History Freefall / TropesRToZ

** And then lampshaded again [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3800/fc03734.htm a strip in advance]]
** Used extensively across the duration of Florence's visit to a spa where clothes are not allowed at-all.

* SceneryCensor: [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Lampshaded]] (literally) when a lampshade is used as a censor box in a [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2600/fc02586.htm comic]]

--->'''Robot:''' [[spoiler:I still have my receipt. Normally I throw these things away, but this one I felt I should hold onto.]]

Heck, the [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2000/fc01968.htm projected lifespan of their neural nets is only 60 to 80 years]], which is much less than humans in the setting. And even mentally, robots run the gamut of being very smart to being very... [[WhatAnIdiot not]].

* UncannyValley: A rather unusual form InUniverse. When Mr. Ishiguro decides to swing by the police station and talk to the Chief in hopes of recovering Clippy, he's greeted at the entrance by a cop, who offers him a cup of tea and tells him the Chief will be with him in thirty seconds. When asked how he knew Mr. Ishiguro was dropping by, the cop explains Mr. Ishiguro's car contacted the station, allowing them the chance to better adjust both their schedules and the tea. Ishiguro thinks to himself it's both very smooth and efficient, with a minimum of wasted time... but he still finds it a little bit unsettling.

** [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff400/fv00350.htm A few strips later]], she's musing that she'd be perfectly fine with encountering a mad doctor to heal her injured leg, but what she really needs is someone who knows canine physiology. The next thing she sees is a sign that reads 'mad veterination'. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in that the sign is broken and would have read something along the lines of 'Dr. Thurmad Veterinarian' intact.]]

* StealthInsult: Blunt's attempt to get [[spoiler:Kornada aquitted of trying to lobotomize all the robots]] winds up involving this several times.

** Edge, a robot who spent his formative years alone in a warehouse without any other intelligent creatures (human or robot) to teach him how to deal with others. Played a bit more for laughs, and Florence has expressed a desire to socialize him. [[spoiler:Since he helped save the every robot on the planet, presumably, she's going to end up going through with that]].
* SoMuchForStealth: This is how Florence and Winston discover that there are robots employed at ''Le Resturant des Ninjas''. In their defense, [[KansasCityShuffle they were prepared for someone noticing them there]].

* UnfriendlyFire: Sam notes the Pournelle/Niven Transfer Station is suffering from the economic version, like he suspected from the start - there isn't a single giant money pit as much as many small and medium money holes, and his workers are sabotaging him and his attempts at cutting costs, resulting in ballooning expenses and crashing productivity.

* SidewaysCompatibility: Dr. Bowman's neural architecture is meant to be able to uplift any animal brain to sapience, from Terran animals like wolves to completely alien species that use amino acids completely incompatible with Terran lifeforms. [[spoiler:It even works on robot brains.]]

** A later strip mentions a cleaning agent called Chlorine trifluoride that is so corrosive that it will set ''asbestos'' on fire. This is NotHyperbole - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride the chemical actually exists]], and it's terrifyingly reactive, to the point that the only way to douse the flames from a chemical reaction involving it is to cool the area around it and let it burn itself out[[note]]Trying to smother it won't work, as it is a powerful oxidiser and can burn other substances without needing oxygen. Other substances in this case can be defiend as 'everything known'. [[/note]].

* WorthIt: Sam arrives at this conclusion following some headache-inducing logic [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3700/fc03634.htm here].

* RestrainingBolt: The necessary restrictions and limitations of {{Restraining Bolt}}s, with which most {{AI}}s are designed, are often discussed. The "bolt" on Florence is [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1500/fc01453.htm not that heavy,]] and tends to be [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1500/fc01455.htm a bit]] [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1600/fc01582.htm flexible.]] Florence theorizes that Bowman's creations are intended to outgrow the RestrainingBolt, as a sort of moral training wheel. [[spoiler:Dr. Bowman [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2600/fc02539.htm later confirms]] this.]]

* UnequalPairing: As, respectively, a human and an artifically engineered {{AI}} that's considered property, not a person, [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1200/fv01196.htm Winston's well aware of the obstacles facing him and Florence]] in the romantic realm.

** Earlier, Florence learns Sam sold Tangent [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff600/fv00552.htm 500 shares in a meat mine.]] She nearly has a heart attack at the thought of how much she'll have to reimburse them, until she learns they payed him with [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff600/fv00553.htm 50 kg of diamonds.]]

** Sam also plays it straight during the visit to Ecosystems Unlimited, when [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1700/fc01668.htm all of Florence's belongings disappear]].

** Same lampshades this [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff900/fv00875.htm succinctly]].

* RealityEnsues: As part of Clippy's plan to get Florence to reinstate [[spoiler:Gardener in the Dark]], he [[spoiler:recruits/bribes Varroa Jacobsoni to abduct her from [[ItMakesSenseInContext the pound]].]] In the process, they have to disable a robot police officer. Clippy tells Varroa it's fine under the reasoning that AI can't have authority over humans and there aren't any laws against humans assaulting AI anyway. [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2400/fc02343.htm Law enforcement appears to think that AI or not, assaulting an officer of the law is still against the law.]]

* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Not a sight per se, but [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2300/fc02258.htm here]] police robots clear the way for a ''motorcycle'' driving inside pitch black ''computer server building'', thus letting [[spoiler: Florence using false transponder]] through.

** A later strip mentions a cleaning agent called Chlorine trifluoride that is so corrosive that it will set ''asbestos'' on fire. This is NotHyperbole - [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorine_trifluoride the chemical actually exists]], and it's terrifyingly reactive, to the point that the only way to douse the flames from a chemical reaction involving it is to cool the area around it and let it burn itself out[[note]]Trying to smother it won't work, as it is a powerful oxidiser and can burn other substances without needing oxygen.[[/note]].