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Dead Man's Float

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Dead Man's Float is a Surreal Horror Isekai Hatchetfield fanfiction written by several anonymous writers.

The story follows the escapades of each writer as they wake up in the body of a character they idolise one thing about. Naturally, chaos ensues, as the fans obviously know what sort of demise might befall them. Unfortunately, they're all rapidly losing their memories and personality, and due to most of them being stuck in alternate universes, they can't really interact with each other.

After a lot of surreptitious passing-about on forums, the fic got an official upload on AO3.

Obviously, Hatchetfield spoilers will be unmarked.


"Welcome to the Cross-Consciousness Retirement Program. Here, have a trope:"

  • Actor Allusion: The narrator for Chapter 2 played Hidgens in Chapter 1, and couldn't resist playing him again for a cameo appearance.
  • Adaptational Context Change: Hidgens’ syringe. He got it from the Black and White.
  • And I Must Scream: The ultimate fate of Professor Hidgens’ writer. They are killed the same way Hidgens died in the play, but are left stuck in Hidgens’ mind to watch their new body perform for eternity, memories intact.
Pokey: You were finally yourself again… and yet, you weren’t.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Most of the writers assume their situation is a dream until they've been provided with absolute proof that it isn't.
  • Arc Number:
    • 8 for Chapters 1 and 3.
    • 6 for Chapter 2.
  • Arc Symbol: Spirals, as a nod to the fact that another spiral-centric piece heavily inspired the fic.
  • Blatant Lies: The AO3 teaser for Marfa Lights describes the chapter as "page after page of wholesome family bonding time that cannot possibly go wrong in any way".
  • Body Horror: Dialed up significantly from the original source material, especially with the Ascended.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Charlotte’s hair bow on the motel floor. It’s later implied that she had sex with Ted.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The official upload of the fic displays narrator and writer text in different colours to distinguish them from one another. Text colours are further impacted by how much of someone's identity they've lost and how much the narrator is resorting to More than Mind Control.
  • Cosmic Horror Story: The entire fic.
  • Deadly Euphemism: "Enlighten", frequently used by Hidgens and Pokey.
  • Double Entendre: "It strained and heaved at my skin and told me to do whatever I had to do," in reference to excitement. The AO3 edit actually toned this line down from its original form, where the phrase was "edged and heaved".
  • Downer Ending: None of the writers live through their respective stories.
  • Dying as Yourself: Paul, who kills himself with a shard of broken glass while he's being assimilated.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: As a result of the Perspective Flip of Chapter 1, we get to see this.
  • Eternal Recurrence: If the Lords get bored, they resurrect the writers. Said writers remember everything that happened to them in the last cycle.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Ted, for the jerk he is, has a lot of heartwarming interactions with his brother.
  • Externally Validated Prophecy: Hidgens mentions several real-world events to Emma in Chapter 1, such as the legalisation of weed in Canada.
  • Fate Worse than Death: Imagine going missing, with nothing left in your house but a comedic brochure. You wake up in someone else's body, have to live their life for them, and slowly lose your sanity. Best case scenario, you don't die. Worst case scenario, one of the Lords in Black gets their hands on you, and seeing as they refuse to reveal information about the kidnappings, their motives are probably going to involve using you as entertainment.
  • Forced Transformation: The main plot of the fic.
  • Funetik Aksent: The Sapient Pig, who plays Professor Hidgens and has served as torturer for several other writers, has a tendency to overuse the semicolon, which some have interpreted as a sign of their extreme Britishness.
  • Helpless Observer Protagonist: Ted. He is given significantly less agency than the other writers.
  • Hiding Behind Religion: Hidgens (accurately) believes his narrator is a deity, and uses this to justify many of his actions in the later parts of the fic.
  • Hope Spot: Webby's cameo in Chapter 1.
  • Horror Hates a Rulebreaker: Embracing your identity causes you to lose your memories more quickly. The writers don't know this.
  • Interactive Narrator: Pokey, for Professor Hidgens. Most of the other narrators are entirely hands-off.
  • Interface Screw:
    • The original group the fic was posted on used rapid switching between proxy bots and writers' profiles as they lost their minds. When the proxies took over completely, this was a sign that the writer was beyond helping.
    • The AO3 version uses heavy colour-coding, monospace text, misused headers, and other HTML tags much to the same effect.
    • Webby’s dialogue is printed in white, making it very difficult to read without highlighting it with the mouse.
  • Mad Oracle: Every writer at some time or another falls into this trope:
    • Hidgens when he talks to Emma.
    • Ted when he talks to himself.
    • Paul when he talks to Hidgens.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
    • The songs that get stuck in Professor Hidgens' head.
    • The saccharin packet in Chapter 1. Its unique AO3 colour is labeled in the workskin as “maybehidge”, leaving the truth up to speculation.
    • The Chapter 1 narrator's dialogue at times seems to imply Hidgens is infected, but knowing how wild the character's behaviour can get at times, it's debatable whether or not he is actually possessed.
  • The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: All the writers succumb to the personalities of the characters they're stuck in the bodies of eventually.
  • Narrator All Along: Hidgens' narrator does a significant amount of Leaning on the Fourth Wall and occasionally talks to him indirectly via his thoughts. Rather than an omniscient, uninvolved narrator as the other chapters have, this particular narrator is actually Pokey.
  • Nightmare Sequence: In Chapter 2, Ted has one of these prominently displaying the time 12:01 on his watch.
  • Not Using the "Z" Word: The narrators in Chapter 3 refer to the assimilated people as "the Ascended".
  • Ontological Mystery: Unlike the other writers, Ted wakes up in a motel. He was shagging Charlotte and didn’t want her husband to find out, so he rented a room. Ted’s writer doesn’t know this and ignores all the context.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Word of St. Paul tells us that the Sapient Pig is a teetotaller. Hidgens enjoys a glass of wine in Chapter 1.
  • Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Peter’s dead body in the freezer. It isn’t actually real, but it causes Ted to freak out.
  • Perspective Flip: Most of Chapter 1 is a retelling of the original The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals told from the perspective of Professor Hidgens.
  • Prophetic Fallacy: Hidgens somehow completely misses that the unification of humanity includes himself (or perhaps he doesn't care).
  • Prophecy Twist: Ted's digital watch in his dream reads 12:01. It was seen in the reflection of a puddle; he died that day at 10:51.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Professor Hidgens wants to destroy the planet in this version of the story. He has no idea how he’s going to do this and puts all his faith into Pokey without bothering to ask if the plans and directions he’s given will even work.
  • Rule of Scary: Most of the injuries inflicted upon the Ascended shouldn't allow for recovery, but they stick their limbs back on anyway. Granted, they're already dead.
  • Self-Deprecation:
    • Every writer on the project had theatre experience and were all too willing to dissect its tropes.
    • Hidgens briefly rips on millennials. All the writers were millennials or younger, including the Pig.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: It doesn't matter what the writers do - in the end, they all succumb.
  • Shout-Out:
    • The "musical that had a song about football" is likely Wonderful Town.
    • The television show Peter and Ted are watching in Chapter 2 is, rather obviously, Metalocalypse, specifically the episode "Birthdayface".
    • "The Sapient Pig", the pseudonym of one of the writers, is a reference to an old sideshow attraction called "Toby the Sapient Pig". They even use the name "Toby" as a pseudonym in Chapter 1.
    • Several to Sweeney Todd in Chapter 1:
      • "I am Professor Hidgens ... And I will have my revenge."
      • The shift in motive Hidgens develops is reminiscent of Sweeney Todd's desire to kill as many men as possible.
      • Hidgens directly quotes "Epiphany" to the narrator when he realises he's alone with Emma and Ted.
      • Another explanation as to why the writer's pseudonym is "Toby": it is heavily implied at the end of the play that Toby is going to continue killing in Todd's stead, just as the Sapient Pig took up the mantle of Professor Hidgens' identity.
  • The Stinger: At the end of Chapter 1, there is a note (presumably from Webby) that is unreadable without highlighting it against the background.
  • The Quisling: Professor Hidgens, as with the source material. Except in Chapter 3.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass:
    • Professor Hidgens, due to the meddling of his narrator.
    • Between the original fic and the AO3 upload, Hidgens’ narrator had most of their open-ended questions to the writer cut. They also became significantly more condescending.
    • Ted’s writer. By virtue of Ted’s rudeness in the original source material, the writer picked up his habit of being a douchebag when they lost their memories.
  • Unnaturally Looping Location: A non-literal example. Circumstances conspire to prevent writers from leaving town, but the town doesn't have any non-Euclidean geometry to it.
  • Visionary Villain: Hidgens, as well as his narrator.

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