A long-time fanfiction writer who started out in fanzines and is now found on [[http://www.fanfiction.net/~Vathara fanfiction.net]] and [[https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vathara/pseuds/Vathara/works Archive of Our Own]], '''Vathara''' is often referred to as the {{Crossover}} [[FandomVIP Queen]]. Despite that, her most famous work, Fanfic/EmbersVathara, is not a crossover, although it contains a large number of [[{{Expy}} expies]]. Her largest series, the Urban Legends universe, is based off of and views as series canon (link removed, led to spam site) a fanfic by another author.
!! Notable works include:
* ''Fanfic/EmbersVathara'', which has its own tropes page. ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5115106/1/Theft_Absolute Theft Absolute]]'' takes place in the ''Embers'' universe.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5745749/1/Scarlet_and_Black Scarlet and Black]]'' is a standalone pilot episode for another ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' [[AlternateUniverse AU]] fic universe.
!! The ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/307917/1/Urban_Legends Urban Legends]]'' series, which contains:
* ''Series/{{Airwolf}}''
* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl''
* ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}''
* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' -- at least, in a oneshot that hasn't been followed up on.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''
* ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}''
* ''WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries''
* [[ComicBook/{{Blade}} Hannibal King]] from Marvel Comics
* ''Series/{{JAG}}''
* ''Manga/MagiTheLabyrinthOfMagic''
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers''
* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin''
* ''Series/TheSentinel''
* ''Series/SevenDays''
* ''Series/SomethingIsOutThere''
* ''Series/SpecialUnit2''
* ''Series/StargateSG1''
!! Among others.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1538942/1/Foreign_xChange Foreign Exchange]]'', a {{Anime/YuGiOh}}/''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' {{Crossover}} series of five fics, one removed (songfic).
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1792282/1/Upon_A_Fiery_Steed Upon A Fiery Steed]]'', a novel-length ''Stargate''/''Gundam Wing'' fusion.
* ''Fanfic/ThrowerOfTheDart'', an ''Artemis Fowl''/''Avengers'' cross that picks up right at the end of ''Literature/TheLostColony'' and immediately takes a hard right straight into the MCU. How the hell did Atlantis lose a Bio Bomb? And just what is Doom, of all people, up to?
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2434630/1/Blades_of_Blood Blades of Blood]]'' and ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3218251/1/Witchy-Woman Witchy Woman]]'', a series of two novel-length fics (so far) combining ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' and the ''TabletopGame/{{NightLife}}'' RPG.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2520472/1/Ethan_Raynes_Very_Bad_Day Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day]]'', which takes the * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' FandomSpecificPlot of "What if they went as someone else that HalloweenEpisode?" and turns it up to eleven.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3774334/1/Mending_Songs Mending Songs]]'', ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4481984/1/Clean-and-White Clean and White]]'', ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6267545/1/Stained Stained]], [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6775888/1/Take-Two Take Two]]'' -- a series of four ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' crossovers.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4397071/1/Lone-Flower Lone Flower]]'', ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4397074/1/Petals-in-the-Wind Petals in the Wind]]'', ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4578345/1/Petals-Scattered Petals Scattered]]'' -- a series of three ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' crossovers.
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4031223/1/Shadows_in_Starlight Shadows in Starlight]]'', a novel-length ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' crossover.
* ''Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' and its sequels, ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5201930/1/Project_Asclepius Project Asclepius]]'', ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7432275/1/Project_Thoughts Project Thoughts]]'', and ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/8642248/chapters/19819810 Sanzo vs. the Alien Invasion]]'', a ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' and ''Manga/Saiyuki'' sci-fi/horror AU FusionFic.
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10365222/1/Change-of-Fate Change of Fate]]'', a standalone fusion between ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Literature/SwordArtOnline''.
* ''Fanfic/ALongRoad'', a crossover between ''Literature/GrandmasterOfDemonicCultivationMoDaoZuShi'' and ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar''.
* ''Literature/ANetOfDawnAndBones'', Her first original work, [[http://www.amazon.com/Net-Dawn-Bones-C-Chancy/dp/1514759837/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1437835797&sr=8-1&keywords=a+net+of+dawn+and+bones available]] on Amazon.
----
!!Tropes appearing in her work:
* AchievementsInIgnorance: Kenshin's surviving an attempt on Jusanro Tani's life in ''Blades of Blood'' counts because if he had known that the curved side was supposed to be sharp, he would have flipped the blade and then he'd be dead. [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul The Virus]] in ''Witchy Woman'', the second entry in the series, employ evolutionary computer design, which is explained on the trope page.
* AdaptationalVillainy:
** Daniel Jackson's grandfather dumped in the foster care system after his parents died when he was eight in canon. In the Urban Legends Verse, he did so after fighting to get custody of him from [[Series/{{Airwolf}} Ariella Coldsmith-Briggs]]. Ariella had had him because the Drs. Jackson were spies as well as archaelogists and their deaths were not an accident.
** Mackenzie is an NID mole in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'' who forced Col. Makepeace to go rogue for the NID by reminding him that Sen. Kinsey was paying for his sister's psychiatric care. He's so villainous that he regards the transplanted humans they've found as humanoid aliens.
** Tomoe Yukishiro, Kenshin's first wife in canon, was reinvented in [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3218251/1/Witchy-Woman Witchy Woman]] as a mere girlfriend whom he had to temporarily kill to preserve his humanity. Afterwards, he spent a year hiding out from her. In canon, her death, which was permanent, was a HeroicSacrifice.
** The Tok'ra of Series/StargateSG1 are presented as exploitative allies not so different from the Goa'uld who have no exit strategy and terrible spies.
** The Air Nomads of WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender are presented as a mind-controlling regime which takes all children from their mothers at age two to be placed with airbending masters -- and those who aren't airbenders are adopted out of the Nation; the swordsman who trained Aang's biological father was one such.
* AdaptationDyeJob: [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Duo Maxwell]] has violet eyes (official website says Prussian blue).
* AdaptationSpeciesChange:
** ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'':
*** Kenshin and Hiko are covered elsewhere. Suffice it to say that only in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4481984/1/Clean-and-White Clean and White]]'' and ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2434630/1/Blades_of_Blood Blades of Blood]]'' did Kenshin begin the story human and only in the former does he not end up a LittleBitBeastly. He doesn't end it human, though. Only in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4031223/1/Shadows_in_Starlight Shadows in Starlight]]'' is Hiko ''not'' stated to be something other than human at any point.
*** ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4031223/1/Shadows_in_Starlight Shadows in Starlight]]'' has a Zabrak Han'nya, a [[DraconicHumanoid Firrereo (Fireryo)]] Beshimi and a UnevenHybrid Firrereo Saitou.
*** [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2434630/1/Blades_of_Blood ''Blades of Blood'']] has a sorceror Genzai.
*** ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3218251/1/Witchy-Woman Witchy Woman]]'', the second entry in the [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2434630/1/Blades_of_Blood ''Blades of Blood'']] series, had a {{Golem}} Animate Hyottoko, a weretiger Shikijou, a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Rakshasa]] Beshimi, an [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Ubo]] Aoshi, an Animate Han'nya [[DemonicDummy who was once a bunraku puppet]], an Ubo Tae and a werewolf Saitou.
*** ''Dragons of Revolution'' had Sano and Megumi as dragons.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Subverted with Series/{{Airwolf}}. She's genuinely loyal to her [[TrueCompanions adoptive family]], and wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless it shot at them. Then she'd blow it to smithereens.
* AirVentPassageway:
** The Hollows in ''Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' are so flexible that they can manage this. Hitsugaya considered it in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5201930/1/Project_Asclepius Project Asclepius]]'' but the passages weren't big enough, so he went through the window.
** [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1408748/1/Conference_Calls Conference Calls]]
--->Archangel: "Foreign operatives turning the source of life, the very air you breathe, into the channel for your destruction. Freud or Jung, the psychological connotations are damning… And second only to air ducts, I despise babbling."
* AliensOfLondon: Averted in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', where the English of the Sanqians is said to have an odd flavor.
* AliensSpeakingEnglish: Justified in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', where the people of Sanq learned English by raiding Goa'uld databases, and the Goa'uld extracted it from kidnapped SGC personnel.
* AlternateUniverse: O'Neill encounters one where the SGC has a longstanding alliance with The Firm, and Sha'uri [[spoiler:was found alive.]]
* AlwaysOnDuty: Deconstructed. It is stated in various Urban Legends fics to be a risk factor for cracking up and a problem for an SGC effectively under seige by a rogue government agency that has bought off most of the people who could stop it.
* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: In ''Walk Through the Valley'', the merrows of TheFederation insist on subjecting its citizens to a form of MindControl called conditioning, which amounts to telepathic MindRape, for this reason.
* TheAssimilator: Jack O'Neill thinks Kenshin is this after a breach of medical ethics goes horribly wrong and he gets some of his blood transfused into him. He even references ''Film/TheThing1982''. He's wrong, by the way.
* AssimilationPlot: The Arrancar of FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion, according to her blog, and the Federation of ''Walk Through the Valley''.
* AuraVision: Kenshin in every fic of hers, along with the rest of the Kenshingumi in Urban Legends and the youkai, shinigami, and yuurei of FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion. In ''Blades of Blood'', it's just Sanosuke and Kenshin.
* AuthorAppeal:
** AwesomenessIsAForce: [[Franchise/StarWars Jedi]], [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender benders]], [[PsychicPowers psychics]] - Vathara ''really'' likes the concept of "perfect leaders" who can walk into a rabble and instantly cow them, inspire them, and turn them into an army. Often becomes an AccidentalAesop as this phenomena is repeatedly demonstrated to not just rally the masses into victories over evil, but is often the ''cause'' of [[WarIsHell hellish conflicts]] that [[DepopulationBomb annihilate populations]]; it took a "perfect leader" to defeat the tyrant, but the tyranny '''began''' with a "perfect leader."
** Determinator: Cloud in ''Thorns'', Kirito in ''Monstrous Compendium Online'' and ''Waking to Another Sky'', Kenshin in every story he appears in, Genjyo Sanzo in every story ''he'' appears in,
** {{Friendly Neighborhood Vampire}}s; most of her stories involve: (psychological) transformation, predatory variants of humanity, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs (psychological) transformations into predatory variants of humanity]]. In every case, these creatures are demonstrated to be, if not noble, then NecessarilyEvil, even in universes where a significant percentage of such entities regularly terrorize, torture, kill and eat humans ForTheEvulz.
--->'''[[Manga/RurouniKenshin Kenshin]]:''' ''You don't think of someone you - [[CanNotSpitItOut care about]] - as food!''\\
'''Battousai:''' ''Have you never cherished an apple tree?''
** TheEvilsOfFreeWill. At the very least, in her universes, freedom has liabilities significant enough that some could rationally justify abandoning it.
--->'''Amak:''' ''We didn't want to be ruled by the Northern Chief or the waterbenders; we didn't want to be ruled by anybody. And we weren't. Which worked just fine. Until it didn't. Until someone who actually wanted to do us harm came for us, and wouldn't stop coming.''
** She ''loves'' '''[[DefiedTrope defying]]''' CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority: ''every'' rebel figure she has written has been a [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized fanatic]], while JustFollowingOrders is commonly praised, with the obedient EasilyForgiven and their detractors "[[RetCon revealed]]" to be [[RonTheDeathEater far worse than those they despise]]. She's a big fan of this last one even ''in RealLife'' -- for example, she believes the Kent State shootings were '''[[YouRebelScum justified]].'''
--->...you might want to do more research on Kent State than Wikipedia has up. And on the Sixties in general, and the so-called anti-war movement in particular. A lot of those people were not pacifists. You're not a pacifist if you throw rocks at firemen and police; you're an ''idiot'', depending on someone else to act in a much more civilized manner than you are. Also note that at the same time said shootings occurred, groups like the Weather Underground and others claiming to be part of the anti-war movement were busily wreaking havoc, inflicting property damage, and murdering people across the country. And there were all kinds of rumors and noises about people like that being in the crowd. Potentially with ''[[BombThrowingAnarchists bombs]].''\\
Context, people. Know your [[FairForItsDay historical context]].
* AutopsySnackTime: Inverted in ''Blades of Blood'', where an ME was snacked ''on'' by a werewolf coming back from a temporary death.
* BadassAdorable: Series/{{Airwolf}}, who would count as a {{Tykebomb}} if the people who'd intended to use her as a weapon had considered her a person in the first place. Kenshin in every story in which he appears.
* BadassAndChildDuo:
** Kenshin and Yahiko in ''Blades of Blood'' and ''Witchy Woman'', although Yahiko is male, not ThePollyanna and got into martial arts before his half-brother. Neither is WalkingTheEarth and there is no villain after Yahiko.
** Hiko and Kenshin in ''Walk Through the Valley''. Hiko may fit the requirements for the Badass almost to a T (he's implied to be at least fifty, if not sixty at the beginning of the story, though), but Kenshin is a boy who was savvy enough to know that he wouldn't be taken in because of his red hair and command of Federation Standard (the tongue of the enemy), was not regarded as valuable enough to worth trying to snatch from Hiko [[spoiler:at first]] and Hiko began teaching him Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu very shortly after his EmergencyTransformation was finished. Kenshin was not a ReplacementGoldfish. In fact, Hiko was a ChildHater until he came along. [[spoiler:Hiko walks the ''galaxy'', though, after Kenshin is lured off-planet by the bastard who almost killed him five years earlier and a man who turned out to be a military recruiter.]]
* BarehandedBladeBlock: A force technique that allows one to do this exists in ''Shadows in Starlight'' and is actually a major plot point. It's fairly dangerous technique to use and it is still recommended the force user who employs it should wear kote to minimize the possibility of permanent damage to their hands if they mess up. Kenshin was once forced to perform the technique without kote to save his own life against a fallen jedi back during the Bakumatsu and his hands were badly scared as a result (it didn't help that he was pretty exhausted at that point in the battle).
* BarrierMaiden: Kenshin is this in the Urban Legends Verse as of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3024244/2/Flat-Tire-with-Bad-Guys Flat Tire with Bad Guys]]''. So long as he is standing, nothing dangerous will escape Cheyenne Mountain.
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Whenever HistoricalDomainCharacter Hajime Saitou of UsefulNotes/TheShinsengumi appears, he's not human. But the Urban Legends and Blades of Blood Verses are especially notable in that they are UrbanFantasy.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Vathara portrays [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Katara]] as this in ''Embers'' -- as much as she loves Kenshin for being "a peaceable guy until [he has] a target" and Unohana for letting her temper fly when the situation calls for it and still keeping it under control, she does not like Katara.
-->'''WordOfGod:''' ''Katara is not honest. Katara is sweetness and confidence and "we're going to help Aang save the world!" Until she runs into [[BerserkButton something she doesn't like]], at which point the Sugar Queen cracks, and a lot of nastiness oozes out. ...Yeah. That relationship is going to end ''[[SarcasmMode so well]]''. I think I'll take my chances with [[LawfulEvil Azula]]....''
* BizarreHumanBiology:
** In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3024244/2/Flat-Tire-with-Bad-Guys Flat Tire with Bad Guys]], [[spoiler:Kenshin]] was revealed to have nucleated red blood cells, like a reptile, which could take on the function of white blood cells in a pinch. In fact, any cell could take on any function, if need be. They can form new organs wherever and whenever they're needed. [[spoiler:It's because he's a hanyou, and {{Youkai}}, in the Urban Legends universe, are a HumanSubspecies created by the Ancients, whom Vathara envisions as AbusivePrecursors.]]
** Cloud and Zack become reliant on the sun for much of their nourishment in ''Thorns'' after they become [[WingedHumanoid Winged Humanoids]]. Guess where their solar panels are?
* BlackSpeech: The {{EMP}}-based StarfishLanguage of Hollows in FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion makes all but the toughest normal responders drop to the ground, curl up in the fetal position and whimper. All {{EMP}}s are this to electronic equipment in Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: In ''Flat Tire with Bad Guys'', hanyou would sooner forgive you for trying to kill them than for lying to them.
* BondCreature: Series/{{Airwolf}}.
* BringMyBrownPants: In ''All I Need is a Miracle'', one glare from Kenshin is all it takes to make a treasonous lieutenant crap himself.
* CallARabbitASmeerp:
** ''Shadows in Starlight'' alone has "Miasma Fever," for malaria, whose name is a relic of a time when it was thought to be caused by swamp gas; ''kokumotsu'', for millet; "biters," for mosquitoes; "brown cane," for sugarcane, which Japan has grown for a long time; ''yanagi no kuroi'' (black willow) is loosely based on the ''jubokko'' (vampire tree), which had no symbiotic relationship with leeches or the power to put unwary animals to sleep.
** ''Walk Through the Valley'' has "tree-rats," which are clearly squirrels, given that they are arboreal, bushy-tailed RodentsOfUnusualSize. Okay, so maybe most squirrels aren't huge enough for Hiko to say that Kenshin was smaller than some of them, but bushy-tailed and arboreal still apply.
* CatGirl: [[HeroicBuild Muscular]], TallDarkAndSnarky Hiko, of all people, is one in all but three of the stories in which he is even mentioned. He not may be {{Moe}} or soft and he doesn't necessarily possess any external feline features whatsoever, but his personality, as in canon, splits the difference between the [[CuddleBug highly affectionate]] male and aloof female versions of this trope, making him a [[CatsAreSnarkers snarky]] and [[CatsAreSuperior egotistical]] JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
** He is part [[{{Youkai}} bakeneko]] (i.e., neko-hanyou) in ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day''. He tacitly admitted this to a [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Joyce Summers]] wearing an [[BecomingTheCostume enchanted Signet costume]]. Like his canon self, he is [[TheAgeless immune to the ravages of time]], able to withstand the practice of [[FantasticFightingStyle Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu]], which involves FlashStep jumping that should have destroyed his knees when combined with his [[PowerLimiter weighted cloak]]; GlowingEyesOfDoom when battles get serious and has never [[NeverGetsDrunk gotten drunk]] or had a beer gut in spite of a ridiculous alcohol intake (''bakeneko'' are supposed to be [[ImmuneToDrugs immune to poison]]). Aside from the occasional GlowingEyesOfDoom, there was nothing off about his appearance. He just never told Kenshin this until after the demon summoning spell brought him back from Heaven.
** He is a neko-hanyou in the Urban Legends series as well. Like in ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'', his canon appearance is unchanged and his being a hanyou is there to explain certain aspects of character that don't make sense in light of modern and not-so-modern science. However, this one didn't realize it until he noticed he wasn't aging.
** In ''Walk Through the Valley'', he's a kiryuu alterant thanks to LegoGenetics. Unlike the Hiko of ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'' and Urban Legends, this one possesses AbsurdlySharpClaws and InnateNightVision so acute that he is [[BlindWithoutEm blind without]] his CoolShades, along with alien physical features like [[AlienHair sensory tendrils]] that allow this [[AlternateUniverse AU's]] answer to ki-sense to work and EyeColorChange that go from blue in the daytime to [[GlowingEyes amber]] at night or low light. His ki-sense consists of sensing [[{{EMP}} electromagnetic radiation]] and something else that was never explained. Details regarding the consequences can be found below at TerribleTicking. Oh, and he went from ChildHater to KnightTemplarParent.
* CelibateHero:
** In ''Walk Through the Valley'', [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Hiko]]'s rash decision to break his own laws and [[LegoGenetics splice]] alien felinoid pack animal DNA into his genome created two insurmountable obstacles to sex;
*** Mid-back length [[AlienHair sensory tendrils]] that looks just like human hair blowing in the wind (it is living tissue that moves on its own) until it is touched, which causes it to curl against whatever lifeform is touching it, provided it's upset, at least. His scalp tendrils are never shed, not even in the shower. His hairbrush, if he owns one, would have zero hairs. They also don't feel like hair, as Okiku felt for herself when rubbing Kenshin's scalp. He has the vellus hair women and prepubescent children have on his face and neck instead of the terminal hair a man should, except for the eyebrows and lashes, of course. Any woman Hiko brought to the cabin would have to be really drunk not to pick up on that. Kwannon, as a world that has been slated for absorption by TheFederation, has a NoTranshumanismAllowed policy.
*** Becoming a KnightTemplarParent in spite of himself with the desire to kill any predator that approaches his cabin (including humans) ever since Kenshin's second shedding. Only one person, Okiku Toyotomi, is allowed to see the cabin after Kenshin finishes his EmergencyTransformation and it took months for him to reshape his instincts enough to allow even that. She was simply one of his few friends and the only other person who knew about Kenshin at first.
** The first, he deliberately inflicted on himself. The second was due to never guessing he'd be anyone's ParentalSubstitute, much less transform them as he did himself. ''He never mentions missing sex.'' In fact, the only indication that Vathara doesn't think he's UsefulNotes/{{asexual}} is his interest in [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Joyce Summers]] in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2520472/1/Ethan_Raynes_Very_Bad_Day Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day]]''.
** [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Misao]] in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3218251/1/Witchy-Woman Witchy Woman]]'' is stated to have sworn off dating after [[ChekhovMIA Aoshi]] went missing five years earlier.
* CombatTentacles: The Reavers of ''Upon A Fiery Steed'' and all the shinigami in ''Project Tatterdemalion'' have two pairs of such growing out of their backs.
* {{Conscription}}: [[spoiler:Kenshin in ''Walk Through the Valley'' was sold to a Confederate military recruiter by Yoson Hotate, a grief-stricken member of LaResistance, because he looked to be the perfect DeepCoverAgent.]]
* ContainmentField:
** The slaves in ''Walk Through the Valley'' were held back by a wall of light at a wavelength that would caused their slave tattoos to poison them to death (see ExplosiveLeash below for details).
** As of ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3024244/1/Flat_Tire_with_Bad_Guys Flat Tire with Bad Guys]]'', there is one around Cheyenne Mountain in the Urban Legends Verse courtesy of Kenshin Himura, who doesn't want to have to hunt for another off-world predator a la ''Spin Cycle''.
* ContinuityNod: Three examples from just her Ruroken fic;
** When Hiko and Kenshin meet after fifteen years in Manga/RurouniKenshin, the former dredges up an embarrassing incident in which the latter ate one of the species of MagicMushroom called waraitake, or, "laughing mushroom," which the Media Blasters dub translated as "funny mushrooms." Guess what [[Series/StargateSG1 Janet]] was exposed to before ''Spin Cycle'' opened?
** In ''Walk Through the Valley'', Hiko kills an [[{{Ninja}} Oniwaban]] who had previously tortured a man to death using iron spikes and candle wax during an UnstoppableRage. In the [[Manga/RurouniKenshin original manga]], an Oniwaban named Okina does the same thing to one of [[BigBad Shishio]]'s messengers.
** In ''Shadows in Starlight'':
*** Katsu was put under compulsion to bring Megumi to Kanryuu, who planned to take her back from them in exchange for Katsu life. In the course of the discussion, Kaoru said the [[{{Ninja}} onmitsu]] were good enough to have studied them, and would know they were coming:
--->Yahiko's eyes widened. "It's a trap?"
*** Katsu notes that Sano has qualms about shooting first.
* CoolOldGuy: Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' was still practicing Hiten Mitsurugi into his old age over the objections of his superiors.
* CoolShades: Hiko was forced to wear them in ''Walk Through the Valley'' due to his extremely acute InnateNightVision. As in, he's BlindWithoutEm. Kenshin was never mentioned as having them, but he would need them.
* CuddleBug:
** All the [[Manga/{{Bleach}} shinigami]] in ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion''.
** [[HeroicHost Ken]][[DraconicHumanoid shin]] in ''Blades of Blood'' ''really'' likes having his hair brushed.
** The shinigami of ''Upon a Fiery Steed'' also melt after some hair brushing.
* DarkIsNotEvil: In ''Shadows in Starlight'', Kenshin uses Force lightning, the AgonyBeam of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe, to heal Obi-Wan Kenobi of Kanto Plain Miasma Fever because the Light Side doesn't kill and the disease is caused by a blood parasite. On Yamato, Sith and Jedi had to learn to get along to survive. Sith alchemy gave Yamato crops and animals that could survive its climate.
* DarwinistDesire:
** TheFederation of ''Walk Through the Valley'' has practiced eugenics since it was founded to ensure that the descendents of the small-but-not-too-small starting population didn't perish from inbreeding. Even after their civilization grew to include more planets than the Confederacy, they refused to stop.
* DeconstructionCrossover: The Urban Legendsverse is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover that deconstructs at least two of the works incorporated into it.
** Series/StargateSG1;
*** [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2013341/1/Hearts_on_Barbed_Wire Hearts On Barbed Wire]] points out that the SGC essentially started and is fighting an illegal war with an unspeakably powerful enemy -- one that a number of more ethical individuals in the government would attempt to stop if they knew of it.
*** [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3024244/1/Flat_Tire_with_Bad_Guys Flat Tire with Bad Guys]] expands on this -- the scientific staff cannot publish research or take interns, and is subject to casual degradation by military personnel. A similar situation for soldiers would be if they were repeatedly sent on high-loss missions with minimal support to capture objectives that were later surrendered without any stated reason -- while being treated as barbarians by their supporters.
*** [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2002179/1/ Veritas]] points out that General Hammond is playing fast and loose with his non-military personnel. The SGC's treatment of their scientific staff is appalling -- ordering Jackson to publish false documents to preserve the SGC's secrecy would permanently ruin him academically if it was ever discovered -- no scientist would trust that he is publishing legitimate research if he is willing to create false documents for the government, and he would essentially be the next Trofim Lysenko. On top of that, in the mythological background, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amunet Amunet]](the Goa'uld who possessed Daniel's wife, Sha'uri) is ''far'' older, smarter, and ''more powerful'' than early BigBad [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apep Apophis]] (her husband). It's entirely possible that Sha'uri is still alive -- ''and that General Hammond knows this.'' Daniel Jackson is TheWormGuy ''of'' Worm Guys -- a uniquely capable individual in an already small and specialized field. If Daniel got his wife back, the possibility exists that he'd retire to Abydos and leave the SGC without his talents. Therefore, Hammond could be refusing to even allow anyone to consider the possibility that Sha'uri is alive and could be rescued... which is a good example of the "military intelligence" oxymoron -- ensuring the defeat of Apophis while faking Amunet's death is like ensuring the death of Osama bin Laden and faking ''Stalin's'' death -- something that could lead to Earth's defeat... just to make sure his pet geek won't desert. Worst part? Since Daniel's not military, yet used those talents to ensure a place in his command, it's ''[[BlueAndOrangeMorality entirely ethical by military standards]] to screw with his head to ensure his loyalty in turn.''
*** [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2357837/1/Contact Contact]] points out that Jack O'Neill has no family outside of the ex-wife he's not in touch with, hasn't been on a date in years and has no friends outside of work or neighbors to lean on when things go wrong.
*** [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/9577922/chapters/23321096 Waking to Another Sky]] deconstructs AdventurerArchaeologist when Daniel ''himself'' points out that the pressures of fighting the Goa'uld force him to do his job ''completely wrong.''
--->"What I do isn't science, Janet. Science would be careful. Science would take time to develop theories and test them by experiment, instead of rushing through translations and hoping I get it right before something else blows up. What I do - it's not science. It's rescue archaeology. We pick our way through the ruins and yank out anything that might be worth saving, because god only knows if the planet will be there tomorrow."
** Manga/RurouniKenshin:
*** [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2002179/1/Veritas Veritas]] again: if Tomoe had succeeded in killing the Hitokiri Battousai, the Shogunate would seen it as a stain on its honor to be wiped away with her death because she was a woman.
* DeepCoverAgent:
** In ''Walk Through the Valley'', Kenshin's father was this. The ookamimoya alterants created by Project Miburou were to be this. [[spoiler:Kenshin was taken from Kwannon to become one as part of Project Miburou.]]
** In ''Blades of Blood'', Kenshin's parents were tasked with keeping Irish-American money out of IRA coffers.
* DemonicDummy: Han'nya in ''Witchy Woman'' is a bunraku puppet brought to life centuries before the story opens.
* DoingInTheWizard: Her profile states that she enjoys [[AuthorAppeal scientific explanations of magic]].
* DrowningMySorrows: Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' after Kenshin leaves him.
* EmancipatedChild: Kaiba in the ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1538942/1/Foreign_xChange Foreign Exchange]]'' universe.
* {{EMP}}: Hiko and Kenshin can generate and sense them in ''Walk Through the Valley'', as can all the shinigami, normal responders and Hollows of FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion. Precisely how is [[TheUnreveal never stated]], but it is [[EpilepticTrees implied]] to be [[http://www.nbb.cornell.edu/neurobio/hopkins/eodrecog/electroreception.html electroreception]], which shouldn't work above water because air is a poor conductor--unless you ionized the shit out of the air with {{EMP}}s and had a ''lot'' of electroreceptors like the kind Hiko, Kenshin and the shinigami appear to have on their [[AlienHair sensory tendrils]]. [[EpilepticTrees If this is the case]], then they are [[OrganicTechnology living EEGs]], and they've got a hell of a [[http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1841108,00.html thought helmet]], but instead of hearing voice commands like the soldiers of the future in the TIME magazine article, they have to share the thoughts they read. The empaths, hanyou and {{Youkai}} of the Urban Legends series are implied to be able to sense the differences in electromagnetic fields between living and nonliving things as of ''Contact'' and ''Flat Tire with Bad Guys'', but they aren't WalkingTechbane. In fact, only the shinigami can knock out electronics. As for Hiko and Kenshin, not only are they not stated to be able to do this, they can't even navigate their way around inanimate objects; Hiko couldn't find the bathroom after he woke up and before his eyes unsealed.
* TheEmpath: Vathara [[AuthorAppeal loves]] this trope;
** [[Series/StargateSG1 Daniel, Shauri]], [[Series/{{Airwolf}} Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III]] and [[WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries Nick Tatopoulos]] are the most prominent examples in the Urban Legends verse. In this verse, being an empath means being a Badass with SuperReflexes, SuperSpeed and SuperSenses who SpeaksFluentAnimal and can drive the likes off Ra of Earth by [[KiManipulation channeling their ki into primitive weapons]]. Or words, like Daniel.
** [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Quatre Raberba Winner]] in ''Upon a Fiery Steed''. The Winner family was bred by [[Myth/MesopotamianMythology Lamashtu]] for the purpose of MindRape. In-story, he uses it to [[JediMindTrick convince]] the [[LaResistance Tok'ra]] that Sally Po was most definitely not a creature developed by Egeria's most trusted sibling to destroy their movement, boost everyone's HeroicWillpower during a Reaver attack at L3, and [[BreadMilkEggsSquick damn near get everyone killed by the Cimmerians for practicing]] BlackMagic.
** Simon Peters in ''Thorns'' before he TookALevelInBadass.
** Kenshin in ''Walk Through the Valley'' until his EmergencyTransformation. It prepared him for life as a kiryuu alterant. Hiko implies towards the end that he'd always had a very weak version of this. Out of everyone listed, Hiko comes the closest to suffering the SensoryOverload that used to hit Deanna Troi.
* EmpathicWeapon: Series/{{Airwolf}} in Urban Legends and [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Battousai]] in ''Blades of Blood'', where he's a UsefulNotes/{{Muramasa}} blade, and a rare heroic example, at that.
* EmpoweredBadassNormal:
** Shunsui, Yumichika and Ikkaku in ''Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion. [[spoiler:Sgt. Petrillo and Gen. Yamamoto are this as of [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7432275/1/Project_Thoughts Project Thoughts]] , as well.]]
** Daniel in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'' caught a BeneficialDisease, underwent an EmergencyTransformation as a result and gained a killer instinct that he is going to need lessons to control.
** Kenshin in ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2434630/1/Blades_of_Blood Blades of Blood]]'' can really think on his feet even before he started sharing headspace with a Bakumatsu assassin in a SoulJar.
** Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' was already a master swordsman, a master scout explorer and a gene-tech. Kenshin in the same story was more of an ActionSurvivor before he transformed.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: TheFederation in ''Walk Through the Valley'' is a FalseUtopia ruled by a telepathic HumanSubspecies called the merrows who've eliminated it from the citizenry because AMindIsATerribleThingToRead.
* ExplosiveLeash: TheFederation of ''Walk Through the Valley'' uses poison tattoos to keep slaves from escaping. They are designed to release their toxic cargo when:
** The slaves try to get out of the cell door they just unlocked.
** Another slave cuts out the tattoo.
** A slaver presses a remote detonator.
*** The signal is strong enough that it will rupture one or two beads on the tattoo of any slave behind them.
** The beads went a year without being replaced.
** The beads' coating fools the immune system so that it regards them as just another body part. If a slaver tattoos themselves, the skin will slough off after a few weeks.
* ExpressiveHair: Hiko has a variant of this in ''Walk Through the Valley''; his sensory tendrils curl around upset creatures they come in contact with.
* FakingTheDead: Shauri is alive in the Urban Legends Verse because Amaunet can use the abilities of empaths like her to for the kind of {{Jedi Mind Trick}}s it takes to play dead.
* FantasticRacism: After [[spoiler:Demona nearly exterminates New York, and would have killed more]], orders were nearly cut to wipe out all gargoyles. There's also [[Series/StargateSG1 Colonel O'Neill's]] reaction to youkai, and the people of Cerberus regard him as an inhuman monster [[spoiler:because he carries Ancient genes]].[[spoiler:In ''Walk Through the Valley'', Kenshin fell prey to this (see RedHeadedStepchild below for details).]]
* FantasyKitchenSink: Urban Legendsverse.
* TheFederation: The one in ''Walk Through the Valley'' is a {{False Utopia}}n LostColony that was found centuries before the story opens and boy, does the Confederacy regret it. It started when a small population of humans, a SleeperShip, perhaps, became very lost in space and was forced to cull children with undesirable mutations in order to prevent inbreeding from destroying their people. In trying to make their people more genetically diverse, they created a HumanSubSpecies called the merrows that possessed {{Telepathy}}, six fingers on each hand and a vicious hatred of those who have not submitted to their MindControl because AMindIsATerribleThingToRead. That last was an accident. They conduct slave raids to increase their genetic variability and the slaves are fitted with a unique variation of the ExplosiveLeash that consists of poison-filled beads tattooed into the skin. The only way to prevent yourself from being conditioned is to become a LittleBitBeastly (i.e., an alterant) through LegoGenetics because the mind is too far off the human mold for conditioning to take. Because of this, they [[NoTransHumanismAllowed kill alterants on sight]]. Mental alterations alone drive subjects insane. Alterations must use Conferacy-approved genetic sequences and cannot be permanent. Before the story opened, Hiko was working on making permanent, covert alterants using DNA from a lupine carnivore from [[DeathWorld Satoyama]] called an ookamimoya (see LittleBitBeastly below for details).
* FixFic:
** The Urban Legends series does this to Daniel Jackson's shitty personal life. In canon, he was orphaned at age eight, dumped into the foster care system by his grandfather, had his last public lecture end with people walking out on him, found love in outer space only to have a PuppeteerParasite chose her for a host for his own wife and finally lost her forever when Teal'c killed her to save his life. When Vathara started writing, Daniel was treated with less respect than he deserved because he was a civilian. His friends outside of work were nonexistent. The base psychiatrist is a piece of shit. The life he ''has'' put together in spite of all this is under seige from the NID. In Urbans Legends;
*** [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/916563/1/While-There-Is-Life Amaunet faked Shauri's death]] because she's sneaky enough to pull it off.
*** He has an unofficial adoptive family in the form of [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/987123/1/Visits Michael]] [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1069684/1/Lessons-in-Keys Coldsmith]]-[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1069690/1/Spies-Like-Us Briggs]] [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1212269/1/Closer-Than-They-Appear III]] and his mother, Ariella
*** Reliable neighbors in the form of [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1941214/1/Spin-Cycle Kenshin Himura and his wife]]
*** A sanctuary in the form of the [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2002179/1/Veritas Kamiya Dojo]] that is built like a fortress
*** [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1095089/1/Shrink No MacKenzie]]
*** A new shrink and an FBI probe into the NID as of [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2357837/1/Contact Contact]].
*** [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1461065/1/Dropping-By a place to go if his gig at SGC becomes impossible to handle]].
* ForcefulKiss: [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Duo Maxwell]] to Daniel Jackson in ''Upon a Fiery Steed''.
%%* FunctionalMagic
* {{Golem}}: [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Hyottokko]] is this in ''Witchy Woman''.
* GoneHorriblyRight: So, Hiko, you're tired of being told by your bosses that your telomeres are too short for you to ride, er, practice Hiten Mitsurugi and explore strange new worlds. And instead of saying TakeThisJobAndShoveIt, you want to secretly break the law and use LegoGenetics and stick genes from a creature that has a PsychicLink that [[MindlinkMates spans the entire spark (pack)]], [[TheAgeless never died of natural causes on your watch]], and is very [[KnightTemplarParent protective of its young]]? Good luck keeping your sanity and your jo... well, one out of two isn't bad.
* GoodIsDumb: Vathara has a tendency to portray [[TheParagon Paragons]] as... well, not ''exactly'' "[[StupidGood stupid]]" but '''[[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance painfully]]''' [[WideEyedIdealist naive]]. Both [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Aang and Katara]] take an absolutely '''''[[HateFic BRUTAL]]''''' lashing all throughout ''Fanfic/EmbersVathara}}'', and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica is treated as a [[DumbassHasAPoint somewhat dull but occasionally insightful]] AudienceSurrogate in ''Thrower of the Dart.''
-->'''Tony Stark:''' ''You dealt with the Resistance, right?''\\
'''Steve Rogers:''' (unhappily) ''Yeah...''\\
'''Tony Stark:''' (Oh good. There was some practical sense under the shiny stars.)
* GunshipRescue: Series/{{Airwolf}}, [[spoiler:most notably rescuing Archangel from Muerta.]]
* HappilyAdopted: Kenshin in ''Walk Through the Valley'' because kiryuu cubs form equally close bonds with all the adults in the spark.
* HeartbrokenBadass:
** Kenshin and Kaoru in the Urban Legends verse, where they lost their last child to the Illuminati, who wanted to extend their lives, in spite of their RoaringRampageOfRescue.
** Hiko after the smuggling ship carrying Kenshin off of Kwannon cleared the atmosphere.
* HeartwarmingOrphan: Kenshin may have been adorable and sweet but he only melted Hiko's heart. This would only count as a subversion if she had changed the names and published professionally, given that Kenshin wasn't one in canon, either.
* HealingHerb; ''Hashima'' in ''Shadows in Starlight'' is the only treatment for Miasma, Yamato's answer to malaria, but it has side-effects and only treats Miasma.
* HellOfAHeaven: For Kenshin in ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'', Heaven was Hell because he couldn't share it with Kaoru as she was a Slayer and was given the worst lives the PowersThatBe could find as punishment for being protected by Kenshin and the others.
* HitmanWithAHeart: How [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Battousai]] is [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation presented]]. This does not mean that he is a [[ShellShockedVeteran gibbering wreck]] even when he's explicitly stated as having PTSD. The [[TrueCompanions Kenshingumi]] simply conclude that he won't harm them.
-->Hiko, remembering the havoc Angelus and Darla wrought in Japan: "Battousai may have been a ruthless killer, but he was sane. ..."
* HyperAwareness: Multiple characters have this, and not just [[Series/TheSentinel Jim Ellison]], like Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}.
* IfYouKillHimYouWillBeJustLikeHim: Inverted in ''Walk Through the Valley'', which has Hiko offing evildoers in order to avoid becoming just like them.
* IHaveYourIndex:
** BoundAndGagged: Kaoru in ''Blades of Blood''. Kaoru and Alexandra Eames in ''Witchy Woman''.
** BringHimToMe: Subverted in ''Witchy Woman'' when Kanryuu Takeda insists that Aoshi bring Misao to him even though this could have upset his plans for Kurogasa.
** IHaveYourWife:
*** The [[Series/StargateSG1 NID]] attempted this with an SGC widow's daughter ''outside her school '''with the mother watching''''' in ''Contact''. Kenshin nipped this in the bud.
*** In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2434630/1/Blades_of_Blood Blades of Blood]]'', Jin-e Udo, the EvilCounterpart to Battousai, kidnaps Kaoru to goad him into a DemonicPossession. Earlier, Battousai's employer, Target Alpha, attempted it with Kaoru and Yahiko to get him away from Kenshin, which simply served to lure Kaoru out from under Kenshin's protection.
*** In ''Witchy Woman'', Kaoru is again kidnapped and so is Misao.
* ImminentDangerClue: [[spoiler:Hiko's warning that he was about to get tranked was some stray thoughts from [[LaResistance Yoson Hotate]].]]
* IndexToTheRescue:
** RoaringRampageOfRescue:
*** In Urban Legends, Kenshin, Kaoru, Misao and Aoshi attempted this in the 1970's when their last child was kidnapped by the Illuminati. They didn't make it in time. Almost everyone else there died, too. Suffice it to say, Kenshin had to show Kaoru how to clean her blade.
*** [[spoiler:Another unsuccessful attempt was made by Hiko towards the end of ''Walk Through the Valley''. Kenshin cleared the atmosphere just after Hiko learned he'd been sold.]]
*** Kenshin for Kaoru numerous times in ''Blades of Blood'' and ''Witchy Woman''. [[spoiler:She manages to free her lungs from ''Shin no Ippou'' in ''Blades of Blood'' and in ''Witchy Woman'', she gets to work untying herself right away.]]
* InterspeciesRomance: In the Urban Legend series, epecially in Gargoyles/Godzilla where Delilah and Kraven seem to have something going on.
* ItGetsEasier: Hiko goes from heartsick over the deaths of conditioned agents, psi-active agents and merrows to merely sad in ''Walk Through the Valley''.
* JediMindTrick: Kenshin does this ''everywhere'' he appears without saying a single word to let us know he's doing it, unlike Obi-Wan:
** In ''All I Need is a Miracle'', he, Aoshi, Saitou, Misao, Megumi and Kaoru use it to stow away aboard a Japanese military vessel bound for Korea without staying cooped up below decks.
** In ''Spin Cycle'', he uses it to get his sword past SGC security.
** In ''Blades of Blood'', it conceals not only his sword, but his fangs, hakama and gi.
** In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' {{Crossover}}, ''Shadows in Starlight'', to pass unnoticed in crowds. Especially with a ''gaijin'' like Obi-Wan Kenobi in tow.
* JustWokeUpThatWay:
** [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''Walk Through the Valley'', where it turns out that [[ProfessorGuineaPig Hiko]] simply forgot about his decision to metamorphose into a CatBoy under his government's collective nose during his coma.
** Played straight in the opening of ''Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion'', where Juushirou wakes up shinigami.
* KarmicTransformation: Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' tells us that his government psychological profile described him as an arrogant, insensitive jerk many, many paragraphs ''after'' he learns that the creatures he'd spent decades studying shared emotions with other beings. The story opens with Hiko waking up with no idea what he's waking up from. He only brings up his profile because now that he's regained his youth in the course of illegally making himself a permanent alterant, he's going to have to break the profile to stay out of jail. It not only never once occurs to him that this is his punishment for insensitivity, but he learns to play with it.
* KidnappedScientist: In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1267896/1/A-Swing-and-a-Miss A Swing and a Miss]]'', the [[Series/StargateSG1 NID]] attempts this with [[WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries Nick Tatapoulos]]. They fail. As in, they were deposited, bruised and tied up, outside a brothel.
* LegoGenetics: Played with.
** In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/380151/1/Nothing-Could-Possibly-Go-Wrong ''Nothing Could Possibly Go Wrong'']], an ''Urban Legends'' fic, Demona accidentally gives random New Yorkers gargoyle DNA while trying to wipe out the human race, making them {{Winged Humanoid}}s with AbsurdlySharpClaws and the delusion that they were always gargoyles. Reversing this took some doing, especially given that it was 2001 and science wasn't yet aware of proteins that would trick human cellular machinery into chopping perfectly good DNA up.
** In ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', figuring out how to give humans the tendrils needed to make a [[GorgeousGorgon medusa]] was said to have left a lot of subjects horribly disfigured. This was [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Sanq's]] BigGood doing this, by the way. The Reavers created by the [[Series/StargateSG1 Goa'uld]] Dimme are caused by a retrovirus. They are {{Voluntary Shapeshifter}}s with CombatTentacles, six AbsurdlySharpClaws on each hand and can infect you with a scratch. The PainfulTransformation takes less than twelve hours and starts with a fever.
** In ''Walk Through the Valley'', Hiko is injected with an alterant serum, which is implied to be another retrovirus, given the fever. However, this was a {{Metamorphosis}} that took many months, involved shedding and would have been agonizing without specialized painkillers and a ConvenientComa overseen by his friend, Shakku Arai. NoConservationOfEnergy was averted, so the shedding made extra nutritional supplements necessary, making him perhaps the only comatose example of a BigEater in fiction. Early on, Hiko tells us that until then, all other alterants had needed specialized life support to survive. But not him, because he's brilliant.
** In Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion, becoming a Hollow takes at least three days and the transformation starts with a profound loneliness that drives the victim to infect the Hollowfication-prone, progresses to a fever, after which they lose consciousness and begin forming a chrysalis. Once it is formed, the victim is liquified and rebuilt as one of the more [[OurZombiesAreDifferent unique]] variations on the TechnicallyLivingZombie. So unique that they possess CombatTentacles, [[MindOverMatter destructive telekinesis]], [[TheNoseKnows enhanced smell]], FlashStep, SuperStrength, AbsurdlySharpClaws, a WhiteMaskOfDoom, a StarfishLanguage consisting of [[{{EMP}} EMPs]], a HealingFactor that requires them to be [[KillItWithFire killed with flamethrowers]] and are not MadeOfPlasticine; not-so-CuteLittleFangs, [[PoisonousPerson instantly lethal venom]] dispensed by those tentacles mentioned earlier, GlowingEyesOfDoom, {{Invisibility}} courtesy of color-shifting skin, a HorrorHunger for humans and [[NoZombieCannibals each other]], a [[HatesBeingAlone profound loneliness]] that drives to keep infecting the susceptible and enough memories of their human lives to open doors and recognize family members. They even tried to take a shuttle off Satoyama in ''Project Asclepius''. The shinigami have almost all of the above except that they are only a LittleBitBeastly, keep all of their memories, can still speak human language in addition to the StarfishLanguage, don't have a WhiteMaskOfDoom and while they [[HatesBeingAlone hate being alone]], they have TrueCompanions in the form of the pack and a bad case of CuddleBug.
* LittleBitBeastly:
** All of her Manga/RurouniKenshin fics;
*** All but three members of the Manga/RurouniKenshin cast qualify in the Urban Legends universe because they are hanyou, or part-{{Youkai}}, along with Saitou's OC grandson, Ryan Saitou O'Connell; Aoshi, inu (dog); Saitou, ookami (wolf); Megumi, [[AsianFoxSpirit Kitsune]] (fox); Hiko, neko (cat); and Kenshin, ryuu (dragon). Their physical features are unchanged from canon, though.
*** Kenshin is a [[AsianFoxSpirit Kitsune]]-hanyou in ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'', complete with claws and CuteLittleFangs, and Hiko is revealed to be a neko-hanyou (see CatGirl above for details), and aside from a suspicious lack of beer gut given his alcohol intake, he seems human at first glance. Until the GlowingEyes appear. Additionally, [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Xander and Giles]] become inu-hanyou. Joyce Summers was described as an ermine-hanyou.
*** Kenshin is part-Firrereo in ''Shadows in Starlight'', giving him CuteLittleFangs and two-toned, scarlet-and-crimson hair.
*** Kenshin and Hiko are both kiryuu alterants (i.e., {{Cat Boy}}s created by LegoGenetics) in ''Walk Through the Valley''. Hiko, because he really hated being told that he was too important a government scientist to be allowed to continue exploring the wilds of places like Satoyama and playing with sharp objects in his old age (or so says) and Kenshin, because an EmergencyTransformation was the only way Hiko could save him from a slowly-degrading slave tattoo full of poison (see ExplosiveLeash above for details). Before Hiko's little [[ProfessorGuineaPig experiment]], he was part of Project Miburou and was working on making permanent alterants using DNA from ookamimoya, which can best be described as [[CallARabbitASmeerp space wolves]] that possess near-CompleteImmortality, [[PapaWolf strong parental instincts]], [[ImmortalProcreationClause low birthrate to balance out the first thing]], [[FantasticRacism distrust of outsiders]], [[AlienHair sensory tendrils in place of hair]], InnateNightVision and a mild form of HiveMind that allows for individuality.
*** In ''Blades of Blood'', Kenshin and Hiko are Dragons, a race of DraconicHumanoid Kin that Vathara made up, giving them CuteLittleFangs, AbsurdlySharpClaws and a need for blood; it is not their sole source of nourishment, though. Also, they're not vampires; that's a separate race of Kin. Unlike most examples of {{Draconic Humanoid}}s, they can pass for human due to some kind of JediMindTrick that allows them to seem harmless to the unwary and it just so happens that claws and fangs don't strike people as harmless. It doesn't hurt that they lack scales and are warmblooded.
** ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''
*** The shinigami of Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion are Hollow-people. They possess CombatTentacles, [[TheNoseKnows an acute sense of smell]], AbsurdlySharpClaws, [[MindOverMatter destructive telekinesis]], FlashStep, SuperStrength, [[PoisonousPerson venom]], {{EMP}}-generation, a StarfishLanguage consisting of said [[{{EMP}} EMPs]], HealingFactor, [[CuddleBug a love of hugging]] and a pack instinct that has transformed them into each other's TrueCompanions.
*** The shinigami of ''Viper'' have had monster blood infused into theirs in a fantasy-version of LegoGenetics; the Kuchikis are {{Gorgeous Gorgon}}s, thus the title.
*** The shinigami of ''Stardust'' possess claws because their [[EmpathicWeapon zanpakutou]] are {{Energy Being}}s. Seriously.
*** Juushirou Ukitake gets a touch of {{Youkai}} in ''Lone Flower'' after the piece of Dire Wolf in [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]], who [[BecomingTheCostume became him]] during the events of "Halloween" because Urahara sold Ethan a kabuki costume once worn by him, stabbed him with an icicle. His physical features remain unchanged, but he does possess SuperStrength and a worse temper.
** VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII
*** ''Thorns'' has Cloud and Zack turning part [[OurGryphonsAreDifferent griffin]], making them {{Winged Humanoid}}s with AbsurdlySharpClaws and CuteLittleFangs.
* LostHimInACardGame: In ''Witchy Woman'', Sano claims that he and Kenshin won Megumi in a dice game from a player who wouldn't pay up. Kaoru was not pleased.
* MadScientistLaboratory: Only two of the laboratories depicted even faintly resemble this trope.
** Hiko's lab in ''Walk Through the Valley'' is meant to allow an accomplished scientist like himself to provide all the care an alterant in transition could need. Even this is lacking in flashy equipment. This ensures that Hiko's scientific prowess remains hidden.
** Hojo's lab in ''Thorns'' is a straighter example, but this is canon.
* MagicHair: Kenshin in the Urban Legendsverse has hair that goes from true red to scarlet when he lets more of his youkai side show.
* MamaBear: Angel, the {{Tulpa}} inside Series/{{Airwolf}}, counts, as do Michael Coldsmith-Briggs III's mother, Ariella, [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Kaoru Kamiya and Misao]].
* MasterOfIllusion: In ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'', Kenshin, Giles, Joyce Summers, Buffy, Jonathan and the Scoobies have to become this to conceal the fact that the effects of "Halloween" far outlasted the night. Enough other people were hit that they had to settle for a less well known spell that had to be renewed every month.
* {{Masquerade}}: In Urban Legends, the US government (or parts of it) are aware of much of what's out there.
* TheMenInBlack: Sort of subverted by the Firm, a rare sympathetic example which wears white, and while they do do cover-ups, they're rarely supernatural-related. Despite being a more conventional espionage and R&D group, they are gradually shifting towards handling supernatural and alien issues since the CIA often refuses to take it seriously, the [[Series/StargateSG1 NID]] can't be trusted, and the [[Series/StargateSG1 SGC]] [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror aren't sharing their information]].
-->Marella: The truth? The truth is, good friends of mine risked their lives to save you.
* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot:
** In ''Contact'', the NID makes the mistake of trying to kidnap an adorable child in broad daylight because her mother was asking too many questions.
** In [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3218251/1/Witchy-Woman Witchy Woman]]'', Goren and Eames found what Kanryuu Takeda had planned for New York because of a report of firecrackers going off. They were already looking at Kenshin for a quadruple-homicide-that-wasn't, and they later found him next to some corpses that were once Beijings, but it still applies.
* MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: Vathara loves playing with this.
** Inverted in ''Blades of Blood/Witchy Woman'', where Kenshin's mother is white and she and his father are KissingCousins, and ''Walk Through the Valley'', where Cadnawes was a white merrow out-cross and his father a Wakuseigo-speaking DeepCoverAgent.
** In ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'' and Urban Legends fics from ''Spin Cycle'' onward, the red hair comes from Youkai blood.
** In ''Shadows in Starlight'', Kenshin's father may be white, but his mother is [[HalfHumanHybrid part]]-Firrereo.
* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: In every story dealing with Transhumanism, this appears.
** In the first two installments of Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion, the shinigami really struggle with the urge to sting people who smell Hollowfication-prone. In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5201930/1/Project_Asclepius Project Asclepius]]'', they even sting Unohana and Kaien because it's raining. No one was infected.
** [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Hiko]] in ''Walk Through the Valley'' almost killed one of his few friends out of [[KnightTemplarParent the parental instincts]] that come with being a kiryuu alterant. A more humorous example from the same story has him resisting the urge to climb up tree, blind, and eat a tree-rat. He started offing the {{Mind Control}}led {{Turn Coat}}s known as the "conditioned" because kiryuu instinct dictates that people who feel wrong have to die.
* MindlinkMates: A rare platonic instead of romantic example in the [[Series/{{Airwolf}} Wolfpack]]. There are also romantic examples, such as Daniel Jackson and Sha'uri. There's a parent-child example in ''Walk Through the Valley''.
* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: In ''Witchy Woman'', the most unusual variant appears, in which the character's true, fanged, clawed, scarlet-haired self is revealed through the mirror not to one or more other characters but to himself. He hadn't had time to look in a mirror in ages. He has the power to project the illusion that he is harmless and a mirror wouldn't foil this.
* MustHaveCaffeine:
** The shinigami [[spoiler:and normal responders]] in FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion need it to fuel their PsychicPowers, as do the Quincies.
** The shinigami in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'' need it to prevent Shi no Yami, a BeneficialDisease, from sucking up all their glucose to build the metabolites from scratch.
** Daniel Jackson in ''Flat Tire with Bad Guys'' just because he's a caffeine addict.
** BadassNormal Misao in ''Witchy Woman'' is a "self-confessed caffeine addict."
* NatureHero: [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Hiko]] wound up becoming a unique combination of this and ScienceHero in ''Walk Through the Valley''. He [[ProfessorGuineaPig turned himself]] into a kiryuu alterant (see CatGirl above) using what is implied to be a retrovirus (that would cause the fever and she'd used that earlier in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'') but his only feline feature is AbsurdlySharpClaws and he kept his fingernails. For reasons stated at EMP above, this {{Metamorphosis}} gave him the ability to perceive the thoughts and feelings of animals as well as people; the TerribleTicking that resulted from gaining this ability so late in life forced him to become TheHermit. However, instead of living completely off the land, he has a job as a potter. He's also territorial and dedicated to his mountain's protection. Unlike many examples, though, he's not a SociallyAwkwardHero and his clothes are neither [[GardenGarment leaves and vines]] nor furs.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
** In ''Blades of Blood'', Target Alpha made it easier for Jin-e Udo to abduct Kaoru by luring her away from Kenshin because they didn't trust Battousai, a UsefulNotes/{{Muramasa}} blade of the SoulJar persuasion, not to wipe Kenshin's personality. Kaoru, to her credit, managed to rip out the hooks of the taser from her legs and deal with the fool who put them there, but the distraction allowed him to grab her.
** In ''Walk Through the Valley'', [[spoiler:[[LaResistance Yoson Hotate]] sold Kenshin to a military recruiter, driving Hiko off the mountain he'd been keeping safe from TheFederation and the {{Mind Control}}led {{Turn Coat}}s working for it to go looking for him.]]
** TheEmpire, according to a loose definition of TheHero, in ''Shadows in Starlight'' tried to kill the RecycledInSpace mosquitoes ("biters") that carried the RecycledInSpace malaria (Miasma) in Tokyo. This starved the species that preyed on them, and cleared the way for biters from far away carrying a more lethal strain (Kanto Plain).
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The [[Series/StargateSG1 NID]] should have thought twice about kidnapping the child of an SGC widow who happened to be a student of [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Kamiya Kasshin Ryu]]. Kenshin witnessed the whole thing and managed to destroy the car without harming the little girl. The result was a massive investigation. In ''Flat Tire with Bad Guys'', they had to catch the attention of a [[ComicBook/{{Blade}} Hannibal King]], who'd been trapped in the Urban Legends universe for a year, by spying on Sam after he met her.
* {{Ninja}}: Maekawa believed Kenshin's father to be a ninja ''accountant'' because he was a very private person in possession of a ''[[EveryJapaneseSwordIsAKatana kodachi]]''.
* NoTranshumanismAllowed: If {{Transhumanism}} comes up in a Vathara story, this point of will not be presented in a positive light.
** In ''Walk Through the Valley'', the Confederacy (where Hiko's from) allows you to become an [[LittleBitBeastly alterant]], provided you use approved genetic sequences from Earth-native animals and it's not permanent. TheFederation will kill you on the spot because alterants cannot be [[MindControl conditioned]].
** In ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Relena's]] late father founded a movement that came to include FantasticRacism against the SuperSoldiers developed by their [[Series/StargateSG1 Goa'uld]] overlords; the extremists were removed from power and have stayed that way thanks to Relena's efforts.
** In ''Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion'', the characters are {{UnPerson}}ed over it except for Yamamoto, who had to use blackmail to keep his post.
* OhMyGods: Throw a brick at Vathara's oeuvre and you should hit at least one example. We're never told what religion these characters belong to in the case of, say, Daniel Jackson in the Urban Legends Verse and Kenshin in ''Blades of Blood'', who don't live in {{Constructed World}}s. Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' might have been a Shintoist.
* PainfulTransformation:
** Defied by Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' before the story opened. Not only did he have an assistant to give him painkillers and keep him in a controlled coma during his {{Metamorphosis}}, but the story opens with his return to consciousness. Apparently, those painkillers were so potent that he didn't know what the hell was going on for several paragraphs. Kenshin doesn't get painkillers because Hiko didn't have any on hand and he can't just compound the damn things even though he can cobble together nutritional supplements for the little guy; however, a controlled coma was still possible. Kenshin was still in pain, but he wasn't quite there for it.
** Defied in ''Blades of Blood'', where Kenshin didn't hurt until he woke up from letting the EmpathicWeapon Battousai take him as a HeroicHost.
** Played straight in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', where becoming a Reaver starts with a fever, progresses to thrashing and delirium and onto BodyHorror that turns you into a VoluntaryShapeshifter with CombatTentacles. Of course, you can only change from your true form to your former appearance.
* PeopleOfHairColor: In ''Walk Through the Valley'', the natives of Kwannon don't divide humanity into groups based on ''skin'' color. Hair color? Yes. And they tend to assume that Caucasian features means merrow ancestry. However, the actual merrows looked different.
* {{Permashave}}: Kiryuu have two types of tendrils: sensory and pelt. Hiko's {{Metamorphosis}} replaced his scalp hair with sensory tendrils, his eyebrows and eyelashes with tendrils with a mix of sensory and pelt tendencies, and his facial hair with very fine tendrils resembling vellus hairs.
* PlanetTerra: Used in ''Walk Through the Valley''.
* PlayingWithFire:
** The Dragons of ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Wufei's]] people, were [[SuperBreedingProgram bred]] by [[Series/StargateSG1 Lord Yu]] for this. Now that he's out of their system, they are {{Pro Human Transhuman}}s.
** The kiryuu of ''Walk Through the Valley'' could do this, but it appears that Hiko didn't engineer this ability into himself or Kenshin.
* PlayingWithSyringes -
** All the [[Series/StargateSG1 Goa'uld]] in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', but only Dimme did this in-story, which set off a chain of events leading to Daniel's EmergencyTransformation.
** Hojo of ''Thorns'', as in VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII canon, who had Zack and Cloud in mako tanks where they were to be "tested to destruction."
* PregnantBadass: Kaoru in ''All I Need is a Miracle'', but it's only the first trimester and it's not divulged until the last chapter.
* PrettyButterflies: [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Aoshi]] is an [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Ubo]] in ''Witchy Woman'', and they turn into butterflies instead of bats. He's still the Okashira, though.
%%* ThePowerOfFriendship
* ProfessorGuineaPig:
** [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Hiko]] in ''Walk Through The Valley'', who detested being a government contractor if it meant being too important to be allowed to practice Hiten Mitsurugi and explore strange new worlds once he became old and creaky, so he decided to make himself hate it so much more that he'd kill anyone who tried put to keep him in captivity and possess the AbsurdlySharpClaws with which to do that.
** The survivors of ''Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' were fighting for their lives when they injected themselves with a terrifying SuperSerum.
* QueerRomance:
** [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/617011/1/Desert-Fox Desert Fox]] has {{Original Character}}s Isabela (human) and Zorra (gargoyle). The human is a Native American woman and undercover DEA agent and they're both on the run from drug smugglers.
** [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Trowa and Quatre]] of ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', who come from another solar system instead of ours in this AU fusion where there's apparently so much acceptance that the word for "spouse" is "life partner."
* RedHeadedStepchild:
** [[spoiler:Kenshin in ''Walk Through the Valley'' had no friends amongst the children of Kwannon, a planet mostly populated by people of Japanese descent, because his red hair marked him as having been born off-planet. Hiko didn't find out until after [[LaResistance Yoson Hotate]] sold him to a military recruiter who was there to pick up youths for Project Miburou. Apparently, he managed to confound Hiko's ki sense whenever the two were around children at the same time so thoroughly that Hiko had no idea why Kenshin had no friends his age; given Hiko's instincts, he probably saved them a world of pain.]]
** Kenshin and Kaoru in Urban Legends left Japan because they were tired of being called ''gaijin'', Kenshin, for his red hair, and Kaoru, for her blue eyes.
* ResetButton: Used in the one fic that incorporates Series/SevenDays and then never mentioned again. So far.
* ResistTheBeast: [[ZombieInfectee Yumichika]] in Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion struggled to resist biting Madarame 45 minutes after he was stung by a detached tentacle.
* ReluctantRetiree: Hiko really was told to put aside his sword and stay off of wilderness planets because he was getting in years and he really ''did'' have a body that was slowly breaking down. It's his stated motivation for becoming a kiryuu alterant.
* SensoryIndex:
** LimbSensationFascination:
*** Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' was fascinated by his new [[AlienHair sensory tendrils]], especially when they started curling around his fingers as if he were an upset cub. Later, he gave his claw muscles some exercise.
*** The shinigami of ''Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' had better things to do than ooh and ahh over new limbs when they emerged. Like survive. Even when they had time to think, it didn't feel odd.
** SignatureScent:
*** In ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'', Xander, Giles, Joyce and Kenshin gain the ability to distinguish people (and their moods) by smell.
** SmellsSexy: Ryan Saitou O'Connell got a snootful of his partner when they were pretending to make out in ''Spin Cycle''.
* SexTropes:
** ComeBackToBedHoney: Kaoru to Kenshin in ''Spin Cycle'' right on the roof of the apartment they share with Daniel Jackson.
** FantasticArousal:
*** Kenshin and Battousai ''really'' love having their hair brushed, making them purr and knead.
** HemoErotic:
*** Kenshin and Kaoru; Aoshi and Misao; Megumi and Sanosuke; and Saitou and Tokio in Urban Legends. In each pair, the latter supplies blood to the former; the situation is reversed if the latter is sick.
*** Kenshin and Kaoru have this in ''Blades of Blood'' much to Kenshin's horror. Misao and Aoshi have this as well in the same fic.
*** Cordelia and Xander have this in ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day''. She's part-youkai, part-[[TheFairFolk Sidhe]] as a result of wearing an enchanted Tatsuhiko Shido costume during "Halloween."
** KissOfTheVampire: Misao really enjoyed being fed on by Aoshi in ''Witchy Woman'', and while Kenshin wasn't technically a vampire by NightLifeRPG standards, Kaoru loved being fed on.
* SilkHidingSteel:
** Every Manga/RurouniKenshin story except ''Walk Through the Valley'' makes Kenshin this. As Bobby Goren in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3218251/4/Witchy-Woman Witchy Woman]]'' put it, he's a really peaceable guy until he has a target.
** [[Manga/{{Bleach}} Unohana]] in Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion is this in a way that her canon counterpart isn't. It was unavoidable given how little fandom knew of her when it was written. Instead of being a reformed SerialKiller, ''this'' Unohana is a mild-mannered doctor who was willing to put her claws to Urahara's during his non-drug-related intervention.
* SinkOrSwimFatherhood: Hiko found himself instinctively driven to be Kenshin's parent by the latter's second shedding. Before the second shedding, he was ridiculously worried for a professed ChildHater, but once it happened, he became a KnightTemplarParent who regarded all predators, humans included, as threats. He didn't want to want to hurt them. It took several months, but he finally managed to control his defense-of-den reaction enough to let Okiku meet Kenshin. By the time Kenshin woke up, he'd learned to love him like a son. Zero hilarious hijinks ensue once Kenshin emerges from his coma, unless you count freaking out and breaking half of Hiko's stuff, believing himself to have drugged to the teeth with sedatives, and nearly falling to his death from a tree.
* SkywardScream: [[spoiler:Hiko after the smuggling ship carrying Kenshin away from Kwannon cleared the atmosphere, severing their PsychicLink.]]
* SorryToInterrupt: Daniel caught Kaoru and Kenshin cavorting on the roof of the apartment building they shared in ''Spin Cycle''.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal:
** Kenshin in ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'' [[JustWokeUpThatWay found himself]] fluent in [[AsianFoxSpirit Kitsune]].
** The shinigami of Fanfic/ProjectTatterdemalion found themselves fluent in Hollow.
** Hiko and Kenshin were instantly fluent in pulse-speak in ''Walk Through the Valley''.
** Kenshin in ''Shadows in Starlight'' is fluent in kitsune because he had so much contact with them as a child.
* STDImmunity: Judith Williams is an interesting case in that it was retroactive. She becomes a Tok'ra host because her HIV is killing her.
* SuperEmpowering:
** EmergencyTransformation:
*** Kenshin in ''Walk Through The Valley'' because his slave tattoo, which was an ExplosiveLeash as well as a SlaveBrand, was about to expire, and that would poisoned him to death very rapidly. The only way to get his body to reject the tattoo and make the skin peel off in time was to change his surface antigens so they wouldn't match the protective coating. He shed everywhere at least three times, starting with around the time the tattoo was set to expire. He was told he'd be different for the rest of his life.
*** Kenshin in ''Blades of Blood'', who had Kaoru to save. He consented.
*** Daniel in ''Upon A Fiery Steed'', who was about to lose his humanity to the Reaver virus. He almost didn't make it even with [[BeneficialDisease Shi no Yami]] in his system. Duo didn't have time to tell him what he was about to do.
*** Kenshin again in ''Clean and White'' into a Manga/{{Bleach}}-style shinigami after his Soul-chain was severed by a Hollow out for revenge.
*** Every survivor of FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion [[spoiler:except Madarame and Retsu, who volunteered.]]
** MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: The release of the vaccine into the ventilation system of the original project site in ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' qualifies.
** SuperhumanTransfusion:
*** Played straight and defied in the Urban Legends series: {{Youkai}} blood gives {{Muggle}}s special powers. Kenshin, being a hanyou, has to have his blood specially treated before turning it over to the blood banks. No comic book superheroes who received their powers this way are mentioned ever. [[spoiler:Jack O'Neill got some transfused into him due to shenanigans that began when Janet discovered Kenshin was a blood donor in Spin Cycle and ended with Jack passing out on Cerberus in Flat Tire with Bad Guys. The resulting discoveries can be found at BizarreHumanBiology above.]]
*** Inverted in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', where Daniel is taken off the blood donor list permanently because a transfusion from a shinigami will destroy the recipient from the inside-out, starting with the white cells. Comic books are not discussed here, either.
** ViralTransformation:
*** Kenshin's transformation in ''Walk Through the Valley'' was implied to be this, given that Hiko had a fever when he took the same serum.
*** Daniel in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', although his was technically a slime mold; the Reavers from the same story were [[TranshumanTreachery transhuman traitors]] who were definitely made that way by a viral vector and as far as it was concerned, there was NoConservationOfEnergy.
*** Getting vaccinated/infected in ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' confers traits that are covered at LittleBitBeastly and LegoGenetics.
* TeamPet: Series/{{Airwolf}}. Never has a helicopter been so adorable.
* TechnologyMarchesOn:
** In ''Walk Through the Valley'', drugs are apparently made in enormous manufacturing plants if they are made at all, so poor Kenshin had to do without the painkillers that Hiko took during his {{Metamorphosis}} into a ProHumanTranshuman CatBoy because there were none in the cabin and a world controlled by TheFederation wouldn't have drugs made just for alterants in transition given that it's [[NoTranshumanismAllowed punishable by death]] there. Seven years after the story was posted, it looked as if Hiko could have just [[http://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that-prints-out-drugs printed them]]. Hell, he could have printed the tattoo remover he needed. Or some new cartilage for his back and knees...
** Apparently, TheRepublic of ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' still uses silicon in its electronics. After all, the Hollows were able to knock out the lights by pulsing at them and the shinigami needed hardened electronics. Nowadays, it looks like we're well on our way to {{EMP}}-proof transistors.
* TerribleTicking: Double subverted in ''Walk Through the Valley'', where Hiko was basically TheEmpath except with all living things, trees included. He seems fine when it's just Arai with him but when he gets out to meet the rest of the village, he suffers from this even with much better control of his powers. Between this and his accidental tumble into the FountainOfYouth, he was forced to become TheHermit.
-->'''Hiko''':The closer I was to people, the more I could sense. And knowing everything your fellow sentients are feeling, when they have no idea they're forcing their hates and loves and petty cravings for revenge down your throat, isn't exactly conducive to peace and goodwill toward your fellow man.
* TerrorHero:
** Kenshin straddles all types in ''Blades of Blood'' and ''Witchy Woman'', with the possible exception of TheCowl, because he's host to a Muramasa [[HauntedTechnology blade]], a WarriorTherapist, an ambush predator, er, ''hitokiri'' (as in canon) with a [[TheDreaded frightening reputation]] and a demeanor that elevates polite requests to back off to the level of threat. While he is capable of some amazing {{Jedi Mind Trick}}s, he uses them to convince random people that he has neither claws nor fangs. Most people don't even notice the AwesomeAnachronisticApparel unless they are kendo practitioners and even they have trouble seeing the sword even if they can feel it. He has a touch of HorrifyingHero given that Muramasa blades tend to wipe out the host personality.
** Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' counts as all types but TheDreaded and that's only because he doesn't want it known that ''he's'' the reason the mountain is haunted.
--->'''One of the brighter ones Hiko killed:''' What ''are'' you?
--->'''Hiko:''' You won't be alive long enough the remember my name.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. Dr. Lita Kino, an {{Expy}} from Ellen Brand's Franchise/PowerRangers series ''FanFic/PersonalityConflicts'', makes several appearances, and several fics comment on the amount of damage having an incompetent (or outright enemy agent...) psychologist on staff has done to the [[Series/StargateSG1 SGC]].
* TheyLookLikeUsNow: Rare heroic example in ''Walk Through the Valley'' in the form of the ookamimoya alterants Hiko was working on when he left, who were meant to be {{Deep Cover Agent}}s with the mission to destroy the Federation from the inside-out.
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: [[Series/StargateSG1 Daniel]] does this to Jack twice in a letter he sends to SG-1 after being rescued by [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Duo]] in ''Upon a Fiery Steed''. "Stop strangling the paper Jack."
* TortureAlwaysWorks:
** Subverted in ''Walk Through the Valley'' where the man in question is more interested in the claws digging into him than in answering Hiko's little question.
** Subverted again in ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' because the man in question was so broken that there was almost nothing anyone could do to him anymore after he found out that in his government's eyes, he was as much a monster as the shinigami.
** In ''All I Need is a Miracle'', Sano didn't have the information they wanted, but the villains thought he was just lying to protect Kenshin. It eventually dawned on them that should ask about behaviors consistent with being a hanyou (ItMakesSenseInContext). Sano was too loyal to Kenshin to cooperate and after the way they treated him, most people wouldn't have.
** Triple-subverted in ''Shadows in Starlight'', where Obi-Wan had no idea where Battousai was, but when Kurogasa realized that, he decided to keep torturing him in the hopes that the Force would carry the pain to Battousai. Fortunately, the real Battousai was able to lure Kurogasa away and rescue Obi-Wan and keep his identity secret.
* TotallyNotAWerewolf: Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'' was mistaken for a werewolf by a member of LaResistance working with him at night because that's when his eyes change from blue to [[GlowingEyes amber]]. By that time, bodies of psi-actives, merrows and [[MindControl the]] [[TurnCoat conditioned]] had been found torn apart by claws when they weren't hacked apart by a sword. If they were found at all.
* TransformationOfThePossessed: How [[Manga/RurouniKenshin Kenshin]] gets his CuteLittleFangs, AbsurdlySharpClaws and scarlet hair in ''Blades of Blood''.
* {{Transhuman}}:
** BioAugmentation:
*** The shinigami of ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion''.
*** All alterants of ''Walk Through the Valley'' are this.
*** The medusae of ''Upon a Fiery Steed''.
** DesignerBabies:
*** The Quincies of ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion''.
*** The merrows of ''Walk Through the Valley''.
*** The medusae of ''Upon a Fiery Steed''.
** HumansArePsychicInTheFuture:
*** The Quincies of ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' possess [[MindOverMatter destructive psychokinesis]], as do the shinigami. It is implied that there are other types, but they are never seen; when Ryuuken admits that he's from PSWAT, they don't automatically assume he's a Quincy.
*** The merrows of ''Walk Through the Valley'' with their {{Telepathy}}, which they use to relieve {{The Federation}}'s citizens of their free will through MindRape, er, "conditioning," along with the ookamimoya and kiryuu alterants with their [[KiManipulation ki-sense]], which allows them to pass for having been conditioned but does not confer the power of MindControl.
** MagicEnhancement:
*** Kenshin, Giles, Xander, Willow, Joyce, Cordelia, Jenny and Jonathan in ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'' owe their respective conditions to a bargain with the [[Myth/CelticMythology Phantom Queen]], which Ethan Rayne invoked not realizing what it was.
*** Cloud Strife and Zack Fair in ''Thorns'' became [[HalfHumanHybrid human]]-[[OurGryphonsAreDifferent griffin]] hybrids because Aeris made a deal with a gargoyle.
*** The shinigami of ''Viper'' owe their power to the infusion of monster blood into theirs.
*** Kenshin in ''Blades of Blood'' became a HeroicHost to a UsefulNotes/{{Muramasa}} blade named Battousai that served as a SoulJar.
** ProHumanTranshuman:
*** [[spoiler:{{Youkai}} in Flat Tire with Bad Guys.]]
*** Kenshin, Hiko and Golgotha in ''Blades of Blood''.
*** The shinigami of ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'', along with the Quincies.
*** The Guardians and Gundam pilots of ''Upon a Fiery Steed''.
*** Cloud Strife and Zack Fair in ''Thorns'', much to the surprise of all but one of the men after them.
*** Hiko and Kenshin in ''Walk Through the Valley''. Hiko here is an interesting case in that he's a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who thinks that he's just really impatient with humanity's greed and stupidity and the government personality profile is wrong.
*** Kenshin, Giles, Xander, Willow, Joyce and Jonathan in ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day''.
** SuperBreedingProgram: The Guardians of ''Upon a Fiery Steed'' were created this way except for the medusae and the shinigami.
** SuperSerum:
*** [[BeneficialDisease Shi no Yami]] in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'' confers fearlessness, immunity to other infections by making you MasterOfYourDomain as Shi no Yami can respond to the infectee's mental commands, a HealingFactor that works if you keep your blood sugar up, and you MustHaveCaffeine. Oh, and your natural inhibitions against killing disappear.
*** The vaccine in ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' confers traits covered under LittleBitBeastly and LegoGenetics above.
*** {{Youkai}} blood in the Urban Legends verse confers [[TheAgeless eternal youth]] and the ability to render up to three people unconscious by hitting them before you know it.
** SuperSoldier:
*** The [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam]] pilots in ''Upon a Fiery Steed'', along with the Guardians.
*** The ookamimoya and kiryuu alterants of ''Walk Through the Valley'' even by alterant standards.
*** The shinigami of FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion are accidental versions.
** TouchedByVorlons:
*** [[spoiler:In Flat Tire with Bad Guys, {{Youkai}} turned out to be human test subjects of the Ancients, whom Vathara envisioned as AbusivePrecursors.]]
*** The Guardians of ''Upon a Fiery Steed'' were this and the Vorlons were Goa'uld.
*** The Hollows of ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' and, indirectly, the shinigami.
** UpliftedAnimal: The Grim Squeakers of ''FanFic/ProjectTatterdemalion'' were once ordinary mice. They now possess all shinigami abilities except [[MindOverMatter destructive psychokinesis]].
* TransNature: For a woman who loves turning canon characters into ProHumanTranshuman [[LittleBitBeastly kemonomimi]] predators, this rarely comes up, but in ''Walk Through the Valley'', we are never given a reason for Hiko to have made himself a permanent alterant even though it's a felony that doesn't fall apart on closer examination. If Hiko just wanted to keep on being a scout explorer and swordsman in his old age, he could have just taken the anti-aging drugs he and his partner-in-literal-crime, Shakku Arai, had developed and avoided the end of a brilliant career instead of just prison. The latter seems to have picked up on it, though, even if Hiko hasn't.
-->'''Arai:''' I hate what I'm doing, yes,... [b]ut you, Hiko - you hate what you ''are''." A flicker of humor. "Or I should say, what you ''were''.
* TrueCompanions: [[WesternAnimation/GodzillaTheSeries HEAT]] and Series/{{Airwolf}}'s pilots, among others. It's essentially the key theme in just about all of her works--you may not be "normal" now, but YouAreNotAlone.
* {{Tulpa}}: In the Urban Legends verse, Series/{{Airwolf}}, a high-tech helicopter, hosts a thoughtform named Angel created by Jane Bethancourt and given [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} Class Six]] strength by the deaths of all but one of the people who worked on her, Hawke, at Moffet's hands.
* UnevenHybrid:
** Hajime Saitou's OC daughter, Mika, and OC grandson, Ryan Saitou O'Connell, are one-fourth and one-eighth wolf-youkai, respectively.
** Kenshin in ''Shadows in Starlight'' is no more than one-quarter Firrereo. Saitou is implied to be this, as well.
* UnintentionallyNotoriousCrime: When the NID attempted to abduct the child of an SGC widow asking too many questions in order to silence her, they should not have picked the child of a Kamiya Kasshin Ryuu student. Kenshin was standing guard outside the school on behalf of his wife's students' children and caught the bastards. They were up to plenty of awful things before then, like trying to vivisect Teal'c, and now they have the FBI crawling up their asses.
* VagueAge: Just how old ''is'' Hiko in ''Walk Through the Valley'', anyway? His life history is consistent with someone at least eighty years old.
* VampiresOwnNightClubs: In ''Witchy Woman'', there is Club [=AfterDark=], which is owned by a very old vampire named Golgotha, a CreepyGood FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire and the only character explicitly stated to be Christian.
* VegetarianVampire: Kenshin may not be a vampire in the Urban Legends verse, but as a hanyou, he must feed on blood and killing. The blood comes from Kaoru, who donates willingly. But he has learned to substitute pain for death, which means beating the shit out of local bad guys.
* VillainsActHeroesReact:
** Averted with Kenshin, [[TheCutie Honori Jacobs]] and the [[Series/StargateSG1 NID]] in ''Contact'' when Kenshin caught them abducting the little girl in question from her school because [[Series/{{Airwolf}} Archangel]] said that they'd gone after General Hammond's granddaughters and Honori's mother was a student of Kamiya Kasshin Ryu. He managed to ''destroy'' that car without harming a hair on the child's head. In ''Flat Tire with Bad Guys'', we learn that he'd put a ContainmentField around Cheyenne Mountain that will stay powered so long as he is standing. It keeps nasty things like the gaki from escaping out of the mountain.
** Discussed by Phil Coulson in a dressing down to Artemis Fowl, Sr., in ''Thrower of the Dart''.
* WeirdnessCensor:
** In ''Ethan Rayne's Very Bad Day'', the residents of Sunnydale are kept oblivious to the monsters preying on them by the youki of the Hellmouth. Until the events of "Halloween," this included Jonathan and Joyce Summers.
** In ''Lone Flower'', the residents of Sunnydale are oblivious to the monsters preying on them. Cordelia wakes to the reality when she undergoes an EmergencyTransformation into something like a shinigami.
** In the Urban Legends verse, large amounts of PKE prevent the government from realizing Stringfellow Hawke has the real Series/{{Airwolf}} and prevent Michael from noticing that Kenshin is over 140 years old. Michael read enough of Kenshin's file to know he'd reproduced by the 1970's, by the way.
* YouSexyBeast: In ''Blades of Blood'' and ''Witchy Woman'', this is [[InvertedTrope inverted]], with Kenshin not becoming a [[DraconicHumanoid Dragon]] until a damn long time after he met Kaoru. They weren't dating, though, but only because neither one had any idea that the other was interested. When he showed up to [[BigDamnHeroes rescue]] her after letting Battousai [[TransformationOfThePossessed take him]], she was ''horrified'', thinking it had wiped his personality. [[spoiler:The BetaCouple, Aoshi and Misao, also consists of a woman and a man who became a vampire long after they met. In Aoshi's case, he was kidnapped.]]
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