History Literature / ApprenticeAdept

** Phaze to Photon, and ''vice versa''. Not quite a MirrorUniverse (because morality isn't usually reversed; most good people's counterparts are also good and most villains' counterparts are also villains), but it otherwise fits the trope: people born on [[ScienceFiction scifi]] Proton have a counterpart in Main/{{fantasy}} Phaze that is as close to identical to them as possible while still being consistent with the genre change. In particular, magical power in Phaze translates as wealth and Game-skill in Proton.

* DiabolusExMachina: Stile loses a random game (a single pull on a slot machine) in the Tournament to a child with nothing to lose (his parents' tenure was up, so he entered the Tournament on a lark). It meant one more loss and Stile would lose the Tournament and have to leave Photon for good.

* TakeOurWordForIt: In ''Robot Adept'', Agape the Moebite alien (in Fleta the unicorn's body) plays matchmaker with Suchevane the vampiress and Trool the troll (the new Red Adept), hence their naming their son Al for "Alien". In ''Unicorn Point'', it's assumed that something similar must have happened with Citizen Red and Suchevane's Photon opposite Batgirl, hence their naming their son Corn for "Unicorn", but Fleta doesn't recall anything like that.

* {{Unobtainium}}: Phazite/Photonite, the all-important power source of both worlds.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: The unicorns, werewolves and other shifters on Phaze; the self-aware machines, androids and cyborgs on Photon.

** Stile himself was a major source of entertainment, as new Citizens generally took a year or two to learn the ropes before mingling with the established Citizens. Stile jumping in to the deep end and making waves from the start was enough of a novelty, that Citizens far above his rank, wealth and status-wise, were willing to play along, just to see what happened next.

* UnknownAssailant: [[spoiler:The Red Adept, who tries repeatedly to kill Stile without showing herself or revealing her identity and motives]].

* OneJudgeToRuleThemAll: After some coaching from Stile, Clef gives a master performance in their harmonica duet. The panel of judges award Stile the win because he was the better ''musician'' (Clef played better with Stile's support than he had by himself). Clef not only accepts this with no bitterness, he ''agrees''.[[note]]It helped both that their performance earned the loser a year of tenure, and that with the insight gained from Stile's advice, Clef claimed that he could put on performances that would let him live like a Citizen anywhere.[[/note]]

* UpgradeArtifact: The [[GreatBigBookOfEverything Book of Magic]] and [[MagicMusic the Platinum Flute]]. The Book lets anyone who possesses it cast magic spells at an Adept's power level (It let a troll with no inherent magic become the new Red Adept). The Flute enhances the innate magic of anyone who holds it (allowing Stile to use his magic within the AntiMagic influence of a unicorn circle). Anyone who can actually play the damn thing gains Adept-level magic. A master musician? Becomes stronger than all the other Adepts put together.

* DragonRider: One chapter in one of the books features the [=POV=] character ending up in a game of dragon combat. Narration makes it clear that the dragon (a machine with some animal's [[BrainInAJar brain installed]] is not amused to be carrying a passenger.

* OneJudgeToRuleThemAll: After some coaching from Stile, Clef gives a master performance in their harmonica duet. The panel of judges award Stile the win because he was the better ''musician'' (Clef played better with Stile's support than he had by himself). Clef not only accepts this with no bitterness, he ''agrees''.[[note]]It helped both that their performance earned the loser a year of tenure, and that with the insight gained from Stile's advice, Clef claimed that he could put on performances that would let him live like a Citizen anywhere.[/note]]

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Mach makes one towards Fleta at the end of ''Out Of Phaze,'' via the [[TheScottishTrope the "Triple Thee"]]. It's [[ThePowerOfLove powerful enough]] to break the ShapeshifterModeLock enchantment she'd put on herself so that she could commit suicide without her survival instincts kicking in, allowing her to take her hummingbird form.

* TookALevelInBadass: Clip (from exiled male in ''Juxtaposition'' to Herd Stallion in ''Out Of Phaze'')

* TransformingConforming: transformation spells work this way. Stile shows a character the spell to turn into a bee and then has to recite the reversal spell in "bee buzz" to turn back into a human.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: The unicorn Neysa is an outcast because of her small size and horse-normal black-and-white coloration. Most unicorns are technicolor.

* DragonRider: one chapter in one of the books features the [=POV=] character ending up in a game of dragon combat. Narration makes it clear that the dragon (a machine with some animal's [[BrainInAJar brain installed]] is not amused to be carrying a passenger.

* CareerEndingInjury: Stile is employed as a skilled jockey, but during the first novel his knees are shot with a laser. He's no longer able to fully bend them without pain, meaning he can no longer ride competitively. This puts him in a tight spot, as losing employment may see him deported while going under anesthesia will leave him vulnerable to assassination.

* AllYourPowersCombined: Anyone with the Book Of Magic gains the ability to use every school of Phaze magic.

** Moebites from the planet Moeba in Proton's universe can do this as well, and without a set number of forms, as they are giant amoebas capable of reshaping their protoplasm to look human or like virtually anything else. Though, unlike magical shapeshifters, they are limited to forms with the same amount of mass, and it takes them a moment or two to change whereas Phaze denizens do it instanteously. When Fleta the unicorn and Agape the Moebite have a FreakyFridayFlip, they have an interesting time figuring out each other's modes of shapeshifting.

** Moebites from the planet Moeba in Proton's universe can do this as well, and without a set number of forms, as they are giant amoebas capable of reshaping their protoplasm to look human or like virtually anything else. Though, unlike magical shapeshifters, they are limited to forms with the same amount of mass. When Fleta the unicorn and Agape the Moebite have a FreakyFridayFlip, they have an interesting time figuring out each other's modes of shapeshifting.

** Proton was round and Phaze was [[FlatWorld flat]]. When they fuse, the result is an hourglass shape.

* HonorBeforeReason: Comes up so regularly, the bad guys start to [[BatmanGambit count on it]].
** Becomes the major third act conflict of ''Phaze Doubt'', where Lysander won't turn over the algorithm he's created that will allow the resistances master plan to succeed. He knows the resistance will enact the plan anyway and without his algorithm, the planet will be destroyed and everyone (native and Hectare alike) dies. But he considers that outcome a faithful execution of his mission (Infiltrate and thwart native resistance efforts).

* HybridPower: Flach's dual heritage - human magic potential and a unicorn's innate shapeshifting magic - give him VoluntaryShapeshifting abilities above and beyond any other unicorns. We see him having mastered a bat and wolf form (along with his natural human and unicorn forms) before he was five years old.

* RetCon: The third-generation protagonists get their nature and power level changed radically between when they were background and major characters.
* RichBoredom: It's revealed in ''Juxtaposition'' that much of the Citizen class uses gambling as a major source of entertainment. From a spontaneous game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to betting on whether more men or women emerge from a corridor, nothing is too petty to drop massive amounts of money on. (Though safeguards are in place so no Citizen can go broke on a bet)

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Fully living were-bats that have to drink blood every so often to keep their shifting powers active.

* UnknownAssailant: [[spoiler:The Red Adept]].