Fanfic / Unlife Is Strange

Unlife is Strange is a crossover fic on Archive Of Our Own by GOTFa2.

It serves primarily as a crossover between Life Is Strange and Vampyr (2018). However, it features numerous cameos and plot connections that both Control and Until Dawn are considered secondary crossovers; the Federal Bureau of Control is a significant presence, and the cast from Until Dawn are recurring and supporting characters.

The story focuses on Rachel Amber who, following her death, is picked by the vampiric goddess the Red Queen, to be her latest champion to spread her wicked disease, the Blood of Hate, across the world. Following the events of the first game, Rachel is resurrected as a vampire, and taken in by the Mother's Children — a cult and Ancient Conspiracy of vampires and wicked humans seeking to spread the Red Queen's will. The Mother's Children are said to be led by Mordred himself. Yes, that Mordred.

Fighting against them is the follow up the the former Ascalon club, aptly named, New Ascalon; led by William Marshall's "heir", Lady Elisabeth Ashbury, whose lover, Jonathan Reid is no closer to finding a cure for the Blood of Hate despite a century of searching. With the "present day" storyline set in 2020, the fic also features a flashback storyline, covering Rachel's years as a vampire in Los Angeles. Thrust into this new unlife, Rachel is warned not to seek out connections from her old life, which is easier said than done when familiar faces appear to her, and she finds herself fighting the destiny that the Mother's Children hoped for her.

In the present day, the Red Queen begins to stir, and her "children" begin enacting their plan a century in the making. Roped into this is Sean Diaz, who is attacked by the Mother's Children in their search for his brother Daniel, who has disappeared with his friends Chris Eriksen and Sarah Lee Hackerman when Beaver Creek is attacked. Approached by a group of vampire hunters, collaborating with the FBC, Sean is offered a deal; he works with them for the duration of this crisis and their investigations, and he may earn his freedom and that of his brothers. Getting increasingly more to lose when Sean discovers his girlfriend Cassidy is pregnant, he agrees to their terms.

Besides having an Ensemble Cast among protagonists of Vampyr (2018) and Life Is Strange, this story also has "Routes". While it's a Continuation Fic, it doesn't follow a specific ending of Life Is Strange or 2; instead certain chapters are labeled as Route A (Sacrifice Arcadia Bay/Parting Ways) or Route B (Sacrifice Chloe/Redemption), depending on what timeline the reader wishes to follow, while the bulk of the story is written from a neutral perspective for either ending.

This fic is also part of The Fog Of Worlds Saga, alongside Love's Sacrifices, another crossover fic by the same author.

Unlife is Strange contains examples of...

A

• Abusive Parent:
  • The Red Queen, being the "mother goddess" of the vampire race, sees her "children" as tools and weapons at best, and slaves and traitors at worst. She has a biological child in Myrddin Wilt, who is her sworn enemy, along with all his champions. She behaves as a toxic motherly figure to all her champions as well. She is also Mordred's adoptive mother, raising him to be a proxy champion when his biological mother — her previous champion, Morgause — died, seeing Mordred as a weapon and in stilling that he is loyal only to her.
  • Sean Prescott's abuse of Nathan is highlighted even more here. It's revealed when Nathan was a kid, he suffered a severe head injury after trying to swing over a handlebar as a kid, and never visited him once while he was in the hospital. It's also revealed that Prescott once made Nathan join a junior hockey team as a kid, and when his team lost a game, Nathan's father "forgot" him at the skating rink for three hours before picking him up. So when Nathan becomes a vampire, he has no remorse in killing and feeding on his father.
• Adaptational Abomination:
  • Inverted with the Red Queen and Myrddin Wylt. In Vampyr (2018), the two were primordial vampires, existing with no apparent corporal form. Myrddin claims to have never been human, and his mothers origins escape even him. Here, it’s revealed that Myrddin was once the Celtic God Lugh, and that his mother once had a corporal humanoid form of her own. In Arthur's time, this form was named "Morgana" and the partial basis for Morgan Le Fay. This form still exists, albeit only appearing in dreams, visions and hallucinations.
  • Implied with The Makkapitew from Until Dawn, which in the game isn't implied to be anything more than a particularly strong and vicious spirit. While it never directly appears in the story, when it's discussed, passing mentions heavily imply that it is a manifestation of Ithaqua from The Cthulhu Mythos.
• Adaptational Badass
  • Rachel, although this can be explained by her becoming a vampire. In the game, she isn't really an Action Girl, only getting into an altercation with Damon Merrick, where she is immediately stabbed and hospitalized. As a vampire, she becomes a lot more tough and aggressive, getting into multiple fights and dispatching numerous other vampires over the story. She gets into two fights with Mordred, during which she manages to severely injure him (albeit through fighting dirty); and fights her way through a hospital infested with Skals, using a fire axe.
  • Elisabeth Ashbury is a rather downplayed example. In Vampyr (2018), she normally abstains from any kind of combat or getting her hands dirty, due to being The Atoner. However, when she becomes the head of New Ascalon, she and her partners are swept into an Enemy Civil War with the old Ascalon club, and reactionaries within the Guard of Priwen. This necessitates her having to get her hands dirty over the past century, and she fears becoming Lady Blackwood again. With that said, she personally leads a rescue mission for Jonathan, during which she kills several of Mordred's followers; and in Route B, helps fight off a vampire attack on Blackwell Academy.
  • Downplayed with Steph Gingrich. She is not exactly an Action Girl in the games, or in this story, and her canon counterpart is pretty mundane. However, it's soon discovered she (unwittingly) has a power of her own, regarding a Tulpa effect. The Steph that Rachel meets and dates in LA is in fact a Living Dream of the "real" Steph, who goes back and forth between her "real" life and Tulpa life. However, she not exactly a "hands on" badass, any more than her canon counterpart — with exception of incapacitating Mordred by ramming him with a car, and shooting him in the mouth and throat; which temporarily killed him.
  • Mark Jefferson, of all people, gets this trope, however downplayed. When attacked in prison by a swarm of skals, he manages to hold them off and outrun them — albeit through fighting dirty and getting a few others killed to distract the skals — and manages to escape the prison on his own through quick thinking and acting fast on his feet. However after his escape, he's left exhausted and found shortly after by the Guard of Priwen; they later conscript him in part of his escape and in part of his ties to "persons of interest".
  • Max Caulfield is another downplayed example, with it being revealed she worked part time as a detective for the FBC after leaving Arcadia Bay. She would "retire" to focus more on her college career and try to settle back into a mundane life. After the attack in North Bend, Max is pulled out of retirement when she and her friends are now at the center of investigation.
• Adaptational Jerkass:
  • James Amber. While in Before the Storm, he already paid a drug dealer to abduct his ex-wife and force her to go through an addiction relapse, in this story, despite the truth coming out to Rachel, he seemingly expected her to come back to him. Despite his supposed concerns, did nothing when he (correctly) suspected an affair between Rachel and Jefferson. Following confirmation of Rachel's death, he attempted to posthumously push her memory as a perfect daughter, victim and student while demonizing Chloe as a toxic influence on Rachel's life. All this to say, Rachel is further disgusted by her father when she's resurrected. However, James does has a genuine fatherly concern for Chris, Daniel and Sarah Lee, and Rachel herself when he sees her again; but his reluctance to admit any fault on his part leaves the bridge with his daughter pretty burnt. Ultimately, he discovers she's a vampire, and upon seeing her in action, he tries killing her by shooting her in the head, unable to accept her as his daughter.
  • Played With, in regards to Mark Jefferson. While his canon counterpart is a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, he at least attempted to put on the front of a charming, charismatic teacher who forms close bonds with his students. Here, his affair with Rachel is portrayed with more outwardly grooming connotations; he blatantly takes advantage of her vulnerabilities, lets his narcissism slip through here and there, and passive aggressively dismissive of Rachel when she opens up about her own issues. In an attempt to "comfort" Rachel regarding her mother's death, he effectively tells her she shouldn't waste tears on a junkie.
  • In Life Is Strange 2, Lisbeth Fischer was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing, but at least put on a motherly façade for her congregation. As part of her Adaptational Villainy, she is a lot more outwardly snide and passive aggressive, and can barely put on her "Reverend Mother" front without it being immediately shot down.
• Adaptational Karma:
  • In Life Is Strange, whatever karma dealt Sean Prescott isn’t elaborated upon in either ending. In this story, in both routes, it is revealed that in addition to the Dark Room being exposed — along with Nathan's involvement — numerous of Prescott's dirty laundry and Arcadia Bay's corruption became unearthed. Despite Prescott's attempts to control the narrative, when the FBC and New Ascalon step in, they prove too overwhelming for Sean Prescott. He would then abandon his family to deal with the fallout. It's also revealed that New Escalon had abducted Prescott, keeping him captive and later feeding him to his transformed son.
  • In Life Is Strange 2, Hank Stamper gets no real punishment for his assault and attempted abduction of Sean Diaz, even remaining a Villain with Good Publicity after the fact. In both "Routes" if this story, his actions are uncovered by Daniel's testimony, and when questioned, Hank's wife folds immediately. While Hank was convicted, he didn't see jail time, instead being made to wear an ankle bracket, with his gas station sometimes being vandalized by Sean and Daniel's supporters.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • In the A timeline, David Madsen is a lot more down to earth and understanding of Chloe when they meet after the storm. Similarly, Chloe is a lot more accepting of David when the two work together in finding Joyce. David even tries to reassure her when he notices her Survivor's Guilt, and looks out for her while at a memorial service. To be fair, this is more in line with their current relationship in Life Is Strange 2 following the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" ending.
  • Mary Reid; in Vampyr (2018), she is vicious, vindictive and broken as she turns into a vampire, though it is stated she used to be a more loving and hopeful woman before her death. In this story, we see a lot of the woman she used to be, and even when resurrected and Forced into Evil, she is open about her vulnerabilities, and makes an effort to reconnect with her brother. By 2013, she cut her ties with the Mother's Children completely. She also had genuine feelings for Rachel during their fling, though they both maturely agree that a long term relationship wouldn't have had worked.
  • Geoffrey McCullum is a lot more tolerant of Jonathan Reid, with them having more of an understanding after McCullum was turned as per the game. By the 1920's the two attempt to bridge an Enemy Mine between their factions when they learn of the Red Queen's followers and their reach, only to be met with backlash from reactionaries within both factions. During his and Reid's alliance, McCullum is more interested in protecting the innocent, preferring to find a cure for the Blood of Hate as opposed to exterminating the infected, lamenting when he does so. A stark contrast to his militant hatred for vampires in the game.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • In canon, the exact sexual orientation of Victoria and Kate is not elaborated. Here, they are depicted as not only being sapphic, but gradually falling in love after they befriend one another.
  • In Vampyr (2018), Mary Reid's sexuality isn't elaborated, but is mentioned as having a husband. In this story, Mary is depicted as a deeply closeted lesbian, who only married out of societal expectation, despite having no real romantic feelings for her husband. The only proof of their intimacy is when they had a son together. In the present day, Mary sometimes seduced and slept with young women as part of her service to "The Mother's Children", and had a fling with Rachel shortly before she went missing.
  • As the cast of Until Dawn are introduced in this story, Mike, Matt, Jessica and Emily are portrayed as bisexual and are suggested to be in a swinging or polyamorous relationship between the four. Sam is portrayed as a lesbian, and has a regular on and off relationship with Emily and Jessica, being a sort of "fifth wheel" in the polycule.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • The Red Queen, while already malignant being in Vampyr (2018), she's made even worse here. She's portrayed as a corruptive influence, maliciously targeting individuals and hitting them where it hurts. In Vampyr (2018), it's implied she targets women already wronged and bitter at the world. Here, she goes out of her way to ruin the lives of women to systematically create the ideal champion. She attempted to do this Chole Price, setting her up to go on a downward spiral when she noticed how happy Chloe was with her father, as a toddler. She calls upon the corruption to Arcadia Bay to hurt and corrupt other women, and demands Chloe be made a blood sacrifice lest Arcadia Bay be wiped off the map.
  • Lisbeth Fischer, while already a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing cult leader in Life Is Strange 2, has a more heinous past that she's being investigated for — from dealing drugs when she was younger, working with a far right militia, and protecting predators in her congregation over the decades; it is also heavily implied that the conversion therapy camp she works with engages in regular sexual abuse. Upon being reached out to by the Mother's Children, she makes a bargain with Mordred to send his followers to wipe out two whole towns, just to spite the Diaz brothers for escaping her. Mordred himself is a little taken aback by this pettiness.
• Affably Evil: Mordred's outwardly portrays himself as a chummy, and talkative playboy, with a number of quirks and eccentricities that make him come off as endearing; such as a genuine enthusiasm for popular culture, especially music. When he meets Rachel, he loves to joke and seems genuinely empathetic to her past and plight. It makes it easy to forget that he's a dreaded, apocalyptic cult leader with a proud history of mass murder and conquest. He also tries and fails to kill Mark Jefferson on Rachel's behalf, as per a promise he made with her, despite having no reason to uphold his end of the deal at this point. On the other hand...
  • Faux Affably Evil: The above interactions with Rachel can be seen in a grooming context, as he's trying to get her to join his cause. When she isn't soled on his initial pitch, he resorts to threats and blackmail to get her in line, whilst still acting like he's got his hands tied. From that point onwards, he interacts with others with a more stereotypical Faux Affably Evil front, of the "Condescendingly Friendly" type. However, it seems he has a genuine friendship with his partner, Bathory.
• Age-Gap Romance: As per canon, when Rachel was 18 and 19, she had affairs with both Frank Bowers — early to mid thirties — and Mark Jefferson — late thirties to early forties. It's also revealed here to have had a fling with Mary Reid — a century old vampire, turned at 27 and regularly poses as being in her mid to late 20's. These affairs are portrayed as a self destructive coping mechanism on Rachel's part. Although Frank had genuine feelings for her, Jefferson is more predatory with their power imbalance, blatantly preying on her vulnerabilities. As for Mary, wile she developed genuine feelings for Rachel, when they meet again, they both agree that an actual relationship between them wouldn't work.
• The Alliance: When the FBC gets involved in this story, it's revealed that that they have "assimilated" with other organizations that work with, investigate and combat the paranormal, for regular collaborations in the wake of great threats, especially by the Mother's Children. While they ostensibly act on their own, when the FBC steps in, they all ultimately answer back to them; and as of 2020, Director Jesse Faden. Over the past century, these collaborations now include New Ascalon (under Elisabeth Ashbury) and the Americanized Guard of Priwen (under Pierre Margot).
• Alternate Self:
  • When Rachel meets and hooks up with Steph in LA, it is later discovered this Steph technically isn't the Steph. Rather she is a Living Dream Tulpa; being a version of Steph who lived a different life than her canon counterpart — as seen in True Colors. Steph goes back and forth between her "real" life and her Tulpa life, with both initially thinking that her other life is a dream.
  • Chloe has two versions of herself in the A and B timelines. Following "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay" in the A timeline, Chloe would settle down with Max living a seemingly mundane domestic life with her, and their son. In the B timeline following her death, Chloe is resurrected as a vampire intended to be the Red Queen's champion; however she is found and rescued by Reid and Ashbury, and would initially isolate herself in her recovery. In the present day, Vampire!Chloe has since been conscripted as an FBC field agent.
• Alternate Timeline: Certain chapters are designated Route A and Route B, which designate the timeline this story takes place in, depending on what version of the story the reader wishes to follow. Chapters designated A take place is a timeline following "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay/Parting Ways"; while B takes place in a "Sacrifice Chloe/Redemption" timeline.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • Besides Reid and Ashbury fighting against the Red Queen on principle — with her being a threat to the known world — the Queen realizes that Reid is seeking out the means to destroy her for good, coming close to finding it. As recompense, the Queen seeks to hurt Jonathan on a personal level; resurrecting his sister, Mary to create new champions for her. To force Mary to do so, she takes the soul of Mary's son hostage. When Mary herself eventually turns against her, the Queen is now a Familial Foe to the Reid and Ashbury family.
    • It is also revealed the Queen took root in Arcadia Bay in the 90's, during which she became fixated on Chloe Price after seeing her as a happy toddler. Besides bringing further corruption and pain to Arcadia Bay, the Queen wanted to make Chloe her "ideal" champion, and would manipulate events in her life to make her bitter and miserable in hopes of eventually killing and turning her. In the B timeline she succeeds, although Chloe managed to slip through her fingers upon turning; in the present day, Vampire!Chloe has seemingly joined the fight against her.
  • Mark Jefferson serves as one to Max and Rachel, with his betrayals and crimes making him a very personal antagonist. In Rachel's case, his grooming relationship with her is emphasized along with his betrayal, and hand in her murder. In the present day, Jefferson is conscripted into the Americanized Guard of Priwen, and learns of the Red Queen, Rachel and how several of his former victims and students are persons of interest; Jefferson joins their causes in part to get revenge on those who put him away, and to finish Rachel off.
  • Lisbeth Fischer has since become this to Sean and Daniel Diaz. It is revealed after Sean, Daniel and the Hackerman siblings escaped her compound, Fischer made numerous attempts to abduct Daniel, whose testimony has started an FBI investigation against her and her cult. When she is roped in with the Mother's Children, Fischer requests that they siege Beaver Creek, Boone County Penitentiary and Puerto Lobos, all to punish the boys for defying her. When Mordred encounters Sean and his friends in both routes, he is acting as a go-between for Fischer, despite being the bigger threat and having more influence than she does.
• Attempted Rape: Early on, Rachel goes out looking for fresh blood, she is picked up by a man who tries to coerce oral sex out of her in exchange for a ride. Rachel pretends to be more helpless than she actually is to go along with this, but seeing as she was a vampire, you can probably guess where this is going...
• The Atoner:
  • As a vampire, Rachel comes to regret a lot of her self-destructive habits in life, especially cheating on Chloe. When she begins her romance with Steph, she sincerely tries to do right by her. When she nearly has sex with Sam and Emily in a moment of weakness, she feels horrible for it coming clean to Steph, taking all responsibility. It's soon revealed that the Steph that Rachel was dating is a Tulpa of the "real" Steph — Tulpa!Steph tends to disappear and reappear in Rachel's life and memories. Rachel's fling with Sam and Emily occurred during such a disappearance, though Rachel herself doesn't think this absolves her.
  • As per the games, Lady Ashbury is this for her murderous past as Lady Blackwood, intending to use her position in New Ascalon to help undo the work of the Red Queen, and distance herself from her past. However, over the years, her war against the Mother's Children leads to her getting her hands dirty, making her fear that she could become Lady Blackwood yet again. She is also encouraging of Nathan's own atonement, telling him that she has done worse than him as Blackwood, therefore his redemption isn't that hard of a sell to her.
  • Nathan Prescott, in both routes, is shown as sincerely regretting his actions in the game. Following his arrest in B, Nathan accepts his imprisonment, refusing to accept his family's attempts to bail him out — curiously, he would assault guards and even his lawyer to ensure he stays in jail — and makes a genuine effort to befriend Sean Diaz while they're in jail. After his death and transformation in both routes, Nathan initially thinks he is in Hell of some sort and believes he deserves to be there. According to Myrddin Wilt, he picked Nathan as his newest champion, partially so that he'd help undo the damage he's done in the Dark Room.
  • In both routes, Victoria Chase has become this following the Storm/Chloe's death; besides being remorseful for bullying Kate, she is further broken down by Jefferson's abduction of her/survivors guilt, and the revelations of Jefferson and Nathan's crimes. She tries to better herself from that point onwards, even befriending Kate over time when the latter makes it clear she forgives her. Over the years, the end up romantically involved.

B-C

• Badass and Child Duo: Sort of. In the 2020 storyline, Rachel happens upon Daniel Diaz, Chris Eriksen and Sarah Lee Hackerman, rescuing them shortly after the vampire attack the town; technically making this a quartet. She protects them while trying to keep their heads down, otherwise playing this trope straight. Daniel also takes a level in badass himself, getting more control of his powers, regularly using them to protect his friends. He and Rachel team up to incapacitate a would-be abductor, Alexander "Sawney" Bean.
• Bail Equals Freedom: Downplayed if not subverted. In both Routes, Sean Diaz is given restricted freedom as part of his deal with the FBC and American Guard of Priwen, which comes with conditions. He is ostensibly free in his services to them, but will only have his slate wiped clean if he plays ball by the end of the investigation and crisis. He privately compares it to being on a leash, but otherwise adjusts to the deal decently.
• Bait the Dog: Morded introduces himself to Rachel as a joking, friendly, and empathetic individual, with a well intended goal. However, Rachel sees through the red flags in the short time they spend together, and after Mordred helps rescue Steph from kidnappers, he threatens Steph's life and Rachel's to bring Rachel into line. A more literal example of this occurs in the ninth chapter; where Mordred apparently kills a guard dog after just petting it.
• Benevolent Boss: Zig-Zagged with Mordred. Despite being The Dreaded, he generally seems to be a down to Earth and agreeable boss to his human underlings; he jokingly intimidates one who was embezzling off him, before asking if he just needed a raise. It's unclear how much of this is genuine or a manipulation tactic on his end, as he uses this front to try to win Rachel over. On the other hand, he appears to be genuine friends with Elisa Bethany.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: As with Vampyr (2018), multiple historical and mythic figures were vampires, with many historical events being what smoke screens for battles with the Red Queen over the centuries. The most prominent examples are that King Arthur was a vampire, and Mordred was a dhampir. Mordred's cohorts consist of "Elisa Bethany", who is in fact Elizabeth Bathory, a former champion of the Red Queen; and the folkloric Alexander "Sawney" Bean, whose wife was another former champion of the Queen's. Other examples include Beowulf and Cú Chulainn being champions of Myrddin; while figures such as Queen Medb or Grendal's mother were champions of the Red Queen — with Grendel himself being a dhampir. Furthermore, it is revealed that the entity known as Myrddin Wilt was originally worshiped as the Celtic god, Lugh.
• Big Bad: The Red Queen, despite being asleep for much of the story, being the one who turned Rachel, and the "mother goddess" that Mordred and his followers intend to usher into the world, with the threat of her apocalypse looming over the story. While there are plenty of antagonists who serve as more personal obstacles for the protagonists, the lot of them either work for her, unwittingly serve her will, or far beneath her as a threat. It is her deeds that directly or indirectly set up the conflicts for each protagonist arcs; notably, she personally saw to it that Chloe would go on a downward spiral; was the source of much of Arcadia Bay's corruption; and the Storm to try to force Max to sacrifice Chloe.
• Big Bad Wannabe:
  • Downplayed with Pierre Margot, a supposed descendant of ruthless vampire hunter Jean Margot, who founded the "Americanized" Guard of Priwen; Pierre is later heavily implied to be a vampirized Jean. Leading them in the present day under the FBC, Margot is a rather militant extremist, out to snuff out "undesirables" who are part of The Alliance. Sean Diaz's deal with the FBC puts him in with the Americanized Guard, meaning Margot is the one responsible for overseeing Sean's "services". Margot directly also responsible for bringing Jefferson back into the fray. While a threat in his own right, Margot is still overshadowed by the Red Queen, and is largely acting in response to her threat. Reid and McCullum both see Margot as an (albeit massive) obstacle standing in the way of the real threat. With the revelation that "Pierre" is a vampire, it's all but spelled out that he is Jean Margot.
  • Steph's initial girlfriend, Cathy Mortimer. When Steph (or at least, her Tulpa) first meets Rachel in LA, she has been dating Cathy for some years; with it being immediately being clear that Cathy is a toxic and controlling girlfriend. Had this story been a romantic drama with a focus on domestic abuse, someone like Cathy would probably be the main antagonist. Alas, she is the Starter Villain of a story involving vampires, cults, conspiracies and a God of Evil, making Cathy a drop in a bucket. On top of that, Mordred and Rachel kill Cathy and her co-harts as a trial run to get Rachel her first kills.
  • Sean Prescott, despite being the Greater-Scope Villain in Life Is Strange is reduced to this in both Routes A and B, following Nathan's death/Chloe's death, and the Dark Room being exposed. Despite Prescott's attempts to cover things up and try to control the narrative, he proves utterly helpless when both the FBC and New Ascalon's interference. When their investigations uproot too much of Prescott's dirty laundry, the most he can do is uproot his funds in Arcadia Bay, leaving it to economic collapse, and his family to deal with the fallout. Prescott is then held captive by New Ascalon, who later feeds him to a transformed Nathan.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Sean Diaz and his partners learn that vampires are real, and are nearly abducted by them, they also learn that vampires previously attacked Beaver Creek in search for Daniel; who has also disappeared with his friends. Sean has no hesitation to try going on the run to find his brother and ensure his safety. Luckily, Sean works out a deal with the FBC and the American Guard of Priwen, to work under their field agents in their investigations, and their own search for Daniel. If Sean fulfills his end of the deal, he can have his brother and his freedom.
• Big Good: "Myrddin Wyllt", the Red Queen's biological son, sworn enemy and another primordial vampire; with his original identity being revealed as the Celtic God, Lugh. Much like his mother, he is asleep most of the time, but his champions are leading the battle against Mordred and his followers; making New Ascalon vs the Mother's Children a proxy war. He also turned Nathan Prescott into a vampire upon his death, offering him a chance to right his wrongs in life; and states that he — through another being called Nodens — granted Max her powers to keep Chloe alive, stealing away one of his mother's champions.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Played With. With how loose his standards are, Mordred seems to operate with a moral code that makes sense only to himself; in Route A, he claims that he would never kill a bride on her wedding day, but thinks nothing of massacring everyone else. He claims to have standards against rape...so long as he's not the one doing the deed, in which case he has no issue working with rapists or exploiting victims of sexual assault to achieve his goals. He also tries to kill Mark Jefferson to keep a promise he made to Rachel, even when he had no reason to keep the promise at that point (with Rachel turning against him years before).
• Boom, Headshot!: It's established here that this is an effective means of incapacitating vampires. Unless you decapitate them or completely destroy their brain, all shooting them in the head will do is render them unconscious until their injury heals itself. While fighting off an attack by the Guard, Rachel ends up grazed in the side of the head — by her own father no less — which gives her severe brain damage, requiring her to rest for a week.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: In chapters 14 and 15, Mordred doesn't go for the kill when having the chance; while he doesn't attack Rachel with lethal intent during their first fight, he lets his emotions get the better of him, letting Rachel get an edge on him. He also keeps recorded evidence of his crimes in an apartment he's hiding out in — although in that case, he correctly suspected a sting operation against him, and used the evidence as bait for a death trap. Later on, he captures Jonathan Reid, having him tortured for a week, rather than just killing him — while he expected a rescue, he didn't really have a counterplan beside "set the place on fire and try to flee".
• Boxed Crook:
  • Sean Diaz becomes this in both routes. After his encounters with Mordred in either Routes A and B, Sean makes a deal with the FBC and Guard of Priwen; they grant him a "restricted" freedom for the duration of the outbreak and investigations surrounding it, so long as he works under field agents in their investigations. If Sean accepts these conditions to the end of the investigations, he will be granted his full freedom, fully exonerated with his slate wiped clean as a fugitive (A) or a prisoner (B).
  • Mark Jefferson also becomes this, having his own encounter with Mordred in prison. After barely escaping with his life, Jefferson is found by the American Guard of Priwen. They make a similar deal as they did with Sean, due to Jefferson being connected to multiple "persons of interest" in their investigations. However, Jefferson's crimes are 100% proven and his case was publicized, so it's not likely he will get a clean slate from this deal.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Mordred is The Dreaded Dark Messiah of a vampiric cult, worshiping his adopted Eldritch Abomination mother, whose goal is to usher in her apocalypse; he has a history of mass murder and torture of both the innocent and wicked to achieve his goals. When Rachel meets him, he's an eccentric playboy with a love for pulp culture, and at times a bit of a goofball, who likes to crack jokes, with a pretty down to earth personality on his off time. As Rachel learns, yes, these facts do co-exist.
• But I Can't Be Pregnant!: A variation. In the present day, Rachel is in disbelief to learn she has a son — after all, she would be the first to know if she got pregnant. And for the times she slept around, she was always "careful" with her male partners. This is because her son was artificially conceived behind her back; when Max and Chloe were looking for a sperm donor, Mordred and his followers tampered with the procedure, using Rachel's blood — tampered to function as a semen substitute — to impregnate Chloe's ovum.
• Cain and Abel: Subverted with Jonathan and Mary Reid. The Red Queen resurrected Mary in hopes that she would create more champions for Jonathan to fight, putting the siblings at eternal odds. But when the two actually reunite, Jonathan opts to save and try to heal Mary of her afflictions. And when they reunite in the "present" day (2013), it appears their sibling relationship was on and off, but they work together to help save Rachel from the Mother's Children.
• Circling Birdies/Concussions Get You High: Played for Drama. After being shot in the head, Rachel ultimately pulls through due to her vampirism. However, the brain damage causes Rachel to enter this dream-like state, scarcely aware of the world around her. After Daniel helps fight off an attack by the Guard, Rachel's delirium causes her to think he's her son and that they're on an outing, causing an already distressed Daniel to become even more unsettled. She soon collapses into unconsciousness.
• Canon Welding: Among the games that are the main part of the crossover, and cameos and references to others, there are two non gaming titles mentioned as part of this fic's universe; that being The Owl House and Amphibia. Both the Boiling Isles of the former, and the titular dimension of the latter are given repeated but passing mentions as being dimensions that the FBC uncovered, and are trying to investigate. In Route B, Vampire!Chloe is taken to Luz Noceda's home town of Gravesfield, Connecticut to keep her head down during a recovery period. It also appears that there's an ongoing investigations of "The Owl Woman" in the area.
• Child by Rape: According to this story, Mordred is the product of incestuous rape; when the Red Queen had her then champion, Morgause rape her half-brother, Arthur. Mordred is not shy about bringing up this part of his past, and it's implied to be a sore spot. From a medical standpoint, Bill Price Caulfield could be seen as a child of Rape by Fraud, due to the tempering of his artificial conception.
• Childhood Brain Damage: In one flashback, it's revealed Nathan suffered this, which is implied to be a partial source of his mental health issues. As a kid, Nathan was on a swing set, and tried to go up over the bar. He ended up slipping and landing head first onto the bar, and was hospitalized as a result.
• Co-Dragons: While Mordred himself is The Dragon to the Red Queen, as leader of the Mother's Children, he has two prominent vampires at his own left and right hand.
  • "Elisa Bethany" — in truth, Countess Elizabeth Bathory — a former champion of the Red Queen's, who was "sterilized" (unable to create other vampires) centuries ago. She still has considerable amounts of power, influence and authority to her family name, which she uses to financially back Mordred and his operations. Them apparently being genuine friends may help the matter.
  • Alexander "Sawney" Bean, a figure of Scotland and English folklore, is portrayed as a vampire whose wife was a former champion of the Red Queen. He is stated to be the one responsible for the creation of the Skals within the Mother's Children, and a more hands-on enforcer to Mordred's will. He is also responsible for bringing Lisbeth Fischer, and her cult into the fold, and leading the attack on Beaver Creek at her request and Mordred's permission.
• Combat Pragmatist: One of the reasons Rachel becomes an Adaptational Badass, besides her vampire abilities, she fights dirty. Rachel often relies on striking hard against soft softs on her opponents; attacking the eyes, neck, groins or just going for the head. By hitting below the belt, Rachel quickly gets the edge on her opponent. Even if her fangs or strength isn't enough, she often uses quick thinking and Improvised Weapons to get another shot. During her second fight with Mordred, she incapacitates him with a pipe bomb, with his resulting injuries making their fight a lot more even.
• The Corrupter: The Red Queen isn't above playing "Devil on the Shoulder" to the humans in her influence. She also was able to draw in the corruption in Arcadia Bay to create an essential champion factory. Her favorite subject was Chloe Price, who she wanted to warp into a new champion by having the world screw her over, and personally making sure she becomes an unstable individual.
• The Corruption: Like with Vampyr (2018), the Red Queen's essence is the "Blood of Hate", the closest she currently has to a corporeal form on Earth, spreading in the form of a disease. It's explained that the Blood of Hate is as much of a spiritual affliction as it is a physical one, directly compared to the Wendigo; twisting and distorting its victims on both a physical level as it does a spiritual one. The more detached of humanity one is, the more their hearts are filled with hate, the more monstrous it's infected become. It doesn't even force its victims to become these monsters, it just unleashes their buried depravity.
• Cutting Off the Branches:
  • Averted with the endings of Life Is Strange and the second game. Rather than following a specific ending, certain chapters are designated for different routes; A — which follows the "Sacrifice Arcadia Bay/Parting Ways" endings; and B — which follows the "Sacrifice Chloe/Redemption" endings. Outside these "Routes", the story is written from a neutral perspective. However there are minor deviations; A chapters establishes ninety seven survivors of the storm, a lot of them consisting of staff and students of Blackwell Academy. In B, Sean Diaz is bailed out of prison for the time being, after being conscripted by the FBC after serving two years, as opposed to the fifteen years he serves in "Redemption".
  • Played Straight in other points. With the first game, it is established that Max successfully saved Kate from her suicide attempt; the A timeline also establishes Kate as a survivor of the storm. It is also confirmed that Chloe told Rachel the truth about her father at the end of Before the Storm. With the second game, the good morality route is considered canon, as well as Sean and Cassidy's romance and having sex — however this romance option was considered mostly moot, as both Sean and Cassidy hook up with Finn over the years, starting a polyamorist relationship. When True Colors became included in this story, Alex and Steph's romance is established as canon, along with the ending where the two leave Haven Springs together
  • It is seemingly confirmed that the Pacifist Run of Vampyr (2018) is canon, and that Reid turned Geoffrey McCullum into a vampire as well.
  • With Until Dawn, it is established that the Everyone Lives ending is canon; the "Blackwood Eight" all seem to maintain positive relationships, or at least in a much better place than they were at the end of the game. Similarly, in a cameo of Eric King from House of Ashes establishes that not only did he survive, but a reply from the author states the Everyone Lives ending to be canon here too.

D-F

• Dark Is Not Evil: Myrddin Wylt is thought of as a dark and menacing presence to those who glimpse him; when Nathan and Jefferson both see him in their near death experiences, they mistake him for the devil coming to take them to Hell. When he actually speaks, he is true to his goals of fighting his mother, and has an overwhelmingly calm and understanding demeanor in the way he talks. Ironically, this story portrays him as once being the Celtic deity, Lugh, who is considered a God of Light.
• Dark Messiah: Mordred is the acting leader of The Mother's Children, a cult of humans and vampires that worship the Red Queen, and is held as a near mythical figure among these people, and the vampire community. When Ascalon realizes his presence, who the Queen picked as her champion doesn't matter, what matters is if they can get to them before he does.
• Daywalking Vampire: Played With. While sunlight is considered harmful to standard vampires, many have found a way to circumvent this. If fed the blood of a damphyr — which are naturally immune to these effects — a vampire can withstand daylight for a period depending on how much they feed on. Mordred sells his blood as a narcotic, allowing his vampire followers to go about as they please. Over the past century, Reid's work had found a way to synthesize damphyr blood, thus allowing vampires to regularly travel by daylight, no problem, provided they have a continuous and steady dose.
• Dhampyr: It is possible in this universe for a child to be conceived between a vampire human union. There are two notable examples in this story.
  • Mordred is one such example; with Arthur being human back when the vampric Morgause raped him. He's considered an exceptional example, as it is rare for a damphyr to live past a regular human lifespan. Let alone the 900 years Mordred walked the Earth. Apparently, another damphyr similar to Mordred existed centuries before him, known as Grendel.
  • Max and Chloe's son, Bill Price Caulfield is an unwitting dhamphyr. Born from Chloe's (human) ovums — which she donated shortly before the first game, hence his existence in both routes — and being impregnated by Rachel's blood. Meaning both his biological mothers are vampire, and at least human at the time her eggs were donated.
• Dead Guy Junior: Max and Chloe's son is named Bill. Considering Chloe is his biological mother, it's pretty transparent he was named after her deceased father, William Price.
• Decomposite Character: The Red Queen on two accounts, in regards to In-Universe and in real world myths.
  • In Arthurian Legend, Morgana Le Fay and Morgause were originally separate characters, and often portrayed as sisters. Later depictions adapt Morgana and Morgause as being one and the same. In this universe, Morgause played the essential role of Morgana in the King Arthur story, with the Red Queen — who is named "Morgana" here — simply being the source of her power; Morgause was simply her champion at the time. Of course, Morgana did step in at the time Mordred was born, but it would seem their exact role was something lost in translation.
  • In Vampyr, the Red Queen is thought of as being The Morrigan goddess of Celtic Mythology. However, this story follows an interpretation of the goddess in which she was three women, and that the Morrigan was a title. The Queen herself claims to be "The Last Daughter of the Morrigan" and goes by "Morgana".
• Defiant to the End: During his fight with Sean and Cassidy, when it begins to dawn on Sawney Bean that he's not getting out of this battle alive, he defiantly tries to kill them both as act of spite. Even as he is hacked up by an axe — getting his armed severed — Bean relentlessly gets back up, managing to non-lethally stab Sean using the jagged bone of his severed arm. Before Sean decapitates Bean, the latter simply gives him a hateful glare, silently cursing at him and telling Sean to get it over with.
• Demoted to Dragon
  • Lisbeth Fischer was an Arc Villain in Life Is Strange 2, and one of the more influential antagonists. In this story, her cult is reached out to by the Mother's Children, who effectively take control of her compound. After the Red Queen is revealed to Fischer, she is all too happy to serve under the Mother's Children, provided she gets the "salvation" their mother goddess offers. She is also the one who makes a request for Mordred to seek out the Diaz brothers — leading to Mordred and his followers besieging two towns as well as assaulting a prison. While she is set up as a personal nemesis to Sean and Daniel, she is still technically working under Mordred.
  • After surviving his encounter with Mordred in prison, Mark Jefferson — former Big Bad of Life Is Strange — is conscripted into the American Guard of Priwen, under Pierre Margot. This is less about Jefferson's combat prowess, and more about his connections to "persons of interest" in their investigations. Jefferson would work under them in their investigations, intending to use his new position as an opportunity to seek revenge on those who escaped him, or got him exposed and arrested.
• Dog-Kicking Excuse:
  • In Route B, following the "Redemption" ending of Life Is Strange 2, Sean Diaz was found innocent in Officer Matthews death, to the chagrin of his detractors. However, the prosecution was all too eager to make a case against him for multiple other — albeit smaller — felonies and misdemeanors he and Daniel got up to do during their journey. For this, even when Sean was found innocent of Matthews' death, these smaller crimes were used to get him a fifteen year sentence. Luckily, he's let off after two years thanks to a deal he made with the FBC, but Sean is a little cynical at how people wanted were looking for anything to pin him down for. As far as Sean's concerned, it was less about getting justice for Matthews, and more about making an example out of him.
  • As part of her Hero with Bad Publicity status, the same media outlets who try to elevate Rachel or Nathan's victimhood, also look for any and all details to try to demonize Chloe to the public — taking her history of delinquency and troubled relationship with her family, almost making them out to be worse than the kidnapping, torture and murder that Nathan was involved in. It's implied to be less about what Chloe actually did, and more about what Chloe's is; being a lower class, rebellious girl with a troubled home life, who needed to be made an example of. This is used to make Chloe a "Bad Victim" in a Good Victims, Bad Victims dynamic the media circus tries to push, with Rachel or Kate being "Good Victims".
• The Dreaded:
  • Mordred is public enemy number one among New Ascalon, having a rep for hiding in the shadows or plain sight, and generally doesn't reveal himself until he wants to. According to In-Universe history, Mordred brought all of Europe to its knees in Arthur's time. In the present day, he murders those who know who he is, and tries to speak out of him. Mary Reid ends up going to Ascalon for protection when she tries to do so, and even then it's implied she barely escaped. When Rachel sees through his friendly playboy act, she too quickly sees why everyone is afraid of him; especially seeing how ruthless and vicious he is to those he's not trying to butter up.
  • On the heroic side of things, Jonathan Reid and Lady Ashbury are seen as this to their enemies and detractors. When Mordred introduces himself to Rachel, he tries to sell Reid and Ashbury as extremists who will put down any and all of the Red Queen's champions. Reid also had a reputation for coming the closest to actually killing Mordred than King Arthur himself. In a collaboration between the FBC and New Ascalon, Reid and Ashbury have a public reputation of getting the results they want and making anyone who stands in their way "disappear". An attempt to blackmail them by Sean Prescott only ended with Prescott's dirty laundry being unearthed, and Prescott himself being abducted, and soon fed to his transformed son. So while Mordred was trying to manipulate Rachel, it's not like their reputation is unearned.
  • Played for Laughs in Tulpa!Steph. After she became an FBC scout for a rescue mission — during which she (briefly) killed Mordred — she became something of an In-Universe Memetic Badass. Because of the Living Dream nature of her Tulpa effect, not many in the FBC can recall "Agent Gingrich" existing despite having documented her. As a result, agents and staff often jokingly bring her up, playing up the "mystery" surrounding her, like an Urban Legend around the office. Many jokingly suggest she handles "Godzilla level assignments" overseas, to explain her absence. When the real Steph approaches the FBC for help, many are taken aback to see "Agent Gingrich" is not only real, but a pretty down to Earth young woman.
  • Also Played for Laughs with Dracula. There is a Running Gag when a human character discovers the existence of vampires, they snark at the idea of Dracula being among them; any vampires present will immediately warn them that he's not something to joke about, and warn them not to say his name. Notably, members of the Mother's Children — including Mordred — are the ones who give these warnings. Ashbury claims he was charming.
  • One of Mordred's Co-Dragons, Alexander "Sawney" Bean is regarded as one of the nastiest vampires around and something of a boogeyman figure among the supernatural and monster hunter community. Bean serves as Mordred's main attack dog when he can't or won't get his hands dirty, and is Rape, Pillage, and Burn in vampire form; having lead an attack on Beaver Creek as part of a deal Mordred made. His main claim to fame is running "Skal factories"; wherein hundreds of victims are inhumanely tortured and forcibly transformed into skals, with the intention on making them more monstrous. Many were not sure he actually existed, or really hoped he didn't. Even hardened and experienced vampires and hunters — such as Reid and McCullum are in disbelief that they learn have Alexander Bean on their hands
• Dreaming of Times Gone By: Max and Chloe's son, Bill has numerous dreams of past events, from Max, Chloe and Rachel's lives (apparently witnessing the events of the first game and Before the Storm, as well as seeing as far back to King Arthur's era, witnessing Mordred's life. With the revelations of Bill's parentage, and that he is a damphyr, it's implied this is the result of a blood connection between Bill and Rachel, creating a psychic link between the two. And since this blood — like Mordred's — carries the Red Queen's essence, this link also extends to Mordred and the Queen herself.
• Eldritch Abomination: For a bulk of the story, the Red Queen's current form is a sentient, spiritual being made from blood, and a disease that corrupts and distorts all it contacts, and can manifest spirit as a voice in the back of people's heads.
  • Angelic Abomination: The Red Queen's true/original appearance is seen in hallucinations and dreams, described as an ethereally beautiful, angel-like woman whose red hair and dress is seemingly made from blood, and constantly flowing. Her hallucinatory presence is also shown to cause the sun to turn red, water to turn to blood, and tree leaves to turn red — as if she's making the world bleed just by being in it.
• Eldritch Location: The Fog of Worlds. Its exact nature is uncertain, but it's thought to be a bridge of sorts between realms and timelines; as well as the next world. Entering the Fog is ill advised, and those exposed to it suffer nosebleeds, unless they can stop themselves from talking or thinking about it. It also appears in the story Love's Sacrifices, which ties the two stories together. Both Rachel, Max and Nathan experiance it, and Steph is revealed to have had prolonged exposure to it when she's revealed to have a Living Dream Tulpa. It's implied Max's powers also gave her prolonged exposure to it.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
  • Mordred admits no matter who he loved in life, his loyalty will always be to the Red Queen, who "adopted" and raised him from childhood. While he's leading a cult that sees her as a goddess, Mordred genuinely sees her as his mother, and puts her wants and desires before his own. He also holds his biological mother, Morgause, in high regard centuries after her death, despite her presumably dying giving birth to him. So much so, he overlooks Morgause's rape of Arthur, but hypocritically condemns Arthur for being a Child by Rape of Uther and Igraine.
  • Subverted with Mark Jefferson. It's mentioned in his backstory that his mother Lydia Jefferson raised Mark alone after his father left him, and that she encouraged his artistic hobbies and dreams. After he left college, Lydia was left dying of cancer, and Mark all but states that he exploited her condition to use as his first "subject", using her passing to elicit sympathy from the community and boost his career.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Downplayed with Mordred, as he mentions that despite his atrocities and genocidal end goal, he's had hundreds of people he loved and cared for over the centuries; this includes marrying several times, and even having children and meeting his grandchildren. But in that same speech, he mentions that his loyalty is ultimately to his "mother", and her desires will always come before his own. At the same time, Mordred does show genuine friendship and affection to one of his Co-Dragons, Lady Bathory; although, them being loyal to the same cause mitigates any conflict of loyalty on their part.
  • Zig-Zagged with James Amber. While he is a self righteous and manipulative parent, and isn't above getting his hands dirty to ostensibly protect his family and image, he does have some genuine care for Rachel. Unfortunately that care is so wrapped up in that image, that it borders onto Loving a Shadow. James' Knight Templar Parent deeds also led to Rachel cutting off ties with him before her death, and even years later, he's reluctant to admit any fault on his part. When the reunite, and James discovers she's a vampire — and see's her slaughter a squad of hunters — a distressed James shoots Rachel in the head, believing her to be a monster. At the same time, it's implied he doesn't actually believe his claim and is trying to rationalize to himself as he begins breaking down.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed, if not Subverted, with Mordred. It’s mentioned in Blue-and-Orange Morality, Mordred has a personal "code" of morality that only seems to make sense to him. As a result, a lot of his alleged standards are loose or hollow
  • It is stated he has standards against rape due to the circumstances of his birth. At the same time, he has no issue working with sexual predators or exploiting victims of sexual assault, as long as it serves his purposes. As it stands, Mordred has no real issues with sexual assault, so long as he himself doesn't get his hands dirty. Though in the present day, when Mordred introduces himself to Sean Diaz, (in Route A) he has two of his girls have sex for entertainment, with both girls looking uncomfortable, further demonstrating how hollow these standards are.
  • Also in Route A, Mordred claims it’s against his code to kill a bride on her wedding day, but when leading the attack on a wedding, everyone else is fair game.
  • A more comedic example is when Mordred introduces himself to Rachel; for all his love of pop culture, Mordded brings up the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom as an example of how low humanity has sunk. He even shudders while bringing it up and warns Rachel not to go down that rabbit hole.
• Evil Reactionary: The Guard of Priwen also become split when Geoffrey McCullum affirms that the Mother's Children are the greater threat among the vampires, and a mutual enemy with New Ascalon. McCullum's proposal of an Enemy Mine only leads to an Enemy Civil War, that is still occurring in the present day. Of McClullum's detractors, the leader was Jean Margot founded the "American Guard of Priwen"; which his apparent present day descendant, Pierre, now leads. In the present day, the Guard has become assimilated within the FBC; Margot isn't too happy with the way the FBC allows "undesirables" (vampires) into their alliance, nor does he like their new direction, especially with their new director.
• Felony Misdemeanour:
  • Chloe is subjected to this as part of James Ambers' smear campaign following Rachel's death, painting Chloe as a "bad influence" on his daughter, and the blame for all of Rachel's troubles. Sean Prescott similarly attempts to use this to detract attention away from Nathan's crimes, and discredit Chloe as a victim. In both cases, Chloe's troubled home life, delinquency, and vandalism is treated almost as bad, if not worse than Nathan's and Jefferson's history of kidnapping, torture and murder; with even James seemingly holding Chloe's "bad influence" as more responsible for Rachel's death than her actual killers.
  • In both routes, an investigation into Officer Matthews' death ultimately exonerates Sean Diaz. Unfortunately, Sean committed a series of (comparatively smaller) felonies and misdemeanors over his journey with Daniel, that his detractors especially want him to answer for. In fact, it's mentioned there was a wave of disappointment when Sean's innocence for Matthews' was proven. In Route B, they manage to pin a fifteen year sentence on Sean from these. It's suggested be less about what Sean did, and more about making an example of a "troubled" minority who stepped out of line, in an especially conservative climate at the time.
• Former Teen Rebel:
  • In the present day chapters, Chloe has seemingly parted from being the rebellious punk she was in the games. In Route A Chloe has settled down with Max as a suburban mom in Seattle, raising their son Bill. In Route B, following her death and transformation, Vampire!Chloe has become a field agent for the FBC over the years.
  • Inverted with Kate Marsh. In Blackwell Academy tried to be a nice and faithful Christian girl, even in the wake of her trauma. However, in both timelines, her already shaken faith gradually fell apart when her church tried to exploit her as a perfect victim while crediting themselves as the ones who saved her — ignoring that their rejection partially contributed to her trauma. Over time, Kate became more outgoing and rebellious, taking a tomboyish look, going to parties and even taking drugs. She also comes out as sappgic and begins a romantic relationship with her former bully, Victoria Chase. By then, the only difference seen between Chloe and Kate was that Kate had a better support system, and this a (slightly) healthier individual.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • While Rachel had a rebellious phase and was a bit of a trouble maker as a teenager, it's implied her especially toxic traits towards the end of her life, are the result of learning that her father had her biological mother kidnapped and drugged. With this, Rachel took up a series of maladaptive and self destructive coping mechanisms over the years before her death.
  • Mordred's own tragic history is brought up here and there, being conceived when the Red Queen had his mother rape Arthur. Following his biological mother's death, the Red Queen — then known as "Morgana" raised him to be a replacement champion. According to Bill's dreams of Mordred's past, he Used to Be a Sweet Kid. Just what she did to warp him into a monster could not have been pretty. It's implied she had such a hold on Mordred, that he literally puts her will before his own, even if he doesn't want too.
  • Subverted with Mark Jefferson. It is mentioned his father abandoned him as a child, but had a mother who supported his hobbies as he grew up. It turns out Jefferson repaid his mother by making her his first "subject" in his career while she was dying of cancer, exploiting her as she died and using her death to milk sympathy.
  • While it's already known that Nathan has one in the form of his abusive father, we learn more about the abuse in a flashback. One example is that Nathan's father had Nathan join a junior hockey team as a kid, and "forgot" him at the rink for three hours when Nathan's team lost a game. It is also revealed that Nathan suffered a severe head injury as a kid, trying to go up over the bar on a swing set; not only did Mr. Prescott did not visit his son while he was hospitalized, it's implied the brain damage Nathan suffered was a partial cause to his mental health issues.
  • According to Captain Margot, his ancestor Jean's zealotry and hatred for vampires stem from his family dying from natural diseases; in an effort to save his younger brother of tuberculosis, Jean had his brother turned by a vampire. However, this only resulted in his brother becoming a monster that Jean had to put down. Given the revelation that Pierre Margot is a vampire, her all but admits to being Jean himself, and that the backstory he just told was his confession.
• Fugitive Arc:
  • Subverted with Sean Diaz. In Route A, he's a fugitive returning to the United States; in B, he's a prisoner who was bailed out by the FBC. He prepares to go on the run to find his missing brother, after discovering he went missing following a vampire attack. However, the FBC manage to cut him a deal — he gets conditional freedom, so long as he works under their field agents for their investigations into the latest outbreak. If he plays ball for the duration of the investigations, he will be officially exonerated of his felonies and misdemeanors, and be allowed to go free with his brother.
  • Played a little more straight with Daniel Diaz. While he is not a fugitive from the law, the Mother's Children put a price on his head, and have been actively attacking Beaver Creek. As such, he and his friends Chris and Sarah Lee have to go on the run after barely escaping an attack. They run into Rachel, who is also a fugitive of the Mother's Children, and they team up to protect each other while keeping their heads down.

G-H

• Good Victims, Bad Victims: In-Universe. When the Dark Room is exposed, Rachel's death and Kate's trauma are exploited by the following media circus to make them out to be the "good" victims, while Chloe delinquent history and troubled home life is used to make her out to be "bad" victim. This is used to elevate Rachel and Kate's victimhood, or Nathan's to those sympathetic towards him.
  • In Rachel's case, after her death was uncovered, her father James started a social media campaign painting Rachel as the perfect student and daughter, and Chloe as a toxic influence on Rachel, leading to her troubled behavior. This was seemingly done as retaliation for Chloe telling Rachel the truth about her mother's abduction. Going by James' narrative, Chloe's "toxic influence" is apparently more to blame for Rachel's downward spiral and death, than even Rachel's actual abductors and murderers.
  • In Kate's case, she is subjected to the "Perfect Victim" treatment in the following media circus, and her church community treating her a lot nicer after her survival and/or Chloe's death; playing up how kind and innocent she is. It's treated less like they genuinely care for Kate as a person, but more about using her victimhood to make themselves look good for supporting her. With her troubles being aired out, Chloe is used as by that same media circus as this "Anti Kate". Notably, when Kate begins acting out, shedding her "Good Christian Girl" image in favor of being a Chloe-esque-rebel, the people who "supported" her are quick to wash their hands of her.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Besides the story making the Red Queen this for Life Is Strange — being the direct and indirect source of Chloe's troubles in life, and calling upon the corruption in Arcadia Bay — it is revealed there are other eldritch horrors that are beyond the Queen herself. While they themselves have no real role in this story, they are mentioned as "observing" it.
• Groin Attack:
  • In the third chapter, when Rachel goes out on her first "hunt" for fresh blood, she is picked up by a guy named Carter, who attempts to coerce oral sex out of her in exchange for a ride. Rachel pretends to be more helpless then she actually is, going along with his demands...and then she uses her fangs on him.
  • In the fifth chapter, set in the Route B timeline, it is briefly mentioned that Sean was made to witness a Pariah Prisoner being beaten down and mutilated by a mob of angry prisoners. This perp was a child murderer/rapist, who received a penectomy ^note surgical removal of the penis with a broken piece of glass from the other inmates. It was one of many instances of extreme violence Sean became desensitized by while in prison. Coincidentally, this predator was also named "Carter".
  • During Sean's fight with Alexander "Sawney" Bean, the former tries to incapacitate the latter with a kick/stomp between the legs. It causes Alexander to stumble a bit, but shooting proves more effective. In that same fight, Alexander attempts to swing an axe down between Sean's legs while trying to hack him, missing his groin a few inches.
• Hand on Womb: How Cassidy tells Sean she's pregnant. When she couldn't come out and say, she just takes Sean's hand, places it on her stomach, and lets him connect the dots.
• The Heavy: While the Red Queen is the Big Bad, and Mark Jefferson is another secondary antagonist, Mordred covers this basis. The Red Queen is "asleep", has no physical form, and little direct influence on the living world, but Mordred is leading a cult in her name and is preparing for her awakening. While Jefferson serves as a personal antagonist to Max, Chloe and Rachel, he's currently nowhere near the threat level of Mordred or the Red Queen. Mordred is also a direct or indirect antagonist to all the protagonists, effectively making him the overarching threat under the Queen.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Nathan makes one in both Routes, but it's more pronounced the Route B timeline; having accepted his arrest when his crimes are exposed, and shown true remorse for them. Nathan refuses his family's attempts to lighten his sentence —ironically by attacking prison guards and even his lawyer — and makes an effort to befriend Sean Diaz while in prison. After he is murdered in prison, Wylt turns him into another vampire champion to help undo the Queen's work in Arcadia Bay. The same occurs in Route A, but his transformation occurs after Jefferson kills him; therefore Nathan doesn't get time in prison to accept responsibility for what he's done. In either case, Nathan is firmly on the side fighting the Red Queen as of his death/transformation.
  • Mary has had a Heel–Face Revolving Door over the past century. After she is resurrected and forced into the Red Queen's services, she spends her time on and off with her brother, despite attempts to reconnect. As of 2013, Mary seemingly makes a firm turn against the Red Queen, wanting to help her brother and Rachel in earnest.
• Heel Realization:
  • Victoria Chase has one in both Routes; be it after Kate's suicide attempt, her abduction, and the storm; or after Chloe's death and Nathan's arrest. The remorse weighs heavily on Victoria to the point she believes herself to be a monster. It's a lot more pronounced in the B timeline, where she has a breakdown of her own shortly after Chloe's funeral, brought about by Survivor's Guilt. Ironically, Kate is one of the first people to forgive Victoria, with their subsequent friendship and romantic relationship helping the two heal after Blackwell.
  • Rachel has one shortly after her resurrection and transformation. During her recovery, she looks back on her former life, and relationship with Chloe, and it hits her how much she hurt Chloe with her affairs. Flashbacks show that Rachel had these realizations in the past, but they weren't enough to stop herself. With her new chance at life, she tries to do right by Steph (or at least her Tulpa) when the two begin dating. When Rachel nearly cheats on Steph (during a "disappearance" period of her Tulpa), she immediately regrets it and comes clean, and shows a sincerity in wanting to better herself.
• Heel–Faith Turn: Inverted with Kate, after having a Crisis of Faith following her victimization. When the truth of her assault comes out, Kate's church is all too happy to try to exploit her trauma, in order to credit themselves for saving her — despite the fact their rejection of her contributed to her trauma. All this to say, Kate becomes further disillusioned by her church. She gradually steps away from her faith in favor of becoming a rebellious punk and party girl in the same vein as Chloe and Rachel were. This is portrayed as when Kate truly begins to heal, as she gains a better support system in her friends as opposed to her toxic church community.
• Hero of Another Story: Two fold with Until Dawn.
  • Following the Everyone Lives ending, the main cast of Until Dawn have ended up in a witness protection deal with the FBC, and some have even joined as field agents. While they mostly have their own thing going on, Sam, Mike, Matt, Jessica and Emily are recurring supporting characters throughout the story, and become casual acquaintances with the Life Is Strange cast.
  • Predating them is the Dibikad family, an Ojibwe-Cree family who are the last survivors of the Pâhkwêkan club; a First Nations group of vampire and werewolf hunters dating back to the colonial era. They fell out of power over the nineteenth century; while they successfully killed numerous vampires, unfortunately colonists used this as a pretense to crack down on Pâhkwêkan. Their last operations were in Blackwood Pines, where Maxwell Dibikad was the sole survivor. His modern day descendant, Vanessa works as an agent for the FBC, who gets caught up in investigating Mordred's operations, and her uncle, Jack, was the Stranger of Until Dawn proper. Vanessa hopes to get the Pâhkwêkan re-instated through her work with the FBC.
• Hero with Bad Publicity:
  • Downplayed with Chloe Price. While calling her a "hero" is a little much, she gains a divisive reputation following the storm in Route A or her death in B. After Rachel's death is discovered, her father starts a smear campaign, propping Rachel up as a perfect daughter and student, with Chloe being this toxic influence on her. Sean Prescott runs a similar campaign when Nathan's crimes are exposed, attempting to deflect public ire onto Chloe. In both case, Chloe's troubled history, home life and delinquency is used against her by those sympathetic to Nathan, or those looking to prop Rachel and Kate's victimhood.
  • Zig-Zagged with Sean Diaz having more of a split reputation. It's implied to be caused by his race and the political climate. Sean is seen as either a criminal who got away or a modern heroic outlaw in the Route A, with many wanting him to answer for Officer Matthews' death. In both routes, there was ultimately an investigation that exonerated Sean of Matthews' death; however, the response by conservative media outlets and Sean's detractors was one of disappointment. In Route B, Sean was still sentenced to fifteen years for a series of misdemeanors he got up to during his journey — mainly because his detractors were that eager to pin him down for something. Even in that timeline, he still has supporters who are advocating for his innocence and freedom, especially after he got a graphic novel published.
• Heroic BSoD: Chloe undergoes one in both routes.
  • In A, Chloe is in a state of constant stunned silence in the wake of the storm, brought about by Survivor's Guilt, something that was expedited with the discovery of her mother's body. For weeks, Chloe would go through the motions, barely reacting to anything around or or talking to others. She recovers enough by the memorial service, to give a speech about living for those who can't anymore, but it still did a number on her.
  • In B, it's revealed Chloe spent months after her death in a nightmare state, where the Red Queen forcibly turned her and tried to break her down. Upon her transformation into a vampire, she would react in horror when she is made to feed on Frank, and wanders aimlessly back to her house, beside herself in horror and disbelief at what she's become. When Jonathan Reid finds her, Chloe just wants to die, remarking that she thought she'd see her dad again. Luckily, she is taken under the protection of New Ascalon; it's revealed by 2020, Chloe has sufficiently recovered and now works as a field agent for the FBC.
• Homosexual Reproduction: Max and Chloe's son, Bill Price Caulfield, who exists in both timelines; being born from Chloe's donated ovums, with Max being the surrogate who carried him to term. It' later revealed that Rachel is his other biological mother; Mordred and his followers took a sample of Rachel's blood, and tampered with it to function as a semen substitute. While keeping an eye on Max and Chloe, they used Rachel's blood to impregnate Chloe's eggs, and impregnated Max with the embryo while Max and Chloe were looking for a sperm donor.
• Honorary Aunt: Max and Chloe's son, Bill, has this in their female friend group, but especially in Kate and Victoria. The seventh chapter "Slice of Life", besides telling the story of how Kate and Victoria befriended eachother and fell in love, it also tells a slice of life few days where Kate and Victoria babysat Bill.

I-L

• Improvised Weapon: An example of Rachel being a Combat Pragmatist is using these. When mere vampire strength or her teeth aren't as effective, she will utilize whatever she can get her hands on as a makeshift weapon. When Mordred's followers attempt to abduct her, Rachel uses one as an (in)Human Shield and battering ram, breaks a broom in half, using it to impale two of them. In two separate fights, she uses broken pieces of glass as makeshift knives. During her first fight with Mordred, she breaks off the rib of a lackey she just mutilated, and uses it to stab Mordred into the wall; and uses a small TV to smash his head, swinging it by the cable like a mace.
• It's All About Me: Lisbeth Fischer had such a ridiculously selfish worldview, seeing herself as not only above her congregation but she takes the exposure and investigations of her crimes to be a very personal slight against her. She has no issue throwing her lot in with the Mother's Children, sacrificing her congirgation to them, and requests the massacre of Beaver Creek and Puerto Lobos, to spite the Diaz brothers for defying her. In return, she wants the "salvation" their mother-goddess offers. Even Mordred was a little taken aback by how petty and selfish her motives are.
• It's All My Fault: In Route A, Chloe feels this was in the aftermath of the storm, put into a near catatonic state of self loathing for weeks until she gives a speech as a memorial service. Beforehand, she was barely responsive to the world around her, and was operating on autopilot.
• It's Personal with the Dragon:
  • Despite being the Big Bad, the Red Queen has no current physical form of her own, and is "asleep" for much of the story. In her place, her "son" Mordred serves as a more active and visible antagonist for the protagonists to contend with, acting as a more personable nemesis in the narrative. He acts as an Evil Mentor turned adversary for Rachel; and while the Red Queen made personal attacks against the Reid's, Mordred is still seen as the de-facto Arc Villain of their storyline.
  • While calling her The Dragon is stretching it, Lisbeth Fischer becomes subservient to the Mother's Children as part of their deal. However, she quickly becomes a nemesis for the Diaz brothers; it was Daniel's escape and testimony that exposed more of her crimes; and for this, she makes a request for the Mother's Children to bring them to her, and destroy their homes as an act of revenge. While Mordred attacks Sean Diaz in Route's A and B, he is acting on Fischer's request and treating the whole thing like a job to do, putting Fischer's vendetta towards the brothers at the center of these attacks.
  • When Mark Jefferson is forcibly conscripted into the American Guard of Priwen, he does so because of his connections to "persons of interest"; that being the survivors of Arcadia Bay and especially the Dark Room — specifically his former students. While the Guard has a professional interest in monitoring and investigating them, Jefferson is taking this as an opportunity to get revenge on his former victims after his exposure and arrest.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Initially, Lisbeth Fischer was just a self serving and manipulative cult leader, though the investigations against her and her vendetta against the Diaz Brothers causes her to do some desperate and destructive things; by making her deal with the Mother's Children, she requests to them that they sack Beaver Creek and Puerto Lobos as an act of spite against Sean and Daniel. The attack on Beaver Creek alone sees a few hundred being killed, with the bodycount escalating over the next week. However, the investigations against Fischer shown her criminal history includes dealing drugs and protecting predators within her congregation; ran weapons for a militia; and when she was a teenager, had groomed a younger teenage boy in her church. She crossed the line years ago, but now she's sinking even lower.
• Karma Houdini Warranty:
  • In both routes, it's revealed Sean Prescott was unable to cover up his corruption, or Nathan's involvement with the dark room, especially when the FBC and New Ascalon began looking into him. Besides a failed attempt to control the narrative, Prescott could do nothing as his dirty laundry was revealed, and his assets fell apart. New Ascalon would then abduct Prescott, holding him for an extended period of time (months in Route A; years in B) before feeding him to his resurrected and transformed son.
  • Cathy Mortimer, a toxic and abusive girlfriend to Steph (or rather Tulpa!Steph), who previously kept getting away with wrongdoings due to her rich family, and influence on social media. This includes nearly driving her previous girlfriend and abuse victim to suicide by starting a smear campaign against her. Her luck runs out when she gets the bright idea of having Steph kidnapped and isolated, around the same time Mordred decides Rachel needs her first kill. While Rachel does maim Cathy to save Steph, it's Mordred himself who finishes her off.
  • In Life Is Strange 2, Hank Stamper never receives any real punishment for his assault and abduction of Sean Diaz, even maintaining his Villain with Good Publicity status after the fact. In both routes, it turns out Daniel eventually revealed the truth of this attack. When Hank was questioned by the FBI, his wife Doris folded immediately. While Hank was convicted, he didn't see jail time, but instead had to wear an ankle bracelet and had to pay a heavy settlement to Daniel's grandparents to keep them from pursuing the case further. On top of that, Hank's business was often vandalized and harassed by Sean's supporters after the truth came out.
  • In Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, James Amber receives no real punishment for having his ex-wife abducted and drugged — besides potentially having his relationship with Rachel ruined, and even that is up to the players. This story establishes that Chloe did tell Rachel the truth about the abduction; in retaliation, James attempted to start a smear campaign against Chloe, blaming her "bad influence" for Rachel's troubles and death. As a vampire, Rachel further revealed James' lies by writing an autobiography under the pen name "Vivian Manning", which dismantled James' narrative completely. While James is a little more humble about it when he and Rachel meet again, it's also shown his marriage to Rose fell apart as a result.
  • Among the Mother's Children, Alexander "Sawney" Bean has murdered, tortured and pillaged hundreds if not thousands of innocent people over the centuries — both in his services to Mordred, and his own amusement — and has previously escaped his folkloric execution. In the present day of this story, karma bites him not once, but twice. After a fight with Rachel and Daniel, Bean is tortured and left to die. When he's hospitalized from that encounter, Bean engineers an attack on the North Bend Quarantine Zone whilst trying to escape; an attack that leads to him getting decapitated and killed in a fight with Sean and Cassidy.
• Lesbian Vampire: Subverted with Rachel, as she is bisexual. Played more straight Mary Reid, who is portrayed as being closeted lesbian and gradually came out after her transformation. And Route B gives us Vampire!Chloe, who despite being "dead" to most of her friends and family, still had a secret affair with Max over the years.
• Living Dream: How Steph's tulpa manifests. It is a version of Steph that lived a radically different life than her, that regularly disappears and reappears in other peoples lives and memories, filtered by The Fog of Worlds. While the Real!Steph, lived the same life as her canon counterpart, Tulpa!Steph is a version of her that moved to LA and started a career as a stage actress, ending up in a relationship with the vampiric Rachel Amber, and later became an FBC scout. While Steph is pulled back and forth between these two lives, both remember the other life as a dream.
• Love Redeems:
  • Zig-Zagged with Rachel. While she may have sincerely loved Chloe, and began to realize how much her affairs hurt her, it wasn't enough to stop her at the time. When Rachel is resurrected as a vampire, she openly regrets how she hurt Chloe, and tries to do right by Steph, stopping herself from sleeping with Sam and Emily. ^note  This occurred due to Steph's "tulpa" status; Tulpa!Steph disappears out of people's lives and memories at different intervals. Rachel's near-fling with Sam and Emily occurred during such an instance. Afterwards, Rachel is steadfast in trying to better herself for her loved ones.
  • Victoria plays this a little more straight. Besides being remorseful for what happened to Kate, she begins bettering herself while she and Kate befriend each other. Over the years they become a couple, with Victoria putting her Alpha Bitch days behind her completely. Rather than love itself being what redeemed Victoria, her relationship with Kate is used to juxtapose how the two heal from what happened. The more Kate heals, and the more Victoria betters herself, the closer the two become, which culminated in them being romantically involved.
  • Averted with Morded. By his own admission, he has had countless loved ones in his near millennia of life, even getting married and starting families at various points. But he maintains that his true loyalty is to his "mother", who is not only a damning influence on him, but not even his loved ones could stand in his way. As it stands, the only other person Mordred shows genuine affection for in the present day is Bathory; and considering they are both loyal to the Red Queen and her cause, this Villainous Friendship is hardly redeeming for either of them. 
• Loving a Shadow:
  • Kate Marsh comes to this conclusion about her ostensible supporters. After Kate's victimhood is exploited, social media and her church community prop her up as this "perfect" victim of Jefferson and the Dark Room. Over time, Kate realizes this was less about actually supporting her, and more to pat themselves on the back for it. The Kate they really wanted to support was this idealized concept — a sad, but innocent "Good Christian" girl, who needs to be protected. When Kate adopts a more tomboyish punk look and rebellious attitude — similar to Chloe Price — her "supporters" wash their hands of Kate almost immediately.
  • While James Amber seems to genuinely care for Rachel, it's also heavily implied he cares more about his vision of Rachel as an ideal daughter and student, rather than Rachel as a person. After Rachel's death is uncovered, James tries to posthumously push this idealized version of Rachel in her memory. Rachel herself suspects that he cares more about preserving that image, than actually honouring her. When they reunite, this causes further distance between them despite James trying to reconnect with her. When James learns Rachel's a vampire and sees her in action, he invokes That Thing Is Not My Child!, and even tries to kill her in a moment of distress.

M-R

• Magical Native American: Averted with the Pâhkwêkan. While they were a group of vampire hunters from the Ojibwe and Cree nations, they have no special or mystical knowledge or power to their name. By all accounts, they were mundane, but effective fighters and hunters, trying to survive the increasing vampire presence in the Americas. In fact, their backstory states that it was a "vampire settler" from centuries before who taught them about vampires and how to fight them.
• Magic Versus Science: What makes the Blood of Hate such a hard disease to fight or cure, is due to the eldritch nature of the Red Queen. It's a spiritual disease as much as it is a medical one, and cannot be fully understood by scientific law. Jonathan Reid, despite being a vampire with plenty of experience with the supernatural, approaches the Blood of Hate as a disease to cure through medical means, as opposed to the manifestation of a vampiric deity. Hence why his search for the cure went on for over a century.
• Mama Bear: In the present day storyline, Rachel acts this way towards Daniel Diaz, Chris Eriksen and Sarah Lee Hackerman. While she acts more like a big sister towards them, she otherwise fits the bill. She finds and rescues them during the Beaver Creek attack, protecting them from skals while they keep their heads down over the next week. When Sawney Bean directly comes after them, and threatens to harm Sarah Lee, Rachel (with Daniel's help), absolutely brutalizes the guy, torturing him and crucifying him to a post (which he ends up surviving). As it so happens, it occurs when Rachel learns of her son, Bill — who was artificially conceived behind her back. It's implied that this lead to Rachel subconsciously projecting on the three.
• Master of Disguise: Mordred has a shtick, bordering onto Roger Smith extremes. Rather than hiding and lurking in the shadows, Mordred tends to hide in plain sight through various personas, alias and disguises. Be it as powerful playboys, mob bosses, longue singers or mundane university students. It's to the point that it's said someone could unwittingly meet or cross paths with Mordred, and not know it unless he properly introduces himself.
• Medical Rape and Impregnate: This occurs with Max and her pregnancy with Bill. While Max and Chloe wanted to have a baby, using artificial insemination, Mordred and his followers tampered with the procedure. Rather than using a sperm donor, the Mother's Children used Rachel's blood — tampered to serve as semen substitute — which was used to fertilize Chloe's ovum. Thereby, Bill's conception would be seen as Rape by Fraud from a medical perspective.
• Misanthrope Supreme: Mordred, despite his apparent love for pop culture, has a very low opinion of society and the human race. He intermixes his Well-Intentioned Extremist selling points by talking of how awful humanity is; claiming that his genocidal endgame is to exterminate what he sees as a corrupt society and build a better one from its ashes. He believes that the people who murder, rape and pillage is just humanity at it's base nature, and that the "good" people are putting up a front. It's heavily implied this worldview was instilled by his "mother", with the Red Queen being a hateful deity herself.
• Mistaken for Undead: Played With, since vampires are a type undead. However, there are instances where they are mistaken for zombies.
  • When Rachel is turned/resurrected, she has already be dead for several months, with her body decayed accordingly. When she first awakens she is very zombie-like in appearance, and she has to keep her head down for a while as her body restores itself. It takes a couple months or so until she is presentable to the public and could pass as her living self.
    • In the B Timeline, the same occurs with Chloe, having been dead for eight months at the time of her resurrection and transformation. Like Rachel, she also has to keep her head down for a while, for her body to restore itself.
  • While skals are considered a mutated and feral strain of vampirism, their feral behavior and distorted appearances brings zombies to mind — which is often compacted by Cold-Blooded Torture before being turned, and/or corruption by the Red Queen's essence. In-Universe, Skals were apparently the basis behind myths of Ghouls and ghoul-like beings across the world. When human characters initially encounter skals, they initially mistake them for zombies; in the B timeline, an attack by skals on Arcadia Bay is thought of as a zombie-like outbreak by the survivors.
• Misery Builds Character:
  • The Red Queen exploited the Dark Room to find a woman who was wronged and miserable enough to serve as her champions, taking a pick from Jefferson's victims. Because Rachel was the only one who couldn't escape her fate, the Queen picked her. However, the Queen had a special interest in Chloe having set up multiple events and tragedies in her life to make her miserable and toxic; her end goal being to make Chloe her champion after Nathan kills her. While she succeeds in turning Chloe in Route B, Chloe manages to escape her influence almost immediately, and finds a stable support system to recover with over the years.
  • Similar to the Dark Room, Alexander "Sawney" Bean is responsible for creating armies of skals — a ghoulish and often feral breed of vampires — for the Mother's Children. Rather than infecting them and being done with it, Bean would set up "factories" where hundreds of abducted people are sadistically and inhumanly tortured — sometimes even for years — until they lose their humanity. When they are turned into skals, they become more monstrous as a result.
• Misery Poker:
  • A more lighthearted example occurs in a flashback, when Nathan and Rachel are discussing their troubled relationships with their fathers. It's not treated as them trying to one up each other's trauma, but the two getting a genuine understanding of each other.
  • A more grim example occurs in another flashback. During Rachel's affair with Jefferson, she opens up to him about some of her troubles at home — especially her biologcal mother, who recently died from an overdose. Rather than show compassion or understanding, Jefferson "comforts" Rachel by saying she shouldn't let her losses hold her back. Jefferson mentions how his mother died of cancer and how he quickly got over it, comparing it to a bee sting. It doesn't help that Jefferson all but admits to exploiting his dying mother for his first art piece, and to generate sympathy from the community.
• More Despicable Minion: While Mordred is a ruthless, cold blooded, and even sadistic leader to the Mother's Children — having little if any moral standards, and certainly not above torture and murder — he has a few humanizing qualities. Mordred can be charming and funny at times, is usually strategic about who he gets his hands dirty with and when. He also has a layer of tragedy in that he was bred and groomed to be a loyal soldier to his eldritch "Mother". The same cannot be said of his Co-Dragons, Bathory and Alexander "Sawney" Bean.
  • Bathory is a sadistic aristocrat, who lives up to the stories surrounding her; is the one responsible for grooming Mary to be a "glorified cult prostitute"; and has a enslaved staff of children and young teenagers that she regularly feeds on and abuses, with the implications of sexual violence. In Route A, she ventures into Arcadia Bay, where she ends up slaughtering Joyce Price and massacres the Blue Whales diner during the storm; in B she leads the attack on Arcadia Bay after awakening the vampiric Chloe, with cruel sadism. In both eoutes, she tortures Warren Graham, and is all but stated to have raped him in the B timeline. The closest she has to any redeeming qualities is that it is implied she is a genuine friend to Mordred; but considering they are both loyal to the same cause, this is hardly a redeeming factor on her part.
  • Alexander "Sawney" Bean also lives up to the legends surrounding him, and is Mordred's choice of Psycho for Hire; being Rape, Pillage, and Burn in vampire form, getting his hands dirty when Mordred won't. He is such a feared name in the supernatural community, that even a hardened hunter like McCullum sees him as some sort of boogeyman. Bean is also responsible for the mass creation of skals for Mordred; abducting hundreds of people at a time, and torturing them into broken wrecks while infecting them with the Blood of Hate; with the desired result of creating even more monstrous skals. He also takes a predatory interest in terrorizing 12 year old Sarah Lee, and leads the attack on Beaver Creek.
• My Grandson, Myself: It's not uncommon here for vampires to pose as their living descendants to keep up appearances. Pierre Margot, leader of the Amercanized Guard of Priwen, is supposedly a descendant of it's founder Jean Margot. When Pierre is revealed as a vampire himself, he all but spells out that he is Jean Margot himself.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • As with the games, Victoria displays genuine regret over bullying Kate, especially following her attempted suicide and learning what she went through in the Dark Room. It gets so bad that it leads to her having a breakdown and spending time in a clinic. She makes a sincere effort to move past her Alpha Bitch days and even ends up befriending Kate while they recover, soon ending up romantically involved with her.
  • Rachel is shown to regret hurting Chloe and cheating on her, it wasn't enough for her to stop her going through with it, and was very reluctant to admit it. After her resurrection and transformation, Rachel is a lot more open with her regrets and tries to move past her toxic and self destructive behavior, especially when she ends up dating (Tulpa Steph. When she nearly relapses and cheats on Steph, Rachel stops and hates herself even more for it, before confessing to her.
• Never My Fault: Even years after Before the Storm, James Amber is very reluctant to admit any fault for his relationship with Rachel falling apart. When he was exposed by Chloe for having Rachel's (biological) mother kidnapped and forcibly drugged, Rachel all but disowns her father, and ends up taking a series of maladaptive coping habits. James seems to blame this on Chloe for telling Rachel the truth for what he did, as opposed to accepting it as his own fault. He even implied that Chloe's "bad influence" is what led to Rachel's downward spiral and death. When Rachel meets her father in the present day, he implies that Rachel "running away" caused his second wife to leave him, rather than the fallout of his actions.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Cathy Mortimer, on the surface level, is just a Rich Bitch and a toxic girlfriend to Steph, at first seeming like she poses no real threat. When she learns that Steph has been seeing Rachel behind her back, she breaks Steph's hand and takes her to an isolated spot to "break her down"; it is revealed that Cathy is friends with gangsters involved in human trafficking, who she asks to help break Steph down in isolation. It's further revealed that Cathy abused a previous girlfriend, and started a smear campaign against her on social media, nearly pushing her to suicide. While small fry in the grand scheme of things, a Villainy-Free Villain she is not.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Mordred tries to sell himself as a revolutionary to Rachel — and the other girls turned by his mother — trying to change society for the better through his mother's apocalypse. He prattles on about how corrupt and dirty society and the human race is — and why it's his goal not to destroy the world, but clear out the "filth", and build a better world on its ashes. Rachel doesn't buy it, seeing the red flags early on, and lets him know she read Animal Farm in freshman year. When he fails to sell Rachel on this, he later resorts to threats and blackmail to pull her in line.
  • Captain Margot, leader of the American Guard of Priwen presents himself as a militant figure answering to the FBC, aiding in the crisis against the the tangible threat of the Mother's Children. Margot's means of doing so includes setting up martial law, running prison cramps and recruiting dangerous criminals — including Mark Jefferson — for his investigations, or to use as foot soldiers. It's clear to almost everyone that Margot's motivations are not as selfless and altruistic as they appear, with Agent Gabriel Wallace describing Margot as someone looking for a monster to slay and call himself a hero over.
  • A more down to Earth example is James Amber. While a Knight Templar Parent who ostensibly loves his daughter, this fic leans to the interpretation that James had his ex-wife kidnapped and drugged to protect his families image and reputation. After Rachel was first found dead, James runs a campaign lionizing her as this perfect daughter, blaming "toxic influences" (Chloe) for her troubles. Rachel believes that her father was more interested in maintaining his image, and to punish Chloe for telling Rachel the truth about her mother. She calls James out on caring more about his rep than her when they see eachother again, and this is seemingly confirmed when he ultimately shoots her upon witnessing her vampirism.
• Off with His Head!: During the attack on North Bend's quarantine hospitals, Sean ends up killing Sawney Bean this way, using a fire-axe. Giving how resilient Bean was during their fight, it seems decapitation was the only way to be sure he was dead.
• Omnicidal Maniac: While Mordred makes no bones that his end goal is genocidal, he at least tries to sprinkle it in Well-Intentioned Extremist rhetoric — claiming that he and his followers will simply rebuild a better world over a corrupt one. The Red Queen herself makes no such platitudes. The destruction and corruption of humanity and the world is her end goal in itself. Any well intentioned rhetoric from her followers is just that.
• Orcus on His Throne: Despite being the main antagonist of the story, the Red Queen is "asleep" for much of it, relying on her followers to act as her proxies. This is because her "true" self has no current body of her own, manifesting only as the Blood of Hate until she can fully awake. Even when she creates an avatar from the Blood, it is expressly stated to be akin to her shadow or puppet, and not the same as facing the real deal. Even so, she can manifest her power in ways that affect the world, despite being "asleep"; the storm in Arcadia Bay is apparently one such instance; and she can appear to others through visual and auditory hallucinations.
• Pariah Prisoner:
  • In Route B this is Zig-Zagged during Sean Diaz's prison time. Sean was made to witness several prisoners being subjected to abuse for one reason or another, and was almost a target of this from Skinheads due to being a minority. He was made to witness a Cop Killer get beaten by guards to the point of brain damage; and witnesses a pedophilic murderer get castrated by the other prisoners. Sean manages to turn the tables on his prisoner status by getting a graphic novel published from prison, which not only strengthens his reputation on the outside, but many guards and other prisoners are congratulatory to him.
    • In that same route, Nathan became this after killing Chloe. When the truth of the Dark Room came out, on top of Nathan's privileged status as a rich white boy, he was made a special target of ire from the other prisoners. He's kept isolated enough that his safety isn't seriously compromised until a prison riot occurs. During which, Nathan is cornered and murdered in the shower by other prisoners. This is also what triggers his transformation into a vampire in this timeline.
  • Mark Jefferson was presumably this in both routes. After he was imprisoned, he was kept in isolation for his safety, thus avoiding retaliation from the other prisoners. This did not stop a disguised Mordred from infiltrating the prison and beating the stuffing out of him.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Occurs at multiple instances, where an Asshole Victim is at the receiving grisly retaliation.
  • During her early days in LA, Rachel goes on her first hunt for fresh blood, but doesn't have it in her to harm an innocent. However, when a man picks her up off the side of the road, and tries to coerce Rachel for oral sex in exchange for a ride, Rachel — being a vampire — pretends to be more helpless then she actually is to go along with his threat. Then she uses her fangs on the guy.
  • A more tame example is mentioned in passing. When word of Hank Stamper's assault and attempted abduction of the Diaz brothers came out, Hank was regularly harassed at his gas station by the Diaz brother's supporters, who would often vandalize his station as well.
  • In Route B, Sean regularly witnessed other prisoners be assaulted and even killed, ostensibly in retaliation for their crimes. He witnesses a Cop Killer inmate get beaten by the guards to the point of brain damage, and the genital mutilation of a child rapist and murder. Nathan Prescott is also murdered by other prisoners for his part in the Dark Room.
  • Cathy Mortimer is shown to be a toxic and abusive girlfriend to Steph. When she learns that Steph has been seeing Rachel, she breaks Steph's hand, and takes her to an isolated farm house to "break her down". At her side, are friends in a gang that are involved with trafficking. Mordred uses this to encourage Rachel into commiting her first kill as a vampire. While Rachel kills Cathy's friends, she only maims Cathy herself, and Mordred takes it upon himself to finish her off. The aftermath is described by reports as looking "as if coyotes and a mountain lion fought over their remains".
  • After Sean Prescott tried to control the narrative of the Dark Room, and sweep everything under the rug, New Ascalon made him "disappear" after spilling his dirty secrets. They kept him captives for months (A) or years (B) before being fed to his newly transformed son.
  • When Alexander "Sawney" Bean leads an attack on Beaver Creek, and hunts down Daniel Diaz and his friends, he takes a special liking to terrorizing Sarah Lee Hackerman. As recompense, Daniel and Rachel attack Bean together, brutalizing and maiming him, before leaving him crucified as a message to the Mother's Children. Bean is shown to have survived this.
• Photo Op with the Dog: In both routes, when Kate's victimhood of the Dark Room came to light, her church community and the media circus were quick to prop Kate up as this perfect victim to stand with. This is less out of genuine care for Kate or her well being, and more about patting themselves on the back for supporting her. This especially stands out with Kate's church and her more religious family members; they like to credit themselves for helping Kate when she needed them, when it was their rejection of her that played a significant part in her trauma. It says something that Kate bonds with her actual former bully during that time, and healed a lot better in that relationship.
• Precursor Hero: It is mentioned that multiple figures in English and Celtic folklore were also champions of Myrddin Wylt. These figures include Cú Chulainn, Beowulf, and most prominently King Arthur. Of them all, Arthur is stated to have destroyed the Red Queen's physical form, and saved Europe from Mordred's scourge. Unlike the legends, when Arthur departed to Avalon, it is believed he departed to the Americas to live out his supposed last days. Some believe he was also the one who taught Pâhkwêkan's founders of vampires and how to fight them. In the present day, many aren't sure if he's actually dead or just in hiding.
  • Predecessor Villain: Likewise, it is mentioned that the Red Queen's previous champions include Queen Medb, Grendel's mother — with Grendel himself having been a dhampir; described as a "Proto Mordred''. In Arthur's times, the Queen's champion was Morgause, who along with the Queen herself (then known as Morgana), was the basis behind Morgan Le Fay. Under the Queen, Morgause raped Arthur, impregnating herself with Mordred. While she is long dead by the time Mordred grew up, his survival gives Morgause a posthumous influence in the present day.
• Promoted to Parent:
  • In both Routes, Max Caulfield and Chloe Price have a son together named "Bill" by the 2020 storyline. Biologically Bill is Chloe's son, born from her ovums, with Max carrying him as a surrogate. In the A timeline, they raise him together in Seattle, while Max finishes school and Chloe is a stay at home mom. In the B timeline, Bill was born from Chloe's donated ovums, and Max raises him as a single mom with the support of her family and friends; It then turns out Max knew Chloe was a vampire in this timeline, and was having a secret affair with her, while Vampire!Chloe keeps an eye on Bill from a safe distance.
    • It is also revealed that Rachel is Bill's other biological mother; the Mother's Children managed to steal her blood and kept their eyes on former Blackwell students for a contingency plan. When Max and Chloe were looking for a sperm donor, Mordred secretly tampered with the procedure; with Rachel's blood tampered as a semen substitute, the used it to inseminate Chloe's eggs. Rachel herself doesn't discover this until 2020.
  • Also in both Routes, Sean Diaz finds out his girlfriend Cassidy is pregnant with his kid. While they are still early in her pregnancy, and weighing their options, it also gives Sean a lot more to loose and gain for his deal with the FBC.
• Psychological Projection: When Rachel meets Daniel, Chris and Sarah Lee, she develops this protective tendencies towards them, seemingly akin to Big Sister Instinct or Mama Bear instinct. Rachel soon hears that she has a biological son, artificially conceived behind her back. With this, it's implied Rachel is beginning to project these Mama Bear feelings onto the kids. When Rachel get's shot in the head, the brief delirious state has her see Daniel as her son.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Downplayed with Mordred. He's certainly vicious, viceful, and lets his emotions get the better of him at times. But he's fairly strategic and pragmatic with his planning. With that said, Mordred has a series of quirks and eccentricities; he lives a playboy lifestyle as a front, he genuinely has fun with his role; hosting parties and orgies at his penthouse; has an open love pop culture, music, and fandoms (but draws a line at Sonic the Hedgehog); and isn't shy about his sense of humor — while luring a sting operation to his safe-house for a Death Trap, he leaves a giant sucker among the evidence to find, as if he were pulling some sort of prank.
• Rasputinian Death: When Alexander "Sawney" Bean is fought by Sean and Cassidy, he takes a lot of punishment before going down. He gets stabbed and shot several times during the fight, and gets his throat slit. It takes Sean hacking him with an axe to subdue him — cutting off one of Bean's arms in the process — and decapitating Bean to put him down for good.
• Retired Badass: Despite Max initially seem to settle for a mundane civilian life after leaving Arcadia Bay. However when North Bend is attacked, it's revealed Max briefly worked as a Detective for the FBC, before "retiring" to focus more on her college career. Following the attack of North Bend, Max reaches out to the FBC and "unretires".

S-Y

• Shady Lady of the Night: Played With regarding Mary Reid. When resurrected by the Mother's Children, her purpose was to mark young women for the Red Queen, and/or infect them with her essence. While this doesn't always involve sex, Mary does sometimes sleep with them; as she did when she had a fling with Rachel. With her services to the Mother's Children, Mary has been often called a "Glorified Cult Prostitute".
• Stalker without a Crush: Mordred and his followers are to the former students of Blackwell — specifically those who were in Mark Jefferson's class. This is not out of any romantic or sexual interest. Rather, he believes any one of them could be marked by his mother, and made into her champions. In 2015, he attended the same university, as they in Seattle, becoming acquainted with Victoria and Kate. Mordred even goes as far as tampering with Max and Chloe's attempts at artificial insemination — impregnating Chloe's ovum's using Rachel's blood to another possible carrier for his mother.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Rachel ends up being with Steph. This is because the "Steph" who Rachel fell in love with and dated, wasn't the real deal; rather she was a tulpa of the Living Dream variety that the "real" Steph (representing her canon counterpart) unwittingly conjured up. Both Real!Steph and Tupla!Steph fades in and out of people's lives and memories as they transfer from one life to another, both remembering the other life as a dream. Because of this, after everything Rachel and Tulpa!Steph goes through, their ship ultimately sinks by 2020. However, the real Steph — now dating Alex Chen — begins to recall her Tulpa life, and is looking into it with Alex.
• Starter Villain: Cathy Mortimer serves as the initial Arc Villain in Rachel's flashback chapters, during her time in LA. She is a Rich Bitch and toxic and controlling girlfriend to Steph (or rather, the Tulpa!Steph). She is also a serial abuser, having previously abused another girlfriend, and started a smear campaign against her. She later breaks Steph's hand when she starts seeing Rachel, before trying to isolate and "break" Steph with the help of some traffickers she's acquainted with. She is dealt with shortly after Rachel meets Mordred, with Mordred using this as an opportunity to get Rachel her first kill.
• Stealth Sequel: To Love's Sacrifices, despite them supposedly being set on different worlds and timelines. Apparently, the two stories are connected by an Eldritch Location called "The Fog of Worlds" — which brought the FBC to investigate and "expand" into other timelines and worlds. When Rachel experiences the Fog of Worlds, she has glimpses of another life, where she meets Beca Mitcell, one of the protagonists of Love's Sacrifices. This also doubles as a P.O.V. Sequel, as Beca's perspective of these encounters are shown in Love's Sacrifices itself, and according to the notes, will carry over into future chapters; as well as Rachel's perspective into this story.
• Surprisingly Normal Backstory: As part of the Adaptation Expansion, Mark Jefferson's past before his career and growing up in Arcadia Bay is discussed. One would think that a possible Freudian Excuse would be brought up, maybe something comparing and contrasting him with the troubled history of his victims, and shed light on why Jefferson was so twisted. However, just it turns out his father left his family when Jefferson was a kid, and Jefferson was raised by a single but supportive mother. He repaid her by exploiting her condition when she was dying of cancer for his first "project", and used her death to milk sympathy from the community.
• Survivor's Guilt:
  • Chloe suffers this after the storm in Route A, being put in a state of self loathing when she sees how many people had to die for her survival. Especially when she realizes her mother was killed. While she soon pushes it behind during the memorial service, she spends a few weeks just going through the motions, barely responsive to others around her. She soon resolves to live for those who can't.
  • Victoria suffers this in both routes, but it's more pronounced in Route B. Besides her remorse for bullying Kate, Victoria's self loathing is compounded when Jefferson and Nathan's crimes are exposed — especially when Victoria learns she was on their list too. Realizing what Kate has been through, on top of Nathan killing Chloe, Victoria has a breakdown, believing that she deserved what happened to Kate and Chloe, and that it's not fair that they got what they didn't deserve.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Zig-Zagged with Rachel. Her cheating on Chloe is portrayed as being wrong, and something she hates herself over — not that it initially stopped her from doing so. Her affair with Jefferson is also expressly shown as a grooming dynamic, with Rachel as the victim. Becoming a vampire, Rachel has a lot more self loathing for her cheating past and tries to do better by Steph. While she almost sleeps with Sam and Emily, it was due to Tulpa!Steph having periods where she disappears from people's lives and memories like a Living Dream; Rachel's near fling with Sam and Emily occurred during such a period, not that Rachel herself thinks it excuses her.
• Tap on the Head: To vampires, being shot in the head is the equivalent of this. Unless they're decapitated or their brain is destroyed completely, all a headshot will do is give them brain damage that they'll recover from, and/or knock them out. This is subverted and Played for Drama when Rachel ends up being shot by her father; it takes a while for her to become unconscious, but the brain damage causes her mind to enter this dreamlike state for a while before she passes out.
• That Thing Is Not My Child!: James Amber's eventual reaction to Rachel being a vampire. While he initially tries to take the revelation in stride, he witnesses Rachel butchering numerous hunters while holding off an attack, causing James to see her as a monster — to the point that he actually shoots her in the head. Played With, in that it's implied James doesn't seriously believe this and is trying to rationalize himself in a distressing situation. Though the Loving The Shadow aspect of James and Rachel's relationship may be a factor in this.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Mordred's appearance is described as handsome, but plain enough that no one would pay him a second glance unless he wanted them too. This is something he uses for his Master of Disguise bit. He's hinted to the person who greeted Rachel when she first arrived in LA, but when they meet in the sixth chapter — which occurs several months later — Rachel doesn't recognize him, comparing him to a generic male model that she had a passing glance at.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: The Americanized Guard of Priwen has taken to recruiting criminals, prisoners and such as foot soldiers and guerilla's to their cause. In both routes, they recruit Sean Diaz despite his fugitive/prisoner status, because of his connection to Daniel, and the Mothers Children's interests in him. In return for seeing this case through, Sean will be completely exonerated come the end of this crisis. Unfortunately, they also recruit Mark Jefferson due to his connections with multiple persons of interest; with Jefferson transparently using this as an opportunity to get the ones who got away.
• Two Aliases, One Character:
  • While living in LA, Rachel went by two false identities as a cover; when roped into Mordred's dirtier business, she went by "Scarlet Rivers"; for her public identity, Rachel went by "Vivian Manning", working as a professional photographer, before eventually becoming a writer. She wrote an exposé about Arcadia Bay in the guise of writing a biography, as well as a series of vampire books called The Lost Chronicles.
  • Exaggerated with Mordred, who almost takes it to Roger Smith extremes. Part of his Master of Disguise schtick is that he adopts numerous personas and aliases that help him blend in to the public. From ruthless crime bosses, to powerful playboys and mundane university students, Mordred has several named personas to go with each disguise.
• Uncertain Doom: In-Universe, King Arthur, a former champion of Myrddin, was initially thought to have died centuries ago, having departed England to "Avalon". However, some in the FBC believe that he ended up in the America's in his search for Avalon, and could very well be alive in the present day. The recounted backstory of the Pâhkwêkan hunters tells of a "vampire settler" who lived in the Great Lakes Region for centuries before the colonial era, and taught the original founders of Pâhkwêkan about vampires and their weaknesses when their presence increased through colonialism. It is suspected in universe this vampire may have been Arthur.
• The Unchosen One: Rachel was not the Red Queen's desired champion in Arcadia Bay; the Queen always wanted Chloe Price, but hoped to exploit the Dark Room victim as backup champions. While she succeeds in turning Chloe in the B timeline, Chloe slips through her fingers almost immediately, finding herself in New Aascalon's protection. In A, the Queen couldn't take Kate as Max successfully saved her in this timeline, with Kate also surviving the storm. She settles for Rachel because she's the only one who'd die no matter one, and even that doesn't stop the Queen from trying to claim the others.
• The Unmasqued World: Played With. While this is a world where the supernatural is very commonplace, but is effectively covered up by the FBC and the organizations it assimilated. However, in Route A: The Red Queen briefly manifests her spirit in Arcadia Bay, with many Storm survivors seeing her; in Route B, a vampire outbreak occurs months after Chloe's death, with the incident also being covered up. In 2020, following the attack on Beaver Creek, and Puerto Lobos, it would seem it's a lot harder to cover up; many survivors and officers seem to realize vampires are real, and openly discuss them. If the Masquerade isn't broken, it's at least cracked.
• Villain of Another Story: The Makkapitew, the fiercest of the Blackwood Pines Wendigo of Until Dawn. While there are multiple other antagonists, most of them are either below the Red Queen or serve her, wittingly or not. The Makkapitew is implied to be in the same weight class as the Red Queen, and while their paths may have crossed, they generally stay in their own lane. It's mentioned the Makkapitew was the one who wiped out the Pâhkwêkan huntsmen in Blackwood Pines, and continuously stalks and antagonizes the Until Dawn cast after they escaped Mount Washington, and is a Familial Foe to the surviving Dibikad family. A passing mention also implies that the Makkapitew to be a manifestation of Ithaqua.
• Villain Song: Of a sort. Two Heather Dale songs are referenced in connection to Mordred.
  • One of Bill's dreams of Mordred's past indicates that Mordred's Lullaby was a genuine lullaby that his mother sang to him as a child. It's chorus ("Loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, only to me") appears to be a mantra of sorts for the Red Queen and her children.
  • Another dream shows Mordred rallying Arthur's Knights against him, during which he is Waxing Lyrical with the final chorus of Crashing Down, a Heather Dale song told from Mordred's perspective, which also told of how he swayed Arthur's men to him.
• Villain with Good Publicity:
  • While calling Rachel a villain is a bit of a stretch, this story is not shy about showing her toxic or self destructive habits and her vices, putting her in the category of a flawed anti-hero. With that said, her father was all too eager to push this narrative to the media that Rachel was the ideal daughter, student and innocent victim; blaming her issues on outside "toxic" influences (Chloe). All this does is make Rachel irritated, and she releases an expose which uncovers her bad habits, and implicitly her father's.
  • Zig-Zagged with Nathan Prescott. While his and Jefferson's crimes were exposed to the world, Nathan ended up with a divided reputation in the following media circus. Even when Sean Prescott fails to spin the narrative, there are people across social media who express nothing but sympathy and compassion for Nathan; downplaying the severity of his crimes and even implying that he was the only real victim in all this. When James Amber did a smear campaign against Chloe, many of Nathan's supporters were quick to highlight her delinquency, almost playing off Nathan's crimes as being no big deal in comparison.
• Wicked Cultured: Despite his misanthropy, Mordred has a genuine enthusiasm for popular culture, and a special affinity for music, taking any chance he gets to play or sing a song from the past century. It's implied he uses his playboy lifestyle and identities to rub shoulders with the rich and famous, attends concerts and explores different fandoms. But he apparently draws a line at the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom. It's mentioned he worked as a lounge singer a few times. He attended a Demi Lovato concert that Rachel attended while following her, and mentions he couldn't get her songs out of his head. Because of these quirks, it's almost easy to forget Mordred is a vampiric cult leader, who plans to — and has committed — acts of genocide.
• Would Hurt a Child: While we don't see Mordred directly harm any children, he at the very least gave the "Okay" for Beaver Creek to be sieged for the expressed purpose of abducting twelve year old Daniel Diaz. In Route A, one of the vampires turned for his attack on Puerto Lobos is a young boy. As for his underlings, Bathory had a manor full of child slaves when she regularly feeds on and implicitly does other kinds of abuse to them that are left unmentioned; Mordred's other underline, Alexander "Sawney" Bean, and his followers have no issues torturing and turning children in their "factories'', is the one who carried out the attack on Beaver Creek, and especially takes an unsettling interest in 12 year old Sarah Lee.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: The Red Queen, as a death goddess, has some dominion over those who died under her. Both directly and indirectly. When Mary's young son Connor dies of the plague caused by her, the Queen snatches his soul from the afterlife, keeping him captive to ensure Mary serves her will. In Route B, the Queen traps Chloe in a nightmarish purgatory after her death, hoping to break her down in preparation for her transformation.

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