Sandbox / Twilight's Fantasy Zone

So, I, Twilight Lord, have a lot of characters. Like... a lot of people living inside my head. So I decided to make a page for them. And that is this.

Here you will find tropes pertaining to my characters. That's about it. I hope you find them informative, educational and entertaining.

These characters provide examples of:

• Alternate Catchphrase Inflection - Moonlight usually delivers her catchphrase of "Special delivery!" in a cheerful, sing-song tone. However, when she encountered Guzzlord and realised that it had destroyed what used to be a beautiful beach city, Moonlight confronted it while saying her catchphrase in a tone seething with anger.
  Moonlight: Special delivery, and it's a full course meal!
  • When exploring a haunted school, she said it in the usual sing-song way, but in a quiet almost-whisper instead of loudly like usual.
• Ambiguous Syntax - September seems to exploit this any chance she gets, but it's not deliberate, it's just the way her mind works.
  • Rika can often cause this, due to the way she talks. For instance, "No go" can mean several things, including "Don't go", "I won't go", "I'm not going", "I didn't go" or "You can't go" (as in it's not possible).
• Androids Are People, Too - Many of the other characters consider Kawaii and March friends rather than simply androids or tools. Though March is not legally recognised as a person, and also thinks of herself (inasmuch as she can think at all) as a tool.
• An Ice Person - January, February and Saara. Dana, too, after January infused her with some of her powers.
• Anywhere but Their Lips - Yuri to Haru, though she does kiss her on the lips on rare occasions.
• Artificial Intelligence - March. Her programming is advanced enough that people often mistake her for sapient, even though she isn't really. Except now she's been given experimental software that's finally made her truly sapient and self-aware, which she's still getting used to. Kawaii, on the other hand, is.
• Badass Normal - Despite not having any special powers of her own, Nabiki is a black belt in karate, so she can still kick some ass when she needs to.
• Barrier Warrior - April. She can absorb attacks (physical or otherwise) and store energy in her barrier, then release it once she's gathered enough. However, a strong attack can shatter the barrier, which leaves her defenseless for a few minutes.
• Berserk Button - Kawaii is usually a nice girl, but has a few of these.
  • Do not call her "cutie". There is nothing she hates more, and usually she'll only let you get away with it once if it was clear you genuinely didn't know. Otherwise, prepare to have a few broken bones.
  • Don't even dare to imply that you think she's weak or that you can beat her in a fight. She'll prove you wrong. Painfully.
  • Don't call her a robot. The proper term is "Persocom", though "android" (or "gynoid") is also fine. To her, calling her a robot is essentially calling her primitive, like calling a human a Neanderthal or a monkey.
  • The only thing that really makes January lose her patience or get angry is when people keep pestering her with questions, or won't accept that she doesn't want to answer certain questions. If she says the catchphrase listed below for her, that's basically your last chance to apologise before you get frozen.
  • Arashii used to fly into a rage whenever someone said she looked like a boy, but thanks to a little help from Yuri and Mind Breaker, she's gotten over that now.
  • Yuri really hates it when people use terms of endearment without any meaning or feeling behind them. See Punctuated! For! Emphasis! for what happened when this combined with Sophia's Verbal Tic.
  • June is never the type to really lose her temper, but she does get seriously ticked off if she sees people using guns recklessly or irresponsibly, or not following proper gun safety, even in fiction. She also hates it when people use the fact that they have a gun as a way to intimidate or control people.
  • If you want to live longer than five more seconds, do NOT let Tykan catch you harming the environment, not even a little bit.
  • Do NOT harm or mistreat books in front of August. Also, don't bother her when she's trying to read or study. The last time someone did that to her, the normally quiet, nervous girl slammed her book down on the desk and yelled "WOULD YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!?" at him, then picked up her stuff and stormed out. Keep in mind this happened in a library, and August is a very strict follower of the "quiet in libraries" rule. Even the librarian was too stunned at this O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment to tell her off.
  • Dana absolutely hates cheaters. If you're playing a game with her, and she catches you cheating in any way... she will make you regret it.
  • Do NOT touch Sapphire's MP3 player without permission, and don't try to take it away from her either. Even back when she was keeping up her detached, aloof persona, this was one of the only things that would make her actually show genuine anger. The other one was Ruby joking about what would happen if she and Sapphire fused together, which pissed Sapphire off because Ruby, and the others, originally came from her to begin with.
  • May hates seeing people being bullied and taken advantage of. She also gets really pissed off when someone brags about being talented and thinks they're superior because of their talents, especially if they also put others down or mock them for their lack of talent. May firmly believes that there is no such thing as talent, and that anyone can do anything if they put their mind to it and work hard enough.
  • February is the most Weak-Willed and susceptible to mind control of all the characters by far. But if you ever try to use mind control to make her turn against January, or to make her love you... she will break out of it immediately and freeze her entire surroundings, you included.
  • Do not mistreat, exploit, or belittle art anywhere near September. Also, don't make the mistake of saying that art is just pictures, or you'll be treated to a long, impassioned lecture about how art is an expression of your soul, and that expression can come in any form, be it pictures, stories, music, games, anything.
  • Jack has a living Berserk Button in the form of Ghetsis, the villain from Pokémon Black and White. He also can't stand people who cheat or use dirty or underhanded tactics in a battle.
  • Moonlight is usually playful, cheerful and impulsive, and rarely takes anything seriously. But she has a few things which will piss her off:
    • Do not call her by her real name, Mizuki, unless you're her mother.
    • Do not harm or mistreat Pokémon around her. Lusamine doing so caused her to drop her playful attitude and become completely serious for the first time ever.
    • When she discovered that Guzzlord ate and destroyed what used to be a beautiful beach city, she became genuinely, uncharacteristically furious.
  • Do not mess up Mimilop's fur. He'll forgive you if it was accidental, but only if you fix it immediately.
  • Don't harm plants or flowers around Nabiki. She's far too polite to actually fly into a rage, but she will become very visibly annoyed.
  • Even Rika has one. Do not attempt to tie, braid, or do anything with her hair (except brushing it). This is the only thing that will cause this quiet, passive girl to become genuinely distressed, and she will fight you while crying "No! No! Let it free!"
  • Don't get facts about stars wrong when Ketana is in earshot. This happening, whether in real life or in fiction, is pretty much the only way you'll ever see her get genuinely mad.
• Beware the Nice Ones - August is shy, nervous, socially-awkward and passive. But push her too far, and you'll regret it.
• Borrowed Catchphrase - October likes to do impressions of others, so she does this a lot, such as borrowing July's "darling" or September's "Wonderful!"
  • Dana has used January's catchphrase of "I'll leave that to your imagination" and varieties on a few occasions.
• Canon Foreigner - Sunrise, Moonlight and Sunlight are all the author's own interpretation of the player characters in video games (Kingdom Hearts χ, Pokémon Sun and Moon and Genshin Impact respectively).
  • Jack is the Author Avatar of the author's boyfriend, who also canonically exists in this universe.
  • Kat, Delicia and Astrid both originated as characters made for TTRPGs, then became permanent characters.
• Can't Hold His Liquor - February once tried alcohol. She passed out after one sip of Koskenkorva vodka.
• Cast Full of Gay - A significant majority of the girls are lesbians. The exceptions are July and Tykan, who are pansexual, Haru and Nabiki, who are both heterosexual, and October, who's aromantic. May, August and Kawaii are also bisexual, but not interested in a relationship. January keeps her sexual preference ambiguous, just like everything else about her, but as she has a girlfriend we can conclude she is at least attracted to girls.
• Catchphrase - Several.
  • "Oops... Everywhere/Everything's frozen again..." Often said by February after a battle.
  • September always greets with "Hiii! Buenas tardes~!"
  • January will say "Do we have to waste time with this?" when someone is being too pushy with asking questions she doesn't want to answer. She also has several phrases she uses to answer said questions, including "Do you have a guess?", "Go with what your imagination says" and "I wouldn't want to spoil the suspense."
  • Yuri will enthusiastically exclaim "Yes! Pancakes tonight!" in English whenever things are going really well. She has other Gratuitous English catchphrases too, which often throw off her Japanese classmates. If she thinks someone said her name but isn't sure, she'll say "What? Did you call me? Who's calling me?" and when someone actually does call her name, she'll say "Yes, can I help you?" Whenever she's about to fall asleep, she'll often say "Thank you for coming to my show, take care and goodnight." right before passing out.
  • Rika often says "You tell, Rika do" when she wants to help out. (Rika-speak for "Tell me what to do and I'll do it.") She also says "Small treasure still treasure" whenever someone points out that a gift or something similar "isn't much", and if someone tries to mimic her way of talking, she'll shake her head and say "Rika talk Rika way, you talk you way."
  • July's enthusiastic greeting of "Hello, darling(s)!" often followed by her tackle-hugging and latching onto the person (or nearest person if there are more than one).
  • Dana says "Desshou?" (Japanese word essentially meaning "You agree with me, don't you?") a lot, either on its own or as part of a sentence, even if she's not speaking Japanese at the time. She also says "Just Dana is fine" whenever someone calls her "Miss Dana" or "Dana-san". She'll also spout several gambling-related expressions, like "You bet!", "Score!", "Jackpot!", "Ace!" and "Bingo!". If she has to do something as a result of losing a bet, she'll say "I always honour my bets. That's the gambler's code." though in the past she often said "In the world of gambling, there's no such thing as honour!" She also used to introduce herself as "The world's number one Psychic, Watanabe Dana-sama", though after meeting January, she changed it to "number two Psychic, Dana O'Hara".
  • Nabiki has several, all in English. "Ready and waiting!" "Oh, fantastic..." "Nabiki, at your service!" "Wonderful!"
  • Whenever Ketana sustains an injury, she'll often pause for a second and say "...Pain?" in a questioning tone, then usually examine the part where she got hit. If she sees a wound there, she'll add "Pain." in a confirmatory tone. This is due to her hypersuggestibility and the way her mind works - she isn't actually aware of the pain until she has evidence that it should be there, so until she does, she doesn't notice or feel it. She also often says "It's just a problem I have" if someone mistakes her stutter (which is a genuine speech impediment) as a sign of nervousness or fear.
• Character Tic - January's signature hair flip, which is more like slowly lifting her hair with her hand and letting it fall than actually "flipping" it.
  • Both Caroline and Ruby have a habit of scratching or rubbing the back of their head when nervous. In Ruby's case, she does it because Emerald often hits her in the back of the head when she's misbehaving, so when she's feeling nervous, she subconsciously touches the part where Emerald hits her. In Caroline's case, it's just a nervous habit.
• Cloudcuckoolander - September can definitely come across this way, as can February.
• Confusion Fu - This is basically how September fights. Her power is based on her imagination, so she can do anything she can imagine, and she's also pretty weird, so naturally that comes across in her fights.
• Cute Mute - May, literally, since she's deaf-mute thanks to a birth defect.
• Determinator - September, definitely. It takes a lot to make her give up.
• Distracted by the Sexy - July, frequently, though she often causes this reaction in others too.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul" - Moonlight hates being called by her real name, Mizuki, by anyone other than her mother, and will get angry any time someone does it. Though she will occasionally address herself as Mizuki when trying to psyche herself up or give herself a pep talk.
• Early-Installment Weirdness - April was very different when she was first conceptualised as a character. While still submissive towards September, her attitude and speech were much more relaxed and casual and she displayed a much more overt and dry sense of humour (at one point, she mentioned that her job was to keep September out of trouble). She occasionally showed strong hints of having a transformation fetish too (when she was asked her gender, she replied "The last time I checked, I was a girl. And I check regularly), with implications that being a doll was just one of many transformations that she could undergo. The current April is a doll full-time, much more polite, formal and soft-spoken, and while she does still have a sense of humour, she doesn't display it as much or in the same way.

  • Even Caroline herself had this at first. Early on, she was often described as being very preppy and kind of a Valley Girl. It was also she who had the doll fetish originally, not September. In current portrayals, Caroline is a rather passive person with a self-deprecating sense of humour and a fondness for gothic metal, and she agreed to be turned into a doll because September wanted to have a living doll of her own.

  • Yuri started out as a character whose defining trait was her cynical and sarcastic attitude, but gradually changed into a more cute, childish character. Some of it was Flanderization - initially, the idea was that she acted cute and bubbly around Haru in order to endear herself to Haru, but it was just that, an act - it wasn't how she really was. Then, over time, the author forgot what Yuri's original personality was and she became bouncy and childish for real. Nowadays, she can display both personalities depending on her mood and the situation, though she usually is the cute and childish one.
  • January originally played the "ice queen" archetype much more straight, acting very powerful, regal and elegant. Over time she began to show more of a playful side hidden underneath the icy exterior, and some time after that her main character trait changed to her just being lazy and apathetic.
  • Dana was originally conceived as a villain character, but gradually turned into something of an Anti-Hero - much nicer toother people, though still with a questionable sense of morals.
  • While Rika was always a Third-Person Person, she originally spoke much more fluently, with proper English grammar and syntax - the only problem she had was being unable to pronounce words or names longer than two syllables unless she sounded it out slowly, which is still true nowadays. She was also more emotionally expressive, compared to her almost Emotionless Girl status nowadays, and more talkative, often openly chatting with other characters (the current Rika almost never engages in conversation).
  • Sachi was originally very shy and timid, and had a One-Word Vocabulary, only able to say the word "Sky". After she grew up a little, she became more outgoing and settled into her current personality as an energetic prankster who often accidentally gets into trouble due to clumsiness or not paying attention.
• Elective Broken Language - Sort of, with Rika. While it's been shown that she can speak normally, it also takes her physical effort to do so.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita - Most often the style that April wears, though she does occasionally wear other outfits too, depending on what people dress her in.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue - Rika, and to a lesser extent Ita.
• Ethical Slut - Despite her extreme promiscuity and lewdness, July is still very much respectful of limits and consent, and would never do anything sexual with anyone if they didn't want to. In her own words, she's a pervert, not a rapist.
• Face Of The Band - Keyakku actually tries to avert this with Dark Assassins, as despite being the lead singer, guitarist and main songwriter, as well as basically the band manager, he dislikes referring to it as "his" band, preferring to just say "the band". He also makes sure that every member gets to contribute at least one song per album (writing and singing), as well as letting every member sing lead vocals during each live performance.
• Flanderization - February was deliberately conceived as a Flanderized version of Ketana. Though Ketana is a daydreamer and will often zone out if left to her own devices, she is capable of being focussed when she needs to be and is in touch with reality to some extent. February, however, is so spacey that she's practically constantly daydreaming, zones out at the slightest provocation, and basically lives in her own fantasy world that very rarely comes anywhere close to reality.
• Friend to All Children: Despite being mostly lazy and apathetic, January is kind to children who mistake her for Elsa, even going so far as to regularly watch Frozen (2013) so she can learn Elsa's personality and believably pretend to be her while chatting to them.
• Forgets to Eat - August, often, since she gets so lost in her books that she doesn't notice she's hungry.
• Gratuitous English: Yuri and Nabiki (both native Japanese speakers) are fond of this, with Nabiki especially using it.
• Gratuitous Spanish - September's usual greeting, as shown above, which she uses regardless of the time of day. Note that she often makes it clear that she speaks no Spanish at all, and simply uses the phrase because she likes the way it sounds.
• Gratuitous Japanese - Dana uses this a lot (like in her Catchphrase above), though it's justified since she grew up in Japan and can speak English and Japanese fluently.
• Harmless Freezing - January's preferred method of dealing with annoyances. February, Dana and Saara can do this too.
• Healing Hands - November and Annri both have this power. Diamond has a mild variation - she can relieve pain in any area she touches, but can't actually heal injuries.
• Idiot Hero - Sunrise. She's friendly and loyal, but she's also naïve and dumb, which leads to her being easily tricked.
• Incoming Ham - September loves to appear out of nowhere in front of people and sing out "Hiii! Buenas tardeees!"
  • Also, if you hear "Hello, darling(s)!", prepare to be tackle-hugged by July in about 0.5 seconds.
• Incompatible Orientation - Yuri and Haru.
• In Love with Love - February, very much so.
• Interface Screw - September tends to cause this on reality - her nature as a literal dream girl means that reality has a hard time handling her, so when she's around, things nearby tend to glitch out and behave in odd, dreamlike ways. When Ruby once used her scan ability on her, which normally causes information about the target to appear as text in Ruby's mind, the information appeared as a whole bunch of random letters and symbols.
  • When Ruby tried to scan Sapphire, the information all showed up as question marks aside from her name, because Sapphire isn't very open about herself.
• Lead Singer Plays Lead Guitar - Keyakku is the lead singer and lead guitarist of Dark Assassins. He also writes most of the songs.
• Light 'em Up - October, Rika and Tykan all have various forms of light-based powers.
• The Medic - November and Annri.
• Madness Mantra - August can often lapse into these when having a stress-induced panic attack.
  (During a study session before end-of-year exams)
  Classmate A: August? Are you okay?
  August: (with glazed eyes, trembling and muttering) It'salloverit'salloverI'mgonnafailI'mgonnafailit'sallover... (etc.)
  Classmate B: She's fine.
• Malaproper - June. A Running Gag is for June to make one of these, followed by someone (usually July) correcting her, then June replying with "That's what I said" or "Yes, that too" or something similar.
• Mind Control - January and Dana both have this as a power, as does Ketana though she doesn't really like to use it. Tenebra can also do this, as part of being a vampire, though again, she only uses it if she absolutely has to. She can also directly possess a person by reverting to her true form (a cloud of black smoke) and forcibly entering their body, though this causes the victim to die, so again, she tries not to use this if she can help it.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister - Yuri describes her mother this way.
• Mundane Utility - August often uses her power to bring drawings to life to... draw food so she can eat it. Though according to her, drawn food doesn't taste as good as real food.
• Must Have Caffeine - Inverted. Ruby has ADHD, and drinks caffeine in order to fall asleep, not to stay awake. In fact, the others regularly give her caffeine before bedtime because it makes her sleepy. (For those unaware, caffeine can sometimes have the opposite effect on people with ADHD, due to their abnormal brain chemistry.)
• Never Gets Drunk - Since Psychics have a much higher alcohol tolerance than humans, January and Dana can handle way more alcohol than any normal people can. It's common to see them with something like twelve empty bottles of Koskenkorva vodka or Guinness respectively lying around them, with January still looking completely sober and Dana only looking slightly tipsy.
• No Indoor Voice - Ita has this when speaking English. He's a lot more "normal volume" when speaking his native Eltanin.
• Non-Indicative Name - The group formerly known as the Jewel Trio, who were called that despite having four members when they were named. An In-Universe example - Ruby named the group, and since she couldn't remember "Jewel Quartet", she decided to go with "trio" instead. The name was changed from their original name, the Jewel Sisters, which was also non-indicative because none of them are actually related. As of Topaz becoming the sixth member, and Jack becoming the honorary seventh member under the name Aquamarine, the group have officially renamed themselves to simply The Jewels.
• Obfuscating Stupidity - Played with with Ruby. Her "dumb little kid" personality is partially an act, as she herself has admitted (and the others are very aware of), but it's ultimately an exaggeration of her own difficulties with focusing and paying attention which stem from her having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
• Older Than They Look - Yuri is 18, but looks barely 14. This is actually a problem for her, since often people don't take her seriously because they think she's a lot younger than she actually is.
  • Rika, though in her case it's magically enforced, since her physical aging stopped when she was five years old due to her merging with her mirror self (so her mirror self ages on her behalf, causing Rika to essentially become immortal given that, obviously, reflections don't age). Yes, it's a bit of a Mind Screw.
• Only Known by Their Nickname - February and April, though in the latter case, she considers April her real name now since she thinks of her past self as a separate person. February doesn't even remember her real name (Maarit), and April only vaguely remembers hers (it was Caroline, but she isn't sure whether it was Caroline or Catherine). This may also be the case for January too, but it's unknown whether "January" is her real name or not.
  • Arashii too, though again she doesn't remember her real name since it's been so long since she had to use it.
  • June as well. Her real name is Rebecca, but no one ever calls her that anymore. The only time she uses that name is when she has to fill out an official form.
  • Delicia's birth name is Sofie Belrose, though she was given the name Delicia by her sire after being embraced. As with February and April, though, she considers Delicia her real name now.
  • Hardly anyone, including Moonlight herself, calls Moonlight by her real name, Mizuki. The only one who does consistently is her mother, though Moonlight will also address herself as Mizuki when giving herself a pep talk on rare occasion.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business - If Ruby ever drops her "dumb kid" act, and she's not asleep? Then you know things are serious.
  • Same if January, September, July, or Sophia call someone by their name (as opposed to "darling" or "babe" for the last two, respectively). An instance of this is lampshaded in Time Breaker, when Sophia calls Yuri by her name while expressing concern over the latter having just taken a pretty hard hit. Yuri mutters "No 'babe' this time?" in response, which causes Sophia to sheepishly giggle.
  • Another one is if Moonlight drops her playful demeanour and starts acting serious. Since Moonlight is a character whose defining trait is that she takes nothing seriously, when this happens, you know it's bad.
• Our Vampires Are Different - Tenebra (and other vampires of her clan). Vampires like her are actually masses of pure dark energy that can take solid form (and this form can be anything they want). When they drink blood, the blood itself gets converted into dark energy, which sustains them. Delicia, on the other hand, is a more traditional kind of vampire, i.e. an undead person who drinks blood.
• Poirot Speak - Saara does this, being a native Finnish speaker. She speaks with an accent and frequently drops articles, and occasionally gets pronouns mixed up (for example, she'll refer to a man as "she" or a woman as "he"). She also tends to use literal English translations of Finnish idioms, and will often swear or curse people out in Finnish. She also tends to use Finnish when she doesn't know the English word for something.
• Power Incontinence - February constantly makes the air around her feel really cold, and she herself feels like ice to the touch, because she can't control her ice powers properly.
  • October used to cause flashes of light whenever she sneezed, but she's gotten better control over her powers now.
• Prone to Tears - Haru. She cries a lot, for both good and bad reasons.
• Pronoun Trouble - October's friend Yvonne is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, but still has a feminine name, so other characters occasionally slip up and use she/her pronouns to refer to them. Even the author has made this mistake on occasion. Yvonne, for their part, doesn't get offended if it's obvious that it's not intentionally malicious, and will usually gently correct the person.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship - Yuri and Haru have this. As Yuri once put it, "We're as close to a lesbian couple as you can get without actually being a lesbian couple."
• Psychic Powers - January and Dana, who are both Psychics (which is actually a separate species, even though they do resemble humans).
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis! - Yuri to Sophia, after one "babe" too many. "My. Name. Is. YURI!" ("Watashi no... namae wa... YURI DA!")
  • Dana has a really hard time getting Nabiki to use yobisute with her like she wants (i.e. just calling her by her name, with no honouriffics), since Nabiki was raised traditionally and therefore conditioned to refer to everyone as "-san". One time she got exasperated enough that she looked Nabiki straight in the eyes and said "Just. Dana. Is. Fine." Since then, Nabiki has made an effort to break her habit of using "-san" for Dana.
• Punny Name - "Yuri" is an actual Japanese girl's name, but the fact that she just happens to be a lesbian makes it this too when you consider that "yuri" is the common term for Japanese lesbian romance stories.
• The Quiet One - Rika and Sapphire, especially Sapphire. The latter's reason is that she considers words precious, like coins or gems, and therefore doesn't like to waste them.
• Quizzical Tilt - This is practically Rika's signature character trait.
• Robot Girl - Kawaii and March.
• Russian Reversal: September once described Ketana's Sleepwalking habits like this.
  September: This may be a little hard to grasp, perhaps because it's only a concept and it's not tangible... But usually, when people dream, their mind leaves their body and travels to the dream world. However, this young dreamer somehow managed to stay in her body and bring the dream world to her instead.
• Shout-Out - June and July take their appearances and some of their personalities from Irene and May from Gunsmith Cats, and March does the same for Sumomo from Chobits.
  • Jutah is named after the main character of the video game Silent Bomber. Keyakku is named after a one-scene character in Final Fantasy X.
  • September's greeting is taken from Black★Rock Shooter.
  • January visually looks identical to Elsa from Frozen (2013) (except with her hair let down instead of braided), and even has ice powers to boot.
  • Dana (full birth name: Dana O'Hara) is named after (and her backstory is partially based on) the song "Letter to Dana" by Sonata Arctica. Given a nod In-Universe with Sonata Arctica being Dana's favourite band (though her favourite song is actually "Mary-Lou").
  • The original Jewel Trio (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald and Diamond) are all named after the four jewels that can be used in conjunction with the Carbuncle summon in Final Fantasy IX.
  • In-Universe, July is very fond of The World Ends with You (frequently calling it her favourite game) and will reference it any chance she gets.
    • If June calls her out on doing something silly, she'll shrug and reply "Someone said I am such a foolish girl", a line from the song "Someday" from the game.
    • Whenever there's a time limit of any kind, she'll often remark "You have [amount of time]. Fail, and face erasure."
    • She once suggested that someone name their Rhyhorn "Beat", a reference to a line in The World Ends with You where Neku calls Beat a rhino.
    • When she's running low on a certain material, or needs more of something, she'll say "I need more candy canes!", a line from "Twister", the game's opening song.
    • She actually said "The world ends with you, darling" at one point while giving August a pep talk, in a rare sensitive moment for her.
    • June has often joked that whenever July says something that seems insightful and profound, she's usually quoting from that game. July has not denied this.
    • June herself has started making references to the game as well, often muttering "This is the way my life goes" (a line from "Someday") in response to unexpected developments.
  • The names Time Breaker and Speed Breaker (and the concept of the girls with powers being known as "Breakers") came from Sonic's abilities Time Break and Speed Break in Sonic and the Secret Rings.
  • Haru is named after the main character in The Cat Returns.
  • Nabiki is named after Nabiki Tendo from Ranma ½.
  • Ketana, Rika and Sachi's surname is Akira. The reference probably isn't the one you're thinking of, though - it's actually taken from a character named Akira in the game Rival Schools. Rika's name also comes from the name of a bonus character from that game.
  • Arashii was named In-Universe, and has a Meaningful Name ("Arashii" means "storm" or "tempest" in Japanese, fitting as she has lightning-based powers, while also being an actual Japanese girl's name), but it's also a reference to an old webcomic called Ruins of the Fourth Wall (later renamed Ashes of the Fourth Wall), which also featured a female character named Arashii. Arashii's physical appearance (a girl with very short, red hair and a boyish appearance) is based on a character of a friend of the author.
• Sleepwalking - Ketana, September and Sunlight all do this.
  • Ketana will, without fail, sleepwalk whenever she falls asleep, unless someone holds her while she sleeps. Unlike most fictional portrayals of sleepwalking, she is aware of her surroundings and acts relatively normally, though seems dreamy and detached and talks in a very metaphoric, cryptic and dreamlike way. She also loses her stutter when she sleepwalks somehow.
  • September often sleepwalks at night, so April always locks the door to her room whenever September goes to bed so she doesn't wander outside or anything. She tends to giggle and throw things around a lot, but fortunately her room is full of soft things like plushies so it doesn't make too much noise.
  • Yuri doesn't walk in her sleep per se, but she does thrash around a lot and sometimes grabs, hits or otherwise interacts with objects and people near her. It's usually best to keep your distance from her when she's asleep. She does, however, occasionally suffer from night terrors, which could be seen as a form of sleepwalking.
  • Sunlight occasionally sleepwalks, though even when sleepwalking she behaves mostly the same as when she's awake. On occasions, she's even aware that she's sleepwalking while doing so.
• Spiders Are Scary - Emily is extremely arachnophobic, to the point where she'll freeze or hide behind the nearest object/person if there's a spider in the vicinity.
• Stuff Blowing Up - Tends to happen whenever July is involved in a battle.
• Talking in Your Sleep - Yuri does this a lot, and also has a habit of babbling when she's half-asleep (usually when she's drifting off). Ruby takes this up a notch by being able to have actual, coherent conversations with people while fast asleep. No one knows how exactly she does it.
• Team Mom - November.
• Theme Naming - Eleven of the characters are named after months of the year, sometimes as real names and sometimes as nicknames. (February, April and formerly December are nicknames, the rest are real names, except January, which is unknown.) The one who used to be December was kicked out of the group for anti-social behaviour, so goes by her real name (Saara) again.
  • There are eight characters named after types of gemstone (Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, Amethyst, Topaz and Rose Quartz). All but the first one are part of a group.
  • All of twilight's various personalities/alters are named after times of the day or night - Dawn, Dusk, Midnight and Daylight. Sunrise was originally also part of this group, before she split off and became a character in her own right. Twilight herself also has this.
• Third-Person Person - Rika always talks in third person, without exception.
  • Yuri speaks in third person when in "little mode", or when half-asleep. In the latter situation, she'll even talk as if she's literally talking to herself, e.g. "You behave, you get pancakes, Yuri", since she's either repeating things others have said to her in the past, or reciting what she imagines other people telling her.
  • July does this very occasionally, usually when trying to be dramatic. "That's right, darlings, July's back in action!"
  • When April is in doll mode, she will always refer to herself as "a doll". Not even "this doll", just "a doll". For example, "A doll's purpose is to serve" or "A doll awaits your command".
  • Moonlight will talk to herself this way when trying to calm herself down or give herself a pep talk when she's nervous or scared, even using her real name, Mizuki (the only time she ever does).
• Trademark Favorite Food - Pancakes for Yuri, miso ramen for Rika, sweet onigiri for Dana. Possibly lollipops for September, but she doesn't really "eat" them per se.
• Trigger Phrase - Ketana has several of these, of the "hypnotic trigger" variety, with a wide range of amusing effects. Since she's a submissive with a thing for being mentally controlled, and her girlfriend happens to be a Psychic who specialises in mind control, this kind of thing was inevitable. There's too many to list here, but a few examples are "Starry night, angels in flight" (makes her go into a trance), "Actions speak louder" (makes her unable to talk) and "Hey there, party girl" (makes her feel drunk).
  • Yuri has a few hypnotic triggers that Haru gave her, though they're designed mostly to help Yuri. All of them are said in English. Among others, "Dream time, Yuri-chan" puts her in a trance and "Show me your skill" makes her only able to speak English.
  • July has a few that June can use, though most of them are due to conditioning rather than hypnosis or mind control. For instance, June snapping her fingers twice quickly will make July instantly go to her side and follow her, and if June gives July a certain look then July will immediately stop talking and stay quiet for a while. She also has one actual trigger - hearing the song "Calling" from The World Ends with You will cause her to imagine herself in the game, being able to explore and interact with the characters like a very vivid dream. Though she can resist the effects if she needs to. Being tied up also causes her to go into a suggestible state where she basically acts and feels stoned, and the effect gets stronger the longer she's tied up for.
• Verbal Tic - Funnily enough, two of them have terms of endearment as these: July with "darling", and Sophia with "babe".
  • February's dazed "Huh, wha?" whenever someone snaps her out of a daydream.
  • August starts most things she says with a kind of "Nn..." noise when nervous, which is often. Apparently, she isn't even aware she does it, as seen when she reacted with confusion upon hearing October make the noise when imitating her.
• Weak-Willed - February is extremely easy to mind control... unless you try to turn her against January.
  • Ketana is often described as "hypersuggestible", which basically means it's really easy to get her to believe something. She's also pretty vulnerable to mind control, though on the other hand she does have psychic element affinity, which means she can also be very good at resisting if she needs to be.
• White Mage - November, being the only one of the team who can heal and also the only one without any offensive abilities. Annri also has healing magic.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"? - Dawn Twilight Lord. Yes, that's her actual birth name. She got so tired of telling people "It's a name, not a title" that she eventually changed her name to Dawn twilight L (yes, with a small t). Note that "L" isn't an initial, it's her actual last name. She mostly just goes by twilight, but does answer to Dawn as well.
• Working Title - Dark Assassins were called Team Chaos when they initially formed, but changed their name rather quickly as Keyakku didn't like the name at all. After a brief brainstorming session, Jutah suggested the name Dark Assassins, which stuck. Keyakku originally wanted to name the band Darkassassins (one word) as a joke, since Jutah tended to pronounce it that way, but eventually settled on the two-word name.
• Wrench Wench - June and July, who even run a freelance machine repair business together.
• Unusual Ears - Kawaii and March have these, both being Persocom-style androids.
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious - In Time Breaker, while Sophia and Yuri are fighting Metal Breaker, Yuri gets hit hard enough to be sent flying. As she hits the ground hard, Sophia calls to her "Yuri! Are you okay?" Given that Sophia only ever called Yuri "babe" before, this tips her (and the reader) off that she's genuinely concerned. Despite this, Yuri still lampshades it, muttering "No 'babe' this time?" as she struggles to her feet.
  • In a more general sense, one way you can tell July is actually being serious for once is when she calls someone by their name when talking to them, instead of "darling".
• You No Take Candle - Rika talks like this. It's somewhat deliberate, since English isn't Rika's first language and she feels like speaking it is "wrong" for her somehow, so she tries to use as little of it as possible, which results in this trope.