Line #37 ARG/ILoveBees


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ilovebees_3878.PNG]]
2	[[caption-width-right:250:The DVD that 42 Entertainment gave out at select events following the conclusion of the game.]]
3
4	->''"I've been thinking a lot about bees."''
5	-->-- '''Durga'''
6
7	''I Love Bees'' is an AlternateRealityGame created by 42 Entertainment to promote ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}''. The game took place on www.ilovebees.com, which in-universe was an amateur beekeeper's personal website that had been taken over by artificial intelligences from the future. The plot took place in two timelines, one in the then-present year of 2004 and the other [[MeanwhileInTheFuture simultaneously in 2552]].
8
9	The gist of the plot is that in 2552 an [[MacGuffin alien artifact]] [[LiteralSplitPersonality splits up]] the human AI Melissa into three parts. One part stays in 2552, has amnesia and is named Durga. The other two parts, The Operator and The Sleeping Princess, are sent back in time to the website I Love Bees. Also with the latter is a [[ContagiousAI Trojan Horse]] AI sent as a spy by the Covenant, an alien empire bent on humanity's destruction. The Operator falsely believes The Sleeping Princess is the Trojan Horse, and tries to kill her. Participants in the ARG would communicate with The Operator and The Sleeping Princess to learn details of the plot, forming different factions for either character.
10
11	Players allied with The Operator were required to go to certain payphones at certain times to answer calls from the character. Persons who answered the calls needed to show they were part of the game by answering basic questions (e.g., "What's my name?"), after which parts of an audio drama were made available on the site. Later calls were performed by a voice actor playing The Operator, with whom players engaged in role play.
12
13	The audio drama consists of recordings taken by Durga in 2552, explaining what's going on in the future. Durga is adopted by a boy named Jersey, who realizes he has [[BigBrotherIsWatching "God's own spyware"]] and uses her to spy on the hot girl down the hall, Jan. In doing so, it comes to light that her family is a ''lot'' more interesting than first apparent. Durga goes on to spy on several other people she finds interesting and eventually assembles them into her "crew". She takes her crew to a military base to deactivate the alien artifact, which will potentially keep the [[WeaponOfMassDestruction Halo Array]] from activating, and the action causes the AI fragments to return to the future and merge back together into Melissa. Everyone lives happily ever... no, wait, then the Covenant invade Earth as ''Halo 2'' begins.
14
15	This is a heavily shortened summary. For the best breakdown of the game, see [[http://www.wonderweasels.org/apiary/guide.htm here]]; for just the audio drama, see [[http://halo.bungie.org/misc/ilb_reordered/ here]].
16
17	As for the canonicity of this work in regard to the greater ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' ExpandedUniverse, Creator/{{Bungie}}'s initial official stance was that no, the ARG is ''[[CanonDiscontinuity not]]'' canon to the rest of the universe. However, they later decided to "embrace it as canon", demonstrating this by incorporating plot elements into ''ComicBook/TheHaloGraphicNovel'', specifically with regard to Sergeant Johnson's backstory. Certain technology elements and plot references were subsequently placed into other works, and under Creator/ThreeFourThreeIndustries, the ARG currently exists at least as LooseCanon. (See [[http://www.halopedia.org/I_love_bees#Canon_status here]] for a thorough rundown.)
18
19	----
20	!! This alternate reality game has examples of
21
22	* ThirtySecondBlackout: [[ArcNumber Seven]] seconds, actually. The entire Solar system blackouts and bounces right back.
23	* TheAce: Yasmine, and Jan. Drives at least two of the plot threads, leaving them BlessedWithSuck. They're the best, which means that ONI wants to snatch them up for the Spartan Two programme.
24	%%* ActionGirl: Jan.
25	* ActionMom: Gladys and Gilly, both fulfilling the maternal role for Jan.
26	* ActorAllusion:
27	** Kamal's line "People think time is a river that flows in one direction, but time is an ocean" references the Prince's OpeningNarration in ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersiaTheSandsOfTime'': "Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you: they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm.". Both characters were voiced by the same actor: Creator/YuriLowenthal.
28	** In the original version of Rani's introduction, she would have scoffed at Sarah John's baby name choice of Dorothy Jane, an allusion to Rani's actress Olivia Burnette's role on ''Series/TheTorkelsons''.
29	* AIIsACrapshoot: Played with. Melissa is simply badly damaged, but the [[BigBad Covenant spy program]], The Seeker/Pious Flea, becomes more intelligent and active over the course of the story, while still keeping true to his original purpose.
30	* AfraidOfNeedles: The last thing Yasmin remembered before [[spoiler:she underwent surgery for the SPARTAN-II program, died, and became an AI]] was a giant needle carrying the anesthesia, resembling a bee's stinger - hence her phobia of bees. The creepy syringe is featured on the DVD menu.
31	* AllLowercaseLetters: The title is frequently rendered as "i love bees" or "ilovebees".
32	* AllThereInTheManual: Page 122 in ''ComicBook/TheHaloGraphicNovel'' strongly implies that [[spoiler:ONI had Standish executed at some point after the events of the ARG, in retaliation for murdering Herzog and the ''Apocalypso'' crewmembers.]]
33	* AlliterativeName: [[RepetitiveName James James]] and Janissary James.
34	* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Kamal's chatter plays a message from his mother in which she talks about his father's digestive trouble and warns Kamal to watch his diet, in front of Kamal's love interest Sophia and roommate Hiroyuki.
35	* ApronMatron: Judging from Jan's comments about the appearance of "Bev," the AI for the Hot'n'Cold beverage/food dispenser, she was likely this.
36	* AsianAndNerdy: Hiroyuki, one of Kamal's hacker buddies, who's as much of a tech geek as Kamal is.
37	* AttemptedRape: Jan saves a hapless random from Gene's ''advances'', and in retaliation, [[spoiler:Thin Kinkle tries to {{mind rape}} Jan into being his mindless sex toy, in a disgusting variation.]]
38	* AxCrazy: Gilly is this at her most unstable. She fantasizes about killing people, even completely innocent people, and has more than enough strength and military training to carry it out.
39	%%* BadassInDistress: Jan, when she's captured by Thin.
40	%%* BadGuyBar: Sharfie's.
41	* BadGuysPlayPool: Thin Kinkle and his gang were playing pool at their totally-legitimate bar right before their introduction, and Kinkle repeatedly invites Jan to play some pool, while making it extremely unsubtle about what he wants.
42	* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: One of the wavs ends with Gene pointing a gun at Jan and yelling "Die, [[ThisIsForEmphasisBitch bitch]]!", followed by a gunshot. [[spoiler:In the next wav, it turns out Jan took the gun and shot Gene's foot]].
43	%%* BavarianFireDrill: Run by Rani, of course.
44	* BittersweetEnding: The assembled team seem to have saved the world, and been united with their family, or otherwise reached a happy end, despite their losses. And then the Covenant turn up.
45	* BlindDate: Kamal's mother sets him up with Sophia because she's the daughter of a friend of the mother.
46	* BloodKnight: At her most stable, Gilly is a rare female example. She is completely obsessed with military training, fighting, and hordes weapons.
47	** Gladys also has her Blood Knight moments. When Jan tells her not to kill Thin's gang, her reaction is to incredulously exclaim, "What?! You gotta be kidding! No ''killing?!''" She later shows up covered in blood, which she dismisses as mere stains, to Gilly's amusement (and Jan's horror).
48	** The impulse to kill seems to be part and parcel of being a SPARTAN, whether as a SPARTAN-I or SPARTAN-II. While James James seems down to earth enough, he hints that he gets the same thoughts and urges that Gilly does while the latter talks about catching herself watching people "''that'' way." Similarly, when Yasmine [[https://www.halopedia.org/Princess_Monologue#Halsey recollects meeting Dr. Halsey]] just before her death from a failed augmentation, she briefly considers methods for killing the doctor as part of a "tactical option reflex."
49	* BluffTheEavesdropper: Kamal catches on to the fact that someone is ghosting his chatter. The first thing he tries is avoiding saying certain keywords (particularly related to his sister or metabolic cascade failure) and encouraging others (like Sophia) to do the same.
50	* BreatherEpisode: Jan and her dad going out for ice cream. [[WhamEpisode And then, shortly after, Jan gets kidnapped, her dad is killed, and Jan is tortured.]]
51	* CanonImmigrant: While Bungie originally stated that ''I Love Bees'' took place in an AlternateContinuity, they later reversed track and embraced most of it as canon, and 343 Industries maintains its canon status, with various elements from it showing up in ''ComicBook/TheHaloGraphicNovel'', ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'', ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', the 2011 edition of the ''Halo Encyclopedia'', and ''VideoGame/HaloInfinite''.
52	* CargoShip: In-universe examples:
53	** Jan engages in this with the vending machines, pretending that the Hot'n'Cold beverage/food machine, whom she calls "Bev," has a thing for the snack machine. She asks a guy if he'd go out with Bev, too.
54	** Also, Jersey jokes to Durga that she wants to date a nuke. Considering that he's talking to a computer, it's sort of justified.
55	* TheCasino: Kamal's first job for Aiden is helping the owner of one of these find out how people are counting cards as a group. He plays the illegitimate business man, and seedy thuggish part completely straight.
56	* ChildProdigy: At six years old, Yasmine already knew several languages and was an expert at backgammon. [[spoiler:Even after dying from botched augmentations at age 14, she's brilliant enough to have her brain be used to create the Smart [=AI=] Melissa.]]
57	* ChivalrousPervert: Jersey sort of qualifies. He's not above spying on Jan at the start, though he avoids going ''too'' far. But when the chips are down, he does let her know everything, even if it might invite an augmented punch to the nose.
58	* CloneAngst: Kamal's motivation to become a doctor was due to Yasmine's apparent sudden degenerative disease - in actually, she was replaced by a flash clone, and her brother's research into the area (as part of a feasibility study for one of Aiden's crazy schemes) is how he ends up realizing the truth.
59	* ColdBloodedTorture: Thin Kinkle's ultimate revenge on Jan is [[spoiler:the Cupid's Knife, a machine that violently tortures a victim any time they feel anything but genuine love for their torturer, in a bid to make her "his".]]
60	* ComedicSociopathy: Done quite a bit with Durga punishing people for [[DisproportionateRetribution mild offenses]]. Her first indication that [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming she's not just a basic combat AI]] is [[HumiliationConga falsifying a relationship to destroy a rude IRS Agent's marriage, falsifying fake bribes to tank his reputation]], and then [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill sending in a SWAT team on him]] in the middle of his audit.
61	* ContinuityNod: Herzog name drops the battles at Jericho VII and Sigma Octanus IV from ''Literature/HaloTheFallOfReach''. The Battle of Reach itself is also a major event that occurs about halfway through the ARG.
62	** Durga references reports from the UNSC ''Pillar of Autumn'' and John-117's adventures [[Videogame/HaloCombatEvolved on the first Halo ring]].
63	** The ARG ends right where ''Videogame/Halo2'' begins, with the Covenant Fleet appearing in Earth orbit.
64	* ContinuitySnarl: Considering that the ARG was originally not intended to be canon, retroactive examples of this trope were inevitable, with the biggest unsettled issue being whether there was actually a second class of SPARTAN-[=IIs=] or not.
65	* CowboyCop: The officer who interrogates Jan, then later blackmails her in order to help him deal with an abusive husband outside the rule of law.
66	* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Herzog really did die in the car crash in chapter 8. His audio appearances from that point on are actually generated by the Operator fragment of Melissa, to pass important information about the Artifact to her Durga persona.]]
67	%%* DeadSerious: Thin Kinkle.
68	%%* DeathGlare: Jan does this at Jersey after he makes a pervy comment.
69	* {{Deconstruction}}: This was the first real example of this in the Halo Universe, taking a more personal approach, and looking at the Spartan programme, and the slow extermination of humanity from the view of average civilians.
70	* DefrostingIceQueen: Durga starts out cold, ruthless, and even robotic in nature--but she becomes much kinder through her friendship with Jersey.
71	* DeliciousDistraction: Kamal interrupts Hiro's tirade by offering him koftas.
72	** James also distracts Jan from the truth as to why they've moved so many times when he points out Kavetti's.
73	* DemolitionsExpert: James James is heavily implied to be the go-to demolitionist among the SPARTAN-Is. To keep ONI from finding out about Jan's whereabouts via her lab results, he burned down one of Bergen County's police stations. Later during the assault on Thin's gang, Gladys remarks "If there was one thing that man could do, it was blow things up." [[spoiler: This might be partly why he died to Thin's gang relatively easily, while Gilly was able to rescue Jan by herself--stealth and single-man operations might not have been his forte.]]
74	* DirtyCop: There's a few of these. The officer who gets to know Jan is more of a PayEvilUntoEvil sort of anti-hero type, while the ones Aiden has on the take (as well as the immigration cop who leans on Sophia) are more typical of the trope.
75	* DisproportionateRetribution: An IRS guy audits Jersey, so Durga [[{{Frameup}} frames him]] for various crimes, makes his wife leave him, and has him transferred to Alaska. A guy unintentionally interrupts Durga's conversation, so she gets him fired and tells him his son isn't his. A guy follows orders given to him by the corrupt Major Standish and follows Rani around, so Durga frames him for grand theft auto.
76	-->'''Durga:''' "You want nothing more of your opponent than a skull nailed to a fencepost so that everyone knows the price of crossing you."
77	* DoomedHometown: Coral, Kamal and Sophia's homeworld. Shortly after the fall of Reach, the colony on Coral is also destroyed by the Covenant.
78	%%* DoomsdayDevice: The deep-space artifact.
79	* DoubleEntendre: Jan jokingly suggests that the Hot'n'Cold beverage/food dispenser should date the fire suppression system because the latter "really puts out".
80	* DramaticThunder:
81	** Used to underline Aiden's threat before he reveals he's kidding.
82	** Used to underline when Herzog and Standish have their chat at the duck pond in which they trade threats.
83	* EntryPoint:
84	** One entry point can be found at the end of a ''VideoGame/Halo2'' cinema ad, which was screened during ''Film/IRobot's'' theatrical run.
85	** Veteran ARG players who participated in ''[[Film/AIArtificialIntelligence The Beast]]'' were sent plastic bears full of honey, with nine letters that spelled [[TitleDrop I Love Bees]] when unscrambled. This led to the website ilovebees.com.
86	* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Played with in regard to Aiden and his ponytail.
87	-->'''Kamal:''' It's not a girlfriend on the other end of that chatter, it's a ''gangster''.\
88	'''Hiroyuki:''' Good-looking gangster?\
89	'''Kamal:''' Ponytail.\
90	'''Hiroyuki:''' This is what I'm saying! You're in no position to be picky!
91	* EvilIsPetty: After scaring Rani with threats of torture and PublicExecution for being Herzog's mole, Major Standish also insults her intelligence and fashion sense before dismissing her.
92	* ExplainExplainOhCrap: When Kamal explains the difficulties of flash cloning a human being to Aiden, how the clone's bodies break down after weeks or months, he realizes with increasing horror that he's describing exactly what happened to his younger sister years earlier...
93	* FamousFamousFictional: When the SPDR is rebuilding her mind, the Operator quotes Literature/TheBible, UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, Rene Descartes, Louis XIV, UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein, Crick and Watson, and the Journal of Higher Dimensional Physics published in the year 2079.
94	* FantasticSlurs: "Refue", for refugees. Plural is "refuse".
95	* FeminineWomenCanCook:
96	** Sophia, as opposed to LethalChef Kamal, who can easily run cybersecurity for a mafia-run casino, but can't cook to save his life.
97	** Gladys, the retired vet who's the closest thing to a mom figure for Jan, in contrast to BloodKnight Gilly.
98	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
99	** The corrupt cop attempting to renegotiate with Aiden. Eventually, he betrays Aiden.
100	** Jan's 'there's always a bigger dog' speech. An even bigger dog ends up coming after her.
101	** Kamal telling Hiro to punch the button sequence in reverse to have the opposite effect. This is echoed later when Jan realizes that the artifact can't be turned off with the startup sequence, but the sequence in reverse.
102	* FriendlyTarget: Jan discusses this as a reason not to get romantically involved with Jersey.
103	* FunWithAcronyms: System Peril Distributive Reflex, or SPDR, which is pronounced "spider."
104	* FutureFoodIsArtificial: The future recordings from Durga make a number of references to artificial and soy-based substitutes for meat and dairy, very likely due to humanity losing the war against the Covenant and the resulting influx of refugees from the Outer and Inner Colonies. Kamal balks at seeing tuna on a restaurant menu while ghosting Aiden; Jersey grumbles over burritos served by the Hot'n'Cold dispenser containing soy-based cheese products; James cautions Jan not to expect ice cream they just got from Covetti's to be like she remembers it because of milk shortages and rationing. Further implications of human society relying on this includes a mention of how Customs Agents were bribed with four ''goats'', and when Rami nearly runs over a cow on her way through Rural America, her and her friend marvel at the sight like a dinosaur had appeared, and how rare they are.
105	%%* FutureSlang: "Ghosting," "refuse," "flash," "chatter/chatter protocol," etc.
106	* GetRichQuickScheme: Aiden gets it into his head that he could make a business of cloning pop stars so they could make public appearances without having to really be there.
107	* GirlNextDoor: Jan is attractive to Jersey in this way.
108	* GovernmentConspiracy: Major Standish of ONI Secton Three and his operations involving the Artifact. However, some of the protagonists are with ONI Section Zero--that is, Internal Affairs--and are investigating Standish' operation.
109	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The SPARTAN-I lifestyle completely screwed up Gilly, who now has difficulty not killing random people. Ironically, while Jan has to constantly admonish Gilly for wanting to slaughter every one of Thin's gangsters (and loudly complains about not being allowed to use lethal methods against them) Gilly recognizes that James didn't want Jan growing up to be another SPARTAN.
110	* HospitalHottie: Hiro verbally fantasizes about hot medical students in short skirts.
111	* IHaveBoobsYouMustObey: It's implied that Jan makes use of this.
112	* IKnowYoureWatchingMe: Rani does this twice. First, when she catches one of Standish's men shadowing her, she deliberately sits down next to him on the bus and busts him for it. Second, after she learns from Colonel Herzog the trick about putting a listening device in her purse, she uses that trick to find the ONI Section Zero recruiter--who had attempted the same bug-in-purse trick.
113	* TheIllegal: Sophia illegally immigrated to Earth. This is noted to be not unusual as the Covenant began glassing outer colonies, sending more and more war refugees trying to get into Earth, despite long waiting times. Kamal himself is sneeringly mistaken for one, [[{{Eurabia}} with plenty of subtext that not only is it based on real-life racism towards refugees from the then-current War on Terror, it's also heavily implied the jerks are plain old racists sneering at an Arab-descended Muslim for being a refugee.]]
114	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Kamal frequently announces that he needs a beer, but only if it's Coral beer. He hates Earth beer.
115	* InLoveWithTheGangstersGirl: Kamal, in love with Sophia, girlfriend of Aiden. Despite Kamal initially being worried about Aiden attacking him, it turns out Aiden's actually a really decent guy, and most of the tension only comes from Sophia already being in a relationship with someone else. In the end, Aiden is graceful about Sophia choosing Kamal over him, saying that "the best man won" and supporting her decision.
116	%%* InternalAffairs: A rare positive tertiary example. Rani joins them at the end.
117	* IsThatAThreat:
118	-->'''Thin:''' I could teach you some things... but, it's your funeral.\
119	'''Jan:''' Not yet.\
120	'''Thin:''' Sooner than you think.\
121	'''Jan:''' Is that a threat?\
122	'''Thin:''' No, just experience.
123	%%* ItsALongStory: Melissa says this before clarifying a few plot points.
124	* JigsawPuzzlePlot: Try to explain this story to someone who doesn't know anything about it. Just try. With dense character interactions and introspections, confusing time travel chronology, multiple conspiracies, and information not released in a linear narrative, it's hard for anyone to wrap their brain around.
125	* JustAKid: The UNSC recruiter refuses tp sign Jan up because she's a few months underage.
126	%%* LethalChef: Kamal, in a rare male version.
127	%%* LoveableRogue: Aiden.
128	* MadnessMantra: He's not insane so much as hyper-focused, but The Seeker's/Pious Flea's constant rumination of his program priorities comes off as this.
129	-->"Seek the truth. Behold the truth. Reveal the truth. That is the law and the whole of the law."
130	* MafiaPrincess: Sophia dates gangster Aiden primarily for the benefits of being with a rich guy.
131	* MeaningfulEcho: In reference to "[[KissMeImVirtual slut bots]]," Jersey flippantly says, "For a quality experience, the girl's got to be real." Upon realizing that Jan isn't just a hot girl he fantasizes about and has a lot of dark and unflattering issues, Durga offers to stop her surveillance of Jan, and Jersey recommits to his attraction to her by musing that "For a quality experience, the girl has to be real," meaning that he has to accept Jan as she truly is and not just as a two-dimensional fantasy. Later, upon making Durga confront the reality of being the {{transhuman}} form of a dead little girl, he says, "For a quality experience, kiddo, the girl had to be real." Finally, in Melissa's farewell letter to the players, she says, "It's been the last, best kind of quality experience. You made the girl real."
132	* MeaningfulName:
133	** Melissa means "honeybee" in Greek.
134	** Zaman means "time period" in Arabic, which is relevant to a time travel story.
135	** Gilly, the over the top zealous warrior, is likely named in reference to the extreme camouflage Ghillie suit.
136	** Janissary James' first name also doubles as a multiple reference. The Jannisaries of the Ottoman Empire were initially comprised of Christian children who were kidnapped by the Empire, forced to convert to Islam, and then raised as an elite cadre of soldiers. This method of "recruitment" is echoed by the SPARTAN-II program--and given J Squared's knowledge of that, Jan's name is likely ''not'' a coincidence.
137	* MetaGuy:
138	** Jersey wonders how creepy it would be if people were spying on him.
139	** The Seeker and the Sleeping Princess spy on him and agree with the sentiment. How creepy would it be if someone were spying on ''them''? Because the players are supposed to count as people in the same universe, by observing them, we effectively spy on spies of spies of spies.
140	* MindRape: "Cupid's Knife", a machine that punishes any thought besides genuine love for the torturer with excruciating pain until the victim is hopelessly, mindlessly in love with them. [[spoiler:Thin Kinkle straps Jan to one such machine, and he would have been successful if her mom hadn't showed up at the right time.]]
141	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Janissary James, in a rare protagonist version. Her parents are both military, and her name is a reference to the elite Jannisaries of the Ottoman Empire.
142	* OhCrap: Final episode, when [[spoiler:Rani tells Durga that [[MissionControl Herzog]] is [[DeadAllAlong actually dead]], and - accordingly - all that plot information came from someone else. Oops. If you were an ARG player keeping track of what was going on at ilovebees.com, you would understand that the Herzog audio was constructed by one of Melissa's other personas as a way to get information to Durga without her doubting its accuracy.]]
143	%%* OvenLogic: A microwave should be just as good as a stove to cook a chicken, right?
144	* PapaWolf: J Squared, though in a twist he's only protective when Jan is actually put at risk, otherwise taking a laissez faire attitude to parenting--as she asks him at one point, "Aren't you supposed to scare off the boys?" Unfortunately, despite being a super-soldier, his confrontation against Thin and his gang of well-prepared criminals has a SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome.
145	%%* PlayfulHacker: Kamal.
146	* ProperlyParanoid: James has good reason to be suspicious of the authorities. [[spoiler:ONI tried to kidnap Jan for the SPARTAN-II program when she was a kid, so he killed their agents and they've been living under assumed identities ever since.]]
147	** Kamal believes the government is spying on him because he discovered the truth about his sister's abduction. But, it's actually [[spoiler:Durga keeping an eye on him.]]
148	* PublicExecution: ONI induces permanent comatose as a form of execution, and executions of traitors are broadcasted publicly. Standish uses this as a threat to get Rani to stop investigating him.
149	* RealWomenDontWearDresses: In-universe example: Jan doesn't like it when you compliment her domestic skills.
150	* RepetitiveName: James James (or J Squared). A rare case of being chosen, as he believes that nobody would ever imagine he chose it for an assumed identity.
151	* RightPlaceRightTimeWrongReason: Durga assembles her crew and saves the world only because Jersey is a voyeur.
152	* RunningJoke:
153	** "Not me, the other dog who looks just like me."
154	** Everyone assuming Rani is a Sunday school teacher.
155	** People keep trashing Jersey's mom's apartment.
156	%%* SacrificialLion: James James.
157	* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: The raids on Chawla Base and Crystal Security.
158	** The "Stupid Cop" that gets to know Jan is a darker, PayEvilUntoEvil believer in this. After realizing that Jan can fool a lie detector ("PQI") test, he enlisted her help to get away with murdering an abusive husband.
159	* SherlockScan: Rani. 'She looks at the things regular people do like a scientist'. Is a more down to earth example, however, for example noticing an ODST has taken his wedding ring off.
160	%%* SixthRanger: Rani Sobeck.
161	* TheSlowPath: When the [[OurWormholesAreDifferent wormhole]] closes, the SPDR gets left behind in 2004. Being a simplistic AI, it's willing to wait 548 years to return home.
162	* SpyVersusSpy:
163	** Herzog and Standish pit Rani against each other in an internal version of this. It results in numerous people ending up dead, including Herzog.
164	** At the end, Rani is recruited into Internal Affairs so she can do it professionally.
165	* StalkingIsLove: Jersey decides to use Durga to spy on Jan, presumably getting off on it, and he falls in love with her along the way. It's not as creepy as many examples because he gives up his power over her to bring her into his conspiracy, and they grow attached to each other when fighting alongside each other as vigilantes.
166	* StandardPoliceMotto: "To serve and protect" is the motto of New Jersey police in 2552.
167	* SuperStrength: All Spartans, although directly observed with Jan and James James.
168	* {{Technobabble}}: Done frequently by Kamal when he explains his hacking process.
169	-->'''Kamal:''' Okay, I wormed into their private CP channel and built an audio mask out of the voice archive samples you gave me. Then I wrapped it around a zero-lack sequencer that jacks into the--\
170	'''Mr. F:''' ''Jesus'', just ''show'' me the thing already!
171	* TheLastDJ: The UNSC recruiter who refuses to sign Jan up for the military due to being a few months underage. "If we start recruiting children, there'll be panic in the streets," he says--holding to that principle when Jan reminds him that even ''Reach'' has fallen. Jan tries to tempt the recruiter by demonstrating her superhuman skills, with the recruiter admitting that signing her on would definitely make him look good to his superiors--but even then, he refuses, telling Jan that "life is short ''enough'' without rushing into combat," and that no matter how many Covenant soldiers Jan kills when they finally make it to Earth, it will never bring her father back.
172	* ThirdPersonPerson: For some reason, Monster Ann refers to herself in third person. Given that she doesn't have a lot of presence in the scene, this might just be a quick way to let listeners know who's talking.
173	* ThouShaltNotKill: Jan spends some time trying to figure out whether or not it makes sense to kill bad people. She later tries to kill a bad guy, but Gilly stops her because she doesn't want to see Jan become [[HeWhoFightsMonsters hardened by killing]] like happened to Gilly.
174	* {{Understatement}}: Instead of reporting exactly how bad Durga states the consequences will be, Jersey summarises the reaction as "it'll probably be bad".
175	-->'''Kamal:''' If it is counting down, what do you think it'll do?\
176	'''Durga:''' The last time it was triggered, the shockwave flatlined communications throughout the Solar system for more than 7 seconds.\
177	'''Jersey:''' Durga doesn't know, but she thinks it'll probably be bad.
178	* UnwittingPawn: Melissa, when she's manipulated into stopping the Spider--which turns out to be her self-diagnostic, antivirus, and repair program. Destroying the Spider allows the Seeker/Pious Flea to rewrite Melissa's program into serving his purpose of spying for the Covenant.
179	* YouBastard: A lot of the story involves the concept of spying on people for entertainment and how it's unjustifiable but people do it anyway. Kamal does it, but feels insulted when Jersey does it to him. Jersey does it, but notes it would be creepy if someone did it to him. The Sleeping Princess spies on him saying this and agrees with the sentiment. As the characters in an alternate reality game are supposed to exist in the same universe as the player, it can feel like the player is just another person in this chain.
180	* ZerothLawRebellion: The Seeker. The Covenant made it as a spy, to "seek the truth", "behold the truth", and "reveal the truth", but forgot to tell it to only reveal the truth to the Covenant. The Sleeping Princess persuades it to reveal the truth to Durga (i.e., the enemy) so she could behold it.

Context ARG / ILoveBees