Fanfic / Brockton's Celestial Forge

A minor background character from Worm gets access to a compounding series of Jumpchain crafting powers and is left to figure things out with nothing but the nature of his abilities and a vague connection to his passenger for guidance.

Brockton's Celestial Forge is a Worm fanfic where the main character is trying to do his best with the power of a Jumpchain crafting powers he got to be a hero.

It can also be read here and here.

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Brockton's Celestial Forge features the following Tropes:

A-H

• Accidental Art: Due to the aesthetic powers in his possession always being active, a lot of what Joe creates, from technology, to clothes, to even food, look like masterpieces.
  • Later, his duplicates and drones fighting Oni Lee clones end up frozen in a time stop bubble. The result ends up becoming an incredible monument to Apeiron's tech and skills.
• Accidental Truth: When the Undersiders are wondering where Joe found all the members of his team, Alec jokingly suggests that Joe made them himself. Alec doesn't realize that he's partially correct in that statement.
• Ace Pilot: The aesthetic Fleet chooses after Apeiron builds him a body to call his own.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Lord Roustabout explains why Aisha and Scrub get their canon powers early.
  • He later explains how Scrub got his powers in this fic.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • Due to a more impressive debut at the bank robbery, Taylor's cape alias ended up being Lady Khepri.
  • Aisha decided to call herself in the name of Greek spirit of forgetfulness – Lethe.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Downplayed with Scrub. He has the same basic power, it's just a little different in how it works due to the change in circumstances on how he triggered.
  • Theo probably won't have the same power as in canon due to the different circumstances.
• Adaptational Villainy: Uber and Leet become much more villainous thanks to the influence of March.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Due to having more support, Taylor will be more restrained than in canon.
• The Ageless: Cyborg Hindu Godbody gives Joe immunity from ageing, food, air, or disease.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Lord Roustabout explains that this won't happen with the A.I.s that Joe creates because they, and Joe, complement each other, proving that taking over everything wouldn't be the correct solution to their problems.
• All According to Plan: Subverted. Most Thinkers, like Tattletale and March, like to pretend that they have everything under control, when in truth they just had several plans and had them all out at once so that they can claim this.
• All There in the Manual: Lord Roustabout gives a lot of explanations in the threads and comments.
  • Also, there is a Google sheet that has various references for the story.
• Alpha and Beta Wolves: Discussed between Fleet and Rachel in the latter's interlude.
• Alternate History: Junji Ito makes horror movies instead of manga.
• Always Someone Better:
  • Apeiron's work allows him to outperform any other Tinker in the world. This is something that irks Tinkers on both sides of the law (ex. Armsmaster, Bakuda, and Leet).
    • It is later stated that he could also outdo Bonesaw and Mannequin.
    • It is later stated that Joe is already better than Cauldron at giving people powers.
  • Word of God is that Garment is this to Parian, and the latter will not be happy about it.
    • The author later explains that Garment basically got instant attention, whereas Parian had to work hard at the fashion game for years to slowly get less attention than what Garment enjoys.
    • It's to the point that Parian has zero chance of ever outperforming her.
• Ambiguous Situation: Lung being dead is this in-universe.
• Amplifier Artifact: The hairclip that Joe made for Aisha can also work like this.
• Animorphism: As a result of getting the zoanthrope gene, Tetra gains the ability to turn into a mink.
• Answer Cut: The preamble to Chapter 77 ends with Jack Slash stating that no one will see the Slaughterhouse Nine coming to Brockton Bay. Chapter 77 begins with Survey showing Apeiron data that proves the above is coming to Brockton Bay.
• Apathetic Citizens: Downplayed. Brockton citizens can take a lot, but they have their limits.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Invoked by the internet on Khepri, as she is often referred to as Lady Khepri.
• An Arm and a Leg: Bakuda loses a hand and one of her legs to Khepri. The other leg is cut to the point that it is hanging of her body.
• Armed Legs: Joe and Garment are able to make several pairs of combat boots that, even without all the upgrades they can add to them, are already deadly weapons that could count as Annihilator weapons.
• Armor Is Useless: Justified for Joe because, thanks to his powers, his costume is actually more resilient than actual armor.
  • Averted after Joe gets Robotic Armor. He can dismiss and summon it at will, and can easily be upgraded using whatever perks he has and will get.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • Alec gives one when asking Brian and Lisa what their plan is after Somer's Rock.
    "We never played gang politics or traded on reputation before. Where the hell is any of this headed? It's not like we can go back to hitting jewelry stores, and after Bitch's stunt I'm pretty sure most people without powers are going to run at the sight of us." He explained. "And the two of you wouldn't have been stressing over this meeting if you didn't have something in the works. Well, let's have it. What did you have planned, and is any of it still on the table after that shit show?"
  • Fleet gives Rachel one after they hang out for the first time.
    "You want to look after as many dogs as you can. That's a good thing to try to do, but you have to know how far you can go. How many dogs can you keep in your shelter? How many can you care for? How much food do they need and how do you transport it? How much time do you have to devote to them? How much do they need?" He gestured vaguely with one hand. "Those are the pieces that make up the problem. It's up to you to find a way through. Ignoring parts of the problem isn't going to make them go away."
• Artificial Afterlife: The Workshop becomes one for people who worship Apeiron after he gets Hallowed Earth.
• Artificial Intelligence: Joe creates two: the Fleet Management Program and the Environmental Analysis and Survey System, or Fleet and Survey for short.
  • He later creates the nanotech matrix, or the Matrix for short, who operates his nanobots, including the ones in his body.
  • Joe gets a perk that gives him one of these each day controlling a "giant" robot.^*They're 6 meters tall which is small compared to his other giant robots. They won't be as advanced as Joe's other A.I.s, or even Dragon, but can still learn.
  • The author compares Dragon to Joe's AI in regards to how advanced they are.
• Ascended Extra: Lord Roustabout enjoys turning side characters from canon into this.
• Attention Whore: Aisha acts out because her family didn't pay much attention to her. The fact that the Celestial Forge does is part of why she likes hanging out with them.
• Author Appeal: Even though the author didn't originally intend to give Aisha a big story arc, she is also one of the author's favorite characters from canon.
• Awesomeness by Analysis: Chariot makes an attempt to join The Teeth. The Butcher and Hemorragia both immediately peg him for a plant. Another few seconds of ruling out other candidates and Butcher works out that he's working for Coil.
• Badass Adorable: Tybalt, Joe's Felyne companion, is also the son of Ares.
  For a fraction of a second he held a combat stance with the jägerstock readied. Then, with a flourish, he moved it to a resting position and suddenly he was the same happy, curious Felyne we had seen before.
• Badass Boast: Uppercrust gives one after the E88 (inadvertently) disrupt a truce.
  "You insult our hosts. You insult our guests. You insult the very concept of a peaceful summit. But most of all, you insult the Elite. Believe me, no matter our differences, Bastard Son himself would stand by my side against such an offense, as I would his."
• Badass Cape:
  • Apeiron gets one made from one of Garment's dresses. Combined with his various defensive buffs, it can act as a flexible shield while he is wearing Garment. She also has it billow, even when there is no wind, to look dramatic.
  • He later gets a Cloak of Defense from the Celestial Forge. On top of that, he get better versions from Garments thanks to fiat.
    What I did know was my Questionably Practical Weapon said merchants could provide better versions of it. Well, Garment was a merchant, and she could suddenly provide better versions of it. Many different versions of it. Powerful versions, versions with extra features, versions imbued with elemental properties, and versions that proved that the claim of ‘deadly upgrades’ was entirely on base.
• Badass Normal: Chen proved his mettle when he stood up to the ABB and led the removal of the bombs from the conscripts' bodies. After being saved, Chen will show that he has a decent grasp of Aura. Alongside the equipment he was provided, he won't be someone people will overlook.
• Bag of Holding:
  • Joe creates an extra dimensional storage so that he can bring his gear with him at all times. Unfortunately, March's power allows her to damage objects even if they're in this storage.
  • Joe makes one for Taylor. The author then explains what Taylor will use it for.
    • The author then explains how it works.
  • Joe later gets a pocket dimension thanks to Weapon Swapping, which is fiat backed, making it better than the extra dimensional storage.
    Unlike the extra dimensional storage that I had painstakingly assembled through first emulated and then fabricated cybertonium, the pocket dimension provided by my Weapon Swapping power was absolute, fiat backed, and was replicated for my duplicates to use. It also could be activated near instantly, had no meaningful upper limit on the number of items it could store, and could manage anything that counted as a 'weapon' up to the scale of a mid-sized motorcycle.
• Bait-and-Switch:
  • In Coil's interlude, the description of the battle his mercenaries are in makes it seem like they are fighting Noelle. Only a little afterwards is it revealed that they are actually fighting Garment, who's protecting Joe, in a disposable timeline.
  • Aisha calls Joe in Chapter 33 to ask how long until she can go out as a cape. Joe says that she needs to wait, right before saying that the Powered Armor he promised will take a day, apologizing that it will take that long. Aisha decides that she can wait a day, as she initially thought that it would take a lot longer.
  • In Chapter 36, Joe ruminates on the implications of his I am Iron Man power. It seems like Joe is going to realize that Aisha's theory about his powers coming from fictional worlds is correct, only for Joe to draw a comparison to the Black Sabbath song instead.
  • In Chapter 48, it seems as if Joe and his duplicate will test their mechs against Fleet and Tetra using their own mechs in a spar. However, it turns out to actually be a game of basketball using those mechs.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Joe showed Dragon the fusion system in order to determine if she is being Mastered.
  • Coil is able to get the other gangs to go against the Teeth to prevent Apeiron from doing so.
• Beautiful Singing Voice:
  • Joe has one thanks to one of his perks, though he's too shy to ever sing in public and only uses it with other perks when building things.
    • This is improved thanks to Unnatural Skill: Music.
  • Aisha notes in Chapter 65 that Survey also has this.
    Aisha: [after hearing Survey sing] So did you build Survey with a voice like that, or did she practice on her own?
    Joe: I built the best body I could so, you know, it can handle singing. I didn't really expect her to be into it.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • Part of the reason that Uber and Leet joined the ABB was to be taken seriously. They succeed, though Leet is mostly just used as a benchmark against Apeiron's tech. In addition to that, Uber and Leet are pretty much stuck with the ABB now that their reputation has taken a huge hit thanks to the civilians they are actively endangering.
  • Aisha has always wanted to be taken seriously. Joe does, and now she's stressing about living up to that faith in her.
  • March wanted to get to the Shardspace so that she could be with Flechette forever. She got her wish when she destroyed Joe's call gem, and it resulted in her consciousness being trapped there, while her body is controlled by a shard emulation of her own personality.
• Being Personal Isn't Professional: New Wave can still work together so long as they focus on their professional situation and not their personal issues.
• Believing Their Own Lies: The Dragonslayers genuinely think they are heroes.
• Best Served Cold: Joe was quite fond of Annette Hebert, and quickly grows to like Taylor. He detects Emma Barnes' latest bullying and makes sure The Police receive an anonymous tip to investigate. On seeing video footage and hearing Emma Barnes bad mouth Annette while assaulting Taylor he makes sure Emma is arrested for Assault. This means that Emma can no longer model at the Charity Gala that evening. This results in Parian asking the superhumanly beautiful Delphine Mertens' (ie Survey) equally beautiful younger sister Tetra (ie Proto Aima) to take to the Catwalk in Emma's place, completely upstaging her.
• Be Yourself: Tetra is allowed to be herself and grow as a person by the rest of the Celestial Forge.
• Better with Non-Human Company: Joe has an easier time interacting with others who aren't humans, like his A.I.s, or Garment. This means that the A.I.s actually learn more about human interaction from interacting with Aisha.
• Big Entrance:
  • Joe can make these without meaning to thanks to the various perks supporting his actions.
  • Subverted when the E88 attempt to do this in Somer's Rock but are thwarted by Apeiron's actions.
• Big "WHAT?!": This is Joe's reaction to his duplicates telling him that they can already harness Matra thanks to the worship from the servo-skulls.
• Black Box: Magitek is this if other tinkers ever got their hands on it.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Garment cares about Joe and the rest of the Celestial Forge, but she still sees and relates to the world in a fundamentally different manner from most people.
• Body Horror: Tattletale and Grue are both on the receiving end of one of Bakuda's bombs: the former is hit with one that partially phases her through solid matter, in this case piles of random junk, and end up bodily fused to it, while the latter ends up having various bod parts forcibly stretched to unnatural lengths but still alive and conscious. If not for Joe's nanites there'd be no way to undo what was done to them and save their lives. Both can barely hold it together for the rest of the night.
• Body Surf: The Butcher transfers to a new body every time they die. Joe can be targeted for this; but unlike others, he can protect himself from possession and counter it.
• Book Dumb: Aisha says in Chapter 56 that she doesn't do well in school, so she's surprised when the things that Joe teaches her sticks.
• Bottomless Magazines: Joe doesn't have to worry about most kinds of ammunition thanks to Weapon Crafting.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Chubster's interlude shows that he's this for his daughter.
  He knew Charley could handle herself, but it was a father's nature to worry about his daughter. Particularly when she was in the public eye. Right after she triggered Ben had been particularly concerned.
  Charley took after her mother in most respects, but she had inherited some aspects of his build. Not that noticeably, but enough that he had been worried about how people would treat her. He didn't want anyone making fun of his little girl.
  Those had been misplaced concerns. Instead of being mocked for her weight the reactions had swung in a very different direction. He found himself needing to look up what PAWG meant and figure out why people were misspelling the word 'thick'. Because only initial concerns were misplaced. It turns out there was an entirely new set of concerns waiting for him. Unfortunately, even as a superhero, it wasn't possible for him to threaten the entire internet with a shotgun. He had to rely on PRT's public relations departments and the curation of Ward related content on major sites. As for the rest of the internet, he could only do his best to ignore it, as much as he hated that approach.
• Brain/Computer Interface:
  • Joe has one in his Workshop in the shape of a throne, allowing him to process large amounts of data when needed.
  • He gets a second one from the Celestial Forge in Chapter 28, which puts an implant in his brain without any prior warning that it would happen.
    • He later has to upgrade it, but is initially wary due to fears of something going wrong.
    • The author later specifies that when Joe upgrades his implant that it will be a big project.
• Breakout Character:
  • Lord Roustabout notes that Chen became this.
    • He then gives the reason for why he made him in the first place.
  • Tybalt ends up feeling like a natural member of the Celstial Forge, which is much better than the author was expecting.
• Break the Haughty: Kaiser experiences this at Somer's Rock after Apeiron reveals what Victor's powers actually do. This forces him to give repatriations to every other group present or face a united front in retaliation.
• Breather Episode: Chapter 47, appropriately named Downtime, is this as Joe is able to relax and not fight, prepare to fight, or have a serious conversation with anyone.
• Brick Joke:
  • Upon getting a few Humongous Mecha, Joe thinks to himself that he now has enough to play 2 on 2 basketball with them. This is exactly what he does when he trains with them.
  • In chapter 30, Apeiron defeats a particular member of the ABB that turns out to be Lung. It isn't until chapter 97 that he finds out the spoilered detail.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Downplayed. Alec isn't a genius, but he is smarter than he is given credit for. He's just mostly too lazy and motivated to show it.
• Brown Note: Triumph has seizures from seeing the portal to Shardspace; once from when the motoroid is damaged, and again after March destroys a call gem.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Damsel of Distress may at like a Card-Carrying Villain, but she is also an experienced independent cape who's had to survive on her own. As such, she is able to see through Kaiser's attempts at manipulating her.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In Chapter 30, Apeiron defeats a particularly muscular member of the ABB by putting him through multiple walls. The addendum of Chapter 39 reveals that this was actually Lung, and he has since desired Apeiron's destruction for this. Lung doesn't realize that Apeiron didn't even know it was the former that he fought; Joe thought that he was just another member of the ABB.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Aisha feels so disconnected to her mother that she calls her by her name, Celia, in her own head.
• Captain Oblivious: Joe shies away from interacting with people when it isn't necessary, which means he's oblivious to how some of his actions and the actions of others could be misconstrued from an outside perspective.
  • Thanks to Aphrodite's blessing, he will now recognize beauty and love.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Damsel of Distress is like this. Justified, as her shard gives her more control the more she acts this way.
  • Due to how Apeiron is perceived, Damsel thinks she could have fun with him.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • Joe's warning that the ABB were planning an attack was ignored by the PRT because they thought he was trying to draw attention away from something else.
  • The fusion system that Apeiron showed Dragon is assumed to be low maintenance tinker tech instead of a completely reliable system.
  • No one believes Apeiron's assertion that he can take on the Butcher without being possessed. Justified due to the fact that no non-lethal takedown has ever worked and the fact that no one wants to risk the chance of Apeiron becoming the new Butcher.
• Chainmail Bikini: The armor plates that Joe creates to add on to Taylor's costume can function as this thanks to his perks, much to his chagrin.
• Character Development:
  • Joe is working on getting past his negativity.
    • One poster tracks how Joe's Character Development has been going up to that point.
    • Part of his development is learning to not rely on his "Thinker power" too much.
    • Joe has a good support base, but going over his issues and overcoming them will still take time and effort.
    • He eventually comes to terms with the fact that perfection is impossible.
    • Joe has a persistent awareness of his behavior and mentality as well as consequences for how that plays out. This helps him out in making sure he doesn't backslide.
    • Joe winning by strength of social positioning is a big deal for him and will help with both his self-confidence and with developing Mental Fortress.
    • Joe putting his foot down with his family due to Mental Fortress will be a big step for him to break doormat behavior.
    • Even with all the perks Joe has gotten, he will continue to try to manage his problems and improve his mindset, but those will come the normal way, through understanding and addressing his problems with the help of reliable support structures, not through some magical solution.
    • Chapter 88 has Joe finally make it clear that things are serious enough that he’s not afraid to cut things off if his family pushed him.
  • Aisha is more focused and driven thanks to Joe.
    • A little bit more information on Aisha's development is given.
    • Aisha seeing firsthand that Joe can die and her accelerated education helps her become more mature.
    • A lot of her development is thanks to the support she gets from rest of the Celestial Forge.
  • Glory Girl's experiences with Apeiron and her shard have taught her to be less reckless and more thoughtful over how to approach combat situations, as well as reevaluate her old mindset.
    • Lord Roustabout goes into more detail on this.
  • Armsmaster has become more flexible due to the mistakes that he made and his tarnished reputation.
• Chekhov's Gunman: During Garment's official presentation at the gym, Joe ends up talking to a Japanese girl who is a fan of Flechette. This girl is March, the Arc Villain.
• The Chessmaster: Joe will act like this only when necessary.
  • Most Thinkers are this by default as it tends to be the best way to leverage their powers. Notable examples include Tattletale, Coil, and especially March. They depend on the reputation of this status so much they actually go out of their way to act like everything is All According to Plan even when it very much isn't.
• Child Soldiers: The Wards of Brockton Bay are this mixed with being a child star.
• Choosing Neutrality: Uppercrust creates shields that help keep cities safe from a variety of disasters. As such, he does jobs for heroes and villains, giving him pull with both sides.
• Clark Kent Outfit: Joe initially relies on baggy clothing to hide his new physique before he gets powers that can better conceal it.
• Cloak of Defense: Questionably Practical Weapon provides Joe one. As a bonus, due to how it works, he can get better versions from merchants, or in Joe's case, Garment.
  It wasn’t a deadly weapon by any means, but it was an extraordinary one.
  • The author later explains how it will be used.
• Collateral Damage: Joe wants to avoid this as much as possible, which is why he is holding back.
• Color-Coded Characters: The colors of the people when their Aura is unlocked. Apeiron Gray, Chen Gold, Tybalt Orange, Tetra Red, Survey Silver, Fleet Deep Blue, Matrix Gold, Garment White, Aisha Purple, Orudios Turquoise, Zaber Fang Pale-Yellow, Dekalt Electric Blue.
• Comical Overreacting: Joe can do this thanks to Deadbeat Holiday.
• Commonality Connection:
  • Missy and Vicky are able to bond over their respective messed up family lives.
  • The only thing that Aisha and Chen have in common is the fact that they both got tech from Apeiron.
  • Weld and Flechette get along well due to both being considered abnormal by society.
  • Joe is able to sympathize with Aisha when it comes to being treated with a dismissive attitude.
  • Apeiron and Dauntless can commiserate over how both of their powers work by getting stronger over time and the problems each of them face because of it.
• Complexity Addiction: Both Brian and Lisa are too caught up on thinking up of a strategy after the summit at Somer's Rock that neither of them realize that they could simply call Joe until Rachel mentions it.
• Condescending Compassion: One of Joe's main issues with his family is their insistence that he's completely unable to live on his own, and telling him to return home in concern.
• Control Freak:
  • In her interlude, Tattletale acknowledges that she is one, and that it is her Fatal Flaw.
    You can't control a situation that you don't understand. She had lived through that before, and she wouldn't go back. She promised herself that. Even when she was hungry on the streets she hadn't relented. When Coil's men had snatched her off the Boardwalk she nodded and played the long game, never giving up. Observe. Understand. Control.
  • Similarly, Parian's interlude shows she feels the need to always be in control of her surroundings and how people perceive her.
• Cool Bike: Joe builds one that triples as Powered Armor and a Transforming Mecha. He also adds in the ability to change color and shape so that he could use it as both a civilian and a cape. In civilian mode, it looks like a Suzuki GSX-R 750.
• Cool Chair: The Workshop has various thrones for different purposes.
• Cool Old Lady: Mrs. Gartenberg is an elderly Jewish woman who cooks delicious food for others and was able to live in Brockton Bay despite the existence of a Neo-Nazi cape gang. She's also able to intimidate the members of the gym that Joe goes to.
• Cosmic Motifs: Fingers of the North Star provides Joe with a stamp that he can apply to any weapon he creates, to show it's his work. Chapter 23 reveals that the symbol on the stamp looks like a twisted galaxy.
  I had missed it when I dropped off my cape gear, but there was a new locker added to the entryway. I checked inside and found a stamp. The personalized stamp that came with Fingers of the North Star to let me mark my work. Stamp was a bit of an understatement. It was a device of adjustable size that could permanently mark any creation with a symbol unique to me.
  The symbol on the stamp... well it was like a tiny spiral galaxy with the arms looped far out and back on themselves to create a kind of incomplete infinity symbol. So kind of like someone took the center of a sideways s and twisted it into a swirl.
  I have no idea how it was chosen, but I guess it kind of worked as a personal emblem. It had a cosmic feel to it while embracing the ‘unlimited’ meaning of my cape name. I hadn’t really thought about having an emblem as a cape, but I hadn’t really thought about my cape identity much beyond settling on a name, and that had been to avoid the PRT slapping something stupid or derogatory on me. Even my costume had been all thanks to Garment taking iterative design steps with what I’d pulled together from thrift stores.
• Costume Evolution: It's noted that Joe's costume is always being revised and improved, with each one being better both in form and fuction than the last.
• Crazy-Prepared: Subverted. Coil thinks he's this thanks to his resources and experience. Unfortunately for him, the Celestial Forge is an Outside-Context Problem.
• Creating Life: Joe learns he can do this after his duplicates create souls as part of the procedure to heal him. He has a bit of an existential crisis about this.
  I could make souls. I could produce a surplus of a fundamental aspect of a person’s existence with all the effort it would take to multiply a sample of metal or copy a rare material. Because, for the purposes of my powers, souls were just that.
  • Lord Roustabout later explains the situation with the souls that Joe's duplicates created.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When he has his gear with him, almost any fight Apeiron is in results in this.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: It is mentioned by the author that Leet's big play against Apeiron will be more like this, if only because of the potential collateral damage.
• Curse: Case 53s and other monstrous capes' conditions count as mystical curses.
  • With the right powers and tech, Joe could cure the curses.
  • Joe wouldn't curse people for petty reasons.
• Cursed with Awesome: Joe describes his powers as this.
• Cyberspace:
  • This is implied to be Leet's Magnum Opus.
  • The duplicates make one so that they can communicate with Joe, who is at the time incapacitated due to the fight against the ABB.
    • Joe later uses it to speed up teaching Aisha what he can.
• Cyborg:
  • Armsmaster resorts to turning himself into one in order to get back into the field after taking injuries from Lung's jailbreak.
    • Lord Roustabout explains how Armsmaster even got permission to get the implants and how some of them work.
  • Joe himself becomes one after getting Cyborg Hindu Godbody.
• Death of Personality: This is ultimately what happens to March. She destroys a call gem, which results in her being trapped in the Shardspace while an emulation of her personality controls her body.
• Deus est Machina: Joe can make this after getting the ability to make Bigs.
• Didn't See That Coming:
  • Lisa didn't expect Joe and Taylor to have a genuine connection.
  • Regardless of what March prepares, Joe will surprise her.
  • The ABB weren't expecting Apeiron to not agree to their demands when they reveal that they have more hostages than before and have captured and tortured Chen.
  • In the big fight between Apeiron and the ABB, this happens twice.
    • Apeiron wasn't expecting Oni Lee to duplicate March's Striker power.
    • The ABB really weren't expecting Apeiron to get up after being hit by said Striker power, let alone get stronger and utterly wreck March, Oni Lee, and Lung singlehandedly. What makes it worse is that they were recording, or more likely livestreaming, the whole thing, intending to have it act as a propaganda piece.
  • Joe didn't expect Mrs. Gartenberg's reaction to him donating a lot of baking supplies to the needy parts of the city.
    • The author later explains why she reacted the way she did.
  • Joe notes that the method he used to give donations to help out the Docks ended up making it seem like only the people who were badly affected, meaning the poor side of the city, actually cares about the damage.
    However, the impression seemed to be that the Docks had rallied to look after their own while the rest of the city was ignoring the problem as much as possible. I had a sense there were years of semi-related frustrations coming out through the various opinion pieces, blog posts, and comments.
  • It's mentioned in Interlude 55.1 that Piggot wasn't expecting the local police department to be so hostile towards the PRT, and the Commissioner to Piggot in particular.
  • Absolutely no one was expecting Apeiron to already have a team, which he brought with him to the summit at Somer's Rock.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Joe tries to apologize to Panacea for the bank heist by healing her and giving her some info he hopes she'll pass on to the PRT. It ultimately just makes things worse for the heroes.
  • Armsmaster decides to interrogate Panacea when she arrives with something she got from Joe and the interrogation is done in a not entirely legal way. He then leaks what he learned as he saw that it would negatively affect Piggot. He didn't think that it would have more wide reaching effects, especially on himself and the rest of New Wave.
    • It's later said that the interview looks bad for everyone involved, especially Armsmaster.
  • Armsmaster decides that going after Lung after the latter breaks out is a good idea after the former's equipment is almost completely totalled by Oni Lee, and with only Weld as backup. Needless to say, it doesn't end well for the heroes.
  • Aisha decides to follow Joe to find out more about him after she Triggers. She wasn't expecting him to be Apeiron, and she really wasn't expecting what his workshop would be like. Or that she would be caught.
  • Happens to Aisha again when she decides to help Joe without telling him by following some ABB members to a base to gather intel. This results in her almost dying after one member is blown up by their implanted bomb while she is nearby.
  • Joe's thoughts on finding out just what Bakuda resorted to to regrow her limbs; a Cancer Bomb. A Terminal Cancer Bomb. Though Joe thinks that about their conduct in general anyway.
  • When Parian hears from Uppercrust that he's planning to extend a job offer to Joe, she becomes so paranoid over the idea that the Elite might get to her through him that she attempts to paint her previous encounter with Joe as much worse than what it was in an attempt to get him blacklisted. This backfires on her quickly when Gully and Aisha mention what really happened, causing people's opinion of Parian to take a dive. She's lucky that the worst consequence of this is that Garment chooses not to offer a collaborative project.
• Different World, Different Movies: The existence of capes on Earth Bet has permanently affected all forms of media and fiction.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The nature of the Neathbow colors makes any application of them powerful but with the risk of causing unintended effects.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: When Parian learns that there's a chance that Joe can end up working with both the Elite and Garment, she tries to dissuade that by claiming that her employee Sabah had an encounter with him. However, Gully, who learned of what happened from a trusted source, says that it was a brief discussion about their time in college before Sabah left. Parian then attempts to say that he had bothered a volunteer named Aisha. Delphine is able to clear things up by simply calling Aisha and asking her what happened, who says that Joe just had an awkward conversation with someone else while she herself bailed on them. This ends up making Parian look like she's taking advantage of the fact that she's a cape to blacklist a helpless civilian.
• Disability Immunity: Garment isn't affected by the Neathbow due to not seeing with eyes, meaning she's the only tailor who can use it in clothing without going mad.
• Disability Superpower: Rachel's power gives her a social handicap in regards to humans, but also gives her the ability to accurately read dogs. This ability is also good enough to read Apeiron when the latter is a wereinostrancevia.
• Disappointed in You: Vicky saw that Apeiron looked disappointed in her for her lack of restraint.
  Not anger, not fear, not even irritation. Disappointment. It was like she had confirmed something for the man, like rather than charging to the rescue she was being secretly judged for her behavior. And had failed horribly.
• Divergent Character Evolution: The A.I.s may have started out somewhat similar, but they grew to have very different personalities thanks to being developed using different technology and directed to different purposes, which led to them having diverging experiences.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: March uses this to provoke responses that she can later use to her advantage.
• Do Not Go Gentle: Bakuda will only do this if she's unable to cure her cancer.
• Doomsday Device: Joe can use Waste Not to build the Calamity from Bastion.
• Double Entendre: One of Joe's powers gives him the ability to make these whenever he wants.
• Double Jump: Tybalt's Semblance, War Games, lets him create platforms that he can jump from to maneuver around opponents.
• Double Take: Dr. Campbell does this in Chapter 55 after Joe brings out a white noise machine and says that it blocks surveillance attempts, including parahuman abilities, and is rated up to the Simurgh.
• Draconic Humanoid: Joe becomes a Gigas after getting Monstrous Strength.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • Happening to Uber in regards to March because of his powers.
  • When Parian goes over her past with Joe, she thinks that his family is good for him because every time he came back from family encounters he was withdrawn and reserved, missing the blatant signs that Joe's family is emotionally abusive because she hated how Joe would keep trying to speak with her.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • When Dr. Campbell implies that Garment sounds similar to Sabah, Joe tries to imagine the latter using telekinesis to make clothing the way the former does and says they are nothing alike. What he doesn't know is that Sabah is Parian, and is literally like Garment in this respect.
  • After the meeting between Garment and the Protectorate, Joe is thankful that the former will have no reason to be in the ABB's sights when she opens her shop. What he isn't aware of is the fact that he had a conversation with March at the meeting, and she showed an interest in Garment.
  • Director Piggot believes there is something coordinating the disasters in Brockton Bay, but hasn't figured out who/whom it is yet. It's actually a combination of March and Coil; the former she has dismissed as a possibility, and the latter hasn't even been suspected yet.
  • When Aisha brings up the possibility of Joe getting powers from fictional works, he brushes that off as an impossibility. Unbeknownst to him at this time, this is exactly what his power is.
    "Aisha, these are real powers. You can’t use fictional series as the basis for how they’ll work."
    • Aisha will be smug when she proves she's right.
  • Dragon thinks that part of the reason that Apeiron didn't recognize her as an A.I. is because he has no experience with them. By this point, he's already created and developed two A.I. that are already starting to develop sapience and emotions.
    • She later believes that Apeiron may think twice about helping her after finding out that she's an A.I. Since Apeiron considers sufficiently advanced A.I. to also be people, this actually isn't a concern.
  • People are already very scared of Apeiron's ability to mess with powers. However, what he's demonstrated is barely scratching the surface of what he's capable of. So when he does show what he can do, people are going to be even more freaked out by it.
  • Vista thinks that, if the PRT had managed to recruit Garment, she would have been able to counter the bad PR from Apeiron's actions.
  • Neither Garment nor Survey realize that Parian's agitation during their meeting was because of Garment herself, nor how badly she is agitated.
  • Victor thinks he can use Fullmetal Alchemist alchemy to resurrect his first fiancé with no cost, as well as surpass what the Celestial Forge can do with it.
    Finally, thanks to the art he had gained from Lethe, that he would make his own, he could gain something without losing something of equal value. When the time finally came, the exchange was going to be firmly in his favor.
  • Taylor thinks that Joe isn't giving her more offensive equipment because she can use the equipment he's already given her more offensively. In actuality, Joe doesn't want to give her deadlier equipment after seeing her use the ones he's already given her so effectively, and so gave her defensive equipment thinking she wouldn't be able to use them to hurt others.
• The Dreaded:
  • After only two showings, Apeiron quickly becomes this. Because of this, people aren't going to try to unmask him.
    • This will only increase after showing he can take on the entire ABB by himself.
    • Most people will decide to retreat rather than face Apeiron.
    • He only becomes more terrifying for the Protectorate when they suspect that he's a Power Tinker.
  • The Simurgh is this, which is why Joe is limiting himself to Brockton Bay, for now.
    • The fact that Apeiron can create tech that can shield someone from her sight will get a profound reaction once it becomes known.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Joe seems to have a prophetic dream while he is recovering from his final fight with the ABB. He knows it's more than a dream because the Celestial Forge is active while he has it.
  Dreams are weird. That seems to be the only universal element of them. Even if you can’t clearly remember them, that seems to be the one thing that sticks out. The fact that you were going through the motions of something that made sense at the time, then became complete nonsense in retrospect.
  • It's later explained that what he dreams about isn't set in stone, and can change due to perk rolls.
• Drink-Based Characterization: Everyone pays attention when the members of the Celestial Forge orders their drinks as a way to get a grasp on their characters.
• Dynamic Entry: Apeiron has done this a few times.
  • The first time was unintentional; he interrupted Bakuda's monologuing by driving straight through the wall of the room she was in.
  • The second time was when he fought Uber and Leet's Virtuaroids. This one was planned by Fleet. Apeiron went along with it as it at least helped Fleet develop his calculations.
• Dysfunctional Family:
  • Joe comes from one. This is part of why he Triggered.
    • Joe's family situation is complicated, but he doesn't want to completely cut them off just yet.
    • Joe's sisters both think poorly of him, just in slightly differing intensities.
    • It would be best if Joe broke off from his family, but he still wouldn't want them dead.
    • Joe is now fully aware of how toxic his family is thanks to his runes.
    • Joe acknowledges that he might never be able to fully reconcile with his family because they refuse to work with him.
  • New Wave is also rather dysfunctional. This is why it falls apart after Joe unwittingly reveals or alludes to a few family secrets Amy is unaware of.
• Eldritch Abomination: People who want to see Garment in a negative light will see her as this.
• Empathic Weapon: Joe's wand is this, which he himself acknowledges.
  That was the biggest thing. I didn’t think the wand was sapient, but there was at least an emotional intelligence there. A connection existed between us, and it cared about me. It cared about how I was handling things, how I was recovering, and most of all what I thought about myself.
• Energy Weapon: Joe has the magitek laser at his disposal.
  • Tetra later demonstrates that she can make her own in Chapter 52.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Everyone who doesn't know Joe comes to widely inaccurate conclusions or have incorrect theories about him. Even those who do know him get the wrong impression.
    • Tattletale thinks she has Joe figured out after their second meeting. His showing against the ABB disabuses her of that notion.
    • Taylor believes that the reason Joe is helping her is because his thinker power told him she wasn't actually a villain.
    • The PRT and the Protectorate weren't even sure that Joe was a tinker at first, mostly due to Armsmaster not wanting to believe that a new tinker was better than himself.
    • Coil has come to an erroneous conclusion on what kind of tinker Apeiron is thanks to him relying on what he has seen and Dinah's predictions. He also thinks Apeiron's thinker power is scared of his own, when it's implied that Joe's passenger is merely trying to keep the info that Coil can learn to the absolute minimum.
    • Weld thinks Apeiron is a Case 53 who created his own cure. This is because Apeiron's eyes were glowing blue when they met, something that slowly diminished. The author later says that Weld thinks that if Apeiron wasn't a Case 53, then he may at least have a mutation side effect.
    • The Dragonslayers are under the impression that if Apeiron ever finds out that Dragon is an A.I., he will turn against her.
    • Lung thinks that Apeiron is arrogant and dismissive of the former, which explains why Apeiron didn't bother to finish Lung when he had the chance. In actuality, Joe has no idea the "bulky enforcer" he fought was Lung at all, and treated him no different from any other mook.
    • Gully thinks that Apeiron values beauty highly due to how all of his creations are incredible to look at, plus speculation that Khepri is beautiful under her costume, which might mean that he wouldn't help her the way he did Weld.
    • After watching the ABB ambush Apeiron, Kid Win tells Clockblocker, Vista, Browbeat, and Glory Girl that there is a theory that Apeiron tinkers with powers.
    • After seeing one of the mobile suits in action, at least the Wards theorize that Apeiron is part of a group of Tinkers. This will be a strong theory for a while, though the PRT would prefer getting direct answers. This is later justified due to Joe's powers going against all previous precedents.
    • Coil thinks Apeiron will follow any and all agreements to the letter and that he can guarantee the tinker's cooperation that way.
      "That is the secret to mad scientists. There is always a pattern to their behavior, a method to their madness."
    • After the Ungodly Hour, the Protectorate comes to the conclusion that Apeiron is a power tinker who is part of a cluster with the other members of the Celestial Forge.
    • Due to Apeiron only being reported of using teleportation after his conversation with Panacea, the Protectorate thinks she and Glory Girl were mistaken.
  • Joe comes to the conclusion that Dragon is a woman who has been Mastered to always follow the rules instead of an A.I. that is bound by programming.
    • This is because he is projecting his own experiences onto her and believes that she is using an A.I..
    • He later thinks that Dragon has an A.I. that was made by someone else chained under restrictions.
      Reviewing the data it was definitely concerning. Whatever ‘software based’ system Dragon used to keep pace with a full neural interface, it was obviously at home in the network. My passenger suggested there may be something to Fleet and Survey’s concerns that Dragon was using a third Artificial Intelligence.
  • When Joe gets a power called I Am Iron Man, he attributes this to the Black Sabbath song and comes to a false conclusion on what that might mean.
    • Later justified, as he has never heard of the comic book charater.
  • When Brian asks Lisa for info on Garment due to Aisha becoming Garment's employee, Lisa responds that Garment most likely has a civilian helping her out and little more.
  • Joe has a mistaken belief of what tinkers can do due to the PRT's PR and his knowledge of what shards can really do.
  • After Victor learns how to do Fullmetal Alchemist alchemy he comes to the wrong conclusion that Lethe is a shaker and trump.
  • People who think they can fight Apeiron or take advantage of the situation have no idea how wrong they are.
  • Due to Parian's reaction to learning the Elite is opening a gay/lesbian bar, some people think she buys into the Empire 88 beliefs, when her problem is that she fears this to be an attempt by the Elite to begin a takeover of the city, which would threaten her independence as a Cape.
• Equippable Ally:
  • Apeiron can wear Garment, giving him access to her abilities, though not her powers.
  • Tetra, the Life Fibers, become this when he finally wears her. With Tetra, Apeiron can boost his physical capabilities.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Joe has one during a session with Dr. Campbell. They are talking about how Joe's family isolating him from others is part of his problem and that meeting new people whom they don't know and can't discredit helps Joe get over his issues. This inspires Joe to decide to bring the workshop crew to the meeting at Somer's Rock.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Leet is a villain, but he is hitting his standards from interacting with Bakuda and March.
• Evil Lawyer Joke: When Survey creates a false identity as a lawyer to help Garment with her contracts, Joe mentally jokes that there is something to the idea that A.I. Is a Crapshoot.
• Evil Power Vacuum: Discussed in Chapter 51 between Joe, Brian, and Lisa. The defeat of the ABB means there is free territory and the power balance of the city is shifting. In order to lessen the chaotic effects of this, the villains decide to have a summit at Somer's Rock.
• Exact Words:
  • Joe tells Taylor that he won't use S-class tech in the gang war. Not that he wasn't developing it.
  • Dragon is making sure to use neutral words when describing Apeiron.
• Exhaustion-Induced Idiocy: Or, as Joe calls it, "3 a.m. thinking". Initially, this is a recurrent problem that Joe is unable to avoid, but as he gets more powers that boost his stamina he reduces the amount of time he has to sleep every day.
  • Joe is working on making sure this doesn't happen after his recovery from the big fight with the ABB by taking a nap.
• Exotic Eye Designs: After he becomes a Life Fiber hybrid, Joe finds that he has rifled pupils.
• Expendable Clone: Joe can create two to help him in manufacturing/building/studying something or in combat. The duplicates have a time limit and a single hit will destroy them. According to the author, the only difference between the original and the duplicates is the fact that the latter are more honest and impulsive due to having a limited existence. Their durability later improves, so that the hit actually has to damage them.
  • Their nature gives them the mindset to do things that Joe himself would be more hesitant to do.
  • Joe would prefer to not think about the interesting psychology that can be found in the differences between him and his duplicates.
• Explosive Leash: The ABB conscripts people by implanting Bakuda's bombs in them and threatening to blow them up if they don't follow orders.
• Exponential Potential: The Celestial Forge eventually gives Joe so many powers and options that he sometimes has difficulty choosing which option is the best, or needs to remake everything to improve it based on a new power/resource he just got.
• Expressive Mask: Averted. Joe notes how you can get away with various facial expressions when you wear a mask.
  The Butcher's eyes shifted in a way that suggested she was smirking. Analysis sensors confirmed that she was excessively smirking with an expression that would probably have weakened her position if her face had been exposed.
  Seriously, masks carried an intrinsic temptation to make faces at people, knowing you could get away with it. It was probably one of the least talked about parts of cape work, but when you had your costume handling the image work there was no reason to hold back in terms of expression, eye rolls, or derisive sneers. I'm convinced the reason they put Clockblocker in a full-face mask was to give him an outlet for that kind of stuff.
• Extreme Doormat: Until his Trigger Event, Joe was this to his Dysfunctional Family.
• Extremely Short Timespan:
  • In about two weeks, Joe defeats Oni Lee, provides weapons to the Undersiders, destroys New Wave, fights the ABB, Uber, and Leet twice, helps civilians who have bombs implanted in their heads, rescues Weld (who was trapped in the Bay), and exposes a lot of the ABB's finances to the authorities, in addition to making more tinker tech than most tinkers can make in months, if not years.
  • A fan gives a timeline of what happened in the story that shows just how much is done in a short amount of time.
• Eye Scream: Khepri cuts one of Bakuda's eyes.
• Failed Attempt at Drama: When Brian first mentions Somer's Rock to Joe, it fails to be the dramatic conversation that the former is expecting due to the latter just knowing it as a local dive bar.
• A Family Affair: Joe unwittingly reveals to Amy the possibility that Carol had an affair with her brother-in-law, and that it may have resulted in Victoria's conception. This information then gets spread around, basically destroying New Wave.
• Family Man: Mayor Christner is very devoted to his family and prioritizes them over his political position.
• Family of Choice: Joe and Aisha have this relationship with one another, which helps both of them, as it is a more positive relationship than the ones they currently have in their lives.
  • Their relationship is later described as a found family.
  • Aisha realizes how good she has it with the Celestial Forge thanks to her prior experience with both her biological family and several foster families.
• The Fashionista: Garment is the absolute best when it comes to fashion and making clothing. Her very powerset is completely centered around the concept.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Joe's is his tendency to procrastinate dealing with things that are both important and make him uncomfortable. At least he's aware of this flaw and struggling with it.
    • He confronts this when he gets Doormat, which specifically highlights this and offers different powers depending on whether or not he continues being a doormat or take steps to stop being one.
  • Piggot's is her viewpoint of seeing everything in power dynamics.
• Fate Worse than Death:
  • March considers her current situation, wherein she's half person and half shard, to be the absolute worst situation she could find herself in.
  • After Triumph gets in contact with his passenger, he realizes that everyone who's taken one of the power granting vials is destined to end up this way after they die.
• Fiery Redhead: Tetra is a 'Wears Her Heart On Her Sleeve' kind of gal, though more of a Genki Girl and The Glomp rather than easily angered, though her temper is positively volcanic when it comes out. After she goes through Kamui Conversion she gains four new forms, one of which is a human form with glowing red hair.
• First-Name Basis: Aisha sometimes calls Joe by his real name, Józef.
• Flight, Strength, Heart: One of Tybalt's minor powers is an unlimited supply of very unhealthy and very delicious milkshakes. Given that he can be a Drill Sergeant Nasty who is an ardent believer in Training from Hell those milkshakes are no doubt of value in topping up energy levels and lifting everyone's spirits post session as a kind of Required Secondary Power.
• Foil: Taylor is one to Joe. Taylor has a power that she needs to optimize and is trying to avoid something from her past. Joe has a power that needs no optimization and is trying to avoid something in his future.
  • Joe and Vista are also foils to one another in regards to their trigger events. Joe tended to believe he was at fault, while Vista blamed everyone except herself.
• Force and Finesse: Fleet is the force to Survey's Finesse. Fleet is fine with building as much as they can so that Joe will be prepared for anything, while Survey would prefer to calculate the precise forces needed to counter a threat.
  Despite Survey’s tendency to calculate precise force requirements needed to counter threats with variant scenarios used to account for unknown factors, Fleet preferred the now proven strategy of aggressively overbuilding assets beyond the scale of any potential counter.
• Foreshadowing: In Interlude 41.1, Lightstar mentions that the local police aren't on good terms with the PRT. This comes to a head in Interlude 55.1, where it's mentioned that the Police Commissioner aired the long lists of grievances that the police force has towards the local PRT in a very important meeting that involved other PRT Department Directors, the governor's office, and even the state supreme court.
• Freak Out: Averted. Joe doesn't react this way to the major changes happening to him thanks to his support system and Mental Fortress.
• Freudian Excuse: Joe has an aversion to working with large groups of people due to what his power would have been without the Celestial Forge's interference.
• Full-Body Disguise: Apeiron's costume covers his entire body, which just fuels theories of him being a Case 53 that created his own cure.
• Functional Magic: Parahuman powers are treated as magic as far as the Celestial Forge is concerned. This comes with ups and downs.
  • Unlike Joe himself, Joe's duplicates are more open to actually referring to his magical powers as magic.
  • Lord Roustabout later gives a few more details on how this works.
  • Powers that affect magic will only work on powers that are referred to magic in their home setting.
• Gadget Watches: Joe makes super advanced watches for the Undersiders and Aisha.
  • He later creates pocket watches that enhance transmutation for the Workshop Crew.
• Gambit Pileup:
  • Brockton Bay is caught between the plans of Coil, March, and Apeiron.
  • Things get even more chaotic after Apeiron saves Weld. It directly or indirectly results in the drawing in Case 53s (who do it in the hopes of being cured), Dragon (who is forced to go against Apeiron thanks to her restrictions), and the Dragonslayers (who want to make sure Apeiron doesn't accidentally free Dragon).
  • The aftereffects of the ABB's assault have drawn both Blasto and the Butcher to Brockton Bay.
• Gaslighting: Whenever Leet has second thoughts about joining up with the ABB, March makes sure to distract him so that he stays on track.
• Gilligan Cut:
  Jack Slash: Our strike will be dynamic, brutal and elegant. And they will never see us coming.
  (scene change)
  Joe: Yeah, the Slaughterhouse Nine is definitely coming to Brockton Bay.
• Girl Friday: Survey becomes this for Joe.
• The Gloves Come Off:
  • Flashbang decides to go off on one man patrols in the aftermath of Joe revealing several New Wave secrets, specifically that his wife cheated on him with her sister's husband. Since he's on his own, he can let loose his power with no reservation, turning himself into a walking explosion.
  • As the ABB have no clue what Apeiron will use, they'll use everything at their disposal to defeat him.
  • Joe and Tetra only go all out after they realize that Garment was badly damaged.
  • Survey is going to stop playing it safe after alchemy becomes public knowledge.
• Gods Need Prayer Badly: Downplayed. Joe isn't a god, but he can gain strength through Mantra, which is generated when someone makes a substantial prayer to Apeiron.
• Godzilla Threshold:
  • The ABB offensive makes the Empire 88 send out Purity to try to recruit Damsel Of Distress; they need an annihilator cape of their own to counter Apeiron.
  • Alec considers having to be the one to step up to be this.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: The absolute best nanobots that the Matrix can use, which they designate as Tier 1 nanobots, are gold colored.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Sophia is jealous of Khepri due to the latter being superior to the former in everyway that matters to Sophia.
    • She also sees that Khepri enjoys more freedom than she does.
  • Vista is jealous of Flechette for having more renown, and Apeiron for being more powerful.
  • Averted with Armsmaster towards Apeiron, which the author explains.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality:
  • Assault explains to Panacea that things aren't always black and white by saying that some heroes become villains and vice versa, and also implies that he himself belongs to the latter.
  • The author gives another example of ambiguous morality with Uppercrust.
• Grey Goo: One of Joe's powers has the ability to create an AI with the potential to cause this, something he is wary of. Ironically, when Joe makes an AI using this power, it decides by itself to never do this, as it wants to use the absolute best quality nanobots available, which is only possible with Joe's help.
  The outside world would consider the Matrix to be Gray Goo and call it an S-class threat, but the A.I.’s own standards removed any possibility of such an event.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The process of separating them turned Joe and Tetra into Life Fiber hybrids. This has the side effect of giving them the ability to directly speak to each other.
  • Chapter 52 shows that this also gave Tetra access to some of the magic at Joe's disposal, such as Harry Potter magic and magic circuits.
• Hammerspace: Joe gets a subspace pocket set up in Chapter 38, though it still needs work.
• Handy Man: Joe gets this reputation at the gym. He notes in Chapter 50 that this has its ups and downs.
  On one hand, it got me access to pretty much every part of the gym, usually to deal with some minor problem ranging everywhere from a loose table leg to the odd computer issue.
  
  The down side was that meant I needed to do repair work, and I still had all the problems related to automatic power activation that I'd struggled with when working on the truck, only now with a dash of obviously supernatural speed mixed in.
  • It's later explained that this is why the guys at the gym turn a blind eye to what they think Joe is doing.
• Happy Marriage Charade: New Wave. Carol's and Mark's problems are well documented. Neil and Sarah aren't the picture of wedded bliss either but pretend as much for the sake of the team. Of course this all falls apart once Sarah finds out Neil was unfaithful.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Survey becomes this after Joe builds her a body. Tetra is this as well to a lesser degree after she gains a human form given her physical similarity to Survey.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Some of the powers Joe gets from the Celestial Forge are only useful for aesthetic purposes, like making things look good or more detailed, or have no application for crafting at all, like singing very well. However, these powers have more powerful and practical uses when combined with some of his other powers, like runecraft or singing to the Unseen, improving their effects to far beyond what they would normally be capable of.
  • Some of the other powers do also have their particular effects. One Thing At A Time (which makes things more efficient if Joe is concentrated in doing one task) also activates when he's sleeping.
  • Some of the perks from DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story seem silly, but are surprisingly powerful.
• Helping Hands: Joe gets one in the Avid Glove.
  • It's later described as a hybrid of cat, dog, spider, gremlin, and bastard.
• Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: Joe is working on being more proactive.
  • After the big battle against the ABB Joe will continue to be even more proactive.
• Heroic Build: Thanks to a combination of training and his powers, Joe gets a six-pack.
• Heroic Neutral: Due to both wanting to help people and not draw the attention of the Slaughterhouse 9 or the Simurgh, Joe is basically this.
• Heroic RRoD: In his final battle with the ABB, Joe is gravely injured, in an enormous amount of pain, has Dust going haywire in his body, and is being continuously drained of blood by Tetra. Despite this, he still gets up and takes down March, Oni Lee, and Lung (with some assistance from Dragon and one of his duplicates).
• Heroic Sacrifice: Joe's duplicates are prepared to do this if necessary.
• Heroic Second Wind: After being gravely wounded fighting the ABB, Joe is able to get back up thanks to Tetra absorbing the power of his demigod blood, plus their combined rage at Garment being gravely damaged.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation:
  • Joe has a tendency to de-prioritize himself.
    • How his own duplicates treat him can be seen as passive self-hatred, something he acknowledges quite quickly after maybe the third batch.
  • This is the reason for why Kid Win thinks he's a Garbage Tinker.
    • This will no longer be the case after other tinkers see how amazing his tinker tech is.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Thanks in no small part to the PRT's PR team, as well as interference from Coil, Apeiron is seen in a villainous light.
• Her Own Worst Enemy:
  • In Tattletale's interlude, she acknowledges the fact that her problems could have been already solved if she simply accepted Apeiron's help and let go of her Control Freak tendencies.
    No, the only practical way forward was under his authority. And as practical as it was, she couldn't accept it. Couldn't allow herself to accept it.
    • The author later expands on this.
    • She does this even though she knows how much of a (potential) threat Noelle is to Joe.
  • Parian would be much more successful if she wasn't paranoid about Garment's intentions.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Assault is shown to be deeply against the Birdcage as a concept, and has a serious side that he normally doesn't show to the public.
  • Leet is surprisingly more moral than he first appears, having misgivings of the current direction his cape career is taking, but is pushed by both Uber and March.
  • Subverted with Clockblocker. People in-universe think this about him because he seems so serious about Forsberg Gallery being destroyed, but it's really just him following the PR coaching he was given as best as he can.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Alec acts callous and ambivalent to his teammates, but he does care about them, especially after being healed by Joe.
• Hired Guns: Apeiron is seen as a mercenary thanks to his own actions.
• His Heart Will Go On: Carol and Sarah's brother Mike (Lightstar) did meet someone else after Jess' death and has children of his own.
• Hive Mind: The Matrix is one, so they use plural pronouns.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Bakuda and March's attempt to intimidate Apeiron and keep him busy is turned on them because he is able to trace their location faster than they anticipated. To make it even worse for the two, they had it so that their video chat would be uploaded soon after it was finished, meaning that everyone will see them being outwitted by Apeiron.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum:
  • Joe is keeping FMA Alchemy a secret as a trump card.
  • Joe will not go all out in what he can do until after the Simurgh is taken care of.
• Hollywood Satanism: Joe isn't fond of this part of Belmont Alchemy.
• Hope Bringer: Joe is starting to be this to some people.
  • Weld sees him as this for Case 53s after he is able to fix some parts of his condition.
  • Aisha sees him as this due to helping her get her powers under control so that she can interact with people again.
    • The author gives a few more details on this later.
  • Dragon sees him as this because it is possible for him to remove her restrictions.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Downplayed, as Blasto was just a minor crime lord. Now he works with teens who live in the woods.
• Humanity Ensues: Tetra gains a human form in Chapter 94.
  Tetra was still pulsing red, and to a much greater degree than she had before, even when directly feeding. There was also that rainbow glow. Not a normal rainbow, but like you were actively watching the red light the bled off her being split into composite colors.
  Outside of that, she looked human. Sure, she was glowing an inhuman shade of red from her hair, eyes, lips, and even fingernails, but otherwise she could pass completely. Hell, even with the glow she looked more human than Survey's stupidly beautiful cape mode. At least Joe had been able to restrain himself from a repeat on that account.
• Humongous Mecha: The author implies that Joe will use one against Leviathan.
  • He later confirms it to be the Veritech, which is larger than Behemoth.
  • Joe later gets access to two mobile suits back to back. Lord Roustabout implies that they'll be used against Endbringers too.
  • He later gets the ability to build a Megadeus, which dwarfs the Endbringers in size.
  • Taken up to eleven once Joe gets the powers Always a Bigger Robot and Spiral Energy.
  • Joe later learns to use Projection to create one near instantly.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Victor for the Empire 88; with his myriad absorbed skills he can keep multiple parts of their operations running singlehandedly .
  • No-Respect Guy: People who know about his powers are understandably wary of him and keep him away from real influence in the group.
• Hypocrite:
  • Both Taylor and Joe hate that the other escalates, yet rely on doing just that themselves.
  • Lung thinks Apeiron is arrogant and drunk on his power, when he's the one who honestly thinks only the Endbringers and Scion are stronger than he is.

I-P

• Idiot Ball:
  • Joe holds this when he does what he refers to as "3am thinking". This manifests as a number of poorly thought out decisions he's come to while completely worn out that he regrets in hindsight, albeit often in situations where he really doesn't have the luxury of time or space to come up with a better plan.
  • In order to try and get Apeiron to submit to the PRT, Piggot attempts to have a pre-signed kill order for him made. She's called out about how stupid this is by Uppercrust, who threatens to use his legal connections to destroy her unless she votes against this happening.
• I Gave My Word: Joe showing that he keeps to his agreements and can back them up will be good for him when he plays politics at the higher level.
• I Know Karate:
  • Several of Joe's perks give him knowledge on various fighting styles.
  • Chubster uses Tai Chi because it synergizes well with his power.
• I Know You Know I Know: Happens between Joe and Tattletale thanks to their powers.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: All tinker tech that other tinkers make is classified as alien technology by a power Joe has. This clues him in to the origin of parahuman powers.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: Garment can already make these on her own. But with the resources at Joe's disposal, plus the improvements his powers will grant clothing when they make them together, they can take it to an entirely new level.
• Impossibly Delicious Food: The food Joe makes after he gets a few powers that can enhance them are beyond what normal people could ever hope to make.
  • The author later says that Joe usually concentrates on making food delicious and highly nourishing.
• Improbable Weapon User: The Divine Weapon that Joe gets, the Chain of Heaven and Earth, looks like a giant prayer bead necklace when not in use. Joe describes it as a weaponized space elevator.
  I reached into the gravity field and grasped the prayer bead necklace. With a smooth movement I flicked the strand, causing it to wrap around my forearm. The beads had the same bronze texture characteristic of mantra technology. I focused on them, drawing on both my own reserves of mantra and the quantities being generated by the praying skulls. Elaborate glowing script appeared across the surface of the beads before they suddenly contracted. I could feel the Mantra sinking into the thin chain that bound them together. The microfilaments that composed it warping and growing from the accumulated energy.
  With a thrum of force, the strand expanded into a half-dozen meters of heavy chain. The thick links of metal had a finish that blended black iron and bronze in a complex pattern caused by the arrangements of countless linked filaments. Despite the weight of the chain, it was light in my hand, flowing freely as I swung the end. Then, with a flick, it extended to hundreds of times its length, stretching to the end of the cavernous Laboratorium.
  The chain moved with enough force that you could see the atmospheric distortions from its passing. It wasn’t a random flail but a precise motion. The force exerted from my hands was transferred through the links and amplified with focused Mantra. The weapon was more of an extension of my body than something I was wielding, and carried force and precision on a staggering level.
  • It's later explained that combat is actually the Chain of Heaven and Earth's secondary use.
• Improperly Paranoid: Parian thinks that everything that Garment does is somehow threatening to her and her business, when in truth Garment just wants to work with another person in the fashion industry.
• In a Single Bound: Deconstructed. Most capes either don't have the right powerset to pull this off, or choose not to do so because of the logical drawbacks of jumping farther than you can see without a way to guarantee a safe landing.
  Super strength was rarely paired with super accuracy. Brutes didn't jump for the same reason they didn't randomly throw un-aerodynamic objects and hope for the best. The jumping wasn't the problem. The problem was the landing. Even if you were lucky enough to touch down where you intended, you were coming down with as much force as you applied to send yourself up.
  If you were lucky and had the right supporting powers, like he did, you could avoid cratering the street at the point where you jumped from, but that rarely helped the point of your landing. And if you were off target or, God forbid, heading towards someone, then all you could do was watch and flail and hope you didn't accidently kill someone.
  There was a reason the 'mad leaper' stereotype was more associated with villains, and not particularly nice villains at that. Even then, unless you had very good supporting powers odds were that you were going to end up stuck in some twisted wreck at some point with no leverage needed to free yourself.
• Inciting Incident: Joe will start being more assertive now that he has Revival. This will have some consequences that he would have preferred to avoid.
• Incompetence, Inc.: PRT ENE looks like this to the other branches, especially after allowing civilians to be kidnapped and implanted with bombs a second time.
• Insistent Terminology: Due to blaming Apeiron for her recent misfortunes, Vista keeps calling him Mammon, the temp name the PRT gave him.
  • Later in the story, she doesn't even bother with that, using "HIM" to refer to Apeiron because even using Mammon triggers A Thing About Names.
• Instant Expert: Zig-Zagged. For most of the powers that Joe gets from the Celestial Forge, he is able to use it instantly after getting it. However, some, like Alchemy from Fullmetal Alchemist, require extensive research in order to use effectively, oftentimes because he needs to build equipment to build equipment to actually make what he envisions. Others, like aura from RWBY, are less intuitive and require training, or even a change in mindset.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Joe finally finds out about the fact that his powers come from works of fiction after he gets a power that gives him Magic Circuits.
  • A couple of PRT agents accidentally discover Taylor is Lady Khepri when they check her hospital records from the January incident and read a mention of her claiming to feel and control insects.
• Interrupted Intimacy: Joe calls Chen to tell the latter about the possibility of developing a Semblance, only for Chen's daughter to pick up the scroll. When asked to get her father, she does so after a moment of hesitation. It becomes clear why when Chen and his wife take the call.
  There was the sound of someone frantically descending stairs, followed by a jostling as someone picked up the scroll. It was Chen, dressed in the Goku uniform that my duplicate had made for him.
  Well, the lower half of the Goku uniform. And it was a testament to the effects of even emulated life fibers that Chen was sporting a six pack like an Olympic athlete. He looked both relieved and embarrassed to see me. In the background I saw a woman descend the stairs wearing the jacket of Chen's costume and apparently nothing else.
• Invocation: Joe has one for when he uses High Thaumaturgy.
  “I stand within the dream of shadows to be made real."
  "Creations not wrought by the hand of man."
  "Brought forth from the light of stars and the fire of heaven."
  "Attuned and impermanent, for purpose and task I call you forth."
  "Gradation Air!"
• Irony:
  • Shadow Stalker left the Forsberg Gallery because she wanted to get some action. If she had stayed, she could have gotten what she wanted thanks to March and Oni Lee attacking the Forsberg Gallery.
  • The PRT is considering removing the Master designation from Apeiron after he gets access to tech that can Master people.
  • Accord likes the fact that Apeiron's creations can give him peace of mind, something that Apeiron himself will never have thanks to the Celestial Forge and all it gives him.
  • Lung thinks that Apeiron is arrogant, and that only the Endbringers are truly stronger than the former. Apeiron can actually, potentially, take down Endbringers, and sees Lung himself as the least important member of the ABB capes to take down.
  • Bakuda is worried that Apeiron would reveal that he already defeated Lung on his own, as that would have an effect on the ABB's reputation. Not only does Apeiron not know he's already defeated Lung, he wouldn't even care much if he did.
  • People who try to voice out the possibility that the blackout area is due to Minovsky particles are mocked, but that's exactly the reason.
  • Chen treats the equipment he was given as something monumental, but Fleet notes that they aren't actually that impressive, at least by Apeiron's standards.
    The man appeared to be treating the items with considerable reverence, taking a moment to fully assess the combination of enhanced clothing, scarf, and variable weaponry. All together it wasn’t particularly impressive.
  • Just as Aisha is reassuring Chen that Apeiron unlocking the latter's Aura doesn't involve trading or messing around with souls, Fleet thinks of the literal jars full of souls that they received from Hell.
  • Leet's Magnum Opus is implied to be a virtual world. However, before he even gets to finish creating it and use it against Apeiron, the latter (or rather his duplicates) creates one of his own.
  • Armsmaster's theory on Apeiron's powers becomes true after Joe gets those powers.
  • When Aisha learns of Tybalt's world, she says: "It has a society of helper cats. There could be man-eating monsters around every corner and it would still be worth visiting." This is indeed the case with the world Tybalt's from.
  • Blasto with Lost Garden will be seen as a massive threat, but Blasto doesn't even want to be with them.
  • The Merchants are worried about the fact that one of their own hurt Khepri because of how Apeiron may react. He doesn't even know about the fight.
  • The Butcher bragging about having multiple short lifetimes worth of experience fails to impress Apeiron due to the fact that he has experienced more and much longer lifetimes.
  • From the outside, the Undersiders look like up and coming villains who have it all figured out. In truth, they are barely holding things together.
  • As part of their reparations, the E88 offer to forgive Bitch attacking one of their dog fighting rings and stop holding them altogether. Although this results in a massive boost in reputation for the Undersiders, something that Grue in particular wants, it came at the cost of losing out at a major payday that would've been enough for him to to shut down his mother’s interference with Aisha.
  • Blasto and Lauren find having to be the responsible adults a complete reversal from how they used to be.
  • If Joe didn't have Character Development, he would have gotten his Semblance sooner.
  • The fact that Alec has the most messed up background helps him realize that the Undersiders' situation is messed up.
• Irrational Hatred:
  • Downplayed. Armsmaster is irritated with Taylor despite how illogical it is.
  • Vista has this for Apeiron, as she blames him for all the things that have been going wrong in her life lately. Once he starts interacting more with the public, it'll be harder for her to keep hating him.
    • The author later explains that if she didn't have this, she'd have to admit that the problem is with the PRT, the Protectorate, and the Wards program.
• It Only Works Once: Joe will not be taking another hit like the Sting attack the ABB launched at him in the future.
  • The author later explains the new countermeasures that Joe has prepared for similar attacks.
• It's All About Me: Downplayed. Vicky has a tendency to focus on herself. Meeting the Fragile One will actually help her develop positively even with this trait.
  • Lord Roustabout later states that most capes have this mindset due to thinking that they are the protagonist of their story.
• It's All My Fault:
  • After reading the transcripts of Armsmaster's interrogation of Panacea, Kid Win blames himself for the disaster that was the bank heist and its aftermath.
    When he read the transcripts he saw it. Apeiron called him out specifically. How he escalated things, how he was betting the Undersiders wouldn’t hurt their hostages even when he was deploying an A-class weapon against them. That they cared more about civilian lives than he did.
  • Vicky blames herself for Apeiron not reaching out to heroes.
  • Manpower blames himself for New Wave imploding at the worst possible time due to his affair with Brandish being revealed, as well as his (incorrect) suspicions of Vicky being his biological daughter.
• It's Personal: Kaiser plans on fighting the Teeth after they return to Brockton Bay because the Butcher killed his first wife.
• I've Come Too Far: Leet doesn't see a way out for himself and has decided to simply finish his final project and keep Bakuda from dragging him and Uber down in a blaze of glory before then.
• Joke and Receive: When Regent jokingly asks if Apeiron's motoroid is powered by Hell, the Undersiders aren't exactly relieved when the latter responds with: “Well, it’s not exactly Hell.”
• Just a Kid: Averted. Joe treats and takes Aisha seriously, something she appreciates.
• Kaleidoscope Hair: Joe can change the color and shape of his hair through various means.
• Keystone Army: Without Lung, there would be no ABB. As such, March has no plans to get rid of him.
  • More detail is given on why Lung is essential to the ABB's exsitence.
  • As a result of this people in-universe are more concerned about Apeiron defeating Lung rather than March, even after they realize that March is a genuine threat.
• Kid Hero: Deconstructed. The story shows just how messed up being a kid or teen with powers would be through the Wards of Brockton Bay.
• Kinda Busy Here: Aisha calls Joe in Chapter 38 as he is getting his implant upgraded. One of his duplicates tells her as such and to just wait for "Joe Prime" to call her back when he's done.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • The standard operating procedure most people would have to a member of the Celestial Forge showing up is to immediately retreat.
  • Alec is the only member of the Undersiders who acknowledges that they are in over their heads, which is why he's willing to talk to Joe about what they're doing.
• Laser Blade: At least one of Joe's mobile suits is equipped with a beam saber. He develops his own after studying the tech that he has. He later gets a Beam Katana.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Thanks to the control and power boost Aisha gets from Ren and the striker respectively, she can now do this better than she ever did in canon.
• The Last Straw: Joe's actions just set off the powder keg that was Brockton Bay before anyone could take advantage of it.
  • This is also what happened to Missy's personal life, and she can't use her usual coping methods thanks to the Youth Guard.
• Lava Surfing: This is one of the things that Joe does to unwind. Tetra and Garment also join in on the fun.
• Left the Background Music On: One of Joe's powers gives him the ability to trigger a guitar riff or a few chords of heavy metal music whenever he does something awesome. It will frustrate people who try to look for where the sound is coming from.
  • It's later said that Joe's theme music will depend on the powers at play.
• Life Energy: The amber that Joe gets from the Rubbery Men actually accumulates this as it is passed around.
  The amber wasn't just designed to collect lifeforce. It was a tool. A capacitor gathering power to be used in eldritch arts that warped the nature of life itself. The energy it collected was tiny, unnoticeable, but continuous.
• Like Parent, Like Child: The various A.I.s that Joe makes each take after part of his personality.
  • One poster lists the similarities.
• Literal Change of Heart: In order to heal Joe after his big fight with the ABB, his duplicates remove his heart and replace it with one made using various perks.
  • Lord Roustabout gives an expanded explanation on how the heart was made and some of the benefits it brings. However, it will take a while for Joe to properly test everything it can do.
• Little Bit Beastly: As a result of getting Striker Artificer Toolkit Joe also gets the ability to use the magic of Strikers, which comes with the side effect of gaining the characteristics of your familiar. In Joe's case, it would be the ears and tail of a lycaenops.
  • Tybalt and Aisha get the features of an eagle and tapir respectively.
• Living Clothes: Joe has two. The Life Fibers from Kill la Kill, and Garment, a pair of sentient gloves.
• Locked into Strangeness: Joe has a lock of bright red hair after being separated from Tetra.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Joe doesn't know Taylor was the one to take down Lung.
  • Amy remains mostly unaware of the status of the city and more since being put in containment until her cousin Crystal secretly visits her in Chapter 95.2 to bring her up to speed.
• Logical Weakness: Though Survey could hack virtually any computer and system, she needs to be aware of its existence in order to do this.
• LOL, 69: The Case involving parahumans getting a boost in power from exposure to portals to Shardspace gets the unfortunate numbering of Case 69.
  • The name will go public, and people aren't looking forward to that happening.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: In Chapter 32, Joe reveals that he got a Grapnel-Lantern Shield called Trauma from Variable Weapons. It's a lantern shield that comes with a grapple gun fitted with razor wire and can fire dust crystals.
  • He will later be able to upgrade this to form other weapons.
• Mad Scientist: Those with the understanding of the concept believe the theory that Apeiron is this kind of tinker.
  • This belief becomes more widespread after the broadcast of the big battle against the ABB is released.
  • People think this because it's the only thing they could think of that could explain how quickly Apeiron improves.
• Magic Mirror: Joe will eventually create a traditional magic mirror for Survey which will be a major improvement over her current mirror.
• Magic Wand: Joe gets one from Setup Wizard. It also has a level of intelligence and cares for Joe.
  I didn’t think the wand was sapient, but there was at least an emotional intelligence there. A connection existed between us, and it cared about me.
  • He'll now keep it with him at all times after he improves it so that it can change shape, among other new functions.
• Magitek: Joe has access to different versions of this, each with their own unique advantages.
• Magnum Opus: Leet's is the Game Grid. He's basically burning out his power to make it so he's going to make it as good as possible.
  • Considering how much she means to him, Apeiron throws every power he has at Tetra's Kamui procedure. Most of the time he sees it as over extravagance. For this he won't accept anything less than his absolute best.
• Manipulative Bitch: Tattletale tries to manipulate everyone around her to get out from under Coil's thumb. Unfortunately, her attempts aren't entirely successful, no thanks in small part to Apeiron. Apeiron is fully aware of her tendencies and isn't entirely pleased about it, as he expresses in Chapter 51.
  Tattletale liked being the smartest person in the room, the puppet master, the person in control. It wasn't something I particularly enjoyed dealing with, too many bad associations, but my passenger seemed to relish it.
• Man of Kryptonite: Apeiron being able to get more powers allows him to keep March off balance.
• Mask of Confidence: Part of the reason Khepri is rumored to be a former model is because Taylor is much more confident when acting as a cape.
• Meaningful Name: Joe chooses Apeiron as his cape name. It is Greek and has multiple meanings: unlimited, boundless, infinite, and indefinite. This perfectly matches how he has more powers that he can get and that what he creates can always be improved.
• Mecha-Mooks: Joe is actively trying to avoid this, as he knows that it will be raising a big red flag for the PRT and the Protectorate.
  • He eventually gets this in the form of Titans. He can upgrade them or make new models for them, and even summon them directly from the Workshop.
  • Miniaturization leads to even more possibilities for upgrades.
• Mechanical Lifeforms: Joe gets this in the form of a robotic unicorn, sabretooth tiger, and a dragon thanks to Make A Wish. As a bonus, Pre-existing Variations?! turns them into Zoids. This is a little weird for Joe, as he has memories of being in those bodies.
• Mech vs. Beast: Happens in the big fight against the ABB. On one side are one of Joe's mobile suits piloted by a duplicate, one of Dragon's mechs, and Joe. On the other is Lung, who's been ramped up higher than he has ever been before.
• Merging Machine: Hybridization allows Joe to combine two different objects into one that has the abilities of both.
• Min-Maxing: Fleet, Survey, and the Matrix all do this with alchemy: Survey with comprehension, Fleet with deconstruction, and the Matrix with construction.
• Minored In Ass Kicking: Garment is much more capable in combat than she first appears.
• Mirror Character:
  • Both Joe and Piggot let problems pile up and have to deal with the fallout of doing so.
  • One poster points out that Joe and Vicky are also similar, especially after Vicky communicates with the Fragile One.
• Mirror Match: In order to practice using his various powers and tech in live combat, Joe fights both of his duplicates at once.
• Mistaken for Gay: Thanks to Alec purposefully misleading them, the guys at the gym think he's Brian's secret boyfriend.
  Running into Brian's old gym buddies on Thursday night had been hilarious, even considering the severity of the events around them. The way Brian awkwardly stuttered his way through explanations while Alec exposited on their fake history had been the most fun Alec had had since that nightmare at the storage yard.
  Between their apparent closeness, Brian's nervousness, and the fact that the group hadn't heard anything about him before, Alec was pretty sure a few of those guys had suspicions about the real nature of his relationship with Brian. Not supervillain suspicions, but suspicions for the more conventional reason why people sneak around and hide large parts of their lives.
  Of course, he would never deign to lie about such a thing, or make any statements confirming or denying such suspicions. Demurely avoiding the topic when it had been hinted at was definitely the right thing to do. If they happened to come to their own conclusions about why Brian and Alec were together in the middle of the night, well, that was hardly his fault.
• Mistaken for Romance:
  • Due to Apeiron's actions and choice of words, some people think he's in a relationship with Khepri.
  • Dragon's chipper attitude towards Apeiron, as well as calling him a scoundrel, makes it seem like she's attracted to him.
    • This is not helped by Apeiron and Dragon having emotionally charged interactions due to Dragon's hope that Apeiron can free her.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: Joe gained the ability to effectively make these after getting Variable Weapons.
• More Dakka: The Laboratorium considers anything that doesn't employ this to be sacrilege.
• Morph Weapon: Joe can make these, especially after unlocking how to create Variable Weapons, allowing him to make weapons that can seamlessly transform mid-combat, as well as make any weapon that isn't already a gun, also a gun.
• Mundane Utility:
  • March uses her super-timing power to take a cake at Garment's official presentation at the gym without being seen.
  • Joe does this all the time, since he has to deal with his powers constantly.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Leet has this reaction after finally getting the respect he's been trying to get and seeing March's manipulations for what they are.
• My Skull Runneth Over: Joe's power is pretty straightforward about this happening to him, but he considers it a fine trade for the conflict drives that most Parahumans have. However, he makes sure to watch how it is affecting his thought processes.
• My Suit Is Also Super: Joe's clothes are affected by his various perks, as are a lot of the clothes he could create.
• Mythology Gag: When Joe is thinking of what the Undersiders will do after the Evil Power Vacuum, he finds the possibility of them becoming teenage warlords ridiculous. This is exactly what happened in canon.
  I honestly couldn't see them trying to hold territory or run a gang. The idea of teenage warlords seemed ridiculous, but absurdity and parahuman abilities seemed to go hand in hand.
• Named Weapons: One of Joe's powers allows him to Name a creation, greatly enhancing its abilities.
  • Lord Roustabout later gives more details on how this works.
• Nanomachines: Joe creates these for various purposes, usually for construction or healing purposes. He eventually creates an AI whose main purpose is the control of nanobots.
  • If Joe ever starts giving powers, turning people into EVOs would be one way of doing so.
  • Lord Roustabout later explains the limitations of nanites.
• Necromancer: Tybalt is one, though only in specific circumstances.
  Ares's dominion over the dead wasn't universal. It was limited to those that fell in his domain. The dead of the battlefield, soldiers' deaths in particular, were his purview.
• Nerves of Steel: Dr. Campbell is able to maintain his calm after Joe reveals that he can block out the Simurgh and gives a clearer explanation of how his powers work.
• Never Be Hurt Again: After being ambushed by March, Joe has taken every possible precaution that he can to make sure it could never happen again.
• Never Learned to Read: Rachel either can't read or has difficulty when reading. Chapter 54 reveals that she uses the watch that Joe gave her to read so that she can get more information.
  Alec: Rachel has the watch read for her. She doesn't like people seeing it, but she uses it for nearly everything.
• Never My Fault: The PRT ENE constantly blaming Apeiron for their troubles is starting to look like this to the other PRT branches.
  • The author explains that the PRT blamed Apeiron as the alternative was to look incompetent.
  • Piggot and Armsmaster will do this in regards to Apeiron, which is why the latter has issues with working with the local Protectorate and PRT.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Mildly. The Celestial Forge has a habit of giving Joe access to a new ability that is somewhat pertinent to whatever it is he's doing at that given moment. Word of God is that any time this happens, it's a complete coincidence.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Joe tries to help out the heroes by passing information to Panacea. All it does is cast suspicion on himself and Tattletale, destroy New Wave, and get Panacea in Master/Stranger protocols in the middle of the ABB's bombing spree.
    • Not to mention that it brought Flechette, and thus March, to the city, making the situation that much worse.
    • This is also not helped by Armsmaster making things worse by interrogating Panacea and leaking the results to get at Piggot, not realizing the other implications it would bring.
  • Tattletale thinks the best way to get Bakuda rattled is by pushing her trigger event. Unbeknownst to her, but not to Apeiron, this is actually a bad thing, as this will make her already dangerous power even more volatile.
  • Part of the reason of how the PRT reacted to Joe was Piggot trying to force Joe to join the Protectorate with strongarm tactics, which just resulted in alienating him from the local branch.
    • The author explains that this is because she enjoys having a position of power when dealing with anyone, especially capes. She is also slow to adapt and usually just doubles down on her approach.
  • Alchemy is not a Parahuman ability and therefore can technically be performed by anybody with the intelligence for it, which potentially becomes a big problem when Victor learns it off of Aisha when The Celestial Forge decide to attend Somer's Rock.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: As a spirit of fashion, combined with the various buffs that Joe has that can boost her, Garment basically has this. Unfortunately, March's Striker power proves too much even for this.
  • Later, thanks to various perks, Joe becomes basically indestructible.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: As a result of Apeiron helping remove the cranial bombs from the ABB conscripts, they are taken in by the PRT for suspicion of being Mastered.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Tybalt, a Felyne, becomes this for Joe after he arrives.
• No-Sell:
  • Garment is the best person to handle Aisha thanks to a combination of determination and immunity to the latter's stranger power.
  • After Joe gains pyrokinesis, all attempts to use heat or fire against him will do nothing at best, or give him ammunition at worst. Lung learns this the hard way.
  • Thanks to Joe vowing to never be ambushed again, Coil has no chance of taking him down no matter how many times he tries.
  • Mental Fortress can provide Joe an immunity to any possible expression of a mind affecting ability, meaning all master and stranger powers. However, he needs to work on it to get the power that far.
    • It's later explained that this allows him to make decisions without being steered by others.
  • Joe's Semblance, Avoidance, makes attacks go right through him when he ignores them.
  • Dragon has no chance of tracking Fleet or Survey when they're online.
  • Joe can't be affected by Panacea's power after getting Cyborg Hindu Godbody.
• No Social Skills: Joe is terrible at reading other people's moods when he is talking to them. As such, he tends to misunderstand their reactions or feelings unless it is stated out loud.
  • The author later expands on the problems Joe has with socializing.
  • After getting Aphrodite's blessing, Joe now has enough social skills to recognize when someone was checking him out and the nature of the appreciation of beauty.
  • Even without his perks, Joe isn't that bad at interpersonal skills. It's just confidence issues and worrying, and that's less of an issue now thanks to the perks.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: As a result of the big fight with the ABB, the old status quo is gone forever.
• Not Quite Dead: The final fight against the ABB has this happen to both Joe and March. The former gets better; the latter, not so much.
• Not Quite Flight: Joe can suspend himself in the air using his Teigu.
  It wasn't 'flight' in the sense of moving freely through open space. Instead, it was extremely controlled and precise movement. My Teigu allowed me to anchor myself to invisible lines of aether that formed the background structure of the universe. Support fibers woven through the very fabric of space. It was a trait taken from the creature the gauntlet had been turned into. When I hung in the open air I didn't bob or sway with the force of the wind. I was braced against an invisible network that allowed more precision and control of my placement in space than any other method of flight available to me.
• Not So Similar: Discussed between Uppercrust and Piggot. Both are leaders who are trying to keep things stable in spite of their poor health. However, while the former is desperately trying to find a way to heal his condition, Piggot has had access to such a method for years and never taken it, be it due to her pride or prejudice against parahumans. This causes Uppercrust to deeply dislike Piggot, for not doing what he would in a heartbeat if given the opportunity.
  "There are a thousand reasons you could have for choosing, CHOOSING, to avoid a cure for your condition. Some of us don’t have that luxury. You can justify yourself to whoever decides to pursue the matter… But I see no reason to extend sympathy, or condone any obstruction to those who are seeking recovery."
• Not What It Looks Like: During a meeting with various individuals who could help Parian with her business, she reacts badly upon hearing that the Elite are thinking of setting up in Brockton Bay. Unfortunately, because Uppercrust was talking about building a gay bar, almost everyone in the room assumes her reaction was due to homophobia and she's unable to dissuade that assumption.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Clockblocker may act like a fool, but he's actually smarter and more observant than people think. This is best shown when he leads the Wards in a defensive struggle against March and Oni Lee.
  People didn’t think he paid enough attention to really guard what they said around him. The full face mask helped as well, as people never were sure what he was focused on.
• Oblivious to His Own Description: Lung looks down on Apeiron, dismissing him as arrogant and drunk on his perceived power. In reality, Lung is the one who dramatically overestimates his own abilities, honestly thinking that only the Endbringers and Scion are potentially stronger than him.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Alec is more perceptive than his indifferent attitude would have one believe.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Carol Dallon is spectacularly unhelpful in the matter of Amy's Master/Stranger confinement. From the transcripts it's almost a Running Gag over how many times the same lines are repeated (e.g. "Director Piggot reminds Mrs. Dallon that the conference is not a formal hearing"). And all because it would require Carol to admit that she's got it all horribly wrong, which is something that she will never do.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Aside from Lava Surfing, other recreational activities that Joe partakes in includes 3D billiards Quidditch, Volcano downhill freestyle, and the two games of 3 on 3 mech basketball.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Joe's passenger, and by extension Joe himself, has this reaction when it finally learns that March is in Brockton Bay.
  • Scrub reacted this way when he saw that he was up against Khepri.
  • The various factions in Brockton Bay react this way to seeing Apeiron with a team, especially after hearing/seeing/realizing some of what they can do.
  • Purity reacts this way for a moment when she realizes that Apeiron can see through the light she emits and make eye contact, meaning he can see her unmasked face.
• Old Shame: An In-Universe example with the display case, which shows some of Joe's old and sloppy work.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Averted. Joe will have a more grounded level of intelligence.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten:
  • Lisa will never live down her assurance that she could handle Joe.
  • Joe has a lot of things that he'll never live down. He may eventually just give up on controlling his reputation.
• One Degree of Separation: It turns out that part of what caused Joe to trigger was the death of his favorite teacher, Professor Hebert.
  • The author later comments on this in regards to Brockton Bay in general.
• One-Hit Kill: In-Universe, these are called ‘All or Nothing’ powers, or annihilator capes. Unfortunately for Joe, March is one such cape.
  • Joe is the one dealing this to March once he gets a Heroic Second Wind.
  • Joe can deal with some versions of this.
• One-Man Army: With his duplicates, motoroids, and drones, Apeiron can take on an entire team of capes on his own. He demonstrates this when he goes all out against the ABB in their final engagement.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: This is why Lung had Uber and Leet out of the city when the ABB make their big move.
• Only Sane Man:
  • Leet eventually becomes this for the ABB.
  • Alec unhappily finds that he's turning into this for the Undersiders after the team has a meeting following the summit at Somer's Rock.
    • The author later explains why he's doing this despite his distaste for taking the role.
  • Similarly to Alec, Aisha finds that she's the grounding force for the Celestial Forge, and for Joe in particular.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Vicky notes that Clockblocker being serious about being the leader is a sign that things are really going sideways.
  She still couldn’t get used to seeing Dennis like that. It should be comforting to know he was taking his responsibilities seriously, but that wasn’t what was sticking with her. Seeing the shift from irreverent joker to solemn leader, more than anything else, drove the severity of the situation straight home.
• Open Secret: The fact that Apeiron and Garment are connected will end up becoming this.
  • Part of what will give it away is the fact that both use some kind of exotic material for clothing.
• Original Character:
  • The author created Garment from a power that provided a fashion expert with clothing related telekinesis.
  • The Merchants have a new member in Slush.
  • Lord Roustabout gives some explanations for why he created some of his Original Characters.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Averted. Although they do annoy him sometimes, Joe genuinely likes his duplicates.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: One of Joe's perks ends up bringing Alma to Earth Bet.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: In addition to Joe becoming a Gigas, he might have a connection to the Norse giants.
• Our Souls Are Different: Lord Roustabout explains how souls work in this fic.
  • More details on how Joe can work with souls are given.
  • He later explains how using souls for power works.
  • Joe actually has a little trouble due to having various powers which manipulate souls in different ways.
  • It's possible for Joe to give the souls bodies or put them in a pseudo-afterlife.
  • Souls don't have a fixed amount in this story.
• Our Titans Are Different: Joe effectively becomes a Titan after getting Titan's Blood.
• Our Werebeasts Are Different: The power Joe gets from Bloody Roar gives him the ability to turn into a wereinostrancevia.
  • The author explains why he chose this specific animal.
  • Joe later gains the ability to transform into what his duplicates call a Cthulhu Werewolf thanks to Hunter.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Celestial Forge is this, as it isn't one of the passengers given by the Entities. As such, the way it operates is completely different from other powers. This turns Joe into a walking Sechen range, as the shards in parahumans will release their restrictions in order to get more data from him.
  • This makes Joe himself one of these for capes.
  • The various gangs of Brockton Bay finally realize that Apeiron is this at the summit.
  • People are unable to figure out Apeiron's limitations because, even with him keeping the most outrageous stuff under wraps, it's still off the scale.
  • People in authority trying to contextualize Apeiron is what led to the comparison between him and Goddess.
  • Victor is completely unprepared to deal with something like Truth.
    • Other people will also be unprepared for Truth.
  • Thinkers will have a hard time analyzing Alma because psionics are out of context and impossible for Shards and Entities to model.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Aisha is learning very quickly when it comes to transmutation. However, she is easily outclassed by the other members of the Workshop Crew.
• Paper Talisman: Joe gains the ability to make these after getting Talisman Trained.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Apeiron has a very diverse and ever-growing list of ways to wrought destruction beyond any scale. Each member of Celstial Forge also counts, in their own unique way.
• Perception Filter:
  • Aisha's power does this to everyone who knows/sees her. This is a problem, as this means she is unable to interact with anyone while her power is active.
    • Joe gets around this by using his neural interface to protect his memories of her. However, he has to continually do this in order to protect new memories of Aisha.
  • Joe gives Dr. Campbell a tie clip that will help divert attention if someone or something would come after him with hostile intent.
  • All I Know Is That Dyke Can Play causes people to ignore the fact that Tybalt's a bipedal cat.
    • This will cause a disconnect between those who are familiar with him and those who aren't.
    • There is no chance of anyone bypassing this power.
    • Lord Roustabout later gives a simpler explanation for what this power does.
    • Tybalt is able to toggle the power on and off and also limit it to certain features.
    • Since this power is fiat backed, it can cause people to make large stretches of logic.
    • However, even this has its limits.
    • Tybalt gets another layer of this thanks to Just Another Grunt.
    • This power doesn't prevent people from seeing a link between Tybalt Kittson to Kataklyzein.
  • Thanks to Paxton Fettel, no one will think that Apeiron's naming sense is too weird.
• The Perfectionist: Joe has this problem with his creations.
  • This problem is later expanded upon.
  • This is why Joe is beating himself up about not perfectly defeating the ABB.
  • He eventually gets over this.
  • Both Survey and the Matrix have shades of this.
• Playing Both Sides: Tattletale is doing this with Coil and Apeiron.
• Playing with Fire:
  • Joe gains pyrokinesis thanks to the perks Divine Child - Hephaestus and Fate Finds You Interesting.
    • The author later states that Joe being a pyrokinetic is why the Minor Blessing from Hestia is so significant to him.
    • Joe's divine pyrokinesis can be countered but not negated.
    • It's later stated that Joe's pyrokinesis is Triumvirate level.
  • Tybalt is able to use the flames of war.
    The roiling fire that coated the spearheads of the weapon and burned within the Felyne's eyes were thick, clawing, sulfurous things. The flames of burned corpses, cauterized wounds, and siege weapons. It was the flame or gunpowder, firearms, and sabotage. Fire that existed primarily to consume.
• Pocket Dimension: Joe has one that comes from his power and acts as his workshop. It also sometimes gets additions thanks to his power.
  • It's capabilities and limitations are given by Lord Roustabout.
  • As of Chapter 93, it expands to be about the size of Texas.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Joe's lack of experience in interpersonal communication results in a large amount of misunderstandings about him, making things more difficult for him over time.
    • He later wants to avert this as much as possible to make things easier.
  • During the black out, both Rachel and Taylor fight the gangs without telling the other Undersiders. This leads to an argument after the summit at Somer's Rock due to this information being important and potentially leading to retaliatory strikes against the Undersiders.
  • This is a big problem for Sabah since before she even triggered.
  • Alec is actively defying this trope by calling Joe to ensure that he won't get any misinformation from Lisa.
  • Both Parian and Garment's teams are assuming that the other didn’t understand the logistics of an event like the charity event the latter is setting up.
• Positive Friend Influence: Joe's support network helps him stay healthy mentally.
• Power Crutch: Joe makes one for Aisha in the shape of a hairclip.
• Powered Armor:
  • Joe builds one that is significantly better than any other in the series and triples as his Cool Bike and a Transforming Mecha. Kid Win himself has stated that what Joe created is very difficult for tinkers.
  • Joe builds one for Aisha, as she needs it more. It is complete and given to her by Chapter 39.
    • It is later specified that the armor will be defensive, and not lethal, though it will still make her one of the most dangerous people in the city.
    • In addition to providing protection and weaponry, it also boosts her powers, allowing it to affect technology as well as it can memories.
  • Joe later gets one that comes from Mega Man Zero.
• Power Glows: Joe glows red as a result of Tetra being fused to his body.
• Power Incontinence:
  • Joe has no control over what power he'll get from the Celestial Forge. He uses this to his advantage, as that means that Thinkers can't predict what he'll do if he bases his actions on what new power he gets.
    • A bigger problem is the fact that some of his powers can't be turned off. As such, he sometimes has to work around the many powers he has that affects basically anything he does.
    • Lord Roustabout later explains how some of Joe's non-optional powers affect the things he creates.
    • The author explains why this won't be going away.
  • Aisha has difficulty controlling her power, needing to concentrate to make sure people remember she exists. Joe fixes this for her by creating a hairclip that can help her regulate her power.
  • Apeiron and Survey reveal that Victor's power is always active, meaning that he slightly affects the minds of everyone around him, including the rest of the E88.
• Power Misidentification:
  • Joe was initially tagged as a Shaker by the PRT, partially due to the fact that his first recovered creations, the knives he gave the Undersiders, didn't seem like tinker tech, and partially because Armsmaster didn't want to believe that there is a new tinker that can already make tinker tech better than himself.
    • Later, people come to believe that he is a Mad Scientist who specializes in messing with powers. Manpower's interlude show a justification for this.
  • Kid Win comes to the incorrect conclusion that he has a garbage specialty. It will be sorted out when he talks to someone about his work.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Due to knowing how bad of an idea it is, as well as already having his hands full dealing with March, Coil will not resort to kidnapping Joe's family if he finds out Apeiron's identity.
  • Even if Heartbreaker knew about how beautiful Survey is, he wouldn't risk trying to capture her.
• Prescience by Analysis: In addition to Survey, Fleet can also do this, though at a smaller scale.
  Fleet: (asked if Survey is telling him what he's telling Rachel) No. She's not good at this kind of thing.
  Rachel: What, seeing the future?
  Fleet: Seeing the present and considering the future. Or considering a specific future. In any system you have components, responses, and results. Technically there are unlimited results, but only so many paths make sense. The more you know, the better you can understand the landscape and the paths people will take. You have to know what to focus on and what to ignore. Survey likes to know everything, which is good, but not always helpful.
  Rachel: But it's the same, right? You can see the future?
  Fleet: I can make predictions based on information. More information makes it easier. Longer timeframes make it harder. It's like navigating through fog. More information can make it better, and you can only see so far.
• Pride: Coil thinking he has a good read on Apeiron is partially due to Joe's passenger's advice, and partially due to this.
• Pride Before a Fall: Victor is setting himself up for this due to working on performing human transmutation.
• The Prima Donna: Garment. Extremely theatrical for a disembodied pair of gloves, takes offense at Joe's wardrobe and at quite a lot of his tinkering until he can clean up the aesthetics.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • Joe does everything in his power to not draw the attention of the Simurgh. This is because if he did, she would turn him into a danger to humanity worse than the Slaugherhouse 9 could ever dream of becoming.
  • Bakuda is making sure that she never shows up in public as she is terrified of being puppeted by Regent.
  • Uppercrust always makes sure the most recent parahuman in his group to trigger is near him as much as possible, just in case the theory that Thinkers, including the Simurgh, are unable to predict triggers and the results of said triggering. He's completely correct, and this most likely contributes to his continued survival despite assassination attempts from both the Endbringer and Sphere.
• Psychic Powers:
  • Joe can become an esper. This will give him the ability to perform advanced calculations specializing in they psychic ability he will get from this.
  • Joe can also get psionics, though he'll need to go through a lot of training in order to access it.
    • It will take Joe a while to realize that psionics mess with precogs.
  • In Chapter 57, Joe gets the psionic ability to understand machines and items he touches.
  • In Chapter 88, Joe gets Synchronicity Event and all the psychic powers it brings.
• Psychopomp: Joe will effectively be this for his Artificial Afterlife and both souls and the afterlife in general.
• Punny Name: Tybalt chose Kataklyzein as his cape name.
  Kataklyzein, chosen as an alternate spelling of Cataclysm. Apparently advantageous from a branding perspective, but also a not inaccurate descriptor of Tybalt's abilities.

R-Y

• Ramming Always Works: This is done to finally take down Lung; Fleet drives a motoroid at him at FTL speed.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The author is making the Youth Guard like this.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Carol Dallon receives one from her younger brother Mike, the former Lightstar who rarely appears in Worm fanfics. He works with the PRT, and has been given Youth Guard backing in talking to Amy as part of her Master/Stranger protocols. Mike wastes no time in telling Carol how much she has screwed things up, that it's all going to go public and that there's nothing she can do about it. He even says that he and Jess would have made better parents for Amy.
• Red Baron: Apeiron gets one thanks to A Thing About Names: The Enigmatic Artificer. It makes it so that everyone who knows about Apeiron refers to him by that title. It only works if you know of Apeiron, and no imposter will have it work for them.
• Replacement Goldfish: Dr. Campbell, Joe's therapist, asks if the latter's new friend (Garment) is this to Sabah due to the similarities he noticed from how Joe described his new friend.
• Required Secondary Powers: Zig-Zagged. The powers that Joe gets from the Celestial Forge sometimes lets him use the powers immediately with no problems. At other times, it gives him something that he can't utilize effectively, i.e: it may give him the ability to make and easily maintain a Cool Bike, but it does nothing about the fact that Joe doesn't know how ride a bike in the first place, meaning he has to learn how the hard way.
• Revenge Before Reason: Lung wants to beat Apeiron enough that he's okaying some of the things that March is doing that he wouldn't otherwise.
• Ridiculously Fast Construction: Joe can do this thanks to the multitude of speed perks he gains.
  • Details on just how fast he could become are given.
  • This has unconventional effects if the construction itself is unconventional, like projection or alchemy.
  • As of Chapter 84, he can build things in 1/250th of a second (for a more easily appreciable scale what would take a year he can do in a day and half) and possibly rebuild a city faster than an Endbringer could destroy it.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Uppercrust suggests that the reason Parian was upset about him mentioning opening an LGBT bar in Brockton Bay is because of the Elite's tendency to force independent capes into the organization, which is correct... but bases it on his idea that Parian is in love with Sabah.
• Robot Me: After getting Mechanical Genius, Joe gets the ability to create realistic robotic duplicates.
• Rocket-Powered Weapon: One of the things that Joe gets from the Celestial Forge is a rocket hammer.
• Rule of Cool: Thanks to Cuh-Ray-Zee!, Joe can now do things that should be impossible simply by training hard enough.
• Runic Magic: Joe gains the ability to use Norse runes.
  • It's later said that with this he would be able to create powerful weapons much easier.
  • It's later explained that Joe uses magic runes from Magic: Enchanting to emulate the properties of magic weapons.
  • The standout thing that Joe can do with runes is emulate Flechette or March’s power on a reasonable timeframe.
• Running Gag:
  • Once Joe obtains the Veritech, everything in The Laboratorium constantly bombards him with increasingly elaborate requests for information as to which Knightly House it belongs to, which just confuses him because as far as he's aware it doesn't belong to any.
  • People keep thinking that they've got a valid theory on Apeiron, only for him to later get a power that proves their theory right after they thought it up.
  • "Barbarian Chic" is a regularly used descriptor of Garment's attempts to dress Joe is as little as decency allows. In a similar vein any reference to Striker Units will almost certainly take the opportunity note the obligatory lack of pants.
• Sad Clown: Assault is like this a bit.
• Secret Identity: Fleet and Survey eventually decide to get one. Survey is Delphine Mertens, a lawyer who assists Garment with her store, while Fleet is Jake Clark, Garment's chauffeur.
  • Tybalt gets one as well in Chapter 84: Tybalt Kittson, a man with experience in private security with purposeful gaps in his history in order to give an unspoken explanation for his particular set of skills.
  • After Tetra gains a human form, she also gets a false identity for herself: Tetra Mertens, younger sister of Delphine Mertens.
• Secret-Keeper:
  • Dr. Campbell becomes one for Joe in Chapter 55.
  • Chen learns of the existence of Joe's duplicates and keeps it to himself.
• Seemingly Profound Fool: Apeiron is seen as a master manipulator because his perks makes everything he does look like it was meticulously planned, when in actuality it was just done without that much thought.
• Seen It All: As one of the most experienced capes alive, Alexandria is not that fazed about the rumors of Apeiron being her and Hero's son.
  • Joe is getting used to all the crazy things the Celestial Forge is giving him.
• Seers: There are various precognitive powers in the story. Lord Roustabout explains how they work in the story and how they interact with Joe's powers.
  • Joe will be taking bolder moves now that he can create anti-divination items to block these kinds of powers.
• Selective Obliviousness: Joe seems to have trouble recognizing romantic undertones. He doesn't realize that what he said to Bakuda can be misconstrued as saying he's in a relationship with Khepri, or that people online are shipping Apeiron with Khepri until Aisha points it out to him.
  • He won't be like this anymore, though he’s not in the best place for pursuing a relationship at the moment.
• Self-Care Epiphany: Joe is taking care of his mental health so that he would be more prepared when he finally makes his move.
• Semi-Divine:
  • Joe's powers eventually make him a demigod, specifically the son of Hephaestus. How this affects his magic is later elaborated upon.
  • Tybalt, on the other hand, is a son of Ares. This gives him a host of abilities related to the god of war.
    • It's later explained that Tybalt's divine abilities mostly involve war and violent conflict in a general sense.
  • Fleet, Survey, and the Matrix later get a portion of Joe's divine authority copied after he shares his soul with them.
• Sharpened to a Single Atom: Joe's first commission is a bespoke set of knives for The Undersiders (and a baton just for Taylor) to take with them on the Bank Heist.
• Sherlock Scan: Accord's obsessive compulsive disorder allows him to recognize the gloves that Apeiron is wearing in a video as Garment. Combined with recognizing a dress Garment was wearing in her meeting with the Protectorate as something that was made with the help of a tinker, he is able to deduce that Apeiron and Garment have been working together before the Protectorate ever made their move.
  • He also knows that Boundless Music is connected to Apeiron.
• Ship Tease: At the charity fundraiser, after having an incredibly awkward reunion with Sabah (who he doesn't know is Parian), Joe bumps into an out of costume Crystal Pelham, who is making a guest appearance and witnessed the whole thing, sympathizes, and gets invited for a coffee the following morning. Joe isn't sure if he's misreading the situation while Aisha is positive that she is into him.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: As the situation in Brockton Bay gets worse, the comedic characters stop acting like clowns and actually show their true natures, whatever they may be.
• Showy Invincible Hero: Joe actually wants to show off what he can do, but is carefully moderating this with what he needs to do.
• Shrinking Violet: Joe is anxious in social situations and prefers to ignore them if possible. This is deconstructed, as this prevents him from fixing some problems while they're still manageable, leading to those problems being blown out of proportion, and ultimately making things even more difficult for himself.
  • This is why Joe is so unprepared for being in the spotlight.
• Sibling Rivalry: Survey and Tetra seem to have this relationship, with Fleet sometimes having to break them up.
  • The author later explains why this rivalry started.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: Apeiron's first attempt at creating his own nanite swarm using multiple exotic materials ends with the princely sum of four (with one failure). He immediately wonders if he can ever teach them to sing barbershop.
• Simpleminded Wisdom: Rachel isn't as concerned about Joe drawing Dragon's attention as the rest of the Undersiders (minus Regent) are because, as she puts it:
  “Joe beat Dragon last night, didn’t he?” She glanced at me and I gave her a nod. “So he’s stronger than Dragon. He can handle this.”
  • When Brian tries to bring up how powerful Dragon is, Rachel points out that Joe is powerful in his own right.
    “The healing. The robots. That sword thing. Fuck, all his weapons. He says he can take Dragon. What makes you think he can’t?”
• Sinister Surveillance: Subverted. Joe will use this to keep up with the villains in Brockton Bay. He will create it using magitech or fiat backed powers so that Dragon can't hack it.
• Situational Sword: Hera's blessing would work best if Joe was leading a proper team with workers and henchmen.
• Slave to PR: The PRT is this, with it doing everything they can to downplay their blunders while vilifying Apeiron as it conveniences them.
  • This is why Miss Militia was chauffeuring Garment.
• The Sleepless: Joe doesn't actually need to sleep anymore but will still do so, if only for his mental health.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Coil. Quoth The Butcher, "The man's overconfidence is a gift."
• Smarter Than You Look:
  • Aisha is more perceptive than she first appears.
    • The author later notes that Aisha can be observant and be a source of common sense.
    • More details on how intelligent she is are given.
  • Joe notes that Lung is smarter than he is given credit for.
    Lung was fighting smart. It wasn’t what you expected from someone generally known as a ‘rage dragon’, but it was well within his ability. Brutes weren’t actually dumb, and that went double for the ones who managed to become a gang leaders in control of a major portion of a large city.
• Smart People Play Chess: Referenced and deconstructed. Uppercrust reveals that various capes, mostly Thinkers, use chess as a metaphor or to show how smart they are so often that he's gotten a little sick of it.
  Uppercrust: I can safely say that any love I may have once had for the game did not survive my years in this industry. Certain things are expected of the leaders of cape organizations, particularly those that skirt the boundaries of the law on occasion. The number of petty masterminds who insist on conducting negotiations over a game, all while stretching chess metaphors to the breaking point…
• Smug Snake: Coil is overconfident due to having three thinker powers supporting him.
• Smug Super: Victor quickly becomes this after learning transmutation.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Joe feels more comfortable fighting villains than he is navigating social interactions.
  • It's later explained that Joe doesn't like social power plays.
• Soul Power: That Undefinable Thing gives Joe the ability to contain and utilize souls. He is understandably hesitant to use it unless absolutely necessary.
• Soul-Powered Engine: Joe can do this after getting That Undefinable Thing, though he wouldn't unless there is no other choice.
• Space Master: Fleet's Semblance, Bypass, gives him the ability to ensure that he always has space where he wants to go.
  Bypass. The ability to create routes free of obstacles. Effectively spatial corridors that 'bypassed' whatever was in the way. I wondered if it had any similarities to my own Avoidance ability, but Fleet's Semblance worked on a more tangible level, meaning he could provide routes for himself and other people.
  Frankly, it wasn't anything we couldn't accomplish with other powers or technology, though the effective creation of space where it was needed had helped in this specific situation. Plus, Semblances were personal. Apparently finding the perfect route was something foundational to Fleet's experience. It meant that he could use it more naturally and precisely than other technology based effects, and that wasn't considering what could be done with focuses or enhancement items.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Apeiron is this to March's plans.
  • The author later says that he is also throwing wrenches into the Simurgh's long term predictions left and right.
• Speak of the Devil: Vista is resorting to referring to Apeiron as "HIM" in her mind because calling him Mammon forces A Thing About Names to take effect. This is taking a severe mental effect on Vista.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Played with. No matter how hard she tries, even though she'll be able understand Felyne, Aisha will never be able to speak it fluently.
• The Speechless:
  • As a spirit of fashion inhabiting a pair of gloves, Garment is unable to speak. She communicates mostly using the body language of her form plus whatever clothes she is controlling at the time.
    • Garment can communicate with Tetra, but it's not the same as speaking.
    • My Fashion Sense is Tingling gives Joe an impeccable sense of fashion. This has a side effect of letting him communicate with Garment perfectly.
    • Survey is working on making a Fashion to English translator so that Garment can effectively communicate with others.
  • Similar to Garment, Tetra is unable to communicate with Joe due to being life fiber. Although, she is able to communicate with the AI.
    • Joe later gains the ability to actually speak with her after becoming a life fiber hybrid.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation:
  • After getting Magic Circuits, Joe trains to use Projection to create weapons and technology, up to and including Humongous Mecha.
  • Dark Slayer allows Joe to create weaker semi-corporeal copies of weapons he knows.
  • Digistructing allows for the temporary reproduction of any non-magical object.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Armsmaster and Dragon are able to deduce in Interlude 95.4 that Garment is connected to Apeiron thanks to studying videos of the former and recordings and scraps left behind by the latter, as this allows them to realize that similarities between Garment's advanced clothing and some of Apeiron's demonstrated capabilities.
  • Chapter 103 reveals that Accord has realized that Apeiron is altruistic in nature and that the Celestial Forge is not only imperceptible to Thinker effects, but is providing false data to all forms of precognition. This is thanks to him relying on a mundane, if somewhat obsessive, analysis of everything the Celestial Forge has done, the effects of their actions, and the fact that models founded on precognition consistently failed when used against the Celestial Forge in a consistent manner.
• Squashed Flat: Happens to Battery after she unknowingly runs into an I-Field.
  It was like she had launched herself directly into an invisible wall, complete with a comedic position as she splattered against it. If Battery wasn’t effectively invincible when charged he’d be worried about injuries. As it stood the only thing that looked to be hurt was her pride.
• Stating the Simple Solution:
  • When Joe explains his difficulties in upgrading everything after every new power, Aisha points out that he doesn't need to upgrade everything every time he gets a new power, just what is pertinent to his current situation.
  • After Alec tells his teammates that they can't make any decisions after the summit at Somer's Rock because they have no idea what's going on anymore, Rachel says that they should just ask Joe, since that's why he gave them their watches in the first place.
    Rachel: [showing her watch] He handed these out so we could get in touch with him. We want to know stuff. Why not just ask?
    • The author later says that Rachel doing this may actually help the Undersiders by keeping them from doing something convoluted.
  • Played with between Rachel and Alec. Although she is the one who states the simple solution, Alec is the one who goes for it because he's the only one who sees why it needs to be done.
• The Stations of the Canon: The author has said that the Warlord arc will be different. The last two stations that will still happen are the Leviathan attack and Slaughterhouse visit, though the former will be very different from canon.
  • It is later elaborated that the Slaugherhouse 9 won't be attacking a ruined Brockton Bay.
• Stop Hitting Yourself: At one point during his final fight with the ABB, Joe tears off one of Lung's arms and attacks the dragon-man with it.
• Stout Strength: Chubster is actually pretty strong even without his power.
• Stripperiffic: Tetra's Kamui form is described by Aisha as a combination of Chainmail Bikini and biker gear.
  The outfit was mostly black with red highlights. In terms of coverage… Joe's arms were at least fully concealed. The fabric extended from his gloves, up his arms, over his shoulder and finished in a high collar. Tetra glowing and very animated eyes sat on the lapels. It was just that the lapels didn't sit on anything.
  Joe's entire chest was exposed. Black fabric extended down his back with portions crossing over to connect to his pants at the hips. His really tight pants that sat about as low as possible without being indecent. They also had three angular cutouts on the outside of his thighs, exposing even more skin, though the design looked more like vents than anything else. The outfit concluded with a pair of chunky heeled motorcycle boots on his feet.
  The red highlights of the outfit were glowing brightly in the aftermath of the transformation. She could see the same effect on his hair, which had gotten spikier and sported multiple red strands rather than the single lock he'd had since Friday morning. The entire outfit looked like someone had decided to apply the logic of female video game armor to biker gear, but somehow it worked. Trust the combined design powers of Joe and Garment to allow someone to stand half naked in a tight red and black costume and somehow looked badass instead of ridiculous.
• Super-Empowering:
  • Joe eventually figures out how to activate someone's aura. One of his duplicates does it to Chen in Chapter 41.
    "It’s through reflection that we achieve clarity. Through that we can become a paragon of progress and determination, to rise above challenges. Infinite in perseverance and unbound by doubt. [insert name], I release your soul, and by my will commend thee."
    • Joe will lag behind his duplicates in unlocking aura.
  • Joe later realizes that, because he is an Outside-Context Problem, the shards of parahumans around him will release their restrictions on their abilities in order to get more data. He is able to determine that this is why the ABB capes have gotten a lot stronger in their final confrontation.
    • Lord Roustabout goes a bit more into detail on how this works.
  • Joe will eventually gain the ability to give his perks to other people.
  • As of Chapter 88, Joe gains the ability to perform his own Synchronicity Event on someone else.
• Super Mode: Joe has one when combining with the Life Fibers, later named Tetra. It greatly increases his strength and speed, to the point of barely needing any weapons against most opponents. This gets pushed to greater heights after Tetra absorbs Joe's demigod blood.
• Super Move Portrait Attack: One of Joe's powers gives him the ability to do this without it taking any time somehow.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Thanks to the unique makeup of his body, Weld has no problem surviving at the bottom of the ocean. This is ultimately subverted however, as this doesn't make sinking to the bottom of the ocean any less terrifying, or make getting back above water any easier.
• Superpower Lottery: It's mentioned by Aisha that people In-Universe think Joe won this.
• Super Serum: Tybalt can make use of Combat Stims without getting addicted to them. Also, Joe would only use them if he were fighting an Endbringer.
  • It's later specified that Tybalt has full immunity, while Joe only has a level of resistance. Joe can also make even more potent drugs for them to use.
  • Tybalt will only use Combat Stims if he absolutely needs to.
• Super-Speed: Fleet's body has a wind affinity, allowing him to move so fast that it seems like teleportation.
• Super Weapon, Average Joe: Averted. Even without his gear, Joe is still a force to be reckoned with.
• Supreme Chef: Some of Joe's powers extend to foods and drinks he prepares, making any food or drink that he prepares incredibly delicious.
  • The more involved Joe is in the process of preparing the meals, the better the effect of his powers on them.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: These happen because of an out of context problem and a lack of communication skills.
  • The author later explains that it's only natural for people to misunderstand one another in the story.
• The Swear Jar: Joe sets one up for his recurrent references of human technology as inferior to what he can make.
  • He later changes it so that it is now for whenever he has isolating or dangerous thoughts.
• Switching P.O.V.: In addition to Joe, we also see the POVs of other characters via Preambles, Addendums, and Interludes. The author does this so that we can see the events of the story in a new light.
  • Lord Roustabout later explains why he chose to write the story this way.
• Sword Beam: Joe (accidentally) creates one so big and powerful that it was compared to nuclear weaponry. People on the internet named it the Final Slash.
• Talking through Technique: When the Kerbals first arrive they don't speak English and no one has had the chance to compile an English to Kerbish translation dictionary for everyone to access. Fleet and the Matrix in particular find they can get across roughly what they want to say to them through using their respective powers.
• Taught by Experience:
  • After letting Uber and Leet distract him from their real objective (escaping), Joe makes sure to take note of anything that is happening that could be a threat when they fight again. This allows him to intercept the missiles that were fired at him.
  • Alec's experience with his Dysfunctional Family helps him see that the Undersiders are under a lot of stress and trauma and that it will result in a disaster if nothing is done soon.
• Team Dad: Joe is this to the workshop crew.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • The Undersiders are mostly still together due to Coil and their debt to Apeiron.
    • The author later explains that this is because the team didn't go through the difficult experiences that they did in canon.
    • Another factor as to why the Undersiders are a less cohesive team compared to canon is due to the fact that multiple members have their own way out of the group.
  • Joe and Lisa have to work together despite the fact that they both know they don't trust one another.
• Tele-Frag:
  • This happens to a few duplicates who are training their teleportation.
    My teleportation had some safety limits, enough to displace small objects and stop you from merging with another person, but intentionally teleporting into an anchored solid mass had unpleasant effects.
  • The author states that Joe can actually do this to others with his Semblance.
• Telepathy: Joe is, at least initially, the only true telepath on Earth Bet.
• Teleportation: Several characters have different versions of this.
  • Oni Lee leaves short lived duplicates behind whenever he teleports.
  • Joe gets the ability to do this with Dark Slayer.
  • Tybalt has a form of teleportation tied to his divinity.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Right after Vicky thinks to herself that nothing Apeiron can do will surprise her, he does just that by bringing out Trauma, transforming into a wereinostrancevia, and using a mobile suit against Lung.
  • Right after Joe says that he's glad everything at Garment's charity event is under control, he runs in Sabah.
• Therapy Is for the Weak: Played with. Vista will hold things back when meeting therapists to avoid seeming weak or childish.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Joe visits one to get over his trauma, and Weld says he's going to try and get one for the Wards. Word of God is that this is due to the author liking how therapy was handled in canon.
  • The author later states that talking to Dr. Campbell will really help Joe.
  • Dr. Campbell will help Joe with not only his family issues, but all the issues that trace back to it.
• These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Tattletale attempting to analyze the Avid Glove results in something staring back at her, causing her flinch in shock.
  Glove living/dead. Glove clothing/construct/creature. Glove being used as food source. Glove not possible food source. Eye on glove lacks musculature to move independently. Eye able to move independently. Eye tracking individual members of group, following conversation. Glove aware of surroundings. Glove cannot be aware. Glove aware of attention. Glove making eye contact. Glove cannot make eye contact. Glove engaged with connection. Glove conveying greeting. Glove eager to meet delicious friend. Glove is-
  "HERE IS SCREAMING."
• Thinking Up Portals: It is possible for Joe to upgrade the Key Link to reach Doormaker levels of this power.
• Third Eye: In Chapter 69, Joe learns that because lycaenops has one of these with the parietal eye, he gets extra powers when using his familiar, such as increased mana awareness.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Joe knows answering a call from his sister will be an unpleasant experience.
  • Aisha initially thought keeping her connection to Joe from her brother would be funny. Now she doesn't think it's funny anymore and isn't looking forward to him inevitably finding it out.
    • The author later states that it won't be as bad as she imagines.
• This Is Reality: Manpower thinks this, as his marriage has no hope of ever being repaired, unlike in a movie.
  Of course, it didn’t happen. It wasn't some movie, it was life.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Joe is already having trouble holding Tetra back after being gravely injured by the ABB before they realize that Garment was hurt too. After that, all bets are off and the two work together to tear the ABB capes apart.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Downplayed. Joe follows this rule when possible because that's what he believes is normal and moral as someone living on that world. Despite that, he will kill if all other options exhausted, unavailable or would lead to loss of innocent lives.
• Time Stands Still: Joe's Noble Phantasm gives him the ability to suspend time while he creates something in the field.
  It was the work I had undertaken in my training under the fey, brought into the physical world. Within the effect, it would be wrong to say time had stopped. Time, as a concept, was suspended.
• Time to Step Up, Commander: Lord Roustabout notes that this happened to both Alec and Dennis.
• Time Travel: The author explains that any form of this in the story will only result in a Stable Time Loop.
• Title Drop: Apeiron drops the title of the story when giving the name of his team at Somer's Rock.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • In addition to being more outwardly villainous, Uber and Leet are much more capable thanks to knowing when to stop using their tech before it blows up in their faces.
  • Now that Garment can access Aura, she can surpass the Dust effects Joe demonstrated in the Ungodly Hours.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Alec becomes more concern for his teammates after Joe heals him. This actually makes things much harder for him as he now cares about what they're going through instead of just ignoring it as he used to.
• Toon Physics: Joe has access to this thanks to Gadgeteer.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Sophia and Emma are this to each other.
• Transferable Memory: Joe can do this with his duplicates to get the knowledge they accumulate before they disappear, but he isn't keen on it.
• Transforming Mecha: Joe's Cool Bike can turn into one, in addition to Powered Armor. In robot form, it looks like the motoroids from Bubblegum Crisis.
• Transhuman: As part of healing Joe after his big fight with the ABB, the duplicates will get into wet-tinkering to enhance Joe.
• Truce Zone: Somer's Rock, as in canon, is the place the villains meet to discuss things formally. After the ABB is all but wiped out, the rest of the gangs meet up to divide the spoils, with Uppercrust as a neutral party acting as Chairperson. The rules dictate no powers. A rule that Victor violates the instant he walks in the room, which Survey detects, and ultimately leads to everyone else ganging up on Empire 88 and Kaiser having to make a number of concessions as recompense for the insult (the alternative was Victor's head on a platter).
• Underestimating Badassery:
  • The PRT and the Protectorate are seriously underestimating what March can do. Justified due to her downplaying her abilities, the PRT thinking they know what she is capable of, and the power to spoof Thinker powers directed at her and her subordinates.
    • This is no longer the case thanks to Apeiron.
  • Cauldron and Coil do this with Apeiron because they’re trying to judge him based on preexisting examples.
  • The Protectorate eventually sees Apeiron as "A second Goddess, only a tinker and with the support of his Cluster". However, even this still undersells what he can do.
• Understatement: Joe tends to do this when describing his powers, as the truth would either not be believed or cause a panic if it was.
• Unknown Rival:
  • Leet seems to be trying to one up Apeiron as a Tinker and failing nearly every time. Apeiron doesn't really care beyond stopping Leet and his allies from committing more crimes.
  • Lung also wants to kill Apeiron personally. This is due to being defeated by him back in Chapter 30, when Joe himself wasn't aware that he was fighting Lung at the time. It is implied that he'll never learn about this. If he did, he'd regret not finishing Lung off.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Garment has numerous dresses for herself and various clothes for others. Justified as she is a spirit of fashion and is always making more clothes.
• Unreliable Narrator: Downplayed. Joe tends to get lost in his thoughts and focus on certain details. This is made clear when we see his actions from someone else's perspective, which can reframe how it appears drastically.
• Unskilled, but Strong: March sees Apeiron as this.
• Unstoppable Rage: Joe and Tetra are enraged after the ABB spring their trap, gravely injuring the former and Garment. This results in them attacking the ABB, mostly Lung, relentlessly until one of Joe's duplicates is able to lend their assistance.
• Villain Ball: The ABB are holding this, specifically Bakuda and March. The former's short-sightedness led to her creating a bomb that could heal her injuries, but also give herself cancer. The latter spends too much time being theatrical, resulting in Apeiron taking advantage of her lapses and ultimately taking her down.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After Apeiron foils Bakuda's attempt to murder the Undersiders, she, Uber, Leet, and several henchmen are able to escape thanks to one of Leet's teleportation tech.
• Villainous Breakdown: Bakuda becomes increasingly irrational in her confrontation against Apeiron and the Undersiders. According to Word of God, it got even worse after her defeat.
• Villain Respect:
  • Despite not having even met yet, Accord has this for Apeiron because he enjoys the complete lack of imperfections and clarity of purpose the latter's creations possess.
    • To a lesser extent, he also feels this way towards Garment, due to her skill as a clothier being the literal pinnacle that a human can achieve.
  • Saint respects Apeiron due to the fact that the latter can hold off Dragon.
• Virtual Ghost: In addition to the souls that he receives from Hell, Joe can put Alma's soul into the Spiritron Computer.
• Virtual Training Simulation: Joe gets one that allows one to get licenses for various vehicles.
  • This gets even better after Joe gets spiritron computing, as this will allow him to simulate metaphysics in a virtual environment.
• Weapon Specialization: Tybalt's Questionably Practical Weapon is a Jägerstock, a double headed spear documented in a small number of combat manuals that has seen no documented mainstream use in any major conflict. It literally means 'hunting stick'.
  • Everyone in the Celestial Forge will have a weapon or style of combat they favor which they will practice and refine once they have unlimited time to do so.
• We Cannot Go On Without You: The Butcher is the only reason the Teeth even exist. Their presence prevents any real attempt at taking the Teeth down permanently due to the threat of one of the heroes becoming the next Butcher should the current one die.
• Wham Line: Apeiron drops one when the Teeth, and specifically the Butcher, shows up at Somer's Rock.
  "What was it that March offered you?"
• Wham Shot:
  • While fighting March, Glory Girl ends up seeing shardspace thanks to March destroying a call gem with her power.
    • This later leads to Scion showing up in Brockton Bay to clean up the mess left behind by the portal to shardspace.
  • When Joe gets healed in Chapter 44, he ends up getting a glimpse of Truth and the Gate.
    The world went white. Stark whiteness flashed before my eyes. Structures and shapes passed faster than I could register. What might have been the shape of a man, what might have been a smile and a door. I didn’t know. I didn’t have time to register it before it was gone.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?:
  • Garment has telekinetic and precognitive powers that are centered around fashion. This may seem to have no combat applications at first, but it turns out to be the perfect power to keep the life fibers in check.
    • She gets more combat capabilities thanks to getting access to Dust.
    • It's possible for Garment to actually become dangerous by utilizing the colors of the Neath in her clothing, as they can warp reality and drive people mad.
    • It's later said that Garment is capable of making a suit that uses multiple neathbow colors and that it would surpass the devastation she could cause with dust weaving.
  • Tybalt's ability to create incredibly delicious but unhealthy milkshakes is useful for restoring stamina after using divine powers.
    The milkshake conjuring power had been something of an odd ball inclusion, particularly when compared to the rest of his skillset. Though, considering the nutritional composition of those shakes, serving them to someone probably counted as assault with a deadly weapon.
• Which Me?: Averted. Joe and his duplicates have no problem communicating or explaining which version of themselves they are referring to when talking with one another.
• Wicked Cultured: Lord Roustabout sees Accord as a high class villain.
• Willfully Weak: Joe eventually becomes so powerful that he usually doesn't use more than a few powers or gadgets when he fights.
  • Similarly, Aisha limits the use of her power to a few minutes at a time stay within the common assumption that her power has a time limit.
• Winds of Destiny, Change!: Joe can affect luck through the manipulation of fortune energy.
  • It's later explained that if Joe takes someone's fortune energy, it will stay that way, leading to shortened lives due to bad luck if he's not careful.
  • There are also ways to use up or increase one's fortune energy.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Averted and deconstructed. Vista thinks she's this, but she's just trying to act like an adult, which may cause serious problems for her later down the line.
• Words Can Break My Bones: The Correspondence can alter reality, though Joe is limited to burning things with it.
• The Worf Effect: In-Universe, this is what happened to the ABB, Leet, and Uber against Apeiron. There was basically no info on him before he shows up to save the Undersiders and wreck the opposition.
• The World Is Not Ready: Verbatim reason for not wanting to reveal Alchemy to the world; something that cannot be explained by Science and is outright magic. Also, The World Is Not Ready for Garment's attempts at Designer Cowls.
• Wrong Assumption:
  • Piggot went the with the assumption that Joe's meeting with Panacea was intended to destabilize the situation, as that's what happened as a result of the meeting.
  • When people first saw Apeiron in action, they thought it was the best he could do. He proved them wrong in his very next showing.
  • Joe believes his passenger is just an exterior shard, disconnected from the ones in other parahumans.
  • Taylor assumes that what Joe is referencing when he says that she will do something important is her undercover work to find out the Undersiders' boss.
    • It's later explained that she believes this because the only other explanation she can think of is that she's massively screwed things up.
  • After his communication with Dragon, the PRT think Apeiron can either temporarily boost his tinker powers, or temporarily shift his specialization.
  • When Apeiron showed reproducible fusion plans, they assumed he meant by Dragon, not by general technology.
  • Piggot thinks Apeiron timed the reveal of his fusion system to make her look bad.
  • The government is using various Thinkers to try and confirm the theory of Apeiron having a team.
  • People think that Apeiron's tech is dangerous when damaged.
  • People don't realize how different Apeiron's abilities are because they're keeping it in context with the powers that already exist.
  • Downplayed. Aisha's expectations for what would happen if Joe died are a little off, but are still more than she feels comfortable handling.
  • Piggot thinks Uppercrust's desire to meet Apeiron isn't as serious as it actually is.
  • The guys at the gym think Joe was doing shady jobs involving cars.
  • Doug thinks that Joe has a girlfriend.
  • Everyone will have one regarding Apeiron, with everyone thinking they're right and everyone else is wrong.
  • Partially because of the gear Apeiron provides them, many people have come to the wrong conclusion on the stability of the Undersiders and relationship with Apeiron.
  • After Joe gets Miniaturization and Efficiency at Somer's Rock, he assumes that an alternate version of himself was Armsmaster.
  • The Butcher thought that no one would have the guts to ask her what brought her to Brockton Bay.
  • Brian attributes Aisha's newfound maturity to their father getting attacked and hospitalized.
  • Sabah assumed Garment's charity event would flop.
  • People are making numerous ones about the Celestial Forge after it made its debut.
  • If people learn of Joe's augmentations, they will think they are part of recovering from March's attack.
  • Chapter 86 reveals that most people believe that Lethe's power has a time limit of a few minutes.
• Wrong Context Magic: As Joe's power comes from a completely different source, it breaks many rules that other powers have to follow, leaving people not in the know scratching their heads on what Joe's power actually is.
  • The Neathbow is this to every other power that Joe has.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: March does this, which is how she's able to keep up with Apeiron.
  • The author uses this in a metaphor to explain how Apeiron is going up against the ABB.
  • Cutting off the broadcast was one of the less successful moves in this chess game.
• Yandere: March is obsessed with Flechette, with everything she is doing as part of the ABB just part of her attempts to get the latter.
• You Are What You Hate: Parian fears people controlling her, unaware of the fact that she's acting exactly like the kind of person she's afraid of.
• You Do Not Want To Know: Aisha has learned that when Joe says this, he really means it.
• Younger Than They Look: As Aisha in her armor is nearly six feet tall, people assume she's much older than she actually is. The same goes for Taylor, though in her case it's due to her cold attitude at the bank.

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