“Un Ordinary?” Sera slowly repeated. “The book?”
Remi has frozen. “The...one creating vigilantes?”
Well, when Sera had told him that his dad’s book was infamous, she really wasn’t kidding. He snapped his focus onto her. “Vigilantes…?” That was news to him. Yeah, Dad’s message was clear when he wrote the story, but did it really-?
“No.” Arlo’s answer threw John for a loop, having mental whiplash. It wasn’t Dad’s book? Arlo turned and revealed a tablet in his hand. There were five more stacked on the podium. “This is something else. ‘unOrdinary’-“ He read from the screen, frowning as he scrolled a little. “‘-the telling of your future. Read if you want to leave.’”
—A new door opening.
Omniscient
is a "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot of unOrdinary made by thinmintssss, in John, Seraphina, Remi, Blyke, Isen and Arlo are all suddenly teleported into a room with a tablet that has the webcomic unOrdinary in it.
Due to the nature of the fic, naturally it has spoilers so watch yourselves!
Part 1 has been completed, look here for part 2.
- Adaptational Sympathy: The group maintains sympathy for John longer than the narrative did in canon, given that they're (generally) decent people who can plainly see the trauma he's gone through and his rationale for resorting to violence. That said, he does start to wear out that sympathy over time, and by the end of Season 1, Sera and the present John are mostly left banking on the hope that breaking the hierarchy will actually fix Wellston's bullying problem.
- Armor-Piercing Question: After John's infamous Speak Ill of the Dead moment towards Rei, the present John begins stammering that he never would have said that if he'd KNOWN that Rei was dead. Blyke is so infuriated by Future!John's behavior that he retorts "Why don't I believe you?", and John internally concedes that it was a fair question given how enraged and unstable his future self was acting at the time.
- Awful Truth: Seeing the true nature of the "correction facility" where John spent three months in shocked the Cast. And although he doesn't show it even Arlo's faith in the authorities was somewhat shaken by it.
- For Arlo, finding out Volcan's true identity.
- Broken Pedestal: Remi and Blake are not amused by Arlo's future actions, specifically his way of isolating and forcing John to reveal his power.
- Once Arlo finds out his aunt is Volcan, he doesn't take it well. At all.
- Dramatic Irony: Even as John grows increasingly frustrated with his future self's actions, Sera remains secure in her beliefs that he will eventually tell her about his abilities, and that his actions as Joker will bring some needed change to the school. Those who have read unOrdinary themselves will know that Sera will end up finding out the truth herself at the worst possible time, her attempt to confront John will result in him freaking out and accusing her of betraying him, and Joker's reign will consist of a period where EVERYONE is at risk of anonymous attacks, followed by John stepping up as the next King and going through Sanity Slippage.
- Before that, the rest of the cast is quick to share John's dislike of Claire for faking their entire friendship and planning an ambush on him just for a shot at power. When they're shown a flashback of Claire sobbing in front of John's father, their best guess is that she went to him after the fact to paint herself as innocent. Again, unOrdinary readers would already know that Claire really was a good friend to John. She had gone to William in desperation because John was once just as violent and entitled as the high-tiers he despises today, and talked down to her and his own father just for being weaker than him. The ambush was really her last-ditch attempt to talk some sense into the violent King, and it was everyone else's decision to attack him.
- Everyone Has Standards: Sera can be counted on to have John's back even during his darkest moments, but she does point out when he's really going too far. While they were reading John's flashback to telling Adrion "I'll never lose because everyone else is trash!," she took a moment to tell the present John that he "sounded like a real Asslo back then."
- Genre Savvy: Isen. He is the first to realize it's very possible that one of the invisibility users working for EMBER is Terrence thanks to the colour of the comic book cloud.
- Heroic BSoD: Everyone more or less as time goes on. Especially for John when the secret comes out.
- I Hate Past Me: John obviously. Thanks to Seraphina however, little by little he is coming to terms with it. Especially after finally throwing off some of the conditioning put on him by Keon.
- Jerkass Has a Point: This is basically how the readers treat the future John during the "rise of Joker" arc. Given that this time, all of them were able to see what drove him to such extremes, and Sera remains firmly in John's corner, not even Remi can muster up much of an argument against his rampage. Indeed, most of the Royals end up repeatedly called out for how their stupid or hypocritical responses at that time made everything worse.
- However, as time goes on, the "jerkass" aspect begins to overshadow Future!John's motives. Isen and Blyke are a LOT less empathetic when he responds to Future!Remi's ill-informed offer of a truce by swearing at her… and the present John can't even TRY to justify his future self when he ignorantly says Rei could go to hell for all he cares.
- Arlo doesn't make many friends during the "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot, but once everyone gets the picture of the Mind Rape Keon put John through, he's the first one to outright tell Sera that the trauma is definitely going to prevent future John from telling her about his ability.
- Later on, he tells John point blank that his future self's "break the system" plan left a lot of room for error, considering he'd already beaten up the Royals and risked his friendship with Sera over it.
- "Let's Watch Our Show" Plot: Bit different than others. Since not only are they watching their past and future, they are watching the webtoon version of the story written by the author of the webcomic Uru-chan. Including the bonus episodes.
- Never My Fault: It's definitely downplayed compared to canon, but John is still somewhat prone to this. As much as he hates a lot of what his future self does, he still tries to defend several of the decisions he had made then- leading to the others trying to give him the perspective he's ignoring.
- John maintains that his "destroy the hierarchy" plan had merit... right up until Sera is directly targeted by a fake Joker. Even after that, he laments that the "fake Jokers" should have been limited to low-tiers striking back against their bullies, so everyone would learn that actions have consequences. Arlo and Remi have to point out to him that he simply didn't consider the full consequences of his actions, and Sera agrees that while wrecking the hierarchy did at least bring attention to the broken system, just beating up the Royals and laying low afterwards would be irresponsible.
- John is absolutely horrified when the future Sera goes to Arlo for answers on what had happened instead of confronting him. Sera has to point out to him that since the future John had established a pattern of lying to her face, Arlo was the only source she could turn to, even if she had to sort out the bias in his story. The present Arlo is also unimpressed when John tries to argue that this time would be different "because."
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: In retrospect, John kind of agrees with Arlo about how he was a "terrible influence" on Sera. Definitely not because he inspired her to opt out of being Queen of Wellston... But by maintaining a brave face about his situation 24/7 and showing such open disdain for the hierarchy and high-rank bullies, John gave Sera the wrong impression of how hard it would be to live as a cripple, and prevented her from truly seeing how much both of them rely on her reputation.
- Spotting the Thread: When the group ends up reading John's memories of Adrion warning him about Claire's plans to overthrow him, Arlo notices a problem with the story right away. As a long-time veteran in the politics of "Royals," he is well aware that position challenges need to be one on one. The Jack Claire allegedly meant to use would never have been able to replace John if he had to bring half the class as backup.
- Wham Line: Unsurprisingly, the entire cast is shocked speechless when Future!John ignorantly tells Remi that her brother Rei could go to Hell for all he cares. That line single-handedly turns the discussion from calling out how Remi was Digging Herself Deeper to calling John out for being horribly cruel.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Out of all the readers, Arlo is the one who's the least bothered by the full reveal of John's expulsion, if only because a King putting down a full-scale insurrection seems fairly justifiable to him. Seeing as John hates Arlo, hates his actions as King, and Arlo voiced this opinion by wondering why he won't get over Claire's betrayal, John isn't exactly happy about this "support."
