Most notable for the volume of Lemon material that could never show up in a PG-13 webcomic and for taking the tropes used in the comic and turning them up to eleven.
Starting in September 2004 (the same period the comic was in at the time), Rumisiel has a very strange dream which shows a very different path reality could take if the Misfile was resolved. As he dreams, Ash and Emily take their relationship to new levels. This forms the basis of the first (and to date only stand alone) episode Rumisiel's Lament. The rest of the series explores the consequences of the actions and decisions made in that, and skips ahead of the comic to December 2004.
Delays have allowed the comic's timeline to catch up and pass Misfiled Dreams' timeline.
The tales so far are:
- Rumisiel's Lament
- A Midwinter Night's Dream
- After the Dream
- Concrete Dreamscape
- Electric Dreams
- Beyond Electric Dreams
- Carbon Dreams
- Harmony Dreams
- Ghosts of His Past
- Dreams of the New Year
All are available as PDF files [1]
(requires signing into Google).
ShadowDragon posted updates on the series and also rambled aimlessly at the series thread, which can be found here if you're interested. (You have to register with Napalm Luck to access the forum, however.) In October 2019, ShadowDragon reported in that thread that they are no longer writing the story.
Tropes exhibited in this series include:
- All Just a Dream: The ending of Rumisiel's Lament.
Word of God says it was just a dream.- Several other lesser examples as well. Most notable is probably when Emily had a dream where her mom was dying, and she and Ash got in a car crash trying to go see her. It scared her so much that it caused a Relationship Upgrade. In fact, there are so many realistic dreams that Emily starts wearing a digital watch at all times, which lets her tell the difference between dream and reality (it's harder for a dream to generate numbers, so the watch ends up showing random symbols instead).
- Amicable Exes: Heartbreakingly subverted, Edward's Control Freak nature clashed horribly with Marie's free-spirited nature destroying any chance of reconciliation to Edward's dismay. The only thing that keeps them on any sort of speaking terms is Ash.
- Alpha Bitch: Several, including one of the main characters. She gets better. Also features said Alpha Bitches getting the crap beaten out of them or otherwise humiliated in very karmic manners.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Although Marie is courteous enough to talk to Ash about it privately, Ash is still mortified when her mother explains to her the costs and benefits of a threesome.
- Ascended Extra: Jenny barely had much of a role in the comic, but she's a main character in the fic.
- Auto Erotica: "Somehow… I knew we’d wind up doing this in a car."
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Jenny Jr. invokes and justifies this trope in Beyond Electric Dreams as to its importance in social gallas.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Jenny, Emily, and Ash, respectively, though Emily and Ash are no slouches in the beauty department as well (see pic above).
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Ash, as a boy before the Misfile, was really well-endowed. Interestingly, the characters acknowledge how he was Blessed with Suck. Also interesting is that Ash's endowment has carried over into her new form…
- The Cameo: By many characters, and even some regulars from the Misfile fan community.
- There's a cameo of Alice and Bob in Beyond Electric Dreams
- Cassandra Truth: Jenny doesn't believe Ash Upton when Ash tells her the truth about the Misfile.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: In which Emily
learns as much about herself as she does about the other girl. - Cerebus Syndrome: While there were signs of a darkening of mood with the end of Beyond Electric Dreams and beyond, Ghosts Of His Past really marks a turn, dealing with suicide, rape, parental abandonment for being gay, war in general and Vietnam in particular, and abusive relationships. It's still heavy on the fun stuff, so it's by no means a huge downer.
- Chekhov's Gun: Subverted with the watch Emily uses to tell if she's dreaming or not. It becomes relevant twice: The first time, she realizes it's a dream, but ignores that fact because it's a sex dream. The second time, when it's a Bad Future dream, her subconscious has become clever enough to make the watch broken (and therefore useless for her purposes) in the dream.
- Christmas Episode: All the stories from A Midwinter Night's Dream onward are set in the days leading up to Christmas, with snow as a prominent feature of the landscape. So, the majority of the fic as a whole could be considered one giant Christmas Episode, but the actual day occurs during Carbon Dreams.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Ash; repeatedly lampshaded by Em and Jenny.
- Companion Cube: The Monster XR. Trust me, it's a very Cool Car.
- Cool Car: Many from the original comic, plus a whole new selection of even cooler cars.
- A Day in the Limelight: "Ghosts of his Past". After a dozen books and eight "tales" centered on Ash and Emily, Rumisiel and his past are expanded on. Turns out he's actually one of the nice Angels. He became fascinated by Humanity around the Industrial Revolution, and his bosses started sending him to catalog war zones hoping to Scare 'Em Straight. It backfired - instead of developing a properly divine apathy, he instead developed a greater respect for humans due to witnessing humans repeatedly and increasingly showing morals and empathy in such situations. Said situations also led to him developing his drug habit. By the end of the story, he's gained closure, self-respect, and an Ethical Slut girlfriend.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Jenny the Younger.
- Doorstopper: The released chapters run 729 pages, including 2 blank pages in the first chapter and 7 pages of art. The unreleased (and unedited) chapters run another 324 pages.
- Dream Sequence: Once an Episode.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Rusimiel's Lament is notably darker than the rest of the series and features Rusimiel and Vashiel as major characters, who are almost entirely missing from the later chapters.
- Erotic Dream: Nearly as often as the standard dream sequences.
- Evil Feels Good: Not exactly evil, but Marie has a little too much fun manipulating her daughter with guilt trips.
- Fashion Show: More to show off some cars than women, but some ladies were there to help catching the eye. Ash, Emily, and Jenny got into it as well.
- Hood Ornament Hottie: Jenny at the Fashion Show. Ash and Emily to a lesser extent.
- I Have No Daughter: Jenny Sr., once Jenny Jr. is outed.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: With the exception of the chapters that concentrate on Rumisiel, all the story titles have the word "dream" in them.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: What Ash got to wear for the Fashion Show, as pictured. Tetsuya Nomura would be proud.
- The designer of the outfit, on the other hand, is actually horrified he even came up with it, saying he must've been completely wasted to even think up such a thing.
- Lemon: Very much so, though it's by no means a Porn Without Plot fic. And IKEA Erotica is totally averted; Shadow has reportedly asked that his editor kill him if he ever descend to such a level.
- Miranda Rights: Emily is reminded that she is 16 again, so the cops don't have to read her her rights or give her a lawyer.
- Artistic License: Law: It does fall under this, however. Most cops will read an underage arrest their rights, largely because a minor has most of the same rights an adult does when arrested; the right to avoid self-incrimination and the right to an attorney in particular. It also prevents parents suing because the minor wasn't read their rights when they believe they should have been.
- No Periods, Period: As in the comic, averted. "Don't look down."
- Open-Minded Parent: Mrs. Upton, to the extent that after she discerns the nature of Ash and Emily's relationship, she asks Ash if she needs her to buy any, ah, aids.
- Police Brutality: Guaranteed to get your blood boiling, and not in the good way.
- Porn with Plot: It has explicit sex scenes and plot, the holy grail of Fan Fic.
- It bears repeating that this thing is over 600 pages long, with the explicit stuff taking up a tenth of it at most. So the fic is primarily romance, car races, character development, fashion shows, struggles with gender identity, legal drama, family bonding, and friendship… with occasional girl-on-girl action.
- The Power of Friendship: Ash and Emily to Jenny Jr., and Jenny herself towards some of the other models, though it doesn't quite take in the second case.
- Put on a Bus: Ash's father and Emily's mother, though they are contacted by phone several times.
- Well, not really; most of Chapter 3 and everything onwards takes place on Cape Cod, where Ash's mother lives, while her father and Emily's mother are back home in Tempest.
- Also, Missi is mentioned and referenced a number of times, but she's nowhere to be seen, except for a brief sighting during one of Emily's Dream Sequences.
- This Is Reality: What if Misfile did take place in this world?
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Almacy Sr. and Lt. Grayfield are probably the best examples, though Nathan, Jimmy, and Marie also qualify.
- Reckless Gun Usage: When Ash reaches under a car seat to confirm the weapon the car's owner just told her about is there, the owner chastises her and tells her the rules for gun handling.
- Relationship Upgrade: But then, seriously, what fanfic that isn't a crossover series doesn't do this?
- Second Law of Gender-Bending: Already there. By the eighth chapter, Ash has already admitted to herself that her life is definitely better as a girl and has decided to adapt to it, or at least stop obsessing about getting switched back.
- Shoulder Angels: Discussed. Jenny says hers is named "Ash."
- Shout-Out: Too many to count.
- One of the many:
- Ash takes up a crowbar when it looks like a fight is going down.
- Ash's gift is a Mecha anime video game
- Shower Scene: Oh, so many. Many are also Showers Of Love.Emily: I guess we should take a shower.Ash: You can go first.Emily: Who said anything about taking turns?
- Single-Target Sexuality: Emily wonders if she's attracted to girls in general, or just Ash. Turns out to be girls in general.
- Skinship Grope: Afterward, Emily wryly notes that she emphatically told Ash this never happens outside of porn.
- Sleep Cute: All you need is a bit of mental visualization and you got a full gallery of this in this fanfic.
- Mrs. Upton seeing Ash and Emily snuggled up together in bed is what clues her in that they're more than friends now.
- Spoiled Brat: And also the Alpha Bitch, Jenny Jr. at first and a male version with Joshua Jr.
- Their First Times: At least with each other. The plural is due to interruptions and some understandable hesitation on Ash's part.
- There Is Only One Bed: Only a problem in Chapter 2.
- Threesome Subtext: Buckets. Let's just start with the fact that Jenny has kissed both Ash and Emily at separate times.
- Too Dumb to Live: Shady area of town, let's go into an enclosed dark place with a really creepy guy…
- Took a Level in Badass: Everyone, particularly Ash in the physical combat department. Though, of course, there's really no particular reason to believe she isn't actually that tough.
- There is reference in the actual comic that she may have broken someone's nose, or at least bloodied it.
- She does rough up Tom pretty well, too.
- There is reference
- Uncle Penny Bags: Nathan, Almacy Sr., and Marie.
- The Unintelligible: Henri Leroux. His anger comes through loud and clear, but the reader never knows exactly what he says.
- Unstoppable Rage: Getting Ash pissed at you: bad idea, or worst idea ever?
- The Voice: Again, Henri Leroux. So far, only heard on the phone.
- Wham Episode: Joshua Jr. trashing Ash's Monster XR at the end of Beyond Electric Dreams.
- Wham Line: "Ash, what's a Misfile?"
- What a Piece of Junk: Joshua Jr., not being a real racer, is openly disdainful of the Monster XR.
- You're Insane!: "Here we are brandishing weapons at each other, over fashion?"
