History Literature / ManaMutationMenace

''"Mr. Watley, we are going to do our very best to return you to your pre-mutation life, but I don't want you to get your hopes up. You are the first person under our care to regain sapience. Our previous successes are little more than docile pets. We are as knowledgeable about your condition as you are. We will learn, but we need your help to do so. Will you help us?"''
-->--'''Director Pluagi'''

''Mana Mutation Menace'' is the sequel to ''Literature/LoomingShadow'' and the third book in the Literature/JourneyToChaos series. It follows the fallout of the conclusion of the previous book while continuing to build the ConstructedWorld of Tariatla.

!!'''Mana Mutation Menace provides examples of these tropes'''

* ZorroMark: To make a point about his restored sapience, [[spoiler: Nolien]] carves an "N" into the outer coat of a naysaying diplomat with his new unicorn horn. It demonstrates his control over his transformation and his ability for precision.

* GirlinessUpgrade: Kallen thinks that Tiza has become a ProperLady after spending a couple weeks with the Noble Heleti Family. Eric thinks that's impossible. Thus, she wagers ten Ataidar gold coins that Tiza will wear a dress to the second Mana Mutation Summit. [[spoiler: She arrives in SkirtOverSlacks. Kallen's response? "A small dress is still a dress; five gold".]]

* SkirtOverSlacks: When going to the reconvened Mana Mutation Summit, Tiza wears a knee-length dress over formal slacks to avoid wearing a full gown.

* HypnotizeThePrincess: Lunas puts Kasile under his control in two steps: 1.) use his innate CharmPerson ability along with MoreThanMindControl to convince her to remove her anti-mind control circlet,and 2.) put on his mind control necklace through further politeness judo. It's designed to persuade her against ever removing it and resist anyone attempting to remove it for her. In this way he can effectively rule Ataidar without marrying her (which he still plans to do as soon as possible). [[spoiler: Eric has to use a series of {{Armor Piercing Question}}s to make her realize the truth and then she removes it herself.]]

* TheMarkOfZorro: To make a point about his restored sapience, [[spoiler: Nolien]] carves an "N" into the outer coat of a naysaying diplomat with his new unicorn horn. It demonstrates his control over his transformation and the ability for precision.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: Annala refuses to consider a relationship with Eric because she is immortal and he is not. "I could blink you'll be a rotting corpse". This very thing happened to her aunt, Triste. Despite all kinds of magical aid to prolong his life, Mori just heeled over one day and it drove her insane. [[spoiler: Eric solves this problem by asking Annala's deity, who happens to fancy himself Eric's "bestest friend", to make him immortal like her. He does and RelationshipUpgrade ensues.]]

* ThenLetMeBeEvil: Recovery from the mental effects of mana mutation ("monsanity") is so rare that some people who see [[spoiler: Eric]] post-treatment think he's still a monster and could go savage at any moment. When even his LoveInterest shouts "You're not [[spoiler: Eric]] anymore!", he finally snaps and says they're right. [[spoiler: This leads to an epiphany about how he is both a monster ''and'' Eric Watley.]]
* ThickerThanWater: When a sapient becomes a monster, they will forget everything about their life as a sapient because their mind has been scrambled by the mutation. However, they will still recognize at least one person and be docile around that person. This person is typically a family member with whom they were extremely close. The Mana Mutation Summit features the bond between siblings, parent-child and uncle-nephew as well.

* WinHerAPrize: During Dnnac Ledo's Festival of Arin's Ascension, Nolien tries and fails at a shooting gallery. Tiza wins more easily and consoles him by saying she's just better at carnie stuff than him, "just like how you're better at tent stuff than me". Eric teases him for carrying the giant stuffed bunny she won, and remarks that he'd like to win one like it for Annala.

* HiddenElfVillage: The people of Dnnac Ledo have gone to great lengths to keep the location of their village a secret. 99% of them also insist that any mana mutation problem threatening "the temps" has nothing to do with them. [[spoiler: Inviting the Mana Mutation Summt delegates to reconvene there is so tempting that none of them can resist, and instead, they agree to drop whatever greviance they have to go there.]]

* LeonineContract: Nulso Xialin implies that he had little choice in becoming an ordercrafter, "Order cares not if the contract is Leonine" but Eric retorts that everyone has a choice and he threw his away. For context, Nulso is trying to steal something that could prevent the worst condition of his contract and Eric was hired to protect it.

* BlackTieInfiltration: There's a big event at Roalt Castle called the "Mana Mutation Summit". It will be attended by heads of state from all over the world and preventing an infiltration is one of the reasons that the castle's queen is stressed on before it begins. She makes numerous magical and mundane security measures but unfortunately for her, the infiltrator is not one for subtlety.

* DramaticNecklaceRemoval: Kasile rips off a necklace given to her by Lunas and dashes it on the ground. It was a semi-sentient mind-controlling necklace and ''really'' didn't want to come off. It zapped Eric when he tried to undo the clasp.

** Out of the main cast of semi-heroic mercenaries, [[TheBigGirl Tiza is the only one consistently wearing a helmet]]. Eric joins her in wearing headgear but his is actually [[PartialTransformation transforming his head from flesh to metal]].
** You could say his head ''becomes'' his helmet. During the Mana Mutation Summit, Kasile deliberately instructs her personal guard not to wear helmets so everyone can see their faces and thus their individuality and emotions, which is supposed to highlight the contrast between her and [[EvilPrince Lunas]] with his FacelessGoons.
* HypnotizeThePrincess: Lunas puts Kasile under his control in two steps: 1.) use his innate CharmPerson ability along with MoreThanMindControl to convince her to remove her anti-mind control circlet and put on his mind control necklace. It's designed to persuade her against ever removing it and resist anyone attempting to remove it for her. In this way he can effectively rule Ataidar without marrying her (which he still plans to do as soon as possible). [[spoiler: Eric has to use a series of {{Armor Piercing Question}}s to make her realize the truth and then she removes it herself.]]

* PropertyOfLove: To mitigate the effects of a supernatural SlaveCollar while researching a permanent solution, Ataidar's Royal Ordercraft Security and Compliance team invokes this trope. [[spoiler: Annala would much rather be Eric's (her boyfriend) slave than Nulso's (a creepy older man who happens to be her mother's archenemy). Because Order's respect for free will extends to choosing whom to surrender to it, the ROSCT perform a ritual that switches her ownership from Nulso to Eric. Order allows it because Nulso forced the collar on her.]] Following this, they say that the "owner" in this couple still not does legally "own" the other and so PowerPerversionPotential is still illegal.

* DeathOfAThousandCuts: When Gruffle attracts the ire of dozens of protestors at the Mana Mutation Summit he knows they can't defeat him; his power as a necromancer is too great. But there are dozens and dozens of them and all of them are firing [[HandBlast mana bolts]]. "Behold the power of the people!"

* GorgeousGarmentGeneration: Annala is dungeon diving in the Organic Research Repository when this happens to her. She steps on a floor tile that transforms her light armor into a wedding gown complete with evening gloves and a veil. Her boyfriend happened to be with her at the time and so it flustered her. Then his reaction to it (or rather, his lack of reaction) leads her to saying something she immediately regretted.

* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: Out of the main cast of semi-heroic mercenaries, [[TheBigGirl Tiza is the only one consistently wearing a helmet]]. Eric joins her in wearing headgear starting in ''Literature/ManaMutationMenace'', but his is actually [[PartialTransformation transforming his head from flesh to metal]]. You could say his head ''becomes'' his helmet. During the Mana Mutation Summit, Kasile deliberately instructs her personal guard not to wear helmets so everyone can see their faces and thus their individuality and emotions, which is supposed to highlight the contrast between her and [[EvilPrince Lunas]] with his FacelessGoons.

* {{Realpolitik}}: At the Mana Mutation Summit, Prince Lunas of Latrot tries to sway this gathering of world leaders by appealing to their self-interest when all he's really interested in is Latrot's interest [[spoiler: (or rather, that of [[ThePowersThatBe Order]])]]. Annala Enaz seeks to undermine his plan not by exposing it as a [[spoiler: veiled attempt at work conquest (which it is)]] but by how it is not in their interest to follow it and how her mother's plan helps them so much more. The delegates themselves care less about the OrderVersusChaos war going on between them than about the interests of their country, the ruling part, and their own careers.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: When Eric prepares for the Mana Mutation Summit in ''Literature/ManaMutationMenace'', he's surprised to find that [[{{Tomboy}} Tiza]] has dressed up as well. Before he can say a word, she makes a justification about how it was the outfit she was wearing when she suffered [[FaceMonsterTurn monsanity]], and she's definitely not wearing it because [[LoveInterest Nolien]] told her that she looks good in it.

* WhatTheHellHero: Kasile gives [[spoiler: Nolien]] a royal dressing down for knowingly setting off Dnnac Ledo's anti-ordercraft alarms, thus endangering the Medical Mana Mutation negotiations and potentially starting a war.

* TheBartender: At ''Full Mug'' you will find Rab who is both the owner and operator. He'll listen to whatever problem you're having while brewing up some of his taverncraft and give advice as necessary. You don't even need to be in his tavern for the first one; if he sees you on the street it's the same deal. In this story, he listened to Eric's girl trouble (failed attempt at a RelationshipUpgrade), Culmus' girl trouble (complicated UptownGirl situation) and Basilard's girl trouble (his clan is rejecting his adopted daughter and she is rejecting them as well, including Basilard himself) but only had sage advice for the latter.