Literature / Clawing at Glass

"What would you do to finally stop clawing at glass?"

Clawing at Glass is the prequel to Mirror World, and the second of the Inopticus series.

Inoptica, a world adjacent to Earth ruled by the Houses of Dawn, Noon, Dusk and Midnight, is plunged into the brink of war when House Noon launches a near-genocide upon House Dusk. When the dust clears, Batlord Talvor, Noon's leader, is dead, assassinated as part of a much darker conspiracy behind the Red Dawn. With the fate of Inoptica at stake, a group of unlikely heroes—Jondi, a drug-addled former brood-surgeon from House Midnight; Wydel, the younger sister of Sprucequeen Ahandi, ruler of House Dawn and all Inoptica; and Avis, an enigmatic soldier within House Noon working as an agent for the powers behind the Red Dawn—must find a way to stop the forces behind the Red Dawn before they can consume all Inoptica.

It can be read here.

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The work contains examples of the following tropes:

• A Death in the Limelight: Rook receives no greater focus than the section that ends in Trick-Jack slaughtering him.
• A Mother to Her Men: Milivia is one of the few Noon leaders who actually cares for her subordinates and treats them as priceless, unlike Kryce or Talvor.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: House Noon believes the strongest of them is the most murderous and with Talvor's death, nobody is 'fit' to rule, as he was the finest of the killers.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Most of the weapons in Inoptica have piercing sharpness, especially blades of light or shadow.
• Action Girl: Most of the female cast; of note, Milivia stands out as one among the other Noon commanders, Sprucequeen Ahandi viciously destroyed her rivals in Dawn and takes on Trick-Jack, and even Zada turns out to be a Dark Action Girl when she's pressed.
• Affably Evil:
  • A number of House Noon members, particularly Visca, are pleasant and friendly enough in spite of being genocidal nuts.
  • Zada is cheery, pleasant and apologetic, whether or not she's attempting to help perk up Jondi's mood or calmly arranging the death of hundreds of her own kind. Even if she can't feel emotions properly, Zada's affability never, ever wavers regardless of the situation she's in.
• Alas, Poor Villain: When Kryce is finally put down, it's as a broken wreck of a man who simply wants to rest after all the pain he's been through.
• The Alcoholic: Jondi is a drunken wreck who was discharged from the Moonguard for his drunken recklessness. His aide, Zada, calmly notes that him walking away from the tavern is actually a sign of progress for him even if he's still drunk out of his mind.
• All the Other Reindeer: It's telling that Avis is distinguished from the rest of House Noon in that he's not a blodthirsty lunatic.
• Affectionate Nickname: Ahandi deems Wydel as 'twiglet,' given the plant theme of House Dawn.
• And I Must Scream: Trick-Jack twists Ashorn into a perpetually-grinning effigy of himself that can do nothing but repeat defiant lines Trick-Jack has left him to say, and bear the horrific, prolonged torture of Kryce with a perpetual smile on his face. It's very heavily indicated there's at least part of Ashorn still under there, aware of everything happening but unable to do anything about it. Trick-Jack finally breaks this and allows him to scream--and then tells Kryce that "a gift is meant to last" before leaving Ashorn to Kryce's further whim.
• Animal Motifs: Noon has the bat as their own, while ravens and corvids fit House Dusk. Doves are the recurring one for House Midnight.
• Arc Words:
  • "Games" come up quite often in the context of the twisting knot of schemes in the Red King and White Queen's plans, particularly referenced by Trick-Jack.
  • "Fire and diamond" (and repetitions of each individual word), a phrase and theme that hint toward the presence of the Red King and White Queen.
• Asshole Victim: Zada murders Hypraith. Given the late Farseer was something of a selfish coward, not many tears are truly shed for him, as nasty as it is.
• Assimilation Backfire: Ahandi absorbing Trick-Jack's blood and life results in her becoming something disturbingly new.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Trick-Jack's plots don't always go as expected. Rousing Dawn to battle turns out to initially be a poor decision with how powerful Sprucequeen Ahandi truly is.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Avis takes on the power of the Batlord and manifests the wings that signify his ascension during the battle with Kryce, truly claiming the title at Inoptica's blackest moment.
• Avenging the Villain: The more extreme faction of Noon is bent on avenging the genocidal madman Talvor.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The Red King and White Queen, a pair of eldritch abominations beyond even the power of the Watcher and the ruler of the strange world of Mid. Trick-Jack, their Mouth of Sauron, acts as The Heavy.
• Big Sister Instinct: Ahandi, the Sprucequeen of House Dawn, is devoted to her sister Wydel.
• Bittersweet Ending: The White Queen and the Red King are both slain, ending their threat to Inoptica forever, freeing the souls the Red King kept in bondage and even saving Earth from their monstrous "games." On the other hand, most of Inoptica's population is either dead or, in the case of Wydel and the seed-fangs, cursed to a fate far worse than death. Jondi is left devoided, forcibly stripped of the compassion that made him an All-Loving Hero and making him a mirror to Zada herself, while Zada herself is banished to Earth with the one person she truly cared for now feeling nothing for her. Avis, Raphandas, and Jondi are left to take care of what remains of the Houses with a new understanding between them all, and Ahandi survives her stint as Ahandi-Jack with the promise she'll see her sister again, but the future itself is left incredibly uncertain for the survivors.
  Ahandi: I wonder what the world of the future will look like in the hands of people like us, my Watcher.
• Black-and-Gray Morality: Far more interested in inter-House conflicts, Glass presents the black in Talvor and the manipulative Trick-Jack, who are seeking genocide and other dark schemes, but no House has its hands clean and even the most morally resolute characters work within those constraints.
• Blood Knight: Talvor and his soldiers are an entire legion of these. Avis, seemingly the one day-vamp who isn't like his bloodthirsty comrades, exploits this by cutting Talvor's throat in plain view—with none of the other day-vamps noticing because they're too distracted trying to find any surviving night-claws to butcher.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Alien Blood is still in effect, but the fairly tame violence in Mirrorworld is ratcheted up from the first chapter onward with the Red Dawn.
• Body Horror: The Batlord transition is very, very painful, with wings deforming the new successor's back before ripping their way out.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: Zada has been using Jondi a long time, despite being his guard.
• Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous: Both Talvor's sadistic order and Trick-Jack's insane chaos showcase the extremes of both sides and why one is wary to be wary of them in equal measure.
• Breaking Speech: Milivia gives Avis a brutal dressing down, saying how alone he is under his rhetoric. For perhaps the first time, Avis is unable to respond to the accusation.
• Bright Is Not Good: Noon is the 'Fire and the Ray,' distinguished by bright, fiery colors. And it's ruled by genocidal maniacs.
• Broken Pedestal: Though she only knew her a day, Wydel admired and looked up to Zada. Finding out her true nature is difficult for her.
• Bullying a Dragon: Zada tells a story of an auditor who loathed her, telling others not to trust her and physically assaulting her. Zada being a ruthless sociopath and mad scientist, this didn't end well for her.
• Bystander Syndrome: House Midnight's approach to the Red Dawn is simple: when has it ever been their problem?
• Cain and Abel: Not blood brothers, but Avis and Kryce are 'brothers' in Talvor's family, ending up in a pitched battle with Avis attempting to preserve Inoptica and Kryce trying to ravage it.
• Casting a Shadow: While Noon fights with fire and Midnight with light, Dusk utilizes shadows, particularly their Pitchwraith.
• Co-Dragons: Trick-Jack, itself The Dragon to the Red King and the White Queen, has several agents running numerous plots at once, most prominently Avis (who is shafted and replaced with Kryce in chapter 16), and Zada.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Any Night-Claw who falls into the hands of the Day-Vamps is subjected to brutal interrogation.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: House Noon in Mirrorworld was the closest thing to a totally "good" House there was, with Dawn as the only House that was Always Chaotic Evil to a tee. Here, the positions are exactly the opposite; Noon is a group of largely bloodthirsty extremists seeking to commit genocide, whereas Dawn is the only House with a vested interest in keeping peace and avoiding further carnage.
• Crapsack World: While it largely depends on which House you end up in, Inoptica is generally not a fun place to be. The Wilt is a deadly forest full of horrible monsters called Brood, and the actual civilization is little better; House Noon in particular is a pit of horrific violence that purges the young and weak from its numbers while launching vicious attacks on House Dusk and anyone else unfortunate enough to try and stop them, leading to entire villages razed. House Dawn and Midnight have much better security, but Dawn is also incapable of controlling the situation fully and collapses into infighting without a Sprucequeen, and Midnight is subjected to a partial Genocide from the Inside from one of the most seemingly trustworthy characters in the plot. Nowhere is truly safe, and Trick-Jack exploiting House tensions to spark all-out war makes things even worse.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Hypraith is killed by Zada when she impales him with a special gift from the White Queen: turning him into glass.
• Cultural Rebel: Milivia is this in House Noon, leading the faction charitably described as 'not insane,' which is hated by the rest that are.
• Curious Qualms of Conscience: As bad and vicious as Avis can get, he never quite manages to leave his conscience behind entirely.
• Darker and Edgier: Things weren't exactly sunshine and rainbows in Mirrorworld, but Clawing at Glass opens with the bloody massacre of thousands and the Fantastic Racism much, much more prominent from the outset.
• Dark Fantasy: Rooted in this much deeper than the aspects of New Weird in Mirrorworld; the bizarre things within Inoptica are still present, but downplayed in comparison to the vicious atmosphere of genocide, violence, and cynicism pervading through Inoptica.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Trick-Jack will take any form, even those who are deceased, using Talvor's form to manipulate Kryce.
• Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Zada can even play gods, going behind the backs of the Red King and White Queen to arrange the revival of the Watcher, who is furious about what they've done to Inoptica.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The Wilt sounds creepy enough. And it is, with nobody having returned. The name is a creepy enough clue.
• Double Agent: Avis is Trick-Jack's agent within the walls of House Noon. Zada is also his agent within House Midnight.
• Dr. Jerk: Jondi's an ex-medic from the Moonguard who was discharged precisely for this reason, and while he's been steadily recovering from his alcoholism, his foul temperament clearly hasn't improved much.
• Duel to the Death:
  • The Fall of Inoptica features a pitched duel between Ahandi and Trick-Jack.
  • The final battle is packed full of these, from Avis against Kryce, to Jondi/The Watcher against the White Queen.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Talvor wants to create a savage police state where only the strong rule, and he's willing to build it of the genocide of anything not one of his day-vamps.
• Eating the Enemy: Ahandi's power is sucking the blood and life from her enemy to devour their life-force.
• The End Justifies the Means: For all the dark things Ahandi has done, she is devoted to a positive outcome for Wydel. It just so happens she'll do whatever she has to in order to obtain it.
• The End of the World as We Know It: The ultimate plan of the Red King and White Queen is to utterly annihilate Inoptica as they've destroyed so many other worlds.
• Enemy Mine:
  • Dusk and Dawn aren't exactly friends, but Trick-Jack and his plans are too dangerous for them not to ally for.
  • Avis ends up working uneasily with Jondi and Wydel after having been a servant of the Red King and White Queen.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Farseer Hypraith is shocked when the friendly, pleasant auditor Zada plants a needle in his heart.
• Evil Running Good: Trick-Jack, a despicable and savage monster, is playing everyone, good and evil alike in Inoptica.
• False Innocence Trick:
  • Zada plays the innocent little thing to a T while being a calculating sociopath under it.
  • Ahandi plays at being the noble, refined Sprucequeen, but she's got a much darker side, being responsible for draining hundreds of seed-fangs to death.
• Fantastic Drug: The fluids of other seed-fangs can be quite intoxicating, as found out by Ahandi when she began slowly draining others.
• Fantastic Racism: Most pronounced in the total hatred between night-claws and day-vamps.
• Fighting from the Inside: Kryce manages to overpower the Red King from inside himself to harness his power and battle Avis.
• Final Solution: Talvor, and most of House Noon's, judgment on House Dusk and the night-claws. The Red Dawn kills all those who can fight back, and the only thing that immediately prevents them from targeting the House itself to kill the remaining noncombatants is Talvor's assassination by Avis' hands.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Zada's a social outcast despite her outgoing, perky personality, which confuses Wydel. She has a lot more difficulty fitting into a normal environment than she lets on.
  • Ahandi makes indirect reference to dark things she did before the throne, at one point muttering she'll "make all this atrocity worth it" in a flashback. That's her horrific remorse after she fatally drains hundreds of her own kind for the power boost needed to take the throne of Dawn.
• Genghis Gambit: Trick-Jack uses Hypraith's form to get the other Houses against him and at one another's throats...unite them, enhance the war with a common enemy and sow chaos even further with Noon's Final Solution as his ace in the hole.
• Genocide from the Inside:
  • Zada wipes out a huge portion of the wing-sages, including the Farseer Hypraith, when she allows House Noon to obliterate most of House Midnight.
  • Avis's plot is to wipe out House Noon from within, viewing it as irreparably tainted by Talvor's monstrosity.
• Gory Discretion Shot: We don't see how Trick-Jack slaughters the people outside House Midnight's throne room, which is probably for the best with how gory it sounds.
• Graceful Loser: The Red King takes his annihilation really well, even complimenting Avis at the end.
• Guilt-Free Extermination War: House Noon thinks they have one back before Volte's reign, happily massacring Dusk and aiming to wipe them out.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Excepting the sneaky Avis, this seems to be ubiquitous to Day-Vamps who need no real reason to snap.
• Happiness in Slavery: The insane killers of House Noon are tortured by Talvor into not only being slaves, but love being said slaves.
• Hero's Evil Predecessor: Volte, for all his faults in Mirrorworld had good intentions and was a genuine hero and A Father to His Men. His near-predecessor Talvor, is a vicious thug, murderer and extremist whose philosophy is "the only good Night Claw is a dead one."
• Heroic Neutral: House Midnight consists of largely good people, but their approach to most conflict is "not our freaking problem."
• Heroic Sacrifice: Milivia detonates all her energy to save Avis and Raphandas, knowing it will mean her life; a sacrifice she makes for her soldiers.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: The Watcher is furious any other deity might threaten his 'little ants,' showcasing a strange protectiveness over the denizens of Inoptica. Nobody toys with their lives except Cheshire itself.
• I Will Wait for You: Ahandi, freed of Trick-Jack, vows she will be there for Wydel at the end of her road and no matter how long it takes, she'll be waiting for her sister with an outstretched hand.
• If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Avis's tests tend to including piling up bodies. Usually he's fine with this, but he isn't able to kill children.
• In the Back: Taking full advantage of his trauma in stabbing Wydel, Zada casually impales Avis through the back.
• Innocence Lost: Wydel lost her childish innocence seeing so much death within Inoptica, much of it at the hands of her sister.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Zada and Jondi, insofar as Inoptica's frozen ages allow for "generations," are a case of this. Physically, Jondi is decades Zada's senior, yet they're still closer friends than anyone.
• Insistent Terminology: Visca of House Noon objects to being called 'genocidal lunatics.' They're genocidal radicals, thank you very much.
• Ironic Echo: Avis and Milivia have a small discussion about backstabbing and how Avis can't blame the "inevitable blade" for seeking a back that's turned. This comes back to bite him in chapter 16 when Zada literally gets him In the Back, all because he ends up distracted by Wydel.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Kryce, manipulated by Trick-Jack, opts to lose what remains of his mind and decides to throw Inoptica into chaos and death, all in Talvor's name.
• Kill the God: The final battles in the series come to a head with the heroes attempting to destroy the monstrous invader deities the Red King and White Queen.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Jondi will help save lives and fight to save Inoptica. He's not going to be nice about it, though.
• Leave No Survivors: Talvor's standing orders? Kill everything in House Dusk, and survivors are not an option.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Between Avis's ruthless designs and Trick-Jack's genocidal and chaotic ambitions, no surprise Jondi chooses to work with the day-vamp for a time.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Trick-Jack is doing all it can to profit off the chaos it plunges Inoptica into and accentuate it.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Those having read Mirrorworld will remember Cheshire, the Watcher, as a somewhat playful and well meaning, if completely misguided deity. Here, Cheshire is facing two other gods with dark designs on Inoptica and is furious over what they've done to his world.
• The Man Behind the Man: The mysterious doppleganger Trick-Jack is running all the misery in the plot itself through several seemingly unrelated agents, all on behalf of the Red King and White Queen.
• More Teeth Thanthe Osmond Family: Trick-Jack has massive fangs, described as 'rows of never-ending jaws.'
• My God, What Have I Done?: Avis freezes up when Wydel takes a stab for Zada, nearly killing the little seed-fang.
• My Greatest Failure: Ahandi killed hundreds of seed-fangs just for the high of draining them, something she is horrifically ashamed over.
• Necessarily Evil: Avis's wicked deeds are all for what he hopes will be a positive goal. He just can't get there by being nice about it.
• No Place for Me There: A major factor in Zada's betrayal of Midnight. Due to her sociopathy, she truly feels there is no place for her anywhere in Inoptica and is willing to simply see Trick-Jack's plots through.
• No Points for Neutrality: Hypraith is especially called out for sitting on the fences as the situation in Inoptica becomes untenable.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Kryce's insanity begins to manifest in ways that lead to him simply wanting to exterminate all of Inoptica as he believes Talvor would want.
• Only Sane Man: Of the Noon factions, Milivia is the one to doubt Talvor's insanity.
• Peaceful in Death: Kryce's end is the most peaceful he's ever been seen in the story, being allowed to finally rest as he burns away.
• Perky Female Minion: Zada's perkiness remains, even when she's an agent of Trick-Jack and by extension the Red King and White Queen.
• Playing Both Sides: Trick-Jack is playing all the sides against one another, keeping Inoptica in terrible chaos.
• Power Gives You Wings: Whomsoever becomes the Batlord is the leader and greatest warrior of House Noon, being distinguished by the mighty pair of bat wings that sprout when the power is claimed.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: Avis tends to pose as one, sucking up to those in charge of House Noon, to keep himself innocuous.
• Protected By Achild: When Avis has Zada dead to rights, Wydel protects her from him, not knowing the truth of Zada. This ends up poorly for both Wydel and Avis.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Talvor is of Noon, 'the fire and the ray,' and believes this makes one a warrior, as violently as possible.
• Pure Is Not Good: Few are purer than Zada, burdened by no negative emotions and not an ounce of cruelty...unfortunately, she's so pure, she's devoid of all other emotions and has no standard for whom she will betray and murder.
• The Purge: The Red Dawn is all about extermination, after all.
• Regretful Traitor: Played with. Zada makes a show of apology and betraying House Midnight and Jondi...but she isn't really regretful. She can't actually feel things like regret.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Trick-Jack enjoys taking the form of others to appeal to this, tormenting them by attackign them with guilt or hesitation.
• Shrinking Violet: Young Wydel is extremely shy around anyone who isn't her sister.
• Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism: Blisteringly cynical compared to Mirrorworld. Inoptica is much more overtly a Crapsack World where near-genocide is enacted based on the inability of Inoptica's leaders to handle the situation or cooperate. Most people act exclusively for their own self-interest, and the few who don't either suffer for it or aren't as sincere as they appear. Jondi's efforts add dashes of genuine optimism, but the overall mood is very bleak.
• Smug Super: Trick-Jack is arrogant as all hell, even if it is incredibly powerful and able to back it up.
• Sudden Principled Stand: Avis will defend children when he can, despise overseeing mass slaughters when he has to. This will even extend to killing other day-vamps.
• Surprisingly Sudden Death: Rook of House Dusk is devoured right out of nowhere by Trick-Jack.
• Team Killer: Zada betrays House Midnight, resulting in House Noon attacking and slaughtering a number of them.
• Technically a Smile: Trick-Jack, Kryce and Talvor give terrifying expressions that seem to be feral baring of teeth, but the gesture counts.
• Thicker Than Water: Noon promotes that once you belong to the family, the family is all. Another of Talvor's cruel little pieces of conditioning to forge Noon into a cult loyal to him.
• Torture Technician: Kryce of House Noon seems to pose as this, torturing any members of House Dusk he gets his claws into.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: In a story with genocide as a backdrop, Zada's callous and sociopathic manipulations come off as the biggest personal gut punch/
• Undying Loyalty: Many of the day-vamps idolize the vicious Talvor as their Batlord, pledging utter allegiance to him.
• Unfriendly Fire: Avis opens Talvor's throat after a battle, in near plain view.
• The Usurper: Played with. Avis kills Talvor to take control of Noon, but his method of doing so is to throw the House into chaos and manipulate it from behind the scenes rather than directly conquering it.
• Vetinari Job Security: Most House heads tend to have locked in positions as nobody really wants to deal with the fallout of a vacancy to the throne.
• Visual Pun: Trick-Jack jumps out of a box to kill Rook. a 'Jack in the Box' if you will.
• Was It All a Lie?: Platonic variant, but Jondi wonders this of Zada at her betrayal when it is revealed how much she's been using him.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The Houses have a tendency to devolve into infighting. Ahandi had to eliminate her rivals to be the Sprucequeen, and Noon is locked in a battle of factions after Talvor's demise. This despite the outside threats as well.
• We Have Reserves: Talvor's approach, adopted by Kryce, is to fling his men into battle heedless of the casualties.
• Wham Episode: Chapter 16 which reveals Zada is a villain and an agent of the Red King and White Queen.
• Whata Senseless Waste Of Human Life: Avis finds the constant wars and the deaths that result to be quite distasteful, to say the last.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Wydel, sister of the Sprucequeen of House Dawn, truly wishes everyone could just live in peace and believes the fighting will end. A sad Foregone Conclusion given how Wydel acts in Mirrorworld is that this will be shattered.
• Wild Card: Avis is even referred to as such in a chapter title. Whose side he's actually on and what he's trying to pull off are incredibly difficult to figure out, which makes him more dangerous.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Trick-Jack plays a mean game, with his plans constantly and endlessly adjusting. When Avis proves a 'disappointment,' Trick-Jack promptly abandons him to take Zada back into the fold.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Avis is on the receiving end of this, from Jondi and Wydel, with indications he's able to consider he's more than just what Talvor tortured him into.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: There's only one response Trick-Jack has to a useless asset. When you cease being of value, you're eliminated. Whether you're a proxy of another pawn like Talvor, an agent there's no more use for, or entire Houses.