The Hard Being Pure series is a set of Whateley Universe fanfics by GrimGrendel.
Magnolia Flores, going by Noa, is a young girl whose manifestation as a mutant poses a severe threat to her life and sanity. The story is broken down into four parts, the first two of which focus on Noa's time in the hospital surviving her transformation, while the latter two expand upon the repercutions of her altered body and psyche.
It's complete:
Links: Part 1
, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
This series of fanfics provide examples of:
- Boring, but Practical: Comes up in the fight between Rust and Snatch regarding lasers. Despite Snatch's complaints, lasers get the job done.
- Brick Joke: Discussed when Dr. Evans gets Padzahr when going through his list of healers to looking find a healer for Noa in Part 1:"I only ever put my name on this list as a brick joke. And here we are today, and I can cash in on that joke. Hilarious."
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Phobia taking a call while in a battle in Part 1:"Evans? Hey don't go yet. I'm free to talk right now. It has been so long since we last had a chat." A few more gun shots were heard, along the ping of bullets against metal, followed by screams of agony. He heard her shout in the back, her hand pressed against her cell phone muffling the sounds, 'Do you mind?! I'm taking a call here!!' "Geez, no manners at all."
- Cuddle Bug: Noa is very cuddly. When she eventually leaves the hospital, she's so happy that she hugs everyone she comes across.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The fight between Snatch and Rust is completely one sided in Rust's favour.
- Disappeared Dad: Magnolia's dad left home because he couldn't deal with his hyperallergic wife and son. He's not even mentioned until Part 3:It had been a simple mistake, Magnolia forgetting to change out of her clothes as she came back from her friend's place, who owned a dog. Walking around the house, sitting on the couch, touching things. When Nathan came back home that day, he went into anaphylactic shock, and had to be urgently brought to the hospital. A near miss. Not an isolated incident, nor the worst by far. Randall had endured thirteen years of this, of either Judith or Nathan having a terribly severe allergy attack for apparently no reason, only because fate decided immunodeficiency disorder was a thing.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Despite Haeten being the de-facto leader, it's Astrex who's the driving force behind Blue Moon's operations.
- The Empath: Dr. Evans, as he says in Part 4 when asked how can gauge Noa's emotional state:MCO Agent: "And how can you be so sure of that?"Dr. Evans: "I'm an empath. I feel what she feels. I know."
- Eyes Always Shut: Noa has to keep her eyes shut all the time after progressing far enough along in her mutation because opening them gives her so much information, she goes into Sensory Overload.
- Extreme Omnivore: Noa can use her telekinetic field to digest anything.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Phobia has a huge six-legged black monster with large mantis scytes on its back. He's called Snowball.Because where's the fun in calling things with names that match their appearance?
- Glad I Thought of It: In part 4, Haeten blatantly steals Astrex's plan.Astrex: I say we get in, cover both of her houses and grab her as soon as we see her.Haeten: I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!!
...
Ok, here's the plan. We get in, camp at both houses and the first one to spot her kidnaps the girl.Astrex: I call plagiarism on my plan. It's not because you changed a few words that it makes it yours.Haeten: You have something to say about my plan?!Astrex: Not anymore. - Gossip Evolution: Carol, Alvin and James are guilty or spreading exaggerations around, although Carol does try to control more or less the way the gossip evolves.
- Becky's version of the incident with Floyd is quite different from the version Carol heard through her gossip channels.
- Helping Hands: Parts that are separated from Noa's body retain a certain amount of consciousness and can act independently, as shown by her disjointed arm when she got bullied by the sophomores, or when her hand crawled back to her after Noa cut it.
- How We Got Here: Part 1 starts with Noa throwing up her stomach on "Thursday at noon, May 19th", and then the next scene is "Two days earlier, Tuesday evening, May 17th".
- Human Outside, Alien Inside: Noa's bones are an alloy of Orichalium and Mythril, her whole body substitutes for her brain, and she doesn't bleed since her flesh is more like synthetic plastic than living tissue.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: During the time Noa is confined to her magic circle, Snatch comes check on her and finds her signing "Who killed Cock Robin", ending with the Sparrow in the song being hung like a thief.
- Meaningful Name: Dr. Long Evans, the talking doctor rat. A Long-Evans is a type of lab rat.
- Playing with Fire: Haeten is a pyrokinetic. Astrex also uses a weak flame spell to good effect.
- Pulling Themselves Together: When Noa tries to fling her cut-off hand away from her, the hand spider crawls back to her.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Rust casually gives one to Snatch while ripping through the latter's robots
- Sensory Overload: If Noa opens her eyes after she's fully mutated, she gets too much information and becomes unresponsive.
- Super-Speed Reading: When Noa goes on her research binge in Phobia's library, she's processing 20+ books at a time.
- Talking Animal: Dr. Evans is a talking rat.
- Telekinesis: Noa can telekinetically manipulate matter on a molecular level.
