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* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Fort Door is overrun by a massive wave of dungeon monsters as the Exodus Run counts down the last hour to the door opening back to reality. Due to the reawakened dungeon's regular resets, the position is reset back to cubicles and ceases to exist.
* KillItWithFire: Thermite bombs are the Order's preferred weapon against particularly tough enemies, and have been in use ever since Anesh whipped up a few in his college's chemistry lab. early on.
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** Deep in the Office is a massive dragon made of server racks. Easily the Exodus Run's biggest obstacle, it's been ignored by the Order ever since, as nobody actually goes that deep and nobody actually wants to fight the thing.
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** Deep in the Office is a are massive dragon dragons made of server racks. racks, the "Terrorbytes", who true to form rest atop massive piles of orbs and breath lightning bolts. Easily the Exodus Run's biggest obstacle, it's been ignored by the Order ever since, as nobody actually goes has avoided them the few times they've been that deep deep.[[spoiler: During the Long Delve, they finally confront one. It turns out to be a RiddlingSphinx who challenges them with math so complex only Anesh can figure out the answer. It eventually admits they're smart, and nobody actually wants spits a bunch of orbs at them before telling them to fight the thing.leave or be eaten.]]
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** Winter's Climb has stone dragons, all the more dangerous due to a mental attack that leaves you too amazed by the world to fight back
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* AmazonChaser: James and Alana's relationship pre-dungeon existed in large part because he wasn't intimidated by a six foot seven woman who was stronger than him
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** This leads to Avatar ritual: Sarah uses her ''dozens'' of relationstick bonds to power a single avatar.
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** This leads to Avatar ritual: Sarah uses her eventually reveals that she has ''dozens'' of relationstick bonds to links.
--->'''Anesh''': Uh... I just had a thought.
--->'''James''': Is it that Sarah lets us turn one person into a superhuman through the powera single avatar.of friendship?
--->'''Anesh''': Uh... I just had a thought.
--->'''James''': Is it that Sarah lets us turn one person into a superhuman through the power
* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: As camracondas and ratroaches don't get human references, the Order hosts "Explain movies to the camracondas" nights to help them catch up on human pop culture.
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* {{Polyamory}}: [[spoiler:James, Anesh and Alanna. [[SelfDuplication And Anesh]].]]
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* {{Polyamory}}: [[spoiler:James, James, Anesh and Alanna. [[SelfDuplication And Anesh]].]]
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* BadassNormal: Myles, a Rogue who very deliberately has no magic, as high-level magic users can sense others with magic, so he's effectively invisible to them. Looses this status due to the [[spoiler: Underburbs flu]], and quickly starts popping orbs to catch up with everyone else.
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* BedtimeBrainwashing: Secret often speaks to people in their dreams, and can influence their behaviour while doing so.
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* BedtimeBrainwashing: Secret often speaks to people in their dreams, and can influence their behaviour behavior while doing so.
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* BottomlessMagazines: The Status Quo gun bracelets invoke this, as they allow the user to instantly reload whatever weapon they're bonded to. Slightly less absurdly overpowered than it sounds, as you "only" get 20 reloads before the braclet runs out and needs to recharge
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* BottomlessMagazines: The Status Quo gun bracelets invoke this, as they allow the user to instantly reload whatever weapon they're bonded to. Slightly less absurdly overpowered than it sounds, as you "only" get 20 reloads before the braclet bracelet runs out and needs to recharge
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* ClassifiedInformation:
** Status Quo redacts its own internal records and uses coded language, despite being a secret agency that answers to no one.
** While the Order is normally fairly open about information, the Mechanist's papers are sensitive enough that you need permission from a senior Order member to see them, at which case you're allowed to read them in the secure vault with someone else watching you and note taking isn't allowed. Pretty justified given they're a how-to guide to creating your own zombie apocalypses.
** Status Quo redacts its own internal records and uses coded language, despite being a secret agency that answers to no one.
** While the Order is normally fairly open about information, the Mechanist's papers are sensitive enough that you need permission from a senior Order member to see them, at which case you're allowed to read them in the secure vault with someone else watching you and note taking isn't allowed. Pretty justified given they're a how-to guide to creating your own zombie apocalypses.
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** Chapters 187-1888 have the Order attempting to meet with the Alchemists. The meet is crashed by the CIA, Harlan's Wolfpack, a right-wing militia group, an alarming number of brainwashed cops, a trio of local delvers, and a Pillar, all of whom want the Alchemist for their own reasons. And start shooting at each other.
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* AbnormalAmmo
** Maimframes fire RAM sticks at surprisingly high speeds.
** The Office has traps that fire unreasonably sharp pencils.
** Similarly, pencil sharpeners use pencil dust to create "smoke" clouds.
** Harlan's Wolfpack imbues their bullets with ''memories''. The result will actually penetrate Squo shields and is highly damaging...if you don't mind perpetual amnesia.
** Maimframes fire RAM sticks at surprisingly high speeds.
** The Office has traps that fire unreasonably sharp pencils.
** Similarly, pencil sharpeners use pencil dust to create "smoke" clouds.
** Harlan's Wolfpack imbues their bullets with ''memories''. The result will actually penetrate Squo shields and is highly damaging...if you don't mind perpetual amnesia.
* ChekhovsGun: Lampshaded. The plasma nerf gun is left in Fort Door with a "Chekhov's" label stuck on it. It comes in handy during the Battle of Fort Door.
* EdibleAmmunition: The Office uses cups of inhumanly hot coffee as mines in the breakrooms. This is, oddly, the only case where a food item created by the office ''isn't'' completly fine to eat. The Order's rationalization for this is that it legally isn't food.
--> "We've determined that the office operates under the ruling of the 1994 lawsuit against [=McDonald=]'s which states that coffee above a certain temperature is no longer classified as 'food', leaving the detonating coffee cups as something that is, from a legal perspective, either disinfectant, or heavy ordnance."
--> "We've determined that the office operates under the ruling of the 1994 lawsuit against [=McDonald=]'s which states that coffee above a certain temperature is no longer classified as 'food', leaving the detonating coffee cups as something that is, from a legal perspective, either disinfectant, or heavy ordnance."
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** The Cat being held in the Research basement is an incredibly dangerous animal that you can't actually see and can fight an entire delve team ''and win'' single-handed. It gets release during the [[spoiler: Status Quo raid]] as Research throws everything they have at their attackers.
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** The Cat being held in the Research basement is an incredibly dangerous animal that you can't actually see and can fight an entire delve team ''and win'' single-handed. It gets release released during the [[spoiler: Status Quo raid]] as Research throws everything they have at their attackers.
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* TheMedic: Deb, a former med student, becomes the Order's main doctor and soon finds herself working on the various non-humans the Order keeps adding to its ranks
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* TheMedic: Deb, a former med student, becomes the Order's main doctor and soon finds herself working on the various non-humans the Order keeps adding to its ranksranks. Also Nik, who has a medically-inclined Authority and picked up Iced Veins for instant blood transfusions.
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* PowerTrio: For unknown reasons, delver groups seem to be limited to three people, possibly due to informorph interference.
** The Order averting this (due largely to being founded by James's group and forty-odd rescues from Monster Karen) makes them a massive outlier and far more powerful than anyone else.
** Sarah had a group, and El is implied to have been part of a three-person delve group but lost her memories of them to an informorph
** The [[spoiler: head of Status Quo]] looses his smugness completly and panics when he realizes James don't only isn't alone, he ''brought an army'' with him.
** The Order averting this (due largely to being founded by James's group and forty-odd rescues from Monster Karen) makes them a massive outlier and far more powerful than anyone else.
** Sarah had a group, and El is implied to have been part of a three-person delve group but lost her memories of them to an informorph
** The [[spoiler: head of Status Quo]] looses his smugness completly and panics when he realizes James don't only isn't alone, he ''brought an army'' with him.
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* SleepDeprivation: A chronic issue for delvers, who spend an extra eight hours awake at 3:45 AM, utterly wrecking sleep schedules.
** Momo, her life eaten by the dungeon's erasure, handles her loss of family poorly and wanders the Lair at all hours working on red totems.
** Momo, her life eaten by the dungeon's erasure, handles her loss of family poorly and wanders the Lair at all hours working on red totems.
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** Ritual- Momo's near-singlehanded effort to make useful totems.
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** The braclets rescue the Fireball Nerf Gun, long out of ammunition, from retirement in the basement.
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** The braclets bracelets rescue the Fireball Nerf Gun, long out of ammunition, from retirement in the basement.
* DefeatMeansFriendship: James's second-favorite recruitment tactic seems to be co-opting other groups into the Order
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** in Chapter 242, the Order finds the headquarters of [[spoiler: a revived Status Quo]], which is about to be raided by two FBI agents, a fake FBI agent, *two* Camilles, and a local street gang. The Order crashes the party, teams up with the pair of actually-not-FBI agents, and then encounters a Pillar going by Chain Breaker. So yes, a *six way* fight.
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** in Chapter 242, the Order finds the headquarters of [[spoiler: a revived Status Quo]], which is about to be raided by two FBI agents, a fake FBI agent, *two* ''two'' Camilles, and a local street gang. The Order crashes the party, teams up with the pair of actually-not-FBI agents, and then encounters a Pillar going by Chain Breaker. So yes, a *six way* ''six way'' fight.
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** One of the dead from the [[spoiler: Status Quo attack]] is Mark Diaz. Some time later, the Order recruits ''another" Mark Diaz, who has a brief existential crisis before James reassures him that it's all a weird coincidence.
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** One of the dead from the [[spoiler: Status Quo attack]] is Mark Diaz. Some time later, the Order recruits ''another" ''another'' Mark Diaz, who has a brief existential crisis before James reassures him that it's all a weird coincidence. coincidence.
* OpenSaysMe: Reed uses [Remove Entrance], a blue power, during the Sewer Emergence to blast open the dungeons-secured school doors
-->'''Anesh''':We had, briefly, a blue power for 'Remove Entrance'."
-->'''James''': I remember that. Reed demolished half of a building. It was metal as fuck."
* OpenSaysMe: Reed uses [Remove Entrance], a blue power, during the Sewer Emergence to blast open the dungeons-secured school doors
-->'''Anesh''':We had, briefly, a blue power for 'Remove Entrance'."
-->'''James''': I remember that. Reed demolished half of a building. It was metal as fuck."
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* ThePowerOfFriendship: Relationsticks allow two users who share feeling for each other to share sleep, speed, or other useful abilities with each other
** This leads to Avatar ritual: Sarah uses her ''dozens'' of relationstick bonds to power a single avatar.
** This leads to Avatar ritual: Sarah uses her ''dozens'' of relationstick bonds to power a single avatar.
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-->'''James''': The powers from those are always the most unbalanced bullshit.
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** The pads have a few rules. They're limited to Earth, you need the exact address/location of anything not in line of sight, and trying abstract concepts will land you in whatever city has the closest name. "Home" gets you Home, Kansas and "Safety" gets you Safe Harbor, Florida
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* BackstoryInvader: [[spoiler: Ben]], who Winter's Climb tosses into the the first delve group. And then just hangs out because he likes the Order, even though nobody can quite remember him but they're sure they known him.
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* GodzillaThreshold: The Old Gun and related entities are such a threat that the Order's manual outright states that when facing them, ''there are no rules''. Said lack of restrictions are not in regards to killing her- they're about breaking contact long enough to escape.
-->''' Section 6, Part 7 - High Powered Individual Threats''': When facing such an entity that is hostile to humanity, there are no rules of engagement. Take the ethics guidebook, and throw it in the trash. There is no tactic that is unacceptable, there is no level of collateral damage too high. Someone or something like that, if it chooses to start trying to kill everyone, is an existential threat that must be answered as immediately as possible.
-->''' Section 6, Part 7 - High Powered Individual Threats''': When facing such an entity that is hostile to humanity, there are no rules of engagement. Take the ethics guidebook, and throw it in the trash. There is no tactic that is unacceptable, there is no level of collateral damage too high. Someone or something like that, if it chooses to start trying to kill everyone, is an existential threat that must be answered as immediately as possible.
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* GodzillaThreshold: GodzillaThreshold:
** The Cat being held in the Research basement is an incredibly dangerous animal that you can't actually see and can fight an entire delve team ''and win'' single-handed. It gets release during the [[spoiler: Status Quo raid]] as Research throws everything they have at their attackers.
** The Old Gun and related entities are such a threat that the Order's manual outright states that when facing them, ''there are no rules''. Said lack of restrictions are not in regards to killing her- they're about breaking contact long enough to escape.
-->''' --->''' Section 6, Part 7 - High Powered Individual Threats''': When facing such an entity that is hostile to humanity, there are no rules of engagement. Take the ethics guidebook, and throw it in the trash. There is no tactic that is unacceptable, there is no level of collateral damage too high. Someone or something like that, if it chooses to start trying to kill everyone, is an existential threat that must be answered as immediately as possible.
** The Cat being held in the Research basement is an incredibly dangerous animal that you can't actually see and can fight an entire delve team ''and win'' single-handed. It gets release during the [[spoiler: Status Quo raid]] as Research throws everything they have at their attackers.
** The Old Gun and related entities are such a threat that the Order's manual outright states that when facing them, ''there are no rules''. Said lack of restrictions are not in regards to killing her- they're about breaking contact long enough to escape.
* HollywoodAcid: Ratroach bodily fluids are absurdly corrosive, and vomiting bile as an AcidAttack is highly effective. Thanks to dungeon bullshit, their fluids are neither acid nor base.
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* HeroesPreferSwords: Played with. James initially finds weapons like crowbars to be more practical and useful, or guns against more serious threats, but JP insists on carrying a sword. Which mostly just gets in the way. And ''then'' turns out to actually be very useful in a specific situation, after which lots of delvers start carrying them. James later hangs a sword on the wall and suggests having it engraved with "In Case of [[spoiler:Cat]]".
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* HeroesPreferSwords: Played with.
** James initially finds weapons like crowbars to be more practical and useful, or guns against more serious threats, but JP insists on carrying a sword. Which mostly just gets in the way. And ''then'' turns out to actually be very useful in a specific situation, after which lots of delvers start carrying them. James later hangs a sword on the wall and suggests having it engraved with "In Case of[[spoiler:Cat]]".[[spoiler:Cat]]".
** Lampshaded when James and Anesh confront the Mechanic in Chapter 160:
--->'''Mechanic''': Ya seem big on the whole hero angle.
--->'''[[HiveMind James/ Anesh]]''': It's the sword, right? It makes the look.
** James initially finds weapons like crowbars to be more practical and useful, or guns against more serious threats, but JP insists on carrying a sword. Which mostly just gets in the way. And ''then'' turns out to actually be very useful in a specific situation, after which lots of delvers start carrying them. James later hangs a sword on the wall and suggests having it engraved with "In Case of
** Lampshaded when James and Anesh confront the Mechanic in Chapter 160:
--->'''Mechanic''': Ya seem big on the whole hero angle.
--->'''[[HiveMind James/ Anesh]]''': It's the sword, right? It makes the look.
* HumanityIsInfectious: Dungeon life seems to significantly mellow with extended exposure to humans. Even a few of the ratroaches manage to escape their hellish home and become relatively well-adjusted members of society.
** Even [[spoiler: the cat]], after weeks locked up in the Lair's secure area, goes from absurdly dangerous killing machine to semi-friendly, and finds its way to a veterinarian who adopts him
** Even [[spoiler: the cat]], after weeks locked up in the Lair's secure area, goes from absurdly dangerous killing machine to semi-friendly, and finds its way to a veterinarian who adopts him
* KindlyVet: Dr. Amy Marris, who the Order starts using for off-the-books medical care and eventually gets their card. She later adopts [[spoiler: the cat]] after it was released during the raid.
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** [[spoiler:Camraconda paralysis]] is very effective for stabilizing emergency patients.
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** [[spoiler:Camraconda paralysis]] is very effective for stabilizing emergency patients. Bill also notes that construction is a lot easier when you can just freeze stuff in place.
** James gets a Orange quest that allows him to spawn a small amount of saffron, an absurdly expensive spice.
** The Order invokes this trope on a Sewer run, collecting samples of all the nasty gross fluids the place has on the chance some of them might be useful.
** James gets a Orange quest that allows him to spawn a small amount of saffron, an absurdly expensive spice.
** The Order invokes this trope on a Sewer run, collecting samples of all the nasty gross fluids the place has on the chance some of them might be useful.
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* NaturalWeapon: During the Exodus Run, Sara gets a blue that allows her to control magnetic fields. Once she figures out what exactly the power does, she weaponizes it into becoming a human railgun.
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* NaturalWeapon: During the Exodus Run, Sara Sarah gets a blue that allows her to control magnetic fields. Once she figures out what exactly the power does, she weaponizes it into becoming a human railgun.
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* TemptingFate:
** Before a Sewer run, Sarah tries to say that "at least it can't get any worse" before Frequency-Of-Sunlight freezes her and the rest of the delve team yells at her.
** Nik offhandedly comments that "nothing could get through that storm" during the first real Winter's Climb delve, and gets told off for it. [[spoiler: The dungeon has already hit them with an infiltrator.]]
** Before a Sewer run, Sarah tries to say that "at least it can't get any worse" before Frequency-Of-Sunlight freezes her and the rest of the delve team yells at her.
** Nik offhandedly comments that "nothing could get through that storm" during the first real Winter's Climb delve, and gets told off for it. [[spoiler: The dungeon has already hit them with an infiltrator.]]
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* HumanWeapon: The Last Line of Defense's "daughters", the Camille series, are absurdly powerful warriors who exist to fight and die.
* MeleeATrois:
** in Chapter 242, the Order finds the headquarters of [[spoiler: a revived Status Quo]], which is about to be raided by two FBI agents, a fake FBI agent, *two* Camilles, and a local street gang. The Order crashes the party, teams up with the pair of actually-not-FBI agents, and then encounters a Pillar going by Chain Breaker. So yes, a *six way* fight.
* MoreDakka: The gun bracelets have the Cluster Shot ability, turning one shot into three. Thing get downright ridiculous when applied to automatic weapons- or the plasma nerf gun.
** in Chapter 242, the Order finds the headquarters of [[spoiler: a revived Status Quo]], which is about to be raided by two FBI agents, a fake FBI agent, *two* Camilles, and a local street gang. The Order crashes the party, teams up with the pair of actually-not-FBI agents, and then encounters a Pillar going by Chain Breaker. So yes, a *six way* fight.
* MoreDakka: The gun bracelets have the Cluster Shot ability, turning one shot into three. Thing get downright ridiculous when applied to automatic weapons- or the plasma nerf gun.
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* NoSell: One of the spells available from the Winter's Climb dungeon, "Mountain of the Self", gives the user just under a second of ''absolute and total'' invulnerability. How total? Alex uses the spell to [[spoiler: escape getting tossed into the Underburbs via magic grenade]]
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* NaturalWeapon: During the Exodus Run, Sara gets a blue that allows her to control magnetic fields. Once she figures out what exactly the power does, she weaponizes it into becoming a human railgun.
* {{Necromancer}}: The Mechanic, head of the Route Horizon cultists, uses dead people to create zombie asphalt monsters dubbed "necroads"
* NoSell: One of the spells available from the Winter's Climb dungeon, "Mountain of the Self", gives the userjust under half a second of ''absolute and total'' invulnerability. How total? Alex uses the spell to [[spoiler: escape getting tossed into the Underburbs via magic grenade]]
* {{Necromancer}}: The Mechanic, head of the Route Horizon cultists, uses dead people to create zombie asphalt monsters dubbed "necroads"
* NoSell: One of the spells available from the Winter's Climb dungeon, "Mountain of the Self", gives the user
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** Recovery- Dedicated to helping dungeon survivors put their lives back together.
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** Recovery- Dedicated to helping dungeon survivors put their lives back together. Run by Actual Karen.
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* WellIntentionedExtremist: The Last Line of Defense, who takes a very brutal approach to dungeons attempting to escape into the real world. He just seals off the area, lets everyone die, and then kills the dungeon. Fortunately he can be talked into giving the heroes a chance to work it out on their own,
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* TheDreaded: The Old Gun. Encountered during the Sewer's emergence, she's...something. Bordering on PhysicalGod, SuperSpeed, absurdly powerful weapons. A Rogue who spots her later is ordered to ''leave instantly'', and has to wait to see if she followed.
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* FamedInStory: Lula has a reputation among students who survived the Sewer event. She was already known as an actually decent counselor who both listened and cared, and then the Sewer exploded into reality and she stalked the halls rescuing kids and snapping monsters necks with a glance- "Rotate Sixty Degrees" is a hell of a weapon.
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* FictionalGenevaConventions: Part of the Ethics section of the Operations manual states that they're not allowed to work on memetic weaponry. No infobombs, no idea guns, no identity erasers or persona blankers or *whatever*.
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* GodzillaThreshold: The Old Gun and related entities are such a threat that the Order's manual outright states that when facing them, ''there are no rules''. Said lack of restrictions are not in regards to killing her- they're about breaking contact long enough to escape.
-->''' Section 6, Part 7 - High Powered Individual Threats''': When facing such an entity that is hostile to humanity, there are no rules of engagement. Take the ethics guidebook, and throw it in the trash. There is no tactic that is unacceptable, there is no level of collateral damage too high. Someone or something like that, if it chooses to start trying to kill everyone, is an existential threat that must be answered as immediately as possible.
-->''' Section 6, Part 7 - High Powered Individual Threats''': When facing such an entity that is hostile to humanity, there are no rules of engagement. Take the ethics guidebook, and throw it in the trash. There is no tactic that is unacceptable, there is no level of collateral damage too high. Someone or something like that, if it chooses to start trying to kill everyone, is an existential threat that must be answered as immediately as possible.
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* TheManBehindTheMan: Implied- Status Quo turns out to be ''much'' younger than they claim, and it was somehow reconstituted after Secret obliterates them.
