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The Interference by Newbie-Spud of Fanfiction.net is a series of FanFics that centers around the exploits of the author's self insert 'Alexander Karsath' as he ventures through different video game worlds and making alterations to the expected storyline. The series started with the original story set in the Kingdom Hearts universe and has such moved through the game worlds of Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse Of The Crimson Elixir, Chrono Trigger, and is currently in the game-verse of Jak II: Renegade.

Although the author makes no secret of the fact that Alexander is part of a Self-Insert Fic, The Interference has managed to avoid the pitfalls that such stories tend to fall into and even manages to flow smoothly despite being complete novelizations of each game they feature. The author even manages to work elements of previous stories without them seeming out of place or forced in at the last minute.

The work has been on hiatus for a few years now, with Newbie-Spud having created the webcomic Friendship is Dragons and the podcast Fallout Is Dragons in the meantime.

Also accompanied by its Forum, The Interference: Multiverse.


This Fan Fic contains examples of:

  • Achilles' Heel: Attacks that hit Alex and enter the keyhole on the Lockshield deal direct damage to his heart, and are far more damaging than other attacks. Except that one from Lavos that killed him in the third story.
  • Adaptation Induced Plothole: In Kingdom Hearts canon produced long after the fics began, it's revealed that the other Apprentices didn't take a powerful or humanoid Heartless form and most of their Heartless were slain some time before Chain of Memories ends.
  • Admiring the Abomination: Aeleus noticeably admires and worships Lavos' parasitic evolutionary abilities and considers it the Ultimate Lifeform.
  • All Your Powers Combined: Hyperion has shown the ability to use Alchemy Chrono Cross magic and can steal Keyblades - more specifically Terra's. And he has at least two more associates that are hinted to have the same abilities.
  • Anime Hair: Almost every game protagonist and Alexander himself.
    • Alex's case is kinda strange - he starts off with normal hair, but then the trope comes into effect when the three fairies give him his new costume.
    • Not Ed, however. His hair is almost perfectly possible... except for the bouncy fringe and Ahoge.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Erica Karsath in the second story, according to the other heroes and heroine, but mostly for Alex.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Joumae, the manifestation of the Lockshield's will, takes the form of Alex, but with green eyes and strange green armor. He has his own Lockshield design, the Kingdom Copy, which takes cues from the Kingdom Key Keyblade.
  • Anti-Hero: Alex seems to be approaching one of these in the fourth story, while Jak is already there.
    • To be more specific Alex is a Type III because of his willingness to use lethal force on complete beings like the Krimzon Guard while Jak is a Type IV like in canon.
  • Arch-Enemy: Alex's relationship with Even is far more personal than with the other Apprentices.
  • A Storm Is Coming: The Black Wind howls for Alex, not Crono.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The Time Fracture Lockshield makes time travel over any amount of time technically possible. Awesome? Great! If the world you're in doesn't have any naturally-occurring holes in time-space and you don't have incredible power reserves to make up for it, it becomes extremely limited.
  • Back from the Dead: Alex in the third story.
  • Badass Longcoat: Subverted with Erica Karsath. She wears a black trenchcoat, but...she's Erica. Later Double Subverted when she willingly becomes one of The Heartless.
  • Bag of Holding: In the form of an Etherspace pouch.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: Alex is trained in Close Quarters Combat by Azelas in the fourth story.
  • Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Well, not evil but after his Dark Eco Treatments Alex has shown a lower regard for complete life easily killing Krimzon Guards with both his Lockshield and magic without batting an eye when originally he was beaten up by them because he was afraid of killing them.
  • Beyond the Impossible: Hyperion stole Terra's Keyblade with alchemy but no-one seems to recognize to this impossible feat in favor of recycling Re:coded's crappy dialogue.
  • Big Bad: Xemnas for the first story.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: The Apprentices of Ansem the Wise have served as this for the sequels. Only one has appearing in each of them as a main villain, though.
    • Each Apprentice forms a Big Bad Duumvirate with the Big Bad of the game they interfere in.
    • Dilan and Jack Crowley for The Curse of the Crimson Elixir. Though they break up when Crowley finds out he's fictional and doesn't take it well.
    • Aeleus and Lavos form a literally symbiotic relationship in The Wings of Time.
    • A notable subversion happens in Dark Renegade with Even thinking he's in one with Baron Praxis who is actually savvy enough to not trust him, and is planning to betray him.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: The Apprentices have recently encountered competition in the form of the enigmatic Hyperion and an unknown number of associates.
    • Dark Renegade noticeably has its own Big Bad Ensemble due to its canon Gambit Pileup with Baron Praxis, Even, Metal Kor, and Veger all competing to be the Big Bad and due to Even destroying the plot the title of the Big Bad is anyone's to grab.
  • Boring, but Practical: This is basically Jak's fighting style shell in a nutshell. He doesn't have any flashy Kingdom Hearts or Chrono Trigger magic or Fullmetal Alchemist Alchemy. But he can easily defeat high level Heartless with just a few punches and his Morph Gun can take down Joumae.
  • Brainy Brunette: Played straight, Alex has brown hair. Erica falls between this and Dumb Blonde both in personality and hair colour.
  • Break the Haughty: After dying, Alex is significantly more interested in his party members' feelings.
  • Brick Joke: In the second fic, as in the original FMA game, there is a giant Golem spider boss. Ed remarks that if the boss turns out to have a twin brother, he's going to be pissed. One entire fic later, Ed is pissed.
  • Brother–Sister Team: Subverted. Erica tries to help, but can't for multiple reasons. It got worse when she was kidnapped. Much. Worse.
  • Brought Down to Badass: The Seal of Mar design doesn't give Alex any powers besides increased attack damage. But, granted, he still has Growth abilities.
  • Cain and Abel: Erica and Alex respectively when the former becomes one of The Heartless. Abel wins, but becomes The Stoic about the entire affair as a result.
  • Calling Your Attacks: It seems magic and special techniques in every universe need to be vocally invoked. For the heroes, anyway.
  • Casting a Shadow: Alexander's AntiForm has these abilities. Even more so after two straight years of Dark Eco exposure in the fourth story.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Starting from Dark Renegade the plot gets much more serious and arc-driven.
  • Clothes Make the Superman: Though they aren't actually the source of all his powers, the magical garments Alex wears do allow for more magic use and give him access to the various Drive Forms.
    • Hyperion, Themis and Kronos seem to be stealing Keyblade Armour specifically for this reason.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Alex goes through what he experiences as two years of constant bombardments with Dark Eco in the first few chapters of the fourth story along with Jak.
  • Combat Pragmatist: Alex pulled this in the first story by cutting the seams holding Oogie Boogie together and then promptly lampshading it. And it happens even more later on once he acquires Alchemy.
    • It's through something akin to this that he saves Axel from dying in the first story - via making him play by the rules of normal gameplay as a party member and defeating the oncoming streams of Assassins with a Combination Attack.
  • Control Freak: Alex has begun to show signs of having control issue's in Dark Renegade as Even brings the plot Off the Rails. He's gotten desperate enough to bring things under his control again that he's begun to show signs off becoming a Manipulative Bastard.
  • Crapsack World: Haven City really sticks out in The 'Verse a an A-Grade piece of crap with it going out of its way to ruin peoples' lives, is an all around nasty piece of work, and doesn't pretend to be what its not. This actually makes the story better.
  • Crutch Character: Alex, Edward, and Alphonse are this to the Chrono Trigger cast in The Wings of Time. The Chrono Trigger characters all start at around level one while the three Interferences are in the fifties to eighties level wise and their existence allows them to avert the Arbitrary Headcount Limit of the story making things much easier, Although this doesn't affect the quality of the story.
  • Curbstomp Battle: Hyperion kicks Mickey, Donald, and Goofy's collective ass' effortlessly after defeating the Lingering Will with Chrono Cross magic and Terra's stolen Keyblade.
  • Dangerous Fifteenth Birthday: Three of the stories started on Alex's birthday due to the Universal Failsafe Law; the first of these is where Erica dies the second is where Alex dies, and the third is where Alex is jailed for two years, although that actually happens the day afterwards.
    • His Dangerous 16th Birthday involves an entire city sector being destroyed by Metal Heads and being re-arrested, then starting Dark Eco treatments.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Something of a borderline example; as, even though Alex's defining element is darkness (as opposed to Sora's light), it isn't expressively stated that this is a good or a bad thing, just something that is.
    • However, excessive darkness leads to dual personalities, infrequent and easily-triggered outbreaks into Anti-Form, and occasionally insanity.
    • Also, excessive darkness given a body can become a pretty sadistic Enemy Without.
  • Darker and Edgier: Dark Renegade in comparison to every other story. This is justified given that Haven City is a Crapsack World and Alex himself has become Darker and Edgier due to his experiances in that world, now actively cursing, using guns, and has become a Manipulative Bastard.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Joumae, Alex's mental counterpart; Roxas has his moments too.
    • Daxter makes both of them seem like British Gentleman in comparison.
  • Deep-Immersion Gaming: The premise takes this up to eleven and runs with it.
  • Depower: May cross into Brought Down to Normal, but Alex, after having his garments replaced be prisonwear at the beginning of the fourth story is noticeably weaker and more damage prone.
  • Development Hell: Unlike the other fics, which took a few months to complete, Dark Renegade is five years old, and has gone through a year-long delay.
  • Deuteragonist: Sora in the first story, Edward in the second and third story, and Jak in the fourth. Although, Edward shows signs of being the overall Deuteragonist being constantly portrayed as Alex's equal as an Interference and is the second Lockshield Master.
  • Disappeared Dad: Subversion - Peter doesn't live with the rest of the family anymore, but he visits frequently and maintains a good relationship with his ex-wife and son.
  • Discard and Draw: In Dark Renegade Alex loses his ability to use all of his Drive Forms except Anti Form due to too much darkness after Dark Eco Treatments but in exchange he gains the SuperStrength, increased speed, inhuman durability, and pointed ears, his Anti Form is upgraded from a Glass Cannon to Lightning Bruiser, he gains the Morph Gun, and he has gained some skills in being a Manipulative Bastard.
  • The Dragon: Joumae is this to Even. He's even called his Apprentice.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: Alex dreams of Ed and Al fighting against Scar in the epilogue of the first story.
  • 11th-Hour Superpower: The Time Fracture design in the third story. Unlike most examples, this one sticks.
  • Empathic Weapon: Sort of. Joumae is the Anthropomorphic Personification manifestation of the Lockshield's will, and so can decide who it can be summoned by at one point in the third story, or decide not to be summoned at all.
  • Enemy Without: Joumae.
  • Epiphany Therapy: Actually averted in the case of Alex's feelings about Erica's corruption and suicide due to the intervention of Dilan. He talks to Frog about it, and keeps it to himself mostly, but it takes a conversation with Lucca Ashtar for him to actually start to overcome his stoicism about the whole thing.
  • Equivalent Exchange:Alex loses Joumae temporarily in the second story as exchange for "learning" alchemy when Scar used his "Touch of Destruction" on the Lockshield.
  • Evil Counterpart: Anti-Alex in the second story, literally.
  • Evil Former Friend: Joumae, formerly a Sour Supporter or Sarcastic Devotee in the first three stories, has become basically his new Evil Counterpart as of gaining a body of his own, even poisoning his body with Kingdom Hearts Darkness by unlocking his heart and making all of his powers and very being unstable.
  • Evil Makeover: Heartless Erica gains silver hairs and a preference of black and red clothing.
  • Expy: Since gaining a body, Joumae has become a pretty solid expy of Vanitas, in part likely due to the Fridge Brilliance.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Joumae!
    • Erica performed this during her only appearance so far.
  • The Faceless: The Titans don't have faces until they steal Keyblade Armor.
  • Fan Nickname: The Titans. As a team name for Kronos, Themis, and Hyperion
  • Filler: This is basically what Re:Coded amounted to. It was pretty pointless and all of the plot was skipped and the information gained was worthless to Alex because of the events of Dark Renegade. The only thing that actually mattered was Hyperion showing up.
  • Final Boss, New Dimension: In addition to the battle with Xemnas in the Realm of Nothingness, Elaeus is followed to his own personal pocket dimension that he had used to Time Travel in Guardia using Alex's newly created Time Fracture design.
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning: The Fire series, Blizzard series, and Thunder series respectively, if the Heartless Seal Lockshield design is active.
  • Fix Fic: The series has very minor elements of it — an Interference is somebody who can influence the coming events. Stopping Axel from setting off his suicide bomb attack smells of it slightly.
  • Foil: By Dark Renegade Alex has become one to Sora. Alex uses the power of darkness (he's lost all of his light powers due to certain events) while Sora uses light, Sora is a Magnetic Hero while Alex isn't that charismatic and prefers to rule from behind the scenes, Sora is always honest and upfront, while Alex is a Manipulative Bastard, Sora enjoys his adventures while Alex is all business, Sora goes with the flow while Alex likes to manilpulate events to his advantage, Sora fights with a sword while Alex fights with a shield, Sora likes to fight upfront and honorably with a single fighting style while Alex relies on his Combo Platter Powers to confuse his enemies, their leadership styles also contrast with Sora being a Type IV while Alex is a Type I, and finally, Sora is a Ideal Hero while Alex is a cynical Anti-Hero.
  • Foreshadowing: The Sequel Hook being an example of foreshadowing, and Alex's death in the third story being a subject of foreshadowing that nonetheless didn't seem to work for very many people.
  • Functional Magic: Alchemy.
  • Game Music: What the author used to name his chapters in the first story.
  • Global Currency: Munny can be spent anywhere. One reason why Level Grinding becomes completely pointless in later stories.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Variation - Alex actively censors himself. It takes work to do so, apparently.
    • Averted as of Dark Renegade. A year of torture has given Alex rather justifiable anger issues and a mouth to go with it.
  • Guns Are Worthless: Subverted. Alex originally thought that this trope was in full effect in Dark Renegade thinking that his Lockshield and magic made him superior to everyone else. Then he got the Morph Gun, fell in love with it, and now its practically a Cargo Ship.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: Hyperion and at least two associates have appeared and their motives and very state of existence are unknown. All that is known is that they have a bone to pick with Alex.
  • Hammerspace: Nicknamed 'Etherspace' and lampshaded as appropriate.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Xigbar is revealed to be making moves towards this in Trials of Remembrance after having realised that sending villains after Alex is a virtual death sentence.
  • Hero Killer: Technically it was Lavos who did it, but Elaeus was the one to Alex.
  • Heroic Mime: Crono in the third story, in line with his game; though he still speaks a few times making this a partial subversion.
  • Heroic RRoD: Done oddly. Alex transfers all of his Light 'em Up power of his Final Form into Dilan in the second story, causing him to self-destruct due to being composed of darkness.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: It has been shown that Alex can summon his weapon out of literally nowhere.
  • Idiot Ball: Seriously, Yen Sid?! Send a guy like Goofy to Haven City without even warning him about how dangerous such a place is.
  • It Gets Easier: By Dark Renegade after being turned into a lab rat countless Krimzon Guard have been killed by Alex's Lockshield, magic, morph gun, and claws without him even batting an eye.
  • I Wish It Were Real: In the true spirit of self-insert fanfiction, the major trigger to become an Interference is an intense longing to exist in the game.
  • Karmic Death: Erica Karsath in the second story; she made the choice to become a Heartless because she was jealous of her brother and was killed by him in a later chapter.
  • Kick the Dog: Subjective, but some people might consider the Karmic Death example one of these.
  • Kid Hero: Let's see... Sora, Riku, and Kairi in the first and second; Edward and Alphonse in the second and third; Crono, Lucca, and Marle in the third; Jak in the fourth; and Alex in all of them.
  • Killed Off for Real: Erica; see the Karmic Death example.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Dark Renegade as three of them. In order:
    • The first is Baron Praxis, who unlike Xemnas, isn't trying to lose, is more competent than Crowley, who was a canon Filler Villain, and doesn't play Orcus on His Throne like Lavos. His political position also makes him harder top defeat because if he's toppled at the wrong time...well, there goes the neighborhood.
    • The second is Even, who actively tries to throw the plot Off the Rails, unlike Dilan and Aeleus who just teamed up with each games Big Bad and is much more sadistic having fully embraced Jak II: Renegade's Darker and Edgier plot.
    • Finally there is Joumae, Alex's Evil Counterpart, physical equal,curbstomped him, and has left him in a rather bad situation.
  • Light 'em Up: Alex's Final Form has powers to this effect.
  • Light Is Not Good: Kronos uses light magic and is the most vicious member of his group.
  • Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Alex's main weapon is called the Lockshield. Because it's opposite to the Keyblade.
  • Manipulative Bastard: When Alex is desperate, he will use his foreknowledge to emotionally manipulate people into what he wants them to do, originally, he didn't realize it, which Lucca lampshades. But after a Trauma Conga Line in Dark Renegade Alex has become perfectly willing to play people to get what he wants, best shown with his relationship with Jak.
  • Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Four games and counting. One of which happens to link to nearly every major Disney film and classic cartoon short in existence.
    • The roleplay forums take this up to eleven due to the number of contributors, but the official world sections are limited to ones appearing in the fanfics.
  • Meaningful Name: Joumae, whose name means 'lock'. Yes, he did that on purpose.
    • Alexander, by accident - the name means either 'Helper of Men' or 'Defender of Men'. Alex wields a shield, and does his best to assist major characters rather than taking their spotlight.
    • Kronos was the youngest of the Titans. The personification of time, Chronos, whom Kronos was commonly identified with, was also associated with snakes, and Kronos the character has both time-travel abilities and reptilian eyes.
  • A Million Is a Statistic: Alex unwittingly has this type of morality. Best shown when he creates Guardia and Haven City, this also creates Lavos and Kor. Two villains that kill billions of people that will not get better. Alex never thinks about this or is called out on it.
  • Morph Weapon: The Lockshield has several designs, which can be switched between to alter abilities granted. So far, seven designs are known, and five have come up in the story.
  • Mutant: Alex becomes one in Dark Renegade after his Dark Eco Treatments he changes from a normal human into a Jak and Daxter elf gaining increased strength, speed, and agility to go with it.
  • Nobody Poops: The special outfit Alex gains imbues him with the universal body-functional ignorance of video game characters, i.e. less need to sleep, eat, or maintain those bodily functions that would be distracting and detrimental to a real-life adventurer.
  • Not a Morning Person: Alex doesn't wake up very easily. Actually comes into play as a minor plot point in the rewrite.
  • Our Hero Is Dead: Alex in the third story, majorly blindsiding the readers.
  • Official Couple: Aside from the canon couples in the games, Alex gets paired with Lucca in the third story.
    • However, the author has stated that since he was away being torture for what he considers two consecutive years, the spark is probably very much diminished.
  • Off the Rails: This is basically Even's entire Evil Plan to defeat Alex in Dark Renegade. He's going out of his way to destroy the plot of the game to ruin Alex's foreknowledge and make him slip up. It's working, and Even's presence brings Count Veger visibly into the game as well, who is looking for a Keyblade inspired by Alex and Even's Lockshields.
    • Before he's made aware that anything has changed on the villains' side, Alex is asked to do the same by Torn. The concept of being actually encouraged to alter things takes him aback.
  • Pet the Dog: Subverted. Alex is offered 10,000 Gold for a piece of jerky he bought for 9,900. Despite being told he can get a profit of 100, he gives the jerky away and the woman runs back home to teach her children about the meaning of charity ... and then Alex slowly realises he's just lost a lot of money. For extra points, this entire sequence exists solely to get rid of the jerky.
  • Punny Name: Any character who had one in the original games, but Joumae counts somewhat. The Lockshield itself, of course, since it's the literal opposite of 'Keyblade'.
  • Recruiting the Criminal: While Alex wasn't a criminal in the normal sense, during the fourth story he is hired for the Krimzon Guard.
  • Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Since the third story takes place in the Chrono Trigger game, the entire party gets this.
    • Effected by Alex once he returns to the real world at the beginning of the third story... but he only finds out at the start of the fourth story, when he discovers his sister's bed and things have disappeared from her and her mother's room.

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