Welcome to the St. Lobaf Residential Treatment Center, located in the beautiful green hills of Northfield, Minnesota. The sign on the freeway promises “Cows, Colleges and Contentment” in this charming city, and we think you’ll agree.
— The welcoming brochure
"OH BULLSHIT. LITERALLY. THIS PLACE SMELLS LIKE A HOBO’S ASSHOLE DRYING IN THE SUN AND IS FULL OF DOUCHEBAGS IN SKINNY JEANS WHO CAN’T DRIVE FOR SHIT. AND FARMS."
— Karkat's review of the above.
As one might have guessed from reading the character sheet of Homestuck, many of the characters are...not all there.
So, a fellow named VastDerp (aka, the author of Kagerou) reasoned that if they were in Real Life, they'd probably be institutionalized for their own good. And really, doesn't that sound like Slice of Life right there?
So it came to pass that he and his fellows (including a growing segment of Recursive Fanfiction) did write the expansive hybrid of a Tumblr Blog and Alternate Universe Fic known as Brainbent
, covering the life and times of several young adults as they deal with both late puberty and their own mental illness, and the put-upon but highly competent staff of St. Lobaf as they attempt to deal with them.
Residents and staff, in order of bios (though not appearance):
- Karkat Vantas: The bitter and miserable focus character, institutionalized at St. Lobaf after his anxiety, depression, and anger management issues eventually drove him into fistfighting a cinderblock wall. (Spoilers: the wall won.)
- Sollux Captor: Bipolar genius, readmitted after a particularly dark downswing in his moods led to a drug overdose. Also, he has two dads. Current custodian of the FUSB (Fucking Ugly Stuffed Bee), and the only one who seems to like the hideously coloured plush monstrosity, although he does get extremely vocal about it not, in fact, being a bee.
- John Egbert: A prank-obsessed young man who's at St. Lobaf for unclear reasons, mainly because the readers aren't sure what to diagnose him with. The prevalent theory is that he's schizophrenic or schizotypal. ("he thiink2 were iin a viideo game.") Also the first guy to pry Karkat out of his room.
- Equius Zahhak: By-the-book orderly whose main job is to pry the patients apart with his
STRONG arms. Also, he likes knitting. - Tavros Nitram: Wide-Eyed Idealist intern, and former patient of St. Lobaf's. Perpetrator of the FUSB (he sewed it, Dr. Pyrope picked the colors, Kanaya refused to go near the thing and makes it known she had no part in its creation), though he wanted it to be called Beeatrice.
- Dr. Terezi Pyrope: The Head of Staff, and the youngest to hold that title. Highly-competent psychiatrist despite having earned the title of "Doctor Tongue".
- Kanaya Maryam: Self-admitted to St. Lobaf's after her anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder became unmanageable. Fashion designer and fanfiction hobbyist.
- Jade Harley: The only resident who isn't suffering from a diagnosable mental illness, she was admitted to St. Lobaf's as part of her reintegration into society after spending most of her life in a bunker built by her Crazy Survivalist grandfather. Is not a feral child.
- Gamzee Makara: One of the longer-term residents, self-admitted for extreme depersonalization and perception issues. Has been reprimanded for smuggling or attempting to smuggle certain contraband substances into the institute. Excellent cook.
- Vriska Serket: Histronic and borderline personality, admitted after she had a claustrophobic attack while getting arrested, and after being assessed, was sent to St Lobaf. Lost her arm and eye in a motorcycle accident. Has earned the loathing of the staff. Enjoys wearing pirate outfits and antagonising people.
- Dave Strider: The albino youngest resident, recently taken by protective services after his Bro was arrested on unrelated charges. One of the more uncooperative residents, not speaking for months after being admitted. Hoards food.
- Feferi Peixes: Overseer of the female ward. Described as a "cheerful little drill sergeant". Enjoys fish-inspired fashion, breeds koi, installed duck pond on grounds before getting permission for duck pond.
- Nepeta Leijon: Aspie Cat Girl, one of the more functional residents. Suffers from acute sensory processing disorder, which caused her to suffer a nervous breakdown in college, hence why she's in St. Lobaf's.
- Rose Lalonde: Self-admitted amateur psychologist, and unique for having diagnosed her own problems before she even got to St. Lobaf's (alcoholism and mother issues).
- Eridan Ampora: The shyest resident, admitted after detailed plans for a school shooting was found in his journal (though he says he never had any intentions of carrying them out). Has a strange attraction to Feferi, to the point where an elf version of her appears in his amateur fiction.
- Penelope Messenger (PM): Head Nurse, and unquestioned ruler of the front desk. Hands out mail to residents. She also collects stamps. Attracted to WV.
- William Valentine (WV): Older Sidekick of Terezi's, and veteran of Desert Storm. Attracted to PM. (They met at a Firefly convention.)
- Aradia Megido: Sollux's platonic better half. Not a patient at St. Lobaf's, though she regularly talks with Sollux.
- Calliope: An adorable little girl with severe burns on her face that she hides with a cute decorative surgical mask. She often has therapy sessions with WV and is friends with Gamzee.
Provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: All over the damn place. The AU makes no secret of the fact that many mental illnesses are exacerbated and/or caused by dysfunctional families. That being said, the majority of the residents have Good Parents, but the abusive ones tend to stick out.
- Adaptational Gender Identity: Karkat is later revealed to be a transgender man. In canon, Karkat is at least assumed to be cisgender.
- Adaptational Sexuality: Tavros was bi in the source material (like all trolls). His Brainbent incarnation is gay and has a boyfriend.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Most of the romantic relationships from Homestuck aren't happening because a number of characters have been aged up into adults while others are still teenagers (and the whole "dealing with mental illness" thing isn't particularly conducive to romance). Rose/Kanaya is still a thing, but Karkat/Terezi, Sollux/Feferi, Aradia/Equius, and Vriska/Tavros aren't. Eridan's crush on Feferi is strictly one-sided.
- Aerith and Bob: The only time a name is remarked on as unusual is when a young Vriska is visited by her aunt Mindfang. The latter legally changed her name.
- After Action Patch Up: Dave does this for Karkat at one point.
- Age Lift: Many of the residents and staff are either adults or in their late teens, whereas, at the time the blog started, most of their canon counterparts were 13. The most extreme examples would probably be Terezi, Equius and Feferi, who are all depicted as being in their 30s, and Calliope, who goes from being a teenager to a small child. Downplayed with Dave, who is 15 at the start of the story.
- Agitated Item Stomping: Dave, to his glasses after a Heroic BSoD when Bro loses the hearing. The problem? He was barefoot at the time. Sure enough, Dave mentions his foot hurting a little bit later.
- The Alcoholic: Rose; it was her way of coping with her mother's perceived passive-aggressive abuse and extremely high standards. Also her cousin, Roxy.
- Alcoholic Parent: Rose's mom and Gamzee's dad.
- All Abusers Are Male: Harshly averted in Gamzee's backstory; he had an abusive girlfriend who would often assault, beat, and strangle him whenever she drank or took drugs. When he finally got up the guts to dump her, she attacked him with a garden trowel and permanently scarred his face. Disturbingly Gamzee still talks about her and the abuse like it's no big deal.
- All of the Other Reindeer:
- Problems with bullying drove Eridan to use brass knuckles to attack another student, which led to the discovery of the school shooting plans that got him admitted to St. Lobaf's.
- Nepeta's autism means that she has trouble keeping up with what her peers consider normal behavior, like wearing makeup and not pretending to be a zombie when you're in middle school.
- Homophobic bullying may have played a part in the suicide attempt in Tavros's backstory.
- Ambiguously Gay: Rose is pretty strongly implied to have the hots for Kanaya (who's openly lesbian). Nepeta and Sollux both think that she's gay or bi and one of her backstories implies that her mother thinks she's a Butch Lesbian.
- Appeal to Force: Karkat threatens to beat up a reader if they don't get therapy.
- Attention Whore: Vriska. Her introduction to John is when she claims to need his help to put on her bra.
- Being Personal Isn't Professional: For various good reasons, therapists don't give their personal opinions on resident matters.
- Beleaguered Assistant: Most of the staff serves as this to Terezi.
- Berserk Button:
- Due to her SPD, certain scents and sensations press Nepeta's. It's actually how we're introduced to the comfort room - one of Kanaya's perfumes nearly causes her to have a seizure.
- And apparently, Cake-In-A-Mug for Gamzee.
- Badmouthing Aradia in any way in front of Sollux is grounds for an immediate punch in the head. Karkat, unfortunately, did not work this out until slightly too late.
- Though Karkat has many, making jokes about convenience stores or worshipping cows due to his mother being Indian particularly annoys him.
- Big Brother Bully: Caliborn to Calliope, just like in canon. That said, Caliborn doesn't appear much in the story, but Calliope appears to be afraid of him.
- Birds of a Feather: Nepeta and Jade as roommates are a non-romantic version. They're both Genki Girls with slightly feral aspects to their personalities (Nepeta with her identification with felines, Jade's isolated, outdoorsy upbringing.)
- Break the Cutie: Most of the backstories.
- Broken Smile: Gamzee has one after he thinks Sollux hates him. (They do make up, though.)
- Brutal Honesty: The reason Karkat's attempt to point out that Sollux may be unhealthily dependent on Aradia gets him punched in the face.
- The Cameo: Every now and then as a form of Mythology Gag, iterations of characters that haven't yet appeared in Brainbent will get mentions or brief appearances (though
Word of God has fervently begged the fanbase not to demand the appearance of any character who hasn't yet appeared for the sake of author sanity and plot coherence). Thus far Casey, Meenah, Latula, Mituna, Diamonds Droog (and the rest of the Midnight Crew), and Roxy have all had fleeting mentions or can be inferred to exist somewhere in the vicinity of St. Lobaf's.- More recently Calliope has been given a mention. Apparently, she's a little girl with severe burn scars who often visits WV.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Dave's first meeting with Bro after the hearing sees Dave break his silence...and verbally rip Bro a new asshole for expecting Dave to be happy to see him. Bro may have come out of it a little more sympathetic if he hadn't lost it and started screaming that he'd apologised, as though that should have made what he'd done all right. Word of God is that this Bro is, fortunately, not Dirk.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Dave needs them occasionally
- Cloud Cuckoolander: A majority of the patients and some of the staff. It is a mental institution after all.
- The Comically Serious: Equius and PM.
- Companion Cube: The FUSB.
- Cooldown Hug: Everyone needs these at some point, excepting Karkat, since hugging him tends to go badly.
- Corner of Woe: The corner of the comfort room where Gamzee curls up.
- Crazy-Prepared: Because she was raised by her Crazy Survivalist grandfather, Jade picked this up. The supplies she packed before venturing out of the cabin after her grandfather died were extensive but could still be easily carried by herself and Becquerel (her Big Friendly And In No Way Supernatural Dog) and she lists several uses for condoms likely not intended by the manufacturers. They're good for gun maintenance, apparently.
- Cry into Chest: Gamzee does this with Equius.
- Cuddle Bug: Gamzee. It doesn't always end well.
- Cute Mute: Dave is this when he's on strike from communicating.
- Dead Fic: Not officially dead, but hasn't updated in more than two years as of August 2018. In April 2019, one of the co-writers confirmed that there are plans to give the story a proper conclusion.
- Deadpan Snarker: Rose. Her home environment didn't help.
- Death Glare: Karkat has a relatively harmless one.
- Deconstruction: Word of God is that Dave and Rose's situations in the fic are intended to be this of their canonical backstories in Homestuck, since they're Played for Laughs in the actual comic but in real life would be anything but, and are taken to their logical conclusion in the fic by having CPS intervene and Rose choose unhealthy methods to cope with her situation.
- The Hilariously Abusive Childhoods of Rose, Jade and Dave are played entirely straight here and all the issues the three would have in real life are very much present. Similarly, the psychological issues of the Trolls are also brought to the forefront and treated seriously—Karkat's anger issues, Sollux's bipolar disorder and everything about Vriska and Gamzee are particularly notable examples.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Sollux knocked Karkat flat. Now they're good friends.
- Played with in Karkat's relationship with Gamzee.
- Demoted to Extra: Vriska gets relatively little focus, due to getting plenty of it in Homestuck.
- What Could Have Been: Word of God has also stated that Vriska was initially supposed to play a much greater role in the story, but the intense scrutiny the author recieved due to Vriska's controversial nature made writing her more trouble than it was worth.
- Desperately Craves Affection: Gamzee.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Equius, in his backstory. His need to do something meaningful and constructive with his life led him to join the police academy and spend time as a paramedic before he became an RN and got interested in mental health care.
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Karkat on wishing for a friend.
- Disabled Means Helpless: Vriska invokes this when she hits on John by asking him to help her with her bra strap.
- Disability as an Excuse for Jerkassery: Vriska. Sometimes it's her disability, sometimes it's someone else's, like when she was flicking the lights to Dave's room off and on repeatedly after the latter broke his shades.
- Disappeared Dad: Rose's and Gamzee's. Rose doesn't know where the former is; Gamzee's was in and out of jail until Gamzee finally gave up on him.
- Does Not Like Spam: Nepeta hates pancakes.
- Someone asked the cast what their least favorite foods were. Sollux hates carrot cake with raisinsnote , Gamzee hates Lofthouse cookiesnote , Rose hates fudgenote , Nepeta hates gummy orange slicesnote , Karkat hates birthday cake flavored...anythingnote , Kanaya hates jello with fruitnote , and Dave hates butterscotch puddingnote . Jade doesn't hate anything.
- Dude, Not Funny!: An In-Universe example happens after Vriska makes fun of Calliope for the severe burns on her face. Even John didn't find it funny.
- Dysfunction Junction: The fic effectively removes the middleman, being set in a mental institution. Almost every character is in some way dysfunctional. Even the staff are... strange.
- Enemies List: Eridan's got him sent to Lobaf, though he maintains that he never would have actually hurt anyone.
- Extreme Omnisexual: Gamzee, in typically chill fashion, seems to be down for sexytimes with pretty much anyone who's interested.
- The Fashionista: Kanaya, who makes her own clothes and also makes them for other residents.
- Foil: Rose and Dave. Rose recognizes the dysfunction in her seemingly perfect family and took the intiative to deal with it, while Dave refuses to admit that there could be anything wrong with him or Bro. At least he did before Character Development started kicking in.
- Foregone Conclusion: Everyone saw Bro losing the custody hearing coming. Everyone except Dave...
- Foreshadowing: Karkat being an FTM transgender man is hinted at several times before the actual reveal, including a picture of Karkat with bandages around his chest (for binding) and him giving a girly shirt that his mother bought for him to Jade.
- Freudian Excuse: Rose shocks Karkat with hers. Gamzee, Karkat and Vriska have some issues there too.
- Friend to All Living Things: Gamzee's general affability extends to things like caterpillars and frogs. Tavros and Feferi also qualify.
- Gas Lighting: Karkat suspects Sollux is doing this to him with the FUSB at first. The actual perpetrator's identity is unknown... if the FUSB isn't moving itself...
- Gentle Giant: Equius. Sollux also calls Gamzee this by name because he is incredibly tall and can (according to Karkat) hit like a freight train, but almost always maintains the demeanour of a large, sleepy, friendly dog.
- Harmful to Minors: Dave's Bro makes porn at home and leaves sexual implements all over the place. He never actually made an effort to prevent Dave from seeing any of it, but he never made Dave see it either. The result is pretty freaky - see Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour below.
- Happily Failed Suicide: Tavros in his backstory. More recently, Sollux.
- Hates Being Alone: Vriska and Gamzee.
- Hates Being Touched: Karkat.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Karkat's earbuds. Seized on by Rose when she psychoanalyzes him.
- Hearing Voices: Sollux at times, particularly when he's manic.
- Heroic BSoD: Certain triggers, such as one of Kanaya's stronger perfumes, can send Nepeta into this. Dave goes into one after the hearing that determines whether his Bro can have custody of him goes badly.
- Heroic Safe Mode: Dave and Gamzee at times.
- His Own Worst Enemy: Karkat, Sollux, and occaisionally Gamzee.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: All of them.Reader: Any couples? [hinted or otherwise?]
Karkat: ARE YOU JOKING? THIS PLACE IS A SEETHING CAULDRON OF HORMONES. YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE HOW MUCH TONSIL HOCKEY GOES ON WHEN THE MOUNTAIN THAT SWEATS TURNS HIS STEROID-ENHANCED BACK. - I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: Karkat being nice.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Karkat admits this early on, and then immediately tries to take it back.
- Improbable Age: Terezi, acknowledged by her college nickname, Tiny Asian Doogie Howser. While her actual age (34) isn't improbable for a fully trained psychiatrist, the fact that she's chief of staff at Lobaf's is.
- Infectious Enthusiasm: Even Dave can't resist Nepeta's cheeriness.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: No one really taught Jade that Skinny Dipping is not generally considered socially acceptable. One update suggests this of Gamzee too; at the very least, he had no problem with giving Sollux his shirt.
- Innocently Insensitive: Karkat and Jade. The former is habitually blunt; the latter lacks social mores due to her upbringing.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Equius with Nepeta and Dr. Pyrope with Dave.
- Gamzee and Calliope as well, although the age difference isn't as great.
- In Touch with His Feminine Side: Gamzee and Eridan, since they model for Kanaya.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Karkat, as in Homestuck canon.
- Kids Are Cruel: Nepeta's backstory.
- Lame Comeback: Karkat, when Sollux starts comparing him to a kitten.
- Leave Me Alone!: Everyone at some point or other.
- Lighter and Softer: The world isn't destroyed, nobody's been killed, The Midnight Crew are a band rather than a gang, Equius is well on the way to growing out of his bigotry, Tavros is self-confident and assertive, Gamzee remains calm and kind while sober, and the cast members who need therapy are actually in therapy.
- Darker and Edgier: On the other hand, the characters getting therapy tend to be worse off mentally than in canon. Not only are quirks like Karkat's hair-trigger rants and Kanaya's fussiness expanded into full-blown mental illness, some residents have entirely new problems, such as Nepeta's processing disorders and Dave's lost time.
- Likes Older Women: Eridan, a seventeen-year-old, is crushing on the thirty-one-year-old Feferi.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Kanaya, as in Homestuck canon.
- Little Brother Is Watching: Never stopped Bro.
- Living Emotional Crutch: Aradia for Sollux.
- Long List: Sollux has a distressingly long list of horribly embarrassing things he's done during delusional periods and mood changes. Hacking a government website looking for proof of aliens was probably one of the least embarrassing.
- The Mad Hatter: Most of the residents are aware that they have serious problems, and several of them specifically refer to themselves as crazy (or similar labels) with various levels of sincerity. Vriska in particular self-identifies as a crazy bitch. Also, as previously mentioned, several of them checked themselves in.
- The exceptions seem to be Dave, who maintains that life with his Bro was awesome, and Eridan, who's annoyed that he was committed for plans he claims he would never have carried out.
- Mad Mathematician: Sollux has shades of this.
- The Matchmaker: Nepeta's shipped John/Dave, Rose/Kanaya, John/Gamzee, John/Sollux, Gamzee/Tavros, Equius/Feferi, and herself/Karkat.
- Motor Mouth: Sollux in a manic phase.
- Missing Time: Some of Dave's dissociative episodes.
- Moe Couplet: Equius and Nepeta. Neither of them are very good at conventional social interaction - Nepeta is high-functioning autistic, and Equius is rather humorless and awkward - and they make good foils for each other's quirks. Plus, the tiny teenage girl playing with the big bruiser's hair is always a cute image.
- Morality Pet: Calliope and John for Vriska.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The way most residents treat Pancake Day, and Nepeta treats the bacon served that same day.
- Mysterious Note: CD leaves one for Eridan on his amateur fiction.
- Mythology Gag:
- The name of the St. Lobaf Residential Treatment Center is a reference to Sollux's planet in Sgrub, the Land of Brains and Fire — or LOBAF.
- Nepeta despises the color purple, which just happens to be the signature color of her killer in Homestuck canon.
- WV apparently plans to run for mayor when his term on the schoolboard is up, referencing his canon counterpart's "Mayor of Can Town" status.
- Neat Freak: Kanaya and her OCD.
- Nervous Wreck: Kanaya in her backstory, also Karkat, often.
- The Nicknamer: Karkat accidentally named the FUSB.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Aradia is perfectly content to live in a funeral home, and doesn't see why Sollux is afraid of the place.
- Noodle Incident: Subverted with the events that lead to Aradia finding Vriska's panties in Sollux's bed: As it turns out, she took advantage of one his manic moods after the patients saw a movie.
- Also subverted with the cake incident that led to Gamzee and Sollux getting banned from the kitchen.
- Subverted once again with Tavros losing his cool with Vriska. Vriska was being a pain when everyone was sick by flicking albino Dave Strider's lights on and off repeatedly (Dave is extremely photosensitive). Sickness + Vriska antagonising one of the more unstable residents does not a happy Tavros make.
- No Social Skills: Karkat has trouble being nice to people even when he wants to.
- Nepeta's a milder version. She's much better than Karkat at the basics of getting along with other people, but she had a lot of trouble keeping up with the ever-shifting unspoken expectations of adolescent social life.
- Jade also qualifies, given her up-bringing.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Gamzee.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Dave to Bro.
- Not a Morning Person: Rose and Karkat.
- Not in Front of the Kid: So much could have been prevented if Bro had said this once in a while.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Karkat accidentally does this to Sollux.
- Obliviously Evil: Not really evil but Rose's mom is clearly oblivious to the mental issues she's causing her daughter. For example in one of Rose's backstories we hear her say that she would love Rose regardless of her sexual orientation only to use the word "dyke" in the same breath in a decidedly not-gay friendly way.
- Likewise it's pretty clear that Bro didn't intend to harm or abuse Dave; he was just completely unprepared to care for a child.
- Odd Friendship: Many of them.
- John and Sollux: Upbeat manchild and troubled moody genius.
- Karkat and Gamzee: short cranky Jerk with a Heart of Gold who Hates Being Touched and is painfully aware of his own flaws, and very tall borderline-Love Freak Cuddle Bug with a tendency to try to ignore his own problems.
- Eridan and Gamzee: Socially isolated, pretentious hipster, and affectionate easygoing Juggalo.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Karkat, often.
- Open Secret: Apparently, Karkat being trans since the staff already know, as does Dave, who mentions it so casually that it went over many reader's heads the first time. And Karkat himself confirms that several people either know or hint they know but don't make a big deal of it.
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Dave is implied to have this, but covers it up well. Rose and Kanaya think he's asexual; Dave, being Dave, has offered no concrete answers.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Rose and her mom.
- Perpetual Frowner: Equius and Karkat.
- Pet the Dog: As much of an ass as Bro is, it's shown that he does genuinely care about Dave and is concerned about how the situation is affecting him. He apologizes for his behavior at the custody hearing but by than things have already broken down too much between him and Dave for it to make a difference.
- Vriska can't bring herself to be mean to Calliope and actually bonds with her.
- The Pig-Pen: Dave's half of his and Karkat's room is an absolute mess. Karkat hates it, calling it a "FUCKING PIGSTY".
- Pirate Girl: Vriska likes dressing up as a pirate whenever she can, including when she doesn't have any other clean clothes or just for kicks.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Aradia and Sollux apparently dated for a while, but later settled into this instead.
- Played for Drama: Rose, Dave, and Jade's unusual upbringings, in contrast to the Hilariously Bizarre Childhoods in canon.
- The Pollyanna: Tavros. The only thing to noticeably crack his cheery demeanour was a Noodle Incident that involved Vriska (which is probably all the explanation we need). John, too, never seems to get upset by anything.
- Primal Scene: A preteen Dave walked in on his Bro having sex on multiple occasions. He doesn't consider it a big deal.
- Promotion to Parent: Bro, after his and Dave's parents died when Dave was only a baby, which is the cause of Dave's problems. Just getting the promotion didn't automatically make him a good parent. Yes, he genuinely loves and cares for Dave, but he was still a terrible parent who probably should never have been entrusted with Dave.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Gamzee got his scars from one. He's not even mad about it.
- Vriska can get like this too - and beyond. One of her previous crushes had to actually move after she spread a rumor that he raped her.
- Purple Prose: Eridan's writing is full of it. According to Sollux, there's pages and pages of bad descriptions of boobs.
- The Quiet One: Dave refused to talk at all when he first arrived in the belief that anything he said could be used against Bro. It wore off, but after Bro loses the hearing, he stops talking again.
- Raised by Grandparents: Jade was raised by her grandpa; what happened to her parents is unknown.
- Real Men Cook: Gamzee and John's Dad are both talented bakers.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Equius is fond of knitting.
- Really Gets Around: Vriska, who self identifies as a slut. However, she's far from the ethical type, since she once took advantage of one of Sollux's manic moods to sleep with him.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The staff.
- Rebellious Spirit: Vriska and Mindfang.
- Repressed Memories: Dave, most likely.
- The Resenter: Vriska.
- Room 101: Inverted. The comfort room is a physical Happy Place with a camera attached for when a resident needs to be shaken out of a Heroic BSoD.
- Room Full of Crazy: Sollux once wrote down his complex plans for dealing with a game that destroys worlds to make universes for its players. But he ran out of paper, so he had to include the table. And the floor.
- Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Jade knows an awful lot about wilderness survival, but she'd met all of one person for most of her life.
- Safety in Indifference: Dave's outlook on life.
- Sarashi: Karkat uses one to bind his breasts, as a piece of art made before The Reveal that he's trans shows.
- Security Cling: Gamzee to Karkat, Tavros and Equius.
- Seen It All: The staff.
- Selective Obliviousness: Multiple stories from Bro's POV have him ranting about how CPS punishes people for not having a perfect home with a lawn and a white picket fence, and that maybe they weren't living in the best conditions, but Dave was safe and loved. He manages to ignore the fact that Dave didn't always have food and was in proximity to porn films while they were being made, two things that would absolutely disqualify anyone from being a parent.
- Self-Harm: Karkat bloodied his knuckles punching a wall, and Dave puts out cigarettes on his arm.
- Series Mascot: To the horror of all who behold it, the FUSB qualifies.
- Ship Tease: A lot of these. In particular, the blog seems to be going for a Sollux/Gamzee angle.
- Shown Their Work: The authors really go the extra mile to show what the inside of a well-funded and well-run mental hospital is like, not to mention their research on mental illness.
- The Shrink: The St. Lobaf staff is made up of type 3s, but Tavros mentioned having to deal with a type 1 earlier in life.
- Sick Episode: On one occasion, pretty much everybody ends up sick at the same time. The major exception is Karkat, who spends his time acting like a "grumpy mother hen."
- Silk Hiding Steel: Feferi, described as a "cheerful little drill sergeant."
- The Snark Knight: Rose, Karkat, Sollux.
- Speech Impediment: Sollux has a bit of a lisp, stemming from his bizarre dentistry.
- Stepford Smiler: Gamzee's almost always happy, friendly, and relaxed, even about things like the ex-girlfriend who scarred his face.
- Vriska puts on a mischievous, puckish personality who seems to be proud of her multiple diagnosis. It's also almost directly stated in several places that she's struggled with suicidal thoughts and has little-to-no self-identity, most of her mannerisms taken from her Auntie Mindfang. Also, it's said in one of her backstories that she actually hates bikes, but learned to ride one purely to impress a guy.
- Stepford Snarker: Karkat and Dave. Karkat's snarking style overlaps with Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Dave's a Sad Clown.
- Street Musician: Gamzee before he came to St Lobaf's.
- Stress Vomit: Equius, after taking his nursing school entrance exams.
- Sunglasses at Night: As an albino, Dave has to wear his sunglasses all the time so he can see.
- Surveillance Station Slacker: New Guy in Crazycake. He gets fired for it.
- Take That!: Nepeta really hates "Autism Speaks". For bonus points, she provides links to show why she hates them so much.
- Tantrum Throwing: Most of the residents at some point or other.
- Tastes Like Disdain: When Karkat is committed to St. Lobaf's Residential Treatment Center, the last thing he wants is to interact with any of the other residents, but John tries to get him to come out of his dorm room anyway. When he offers Karkat a cupcake his dad baked, the other boy throws a shoe at him and yells, "Eat this, fuckass!"
- Thwarted Escape: Karkat tried to escape a few dozen times. It didn't work, since his 'plan' was 'charge out the front door and hope for the best'.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Karkat in the middle of Sollux and Gamzee's relationship troubles.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Most of the residents will do just about anything for pumpkin pie poptarts. Also, pancake day is widely celebrated.
- Training from Hell: Bro put Dave through this sort of thing. It did improve his coordination (which helps considerably since Dave can barely see; his depth perception is bad), and Dave doesn't mind it, but most everyone else agrees that it was a form of abuse.
- Trash of the Titans: One of the reasons Dave was taken away from Bro, since their house was like this. Dave also makes a mess of his side of the room, but insists that he's not hoarding food, just keeping a snack around. Everyone else sees it as a sign of how hard it was for him growing up.
- Troubled Abuser: Bro, Mom Lalonde and Ches Makara.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Dave is all about this, and he hasn't realised that the kind of stuff he knows is not what children should know. He measures time by who his brother was fucking, and once said that he could tell who Bro was fucking by the way they screamed his name. To Bro's credit, he never made Dave see any of this, and pretty much had a heart attack at the thought of making Dave participate, but still, leaving dildos around your home is not a good way to raise your brother.
- True Companions: The residents and staff, no matter how much some of them might deny it, are definitely this. Yes, even Vriska and Eridan.
- Tsundere: Karkat and Sollux.
- Ugly Cute: The FUSB. It's horrible. It's ghastly. It's dreadful. It's possibly independently mobile. ...But somehow, it's still pretty cute, especially when Sollux falls asleep cuddling it.
- Unreliable Narrator: It's important to remember that many mental illnesses distort your perception, so fics narrated in-character and the residents' tales of their past may or may not be one-to-one accurate accountings of events.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Karkat and Sollux.
- Weight Woe: Rose in her backstory, also Kanaya, who was previously bulimic.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Tavros and Gamzee.
- Wild Card: Vriska is this for just about any group activity.
- Yandere: Vriska in one of her backstories. Gamzee's old girlfriend Missy became one after she started taking PCP, scarring his face with a garden fork when he tried to leave her.
