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1Started by a user named ''Confederated Southern States'' on the Website/NationStates' ''Portal to the Multiverse'' forum, in late August 2013. Set thirty years after the ''Destroy'' ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', the galaxy is still trying to get on its feet. [[http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=260750 Check it out here.]]
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3!!''Mass Effect Relinquish'' contains examples of:
4
5* [[ActionFilmQuietDramaScene Action Roleplay Quiet Drama Scene:]] Despite being the BigBad, most of Teronus' scenes involve little action.
6** The Council Game in its entirety certainly counts.
7* AdrenalineMakeover: Kyri used to be a [[NiceJewishBoy Nice Quarian Girl.]] Didn't take long for her to turn into a grease monkey.
8* AffectionateNickname: Lemon. Also doubles as EmbarrassingNickname. James doesn't like it.
9* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Strangely played straight with Kyri; she tends to remove her facemask around the crew, one of the reasons being it's better for social interactions when your face isn't hidden.
10* AIIsACrapshoot: Averted: Artificial Intelligences, namely the geth, have become more accepted in the galactic community since the end of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''. Played straight when you consider the Council still curtails the developments of AIs, just to a lesser extent than before.
11* AlasPoorVillain: Both invoked and subverted with Teronus. He truly is greedy and lusts for power, yet he did what he did because the Council was sitting on their hands while the Terminus withered.
12* TheAlcoholic: Kyri. It's been stated in the OOC thread that she can drink, pound for pound, more than ''Garz''.
13* ALittleSomethingWeCallRockAndRoll: ''Relinquish'' opens up with James listening to Music/ThreeDaysGrace. Averted in the sense that the band is two centuries old at this point, and even other humans think James is weird for listening to such anachronistic music.
14* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: The Terminus Empire's progress in a nutshell, with its rampage across a good chunk of the galaxy.
15* AlwaysABiggerFish: The qualms between the player characters are always overshadowed by the threat of Teronus.
16* AntiHero: Practically everyone falls under this anymore.
17* AppliedPhlebotinum: Doc used medical nanites to treat severe wounds, and most characters posses medi-gel which nearly instantaneously heals minor wounds.
18* ArmorPiercingQuestion: James to Kyri, early in the story, [[spoiler: when Kyri tells him to "grin and bear it".]]
19-->''"Now what do I have?"''
20* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Kyri has ADH- Hey look, machinery!
21* AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: The Terminus Empire outnumbers the ''Systems Alliance and Turian Hierarchy combined!'' That's what happens when you let billions of souls fend for themselves after the Reaper War.
22* BadassTeacher: Varian; When he's not telling hyperbolic stories and generally being a douche, he's genuinely parting life lessons onto the younger members of the Ragtag.
23* TheBait: Hades' Dogs [[spoiler: when attacking the mines,]] though no one planned it.
24* BenevolentBoss: Doc commonly asked the officers under him for their opinions on battle plans, and always listened to what they had to say.
25* BewareTheNiceOnes: Kyri. While normally being the nice one, when her fellow quarians were being attacked she [[spoiler: blew a mercenary's head open with a Black Widow]] and ''enjoyed it''.
26* BigBad: Teronus Nerro, and by extension the entire Blue Suns/Eclipse/Blood Pack juggernaut, is the largest threat to the galaxy.
27* BigEgoHiddenDepths: [[spoiler: Varian and Rolfe.]]
28* BoisterousBruiser: Garz ''is'' this trope.
29* BountyHunter: Varian is one of the best in the galaxy. Surprisingly, he actually is very polite.
30* BreakTheCutie: Kiara's fluffy demeanor doesn't last long ''at all.''
31* [[BreakThemByTalking Break Him By Talking]]: Kyri teeters on this when she [[spoiler: calls Rolfe out harshly.]]
32* BrokenFaceplate: Kyri gets this, but she doesn't die due to being in a pressurized location.
33* CallingTheOldManOut: [[spoiler: Cerema delivers a short but absolutely ''brutal'' one to Varian: she calls him 'barefaced', the worst insult to a Turian possible.]]
34* CanadaEh: James.
35* CasualDangerDialogue: James pleasantly notes that it's "about time I've gotten into some action" during a [[spoiler: ''terrorist attack on the Citadel!'']]
36* TheCavalry: The Alliance on Virmire.
37** Could extend to Neo-Cerberus, if you trust them enough.
38* CharacterMagneticTeam: Good lord, it seems the crew of the Ragtag has to work with everyone in the roleplay.
39* CigarChomper: Varian has a smoking habit, which he picked up from those silly humans.
40* CombatSadomasochist: Garz.
41* TheComicallySerious: Cerri.
42* CurbStompBattle: [[spoiler: Neo-Cerberus systematically ''decimates'' an Eclipse frigate ''full'' of troopers.]] Those were only goons, but still.
43** The Resistance didn't last...
44* CurseCutShort: Kyri forcibly covers James' mouth before he can curse Seleu out.
45* [[CustomUniform Custom Armor:]] James parades around in his old Cerberus Ajax Armor, despite cutting ties with the organization even before they dissolved ''thirty years ago.'' No one seems to care, as most people simply chalk it up to it being a collector's item. They're not far off.
46* DeadpanSnarker: Varian and James couldn't possibly snark anymore. Kyri gets in on the action as well, but not as much as the men.
47* DeathByMocking: Averted: James mocks people much stronger than himself on a regular basis, but they either blow him off or insult him back.
48* DeathSeeker: Grore, and more subtlety [[spoiler: James at the beginning.]]
49* DirtyCoward: Rolfe has hired a bunch of mercenaries to fight for him.
50** Subverted with Teronus. If he feels his men are too incompetent, he'll just accomplish the task himself.
51* DisproportionateRetribution: The thug that insults James at the beginning gets gunned down. Then again, they likely had plans to murder him, so...
52* EvilOverlord: Teronus.
53* EvilWearsBlack:
54** Averted with the Blues Suns/Eclipse/Blood Pack. Blues Suns wear, well, blue, Eclipse wears yellow and Blood Pack wears red.
55** Played straight with Hades' Dogs, who wear black and dark gray.
56* EvilerThanThou: Teronus constantly muses to himself about how much better he is than his mooks.
57* EyeScream: Grore's favorite way to kill someone is to [[spoiler: claw out the eyes.]]
58* TheFaceless: Subverted with Kyri, who regularly does not wear her facemask aboard the Ragtag. However, this is about the only instance where a quarian's face is shown.
59* FacelessGoons: Averted. Whenever possible, even the lowest Blue Suns mook is given a name.
60** The morally ambiguous Neo-Cerberus soldiers are even given ''personalities'' on occasion.
61* AFatherToHisMen: Everyone on the Ragtag holds either a grudging respect for or full-on adores Varian.
62** Doc, perhaps even more so.
63* FightMagnet: Garz, and to a lesser extent Grore.
64** James ends up in verbal spouts a lot.
65* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Riot" by Music/ThreeDaysGrace. Interesting lyrics...
66* GasMaskMooks: Played straight: Nearly all bad guys wear some sort of mask, usually with a breather.
67* GlasgowGrin: Teased by Varian.
68--> ''"Maybe we should pin [Kyri] down and give her a Glasgow smile!"''
69* GodIsDead: James plays the Music/BlackSabbath song after surrendering himself to fate.
70* GoldAndWhiteAreDivine: Neo-Cerberus, whose persona is based off Greek mythology, wear these colors on their armor.
71* GoodScarsEvilScars:
72** Kyri gets some facial scars after [[spoiler: rescuing Seleu from a grenade]].
73** Think that's bad? Half of Varian's face was torn off by [[spoiler: a ''raging moose!'']] It's been artificially repaired, but it's still noticeable.
74** Teronus has those classic villain scars. Badass.
75* GrayAndGrayMorality: The protagonists include a Cerberus reboot, freelancing mercenaries, a drug dealer, a morally dubious scientist, a homicidal krogan and ambitious politicians. The antagonizing army is full of desperate civilians. The war is definitely gray versus gray.
76* HatesSmallTalk: Ethan and Cerema.
77* HeroicSacrifice: Subverted: [[spoiler: Eagle-One ''forces'' Assad to stay alive by knocking him out.]]
78** Played straight when [[spoiler: Doc dies saving his men. Many tears.]]
79* HeterosexualLifePartners: Rolfe and Rakil come off as this.
80* HonorBeforeReason: Doc once ran through enemy fire to aid a wounded soldier. [[spoiler: This mantra eventually causes Doc's end.]]
81* HowDoYouSay: Invoked sometimes with aliens using human sayings.
82** "Cool your jets, as you say." - Kyri the quarian
83** "You're going to, how do you say, drink me out of house and home here." - Geronha the salarian
84* HumansAreFascinating: Cerri finds human culture particularly interesting.
85* HumanPopsicle: James, for the thirty years in between ''Mass Effect 3'' and ''Relinquish''.
86* IAmWhatIAm: About everyone on the Ragtag feels this way.
87* INeedAFreakingDrink: James is so desperate for a drink that he drinks ''ryncol''. Suffice to say, it doesn't end well.
88* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Varian has so many damn friends all over the place.
89* IceQueen: Cerema, who is definitely not a DaddysGirl. [[spoiler: Also counts as a BrokenBird. Literally.]]
90* IgnoredEpiphany:
91--> '''Kyri:''' Maybe I should stop drinking so much... nah.
92* IllBeInMyBunk: Subverted and {{Lampshaded}} by Varian and James. Varian, after a trip to Omega, uses this trope word for word. James then says "the tissues are by the stairs". Varian didn't actually masturbate, but it's still funny.
93** Varian follows this up by saying "humans use tissues? Weak." {{Squick}}.
94* InHarmsWay: Kyri and Varian ''love'' this feeling.
95* InTheHood: Kyri, and every quarian for that matter.
96** James also is seen with his vintage Buffalo Bills hoodie.
97* IneffectualDeathThreats: Kyri (jokingly) threatens to kill James in his sleep. He shrugs it off.
98* InsultOfEndearment:
99--> '''Kyri:''' I hate you, Lemon.
100--> '''James:''' The feeling's mutual.
101* IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: Grore was exiled from his clan for being too smart and not excessively violent.
102* [[ItsASmallWorldAfterAll It's A Small Galaxy After All:]] Kyri says this when bumping into Grore again.
103* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: DeadpanSnarker aside, Varian holds himself to BadassCreed and would do anything to protect an innocent.
104** To a lesser extent, James.
105* {{Jerkass}}: Garz.
106** Forum Co-OP ''Communist Androids''. Seriously.
107* JustAMachine: Thoroughly averted. Trojan, a geth, seems to have some of the strongest emotions on the Ragtag.
108** ItIsDehumanizing is also averted. Everyone refers to Trojan as an 'it', yet Trojan doesn't mind (considering he has no gender).
109* KnightInSourArmor: James might as well write the book on this trope.
110* LampshadeHanging:
111--> '''James:''' ''"The hell? It's... open? Geez, why not stick a giant sign that says 'I'm a trap' on it too?"''
112* TheLeader: Captain Assad, Doc and Eagle-One were the triumvirate for the Virmire group.
113** For the DarkerAndEdgier version, Rolfe. [[spoiler: Though he doesn't exactly garner much respect.]]
114** Athena, for Neo-Cerberus.
115* LeaveNoSurvivors: Reptile-One commands his troops to make sure all of the Eclipse soldiers aboard the [[spoiler: Resonate]] are dead, even the ones bleeding out. Harsh.
116* [[LikeASonToMe Like A Daughter To Me:]] After taking Kyri under his wing, Varian views her as this. [[spoiler: Things get... complicated when his real daughter Cerema, whom he left as a child, shows up.]]
117* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: James and Kyri.
118%%
119%%Lone Wolf is a work, don't use it as a character trope.
120%%
121* LostColony: Virmire has been absorbed into Teronus' empire. The Alliance has to save it. [[spoiler: It ain't going so well.]]
122* TheMenFirst:
123** Captain Assad, and Doc was this as well.
124* MetaphoricallyTrue: Rolfe loves this trope.
125* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale:
126** Athena is far more hands on and militaristic than the Illusive Man ever was.
127** Kyri, despite being small even by quarian standards, will ''rip you to shreds'' if angered.
128* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: The Ragtag... and Garz.
129* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch:
130** Varian feels most turians are too blindingly supportive of the Turian Hierarchy. So does Teronus.
131** Grore finds the rest of his kind (vorcha) bumbling idiots.
132** Cerri just generally doesn't like to hang around her fellow asari.
133** Kyri thinks quarians should get out and seek adventure more.
134* MythologyGag: James unwittingly copies Tali from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.
135--> '''James:''' I have a shotgun.
136--> '''Kyri:''' Mmm, maybe we'll talk later.
137* NecessarilyEvil: Neo-Cerberus fashions themselves as this. It's up to the reader to determine if they really are.
138* NervousWreck: Kiara becomes this after the mission on Parnack.
139* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Oh, how often this occurs on Virmire.
140* NoodleIncident: The story never explains why half of Varian's face is artificial other than "a raging moose" tore it off.
141** Kyri once slept with a krogan after a lost bet. I don't think we ''want'' to know.
142* OddFriendship: Everyone on the Ragtag, with a few exceptions.
143** Let's see, we have a snarky, Ex-Cerberus HumanPopsicle, a turian OldSoldier who's done mercenary work in every corner of the galaxy, [[spoiler: his long lost daughter turned Spectre,]] an alcoholic, quarian adrenaline junkie, a GentleGiant in Toreg, a {{Jerkass}} in Garz, a geth RobotBuddy in Trojan, Rakil the batarian and TheQuietOne, and TheComicallySerious Cerri, all headed by TheCaptain who doesn't realize that DrugsAreBad. [[spoiler: Actually, he does; in fact he ''enjoys'' the thought of them eventually crippling his costumers.]]
144* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: Neo-Cerberus is, at its most basic, Cerberus 2.0: Electric Boogaloo.
145* OppositesAttract: [[spoiler: James and Kyri.]]
146* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Kyri is in it for the thrill, Toreg is in it for his friends and Trojan is in it for the knowledge; Garz just doesn't give a fuck and wants his damn paycheck.
147* OnlySaneMan: Rakil.
148* IOweYouMyLife: The reason Kyri follows Varian.
149** Kyri herself ends up invoking this in [[spoiler: Seleu.]]
150* TheParagon: Doc and Captain Assad are basically the only ones who ''aren't'' morally dubious in some sense or another.
151* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler: Varian leaves Cerema when she's just a child. She didn't take it well.]]
152* ItsPersonal:
153** Cerri holds a particular disdain for turians, Varian included, due to being held hostage for days by vicious turian thugs.
154** James could fall into this trope too, considering his prime motivation for joining Rolfe [[spoiler:despite his total digust with the man]] is it gives him the best chance to combat Teronus, who is [[spoiler: mostly aiming for human colonies.]]
155* PointOfNoReturn: When Rolfe [[spoiler: signs the Ragtag up with Neo-Cerberus, that's it; No going back for them.]]
156* PrecisionFStrike: ''"Keelah se'lai, motherfuckers!"''
157* PunchClockVillain: You begin to feel that Byrin, Blue Suns leader and Teronus' right hand man, is this.
158** Teronus' personal AI, I.D.S., too.
159* TheQuietOne: For the most part, Toreg.
160** Can't forget Ethan.
161* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The entirety of the appropriately named Kail Ragtag.
162* RebelLeader: Captain Assad, obviously.
163* RedOniBlueOni: Kyri is red, James is blue. Definitely not ColorCodedForYourConvenience; Kyri wears black/green, James wears white/yellow/black.
164* RedShirt:
165** [[spoiler: Eagle-Five.]]
166** The squadrons of Hades' Dogs, [[spoiler: who all get killed in the mines,]] could count as a RedShirtArmy.
167** [[spoiler: Blue Suns defector]] Robert.
168** The batarian that harasses James on Omega.
169* RememberTheAlamo: Everyone over the age of 45 or so (including James, aged 31, due to being frozen and all that) regarding the Reaper War.
170* SelfDeprecation:
171--> '''Varian:''' It's too bad you (Kyri) got your pretty little face all cut up. Now you're gonna start lookin' like me!
172* ShellShockedVeteran: Leonidas Grant makes Varian seem young.
173* ShipTease: Yeah, it's obvious at this point.
174* ShutUpKiss: [[spoiler: Kyri does this to James to get him to shut up at one point. He likes it (but won't admit it).]]
175* ShootEverythingThatMoves: Garz.
176* ShorterMeansSmarter: Kyri, at a measly 5'3", has perhaps the highest IQ on the Ragtag. Not saying much, but still.
177* SmokingIsCool: Varian and Grant smoke cigars constantly, without any detrimental effects. Then again, it's the year 2216, so...
178* SnarkToSnarkCombat: James, Kyri and Varian just never cease their never ending war of snark.
179* SociopathicHero: Rolfe. He is only assisting the Resistance because Teronus is affecting his business, which is [[spoiler: smuggling illegal drugs.]] His own crew members, notably James, Kyri and Varian only work for Rolfe to achieve their own ends.
180* SpaceMarine: The Alliance marines. Surprising, I know.
181* SpitTake: Kyri gets one when James informs her that the yahg have been rendered peaceful. [[spoiler: For the time being.]]
182* StayFrosty: Odin-One drops this as [[spoiler: Neo-Cerberus troops raid a Eclipse frigate.]]
183* TheStoic: James keeps his emotions under wrap and covers them with sarcasm and snark.
184** Cerema, even more so.
185* SuperDoc: Doc. Shocking, right?
186* TakeThat: James mocks Kyri after she gives the the nickname "Lemon" and says it fits.
187--> '''James:''' "How'd you like it if I started calling you "annoying bitch"? ''It fits.'''''
188* TheUnfettered: Neo-Cerberus cares more for results from their missions than upholding a moral code, though not the extent of their predecessors.
189* VillainousBreakdown: Teronus loses his cool pretty often.
190* WeirdnessMagnet: Grore says this of James, Kyri and Varian.
191--> ''"It seems trouble follows you around."''
192* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler: The debacle on Parnack. Rolfe's deception is brought to light, James almost dies and the true extent of Teronus' power is unveiled. And it's just the beginning... Kyri even {{Lampshades}} this to James by saying "we're going to see worse".]]
193* WhatHaveIBecome: Grore, a vorcha, ''despises'' his intelligence which was granted by [[spoiler: salarian experimentation]], and yearns to die.
194* WithUsOrAgainstUs: Very much Teronus' mentality. The merc leader sees anyone either as a "defender of the old ways" or a supporter of his; no in betweens.
195* TheWorfEffect: [[spoiler: Hades' Dogs cut through mechs (including a YMIR) like they're butter.]] They had the jump, and the main force of [[spoiler: Eclipse soldiers]] retreated, and [[spoiler: the Eclipse soldiers blow them up afterwards,]] so this may ultimately be a subversion.
196* WrenchWench: Kyri.
197* TheXenophile: Rolfe, particularly towards Turians, and Cerri, mainly towards females outside of her own species.

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