Not long ago, tens of thousands of Homestuck fans around the world came together, guided by the Horrorterrors in a game of Sburb with a twist. From them, they learned the universe they were destined to create would prove defective, the game its inhabitants would play doomed to failure. Worse yet one of its players, Chronos, would, in his hunger for power slaughter his fellows, making his way to our universe in a bid to correct his own’s creation and guarantee his victory. Left alone these actions would cement his seat of power and state as threat to Paradox Space at large, but by destroying the frog Chronos bred and initiating a Scratch the players managed to erase his universe from the flow of Paradox Space and him with it, at the cost of their memories and experiences.
Fast forward a few days. In the wake of the Scratch life is back to normal, and all is seemingly as it should be. But of course, it’s never ‘that’ easy; as former players begin to regain their memories, they learn things didn’t end as neatly as they’d thought last time, and with old foes and new allies alike along for the ride they engage in an even more high-stakes game of Sburb that could shake Paradox Space to its very core…
A hybrid Roleplay/ARG, SCODE is a Fan Sequel to the highly-popular Sbarg ARG, following a group of players engaging in yet another world-defying adventure. The main blog can be found here, a resource containing an FAQ, timeline, and list of important players can be found here, and the wiki, a WIP, can be found here.
SCODE contains examples of.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: All over the place.
- Achievements in Ignorance: During the Black Queen Fight, when NC reached through a force field to retrieve the Ring because he forgot the said force field was there.
- Affably Evil: Afterman and Gambit are both pleasant individuals when they're not committing heinous acts.
- A God Am I: Afterman, Dynast, Gambit, and CA all have these moments.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Gambit. Laika too, before she turned out to be Faking the Dead.
- Anti-Hero: CA (Type III), EB (Type II)
- Artistic License – Physics: Tons. In addition to the RP running on this trope, Raz more or less weaponizes it, using his knowledge of various fictional magic systems to create conditions to emulate them. Projection and Vector Manipulation are just two examples.
- Being Evil Sucks: Becoming the Singer of the Angelic Choir destroys your mind and puts you at odds with almost all of your friends. Becoming the Singer was also necessary for most of Gambit's evil plans.
- Berserk Button: Messing with Gambit’s head is a pretty major one for her.
- BFS: Phoenix, Phil, and Raz are just a few of the many characters wielding massive blades; Phil's Darksteel Time Ripper is a six-and-a-half foot Nodachi, Phoenix's Emerald Ice is a scepter that can transform into a six-foot sword and be fitted with a sniper rifle and/or scythe attachment, and Raz's Continuum Saber has the explicit ability to grow to even more massive heights. (Becoming almost impossible to wield in a straight-up fight as a result.)
- Big Bad Ensemble: At least three villainous factions exist; The remnants of the Cult of Chronos consisting of Prometheus and Hyperion, the Big Bad Duumvirate of Afterman and Gambit, and Chronos himself.
- Bittersweet Ending: SCODE ends with a Pyrrhic Victory thanks to the Heroic Sacrifice made by Aria, Echo, and Cherie', whose corruption levels won't let them go through the door that the other Players have successfully created with their help.
- Blind Seer: Kaeri, who clawed out her own eyes in a vain attempt to get rid of the visions of the future her Title (Seer of Time) grants her. She wears a blindfold to save the rest of the world from seeing her scars.
- Born Lucky: Gambit, and eventually Laika, especially after Ascending as fully realised Thief of Light. Hyperion too, until his death.
- Came Back Wrong: The Afterman's revival as the Draconian Dynast completely wiped out any traces of his growing conscience and left him as a callous monster interested only in wanton destruction.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Both figuratively and literally in Gambit's case.
- Cards of Power: Angel's Game, Gambit's deck of angelically corruptive cards capable of creating any number of harmful effects.
- Cassandra Truth: Though Gambit always tells the truth, the heroes don't always believe or trust her. Justified in that despite her demeanor she is a villain at the end of the day.
- The Chessmaster: CA.
- Cooldown Hug: MS gives these to Gambit regularly.
- The Corruption: Angelic corruption, caused by an over-saturation of Hope energy, leads to incredible strength and megalomania at the cost of one's humanity. On the other side of the spectrum Grimdarkness/ Eldritch Corruption exists, inducing apathy rather then insanity while providing similar boosts.
- Cryptically Unhelpful Answer: CA and Gambit use these. As they see it the truth doesn't have to be helpful, just technically correct.
- Cypher Language: The various corrupted languages.
- Dark and Troubled Past: CA’s past self in SBARG committed terrible acts to set the events that created SCODE in motion and brought it up to the present CA many times.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Echo fights with Grimdarkness and a Necronimcon-empowered bass. He's also one of the central heroes. Zig-zagged in that he's not a very nice guy.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: CA, after killing Laika, returns to see the other Players cross into the new universe and was faced with the complete worthlessness of his actions while still having blood on his hands. This led to his Despair Event Horizon, which he was brought back from by a Rousing Speech by Aria, Echo, and MS.
- Died Happily Ever After: In the dream bubbles Gambit is reunited with the original Afterman, finding peace with her love in death.
- The Dragon: Gambit to Afterman and later Dynast, although their relationship more closely resembles a Big Bad Duumvirate.
- Dragon Ascendant: After Afterman's change of heart and brief disappearance, Gambit decides to carry on with his original plans, and even goes so far as to declare herself the 'Ascendant Dragon'.
- Dragon Rider: Tomias kicked the trend off and before his Land was destroyed Gambit made a point of saving eight of its young dragon consorts. She, Cherie, Aria, Echo, Phil, Sigma, Amanda, Phoenix, and Airy all became riders, and soon even the Pirates got in on the act with dragons of their own.
- Evil Feels Good: Channeling angelic power is very addictive. Not to mention Gambit just has a thing for murder.
- Evil Weapon: Many. Angel's Game, Dust and Ruin, and most of Cherie's weapons are the most notable examples.
- Face–Heel Turn: After Gambit learned MS destroyed some of her memory from the previous Session, she decided Afterman's side was more suited to her.
- Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Gambit and Laika, natch.
- Fake Twin Gambit: During the period Laika was presumed dead she regularly impersonated Gambit.
- False Reassurance: Another favorite of Gambit's.
- Foe Romance Subtext: All over the place when it comes to Gambit, who has possible feelings for no less then three of the heroes.
- Friend to Psychos: CA to Gambit— sometimes the other way around, too.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Daedalus, and after picking up on his example Raz. The former was a master inventor who's crowning achievement was a bifurcated giant robot and the later is exceptional at creating weapons and rare items, enough so that after a short period studying said robot he was able to churn out his own mechs. His own crowning achievement is a modified battleship dubbed the Gespenst MK. 2.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Channeling the Choir's power creates this effect, and the Singer has it on a more or less permanent basis.
- Guns Akimbo: Both Raz and Phoenix.
- Hero with an F in Good: Laika tries to be a good guy. She's just... not very good at it.
- AD: Um, that wasn't one of those good guy things, was it? ... Oops.
- Heel–Face Turn: After Gambit's death, Laika joins the good guys, in part to get a shot at the Dynast.
- I Did What I Had to Do: CA’s main excuse for everything he does in the name of preserving the Alpha Timeline.
- Impossibly Cool Clothes: Par the course for a Sburb RP, you'd be hard pressed to find an outfit that isn't this.
- Impossibly Cool Weapon: Hoo, boy... Where to even start?
- Instrument of Murder: Dust and Ruin, Echo's Eldritch bass.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: The corrupted tongues and all who speak them.
- Invisibility Cloak: Any of the four Items (Queen's Rings/King's Sceptres) from Gambit and Afterman's Void Session qualify, in the hands of a sufficiently inhuman user. Guess what high levels of corruption or status as game construct can lead to.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Land of Age and Bridges. Mind you, this is the least threatening thing about it.
- Light Is Not Good: Gambit pulls this two ways, both a Thief of Light and master of (un)holy angelic corruption.
- Living Dream / Alternate Self: Dreamselves by nature. Laika and RT are special examples, gaining autonomy and their own personalities, not to mention deity/ghost status.
- MacGuffin Delivery Service: Dynast lets the Players to fight the Black Queen and steal her Ring so that he can step in and take it in the aftermath without having to dirty his hands
- Mad Love: Gambit to Dynast. Wears off eventually, but not soon enough.
- The Magic Poker Equation: Invoked by Gambit on a regular basis.
- Manipulative Bastard: Both Gambit and CA are experts at manipulation and mind games.
- Memory Gambit: Gambit had one of these going for a while as a precaution against any would-be mental intruders, wiping her mind with Cherie's help to keep plans out of sight until they became relevant. Ends up paying off, as when Kelsey steals her mind she doesn't get any information on those plans herself.
- Mercy Kill: Aria's killing Gambit.
- Mind Rape: The Dynast's fraymotif Mind Break, an attack that inflicts every regret, doubt, and fear of its target on them. Considering the general mental state of the cast, this is often debilitating
- Morality Pet: In a weird version of this Cherie is this for Gambit, who would be even more evil without her influence.
- Morph Weapon: Emerald Dream, a gift from Phoenix to Raz. And how. A sword that can transform into a shotgun (modified to be able to shoot grenades), along with, after some modifications, a gattling gun, anti-tank rifle, bladed glaive, and rocket launcher.
- Motive Decay: In-universe: Eventually Gambit herself forgets her original intentions.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Gambit's view on matters.
- Necessarily Evil: CA to an extent. Subverted as all CA’s “evil” actions were lies as a part of a Zero-Approval Gambit.
- Offstage Villainy: Gambit's constant murder of off-screen players
- Psychic Block Defense: One of Raz's powers as Knight of Mind.
- Psychic Link: Laika and Gambit have this as a res, who's almost comically Single-mindedly focused on destruction for destruction's sake.
- Redemption Rejection: MS has made it quite clear that Gambit could have come back to the heroes' side and been welcomed at any point throughout this whole clusterfuck.
- Rocket-Powered Weapon: One of Raz's swords, Rev Ripper.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Particularly egregious considering many characters retain the ability to recall events that technically did not happen. Hand-waved by various unique explanations, all running the gamut of plausibility.
- Shoot the Dog: CA killing Laika and MS. Later subverted as CA never actually killed Laika and used his powers to bring MS back to life as a player.
- So Proud of You: Matt to Laika.
- Spider-Sense: Gambit claims to have both plot and shipping senses. This may just be a cover-up for her to avoid revealing how much she already knows of the heroes' plans, but hey...
- Synchronization: The link between a Player and his/her dreamself. Especially pronounced in Gambit and Laika.
- That Man Is Dead: Pulled by the Afterman in reference to his past as Dante, and later the Dynast in reference to his past as the Afterman.
- Token Evil Teammate: Laika.
- Translator Buddy: Kaeri to Gambit, before Darien tried to forbid the former from talking to the later. Otherwise, any slightly saner corrupt Player who's around to translate for another corrupt Player at the time.
- Troll: CA.
- Unholy Matrimony: Afterman and Gambit, living proof that love transcends things like morality and goodness.
- Villains Never Lie: Played straight with Gambit. Subverted with Afterman/Dynast, who had no problem with lying though was initially viewed as against it, and CA, as his brackets indicated it when he did lie.
- Villain Teleportation: Diamonds Suit. Speed/Evasion. The face cards of this suit in the monstrously powerful deck Angel's Game generally wind up teleporting their user to a location ranging from a "more fortuitous" one to "the luckiest one possible." Combined with a Void Ring, this is a powerful ability.
- Wants a Prize for Basic Decency: Laika has invoked this one.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: Hyperion, as Lord of Light, could invoke this and more or less direct chance. Gambit and Laika have the ability to a slightly lesser extent.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After Gambit's delivery of the Sceptre to him the Dynast casually wipes his hands of her and leaves her to die at the hands of the heroes.
- Zero-Approval Gambit: CA pretended to kill Laika and MS and then acted like an insane, murderous Juggalo. It all worked out in the end.