Cruel to be Kind is a Fanfic detailing the adventures of Alexander Harlow, a Self-Insert of the author Tkioz who has an alien crash land near him while he was on a walk. When he was investigating the crash, he obtained LVIOS, an alien device capable of traversing dimensions. He then proceeds to experiment with the device and form an Empire with himself as its ruler.
Can be found at Spacebattles
and Sufficient Velocity forums.
Cruel to be Kind contains examples of:
- Alien Non-Interference Clause: Discussed between Alexander and Matt Campbell about the ramifications of stealing historically important people from other universes because it could potential screw up a universe.
- Alternate Universe:
- Earth-72, where Haiti includes what would be the Dominican Republic, and Mozambique contains a good chunk of what would be Malawi and Zimbabwe territory. In the wake of the Kromagg invasion, China is split into dozens of separate nations, each proclaiming themselves the “True China,"; the American Union encompasses all of North America; the Russian Federation almost grabbing everything in Asia and Europe; and the People’s Republic of Tasmania.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Alexander had to prove anyone of his legitimacy as a interdimensional traveler by teleporting them to Terra Prime.
- Big Bad: The Kromaggs of Sliders. Later, a separate trans-D empire known as the Black Sun Concordant.
- Broad Strokes: Alexander finds that the fiction of various worlds tends to be this. Security is always better than the show portrays (much to his chagrin), and in the Stargate universe, he finds that Jaffa such as Teal'c are a good nine feet tall.
- Clingy McGuffin: LVIOS. He latched onto Alexander and isn't letting go.
- Deconstruction: The first time Alexander travels to other dimensions he tries to obtain advanced technologies, but soon realized it is not that simple after he gets himself repeatedly caught and arrested by the respective authorities of the Star Trek, Mass Effect, and Stargate universes.
- Cool Teacher: Eddie, former school teacher and current Head Mistress of the Endeavour Education Institute.
- Death World: The Murderverse.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The Concordant levelled a part of Stormwind with a Kill Sat which killed 300 people in retaliation for Alexander capturing a Concordant soldier.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: After liberating Earth from the Espheni in the Falling Skies universe, Alexander was returned with bickering distrust from the natives over his technological field advantage, and including Tom Mason (acting as advisor for the American delegation) who has a hardon for democracy and was quite critical over how Alexander was running things on Terra Prime. Ambassador Felix Green did attempt to kill Alex when the latter denied sharing the more advanced Commonwealth technology with the FSU. Regardless, the FSU natives grudgingly realize that they need the Commonwealth to stand off from another attack by the Espheni.
- Happened again on Earth-72, after liberating it from the Kromaggs, but more specifically the U.S. and Soviet Union who are the most cautious towards Alexander. Though countries like Haiti, Japan, Taiwan, and Switzerland are at least generous and becoming members of the Commonwealth, and this is the main cause for the U.S. and Soviets making complaints toward Alexander despite the fact that they have also been making huge territorial gains off of their Earth. The Russians later put an attempted assassination on Alexander.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom
- Enemy Civil War: Purposely incited by Alexander on the Kromaggs after the complete annihilation of Kromagg Prime with a Nova Bomb and wiping out the higher command chain from existence and thus leaving the Kromaggs leaderless and their empire in chaos.
- God-Emperor: What Alexander describes himself as "God-Emperor of Humanity Ascendent".
- The ex-Roman slaves do see him as a living god. Though some, like Antaros, realized Alexander to be just a man, but they do realize he is a better man with great power and still follow him regardless.
- Grand Theft Prototype: Operation Agincourt, where Alexander and the Commonwealth steals the Death Stars (DSII and a Prototype at the Maw Installation) from the Galactic Empire.
- Hammerspace: LVIOS can allow Alexander to store items like this.
- Hobbes Was Right: Alexander is seen as such (granted that he IS a "God-Emperor") in which Eddie even called him her favourite despot.
- Insignificant Little Blue Planet: Earth in the Falling Skies universe was considered a small skirmish by the Espheni and was meant to be a staging area in the Espheni's war against their enemies.
- Intercontinuity Crossover
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Alexander, reluctantly, became one while enforcing order over the former Roman slaves when he caught one man raping a 12-year-old girl.
- Kill Sat: Sun Shade stations
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Andromeda, Falling Skies, Farscape, Honor Harrington, Law & Order, Mass Effect, Sliders, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek, Star Wars, The Bill, World of Warcraft, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and Zombieland.
- Medieval Prehistory: Terra Prime is an alternate Earth where humans never evolved and is set during the Cenozoic era.
- Multiversal Conqueror: The Kromaggs.
- Nuke 'em: Alexander does this to some of the Kromaggs' worlds until they finally able to retaliated by completely eradicating Earth-29. This only infuriated Alexander and caused to retaliated back than before.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Felix Green of the Falling Skies universe. Made worst that he tried to kill Alex.
- Planet Terra: Terra Prime.
- Plunder: Alexander was able to get the practical finances and resources to build his natal empire is scavenging "dead worlds" such as the Zombie Apocalypse world of Zombieland.
- Self-Insert
- Star Killing: Alexander has had this done to the Kromagg once, using a Nova Bomb they got from the Andromeda universe. It was then sworn off as a "last resort" weapon.
- Super-Reflexes: The Battle Reflex Mode (which Alexander admittedly stole from Literature/Bolo).
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Tikoz has gone on record as stating that LIVOS, for the civilization that built it, is the equivalent of a smartphone.
- The Alcatraz: Planet Alcatraz. Later the Black Sun Prison Until Alex escapes.
- The Empire: The Commonwealth of Endeavor.
- The Multiverse
- White Void Room: Something similar to this was What LVIOS initially appeared as to Alex, except instead of white it was "nothingness". He eventually manages to customize it and builds things there
