, on the other hand, is so thoroughly addicted to his mindsight that he goes into withdrawal when he's blocked and thinks he'll kill himself if he has to go back to Earth without it again.
Paul also discovers that absorbing energy gives him a rush as well—and, when he was hit by two lightning bolts in rapid succession, he also got drunk and had an orgasm.
Prophecies Rhyme All the Time
Lampshaded to hellangone. Right from the start the four encounter a poem carved in a wall. John immediately sneers at how bad it is, and complains that if it's meant for them, he does not want to be communicated to that way. They soon run into more poems and lines of poetry, all bad (“Hooray, more shitty poetry!” John cries at one point). When they find out that the gods wrote some of this stuff, John sniffs, “Well, now we know they ain't the gods of poetry.”)
Punch Punch Punch Uh Oh
Lots of people, including the muggers, Lieyla of the “Terrible Trio,” Spectrem of the Guardians, and the mine-robbers at Boidan Mine, find out what a waste of time it is to try and hurt Paul.
A Real Man is a Killer
Averted hard. For example, George's stubborn refusal to participate in a battle even as a courier ''really'' horks off Bayr.
Reality Ensues
The four are quite aware that just because they're insanely powerful doesn't mean they're good at adventuring. In particular, George and Ringo make lousy disguised spies because they're always accidentally revealing things about themselves. And Ringo finds during the incident at Boidan Valley that he's terrible at nonmagical surveillance.
Ridiculous Future Inflation
The four return to C'hou after about six years have passed there, to find that not only has their existing C'hovite money been vastly reduced in value, but that things have gotten a ''lot'' more expensive.
Schizo Tech
C'hou is loaded with this, as the G'heddi'onians use both magic and technology, and the outworlders have brought in a huge variety of stuff.
Second Hand Storytelling
Happens several times to emphasize just how superior the four are to most of their opponents, and how meaningless most of the fights are; the fights are so one-sided and trivial that there's no point in depicting them directly. Like, for example, when John and Ringo effortlessly take out four ninjas about to ambush them in their hotel room; the reader sees only the CrowningMomentOfFunny aftermath.
Sense Loss Sadness
Taken Up To Eleven with Ringo. Quite often he is unable to use his mindsight thanks to nearly everyone and everything being masked, and he becomes so depressed (and Wangsty) when he's blocked that, among other things, he's easily manipulated by the Guardians. Conversely, when he gets it back, he becomes intoxicated with joy.
Sequel Escalation
The four return to a C'hou now loaded with monsters and threatened by an all-encompassing evil; they have to help defeat it and save the planet and the lives of three gods. Rather a bit bigger than “Find the three pieces of the Vasyn to remove a curse from the continent of Ketafa”!
Sequel Non Entity
None of the secondary characters from ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'' return, though Brox and Grunnel are briefly mentioned as not having been seen in over a year (the implication is that they're out adventuring).
Share Phrase
After John talks about teaching muggers not to fuck with Nine Thousands, all four end up using the phrase “Don't fuck with Nine Thousands” on multiple occasions.
Sheathe Your Sword
This is pretty much how Paul wins ends battles. Since he's both an ActualPacifist and NighInvulnerable, he just stands there or walks along and lets people pound on him until they give up, get distracted, or get captured by one of the others.
Showy Invincible Hero
All four to a point, but particularly John and Paul. Because they're [[Actual Pacifist Actual Pacifists]], the point of the story isn't that they always overwhelm their opponents. In fact, they're trying ''not'' to fight and very much resent it when they have to engage in combat, so they do their best to make every battle a showy CurbStompBattle (albeit a non-harmful one) in an effort to discourage people from attacking them. It doesn't work.
Signature Move
John has two: dehydrating people and binding them up with warm ice. Both are nonlethal and carefully calculated to do no real harm.
Paul might have a Signature Move, if standing there and getting hit until one of the others thinks of something to do is a “move.”
Small Steps Hero
Various takes on this trope. Although the overarching task is to defeat the Black Tower, both the Guardians and the Circle spent an awful lot of time doing the small stuff, like rescuing kidnapped babies, looking for missing people, and intervening in disputes, which is drastically drawing out the conflict. By contrast, [[spoiler: the Focus]] sneers at this “dust work” and is committed to the larger task only, reasoning that all the bad stuff will stop when the Black Tower goes down. Although the four are not normally so callous as to ignore pleas for aid, they're terribly burned out from being begged for help, which seems to happen every five minutes. Thus, they find themselves agreeing with [[spoiler: the Focus]] and joining them.
Someday This Will Come In Handy
The four are advised to collect the sayings, poem lines, and other bits of graffiti and trivia found just about everywhere. They're told that these strange things are the feeble attempts of the gods to communicate with the outworlders and have meanings that might not become evident for a long time. George dubs them Gods Chat and keeps a list of sayings. As it turns out, one specific phrase is crucial to ''everything.''
Somebody Else's Problem
The G'heddi'onians and their guards appear to feel that the marauding hordes of the Black Tower and the impending death of the Pyar gods are Somebody Else's Problem—that is, these problems are there for the outworlders to fix.
Stupid Good
Played with/averted. A lot of people ''think'' the four are Stupid Good because they won't harm monsters and evil creatures (and actually ''save'' them once in a while), but there's a big difference between Stupid Good and [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifism]], especially since they're the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Men]] in the world and don't want to be there and can't support genocide on either side. Besides, they're perfectly willing to restrain, knock out, mind control, and otherwise find creative nonlethal solutions to the problem of evil.
Telepathy
John proves unable to do anything except talk with his water-telepathy; he can't even take information from an unwilling mind.
Also, John has to contend with a roomful of telepaths who are primed to mentally beat him up the second he tries to do anything. That he manages to evade them is partially due to the Kansael and partially to his own bad temper.
George occasionally becomes a telepathic creature but never does figure out how to use telepathy.
Terse Talker
L'le. Speaks that way because big scar on throat makes speaking painful. Mostly a put-on; part of personal myth (can speak normally if need be).
Also the Svenjaya, though some of that is contractually required of them.
Thou Shalt Not Kill
The problem is far more acute in ''Keys'' than it was in ''FanFic/WithStringsAttached'', as the four are thrown into an exceptionally violent situation and have to almost literally fight to find nonlethal solutions to serious problems.
Underestimating Badassery
The four are simultaneously recognized as four of the most powerful people in the world and underestimated because of their (apparent) age and pacifism.
We Do The Impossible
The four quite rightly get this reputation when they achieve some highly improbable successes. To the point where the following dialogue with the Circle takes place:
Suddenly the Scheme-Maker thumped her fist on the table and grinned. “So! Seems impossible to touch Cloud Horn. Recalcitrant owners. Deadly consequences if caught stealing. Can't give much in way of resources, since seems like a waste. Have to use own gear. Still, only Key mission now. Welcome to try. Want?”
The four looked at one another, knowing they were all of the same mind. “I reckon we'll have a bash,” said Paul. “We're a bit good at the impossible.”
“Especially the impossible at a luxury resort,” murmured John.
Wham Episode
Chapter 14, when Ringo throws John over the side of the mesa, backwards, while still wearing his cloak.
Chapter 22, when [[spoiler: the Circle]] betray the four.
Chapter 24, when the boat that three of them are in falls apart in rough water—and George's ring chooses that moment to stick, and he drowns.
Chapter 25, when [[spoiler: the four wake up wearing headsets and can't figure out if they've been dreaming, because the world under the headsets is completely real to them; and later, when they remove the curse from Durothé, and she reveals that they've been in a giant computerized telepathic MMORPG designed by none other than Jeft Indle.]]
What Is Evil
The four have several discussions about the new presence of good and evil in C'hou, classifying things as “good good,” “good evil,” “evil good,” and “evil evil.” They come to the conclusion that they're the only good goods in the world (even classifying the gods as evil good), and they struggle with the ethical implications of supporting an evil good or good evil Power Group.
Ironically, a lot of people end up defining them as evil because they will not kill monsters and the Tayhil.
The skahs (aka the Natives), who have no concepts for “good” and “evil,” sneer at people who tell them when they're behaving in a good or evil fashion. “We don't listen when they say those stupid things.”
What Measure Is a Non Human
An important theme for the four, inasmuch as they pretty much regard everything with a brain and a face, and even large plants, as Things Not To Be Harmed. To the point where they get into trouble because they refuse to harm monsters that ''everyone else gladly slaughters''.
What the Hell Is That Accent?
Played for laughs, where people often make note of the accents of the four as being really weird—when ''every single outworlder on C'hou'' has a weird accent!
Even other characters recognize this as ridiculous; when Terb mentions that John and George have funny accents, Folse brushes him off with “So does everyone.”
Who Writes This Crap?
John complains a lot about the rotten poetry clues they keep getting. When someone tells him the gods wrote the stuff, he says, “Well, now we know they ain't the gods of poetry.”
Wild Card
Although in their own minds the four are the only true “good goods” in the rebooted C'hou, they are True Neutral to everyone else, and they spend some time trying to figure out which Power Group to join in order to further their own goals, which are to get home and bring their magic with them. They ''do not'' want to be on C'hou, especially in such a violent situation, and they ''do not care'' about the Black Tower and its evil; as George puts it, “These aren't ''my'' fights... get it?” But ''everyone'' views them as the keys to victory/winning the Black Tower quest, and there is considerable infighting between the Power Groups (at first) to gain control of them—until everyone gets pissed off at the four (and vice versa) for various reasons.
World of Badass
Probably the revamped C'hou qualifies, given that there are over 20,000 outworlders who have been selected by the gods to help them overcome the Black Tower; 50,000 live-for-combat skahs; city guards who are tougher than a good percentage of the previous two groups; and some of the G'heddi'onians, like the wizards who rule the city of Daarthayu.
Ironically, the four most powerful people on the planet are [[BadassPacifist Badass Pacifists]] who only occasionally slide into (resolutely nonlethal) [[MartialPacifist Martial Pacifist]] territory.
Year Inside Hour Outside
Almost six years have gone by on C'hou during the intervening ten weeks on Earth, and when the four are sent back they're stunned by all the changes. Mindful of the time, they vow to do whatever it is they're supposed to do in no more than a month so only a day goes by at home. They're pretty dismayed to learn that things are likely to take six months to a ''year'' to accomplish.
You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With
The entire reason the four adopt the SharePhrase “Don't fuck with Nine Thousands.” Though they almost always end up saying it ''after'' schooling someone in why they should be left alone.
Zombie Advocate
Being [[ActualPacifist Actual Pacifists]], the four strongly oppose killing—well, everything, but most specifically for trope purposes, the Tayhil, the murderous snakemen who are the chief minions of the Black Tower and the #1 enemy of all other humans on C'hou. Indeed, the four are so concerned that all the baddies will be wiped out when the Black Tower falls that they're willing to use the wishes the Pyar gods promised them to save the creatures.

The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World is the first half of the long-promised sequel to ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached'', ''or The Big Pink Job'', perhaps the most noteworthy Beatles fanfic out there. ''Keys'' is equally as long, as funny, as original, and as epic as ''Strings'', and is just as much of a noncompliant fantasy to boot.

''Keys'' is just as {{Troperiffic}} as ''Strings'' was, possibly more so. There is, of course, trope overlap between the two books. Here are some of the more important ones in regards to ''The Soft World'' (and there will be many, many more in the individual trope pages):