History Fanfic / OffTheLine

* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Rainstorm is being harassed by a lecherous guild, one of the members promise him a cuter pet, assuming that Red XII was Rainstorm's pet mob. Vincent, who becomes Rainstorm's pet, is noted to be a {{Bishonen}}.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: Rainstorm.

* IllGirl: Mena[[spoiler:/Myrna Wallace]] is one in real life, being so ill that she has no energy to leave her bed. [[spoiler: Barret introduced to her Terra Online so she could have a life outside her illness.]]

* BulletProofHumanShield: Justified [[spoiler: game mechanics make it impossible for attacks to kill party members, so Rainstorm grabs a fallen bounty hunter to use as a shield to protect him from the other bounty hunters' attacks.]]

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: 40 chapters take over the course of 4 days.

* MythologyGag: The many races of Terra Online are actual ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' races: the Viera, the Moogles, the Gria, the Miqu'ote, the Burmecian, the Ronsos and so on.

* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: Infamy is a status effect that makes it difficult for players to level up or get monster drops, as a deterrent for PlayerKilling. Cloud accumulates a ton of it when he causes the Albrook Newbie Massacre, and half the destruction of the Elder Tree.

* OneGenderRace: The Viera were assumed to be this due to their largely female faction.

* RealityEnsues: While Vincent is physically intact due to his supernatural abilities, 15 years of no sleeping has mentally tore him to shreds. Due to being unable to rest his mind, he pretty much loses his memories due to being unable to process them. He's only able to remember his own name at the end of this.

* ADarkerMe: Cloud is a shy teenager in real-life, but Rainstorm is an assertive BloodKnight and DeadpanSnarker who takes shit from no one.
* AFriendInNeed: After the Albrook Massacre, Treasure Princess and Red XII seek out Rainstorm and protect him from bounty hunters.

* BullyHunter: [[spoiler: Rainstorm meets Flower when he defends her from perverts harassing her by killing them.]]

* CeilingCling: Yuffie had to cling to a stalactite for 4 hours because she had lost her levels due to the Overseers, and attempted to fight the cave's boss and then realized how week she had become and didn't have the means to escape.
* CerebusSyndrome: The plot started to move and darken at the arrival of Vincent and Aerith.

* DoubleStandard: A lot of players heavily discriminate against female players who chose to play in non-humanoid and unsexualized player characters.

* {{GIFT}}: Players can be jerks in Terra Online. Red XIII got killed and robbed several times, and Rainstorm and Flower get sexually harassed. They also pull this as revenge, causing other players grief and causing as much havoc as possible.

* {{GMPC}}: Cait Sith is not only an NPC, but the game's admin and head designer.
* HappinessInSlavery: Vincent is turned into Cloud's pet by Cait Sith due to him being unable to turn Vincent into a player. Vincent becoming a pet is for the best, since Vincent won't be constantly attacked by players, and Cloud wouldn't even consider exploiting him. On Vincent's part, he doesn't like being a pet, but likes Cloud's affection and protection. Helps that Cloud is very respectful of Vincent's boundaries.

* InUniverseNickname: Naut calls Rainstorm "skimpy."

* ItCanThink: Cait Sith is rather surprised that the Demon of the Wastes glitch can remember things, assess danger, and make decisions. Only to find out to his horror that Vincent is not an 'it'.

* MST3KMantra: InUniverse, when Bigshot complains the Elder Tree is too big to even to be possible, Mena tells him it's just a game.

* NoodleIncident: the Fanocalypse of Alexandria. [[spoiler: It involved Genesis shouting that Sephiroth was in Alexandria and him carving a path through the mob that followed.]]

* OneGenderRace: The Viera were assumed to be this due to their largely female faction.

* PersonOfMassDestruction: Flower. Just by summoning Bahamut[[spoiler:, she killed over 500 players and destroyed the Elder Tree]]. Just being near her makes things more breakable[[spoiler:; this is a side effect of being a Cetra]].

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Reeve abuses his connections as Head of Urban Development [[spoiler: to contact Cloud to get him working for immediately, getting immediate discharge papers.]]
* ShamelessFanserviceGuy: While Rainstorm admits he still hates his {{Stripperific}} armor, he is no longer bothered by it anymore.
* ShameIfSomethingHappened: Vincent snarks this when Rainstorm is excited over being in Alexandria.

* ShipTease: Cloud and Vincent get a lot of this.

* VocalDissonance: Naut is a cute moogle, but he still has Cid's deep masculine voice and curses like a sailor.

** Due to him literally existing before the game, Vincent was assumed to be a [[TheMissingNo glitch character]] or SecretBoss, because no one bothered to actually interact with him nonviolently until Rainstorm.

* TheMissingNo: InUniverse with Vincent. Vincent is assumed to be a boss monster, but is actually a glitch character who turns out be a comatose prototype player that couldn't be removed from the game.

* AdaptationalSexualty: Cloud identifies as bisexual with a preference for men.

* BiTheWay: Cloud identifies as bisexual with a preference for men.

** Add [[spoiler: Killing Vincent to the things that piss him off, it being the main reason why he was able to kill the leader of the Vieravengers, namely because she killed Vincent]].

* IdentityAmnesia: After 15 years of no sleep, the only thing Vincent remembers of his old life is his name, his marksmanship, and that it is cold where his actual body lies.

* NoodleIncident: the Fanocalypse of Alexandria. [[spoiler: It involves Sephiroth.]]

** Hell, his first incident earned him his RedBaron honorific, the [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Rabbit of Caerbannog]].

** Rainstorm gets the [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail Rabbit of Caerbannog]] for breaking the record of 'most player kills within an hour' and 'most kills as a low-level player'.

* StopHavingFunGuys: Aerith accuses Tseng of being one due to his treating Terra Online as his information network as opposed to the game it's supposed to be.