A World Beyond
is a NationStates roleplay, created by a Bollywood Nerd and a sort of Spiritual Successor to previous roleplay Elfen High.
The roleplay is based off the New World of Darkness, with some Demon: The Fallen thrown in. You start as an ordinary human completely unaware of the supernatural. Other than that, you can have as much customization as you want. Be a crooked cop, a Mormon rock star, a mental patient, a honors student with a secret drug problem... whatever.
You are in the small town of Jasper, California. A sleepy mining town, you could be here for any amount of reasons. You could live here, be visiting friends, killing your most recent victim, attending a rock concert, filming a movie... whatever.
Then everyone in Jasper just disappears. You and the other PCs are the only ones left. You meet a man named Mr. G, who explains that the world is considerably bigger and stranger than you imagined it to be.
The roleplay began in 2011 and ran for two years and three arcs before being abandoned.
A World Beyond provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Earl Mason is rarely seen without some form of alcohol in his hand.
- Asian Store-Owner: Sachin, the curry shop owner, who is also an Indian vampire.
- Back from the Dead: Mark refuses to stay dead. Vernon died and returned once. It's unknown just what happened to Hailey but she also didn't stay gone. And Gabriel has recently been resurrected for reasons which remain unclear.
- Bears Are Bad News: Mika is "killed by a bear" when Mr. G tries to convince everyone to go to Vegas for the first time.
- Beneath the Mask: When the group obtain the Viper G flips, dropping his smug persona, and throwing a massive fit over the ordeal.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Mr. G fucks around with the main cast all the time and is never serious. This is also the same guy hated and feared by the whole supernatural world, seems to have wiped out Mika, and also stabbed and nearly killed Earl for spitting on his suit.
- Big Good: Mr. G is a rare twist on this. He's in charge of everything the group does, but he makes them do it against their will, kidnaps their families, and regularly torments them for the sake of his story.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Even though the moral centers of the group are a homicidal priest and a manipulative former chessmaster, the party is infinitely more moral than Mr. G.
- Breaking Speech: Mr. G had prepared to give one to Vernon, completely with a "we aren't so different" section, but stopped once he saw the insane things Vernon was doing and left.
- The Bus Came Back: Though Doc was never technically put on a bus, he did return from a long unexplained absence.
- Catchphrase:
- "Things are about to go southward." - Vernon, right before something goes horribly, horribly wrong.
- Nicholas Carry, the vampire forced by Mr. G to give them their assignment, looks exactly like Nicholas Cage. Many Ghost Rider-based threats ensue.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Arc 2 is considerably Darker and Edgier than Arc 1. And that is saying a lot.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The victim of Mark's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown showed back up to be Mind Raped by something hinted to be the Big Bad.
- Chekhov's Skill: Vernon once mentioned in passing to a Calacas vampire that he and his father used to go sailing. Guess who had to sail the boat to Alcatraz?
- Chew Toy:
- Mr. G regularly torments Vernon, be it through poisoning, acid piss, sending marauding vampires after him, etc.
- Mark has "died" a total of three times. Once, he was shot. Then he was caught in the hospital fire. And now his chest has been ripped through by a claw.
- Christianity is Catholic:
- Apparently, every Christian character in the RP is either Catholic or associated with the Catholic Church.
- There is one exception - sort of. Gabriel is an Episcopal priest, but "If the writers want to use a generally Catholic depiction, but get around the pesky celibacy issue, they'll use an Episcopal priest (which, in the immortal words of Robin Williams, is 'Catholic Lite')."
- Peter is a Eugepæan Orthodox Catholic and Ivan seems to be a Russian Orthodox.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Hailey had her moments early on when she argued with the voices in her head. This has ended since she became a vampire, and she no longer vocalizes her arguments.
- Convulsive Seizures: Peter has one, and then later has a non-convulsive absence seizure.
- Crazy-Prepared: Earl carries an emergency pair of shorts around with him, inside his jumpsuit. Just in case. Comes in handy when Hailey is warped to the docks, nearly naked.
- Creepy Child: Peter is a street child that likes to carry around a vile of cyanide and has a voice in his head.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
- Vernon, cemented when he used a soap container he ripped off the wall for no goddamn reason as an improvised explosion.
- Damien, on the surface a paranoid joke. A paranoid joke who raises armies of owls.
- Dark Shepherd: Gabriel kills a lot of people, and turns a blind eye to torture, when he feels that such things are the lesser of two evils.
- Expy: Anyone familiar with Elfen High (of which this is a
Spiritual Successor of) will realize instantly that Principal Damien Seward is, believe it or not, Damien Seward. He's becoming less and less of a copy as time goes on. In fact, the only similarities they share anymore, beyond their names of course, is that they both like sex. Like a lot. - Fluffy the Terrible: Fluffy Hitler Lucifer the First. Subverted by the fact that, despite him being a miniature version of Godzilla, he's pretty damn useless. Specifically, he can't breath fire and is pretty weak. He can piss acid though, which Vernon learned the hard way.
- Gayngst: Within fifteen minutes of discovering he's gay over Gabriel, Peter contemplates suicide, assumes the fetal position, asks for forgiveness from God, and is berated for being gay by the voice in the back of his head... in Latin.
- Heroic Second Wind: Gabriel gets bitten by a vampire and almost collapses. Then he is seized by a deep love of everyone around him, which moves him to get back up and shoot the vampire in the head.
- Hollywood Atheist: Though it was never stated out-right as the cause of Vernon's atheism, he did have a horrible childhood.
- Human Shield: Hailey used Mark as a mind-controlled human shield during the Alley Battle scene. However, the Doc managed to wake Mark up by shooting into the ground, snapping him into life so that he could attack Hailey, resulting in injuries to the kidney and lungs that hospitalized him.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Inverted. While the mooks tend to be fair shots, and in the case of certain villains, capable of picking off the enemy with machine pistols from a few hundred feet while leaving specific bystanders alone, Fred is incapable of really using a firearm to maximum ability due to missing an arm, the Doc outright refuses to use a firearm claiming that he is incapable of hitting the broadside of a barn from the inside despite having years on the Sri Lankan frontlines (as a research psychologist), and Mark's aim has been shown to vary with the times.
- Inconvenient Summons: When everyone is warped to the docks by G. Especially inconvenient for Hailey, who was in nothing but her underwear at the time.
- Informed Judaism: Earl is apparently Jewish, but shows little to no evidence of it.
- Jerkass:
- Mark Ameriga, amoral lawyer, sexist, and fan of Twilight. Towards the beginning, he nearly murders a drunk for vomiting on his suit. Also counts as Token Evil Teammate, although he averts Stupid Evil by, among other things, willingly providing his own money and contacts to get the rest of the group guns and other equipment they may need. When he thought he was going to die, he mellowed and became relatively nice, though any hopes of him changing his ways ended when he tried to take the MacGuffin by force for no discernible reason after dropping off the face of the earth.
- Damien, to a certain extent. He's raped at least one person and can be, at times, Ax-Crazy. If the others didn't write him off as just another psychopath moron, they might take the time to hate him like Vernon does.
- Karma Houdini:
- Mark never gets punished for his murder.
- Hailey never gets any comeuppance for her murderous blood-sucking habits. Of course, none of the vampires do.
- Damien in a big way. He took the already degrading political balance of the vampires, added in some hawks, and started a war.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Well, since the group knows they're in a "story", they (particularly Vernon) reference it quite a bit. Fred has thought about how he used to play NationStates and Vernon seems to be familiar with Nightkill.
- MacGuffin:
- The Coiled Viper, which can grant whoever wields it amazing powers. They were sent on this mission by Nicholas Carry, the Viper's owner.
- Carry's compass, which could track the Viper, temporarily became one of these when the Calacas (a tribe of vampires that Vernon had been forced to ally with that later became the party's foes) stole it.
- Made of Iron: Gabriel's not actually a supernatural creature in any way, shape, or form, yet no one seems able to kill or even seriously hurt him.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Fluffy Hitler Lucifer the First. Subverted with the fact that he's a Godzilla. An useless Godzilla.
- No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus: Addressed in-universe. Gabriel tells Vernon not to make any Jesus jokes when he's resurrected, and Vernon occasionally entertains the notion that Mr. G is God. He doesn't mind much being Satan, either.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: G loses a massive bit of his bite to the group when he pitches a giant tantrum over Them obtaining the Viper. Punctuated nicely by Earl throwing his empty flash at his head, and flipping him off.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When Mr. G first assigned the heroes their mission, many of them did not believe in his powers. Then he turned the ground to blood.
- Vernon, when he realized that they left Mark behind in a burning building.
- Otaku: Earl, of all people. Member of a Star Trek fanclub, and frequently makes reference to anime. Mentioned Hellsing by name.
- Our Dragons Are Different: They are god-like beings locked in a war with the Dark Ones.
- Our Gargoyles Rock: "Lucy" the gargoyle who interrogates Vernon, Gabriel, and Damien about the dragon's death at the beginning of the second arc.
- Our Vampires Are Different: There are three tribes: The Anvari, who smoke pot, the Amara Havana, your typical blood-drinkers, and the Calacas, a hive-mind that serves the dragons.
- Pedophile Priest: Inverted in that Peter wishes Gabriel would fit this trope.
- Punctuated Pounding: Vernon lapses into this when Jun dies. Makes you feel sort of bad for the guy who's rib-cage he was stomping on.
- Put on a Bus:
- Mika, disappearing instantaneously on an aircraft, waved away by Mr. G as a minor event.
- Randy is killed by a were-spider fairly early in the story, though he does receive some development first.
- Retired Badass: Vernon is officially retired, but he still does his old job of policing with the Jasper Police Department. He's 65 and is still capable of restraining an angry gangster.
- Sherlock Scan: Vernon can figure out what is going and what is going to happen next based solely on the little he knows and what he expects.
- Shipper on Deck: Meta-example. Nightkill really wants Annette and Hailey to get together.
- Street Urchin: Peter's been living on the streets for years trying to steal money and pay his way back home.
- Team Pet: A miniature Godzilla named Fluffy Hitler Lucifer the First.
- Trust Me, I'm a Doctor: The Doc's favorite catchphrase when offering medical assistance to his companions. Despite the fact that he's a psychiatrist, and trained as a research psychologist.
- Unstoppable Rage: Gabriel has a problem managing his anger, and it is hard to deal with him when he loses control.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- Mr. G flips out when the group gets the Viper through peaceful means.
- At the very same time, Damien breaks down regarding his multiple personalities. One wants desperately to find salvation and the other is power hungry. He begs to be killed and everything.
- Viva Las Vegas!:
- A minor example when the group visits Nicholas Carry and gets their mission. They don't stay long, but Vernon does mention wanting to gamble. He never gets a chance to.
- Having received the Coiled Viper in San Francisco, the heroes head back to Las Vegas to meet with Carry again.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: The Dragon guarding the Viper. Gabriel convinces him that being kept alive because of the Viper is no way to live.
- Wrench Whack: Earl's favored method of threatening people who annoy him involves a wrench.
- You Are What You Hate: Peter is gay. He is also highly homophobic.
