Rauhattomat is a Finnish-language piece of serial fantasy drama/erotica Web Original fiction based closely on English-language textual RPG logs between mouser26 and peccantis. It's being published on Finnish amateur fiction fora Finfanfun and Fifi.
Rauhattomat tells the story of a professional necromancer/alchemist killer Prokl Duvka and his employer, former slave, current slaver Taylor Payne. Entangled in the dramatic polygon are Taylor's young Sineater servant Nolin, who has a well-defined taste for "sinfully delicious older men", Taylor's first and only love Kyo Payne, who died years ago, and whatever it is that makes Duvka such a capriciously moody jerk.
Many chapters are NSFW due to sexual and/or violent content.
Genre, theme, media and meta tropes and statuses applying to this work
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Hard to place as a work, but more on the cynical side by virtue of character averages. Duvka and Taylor both are mostly cynical with some freak romantic/idealistic streaks, while Nolin is almost fully cynical.
General tropes applying to this work
- Dropped Glasses: Duvka breaks his only pair, which leads to an... interesting five day period, during which he is incapable of working (read: relaxing) and very reluctant to leave the house.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Played with. Trace is something of a nice kid, but ultimately more interested in his own wellbeing than others'; Gabi is something of a full-out inversion, being absolutely cold and clinically unemotional, but actively playing a more or less nice role when on the duty. Then again he does have this "slowly warming up" role that he plays for Duvka sometimes... to manipulate him.
- Love Triangle: Well, if you call it Attraction/Involvement Triangle, we have:
- Taylor and Duvka, who might, more or less vaguely, be interested in each other
- Nolin, who's just waiting for Taylor to wander off so that he can bounce and bed Duvka (who isn't averse to the idea)
- Kyo who's dead but has a chokehold on Taylor's heart
- "The blue-eyed boy", who makes D explode beds and/or meddling little bastards when mentioned in his presence
- Trace, who isn't connected to anyone but visited Taylor's bed because the latter wanted to make Duvka jealous, or at least pay attention
- The Twins, who had a cameo appearance, but also might just have their semicorporeal tentacles slithering all over the corners — or not... ah, good times.
- May–December Romance: Between Nolin (teen) and Duvka (nearing thirty)... provided you're willing to call it romance.
- Smoking Is Cool: Averted even though the only smoker is the resident killing machine: for one, this one smoker teeters between having all the intention to drop the habit, and obsessively chaining to keep his nerves in check; his coolness is debatable; and his bedroom company makes it clear he doesn't taste too great if not outright teases him about the habit.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Duvka claims he "gladly leaves 'love' for poets and the like" and is no doubt only a drink or two away from actually questioning someone about the exact nature of love.
Character specific tropes applying to this work
Taylor- Agent Peacock: Taylor isn't flamboyant perhaps but his fashion choices outside of formal business gives a certain image. Then there's his abilities.
- And Show It to You: At least once previously, as made clear by his light chit-chat with his favourite (other) murderer.
- Badass Bookworm: His extensive library, fairy tale habit, and hobby of clothes making do not hint at his violent side. And his violent side is as scary as it's badass.
- Broken Bird
- Dark and Troubled Past: With his previous status as a slave, a disapproved lover, and surviving his beloved Kyo in an accident, Taylor easily qualifies.
- Driven to Suicide: Some time after Kyo had died. He failed, surviving with some broken bones. The drive still lingers, and sometimes surfaces at his moments of weakness.
- Manipulative Bastard: Is he? Is he not? Is anything about him sincere? When he says he doesn't know this himself, is he being frank of bluffing?
- Obfuscating Stupidity: He knows how to convinvingly play the part of an absinthe-addled airhead.
- The Ophelia: Again downplayed (also gender-inverted), but distinct: Taylor's ethereal waifishness, traumatic forgone love, and on-and-off mental instability (occasionally culminating in outright self-destructiveness) are his defining traits.
- Quirky Curls: Taylor might not be very quirky per se, but compared to the others, he's certainly the curliest and the quirkiest one.
Duvka
- A Man of Wealth and Taste: Duvka progressively, once his paychecks start coming in.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Apparently he thinks like this.
- Badass Bookworm: He likes to cultivate his image as a harmless Maths teacher... Even to people who well know what he really is.
- Blind Without 'Em: Duvka has some bad eyesight, but likes to maintain as much of his dignity as he can after he breaks his pair.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Very unaccustomed and averse to confessing any feelings directly.
- Carved Mark: He has this harmless little habit of leaving his mark in his favoured lays... carved in their bone.
- Does Not Like Spam: Go on, just try and offer him any food with cabbage or fish.
- Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Has a tendency for this. Gibberish of Love has happened in the "Morning After Trace" chapter, with Taylor, slightly perhaps, but still alarmingly enough.
- Frames of Reference: Unsurprisingly, "The Ultimate Square's" are square in shape.
- Manipulative Bastard: A tendency. If there's a good opening he'll employ it just for the lark of it.
- Not a Morning Person: His grumpiness levels simply explode in the morning. Avoid any brain-involving contact with him before he has had his hour to properly wake up and take his coffee.
- Professional Killer: His job. He's pretty good at it. Thanks, mysterious powers.
- Psycho for Hire: Downplayed... but it's definitely there. Most kills barely get mentioned but with the second chapter and at a few instances later on it becomes clear enough that this guy likes to play with his prey.
- Satisfied Street Rat: Has trouble deciding whether he's happy with staying this or wants to pursue a "higher level" of life.
- Stoic Spectacles: Duvka embodies pretty much any and all glasses related tropes applicable to adult male characters
- They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Duvka is okay with talking about some stuff, but the other stuff...
- True Neutral: He takes certain comfort in following codes and hierarchies he has chosen for himself, but has no qualms for operating outside the law.in-universe
- Tsundere: Grumpy, but does have something soft around his core. Good luck finding any of it though. Here, take this team of seven, wagon, mule, pickaxe, and breeding pair of chickens. The caravan will drop by in summer, after that you're on your own. Strike the earth!
- Vampiric Draining: One of his most basic skills, he can both drain and give... but as a human pro vampire, he doesn't need it. He can sustain himself on it to go without food and/or sleep for a while, though. Can cause Rapid Aging on the victim.
- You Won't Feel a Thing!, if you get lucky... Cold-Blooded Torture if you don't. Direct complaints go to Taylor, the D man's just doing his job.
...and his past
- Dark and Troubled Past: He pretty obviously has one, but digging up evidence takes a lot of absinthe and skill in handling this particular bullhead.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: Ha! yet another glasses trope. But yes, he was quite the wide-eyed little murderer in his teen years... Then stuff happened.
- Sadist Teacher: To the kids he deemed too annoying to be civil with.
- Teacher/Student Romance: He has had his share of UST concerning his students. You only have his word it stayed as the U type of ST, though.
Nolin
- Am I Just a Toy to You?: Almost word-for-word when Nolin asks what Duvka thinks of Taylor.
- Bullying a Dragon: The kid got some serious brass to knowingly taunt an already enraged Duvka.
- Deadpan Snarker: Is strong with this one, such as with "Bullshit, it's a bribe for sex".
