In a World, where fictional characters can go after their story ended. In an unnamed, secret university town with a population consisting almost entirely of aforementioned fictional characters stands the
Building #
42 ... where it all began when
Jareth and
Erik decided to move in after some years of
drowning their sorrows together. And the madness spreads ever since.
In less movie trailer like words: The Buildingverse
is The Verse that sprung up around the
deviantART Fan Webcomic Roommates when different authors began producing
Spin Offs and otherwise expanding on the source material. Most of these take place in the Building or the
University or at least in the town but the world outside is big and some already stepped outside... a bit.
Notable longer works in the "franchise" in alphabetical order:
Tropes associated with the Buildingverse:
- Actor Allusion: Playing with this is one of the source for meta joke.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Almost all character has these except if they are dead... which is a hard thing to do around here. Jadis (Jareth's mother) takes the cake but it's safer to assume that any parent will be embarrassing except proven otherwise.
- Art Shift: In the case of the comics nobody is surprised, but because things like "and the art went all straight" appear even in the fics this deserves a special mention.
- Ascended Fanon: The creators routinely read the other related work so borrowing ideas from each other is extremely frequent.
- Balance Between Good and Evil: Because the primary source for these forces is Good Omens in the 'verse.
- Building of Adventure: Well, it's called the Buildingverse for a reason. But it stands in a City of Adventure (The Unnamed University Town) that also has a University named after St. Jude and who knows what else. There where also outtakes from Oz to Paris.
- Death Is Cheap: Death Is Cheap in the 'verse in general, but at least in Roommates there is an outright Nobody Can Die rule in place.
- deviantART: Most works are published on this platform.
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: As out of canon worlds go, this is a fairly common phenomenon. (Also the other Did You Just Index Cthulhu? tropes tend to happen fairly regularly. Except Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? because these aren't that action oriented works.)
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The naming convention of the series' tend to reference where its main characters live relative to the main apartment of Roommates (like: next door, down the street) or what they are/do in the 'verse (being the superintendent). Sometimes both (Vampires Below is about vampires who live on a lower level). Or rarely the most fitting trope (like: Children And Monsters)
- Failure Is the Only Option: Tend to run on this.
- The Fair Folk / Witch Species: The Magical People. They are a big source of mischief. The focus on them wary from work to work, but they are "easily entertained but frequently bored tricksters" at best, and you don't want to see their worst. Really you don't. If any work has a Nightmare Fuel entry it's a safe bet that it's because of them.
- Fanservice: These series' are fanservice heavy and shamelessly self-aware about it.
- Fan Vid: They exist and unsurprisingly most of them are set to Obsession or Breakup Songs. Some examples:
- Finagle's Law: A good friend of the Rule of Funny and archnemesis of the Rule Of Cool and the Rule of Romantic, how it relates to the Rule of Drama (and the Rule of Sexy) depends on the individual work.
- Medium Awareness: Character's tend to begin on the awareness level of Meta Guy and the Fourth Wall is all kinds of weak.
- Mega Crossover: Roommates began with Labyrinth, The Phantom of the Opera, Pirates of the Caribbean and Les Misérables but as currently stands we are closer to a Multiverse where All Stories Are Real Somewhere.
- Meta Fic / Inn Between The Worlds: These stories take place on an alternate Earth where fictional characters can go after their stories end (or between stories). Like when they died.
- Obligatory Joke: Any addition to the 'verse is "obligated" to sooner or later do a gift (fruit) basket joke (it's a Shout Out to a Running Gag in Roommates).
- Recursive Fanfiction: The whole 'verse grew out as this for Roommates, with the current level of interconnectedness it's hard to say which is based on which anymore.
- Recursive Reality / Schrödinger's Butterfly: Worlds of fiction that are fictional in the world of the comic that is fictional in ours... and this is just the beginning.
- Schedule Slip: Well, yes. Only Roommates is known to avert this.
- Self-Referential Humor: Much of the humor of these works come from their heightened awareness... yeah, lots of lampshades, playing with tropes and the like.
- Sliding Scale Of Plot Versus Characters: Firmly on the character driven side. Even the one with the most plot is only balanced at best.
- Take That, Audience! / Self-Deprecation / Biting-the-Hand Humor: And not always played for laughs. These are a self-aware fandom works for fans by a fans. Yes, nobody thinks twice about making jokes about shipping, fans and their/our assorted antics... but the same time it doesn't shy away delivering punches against the "original" authors either. The balance between these tropes vary between works but are almost always present.
- Tangled Family Tree: Every magical being from every fanon ever is related, and they practice Interspecies Romance with mortals. Also all vampires are "related" too.
- Target Audience: Women, mostly in their 20s, and the fangirl (optionally simply geek or nerd) variety, not surprisingly. At least the author of GND joked about "When I grow up I want to draw shoujo manga." (some would argue that she already does or what she does is closer to josei actually).
- Theory of Narrative Causality: These comics and fics tend to be perfectly self-aware about their own fictional nature. "Narrative Convenience" is many times the characters' in-universe answer to things.
- They Walk Among Us: Well, there isn't a Masquerade and at least in the Unnamed University Town Muggles are the rarest species.
- Villains Out Shopping: Many characters in the 'verse are canonically villains... trying to begin a new life. So this is a regular occurrence.
- A Wizard Did It / Wild Magic: Or "A fae did it!" or what do we get when a world is self-aware enough to in-universe acknowledge magic as plot device.
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