Line #30 Literature/ToWelcomeOblivion


1	''To Welcome Oblivion'' is a supernatural-adventure [[WebOriginalFiction web novel]] by Ravok. It can be read on [[https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3316891/1/To-Welcome-Oblivion FictionPress]].
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3	For the past eleven years, a vicious cult known as the Old Brotherhood has been kidnapping and experimenting on hapless innocents in their quest to rewrite reality. Two victims of the Brotherhood, the young sisters Elara and Kaya, arrive in the small town of Rielington hellbent on thwarting the cult's schemes, and drag the mundane police officer Robin into their fight to save not only themselves, but the entire Earth.
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7	!!This work contains examples of the following tropes:
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9	* AbusiveParents: Grallman's father and stepmother were absolutely dreadful to him, regularly hitting him for minor reasons and often leaving him with only scraps of food for days at a time. [[spoiler: This is mostly because his stepmother was in fact Nyarlathotep in disguise]].
10	* ActionGirl: Elara is the most physically powerful human in the story, able to rip entire chunks of cement out of the ground without breaking a sweat.
11	* AdaptationalHeroism: [[spoiler: In a reluctant and [[NominalHero nominal way]], Cthulhu himself helps Grallman to kill Nyarlathotep once and for all, by granting Grallman his own powers and unite as one. The Big C is also sick of the Crawling Chaos' history of lying and backstabbing, along with [[TheStarscream his intention to betray the other Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones.]]]]
12	* AllianceWithAnAbomination: [[spoiler:In the story's climatic battle, Grallman makes a pact with ''[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Cthulhu himself]]'' to perform a FusionDance and pull off a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown against the story's true BigBad, Nyarlathotep.]]
13	* AnArmAndALeg: Kaya has no arms. [[spoiler: She lost them to Rhett Talbot during his rampage through Southerland]].
14	* AntiVillain: Grallman is a mix of WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds and a WellIntentionedExtremist, as he founded a cult not for the sake of world domination, but to help others by bringing their deceased loved-ones to life [[spoiler: including his own beloved little sister, Marissa]]. Too bad his cult caused a ton of deaths, directly or indirectly. [[spoiler: To twist the knife even further, his cult was really just a trick brewed up by non other than [[BigBad Nyarly himself]].]] That being said, [[spoiler: after his MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment, Grallman helps the heroes to stop Nyarlathotep for good, along with bringing the sadistic Outer God to his demise.]]
15	* AxCrazy: Rhett Talbot, the psychopathic butcher who uses his Eldritch power of controlling blood for nothing but slaughtering everyone he can. When unleashed on Southerland years before the story, he killed ''hundreds'' of people, many at a [[WouldHurtAChild playground]], in a rampage so destructive the Old Brotherhood had to bomb the places he attacked to make it look like mundane terrorism. [[spoiler: Trepaly is a more flamboyant, but no less vicious, variation]].
16	* BewareTheSillyOnes:
17	** Though she is aloof and has a wandering mind, Kaya has one of the deadliest Eldritch powers seen.
18	** Despite his initially goofy, almost ridiculously stupid personality, [[spoiler: Trepaly is in actuality a monstrous Outer God]].
19	* BigBad: [[spoiler: Noah T. Trepaly--Nyarlathotep--is the true mastermind of the entire plot]].
20	* BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler: Dr. Lillith Madison]] believes herself to be in complete control of the various atrocities throughout the story, and though indeed manipulating a great deal, she ultimately is outdone by the true villain of the piece.
21	* BittersweetEnding: Depending on your view, this can also be EarnYourHappyEnding in a way. [[spoiler: While thousands of lives were horrifically killed during the climax, the heroes not only successfully thwarted Nyarlathotep's nefarious plan; Grallman and Cthulhu completely killed Nyarlathotep for good, along with Grallman fully accepting Marissa's death. Robin improves his relationship with his estranged girlfriend, Sarah, and the girls are living a relatively decent life together. [[TheEndOrIsIt However]], the dreaded Necronomicon is founded by a teenager who thinks it's a TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons book.]]
22	* TheChessmaster: Madison manipulates many of the events that lead to the climax, [[spoiler: though Trepaly is the one who truly plays every single character like a fiddle, including her]].
23	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Kaya is often off in her own world, and has a habit of staring off into space or spouting off random thoughts.
24	* CombatTentacles: Rhett Talbot generally uses his blood powers to create these. [[spoiler: Grallman and Cthulhu's fused form also uses tentacles to battle Nyarlathotep.]]
25	* DeathOfAChild: Tends to happen, especially whenever Talbot or [[spoiler: Trepaly]] are around.
26	* DesperatelySeekingAPurposeInLife: For most of her life, [[spoiler: Madison tried to get over her feeling that life has no meaning by searching for love, a good career, and even becoming a murderer just for thrills]]. When none of this got rid of her inherent feelings of nihilism, she became the monstrous sociopath we see in the present.
27	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: [[spoiler: Not Cthulhu himself, but rather Nyarlathotep. In fact, Cthulhu is the one who helped save the day by giving Grallman his powers, so that the duo beat the living shit out of Nyarly before all three of them are vaporized to death by the destabilizing Gate's explosion.]]
28	* DirtyCoward: When [[spoiler: Kaya overpowers him]], Talbot begs for his life, trying to excuse his actions with sob stories about his background, most or all of which he made up on the spot.
29	* DiscOneFinalBoss: Both [[spoiler: Grallman and Madison]] are dispatched barely halfway into the story.
30	* EldritchAbomination: The Great Old One, the ancient being that the Old Brotherhood worships, is an incomprehensible creature of immense power. [[spoiler: The Outer Gods share this feature]].
31	* EmeraldPower: When using her super strength, Elara's skin takes on a light green glow, signifying that her Eldritch power is active.
32	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: For all of the (unintended) misery that he caused, Grallman genuinely loves both his [[spoiler: dead]] little sister, Marissa, and his followers. [[spoiler: When Grallman learns that Nyarly and Talbot used his followers and the civilians as both food for the monsters and brood mares, he is utterly disgusted and horrified about their fates, especially since he sees his followers as his fellow brothers and sisters.]]
33	* EvenEvilHasStandards: While Grallman isn't really a saint, he expresses absolute disgust towards the idea of killing innocent civilian lives, especially if they're caused by [[PsychoForHire Talbot.]] Also see EvenEvilHasLovedOnes above.
34	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler: During their climatic battle, Grallman tells Nyarlathotep one epic TheReasonWhyYouSuckSpeech that no matter how long and how much the latter mimics humankind, the HumanoidAbomination can never understand humanity's capacity for emotions beyond mere cruelty, such as love and compassion for others.]]
35	--> "See, that's what your problem is, Mr. 'I've spent thousands of years as a human.' No matter how much you may try to understand us, to emulate us, you can't. Not because you're incapable of it, but because you can't see past your own cruelty to realize what true love, true human feeling, is... You're right. I was a selfish, cruel bastard who hurt countless people for no reason. I recognize that now. And it was that exact recognition that made me realize the world is a better place with people like those girls in it. Far better than I could ever attempt to make it."
36	* EvilCripple: In the present, Talbot is paralyzed from the neck down due to [[spoiler: Elara snapping his spine]], and while his Eldritch powers enable him to get around with ease, he's obviously not happy at all about his current state. The same injury also completely destroyed his genitals, which pisses him off even more.
37	* FreudianExcuse:
38	** [[spoiler: Grallman lost his mother at a young age and spent his childhood being abused and neglected by his father and stepmother. He finally snapped when the one ray of joy in his life, his little sister Marissa, was killed due to his parents' neglect]].
39	** [[spoiler: After her hamster died, Madison began to question the point of life itself. This feeling slowly became more and more intense in her until, by the present, she is unable to focus on anything except learning whether she has any meaning in the grand scheme of the universe]].
40	** Rather hilariously Invoked by Talbot as he [[spoiler: is being killed by Kaya]]. He starts spouting completely generic "excuses" for his actions to try and gain sympathy to save his own skin, many of which are proven by other scenes to be complete crap.
41	* {{Fusion Dance}}/HeroicSecondWind: [[spoiler: After getting beaten to death by Nyarly, Grallman's soul makes a pact with Cthulhu, and the two physically merge together to carry the strength to bring a beatdown on Nyarly until they are all vaporized by the Gate's explosion.]]
42	* GoodIsNotSoft: Robin Lockwood, Kaya, and Elara are our heroes of the story. However, they are (understandably) ruthless towards the villains themselves, [[spoiler: especially how Kaya kills Talbot by turning his brains into mush with her sonic screams.]]
43	* GroinAttack: In the same move that left Talbot crippled, [[spoiler: Elara utterly destroyed his entire groin area]].
44	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Thanks to the help of Cthulhu, Grallman successfully kills Nyarlathotep by holding him until the explosion kills all of them, bringing an end to Nyarly's EvilPlan. This also doubles as DeathEqualsRedemption, since Grallman wants to undo the horrors that his goal unintentionally brought upon.]]
45	* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: Noah T. Trepaly]] is presented throughout the story as being slightly 'off' looking, and by the end has completely changed form to become a monstrosity.
46	* LovecraftLite: Despite being a story with Lovecraftian {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, the heroes manage to bring an end to the horrors and saved the world from their wrath, [[spoiler: complete with Grallman, with the help of Cthulhu himself, [[KilledOffForReal killing Nyarlathotep for good!]] However, in TheStinger, [[SequelHook the Necronomicon is found by a random teenager...]]]]
47	* KarmicDeath:
48	** [[spoiler: For being a vile and perverted OmnicidalManiac who sadistically ripped the arms off of Kaya, Talbot gets his brains liquified by the very same person he tried to defile.]]
49	** [[spoiler: Nyarlathotep gets a well-deserved death in the hands of Grallman and Cthulhu by getting vaporized in an explosion caused by the destabilized Gate. Considering how much of a sick, twisted, piece of shit that Nyarly is, his death practically put a smile to the dying Grallman, the surviving heroes, [[CatharsisFactor and the reader]].]]
50	* MadScientist: Dr. Lilith Madison. She performs absolutely deplorable experiments on innocent people, and is known to have deliberately sabotaged otherwise healthy patients' livelihoods in the past.
51	* MakeMeWannaShout: Kaya's Eldritch power enables her to scream at devastating pitches, and can do anything from shattering glass to reducing steel to scraps.
52	* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Madison gets instantly killed for good by the reluctant Robin Lockwood after Grallman's punch temporarily interrupts the MindControl link between Nyarly and Madison.]]
53	* MultiversalConqueror: According to [[spoiler:Trepaly/Nyarlathotep]], [[GreaterScopeVillain Azathoth]] and the Outer Gods are this. They subsume entire dimensions into themselves, preserving their inhabitants in [[AndIMustScream eternal agony]].
54	* PsychoForHire: As long as he gets to kill something, Talbot will follow anyone's orders, which is generally preferable to him being given free reign to do whatever he wants.
55	* {{Sadist}}: Talbot relishes his blood-letting by sadistically killing civilians in sight, [[WouldHurtAChild children included.]] [[spoiler: This trope is also Nyarlathotep's true motive in the story, as he manipulated every horrific event in both humankind's history and Grallman's life, resulting in the creation of the Gate and releasing horrific abominations to in an attempt to brutally kill all life on Earth. Why? Because according to the Crawling Chaos, [[ForTheEvulz it's funny as Hell.]]]]
56	* SayMyName: [[spoiler: Near the climax, Robin Lockwood uses this trope to distort Trepaly by repeatedly yelling the latter's true name, Nyarlathotep. Doing so not only saved Robin's life and stall the Crawling Chaos for the grenades to count down, but also bought time for Grallman to make a pact with Cthulhu himself and finish the job.]]
57	* SelfMadeOrphan: Both Talbot and [[spoiler: Grallman]] brutally murdered their own parents. Unlike Talbot, the latter had a legitimate reason for it.
58	* SerialRapist: Before he was experimented on by the Old Brotherhood, Talbot used his position as babysitter throughout a small neighborhood to molest the children under his care. Once he gains his Eldritch powers, he takes this to its extreme.
59	* TheSociopath: The story's three major villains are ultimately this. [[MadScientist Dr. Lilith Madison]] keeps a calm and soothing face, yet is cold and uncaring while performing gruesome experiments on kidnapped civilians. [[PsychoForHire Talbot]] is a remorseless SerialKiller who isn't above [[WouldHurtAChild hurting children]] in the most depraved way possible, and [[spoiler: [[BigBad Trepaly (aka Nyarlathotep)]] is a shape-shifting EldritchAbomination who pretends to be a goofy assistant before showing his true ugly face: a manipulative and sadistic monster void of empathy and gloats about his atrocities; from destroying an entire alien race by tricking them to kill each other and turning the survivors inside-out, to murdering a young girl so that her older brother eventually builds a machine that releases horrific monsters and allow the Crawling Chaos to dominate the entire universe.]]
60	* TheStarscream: [[spoiler: Trepaly plans on eventually betraying his Outer God masters so as to have free reign over what is left of the multiverse]].
61	* SuperStrength: Elara can punch holes into solid stone with her Eldritch power.
62	* TragicVillain: Grallman had a truly awful childhood, and the entire spiral into his atrocities was kickstarted by [[spoiler: the death of his little sister]].
63	* TraumaCongaLine: Elara and Kaya have had ''really crappy'' lives. They were experimented on as children by the Old Brotherhood, who later murdered their parents and turned the girls into fugitives, and their confrontation with [[spoiler: Talbot left Kaya without her arms]]. By the present, they have spent years on the move, and have slept on the streets plenty of times in their teenage years.
64	* VillainProtagonist: Despite his status as one of the main antagonists, Grallman gets almost just as much page time as the heroes of the story.
65	* WellIntentionedExtremist: The entirety of the Old Brotherhood is comprised of these. Each and every member wants nothing more than to bring back a deceased loved one or to heal a dying one's illness, and justifies their horrible crimes with the fact that, in the end, they will be saving the lives of those they love.
66	* WhamEpisode: Chapters 14 and 16. [[spoiler: In the former, Grallman is betrayed by Madison, who reveals that she has unleashed the abominations from the Outer Planes onto the Earth. The latter brings the true nature of Trepaly and his otherworldly origins to light]].
67	* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"Hi. I'm Noah T. Trepaly. I have been playing you like Kenny Rogers plays poker since you were a child, and have masterminded this entire ordeal. I'm behind everything."]]
68	* WouldHurtAChild: Every major villain in the story hurts children in one way or another, though Talbot is a particularly horrific offender.

Context Literature / ToWelcomeOblivion