A forum RP (Role-Play) on a Zetaboards site, created and run primarily by four young writers known by the cybernyms thebobmaster, Garjel_blah, Jack (originally bigfatcarp93) and jjofearth. Though other contributors have come and gone, only these four have remained a constant part of the story from start to finish.
The story is a Mass Effect fanfiction set fifty years after the end of Mass Effect 3, with the official retcon being that the Destroy ending was chosen, but didn't damage the geth and relays as badly as expected, and they have now been rebuilt. Five decades later, many other races have been inducted into the Spectres, and the galaxy seems to be at complete peace... though forces are moving in the shadows, and dark secrets are starting to come to light.
The story (which has come be known for a dark and morbid tone, with occasional comedy and frequent action) proper begins with a quarian Spectre named Sera'Zarda vas Citadel being called in to investigate an attempted bombing on the Council, and gathering a mismatched team of alien badasses to help. Shenanigans ensue.
The RP is still going as of May 2016, and entering it's final chapters. The story will continue with a yet-unnamed spinoff led by bigfatcarp93, due to launch shortly after RIP ends. The site can be found here: http://w11.zetaboards.com/Rest_In_Pieces/index/
This roleplay provides examples of:
- A God Am I: Altus Sapiens, as a consequence of Coming Back Wrong.
- Abandoned Warehouse: Constantly, to the point of lampshading by Victairn.
- The Alcatraz: Contract Penitentiary.
- Anyone Can Die: Are they a PC? Were they in a previous part? Are they a good guy? Are they an eight year old kid? Doesn't mean anything, they have just as much chance of dying as anyone.
- Arch-Enemy: Many of the heroes and villains tend to pair off into this:
- Garjen and Tir'Sha.
- Valentin and L'Enfer.
- Victairn and Stralos.
- Master and the entire Crew (He managed to personally get under the skins of half the team.)
- A bit more YMMV: Sera and Altus Sapiens.
- Arc Words: "Mandate."
- "Slop."
- Award Show: A metafictional one - the RiPpys, written by the four authors in-character, presenting awards to the characters and eachother. And it's hilarious.
- Badass Boast: Valai gives one to Rahvid shortly before being captured, complete with Precision F-Strike.Valai: ...Once again, I am Valai'Cala vas Telarun. Get off of my fucking ship.
- BFG: Victairn's Cain.
- Big Bad: A different one each arc:
- In RiP1, Tir'Sha and the Eclipse mercenaries.
- In RiP2, Master and the larger Eclipse empire.
- Two in RiP3: L'Enfer and his huge merc organization, and Altus Sapiens.
- In RiP4, the Mandate.
- Man Behind the Man: The Mandate was also this to an unaware L'Enfer. As were the Eclipse to the Blue Suns.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: L'Enfer has a moment of this when attempting some Evil Gloating. It doesn't end well for him.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Thoroughly subverted by L'Enfer. You wouldn't think that one young member of his massive organization escaping would be of particular note, but all these years later, he's still after Val.
- The Chessmaster: The Manipulator.
- Chunky Salsa Rule: L'Enfer. Also Shiv when he uses the omni-saw.
- Crapsack World: Unbelievably so; the Mass Effect Universe has basically fallen apart fifty years after the Reaper War. Turns out to be the result of the Mandate's baleful influence.
- Disc-One Final Dungeon: The underbelly of Omega.
- The Dragon:
- Jetuun and his Blue Suns forces are this to Tir'Sha and the Eclipse.
- The entire Mandate seems to consist of stacks and stacks of Dragons under Dragons: The Knights work for Jubilation, Jubilation for the Manipulator, etc.
- Easter Egg: Garjen reads Commander Shepard's biography.
- Final Boss Preview: The Crew tangles with Master on Purgatory before their final throwdown in the Eclipse base.
- Genre Savvy: Victairn at times. "NO MORE FUCKING WAREHOUSES!"
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Mandate was this all along: the Eclipse forces who were the main villains of the first two arcs were actually a splinter faction. The Mandate even secretly supported the Crew and allowed them to go after the Eclipse just to tie up the loose end. Bigger Bads, indeed.
- I Call It "Vera": Valentin's heavily customised sniper rifle, named for his The Lost Lenore, Kostya. Destroyed at the end of RiP3.
- Incompatible Orientation: Implied by L'Enfer regarding Victairn and Valentin during his Hannibal Lecture. Denied by Valentin.
- Insane Troll Logic: As it turns out, the Mandate pretty much runs on this. According to them, change is bad, because... Reapers?
- Insult of Endearment: Victairn's "Scarface" for Valentin.
- Later, Valentin's "Cyclops" for Victairn.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: L'Enfer.
- Killed Off for Real: Baxter, Alia, Gnos, Spade, Triana, Donald, Bartan.
- Legionof Doom: The Knights, consisting of Rahvid, Ilani, Stralos, Cryic, Omicron Red, and Celan.
- Neck Lift: a Krogan guard does this to Victairn.
- New Season, New Name: RiP4: The Mandate.
- Next Tier Power-Up: Master, upon receiving the ability to fire Reaper beams.
- Breath Weapon: Master's Reaper beam is emitted from his mouth.
- No Biochemical Barriers: Valentin the Space Wizard. First apparently played straight, with him (a levo-amino-based lifeform) drinking Sera's (a dextro-amino-based lifeform) drink. Then lampshaded by bigfatcarp93 in the metatextual Paragons and Renegades thread. Later subverted, with Valentin's scientific explanation in the RiPpys. Continues to be lampshaded.
- One-Winged Angel: Master engages Reaper Mode whenever he is 'fatally' damaged. This makes him nigh invincible, super strong, and biotic for a short period of time.
- Parachute in a Tree: Valentin, after a pre-skydiving one-liner no less.
- Redemption Equals Death: As part of his apology to Garjen, Dornan guns down the entire Eclipse leadership while they're all grouped together in their emergency bunker. He himself dies in the process.
- Rule of Cool: Frequently invoked when Garjel_blah is writing.
- Scary Impractical Armour: Jinxy's armour is covered in spikes.
- Secret Identity: Helianara turns out to be Triana. Victairn also occasionally goes by the name Caesar.
- Shout-Out: The Shadow, to Alien, Predator, and the Thing.
- Valai's accent and mannerisms are one to the 10th Doctor - to the point of quoting his 'so, so sorry' catchphrase.
- Skilled, but Naive: Jinxy.
- Supervillain Lair: Eclipse have their HQ and Reaper tech research program located in the turbulent centre of the galaxy, a place which can only be accessed through the Omega 4 relay. The Lamarque Building is L'Enfer's equivalent.
- Collapsing Lair: This happens to both of them.
- Taking You with Me: Master explodes upon death, and almost succeeds in taking Victairn with him.
- The Lost Lenore: Kostya, for Valentin - a rare male example. Until Valentin gets closure near the end of RiP3.
- Theme Naming: bigfatcarp93 names many things in Latin. jjofearth names many things in Russian and French.
- Took a Level in Badass: Val over the course of RIP 2.
- True Companions: The Crew, particularly after the events on Proteus.
- Villain World: Turns out the entire Mass Effect Galaxy has pretty much been this ever since the end of the Reaper War, with the Mandate having taken over in secret.
- Wham Episode:
- Firstly, the finale of RIP 1: Digit and Baxter are dead, and Sera has been captured and taken away by Master. Also, turns out the Eclipse is pretty much more of an evil empire then a mercenary company these days, and the end result of their experiments with Reaper Tech was an attempt to indoctrinate the entire Terminus Systems.
- A relatively minor one halfway through RIP 2, where Valentin's backstory is revealed. Of particular note is the little detail that the mobster who killed Kostya and burned Val's face, L'Enfer, is back and after him again.
- Everything on and immediately following Casses: Victairn's old mentor is back (And kind of an evil jerkass), what appears to be a Reaper is massacring millions, and the Crew are now fugitives from the Heirarchy. Gets even crazier when Altus Sapiens shows up, captures the whole Crew, appears to know them, brings them aboard, and reveals himself as the resurrected and now-insane Digit.
- The finale of RIP 3: L'Enfer is dead, Altus Sapiens is dead, Sera and Garjen are leaving, the Crew have been framed for assassinating a Councilor, and, what else, oh yeah, THE ENTIRE GALAXY IS UNDER THE CONTROL OF A HUGE, EVIL CONSPIRACY.
- The Crew's first encounter with The Manipulator. Turns out he's not actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but is actually just insanely fucking evil. Oh, and he nukes Celan's hometown just to try and kill the Crew.
- Wham Line: A few.
- Altus Sapiens: "HOWEVER, FOR THE SAKE OF BREVITY, YOU TYPICALLY REFERRED TO ME AS DIGIT."
- Victairn: "Because my brother is fucking dead."
- L'Enfer: "Whatever made you think I was here?"
- Suturb: "Because the station has been under attack by Altus Sapiens for the last twenty minutes."
- Arthana: "So, what did you think of my performance? Personally, I think I do and even better Martha then you. This is going to be fun.
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What Could Have Been: Garjel_blah had planned a storyline in which Garjen would be unknowingly indoctrinated after his encounter with Tir'Sha.- In addition, bigfatcarp93 originally wanted to introduce Rahvid much earlier, as an associate of Master. Instead, he created Victairn.
- A further example: had the Crew not decided to give Altus Sapiens the red code, killing him painfully, but instead given him the blue code, Sapiens, as a final act of desperate spite, would have released all of his databanks onto the extranet, outing the Crew as being largely responsible for his creation and worsening the manhunt in RIP 4.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: All the characters abandoned by their users. Namely, Robin, Gnos, Spade, Alia, Darren, and Jinxy. Baxter is not an example - though his author left, he was killed off, rather than disappearing.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Letanya gives Victairn a verbal lashing after his interrogation techniques caused the victim to call security, resulting ultimately in a shoot-out and blimp crash.
- You Have Failed Me: Rahvid did not approve of Ka'Trina selling him out.
