History Fanfic / TheWorldOfTheCreatures

%%* ActionGirlfriend: Ciri becomes this after she and Brendan start dating.
%%* ActiveRoyalty: Again, Ciri, as she is technically a princess.
%%* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: The Angry Oliphant.

** The Kandarian Dagger and the Necronomicon in the Buffy/Evil Dead arc qualify.
** Sauron eventually regains possession of the One Ring.
** The [[{{WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures}} Twelve Talismans of the Chinese Zodiac]] are used by Brendan and Ciri in the final battle.
* AndIMustScream: This is how Patrick describe the fate of anyone touched by the Black Bile.

* AnimalStampede: One made of ''Megacerops'', ''Amebelodon'', and ''Bramatherium'' stampedes through Udonga mountains.

* ArtifactOfDoom: The Necronomicon.

* BaitTheDog: Hope/the phrenovore.

** This is how Patrick think of his relationship to Gabi, Zoe, and Sam, which makes their eventual abandoment all the more painful.

%%* TheChessMaster: Hope is this, and her two most notable pawns are Morgoth and Patrick.
%%* ClassicalChimera: One of the monsters in O'Dimm's game.

%%* TheDragon: Patrick becomes this to the phrenovore when his "bad" side takes on a life of its own.%%Becomes what?

%%* LadyMacbeth: Hope plays this role to Patrick.

%%* LizardFolk:
%%** The Silurians of ''Doctor Who''
%%** The Saurosapients from ''All Tomorrows''

%%* MultipleProtagonists: Patrick and Brendan.

%%* SwampsAreEvil: The swamps of Crookback Bog, which appear in "An Act of Rebellion".%%Are an example how?

%%** The thanator. Averted with other creatures.%%How?

* VillainOfTheDetour: The Crones of Crookback Bog are this in, "An Act of Rebellion".%%How?
* WalkingSpoiler: Hope/the phrenovore
* WickedWitch: The Crones, as the company is forced to journey through Crookback Bog.

* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: This applies to spirit creatures, who have no trouble understanding the thoughts and feelings of their human companions. Does not apply to other wild animals.
* AmazonChaser: Given that Hope chose the form of a muscular woman to appeal to Patrick, it heavily implies that he is this trope.

* AmphibianAtLarge:
** The beginning of Chapter 6 sees Darren and Patrick dissection a ''Benthosuchus''
** In Chapter 9. a ''Prionosuchus'' takes a snap at Patrick, Brendan, and Ciri.

* AncientArtifact: The Kandarian Dagger and the Necronomicon in the Buffy/Evil Dead arc qualify.

* AnimalStampede: One made of Megacerops, Amebelodon, and Bramatherium stampedes through the middle of Times Square.

%%* ArtifactOfDoom: The Necronomicon.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: played with. Old, inaccurate depictions of dinosaurs, such as the featherless raptors of ''Jurassic Park'' appear side-by-side with more accurate, up-to-date versions. Murphy will often go into detail to highlight the accuracy (or lacktherof) of these portrayals.
* BadassCrew: The company. Becomes more pronounced as the story goes on as the number of members increases.

%%* BaitTheDog: Hope/the phrenovore.
* BatPeople: Many of the vampires, but special mention to Thuringwethil, who is a beautiful woman from the shoulders down, while everything else is a giant vampire bat.

* BestFriend: Patrick and Brendan. They'd been friends for a decade by the time the story begins. They have similar interests and personality traits, they support one another and listen to each other's problems, and they aren't afraid to express their friendships through things like hugs or holding hands.

* BigfootSasquatchandYeti: A sasquatch shows up in the game devised by O'Dimm.

* BiggerOnTheInside: The Tardis. The interior of the continent is implied to be like this compared to its coastline.
* BuffySpeak: Buffy herself, not surprisingly.

** Some dinosaurs that were only published after the time of the story are referenced, such as ''Bajadasaurus''.

* EnchantedForest: In addition to normal animals both extinct and extant, the jungles of the world are populated by supernatural creatures. It is implied that the forests are BiggerOnTheInside.

* FantasticVermin: Creatures called 'conceptophytes' are apparently responsible for human brain farts.

* HorseOfADifferentColor: Applies to all the spirit creatures that have riders, such as Brendan's thanator.

* HumanoidAbomination: This is how Hope comes across even in her human form. Patrick notes some unusual features, such as the fact that one of her eyes is slightly larger than the other.

* InsecureLoveInterest: Brendan experiences these feelings when he first considers his attraction to Ciri, but is able to overcome them through a strong mutual trust. However, that trust is corroded by the First Evil later in the story, and Brendan begins to feel this way again.

* InterimVillain: Basically what Morgoth is before Patricka and the phrenovore become more active.

** Played straight with Patrick, who claims that Brendan and Ciri are his only real friends.

* TheOnlyOneItrust: Brendan is this to Patrick, but Hope is able to use this against him.
* OppositesAttract: Brendan is thoughtful, methodical, and humble while Ciri is blunt, impulsive, and occasionally bratty.
* PaleFemalesDarkMales: Tarbosaurus possesses this quality in the story.

* PlaceBeyondTime: When Hope briefly sends Patrick home, no time has passed for him there, despite years having passed in the world of his mind.

%%* PrincessProtagonist: Ciri
* PredationIsNatural: Played straight with the many wild predators of the story. For example, Darren refuses to let Lancelot hurt the Tarbosaurus because they are just animals following their instincts.

* RaptorAttack: Averted with Patrick's ''Dakotaraptor'' which is described has being fat with feathers. Played straight with the ''Jurassic Park III'' raptors that appear in the Buffy arc.

* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Inverted -- the Silurian Chancellor says he finds mammals to be very unsettling.

* Snowlems: The Ice Golems that Patrick creates in the Mons Longomare.

* TitleDrop: In a very Richard Attenborough-esque sounding way, Patrick brings the company to a creature-filled plain and proclaims "welcome to the World of the Creatures!"

* UsedToBeAsweetKid: Spoken verbatim by John Vhole with regards to Patrick.

%%* VillainOfTheDetour: The Crones of Crookback Bog are this in, "An Act of Rebellion".%%How?
%%* WalkingSpoiler: Hope/the phrenovore
%%* {{Wendigo}}: Specifically the one from ''Pet Sematary'' shows up as an ArcVillain.
%%* WickedWitch: The Crones, as the company is forced to journey through Crookback Bog.

* WrongGenreSavvy: At first, Brendan thinks they're in Faerie, the world of fantasy talked about by J.R.R. Tolkien in his book, ''On Faerie Stories''

* YouWakeUpInARoom: Or in this case, in the middle of a gigantic, steaming, tropical jungle with an inexplicable change in wardrobe and your sword.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Patrick, and hard. He mentions having crushes on both Triss and Karen Gillan.

%%* ThreeAmigos: Patrick, Brendan, and Ciri.

* TheHero: At first it appears as though Patrick will fullfill this role, especially given that this is a self insert fic, but the role of hero more accurately describes Brendan (At least until the end).

* AlienAnimals: From numerous different worlds, including [[Film/{{Avatar}} Pandora]], [[Literature/{{Expedition}} Darwin IV]], and WebOriginal/{{Snaiad}}.

* HorseOfADifferentColor: **Applies to all the spirit creatures that have riders, such as Brendan's thanator.

* InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons: The dragons that attack during the Battle of the Three Cities. Darren also gives a vivid description of an attack by Ancalogon the Black.

* RevanantZombie: Those brought back the cursed burial ground in, "The Contract."

* Sadist: The phrenovre actively enjoys the suffering it causes to others. It claims that sadism is an effective trait for a predator.

* SeldomSeenSpecies: There are many more obscure prehistoric taxa included in the story. A few examples include ''Darwinopterus'', ''Amebelodon'', and ''Secernosaurus''

* PteroSoarer: Averted. A fair few pterosaurs pop up, and they're far from the toothy, leathery-winged, bird-footed, scaly-skinned monsters found more often in fiction.

[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/21444025/chapters/51098857 The World of the Creatures]] is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover fiction written by Patrick Murphy at Archive of Our Own. It is a {{cross over}} fic, {{real person Fic}}, MetaFic, and SelfInsertFic combining a number of fandoms as well as actual people. Among the many franchises that feature in the story are ''Series/DoctorWho'', ''Franchise/TheLordOfTheRings'' , ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' , and ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.

There are currently 15 chapters available to read, though the fic is unfinished at the moment.

* ActionGirlfriend: Ciri becomes this after she and Brendan start dating.
* ActiveRoyalty: Again, Ciri, as she is technically a princess.
* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: The Angry Oliphant

* AlienAnimals: From numerous different worlds, including [[{{Film/Avatar}} Pandroa]], [[{{Literature/Expedition}} Darwin IV]], and [[{{WebOriginal/Snaiad}} Snaiad]].

** A more literal example- [[{{Franchise/WonderWoman}} Wonder Woman]] shows up toward the beginning, and in the final battle.

* ArtifactOfDoom: The Aforementioned Necronomicon.
* ArtificialZombie: The Doctor uses [[{{Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead}} 2-4-5 Trioxyn]] to reanimate a freezer full of dead animals at one point.

* BaitTheDog: Hope/the phrenovore

* TheChessMaster: Hope is this, and her two most notable pawns are Morgoth and Patrick.
* ClassicalChimera: One of the monsters in O'Dimm's game.

* CrossoverVillainInChief: Morgoth beats down the various other evil overlords to become the dominant antagonistic force. So it seems at least - in reality, even Morgoth is just another pawn of the phrenovore, and his power is nothing next to Patrick's.

* DraconicAbomination: The final form of Patrick's 'bad' side is a huge black dragon with massive horns, spiked wings, and a deadly breath whose touch leads to a fate worse than death. It is said to a have a wingspan measured in ''miles.''

* TheDragon: Patrick becomes this to the phrenovore when his 'bad' side takes on a life of its own.

* EldritchAbomination: The phrenovore is a creature that exists only in the so called 'world of thought.' We never get a clear idea of what its true form looks like - if it even has a ''true'' form at all - but it doesn't seem to follow any known biological Bauplan.

* EvilSorcerer: A group of these - including Saruman of Many Colors and Vilgefortz of Roggeveen - show up at the City of the UA to neutralize its defenses.

** Many giant pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus, Arambourgiania, and Hatzegopteryx appear.
** The giant pseudo-toothed pelagornis is seen along the coasts.
** Flying creatures from Darwin IV, such as the Ebony blisterwing.
** Tolkien's Eagles are associates of the UA
** Both Patrick's 'good' and 'bad' sides eventually take the form of gigantic winged monsters.

* HeroesPreferSwords: Brendan has a sword. Brendan owns a sword specifically because it symbolizes heroism. In other words, he invokes this trope in real life.

** Traditional Japanese Kaiju such as [[{{Franchise/Godzilla}} Godzilla]], {{Film/Rodan}}, and {{Film/Mothra}} show up at various points. The evil [[{{Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster}} King Ghidorah]] appears in the Final Battle being ridden by Sauron

* LadyMacbeth: Hope plays this role to Patrick

* LizardFolk:
** The Silurians of ''Doctor Who''
** The Saurosapients from ''All Tomorrows''

* MultipleProtagonists: Patrick and Brendan.

* PrincessProtagonist: Ciri

** There are a few references to [[{{Literature/Expedition}} creatures from the planet Darwin IV]] and from C. M. Koseman's Snaiad.
** The so-called 'creatures of the abstract' also qualify. The don't exist in the physical world, yet there are apparently thousands of species. They feed on thoughts, dreams, and even entire minds, and can move through the world by the spread and transmission of certain memes. How they do this is never explained, and indeed may not even be explicable to us.

* SwampsAreEvil: The swamps of Crookback Bog, which appear in, "An Act of Rebellion."

* SuperPersistentPredator:
** The thanator. Darren's description of the thanator actually provides the page quote. Averted with other creatures.
** The phrenovore is this as well. It is not only persistent, but patient, spending years on its plan to weaken Patrick and devour his mind.

** The Battle of the Three Cities features four separate swarms - one of werewolves, one of vampires, one of outriders, and one of giant spdiers.

* ThreeAmigos: Patrick, Brendan, and Ciri.

* VillainOfTheDetour: The Crones of Crookback Bog are this in, "An Act of Rebellion."
* WalkingSpoiler: Hope/the phrenovore
* {{Wendigo}}: Specifically the one from ''Pet Sematary'' shows up as an ArcVillain
* WickedWitch: the Crones, as the company is forced to journey through Crookback Bog.

* XanatosGambit:
** A minor one by Gaunter O'Dimm. The deal he makes with Brendan will either result in Brendan and Ciri losing their souls to him, or having their conviction in themselves and in each other shattered. Either way, he's done what he set out to do - break up the company
* YouWakeUpInARoom: Or in this case, in the middle of a gigantic, steaming, tropical jungle with an inexplicable change in wardrobe and your sword.

* AbtractEater: The phrenovore feeds on thoughts but must first turn them into physical objects/beings.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Given that Murphy is an avid fan of paleontology, it only figures that dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures would feature prominently, even if they're aren't central to the story.

* CoolPet: The spirit creatures. Brendan's is a thanator, Patrick's is a large dromaeosaur, and Ciri's is a swallow.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Given the sheer number of franchises that feature, this is a given. Murphy makes effort to keep the focus on a relatively small number at any given time, but even this can be as many as ten.

* AllMythsAreTrue: In Patrick has heard of a given myth, it will be present in the world, and will be just as real and solid as anything else.

* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: The main plot. Though initially the war is waged by Morgoth commanding an army of antagonistic forces from across fiction, the focus of the main threat shifts over the course of the story to Patrick himself, and to the phrenovore.

* DeathWorld: While the parts of the world overseen by the UA are okay (for the most part), there are still vast wildernesses and territories populated by extremely dangerous predators, and that's not even counting those beings that are ''actively'' malicious...

* GenericDoomsdayVillain: This is how Morgoth comes across. Being removed from Arda fundamentally changes his motivation. No one ever elaborates on what he hopes to gain from attacking the UA, and of course he isn't around to do so himself. This is intentional - the real BigBad is the phrenovore, along with Patrick's 'evil' side.

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Hope comes across as this at first, but it's part of a ruse. She's really a horrible monster beyond comprehension trying to weaken Patrick so that she can eat his mind.

* HiddenAgendaVilain: Hope is in an extremely advantageous position. Only she knows how the world formed, how it can be returned to normal, and what a phrenovore is. This makes it very easy for her to hide her true intentions.

* Humanoid Abomination: This is how Hope comes across even in her human form. Patrick notes some unusual features, such as the fact that one of her eyes is slightly larger than the other.

** Traditional Japanese Kaiju such as Franchise/Godzilla, Film/Rodan, and Film/Mothra show up at various points. The evil King Ghidorah appears in the Final Battle being ridden by Sauron

* Legion of Doom:

* Limited Social Circles:

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Given the sheer number of franchises that feature, this is a given, but Murphy makes effort to keep the focus on a relatively small number at any given time, but even this can be as many as ten.

* NatureIsNotNice: It's impossible to count just how many times the characters nearly get eaten, gored, stepped on, or envenomed.

*

* RessurectTheVillain: The Wendigo from Chapter 15 is brought back by the 'bad' Patrick.

** The so-called creatures of the abstract, including the phrenovore, are somewhere between this and eldritch abominations.

* The Swarm: An apparent favorite of Murphy's given their frequency:

** VillainOfTheDetour: The Crones of Crookback Bog are this in, "An Act of Rebellion."

* Walking Spoiler: Hope/the phrenovore

* Xanatos Gambit:

The story centers Patrick Murphy, an interpretive guide at a dinosaur museum with a passion for animals of all kinds, be they real or fictional, extinct or extant, or any variation thereof. Murphy awakes one day to find himself in a strange, mysterious world, very unlike the one he is form originally. After exploring for a while, and encountering numerous fictional characters, prehistoric creatures, and people from his personal life, Patrick comes to believe that this world is a physical manifestation of his own mind, a fact that becomes clearer as the story progresses. While initially concerned with trying to figure out how this happened, and how to get back home, Patrick get caught up in the plans and motives of sinister forces that have more planned for him than he can imagine.

* BrightIsNoTGood: Some of the instances in which Patrick achieves omnipotence are accompanied by him glowing with a powerful golden light. The gold light is an indicator that Patrick is being motivated by fear.

* CompleteMonster: The phrenovore. It is manipulative, cruel, callous, arrogant, and completely without remorse. It justifies itself by pointing out that it is, at the end of the day, a predator, and it doesn't behoove a lion to have sympathy for a zebra.

* {{Corrupter}}: Hope is this to Patrick, exacerbating his insecurities and causing him to lose trust in his friends.

* CrossoverExclusiveVillain: The phrenovore doesn't exist in any of the IPs that make an appearance, and its presence is directly related to the in-universe mechanism that allows the crossover to happen.
* CrossoverVillainInCheif: Morgoth beats down the various other evil overlords to become the dominant antagonistic force. So it seems at least - in reality, even Morgoth is just another pawn of the phrenovore, and his power is nothing next to Patrick's.
* Crapsack World: While the territories overseen by the UA are almost a paradise, as Patrick's mental state deteriorates, so too does the UA's ability to hold things together. As he gets worse, so does the world.

* DavyJones: The iteration from the ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean.'' He intercepts the company on Black Pearl and takes them prisoner.
* DeathWorld: The world of the creatures is filled with all kinds of creatures that seek nothing else in life than to destroy you, your family, your friends, and all else you hold dear on this good earth in the most horrible ways imaginable.

* Dracula: He leads the vampires in the Battle of the Three Cities.

* EldritchAbomination: The phrenovore is a creature that exists only in the so called 'world of thought.' We never get a clear idea of what its true form looks like - even it even has a ''true'' form at all, but it doesn't seem follow any known biological Bauplan.

* EvilIsSexy: Or, at the very least, it can choose to take a sexy form.

* FakeFriend: Hope appears to Patrick as a kind heart, willing to be there for him and listen to him when he's having problems. In truth, this is to make him more trusting and dependent on her, which allows her to cut him off from true friends.

* FashionableEvil: Depending on who you ask, Hope is either this or FashionVictimVillain.

* SuperPersistentPredator: The thanator. Darren's description of the thanator actually provides the page quote. Averted with other creatures.

** {{Wendigo}}: Specifically the one from ''Pet Sematary'' shows up as an ArcVillain

[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/21444025/chapters/51098857 The World of the Creatures]] is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover fiction written by Patrick Murphy at Archive of Our Own. It is a {{cross over}} fic, {{real person Fic}}, MetaFic, and SelfInsertFic combining a number of fandoms as well as actual people. Among the many franchises that feature in the story are ''Series/DoctorWho'', ''Franchise/TheLordOfTheRings'' , and ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' , and ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''.

* Dream Sequence: Brendan starts having these later in the stories, both during the Buffy arc and the Lancelot arc. The first is implied to be a vision from the First Evil, while the second one foreshadows the conflict between Darren and Lancelot.

* TheHero: At first it appears as though Patrick will fullfill this role, especially given that this is a self insert fic. But the role of hero bounces from Patrick to his friend Brendan, and then back to Patrick

* VertebrateWithExtraLimbs: The Pandoran fauna, with their characteristic two hind limbs and four forelimbs.

[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/1069975/chapters/2146984 The World of the Creatures]] is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover fiction written by Patrick Murphy at Archive of Our Own. It is a {{cross over}} fic, {{real person Fic}}, MetaFic, and SelfInsertFic combining a number of fandoms as well as actual people. Among the many franchises that feature in the story are ''Series/DoctorWho'', ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', and ''Franchise/JurassicPark''. Some of the real people who appear include Creator/CarlSagan, Creator/JonStewart, Music/LadyGaga, and Creator/PeterJackson.

The story is a [[BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind battle in the center of the author's mind]]. Murphy is attacked by a creature known as a Conceptivore - an entity that devours human minds by taking everything inside a person's head: thoughts, feelings, experiences, etc. and then turning it into a physical universe so that the Conceptivore can consume it. This premise is what allows the various franchises, as well as other fantastic elements, to come together.

The story mainly focuses on Brendan Anderson - an English major at the University of Vermont - who goes to sleep one night in his dorm only to wake up the next morning in a gigantic tropical jungle filled with dinosaurs and other extinct animals, various alien creatures from many different planets, and a weird assortment of people including a Manhattan-based Art Major, three high school teachers, paleontologist Darren Naish, Jon Stewart, Creator/StephenColbert, Creator/PeterJackson, Creator/StevenMoffat, UsefulNotes/{{Richard Dawkins}}, Creator/CarlSagan, UsefulNotes/{{Neil deGrasse Tyson}}, Creator/JossWhedon, Batman, [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy Summers]], [[Series/DoctorWho the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors and companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams]], and sci-fi artist Creator/WayneBarlowe. Brendan soon realizes a connection - everyone and everything in this world has a connection to his good friend, Patrick Murphy. They all either know him, he knows of them through their work, or they come from works of fiction he enjoys. The connection is strengthened by the fact that Patrick is an avid lover of biology, speculative zoology, and - most of all - paleontology, accounting for the multitudes of extinct animals and fictional creatures running around all over the place. Working together, they manage to track down Patrick, only for him to be kidnapped by the Conceptivore and its allies. Knowing that the only way to get out of this world is to destroy the Conceptivore, they embark on a mission to raise an army of creatures that can defeat the forces of the Conceptivore; forces that include Daleks, Cybermen, orcs, trolls, and many others.

There are currently 9 chapters available to read, though the fic is unfinished at the moment. Unlike many self Insert fics, ''the World of the Creatures'' actually features the author's friend as the main character, and Murphy is mostly absent from the story, appearing only briefly toward the beginning before being taken by the Conceptivore.

* ActionGirl: Buffy Summers. With seven years of experience, plus supernatural slayer strength, Buffy isn't afraid to go after a troop of cybermen with nothing ''but her bare hands.''

* AngryFistShake: Jon Stewart [[note]] who happens to provide the page image for this trope [[/note]] does this when Stephen Colbert makes a bad joke.
* AncientArtifact: The Biolangra.
* ArtifactOfDoom: Again, the Biolangra, at least in the wrong hands.
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: played with. Old, innaccurate depictions of dinosaurs, such as the featherless raptors of ''Jurassic Park'' appear side-by-side with more accurate, up-to-date versions. Murphy will often go into detail to highlight the accuracy of these portrayals.
* BadassCrew: The company. Becomes more pronounced as the story goes on.

* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: The main plot. It's Brendan, the rest of the company, and the creatures vs. the Conceptivore and its army of mooks.
* BigBad: The Conceptivore, a "creature of the abstract" that feeds on human minds, leaving them devoid of any sense of self or personality.
* BigCreepyCrawlies: Giant spiders appear in Chapter 8. There is a strong possibility that many more exist elsewhere.
* BiggerOnTheInside: The Tardis. Even Brendan, who isn't a big fan of ''Doctor Who'', can't help but say this word for word.
* BlatantLies: The Doctors imply that [[spoiler:the only way out of the world of the creatures is to defeat the Conceptivore. While defeating the Conceptivore would get them back home, it isn't the only way. In fact, all they need to do to get home is die there. Even if the Conceptivore won, they'd still just end up back where they came from]]
* BuffySpeak: Buffy herself, not surprisingly. At one point she berates her ''Diplodocus'' as a, "stupid dinosaur, with its...dinosaur-ness."
* CallForward: From the point of view of the Doctor, this story takes place before "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor The Name of the Doctor]].'" When Darren asks the Tenth Doctor about his expertise, Ten mentions not being well versed in either watercolors or bee keeping.
* CelebrityParadox: Discussed. Many characters appear as their fictional portrayals rather than the actors who play them. The only exception is Stephen Colbert, who appears as the real Colbert, not the character.
* ContinuityNod:
** Buffy and Rory have a short moment of bonding over their shared habit of coming back from the dead. Buffy died twice, once in [[Recap/BuffytheVampireSlayerS1E12ProphecyGirl "Prophecy Girl"]] and again in [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E22TheGift "The Gift"]]. However, even she is impressed when Rory mentions "dying" five times. The instances he mentions are from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E7AmysChoice "Amy's Choice"]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E9ColdBlood "Cold Blood"]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E3TheCurseOfTheBlackSpot "The Curse of the Black Spot"]], and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]].
** When talking with the Eleventh Doctor, one of the Silurians mentions an ark built before they went into hibernation, to which the Eleventh Doctor responds, "Oh you mean the one with all the dinosaurs?" This is a reference to the Silurian Ark seen in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship "Dinosaurs on a Spacehship"]].
** While venting to her ''Diplodocus'', Buffy makes reference to "that whole musical fiasco." This is a reference to the ''Buffy'' MusicalEpisode [[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E7OnceMoreWithFeeling "Once More With Feeling"]].
** Amy, as a throwaway mention during a conversation, mentions that she and Rory, to their irritation, still sleep in bunk beds. The idea that the Ponds sleep in bunk beds aboard the TARDIS is first mentioned in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife "The Doctor's Wife"]]. Also from that episode, the Doctor refers to the TARDIS as "Sexy".
* CoolPet: The company members and their spirit creatures. Brendan's is a thanator, Amanda's is a [[Film/{{Aliens}} Xenomorph Queen]], and Buffy's is a ''Diplodocus''.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Batman qualifies, as always. Brendan also applies. He dresses in all black clothes all the time. He explains this as an attempt to define himself in an uncontrollable external world.

* DragonHoard: The group in Chapter 9 stumbles across one by complete accident. Luckily, the dragon in question is asleep...for the moment...
* EldritchLocation: Patrick's mind comes off as this sometimes. It's mostly covered in dense jungle and home to - more or less - every living thing from any variation of time, space, or imagination.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: For Brendan, when he first wakes up and is attacked by the thanator, the scene let's us know that Brendan is smart, resourceful, and keeps cool in dangerous situations.
* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Given that Murphy is an avid fan of paleontology, it only figures that the company encounters many dinosaurs and other extinct creatures in their journeys through his mind.
* [[EvilDetectingDog Evil-Detecting Creature]]: The giant apes and the xenomorph queen can sense that Olivia and her friends are vampires. Tobey even voices his frustration with this trope.
* FantasticRacism: The Na'vi, [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes apes]], and Silurians are all immediately distrustful of humans, thought not exactly without cause.
* FishOutOfWater: Out of all the members of the company, Lady Gaga probably sticks out as the least likely to find herself in a story about dinosaurs and aliens.
* FlatWhat: Brendan has several of these in the first chapter. But then, wouldn't you given the situation?
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** The first creature Brendan meets in the story is a thanator. This eventually turns out to be his spirit creature.
** When Darren asks Buffy what creatures she's seen so far, Buffy mentions seeing really big footprints. Darren speculates that these are probably sauropod tracks. Later, Buffy discovers her spirit creature is a ''Diplodocus'' - I.E. a sauropod.
** The author uses the word ''truthiness'' at one point early in Chapter 2. Shortly afterwards, Stephen Colbert shows up.
* GiantSpider: A whole colony of them. And they talk. These spiders may or may not be from either ''Literature/HarryPotter'' or ''Literature/TheHobbit''
* HerbivoresAreFriendly: Averted a fair few times. Sometimes they're nice, and sometimes they're nasty. For example, Amanda, Pete, Neil, and Nine encounter an Indricothere that proceeds to act very aggressively toward them for seemingly no reason.
* TheHero: Brendan Anderson: Murphy's real-life friend who leads the others in their campaign against the Conceptivore.

* HorseOfADifferentColor: Applies to all the spirit creatures that have riders, such as Brendan's thanator. Also applies to the Na'vi and their direhorses, which the author describes as being, "horses of more than just a different color."
* HumanAliens: the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors.

* HungryJungle: This is ''not'' the sort of place you'd want to unexpectedly find yourself all alone in...
* InstantAwesomeJustAddDragons: The dragon encountered in Chapter 9 doesn't seem to really affect the plot in any way, but it nonetheless has quite a presence.
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: A less abstract version than usual. Murphy's mind is a very straightforward world populated by thoughts that physically manifest themselves as the people/places/things from Murphy's life. The Conceptivore -- whose powers the Doctors [[HandWave are careful to]] [[TechnoBabble not clearly explain]] -- is responsible for the formation of the setting.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: There's a part where the characters are discussing their situation, and they stop just short of proclaiming "hey, we're in a fan fic!"
* LizardFolk: The Silurians of ''Doctor Who.''
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: There are 22 main characters. That's not even counting supporting characters or antagonists. To keep people from losing track of the characters, Murphy splits them up into five smaller groups midway through the story.
* MacGuffin: The Grand Unifying Theme -- the central idea binding the World of the Creatures. If the Conceptivore acquires it, it would be able to destroy the world in one fell swoop.
* TheMaster: Both the Cybermen and the orcs refer to the Conceptivore as "The Master." Accordingly, Steven Moffat thinks they're talking about [[Series/DoctorWho The Master]], while Buffy thinks they're talking about [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer The Master]].
* MeasuringTheMarigolds: With Richard Dawkins, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Carl Sagan as characters, you can bet this is averted.
* MisplacedWildlife: Many creatures that don't live in a rain forest biome show up in the jungle. One particularly jarring example is Meghan's Colombian Mammoth, an animal that lived in North American prairies during the last Ice Age.
* TheNameless: The Conceptivore is never given a name, and is referred simply by its species' name. The leaders of the Na'vi tribe are also not given names.
* NatureLover: Applies to many, but Darren especially. When the other members of his group are taking a break, Darren goes out to look for frogs and salamanders.

* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Brendan notices that he and the thanator can both breathe the air, even though Pandora and Earth have radically different atmospheres to the point where humans can't breathe on Pandora without some sort of breathing apparatus.
* NotSoDifferent: The Eleventh Doctor tries this with Batman. Batman doesn't buy it.
* TheNthDoctor: Not surprising considering [[IncrediblyLamePun who's]] in it. This story features the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh incarnations of the Doctor. It is unknown whether or not the other eight are out somewhere in the world of the creatures.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Stephen Colbert, meet Steven Moffat!
* PlaceBeyondTime: The eponymous world. The Doctor explains that this trope is the reason the Tardis initially can't travel through it.
* ProudWarriorRace: The various creature allies tend to fall under this category, but it's particularly noticeable in the Yautja and the Na'vi.

* TheQuietOne: Maggie. She doesn't say much, even when talking to other characters. This is why the characters are surprised when [[spoiler:she runs away, leaving a note explaining how the stress of the situation has been slowly building up insider her, and she can't take it anymore]]
* RageAgainstTheAuthor: Buffy meets Joss Whedon and she is ''not'' happy.
* RaptorAttack: Averted with Dawkins' ''Utahraptor'' which is described has being fat with feathers.

* RhinoRampage: There's a stampeding herd of brontotheres that shows up toward the beginning of Chapter 8
* RuinsForRuinsSake: Chapter 9 features the old, decaying temples built by the peoples of Skull Island. Not only do they not serve the plot, they actually facilitate a tangent that disrupts the flow of the greater story.
* SeldomSeenSpecies: There are many more obscure taxa included in the story. A few examples include ''Einiosaurus'', ''Ambelodon'', and ''Inostrancevia''
* ShoutOut: At one point, Brendan and Patrick quote Series/{{Blackadder}} at each other.

* SpiderSwarm: One so nasty that even the Eleventh Doctor and Batman nearly end up being eaten.
* StarfishAliens: There are a few references to [[{{Literature/Expedition}} creatures from the planet Darwin IV]]; very fitting considering Wayne Barlowe is one of the characters. As such, many of Darwin IV's more bizarre creatures make an appearance. Most prominently, a daggerwrist is Barlowe's spirit creature.
* SuperPersistentPredator: The thanator. Darren's description of the thanator actually provides the page quote. Averted with other creatures. Darren and the Tenth Doctor encounter a gorgonopsian, and they observe that it doesn't attack them because it's just not interested at the moment (they're still cautious around it, though).
* TechnoBabble: Nearly all of it from the Doctors.

* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: When Joss, Heather, Meghan, and Brendan are attacked by two carnivorous dinosaurs, Brendan throws his sword at one of the creatures' legs. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in that Brendan doesn't actually expect it to work.
* ToothyBird: Early on, Brendan and Lady Gaga encounter an extinct toothed bird.

* VineSwing: subverted. Brendan tries this to swing across a gorge and away from an attacking thanator. While he does succeed in avoiding the thanator, the vine doesn't swing to the other side, and leaves Brendan dangling over the gorge.
* WhatTheHellHero: Carl Sagan's reaction to the Eleventh Doctor when he learns that [[spoiler:the Doctor lied, and they don't actually need to save Patrick to return home]].

* WriteWhoYouKnow: Murphy uses himself, as well as several people he knows in real life as characters in the story.

The story mainly focuses on Brendan Anderson - an English major at the University of Vermont - who goes to sleep one night in his dorm only to wake up the next morning in a gigantic tropical jungle filled with dinosaurs and other extinct animals, various alien creatures from many different planets, and a weird assortment of people including a Manhattan-based Art Major, three high school teachers, paleontologist Darren Naish, Jon Stewart, Creator/StephenColbert, Creator/PeterJackson, Creator/StevenMoffat, UsefulNotes/{{Richard Dawkins}}, Creator/CarlSagan, UsefulNotes/{{Neil deGrasse Tyson}}, Creator/JossWhedon, Batman, [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy Summers]], [[Series/DoctorWho the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors and companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams]], and sci-fi artist Creator/WayneBarlowe. Brendan soon realizes a connection - everyone and everything in this world has a connection to his good friend, Patrick Murphy. They all either know him, or he knows of them through their work. The connection is strengthened by the fact that Patrick is an avid lover of biology, speculative zoology, and - most of all - paleontology, accounting for the multitudes of extinct animals and fictional creatures running around all over the place. Working together, they manage to track down Patrick, only for him to be kidnapped by the Conceptivore and its allies. Knowing that the only way to get out of this world is to destroy the Conceptivore, they embark on a mission to raise an army of creatures that can defeat the forces of the Conceptivore; forces that include Daleks, Cybermen, orcs, trolls, and many others.

[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/1069975/chapters/2146984 The World of the Creatures]] is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover fiction written by Patrick Murphy at Archive of Our Own. It is a {{cross over}} fic, {{real person Fic}}, MetaFic, and SelfInsertFic combining a number of fandoms as well as actual people. Among the many franchises that feature in the story are ''Series/DoctorWho'', ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}'', and ''Franchise/JurassicPark''. Some of the real people who appear include Creator/CarlSagan, Creator/JonStewart, Music/LadyGaga, and Creator/PeterJackson.

[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/1069975/chapters/2146984 The World of the Creatures]] is a MassiveMultiplayerCrossover fiction written by Patrick Murphy at Archive of Our Own. It is a {{cross over}} fic, {{real person Fic}}, MetaFic, and SelfInsertFic combining a number of fandoms as well as actual people. Among the many franchises that feature in the story are ''Series/DoctorWho'', ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', ''{{The Lord of the Rings}}'', and ''{{Jurassic Park}}''. Some of the real people who appear include Creator/CarlSagan, Creator/JonStewart, Music/LadyGaga, and Creator/PeterJackson.