Reaching Salvation is a Role Playing experience that has since been separated into two distinct halves: The Acer Tournament story line and the Post Acer War story line. The original RP was originally created by LastPrelude
and is hosted on This is Not A Forum over on FanFiction.Net, whilst the Post Acer story takes place five years later, with the contestants that competed in the Acer Tournament in the original RP having moved on and set up their own little village.
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General Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: There are numerous little side stories that various people have written for their characters and posted up on sites like Fiction Press and the like; a good view have been rendered none-canon, however.
- After the End: It is set after The End of the World as We Know It, which is a big hint.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership:
- This is how the contestant food chain is ultimately decided.
- The Big Five could easily do a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on any of the contestants back when they were running things, hence why none bar Shima could challenge them.
- Subverted when applied to Post Acer contestants village and how it's run, as there isn't really anyone in charge so to speak, but those that act as the leader figures aren't the strongest, but probably the best suited for the position.
- Big Bad:
- Shima is introduced as the Big Bad during the Breakout Arc. The Big Five are not surprisingly the Greater-Scope Villain given that they're Evil All Along, with Acerbus acting as the groups leader making him the ultimate Big Bad. Counts as them being that at first whilst Shima serves as a more open antagonist towards the contestants
- Who is the the Post Acer Big Bad you might ask? It's Lillian, what happened to the others has been left vague for the time being.
- Killed Off for Real: Thus far we have in no particular order: Minerva and Myra Strife, Mitsu, Shepard, Sabina, Shima, and various other characters.
- Magic A Is Magic A: The book on the Flow from the first RP is essentially a rule book.
- Shout-Out:
- Clever Girl - courtesy of Paul.
- Neo said "Well, excuuuuuuuse me princess!".
- The Big Five, originally coined by Dobi Boshi and becoming a term used in and out of the RP is used at first as a passing Shout Out to Yu-Gi-Oh! on one of the discussion threads.
- Time Skip: Five years between the original and the Sequel.
Tropes pertaining to the original only:
A - D
- Alas, Poor Villain: Shima's situation could en up being this, given the fact that he wants to change the world for the better yet he was betrayed by those he trusted most, seemingly when their apposing views finally brought them to odds. As a result Shima is now out for Revenge against those who turned on him, painting him as Well-Intentioned Extremist as he does seem to want to change the world for the better. Sadly it's not his first priority anymore.
- Anti-Villain: Shima has painted himself as this despite being the biggest contender for the position of Big Bad. He's outwardly stated he's out for Revenge for what the others did to him some point prior to the start of the RP, but you can't help but feel sorry for the guy when you take into account that he does want to change the world for the better - possibly could end up going as far as being the
Designated Evil and becoming an Anti-Hero. - Artificial Limbs: Thadius' mechanical arm also doubles as an Arm Cannon.
- Ascended Extra: Shepard and Simon are this, as both were originally introduced with the intention of being Red Shirts. Things changed however, and Simon is still very much alive and a recurring character in the Post Acer story line.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Some contestants seem to think of this as their main battle strategy.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Doonjor could count, considering his sheer size when compared to everyone one else present in the RP.
- Ax-Crazy: Luke's creator has stated this is what happens to him during his Back-to-Back Badasses moment with Kira during the Breakout Arc.
- Badass Longcoat: Eithne's makeover during the second week has him rockin' one of these.
- Ballistic Bone: One of [[Elite Mook}} Shima's Illuminati]] can do this. Funnily enough, he was fighting Paul at the time when he displayed this ability - one, if not the only, other person in the RP who uses a ranged weapon as their primary offensive weapon.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Kira. She's probably the nicest character in the whole damn RP and despite her Shrinking Violet statues we've yet to see what she can do when someone well and truly pushes her Berserk Button.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kira of all people seems to be showing shades of this as off the Beast Tamer Challenge. It's rather frightening actually, y'know, given the prior status as a Shrinking Violet. Though Beware the Nice Ones is all too true in this case.
- Big Damn Heroes: Parodied and subverted, if only accidentally (though it was completely hilarious) by the Big Five's fashionably late arrival during the Breakout Arc when Shima called them out before brushing off a few of the contestants stupid enough to attack him.
- Break the Cutie: A general trait shared by almost everyone, give it's a Crapsack World and everyone's got a Dark and Troubled Past - some have it worse than others.
- Breaking Speech: Nathan attempted to give his own little version of one of these to Kira when he found her waiting from him to wake up in the Infirmary after his fight with Eithne.
- Broken Pedestal: The Big Five were put on one of these after Shima planted the seeds of doubt during the Breakout Arc.
- Butt-Monkey: Joey, much to his chagrin, is this for a number of characters - Heidi in partciular at times, made all the more funny by the fact she's nearly five years younger than he is.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Whilst things were by no means cute and fluffy beforehand, things get noticably darker after Shima first pops during the Breakout Arc, because shortly afterwards people start dying.
- Characterization Marches On: Eithne's creator admits to him being hit by this - he went from rather comedic, lighthearted Heroic Comedic Sociopath to cold, badass Jerkass with a Heart of Gold. This sudden shift in characterization has more to do with his original characterization not really fitting in with the overall tone of the roleplay than anything else, however.
- Childhood Friends: Oliver and Dakato/Pride. Which is the bases for a lot of which he does in rp.
- Cool Sword:
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Was part of Eithne's character originally, was rectonned out. See Characterization Marches On and his individual character sheet for a great explanation.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: A few have happened. Shima vs. the Contestants and Oliver and Pride vs. Eithne and Sabina being the most notable. Though only the latter battle actually had someone Killed Off for Real; Sabina.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Nathan and Eithne subvert this during their first few clashes, though no one really wins any of those. Eithne eventually wins one and the closests they ever get to friends is Aloof Ally / Enemy Mine.
- Determinator: Eithne fits the bill. Others, such as Luke and even Paul during his battle in the Breakout Arc could also qualify.
E - L
- Great Escape: Breakout Arc. Doubles as Meaningful Name - seeing as that's when the plot was dialed up to eleven and things really began to break out all over the place.
- Hand Signals: How the character of Silence communicates with others, because for some reason, his Flow takes away his ability to talk.
- Hand Wave: Played straight during the chimera challenge when one of the contestants asked The Big Five where the chimeras had come from and they got waved off as an answer then they lampshaded the whole thing as they walked off to resume the challenge.
- Even if accidental, it was humorous.
- Genre Blindness made him forget one important rule when doing this however: Beware the Nice Ones. Kira delivered a Shut Up, Hannibal! which doubles and/or sets up what appears to be Kira taking a level in Bad Ass.
- Eithne also gave Nathan one during their fight by way of pushing his greatest Berserk Button.
- Hates Being Touched:
- Eithne, until he got a lid on his powers and grew out of it.
- Simon too, given that direct skin on skin human contact in any possible form could kill him.
- Honor Before Reason: Eithne is very guilty of this, usually doubles up as a Leeroy Jenkins. Averted in the Leeroy Jenkins department, at least ever since he Took a Level in Badass; that doesn't stop him from considering his code of honor before all else at times, though.
- I Can Still Fight!: Eithne during the chimera challenge - which also earns him his Determinator status.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Paul averts this, seeing as he already has plenty of experience with guns prior to the start of the RP whilst Eithne invoked this trope in his fight with Nathan, though it also counts as a subversion given he's been shown throwing and aiming things, mainly apples at various points prior and it's taught him to have reasonable aim, yet he'd never really fired a gun prior to using it in the fight.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Eithne is this at times, other times he's just straight up Jerkass. Joey had a moment as one of these during the Breakout Arc during the face off with Shima.
- Kick the Dog:
- Nathan does this brilliantly at times. Others are just as guilty, Nathan just does it better.
- Oliver kicks a whole bunch of puppies by ordering [[spoiler's Sabina's death]].
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Surprisingly, Percival is more guilty of this than anyone thus far. Must come with the territory of being the most Genre Savvy character...
- Leeroy Jenkins:
- Once again, Eithne is very guilty of this during his first confrontation with Heidi. Averted since then.
- The beast Joey's team is paired up with during the Beast Tamer Challenge thinks about pulling this off, Joey Lampshades that it would be a very bad idea.
M -S
- Mama Bear: Heidi and Erika to Simon and Elena, respectively. You so much look at either of these two kids wrong with Heidi and Erika around and prepare to run. Ironically, Suvi plays both Heidi and Elena, whilst Rand is the reverse with Erika and Simon. Hmm...
- Mind Rape:
- The fear-inducing fog in the maze challenge, also hint to Anya's Flow.
- What Shima did to Tom and Eithne.
- Morality Pet: Heidi, despite saying that she wouldn't think twice about killing someone, treats Simon like her own little brother.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Big Five. Shima now also qualifies as this. Nathan likes to think he qualifies for this. He doesn't.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: For the time being, The Big Five and Shima have this going for them except against each other. Oliver too, presumably, seeing as he too is an adult with a few years of experience under his belt and knows everything there is to know about his own Flow.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Eithne and Nathan try to do this to one another after a round of insults results in both pushing the other's Berserk Button.
- One-Steve Limit: Shima's group has two character's named Oliver. One is The Stoic Dragon-in-Chief whilst the other is an Elite Mook. Was retconned into effect, with the the Elite Mook being given a new name to help set him apart from the Dragon-in-Chief.
- Only Sane Man: Shepard has shown signs of being this, at times. Some of his thoughts at times seem to support that he agrees with this statement.
- Put on a Bus:
- The contestants sent to the Disqualification Room most certainly count.
- Shima and Co. went for a trip on the bus after the events of the Breakout Arc but it looks as though The Bus Came Back as of end of the first fifth of Part IV.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Eithne and Nathan. Nathan and Luke also count, but they seem to be growing apart as Nathan slowly turns more and more antagonistic.
- Revenge: Shima invokes this trope as his entire purpose in the RP at first. Turns out he had a Freudian Excuse the entire time.
- Seeking Sanctuary: A synonym of the title of the RP itself; mainly what the characters are all after.
- Shipper on Deck: People, both in and out of the RP, seem to be cheering for Lukira over Nathira. Doesn't look like either of them will win in the end, though.
- Story Arc: Each day seems to count as its own arc, so to speak.
- Superpower Lottery: Some of the characters hit the jackpot in terms of cool and unique powers, others, not so much.
T - Z
- Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: With his limited knowledge of electronics and desserts, along with calling his father by his first name, Simon is known to show this to Heidi without even knowing it.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Nathan gets called out a lot on his own actions by those around him, more so than anyone else, at any rate.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Could have saved Shima a hell of a lot of trouble during the Breakout Arc.
- Wild Card: Nathan and Eithne are more or less this whilst they remain in the tower, yet are on Shima's side.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child:
- Played straight by the likes of Eithne, Luke and many more including Heidi - if her attachment to Simon is anything to go by.
- Subverted by Ven (an NPC), though a vast majority of the main characters could also subvert this if it meant protecting themselves and their teammates, because technically, they all are still kids.
- Big Five anyone? They play with the trope in a most bizarre fashion. Whilst none of them have directly hurt any of the contests thus far, from what we've seen, they're hardly protecting them by making them compete in life threatening challenges for a shot at Utopia.
