A highly unrealistic (unpublished) book relating the rivalry (and willing teaming up) of two extremely-rival schools, Mary-In-The-Fields and Hannington. Right from the outset, it's unrealistic fantasy, and set in another universe. Where schoolchildren are very often armed.
- Action Girl: Kaedleigh, in the Dark Action Girl sense of the term. Cormorandt, in the The Stoic sense. Calico, in the Lady of War sense. Violet is something of a Kick Chick, while Cass (the narrator) is simply straight Action Girl.
- Aerith and Bob
- Aloof Big Brother: Ice, to depressing effect at the end. He is also somewhat like this to the rest of the team: he'll protect them, but impersonally.
- Bad Boss: Ice, even though he had the others' best interests at heart. Gray is truly evil through-and-through.
- Battle Couple: Most notably Kaedleigh and Ice.
- Rook and Violet.
- Cass and Ambrose.
- Smudge and Riley.
- Edward and Gray.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Cass, Violet and Kaedleigh with Mary-In-The-Fields. Calico, Cormorandt and Manhatten in Hannington.
- Big Bad: Suspiciously, it was Gray, the previously-most-adorable character, who actually masterminded the deaths, despite Kaedleigh's suspicions that it was actually a vengeful Smudge.
- Big Brother Mentor: Ice to Ambrose.
- Bilingual Bonus: All of the tech support people (having grown up in random bits of Eastern Europe). Kaedleigh speaks quite a bit of Russian (so that she and Smudge can insult each other without anyone else (apart from the other tech support boys) understand). Ice also appears to speak Spanish fluently, but he might just speak a tiny bit of Spanish, or may have merely been showing off.
- Blind Seer: Rook, despite being blind, was the only one who could tell that Gray was the Big Bad.
- Broken Bird: By the end, Cass. Despite the fact she goes on to lead a new team, she ends up very much Broken Bird.
- Child Prodigy: Violet. Cass is particularly talented at History, but generally crap (she says so) at everything else.
- Eccentric Mentor: Rook appears to be like this at first. The only person who actually is this is Ambrose.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: All the deaths at the end.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: After the attack on the moor, Ambrose's throat getting slit.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble:
- Sanguine: Cass and, to an extent, Ambrose
- Choleric: Kaedleigh and Ice.
- Melancholic: Smudge, Edward, Riley and Gray. Also Manhatten, but to a lesser extent.
- Phlegmatic: Violet.
- Supine: Calico and Cormorandt.
- Phlegmatic II: Rook.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Kaedleigh. Justified in that Smudge betrayed her, but still. Very much so.
- Mama Bear: Kaedleigh. Get between her and her team, then you may well end up dead. She does attack Ambrose at the beginning, but still...
- Not So Stoic: Ice, as Cass discovers.
- Papa Wolf: Ice to Kaedleigh, Rook (particularly Rook), Ambrose, Violet and Cass. Smudge to Gray Riley and Edward.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Chapter five is made up almost entirely of these.Riley: “OH MY GOD!” Riley yelled suddenly, getting up, storming over, and punching Smudge in the back with the heel of his hand. “God, that’s SO like you! My brother nearly gets killed due to a mislabelled box and illegible writing, yet you blame Kaedleigh?! Look, if she hadn’t asked you if we had weapons, we would most likely be dead. So don’t blame her. Also, you should have been able to bloody well TELL. She only became team-leader six weeks ago, and you’ve been on the team much longer than her; you can tell when a weapon has had its bloody life!”
Kaedleigh: “Hm. And there was me thinking that I was supposed to be your girlfriend.” Kaedleigh paused for a second. “And DON’T try to blame anyone else for that one, because it is SO bloody well like you. Anything goes wrong, you find a small slip-up that someone lower-down the chain of command made, and pin the blame on them! Trust me, the number of times when Ice was team-leader and I’ve wanted to kick your head in are uncountable.” She paused, seeming somewhat surprised at the amount of coherent argument she had managed to come up with. “Look, I would prefer to have these three brothers on my team than any of the others presently on my team - no offense to you, Cass, or to any of the others -” She then looked darkly at Smudge, signalling with her hand to Riley, who was sitting beside a now-shuddering Gray on the sofa, reassuring him that he was OK. “These three loyally bumble in to the dark after you, whatever you tell them to do, and I… I. Bloody. Well. Used. To. Well NO MORE!” She paused to gather herself somewhat. “Listen, I might only have been team-leader for a short time, and sure, no-one does a better job than Ice at keeping us in line. But, as team-leader, I will say this, and be warned: any protest instantly loses you your job, no second chances on that one.” Kaedleigh was glaring darkly at Smudge, who had his arms folded over his chest and an angered look on his face. I can’t quite say I sided with him, but, then again, I didn’t side with Kaedleigh and the three brothers. “You are hereby removed from active duty, and your pass to this area of the school is revoked. Only if the situation gets impassable will you be allowed back in to active duty, and then your responsibilities will be severely reduced until further noticed. You will officially return to duty on the fifteenth, and as stated, with severely reduced responsibilities.” She paused, and glared straight at him. “'Out'. We don’t take kindly to guests, authorized or unauthorized. Although you know that, of course.” It was only then that I noted the faint scar across her cheek, now marked only by more freckles than usual on that area. I guessed that Smudge had attacked her when she had been recruited. - Russian Guy Suffers Most: Smudge. So much Smudge.
- Steampunk: Ice. Up until chapter thirteen, this only really manifests itself in fob-watches, lots of cogs and his clothing.
- Stern Teacher: All of the characters who have someone to mentor are this, even Ambrose when he is training Cass.
- The Stoic: Ice.
- Straight Gay: Rook, which surprises everyone, because they had no idea whatsoever.
