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The Sueniverse is a text-based multifandom RPG. It began life as a place to parody Mary Sue Fan Fiction set in the world of The Phantom Of The Opera, but it has since expanded to embrace well-rounded characters as well as multiple crossovers and improbable plots. The characters come from a wide range of sources — originals, fandom characters and authors' (usually parodic) self-inserts are all included, mingling in a kind of mythical version of 19th-century Paris.
There is no official explanation for how all of these different fandoms and storylines meet in the same place, but there's a general theory that Paris is functioning as a convergence point for several different time streams and universes.
It includes characters from, among others:
With all of these characters running around interacting with each other, complicated plots tend to arise, and lasting bonds (or feuds) between characters from totally unrelated fandoms are formed all the time, such as the close platonic friendship between Magda from Tanz der Vampire and Crowley from Good Omens. The heart of the 'Verse, as it is affectionately known, is Erik, the Phantom himself (although his player has pointed out that he is "oddly inessential for its function"), who appears as an arrogant, socially dysfunctional Insufferable Genius with a libido from Hell.
The Sueniverse includes examples of pretty much every trope ever. Here are just a few examples.
- Alien Geometries— The 'Verse's version of Heaven contains a courtroom where all of the walls meet at right angles that add up to more than ninety degrees. Humans (or former humans) cannot actually see the angles because of their non-Euclidean properties, so the walls appear to fade into a kind of hyperspace at the edges.
- The Alkazar
- Anachronism Stew — Kind of a necessity.
- Anthropomorphic Personification — Of a lot of things, chiefly the four Deaths (don't ask), the Four Horsepeople of the Apocalypse, and various things like Pain, Hedonism, and the Grammar Fairy.
- Anything That Moves- Crowley's player at first considered him gay, but she's since expanded her view to this.
- Inverted with Kiba, who attracts anything that moves and mostly views it as a confusing nuisance. In Wolf's Rain, he was the love interest of a human/plant hybrid and a (dead) lynx. In the 'Verse he's got Helen of Troy, who is pure human.
- Armchair Psychology — Dr. Quinzel's preferred method.
- Automatically Violent — Kiba's making huge leaps towards this; while he's only started to physically attack others, he's been verbally abusive to strangers for quite a while.
- Awesome Moment Of Crowning — Steerpike and Mrs Lovett's ascension to power in Lorien culminated in this.
- A God Am I — Subverted with Kiba: He was mistaken for Zeus by Helen of Troy, who saw him "transform" from wolf to human, but having no concept of religion he straightened things out pretty quickly.
- Beware The Nice Ones — Richard Plantagenet, in spite of being a trained soldier (even at one point having served as a general), is generally a pretty nice, rather easily confused guy. Steal his identity or shoot at his girlfriend, though, and you're in serious trouble of both death and a Cluster F Bomb.
- Break The Cutie — Standard cycle for just about anybody who could qualify as "the cutie", and several characters who don't.
- Break The Haughty — In a particularly harsh example of the trope, Herbert joins La Resistance against Marie Antoinette and her new squeeze Richard III, but only out of fear of being slaughtered if he doesn't. He proceeds to sit around being useless and "above" the fighting until forced to participate, and in the process is turned from an arrogant, flawless-looking fashion plate into a filthy, shaking wreck full of bullet holes.
- Canon Immigrant — Everybody who's not originally from Phantom.
- Catch Phrase — Real Life example in "Hallie! Go! Sit! IN THE CORNER!"
- Cheryl Blossom- When you're Christine Daae, and you have a choice between Erik (a deformed, unbalanced societal reject who watched you undress from behind your dressing room) and Raoul (who on the Verse is a parody of the way he tends to be depicted in fanfic- namely, as a sleazy Handsome Lech), who do you go for? Ed Wood, of course.
- The Chew Toy- Poor Irene Adler has slowly become either this or The Woobie, depending on who you ask.
- Beraht, Midna, and Starmane seem to enjoy taking advantage of Kiba's instability. For everyone else (especially Helen), Kiba's probably The Woobie.
- Clingy Jealous Girl - Midna really doesn't like that Link is engaged to another woman.
- Cloudcuckoolander — Hallie, who's far enough away from what people might call reality to wander into the middle of a crowd fleeing a burning manor and offer tea.
- Cosmic Plaything — Irene sees herself as this, and given that the man who ruined her life is the son of the Devil, she might just be right.
- Crack Pairing- Christine Daae and Ed Wood, along with many, many other examples.
- Crapsack World — Kiba thinks the 'Verse is this, since even the Ghibli Hills Lorien only reminds him of his failed search for Paradise.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome — Richard Plantagenet, discussing his girlfriend's safety on the barricades: "'I'll have a talk with whatsisname and make sure you're with the nurses,' he said in a concerned voice before looking back over the barricade, shooting a few approaching soldiers, and shouting 'Take That, you cocksucking son of a syphilitic whore!'"
- Aziraphale punching Lestat in the face and thus fulfilling the ambitions of most every non-Goth who ever read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles also applies, big time.
- Cute Little Fangs — Herbert has these most of the time, though they're actually a more threatening pair that he can retract.
- The Danza — This principle applies to all of the self-inserts on the Verse, as well as Julian (whose model is Julian Sands), Emmy Rossum (a fictionalized- we hope- version of the actress of the same name) and Annette (who was Annette Funicello).
- Dead Guy Junior — Aimee-Cosette Pontmercy.
- Deconstruction- Megan began as a typical Phantom Fan Fic archetype: the modern-day fangirl who finds herself working for Erik the Phantom himself while carrying a torch for him. She clung to the idea that if she were kind enough to him and put up with him, he would love her back and continued to serve and love him unconditionally. When she made a wish that allowed him to be handsome, in the hope that he would be allowed a normal life and that Christine Daae would return his love, Erik returned her affection long enough to sleep with her, impregnating her with their daughter Pina in the process. After that one moment of passion between them, Erik was cold toward her once again, and as Pina grew older, he actually began verbally abusing Megan. When she was about to leave him, he seduced her again, slept with her, and then insulted her for sleeping with him when he looked like his usual corpse-faced self. He then dumped her in a Bedlam House when she tried to take Pina from him. This all stands in stark, tragic contrast to the genre standard, in which Erik proves susceptible to The Power Of Love, and he and the Mary Sue live Happily Ever After. (At least Megan was eventually allowed a happy ending with Admiral James Norrington from Pirates Of The Caribbean, but the fact remains that her experience with Erik destroyed her innocence and almost her sanity.)
- Kiba is The Power Of Love turned on its head: If it weren't for everything being understandable, it would be a borderline case of Love Makes You Crazy. His attachment to Helen of Troy has only made him more irrational as he tries to defend her from threats—meaning whatever he doesn't like, which is at least 80% of whoever they encounter. Tsume's arrival compounded the problem because in addition to the residents at Le Rouge, Kiba has two people that he wants to protect at all costs. Even his Heroic BSOD and Tsume's current alpha status don't stop him from trying to attack strangers on sight, and he's starting to need physical restraint to keep from doing so. It's likely that if he'd never met Tsume (again) or refused Helen's request for protection, he'd be making far less enemies, at least trying to move past his issues, and he definitely wouldn't be traveling the 'Verse on a manhunt. While Kiba's plot intentionally echoes that of Wolf's Rain, his character growth has completely reversed itself. It's especially hard on Tsume since he knows what Kiba was like as a dependable leader, but is ill-equipped to actually help. Time will tell whether he gets better or not, but for now? The Power Of Love/Friendship may be keeping Kiba sane, but in all other aspects it's only making him worse.
- Distaff Counterpart — The Phantomess to Erik; Jacqueline Harkness; Christian Daae.
- Dorian Gray — Dorian himself, actually, but others have served that purpose.
- Draco In Leather Pants — Subverted, parodied, averted, and sometimes played straight.
- Embarassing Middle Name: Verse fanon holds that the J in Anthony J. Crowley stands for Joaquin. This is a subversion of the trope, though, as Crowley chose all three of his names himself, and he purposefully chose a middle name that begins with a silent J to confuse people trying to guess what it stands for.
- And then there's the time Megan began spreading the (false) rumor that Snape's middle name was Amanda Marie.
- Ensemble Darkhorse — Supporting characters from fandoms often end up as main characters on the Verse (Magda, Rochester, Daniel, Sylvia, Grantaire, Reg etc.).
- Ermine Cape Effect — Played entirely straight (no pun intended) with Herbert, who dresses like this all the time and on purpose, for effect.
- Eternal English
- Really? This troper figured it was just the Translation Convention.
- This troper maintains that it is, simply by the fact that references are made by characters themselves about the fact that everyone speaks English.
- It's Translation Convention for Kiba and Tsume, since they're telepathic wolves who don't actually speak.
- Even Evil Has Standards — Mrs. Lovett, who once baked human flesh into her pies, is disgusted by the thought of child molestation.
- Everyone Calls Him Barkeep — The Emcee, The Bride, The Girl...
- Everyone Is Bi — While this is not exactly Word Of God, one of the Verse's two lovely mods seems to think this, and even if not everyone is bi, there is an AWFUL lot of that going on.
- Evil Is Sexy — Or as it is referred to on the 'verse, "That should not be hot."
- Evil Versus Evil — Steerpike's murder of King Orduag.
- Evil Detecting Wolf — Not evil exactly, but Kiba and Tsume can identify almost anything by scent. Similarly, characters with heightened senses (usually smell) will usually figure out that they're not human.
- Failure Knight — In Kiba's case, Failure Alpha. It took a while, but he confirmed it after Tsume arrived.
- Also, there are elements of this in Tybalt's obsession with Meg.
- First Name Basis — We know Graf von Krolock has warmed to Belle when he allows her to call him Johannes.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampires — Magda exemplifies this trope. (The Krolock family may seem fairly benign, but it's more of a lack of desire to be evil than a want to be good, so they don't count.)
- Friend To All Living Things — Partially parodied in Mira's Snow White moment with Doctor Moreau's creatures- she can get hideous monsters to cuddle around her feet as she sings, but not 'normal', cute animal companions. It was still pretty sweet.
- Subverted so hard with Kiba that it's definitely not funny anymore.
- Funny Aneurysm Moment — Occasionally happens in spite of the Sueniverse being an ongoing fan work.
- Megan's comment to Erik that she's not "going to have your babies or anything". (She did have his daughter later on, with tragic consequences- see the Deconstruction section above.)
- Herbert's frequent clingy insistence to Aziraphale that "If you ever left me, I don't know what I would do" gained a rather disturbing overtone when it was revealed that Herbert has occasionally violent, destructive fits and is generally more than a little unbalanced.
- Tsume's jokes about Kiba being a "traumatized screw-up" backfired since his mental state really is that fragile, with his dislike of other species reaching
near-xenophobic levels after encountering the various beings of the 'Verse. When the three got attacked by Beraht Cutter in Lorien, it took all of two seconds for Kiba to go berserk, which terrified Helen as she finally realized the implications of having a barely-stable wolf as her bodyguard.
- In a bitter justification of Kiba's mindset, the speech Tsume makes to Midna completely subverts it: "That bastard made us lose Paradise. I know we've lost it, because we're HERE and Kiba's even more of a screw-up than he used to be! So unless you've been through all of that, I don't think you have a right to call Kiba your equal."
- Of course, as Midna pointed out, she had been through everything he'd just mentioned.
- Only part of it—but to be fair, nothing can really top losing Paradise. By the way, the Funny Aneurysm Moment got DOUBLE subverted after Kiba's Heroic BSOD forced Tsume to become temporary alpha.
- Gag Boobs — usually with Magda.
- God Save Us From The Queen — La Reine Rouge; Queen Lilith
- Gory Discretion Shot — Happened when the first incarnation of Marius from Les Miserables shot himself.
- Heroic BSOD — Kiba has one during his fight with Beraht and Midna. But instead of becoming a barely-functioning wreck, his BSOD makes him more dangerous: Since he no longer tries to reason with others, he will skip straight to attacking unless Tsume tells him otherwise.
- Honor Before Reason— Kiba's decided that anyone who fights using magic or animal companions is weak. He hates the Wolfriders and their wolves, calling them hypocrites who only fight if their "pets" are there for backup. He also views magic as a coward's way out, especially since the magic-users he's run into are physically unimpressive.
- I Am Not Making This Up: Oh, where to begin? Well, look up at the Awesome Moment Of Crowning entry: "Steerpike and Mrs Lovett's ascension to power in Lorien". And that's fairly mild.
- I Just Want To Be Normal — Erik the Phantom's daughter Pina (he knocked up his servant girl, a refugee from Real Life), born with a milder version of her father's deformity, has spent her whole life wishing she wasn't so obviously Daddy's girl.
- I Have You Now My Pretty — This happens frequently with Irene (with the offender often being Dracula, though not always), to the point where it borders on being a running joke.
- Important Haircut— Herbert again. It may not seem like much, but going from having hair down to the bottom of his shoulderblades to a little above his shoulders did coincide with some important Character Development.
- Kavorka Man- Erik seems to be a living embodiment of this trope, and Snape represents a subversion- Magda certainly thinks he's one of these, but even he knows otherwise.
- The Pavi. Just... The Pavi.
- Last Name Basis — Subverted, in that Crowley prefers to go by his last name. If someone calls him Anthony, there's usually trouble afoot.
- Love Martyr — Crowley's raison d'etre as of late seems to be trying to make Magda realize she's basically a mild version of this.
- Helen may be becoming this, only she's aware that The Power Of Love isn't a realistic solution for Kiba's issues.
- Love Triangle — and HOW.
- Mad Love — Erik's unrequited obsession with Christine, Megan's onetime love for Erik, and Toby's for Mrs. Lovett.
- Magnificent Bastard — Dracula, to the extent that pretty much any chance of believing his character as a romantic Woobie has totally vanished for many of us.
- The Masochism Tango— Mira and the Emcee, big time.
- Martin Guerre — Richard Lawrence essentially stole Richard Plantagenet's life in this way.
- Mac Guffin — Parodied in Crowley's quest for the "Adam and Steve Bible" (a holy text containing some extra verses which detail the origins of homosexuality- namely, that, after Eden, in addition to painful pregnancy, Eve had to endure "an extremely attractive gay man named Steve" who had a thing for Adam).
- Mind Rape and I Have Your Wife were combined when, as revenge, Erik Destler possessed Sherlock Holmes' body to rape Irene Adler.
- Meta Guy — Richard Plantagenet and Pina Kroger both frequently fill this role, which adds an extra level to their becoming an Official Couple.
- Moral Event Horizon — Destler's aforementioned crime took away a great deal of sympathy, and Mira was given even more reason to leave her lover after he raped Louis.
- Nakama — Tsume and Kiba (and by extension Helen), with liberal application of Vitriolic Best Buds. In a depressing twist, Tsume is aware that Kiba's emotional trauma is the reason for everything, but he doesn't know how to help without sounding like an idiot or making it worse. There's also the fact that both of them, being the last of their entire WORLD, have healthy cases of Survivor Guilt that almost nobody else can empathize with.
- Crowley and Magda form one of these too.
- Napoleon Delusion — Richard Lawrence, who is convinced that he is Richard III of England. (An example of Truth In Television, as he really did believe that.)
- Nerds Are Sexy — Valerie. And Dr. Crane.
- Not So Above It All — Richard Plantagenet, in spite of his belief that he is the Only Sane Man of the Verse, is prone to this (especially notable when he rejected Emmy- telling her off would be one thing; giggling and indulging in finding just the right insults was something several degrees from sane entirely).
- Offstage Waiting Room — You can't expect a bunch of R Pers to type in every detail of their characters' lives, can you?
- The Only One Allowed To Defeat You — Crowley's general attitude toward Snape.
- Our Vampires Are Different — Not just in general, but from EACH OTHER.
- Overly Long Name — Magdalena Inga Hilda Cassandra Elisabeta Dorotea Martina Karolina Waldescu Snape. (In fact, her writer only let her get married because of the unintentional The Producers-style joke that would come from Magda acquiring a one-syllable married name.) Compared to that, Herbert Johannes Friedrich, Burggraf von Krolock is downright restrained-sounding (and makes Magda's overextended, royal-sounding name even funnier when you remember that she comes from the lower rung of peasant stock, while Herbert really is nobility).
- The Paolo — Often ends up subverted, such as when Herbert was intended to serve as the Paolo for Aziraphale after he broke up with Crowley, and instead became the angel's full-time Love Interest.
- Rape Of The Lock — Megan was held down and had most of her hair forcibly cut off while wrongfully incarcerated in Charenton Lunatic Asylum.
- Rape As Drama — Over and over and over again.
- The Renfield — Renfield himself, though his services are now extended to Pina's mother Megan.
- Replacement Goldfish — After meeting Kiba at Le Rouge et L'Epine, Helen of Troy asked him to be her bodyguard since Menelaus is searching for her. Kiba accepted pretty quickly—partly because he now has a free pass to attack whoever threatens Helen, but mostly because she reminds him of Cheza.
- Schoolgirl Lesbians— Marishka and Cal would fit this pretty much exactly if they were actually schoolgirls.
- SORAS — often accomplished in the Offstage Waiting Room (see above). Happens with almost alarming frequency. (The exception is the Hobbitling Leadora, who will probably never grow up.) It was lampshaded a bit when it was discovered that Severus Snape is in fact only four or five years older than his long-lost sister Jess Cartwright, but was stolen as a baby and grew to adulthood from 1960 onward. A similar situation happened with Nicolas, Enjolras' son.
- Room Full Of Crazy — The state of Herbert's room after his fits.
- Scarpia Ultimatum — The Emcee delivers this to Mira after she's left him for Victor Frankenstein.
- Scars Are Forever — Megan (the writer and not the character) is a bit notorious for this- if one of her characters is cut, odds are good that it'll leave a scar.
- Herbert's torso is basically a patchwork of this after the barricades.
- Serious Business — Everything.
- Shown Their Work — Kiba's writer has solid knowledge about wolf/pack behavior, and is a far cry from "pack = family/friends" and "children = pups." (For one, he recognizes children as human offspring.) While telepathic, he is still a wolf: He forces himself to live with humans and dogs at Le Rouge et L'Epine and even accepts being beta to Brandi because of his need to be with others, despite being able to physically survive on his own. While he views Helen of Troy as equivalent to a pack's omega, her request for protection actually strengthens his resolve to defend a lower-ranking pack member from danger. He doesn't understand the concept of hotels, as it only depletes the resident "pack's" resources, and he has to restrain himself from instinctively killing the wheelchair-bound Lady Caldin. Smell and hearing are his foremost senses, and while he understands that scent trails and yards-away noises are imperceptible to humans, he gets annoyed with their tendency to "state the obvious." After his author joins as Tsume, who becomes a mediator between Kiba and the others, she brings their interaction into more detail, contrasting Tsume's level-headed view with his unquestioned recognition of Kiba's authority. (At least until Kiba's Heroic BSOD.)
- Talkative Loons — Delirium.
- The Straight Will And Grace — Magda and Crowley (though he's technically bisexual)
- This Is Your Brain On Evil — Done slightly backward: Magda's evil past is viewed as a kind of drug she's recovering from.
- Those Wacky Nazis — The Emcee, with his fascist bisexual rapist charm, and his affairs with anything that moves (including a long-suffering Jewish girl.)
- Ugly Guy Hot Wife — Snape and Magda; subverted slightly in that it gets mentioned all the time.
- Unholy Matrimony — Steerpike and Mrs. Lovett.
- UST — Jonathan Crane and Hannibal Lecter.
- Wangst — EVERYONE.
- Why Did It Have To Be Snakes — The normally competent and collected Magda is terrified of any fire larger than the flame on the end of a match. Makes sense, considering her parents died in a fire, and she herself was later horrifically burned (she got better).
- Woobie — Toby and, funnily enough, Death.
- Yandere — La Reine Rouge; Emmy Rossum
- Yaoi Guys — Played with, as Herbert and Aziraphale do twist the typical seme/uke pattern a bit (Herbert is the taller, more forceful member of the pairing, but he's also the more flamboyant one, considerably younger [both literally and in appearance], and the one that usually ends up needing to be cuddled). Also, neither one is played simply for the sake of writing gay characters.
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