Follow TV Tropes

Following

Literature / Storybro's Magically Lewd Adventures
aka: Storybros Magically Lewd Sleepover Adventure

Go To

"These are stories from my life. Put it bluntly they are the tales of an anon and his attempts to survive a sleepover, and a road-trip with his group of all-female friends. They are coming of age, and wisdom garnering stories; many of my first experiences are outlined here, many of my private moments and mental revelations are told throughout the tales. The friends, enemies, relationships, lies, and most prominently lewd events that occurred in teenage years where drama, chaos, manipulation, fighting and sexual tension WAS the way we communicated."
— From the preface.

It began in a /v/ thread, in March of 2014, a greentext story thread. One anon began a story of his own - summarizing, in a post or two, his teenage years, being friends with mostly girls in his school's video game and anime club. Of writing erotic fanfiction of the anime the girls were into, eventually writing the girls themselves into the stories, which they loved. Of being invited to one of the girls' huge birthday party, which turned into a sleepover, another of the girls - his best friend - insisting he stay and keep her company. How the birthday girl's mother had to leave for a family emergency. One guy and five girls left behind - whereupon the teasing began, and the story proper begins.

After being kicked out from /v/ to /r9k/, the author - now called Storybro - continued the story for the small but interested following it had garnered. And what started as a fairly simple greentext would evolve, over the course of five weeks, into something else entirely, above and beyond the sum of its parts.

Storybro's Magically Lewd Sleepover Adventure is a novel-length greentext story written from March to May 2014, recounting the author's rather traumatic, erotic and soul-crushing experiences after being granted a chance at a sleepover with five teenage women. The story is often cited for having an immense amount of detailing and a first-hand perspective that accurately reflects the situations and experiences of an American teenager growing up in 2005, in addition to being chock full of thousands of hidden pop-culture references to things from the time period, or common Internet culture.

Also, the realism of the characters, the accuracy to the time period and the consistent poor decisions of the main character support the general opinion that the story is probably more real than you might imagine. The author continually echoed the sentiment that "enough of it was true to matter, and the rest was simply artistic license to make it flow."

At a grand total of approximately 500 pages, it took the record as "Longest Greentext Ever Written" - that is, prior to the author's next work.

Weeks after the last Sleepover update came online (May of 2014), the author began the second and most expansive part of the story: Storybro's Magically Lewd Road Trip Adventure. Set two years after the first story, in the summer of 2007, it details a road trip taken by the protagonist and three girls from the sleepover, plus two new ones. Starting in California and ending in Florida, crossing the whole Sun Belt, and entailing a whole new litany of twists, turns, drama, comedy, despair, and coming-of-age experience - approximately double the length of the first story and, in the author's words, "full of nearly three times as much fuckery."

This culminates in the third and final portion, completed in December of that year: Storybro's Sweet Nightmare. Much shorter than the others, covering weeks, months, and years after the ending of Road Trip, it is one story split in two, Sweet Dreams and Endless Nightmares, the first stopping at a high note, the second at a low one. The author advises the reader to pick only the happy one, though a third, yet more ambiguous end awaits those who read both.

This last story is a cryptic mix of finality and ambiguity, both for itself and how it relates to all that came before it. Without delving into profound spoilers, one can hardly say anything about it except to read it and to draw one's own conclusions. Whatever those conclusions may be, though, what is ultimately left behind is one of the most singular creative works to ever come from that certain imageboard; two novels and a novella written entirely in greentext, their combined length comparable to that of War and Peace, through which it vividly recounts a few very particular slices of life among mid-2000s teenagers, on top of being a virtual time capsule for the Internet context in which it was written.

Can be read here.


Storybro's Magically Lewd Sleepover Adventure provides examples of:

  • Abusive ParentsRaven's father when she was a girl, verbally and physically, to the point of causing trauma to her developing uterus. Storybro told his parents, leading to her father's imprisonment.
  • Accidental Murder — Blondie, Lethal Klutz that she is, causes such injury to Storybro that he begins to joke that she's a secret assassin. Namely, she slashes him on the arm with a chef's knife, shoves him into a back injury that briefly paralyzes him, and pours rubbing alcohol into the deep claw marks that Raven had left in his wrists.
  • All Men Are Perverts — Storybro fully cops to his teenage male perversity. And on the converse...
  • All Women Are Lustful — The moment Birthday's mother leaves them alone, half of the girls start teasing at Storybro, and it only escalates with time and mounting jealousy. This goes back to before the sleepover, to Storybro writing dirty anime fanfiction involving the girls, which they had enjoyed.
  • And Knowing Is Half the Battle — Storybro gives some actual advice and descriptions to various sensations, feelings, and thoughts, usually ending it with "YW Lonely Anons," or some other variation.
  • Anguished Declaration of LoveRaven, to Storybro, as he strangles her.
  • Be a Whore to Get Your ManHaving watched Storybro and Glasses have their firsts together, and him chasing other girls, Raven gives herself to Storybro when she really wasn't ready to.
  • Beautiful Dreamer — Storybro awakes the first morning to find Raven cutely mumbling an anime theme song in her sleep.
  • Berserk Button — Do not play with Raven's emotions. She will either hurt others or try to hurt herself.
  • Betty and Veronica — What it comes down to for Storybro towards the end: Blondie, cute and innocent and seemingly perfect on paper (ignoring the many times she accidentally injures him), or Raven, his damaged, mercurial, self-destructive childhood friend. He chooses Raven.
  • Bittersweet Ending — It takes an unthinkable amount of trauma, heartbreak, and mind games to get there, but by the end of the story, Storybro and Raven have come together as a couple, albeit that he left Blondie scorned in the process.
  • Broken Bird — Raven due to her abusive father. But every girl gets their fair share of this due to the main character's actions.
  • But I Would Really Enjoy It — Homely practically throws herself at Storybro at one point, and though he doesn't like her anyway, her figure sorely tempts him. But, knowing she's acting this way for bad reasons, he tells her no.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard — Invoked with both Birthday and Homely, though Storybro isn't as enamored with Homely's given her awful personality.
  • The Casanova — With so many girls vying for his attention, Storybro tries to play it like a smooth operator, fooling around with the girls that get closest to him and trying to keep the peace with everyone else, not "playing favorites" as he says. Of course, none of them are satisfied with this, though they still tend to keep playing along, each hoping he likes her the best. Raven, meanwhile, is completely shattered by it.
  • Chekhov's GunThe morning after Storybro and Glasses have their firsts together, she keeps his boxers to wear. Later, Blondie catches this, for which she slaps Storybro. This seems to have been accident, though, as Glasses later tells her that she'd stolen the boxers as a prank.
  • Chick Magnet — Due to being the lone male, and constant teasing, Storybro gets quite a bit of this.
  • Childhood Friend RomanceBy the end, Storybro and Raven end up dating.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl — Every girl has their moments of this, but Raven's the only one to halfway kill herself over it.
  • Contemplate Our Navels — In Storybro and Raven's case, it's contemplating the ceiling (aka "Ceilingbro").
  • Deconstruction — A brutal one of anime's portrayal of harems, love and sex.
  • Destructive RomanceStorybro and Raven, full stop. Long story short: Raven was ready to let herself die out of jealousy for Storybro. She knows that he would have killed himself too from the guilt. They both admit to all of this, and for this, Storybro strangles her. She only lives because his muscles give out; he tells her so. Following this, Raven gives Storybro her virginity, voicing her regret that they couldn't have both been the first - after she'd watched him do just that with Glasses the first night. Even more mind games, regrettable sex, and self-harm come from this before they come to the beginnings of mutual honesty.
  • Drowning My Sorrows — Raven, so much so that she risks alcohol poisoning.
  • Establishing Character Moment — One at a time for each of the girls at the very start:
    • Raven's clingy insistence that Storybro stick around with her for the sleepover.
    • Birthday is the first to aggressively sexually tease him.
    • Glasses is the second, cannily whispering it to him and then passing it as gossip to Blondie.
    • Blondie gets flustered and immediately blurts out what Glasses told her.
    • Homely being loud and annoying and ruining the mood.
  • Fear of Thunder — Storybro and Raven wake up the second evening to a severe thunderstorm, close enough overhead to cut off the power and shatter a window. He's so terrified that he imagines timberwolves coming at him in the darkness.
  • Fiery Redhead — Homely, but in a more violent way.
  • First KissStorybro and Blondie, the first night, for each of them. It's a bigger deal for her than for him.
  • FlashbackUpdate 25 tells of Storybro's backstory: he'd been deathly ill as a little kid, saved by antibiotics that wiped out his gut flora, leaving him sickly for years and possibly affecting his growth. For this, he lashed out, getting expelled from several schools before his parents moved him to Los Angeles - where he met Raven.
  • Footsie Under the Table — Happens a bunch of times, indicating the tug of love between Storybro and the girls. Likewise in the sequel.
  • The Glomp — Storybro to Raven on the bed, something he'd always wanted to try. But, in the first of many anime tropes that doesn't go to plan, he ends up socking her in the face. Then she does it to him, headbutting him in the chest and chin. They have a good laugh about it, though.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold — Blondie is the sweetest and most innocent of the girls, even if she does accidentally injure the narrator several times.
  • Heroic BSoD — Raven falls deeper into this the more Storybro pushes her away. It's how she spends most of the latter half the story, after the violence he subjected her to, her giving away her virginity to him, and him trying to pretend afterwards like their friendship can go back to normal.
  • Improbably Female CastJustified with Storybro's friend group from childhood being mostly girls, him being invited to Birthday's sleepover last minute, plus the ruse the girls' parents have that he's gay.
  • Instant Turn-Off — "I can't do it, you smell like my dad." note 
  • Kids Raiding the Wine Cabinet — Within hours of being left alone, they get into this. Catalyst for much of the craziness to follow.
  • Locked in a Room — With Storybro silently fuming at a disconsolate Raven, the others trap them in the master bathroom until they can sort it out. This comes to Storybro almost choking her to death, during which Raven confesses her love for him.
  • Loophole Abuse — Homely dares Storybro to kiss the girl he likes most (sans Raven). His way out of it: kiss them all, declaring that he did kiss the one that he likes most, and the others just let themselves be kissed. Cue pandemonium.
  • Love EpiphanyStorybro's comes only at the very end, for Raven, when he thinks she's killed herself.
  • Lover Tug of War — Literally between Homely, Storybro, and Birthday, over the table while they eat lunch.
  • Meaningful Name — Raven and Blondie for their hair color, Homely for her personality, Birthday for being the birthday girl, and Glasses for her, well, glasses.
  • Oblivious to LoveFor their long history together, and for the way she'd started to cling to him over the sleepover, Storybro still couldn't grasp how Raven had started to love him. Only as he chokes her out does she admit it, and only after he thinks she's killed herself does he realize he loves her back.
  • Pet the Dog — Homely's kindest moment comes with Storybro brooding over Raven. She asks what she can do to help, and when he rebuffs her, she simply tells him, "Forgive her." But even this is inflected with her flippant attitude; she adds, "If you do, i’ll get one of the other girls to make it up to you". Selling out her other friends, as Storybro sees it.
  • Put on a Bus — Three days into the sleepover, Homely leaves. Not that anyone misses her.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech — Given to Storybro a couple times, as the girls call him out for being a flirt and trying to score with everyone that he can.
  • Series MascotWoody, specifically the perverted-looking Revoltech Woody. Every post came with a new photo of the figure, eventually totaling thousands.
  • Shower of Love Storybro and Raven get into this on the first night, but it's awkward and fumbling, the both of them half-frozen with peppermint soap by the end.
  • Slumber Party — The whole basis of the story is Storybro, our narrator, being invited to Birthday's sleepover.
  • Spit Take — "Raven sputters into her coffee." Seconds later: "I sputter into my coffee."
  • Stupid Sexy Friend Storybro to Glasses. It doesn't help that while he's trying to pair up with the other girls, she's reminding him about their shared first, and even has sex with him a second time.
  • Their First Time Storybro and Glasses share their firsts on Birthday's bed, while Raven watches.
  • Trauma Button — A mutual one for Storybro and Raven. He sees her smiling at him the fake smile with which she masked her father's abuse, and it drives him into a fit of rage, terrifying her. He goes from screaming at her, "DON'T USE THAT SMILE WITH ME," to screaming "I'M NOT HIM," knowing how he resembles her father at that moment. They're both crying on the bathroom floor by the end of it.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy — Storybro realizes the hard way that various happenings in anime don't quite work the same way in real life. And that through all his flirting, it ends up hurting everyone much more than he wanted.

Storybro's Magically Lewd Road Trip Adventure provides examples of:

  • The Atoner — Glasses cheated with Raven on impulse, and spends the whole of the road trip trying to mend it (in her own devious ways).
    • At the very end, Raven's father shows up, out on parole to make amends to Storybro - after Storybro had landed him in prison to begin with. He only wants to thank Storybro for looking after her, then leaves so as to not intrude on her life further.
  • Auto Erotica — Many times in the group's Suburban, in particular the pivotal moment when Storybro discovers Glasses' and Raven's affair.
  • Batman Gambit — Glasses correctly predicts that Storybro will cheat if given the chance, and given the excuse (hence how she engineers him catching her with Raven).
  • Beach Episode — After getting to Florida, the group spends an afternoon on the beach. Much hijinks are had.
  • The Bet — Early on in the road trip, Raven, Glasses, and Blondie goad Storybro and Freckles into fighting and then making out in the backseat, just to close out a bet. Freckles is pissed.
    • Freckles later bets Storybro that she can get Gadget to like her more than him. This blows up in her face not a few minutes later.
  • Better Partner AssertionGlasses lays this on evilly with her false Baby Trapping of Storybro, asserting how she's not only sexier than Raven, but also capable of bearing children. It's all an act, though, to drive Storybro away from her and back to Raven.
  • Bi-Wildered — Storybro at one point throws Freckles into an identity crisis about whether men can make her orgasm after all. Recognizing how important her lesbianism is to her self-image, he talks her down from it.
  • Bisexual Love Triangle — Storybro, Raven, and Glasses.
  • Bittersweet Ending — Through a cascade of horrible schemes and revelations, the story ends with Storybro and Raven just barely on speaking terms again, with Storybro putting an end to Gadget's brother's abuse, and with Raven's abusive father a reformed man on parole, visiting only to thank Storybro for looking after her. Gadget and Blondie both stick around with Storybro while Glasses stays alienated from him, and Freckles and Aubrey date for a time.
  • Bonding Through Shared Earbuds — Gadget with Storybro.
  • But Liquor Is QuickerBlondie wakes up Storybro (plus Gadget), naked and demanding his attention after having gotten into the wine, not knowing that it was laced with cocaine. Even after being told this, she's undeterred, and with only a few words between Storybro and Gadget about whether Blondie will regret it, this is how Storybro takes her virginity.
  • Cast Full of Rich People — It is rather understated just how rich are the families of every main character in the story, what the narration tends to describe as just "middle class." Leaving aside that they all live in a wealthier part of Los Angeles, Raven's stepfather is rich enough to throw charity galas, Blondie's father owns a "rather large food production company", and Aubrey's family keeps a second house in Fort Lauderdale with a yacht. By the author's description, though, this "glorious post-2000 age of riches" came to an end with the late-2000s recession.
    >Sad as sounds, 2007 was start of end for american middle class
    >Not single family of friends i knew is well-off anymore
    >Nobody really sure what happen
    >We blame government
    >Maybe should have beat phone harder
    >Such is life in capitalist America. note 
  • CatfishingThe group stops over in Austin for what they think is Freckles' online girlfriend, called "Sneakers" by what Freckles thinks she'll be wearing. It turns out to have been a guy on the other end, plus his sister who'd gotten involved by chance - and when "Sneakers" and Freckles had agreed to meet in a restaurant, he made his sister come with him. When Storybro spots them, it's the guy wearing the sneakers. Needless to say, Freckles is devastated.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang — The bag of cocaine that Gadget manages to keep hiding along the road trip, causing havoc for anyone who happens upon it. Once they get to Florida, it's secretly mixed into a bottle of wine.
  • Contraception DeceptionGlasses was known to be on the pill before the story begins. She lies about having coming off it when she entraps Storybro into her Fake Pregnancy.
  • Cure Your Gays — In a spur-of-the-moment way, Storybro tries this on Freckles. It doesn't work, though it does cause her an identity crisis at one point.
  • Date Rape — In Vegas, Blondie is roofied and nearly kidnapped, Storybro barely managing to rescue her. Such is how the group accidentally gets stuck with a bag of cocaine.
  • Desperately Craves Affection — Blondie has been through so many failed relationships (Storybro included) that she pursues Storybro mainly just to feel what she thinks she's been missing out on, having watched him with the other girls so many times.
  • Doorstopper — Boy howdy. Its two Google Docs combined place it at nearly 1200 pages.
  • Drugs Are BadWhen he thinks Gadget is about to binge on the cocaine wine, Storybro parrots anti-drug cliches at her; Lampshaded as such.
  • Escalating Brawl — Shortly before their arrival in Florida, Raven gets some bad news over the phone, acts out by kissing Glasses, and before long, everyone in the car is brawling (and Gadget ends up kissing Raven and Storybro as well, failing to make things better.)
  • Everybody Has Lots of Sex — By the end of the story, Storybro has had sex with every girl except Freckles and Aubrey, and nearly has sex with the both of them as well, while Raven and Glasses were seeing each other behind his back, plus Freckles trying (and failing) to get with a few of the girls before eventually hooking up with Aubrey. Predictably, this involves much heartache for nearly everyone involved.
  • Fake PregnancyGlasses scares Storybro through this in a desperate bid to drive him and Raven back together. And in the end, it almost-kinda works.
  • Friends with BenefitsWhat Storybro falls into with Gadget, and most of the rest of the girls, once Raven's cheating is uncovered and she allows Storybro to cheat in turn.
  • Gambit Pileup — Storybro tries to resist Glasses' schemes with schemes of his own, but he's artless with it, inevitably digging himself deeper at every turn.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot — Storybro tends to abide by this, but when it comes to Raven and Glasses, the emotional betrayal overrides it for him.
  • Greek Chorus — At a cafe in Florida, Storybro spills his guts about every girl in the story in turn. Other customers chime in with (to his ears) dumb opinions and ignorant Bush-era conservative platitudes, making him storm off in disgust.
  • Green-Eyed Epiphany — As Raven comes to articulate it: Glasses had known that Raven liked Storybro before the sleepover, and nonetheless ended up having him first. This had been the start of her resentment towards Glasses. See also: Seduction as One-Upmanship.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink — Storybro, after he catches Raven and Glasses. What he saw isn't told at first, just how he drags Gadget into getting drunk with him, and into a rebound.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy — Raven knows she was wrong to cheat with Glasses, and to a crazy extent, she accepts Storybro's selfish desire to cheat in turn. In one instance, she obstrusively sticks around with Storybro and Gadget when they intend to have sex for their first time. They think she's gotten jealous again, trying to interfere, causing Gadget to chew her out for being a terrible girlfriend - at which point Raven cries and bellows from the other room how she only wanted to make sure that neither of them accidentally get hurt, as had happened before.
    • For her own peculiar attachment to Storybro, Gadget is also perfectly willing to give him up to Raven. She's even relieved to have not gotten in the couple's way.
    • Even Glasses, femme-fatale trickster that she is, is said to have fallen in love with both Storybro and Raven, from the time of Sleepover, but still she does everything in her power to get the two of them back together.
  • Iconic Sequel Character — Within the original 4chan threads, Gadget quickly became the most beloved girl, over all of the established ones.
  • Imagine Spot — During moments of high emotion, the narration tends to go off on outlandish tangents before getting back to the real action. Example: Storybro and Blondie learn from Raven the extent of the lies told to her by Freckles and Glasses. So, in the manner of 1920s gangsters, the two lay waste to their motel room with Tommy guns - before the reality of them just kicking the door in and Blondie choking Freckles out.
  • The Immodest OrgasmInvoked; during an encounter with Storybro, Raven gets louder than usual to rub it in for the girls listening outside the door - and to rub it in for him, since she plans to end it with him afterwards.
  • Impersonation Gambit — In one night, Glasses manages to fool around with Storybro as he slept, convincing him that she's actually Blondie, and do the same to Freckles, convincing her that she's Gadget. All for blackmail purposes, of course.
  • Instant Turn-Off — Done with a Call-Back to Sleepover. In his Shower of Love with Aubrey and Freckles, Storybro uses the peppermint soap that he'd first used in the sleepover, at Aubrey's house - the brand her dad uses. Before, she'd refused to sleep with him for "smelling like her dad." This time, she rolls with it, whispering to him, "Fuck me daddy" - which ruins it for him, due to the fear that he'd just knocked up Glasses.
  • Interplay of Sex and Violence — The first time Raven and Storybro have sex after the Glasses affair comes out, it's this.
  • Intoxication EnsuesAt Gadget's suggestion (she knows, the others don't), her, Storybro, and Raven all take high-purity cocaine, with disastrous results. After the cocaine is mixed into wine, Freckles, Aubrey, and Blondie each end up using it, with unpredictable results.
  • Language Barrier — Storybro's first conversation with Gadget (told in Flashback) involves her complete lack of English, their mutually bad Spanish, and her rattling off at him in Portuguese.
  • Love MartyrGadget wishes her brother would stop abusing her, but out of familial love for him, she doesn't want him harmed or driven away from her. Through he handles it with some finesse, Storybro does exactly that, with lasting consequences into the third story.
  • Love Triangle — For all the romantic and sexual entanglements that Storybro lands himself in, the real center of the drama is him, Raven, and Glasses.
  • Meet Cute — A Flashback describes how Storybro first befriended Gadget; he reaches out to her as the new girl in school, they bond despite a steep Language Barrier, then end the day by shooting off model rockets in the park.
  • Mistaken for Suicidal — Due to some stupid manipulation on Storybro's part, he unknowingly makes Gadget think that he's wandered off to kill himself. Once he finds her again, worried sick for him and unable to sleep, she gives him a heartbreaking ultimatum: "I follow, if you hurt yourself, i will too".
  • Mistaken IdentityStorybro catches Gadget hiding out alone by the Suburban - except that it's actually Blondie, wearing a similar jacket to the kind Gadget wears. When he starts to hit on who he thinks is Gadget, Blondie doesn't say or do anything to correct him, being that desperate to feel loved and wanted.
  • My Sister Is Off-Limits — Gadget's brother towards the whole group. Glasses intuits the darker meaning behind this.
  • Offscreen Romance — Raven's cheating with Glasses predates the road trip, and undergirds its drama from the very start.
  • Page-Turn Surprise — For the sake of a 4chan in-joke, the story skips a few beats between Storybro finding Aubrey and Freckles curled up drinking wine and them trashing the house in a cocaine-induced rage.
  • The Pollyanna — The young girl in a sundress and sneakers who follows Storybro around in Fort Lauderdale, and gets beaten up by hoodlums for her trouble - after warning him that he was headed towards a bad part of town, but following him anyway. As the narration describes her:
    >plus she’s wearing sneakers and a dress.
    >Two words
    >Crazy Bitch
    >RUN
  • Poor Communication Kills — After Storybro rescues Blondie in Vegas, the others assume he's the one who drugged her, and for her dignity's sake, neither of them correct this until it's already led to massive problems.
  • Rape as Comedy — Whenever Storybro and Freckles get into a fight, the other girls tend to joke that he's about to rape her, in reaction to her Straw Feminism.
  • Rape as DramaIn New Mexico, Storybro and Gadget are both nearly raped by a pack of bikers. Gadget fends them off with some quick lies, and tells him afterward that she's had to do so before. And towards the end of the story, in Florida, it's revealed that Gadget's older brother had her trapped in incest, that one reason she went on the road trip was just to get away from him.
  • Reference Overdosed — Woven into the very fabric of the text, even moreso than in Sleepover. A typical example is this description of Storybro and the girls, done by way of a Powerpuff Girls reference:
    >Me in my fancy shirt, dressed like an Ex Professor
    >Miss blonde haired blue eyed bubbles of fun
    >Miss reddish brown haired blossoming mastermind
    >Miss green eyed black haired buttercup
    >Sugar, Spice and everything nice themselves.
    >Not to mention our master of Mojo and tough past
    >Then who could forget our evil gay arch nemesis Him.
  • Second-Act Breakup — After Storybro figures out Raven and Glasses, this is Played With; they're ready to break up at first, but then enter an arrangement of pretending to break up, freeing Storybro to fool around with any of the other girls, with the exception of Glasses, since Raven doesn't trust her. Once he does sleep with Glasses, the breakup turns real.
  • Seduction as One-Upmanship — Glasses wishes for Raven to believe that Storybro will ultimately pick her, in order for Raven to try harder to keep him.
    • Much of the jealousy and distrust Raven develops towards Glasses comes from one simple fact: Glasses and Storybro had had their firsts together, where she only gave him her first afterward. And for good measure, Glasses had ended up being her first with another girl. See also: Green-Eyed Epiphany.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely — In a Flashback story, Storybro once had to dress Raven up for her stepfather's charity gala, with makeup that she had to borrow and a dress she would never wear again, held together with duct tape. This is set against a followup flashback on a fishing trip, against Raven "currently wearing a wifebeater, some sports bra and a pair of ripped-to-hell jean shorts with boxers showing through".
  • Shipper on Deck — In her own twisted way, Glasses is this with Storybro and Raven.
  • Shower of Love — Happens several times, most notably with Storybro, Aubrey, and Freckles, in Aubrey's high tech spa shower.
  • Smoking Is Not Cool — Storybro gives Gadget a hard time for smoking, a harder time than for any other substance she takes.
  • Sniff Sniff Nom — Gadget does this with hot Cheetos.
  • Spanner in the Works — For all of the absurd social scheming that Glasses pulls Storybro into (coupled with her lack of communication about it), she becomes outright indignant when he doesn't follow along and play whatever part she set for him.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders — The group watches Casino Royale at one point and Storybro, being a lover of the girls' eyes, has to admit that Daniel Craig has some nice eyes himself.
  • Suspicious Missed Messages — Gadget thinks so when Storybro wanders off one evening and doesn't answer her texts. See also: Mistaken for Suicidal.
  • A Threesome Is Hot — Storybro thinks so, and the opportunity presents itself a few times, but it never lands.
  • Two-Timing with the Bestie — Raven, Storybro's girlfriend, with Glasses, his best friend. Which, from the beginning of the story, Glasses is trying to 'fix' by seducing Storybro.
  • Undiscriminating AddictIn Gadget's case, ultimately subverted. After another bout of trauma, Storybro thinks she's about to finish off the cocaine wine alone, while she protests that she's going to dump it. And in the end, that's what she does. "Never alone, i share," she says, and "Wine and Coke together are bad for your heart; dangerous."
  • Unexpected VirginFreckles talks a big game about her lesbian sex antics (fooling Storybro with it early on) before revealing that she's never really been with another woman - everything she talked about she learned from the Internet.
  • Virtual Soundtrack — The text sometimes points to particular songs that Gadget listened to in particular moments. More generally, this applies to the supplementary playlist, Gadget's iPod, given on the blog of the EDM she listened to back then.
  • Viva Las Vegas! — The group stays a night in Vegas and discovers, to their chagrin, how little there is for teenagers there (remembering their parents' knowing smiles on the matter). Not that trouble doesn't manage to find them there.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit — In order to sell that him and Raven have broken up for real, Storybro acts convincingly depressed about it, unintentionally driving Gadget into a depression herself, thinking she caused it all.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess — As insane and over-engineered as Glasses' ever-changing plans are, they all ultimately come back to one objective: get Storybro and Raven back together. Which just-about works by the end of it.
  • Your Favorite — Storybro tries this on Raven with french fries. It doesn't work.
  • Zero-Approval Gambit — Glasses' Fake Pregnancy comes to everyone hating her by the end of it. But then in the epilogue, she's mended everything with Blondie, Freckles, and Aubrey by the time they get back to California.

Storybro's Sweet Nightmare provides examples of:

  • Anachronic Order — Though the author frames it as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, this is one story split in two, one beginning In Medias Res where the other pauses. The chronological order is Endless Nightmares up to Update 3, then all of Sweet Dreams, then Nightmares again from Update 4.
  • Ambiguous EndingDoes Raven live or die? Two hidden pages on the Wordpress blog give (possibly) two different impressions:
    • The secret ending, given through a password in the story's two halves, suggests that she might live, ending with Storybro's realization that it's a nurse asking after her, not a mortician.
    • Another hidden page displays only an image of Lain from Serial Experiments Lain - who Raven is said to have resembled - with eyes Photoshopped Raven's eye color. The page is simply titled, "Quiet."
  • Based on a Great Big LieThe mass shooting with which Nightmares ends is fictional; no detail of it matches any such event on record. The author obliquely acknowledges this, claiming, "These events are as true to reality as they can be without instantly revealing the identities of multiple characters."
  • Better as Friends — Storybro takes Blondie on a few dates, wanting to show her a better and more romantic time than he or anyone else had given her up to that point. But after the third date, he cuts her off, fearing that she might fall in love with him.
    • Storybro and Gadget are Friends with Benefits for a time. By Storybro's description, he's never the one to initiate sex with her, and eventually, she stops prompting it with him. At one point, he drunkenly confesses to her, and she only gently rebukes him. They stay close friends; he only regrets that he wasn't more important to her.
  • Call-Back — The author first casually mentioned in Sleepover how he usually doesn't dream. Later, throughout both Sleepover and Road Trip, he insists upon it, drawing attention to this odd detail at various times that his protagonist awakes. Only at the end of Nightmares does this come to its full, cryptic resonance. By the author's narration, he only has one reoccurring dream now: the day of the shooting. The dream ending before the shooting commences - the horror of being unable to change its outcome.
    • In Update 12 of Sleepover, the author alludes to something having happened which, if he talked about it, "the events would let you pinpoint my location down to a mile, and i just can’t risk that." That "there’s one reason i’m still around to tell you this story" - that reason being Raven. Whatever the full extent of any of this, it is chilling to look back on in light of the ending.
  • Catfishing — Glasses tries to worm her way back into Storybro's life as an anonymous MMO friend. He finds out, and sooner or later he blocks her. This is expanded on in a side story, Sparks, The Digital Companion.
  • Cerebus Syndrome — Even in its brighter moments, the tone here is much heavier than in the previous works.
  • Contrived CoincidenceOnly in this story is it revealed that Storybro and Raven both have family in New Orleans, that he'd visited Raven's relatives there as a kid. Storybro comes to New Orleans for a funeral; it's glossed over how Raven was also there to come find him, them having not spoken for months at that point.
  • Descent into AddictionStorybro and Gadget, first with alcohol, then with an array of street drugs. Gadget is eventually sent to rehab.
  • Driven to Suicide — Storybro; his depression, willful isolation, parents' divorce and deaths in the family all contribute. This is the scene which opens Endless Nightmares, Storybro on an empty pier ready to drown himself. And who else should come to find him but Raven?
  • Downer Beginning — Storybro and Raven drift away from each other after the ending of Road Trip, at the same time that his family falls apart, for which he spirals into depression and isolation. Raven is said to have done the same, and soon Gadget comes through with her own downward spiral.
  • Downer EndingA mass shooter opens fire on Raven and Storybro, Raven blocking the bullet's path. Storybro lives. All of his friends drift away from him.
  • Hope Spot — By the end of Sweet Dreams, Storybro and Raven have mended their relationship, they've moved in together, she's proposed to him, they're most of their way through university, and the possibility is raised that she could bear children after all.
  • Like Is, Like, a Comma — In growing more comfortable with English, Gadget starts talking like this - sometimes incorrectly.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, HeroStorybro ended Gadget's brother's abuse of her in Road Trip, but this inevitably drove a wedge between the siblings, contributing to Gadget's downward spiral.
  • Period Piece — Part of the story takes place in New Orleans in 2007, still ruined from Katrina.
  • Polyamory — It isn't called as such, but after Storybro and Raven get back together, she lets him keep seeing Gadget, and he in turn lets her see Glasses. He eventually stops being intimate with Gadget; it's unclear what that situation is for Raven and Glasses.
  • Relationship Upgrade — After the last bout of crazy drama that this story depicts, Storybro and Raven get better together, mature together, never have a serious fight again, and become veritable soulmates.
  • Safety in Indifference — In his depression, Storybro isolates himself through the Internet and video games, and eventually in drugs and meaningless sex with Gadget. It was a similar thing for Raven.
  • Sanity SlippageAfter bringing Storybro back to her family's house, Raven sleeps in front of the bedroom door at night, preventing him from leaving, and he seriously contemplates kicking her to death. The narration defines it as psychopathic intrusive thoughts in his anger at her. Only the sickness of imagining it pulls him back.
  • Snicket Warning Label — Much text of this leads up to Endless Nightmares.
  • Talking Down the SuicidalRaven to Storybro, in her own particular way: first by taunting him (the narration even contends that this could have worked to snap him out of it), then tying herself to him, then a question, "Am I worth living for?". It almost doesn't work, but eventually, Storybro relents. All the theatrics were just that, though; having passed lifeguard certification, plus carrying a concealed knife, she was never going to let either of them drown.

Alternative Title(s): Storybros Magically Lewd Sleepover Adventure

Top