Fanfic / Fragments of Chaldea

Between singularities, there was plenty of downtime for the last bastion of humanity. Despite an uncertain future, they formed a semblance of a new life within Chaldea, their home of precious memories. Here they were a family... an unusual, hectic, and often imperfect one... but that's what made them perfect.

—Blurb

Even Servants need a break every once in a while. Especially when they're busy fighting to save humanity and human history itself from untold evils. Even more so when there's over seventy in one place and growing. So one has to ask, what do several dozen Servants do in their downtime when they're all housed in one huge state of the art facility displaced from time and space?

GhostXavier tries to answer just that in his Fate/Grand Order fanfic, a series of loosely connected snippets and one-shots that details the shenanigans of the many Servants and employees of the Chaldea Security Organization when they're not off fighting, with all of the comedy, drama, and heartwarming that comes with it. The core collection is categorized as a Short Story Cycle that revolves around a Iyashikei premise. For more details about the author's thoughts and ideas behind each chapter as well as more tidbits of information about the OCs, the author has a tumblr and website which he used to update frequently, and has since been archived.

There are currently four supplemental works that act as extensions of the core series:

Their Guiding Light serves as a novelization of the Camelot Singularity, but with new expanded/altered scenes added, especially how Arturia, Lancelot, Gawain, and Mordred of Chaldea Forces are involved in this. It was the first supplemental story and was completed by Christmas, on the day Fate/Grand Order's first arc, Observer on Timeless Temple, ended. (Complete)

Redemption from Sin serves as a novelization of the Babylonia Singularity. It was slated to have few altered scenes compared to the first supplement but numerous additional scenes. It follows Chaldea's Gilgamesh as he journeys through the singularity. (Complete)

Who We Are serves as a novelization of the Final Singularity. The author stated that this supplement would be similar yet different to Salomon, as "the piece would adapt the situation due to the butterfly effect". (Complete)

Equilibrium explores the fallout of Chaldea's victory in Observer on Timeless Temple, serving as a bridge into the next FGO arc, Epic of Remnant. (Complete)

The Lost Shards is a series of supplemental snippets that can take place anywhere in the timeline. (Active)

The series is also on AO3.

Here are the chronological order of the Fragments (under seasons) along with supplemental stories:

• Season 1 (Prologue to Fragment 21)
• Their Guiding Light
• Season 2 (Fragment 22 to Fragment 47)
• Redemption from Sin
• Season 3 (Fragment 48 to Fragment 75)
• Who We Are
• Equilibrium
• Season 4 (Fragment 76 to Fragment 94)
• Season 5 (Fragment 95 to 116)

• The Lost Shards, due to its irregular nature, takes place across several seasons.
  • Shard 10: Supplement V: "Butterfly Effect" (Set after Fragment 86 and partly during Fragment 87)
  • Shard 18: Supplement VI: "Once Upon a Time" (Set between Fragment 94 and 95)
  • Shard 27: Supplement VII "A Timeless Bolero" Set between Fragment 99 and 100)
  • Shard 57+: Set after Fragment 116

Citing diminishing motivation and Real Life Getting In The Way Ghost had officially made Fragment 116 (posted on 12/24/2020) his final installment of the main FoC series. He also posted the skeleton of how the series would have progressed into Cosmos of the LostBelt and has given free reign for other authors to write their own continuations or offshoots to the series as they like.

However, on December 2022 after a 2 year hiatus, Ghost revived the supplementary Lost Shards series, citing occasional inspiration and Shards non-linear nature as being more in line with his ideals. In keeping up with this, the series has had sporadic updates since then (as of August 2023). Despite this, he has expressed no desire to return to the main Fragments series.

---

Fragments of Chaldea contains examples of:

• A-Cup Angst: Arturia feels inadequate compared to the Lion King, especially when Ozymandias brings it up. Being consoled by the large-chested Jeanne doesn't help either.
  • Much later on, after taking on the King's memory essence, she decides to try out her Lancer incarnation's body awaking the same feelings in Artesia.
• Adaptation Distillation: The Saber Wars event was condensed into a single story in which Arturia, drugged by Medea and unwittingly Paracelsus as part of what was meant to be a harmless prank on her birthday (though a series of unforeseen events lead to the drug changing from its original purposes), goes after all the other Saberfaces in a blind rage as the other Servants try to stop her, tearing up many of the facilities in the process.
  • This was later done again in Fragment 27: Just a Little Problem, in which the younger versions of several Servants (such as Saber Lily and Medea Lily) are simply aged down by an experimental potion of youth (which was created to force Gil into his more amiable child form) that Astolfo ended up spilling because he fell into a prank Iskandar meant for Gudao and Gabrielle. In the game proper, they're summonable Servants in and of themselves.
  • A similar thing was done in the context of the Summer Servants. Instead of the wacky hijinks involving Scathach's runes, the beach was mostly a facility Chaldea financed—and all Servants went out with their swimsuits, no class change involved.
• Adaptational Nationality: The player character was an average Japanese student while Gudao and Gabrielle who are decomposite characters of them are instead American. Gudao's paternal lineage even has been part of the United States Army since revolutionary times.
• A Day in the Limelight: Their Guiding Light is one for Mordred, Arturia and the other Camelot servants.
  • Redemption from Sin is one for Gilgamesh.
  • Almost every chapter is this for one or several characters, putting the P.O.V. into their focus. The author has expressed interest in making a chapter for each servant.
• Affably Evil: The Camelot Justicar fought by Kintoki, Siegfried and Okita during Sir Mordred's invasion of Cursed Arm's village shows a surprising level of courtesy and respect to his enemies, even as he tries his damnedest to cut them down.
• Aloof Ally: Gilgamesh and Arjuna are among the most powerful servants of Chaldea, but they tend to keep to themselves. Not really applicable later in the series after Gilgamesh has reunited with Enkidu at the end of the Babylonia Singularity and Arjuna has come to terms with his own darkness.
• Alternate Self: Chaldea has summoned at least three alternate versions of existing servants - Jeanne Alter (here known as Joan), Jeanne Alter Santa Lily (referred to as Janna) and King Arthur. The first two were created by two different instances of Caster Gilles by wishing upon the Grail for Jeannes that shared his philosophy, and thus are different enough that they can exist separately. King Arthur was drawn from the Alternate Universe of Fate/Prototype. That said, it's not actually uncommon for the system to roll up the same Servant more than once - but when that happens, most of the time the new Servant collapses into a mere memory essence. This has also happened with other alternates, such as the Lion King for Arturia and EMIYA Alter for EMIYA.
  • In Their Guiding Light, the Chaldea-summoned Knights of the Round Table fight against the Knights already present in the Singularity. The latter are uniformly given the title of "Sir".
  • In Redemption from Sin, aside from the Chaldea versions of Ishtar and Gilgamesh, the goddess and king native to the time period also appear. To avoid confusion, the latter Gilgamesh and Ishtar are identified as King Gilgamesh and Inanna.
  • Following the events of Equilibrium, Carmilla, a possible future of Elizabeth Báthory, has also joined Chaldea, and Arturia Alter has joined a UN team. When she arrives at Chaldea, she names herself Artesia. The UN force also summoned another Edison.
  • When visiting Tokyo in Season 4, Servant Shiki spies her mortal self with Mikiya.
  • Later still in Season 4, Gabrielle tries to repeat the success of Jeanne Alter Santa Lily and Paul Bunyan with Arturia Lily - who fails to reappear at Chaldea.
  • The author has stated that some alternates are actually different enough that they aren't reduced to an essence in the presence of their "original" self. None have shown up so far, but some of the mentioned ones are Scáthach-Skadi and Sitonai.
  • After the SE.RA.PH. event, Tamamo Cat arrives at Chaldea, to the irritation of her Caster self.
  • It's also mentioned that Vigil summoned the Fate/EXTRA version of Vlad III, to the disgust of the Fate/Apocrypha version in Chaldea.
• Alternate Universe: The differences are initially small, but they become increasingly more obvious as time goes on. Two of the biggest differences are that not only Fou managed to retain his sentience after reviving Mashu, but Chaldea has successfully negotiated a clean, relatively painless break from the Mage's Association and keeps a cordial relationship with the UN.
• The Apprentice: Several servants take up training with others that offer things of interest. The biggest recurring example is Kiyohime and Tamamo taking polearm lessons from Brynhildr.
• Aroused by Their Voice: Hans, despite looking like a child, has a very deep voice, which he uses to great effect as a commentator in fighting matches.
• Attention Whore: Nero, as usual. She also stomps off in a huff when the Masters aren't paying enough attention to her.
• Bag of Holding: Chaldea is able to construct them for use during supply sorties. Some servants get their own later in the series.
• Beach Episode: Fragment 38 centers around the servants and Chaldea's employees going to an artificial beach.
• Betty and Veronica: Nero and Tamamo keep competing for Hakuno's affections, even though he isn't even at Chaldea.
• Be Yourself: Nero insists on this when confronting Altera, who was becoming frustrated with Caesar's distaste for her and his responses to her attempts to appease him by wearing a toga.
• Beyond the Impossible: El-Melloi II and Da Vinci are showing the heavily defended munitions vault and stress just how absolutely impregnable it is, the absolute strength of the materials used in its construction, and the perfect Bounded Fields sealing it... and then Flat pops out. An irritated Waver doesn't even try to get an explanation as to how he managed it, settling for asking why he felt the need to enter the vault.
• Berserk Button: Nightingale freaks out if anyone even seems like they’re hurt in some way.
• Big Damn Kiss: Mashu and Gudao have one in Chapter X of Their Guiding Light.
• Birds of a Feather: Nobunaga and Mephistopheles click almost immediately thanks to their love of pranks, much to the Peacekeepers' bemusement.
• Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game: Siegfried and Jeanne easily get hole in ones when playing Mini Golf with Astolfo, but his swing makes the ball return to the exact same spot he hit.
• Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: The Clocktower Dreadought Iskandar & Co. used in Fragment 18, described as "the Carolina Reaper's bigger, badder, magically-developed counterpart". Downplayed in that it only has Emiya reaching for his emergency milk bottle, though it's still noteworthy that it caused that reaction in a Servant.
• Blood Knight: A ton of the Servants are in canon and are thus so in the story, but the most prominent ones by far are Cú Chulainn and Beowulf.
• Book Ends: the series begins and ends with summonings. The Prologue Fragment summons Saber Artoria, Fragment 116 summons Caster Romani Archaman.
• Brick Joke: In Fragment 15, Gudao plays Mario Party with Tyler and Waver and is winning, leading Tyler to complain that Mario Party is one of the games that destroy friendships, alongside Mario Kart, Monopoly and Dokapon Kingdom. In Fragment 22, Mordred loses all her money to Arturia in Monopoly causing Gabby and EMIYA to make similar comments.
• Broad Strokes: The author takes some liberties with how the Nasuverse usually works in order to generate a more interesting story.
  • Servants are able to remember their summons into past wars, which was originally impossible in canon as each Servant, with a few exceptions, is naught but a clone that fades away after their defeat. Grand Order itself showed, however, that several Servants remember more than they should about their previous appearances. In fact, F/GO eventually retconned this point and made it so that Servants clearly and canonically remember what happened during their previous summonings.
    • This actually comes up in the form of "memory essences", which is what happens when copies of already-summoned Servants get rolled and are used to not only restore the gaps in the memories of said Servants, but also potentially improve their skills and Noble Phantasms.
  • There's no limit to how many Servants can be deployed at once (Eschewing gameplay mechanics in favor of logic and lore).
  • Robots are available for daily conveniences (even though technology is usually despised by magi). Though justified in that since they're only maybe a hundred or so people running around keeping Chaldea intact, much less a lively environment, they need the extra help. Plus, canonically, Chaldea has cryo vats.
  • The author previously stated his willingness to ignore the Cosmos in the Lost Belt saga since its grim tone runs completely against the slice-of-life theme of Fragments. After he finished adapting the Epic of Remnant however, he's changed his mind and began adapting the Lostbelt saga within the confines of his tone.
• Can't Hold Her Liquor: Mashu gets drunk pretty easily, as seen on two separate chapters.
• Character Focus: Each Fragment gives different servants, masters and employees the focus. Some Fragments do not have a main focus.
• Composite Character: Certain memory essences can allow Servants to access weapons, skills and Noble Phantasms of their alternate timeline counterparts. EMIYA can access his Alter's Kanshou & Bakuya sword-guns while Saber Arturia used her Lancer version's Dun Stallion and Rhongomyniad in Babylonia.
• Continuity Nod: Too many to list.
• Cuteness Proximity: Nitocris faints from Cuteness Overload when Ozymandias summons Sphinx Kittens after Siegfried wins one as a prize.
• Dance Battler: Tyler knows Capoeira but has been keeping it completely secret. He uses it to go toe to toe with Delaqua but winds up knocking himself out by accident.
• Death by Adaptation: All over the place in Their Guiding Light.
  • Sir Tristan and Sir Mordred are defeated in their first encounters with Chaldea rather than at the Lion King's final stand in Camelot.
  • Hundred Face and Serenity are killed in Sir Mordred's siege of the mountain village instead of during the final siege of Camelot.
  • Xuanzang and Touta are unceremoniously executed by Sir Mordred offscreen before they even meet Chaldea.
  • Agravain actually loses his duel with Sir Lancelot.
  • Most strikingly, Cursed Arm ends up succumbing to both his own wounds and releasing his Shaitan during the final battle.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Fragment 26 is all about Joan Alter slowly opening up to the other servants and the friendly (even silly) atmosphere of Chaldea.
• Didn't Think This Through: Shard 41 has Jackie pretending that Nightingale injured the former to allow a couple to get away after Nightingale noticed that they had gotten hurt thanks to Ishtar and Mata Hari playing Cupid. Nightingale then decides to examine Jackie who responds appropriately.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: A weird example with Fou and Lobo. The former is one of the seven Beasts, and the latter recognizes it as such and is surprised about how personable it is.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In Redemption from Sin, Gilgamesh gathers all of Uruk to witness a declaration of friendship between him and Enkidu. Held on Uruk's temple and blessed by priests, it definitely resembles a wedding but the characters don't see it that way.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Emiya really doesn't like it when people call him Shirou...unless it's Arturia doing it.
• Double Knockout: Edison and Tesla try to settle their differences in the ring but the first swing knocks them both out. After Helena wakes them, they go at it again, but the same result quickly follows.
• Dreadful Musician: To Robin's despair, Elizabeth is this - doubly so because she's latched onto him as her "manager". However, he manages to figure out that most of the problem is that her voice channels small amounts of draconic magic, making it sound way worse than she really is. He commissions a special microphone that filters out the magic, leaving only the sound, to much better reception. Nero, unfortunately, has no such excuse.
• Eating the Eye Candy: Gabby, Hundred-Face Hassan and Nitocris watch the male Irish servants play volleyball at the gym. This trope is also the primary reason why Gabby and Medb quickly became good friends, bonding over 'watching the wildlife'.
• Eccentric Mentor: Merlin may be a bit flamboyant and a prankster, but he's still The Archmage and holds lots of invaluable wisdom.
• Embarrassing Rescue: EMIYA saves Medea from being incinerated by the enemy Mordred's Noble Phantasm, but she's not pleased about being carried bridal style.
• Emerging from the Shadows: Happens every time a new servant is revealed by the FATE system because the light is so blinding they appear as silhouettes.
• Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Shard 11 shows the exasperated Pritchard dealing with lots and lots of sex products ordered by Chaldea's Servants.
• Fille Fatale: Kuro. She disturbs several shopkeepers in a Singularity she visits when she shows she knows far too much about sex and lingerie.
• Finale Title Drop: Their Guiding Light ends like this when Bedivere watches Arturia use her noble phantasm.
• First-Name Basis: Basically everyone since it would be too confusing to call each other by their class names with so many Servants running about and working together (meaning that there's no reason to hide their True Names from each other).
• Follow the Leader: An In-Universe example. After realizing French, British and Egyptian servants have their own themed rooms, the Roman servants now want one too. This led to the creation of the Roman Theater.
• Foreshadowing: Touko comments that she's considered the possibility that even after the events of the Solomon Singularity, there's still a threat massive enough to warrant Alaya keeping all Chaldean Servants summoned (and actually sending more), something Shiki and Tomoe consider a worryingly likely scenario.
• Fountain of Youth: Fragment 27 is all about Astolfo accidentally spilling a de-aging potion in a room, returning Joan, Medea, Alexander, Waver, Medusa, Arturia and Shirou to their younger forms. Martha and nearly everyone who encounters the de-aged servants feels Cuteness Overload. The effects dissipate across the following Fragments.
• Friend to All Children:
  • Atalanta, Irisviel, and Tamamo have all but adopted Nursery Rhyme (referred to as Alice) and Jack the Ripper (referred to as Jackie).
  • Blackbeard. True to this status, even though he won first place in the curry cooking competition, he gave half of his prizes (months worth of desserts) to Illya's team.
• Gunship Rescue: In a tag team show of Flying Firepower, EMIYA, Atalanta, Astolfo, and Medusa fly overhead and help delay Sir Tristan from capturing Serenity until reinforcements arrive. Takes place in Their Guiding Light.
• Happily Married: Kiritsugu and Irisviel after both of them get their Memorial Essences. And then Rama and Sita are EXTREMELY happy after being reunited. Caeser and Cleopatra have also tied the knot.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: While Drake is the most obvious, Shuten, Ibaraki and Jing Ke are very heavy drinkers, like in canon.
• "Have a Nice Day" Smile: Jack paints one on a plain wooden barrel. The masters use a spell to switch with Da Vinci with the barrel so the enemy gets the message. Da Vinci’s noble phantasm levels the entire field moments later.
• Headbutting Heroes: One of the primary sources of tension in the fic is the fact that not all of the Servants and Chaldea employees get along. For example, Julius Caesar is (understandably) irritating and condescending to Altera due to what the Huns did to the Roman Empire.
• Hearing Voices: Saber Gilles de Rais Mad Enhancement makes him hear dark voices that urge him to be evil. Gilles has to constantly tell them to be quiet.
• Hidden Depths: Blackbeard may be a pervert, but he's also an excellent cook.
  • Mata Hari only wishes to have a happy family (considering her family life in her previous incarnation wasn't good). Her wish was finally granted with Arash and Paul Bunyan.
  • Despite acting all Ax-Crazy, it's possible Mephistopheles has them.
  • It's implied that, as in canon, Heracles, despite his Mad Enhancement, is far more composed than a pure mindless Berserker. Unfortunately, Caligula really is consumed by his madness and only has extremely brief moments of lucidity; composing a short letter with decent handwriting takes him months.
• Hope Spot: Redemption from Sin opens on Gilgamesh giddy to greet Enkidu in Chaldea. The summoning fails, leaving Gil in a Heroic BSoD of two weeks.
  • Who We Are has two of this.
    • After reclaiming his true identity, Solomon briefly thinks he has a chance to beat Goatia without Ars Nova. Only, the Beast is so strong he ends up making himself Deader than Dead after all.
    • Right after the Heroic Sacrifice mentioned above, Anishka tries to rise David's spirits by pointing Gabrielle turned up alive when she was believed dead, so there's a chance for Roman to be okay. He's not.
• Hot Librarian: Medusa spends most of her time at the library.
• Ignored Epiphany: The Lion King remembers Bedivere for a brief second after his final strike. However, the King interprets the memory in the most self-serving way possible, absolutely enraging Arturia.
• I Hate Past Me: King Gil's reaction to his Archer incarnation, since he feels the latter embodies a part of himself he's outgrown.
  • Likewise, Carmilla is less than enthusiastic about her younger self. The feeling is mutual, as Elizabeth fervently hates the idea of growing to become Carmilla.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Robin's reaction when he's about to hear Nero and Elizabeth's Idol debut.
• Irony: All Flauros wanted was a powerful, obedient Servant. Instead, he gets Mephistopheles, a weak trickster.
• It Amused Me: Originally, Edmond Dantes goes around trying to sow discord in everyone's daily lives for his entertainment, which quickly earns him Hated by All and What the Hell, Hero? responses from everyone, not to mention a Groin Attack from Gabrielle. He eventually eases up and tries to fit into the environment of optimism and happiness that he tried to destroy after a food fight and a stern talking from Florence Nightingale, Andersen (see "The Reason You Suck" Speech below), and Beowulf. GhostXavier rewrote it so Dantes is instead Innocently Insensitive who asks questions that annoy everyone around him while simply trying to understand how others ignore their hatred.
• Jerkass Realization: Gilgamesh of all people gets two of them in Redemption From Sin. The first is when he realizes that he can't remember his citizen's names, much less their skills and roles in his own kingdom, despite seeing his King Gilgamesh counterpart doing so perfectly the day before. He gets another when he realizes that he can't remember the name of Samila, the kindly flower merchant who had just finished telling him a story about how honored she always was when he and Enkidu used to visit her store and praise her flowers, and how the people loved Enkidu for making Gilgamesh so happy. And then she makes excuses for Gilgamesh's sake when she realizes that he can't remember her name. It shakes him enough that he begins acting more like his Caster counterpart.
• Karmic Death: It's revealed in Serenity's fragment that Damien, the former head of the robotics division who constantly harassed Anton, made several very unsavory comments about Medusa and Frankenstein, generally abused his authority, and was sent to the brig due to it, tried to hack the security robots so he could escape, only to screw up majorly causing them to shoot him on sight.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Blackbeard does this to avoid swearing in front of Ilya and the children Servants when running away from Heracles in a game of tag.
• Limited Wardrobe: Doctor Roman doesn't seem to like wearing casual clothes like everyone else.
  • Literally decades after they first met, Shiki notes Touko keeps wearing almost exactly the same clothes.
• Little Professor Dialog: Janna talks like this, though it's peppered with the occasional slip of the tongue.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Like in canon, Medb and Fergus have raging libidos, and they're the only one who can satisfy the other.
• Meaningful Rename: Jeanne Alter ultimately decides to separate herself from Jeanne by adopting the name Joan. Jeanne Alter Santa Lily, through the same reasoning, renames herself Janna.
• Melancholy Moon: It is a major theme in Redemption from Sin where Gilgamesh has thought provoking moments while gazing at it.
• The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: During the youth potion incident, it's noted that a possible side effect is to bring traits the characters had in their childhoods but had since outgrown. EMIYA finds himself thinking more like Shirou, Arturia is far less reserved with her emotions, and the more carefree Medea Lily can hear her older self's angry whispers in her mind.
• Modest Royalty: King David is by far the most simple looking servant that's royalty.
• My God, What Have I Done?: This is Kiyohime's reaction and response to Gabrielle after Kiyohime setting up a fight between Gabby and Delaqua to get back at Gabby for telling Kiyohime that Guado loved Mashu leads to Gabrielle getting utterly brutalized while still refusing to give in and crying Broken Tears after surviving Delaqua's elbow drop thanks to Hans Christen Andersen casting a quick reinforcing spell on Gabrielle. Kiyohime even refers to what happened as a "stupid wish for petty revenge".
• No Indoor Voice: The Roman servants (especially Nero and Romulus), with the exception of Caesar, are pretty loud when talking.
• Odd Friendship: Of all the servants that get along, Astolfo and Ozymandias' friendship is the most unusual.
• Off the Rails: Lost Shard 18, this fic's version of Agartha. Scherherezade joins up with Chaldea rather than becoming Wu Zetian's aide. The major fights become a Curb-Stomp Battle due to Gudao and Anishka have an army of Servants rather than just three. Megaros/Heracles is brought back to his senses thanks to Illya, and Columbus never takes control of him. Dahut/Drake survives the singularity, and is brought back to Chaldea to be restored in Fragment 95. Scherherezade never fights Chaldea even after she's revealed as the mastermind, Laputa never takes flight, and Phenex is swiftly beheaded by King Hassan before he can transform.
• Official Couple: Several such as Anne & Mary, and Fergus & Medb. Other big ones will be listed at time of acknowledgement.
  • Fragment 12: Frankenstein's Monster (Fran) and Anton.
  • Fragment 16: Kiritsugu and Irisviel
  • Their Guiding Light: Mashu and Gudao, Arturia and EMIYA
  • Fragment 25: Caesar and Cleopatra Married as of Fragment 112
  • Fragment 46: Mordred and Jekyll
  • Fragment 63: Rama and Sita
  • Fragment 67: Kintoki and Shuten.
  • Fragment 72: Mata Hari and Arash.
  • Fragment 78: Amakusa and Semiramis.
• Older and Wiser: King Gilgamesh is far more reasonable and less proud than Chaldea's, but they're nonetheless the same person.
• Original Generation: Many of the employees that appear in the story are original characters that help to advance the plot of the one-shots. In addition, both protagonists of the game appear (named Gudao and Gabrielle respectively) and each have their own unique personality. By the end of Fragment 51, one of those original characters becomes another Master.
  • Averted with Servants. So far, only one Servant featured in the story, Archimedes, isn't available yet in the gacha. Sita, however, is only available in the game's arcade version.
• Power Source: The Grails Chaldea retrieves from Singularities are, at best, giant mana batteries rather than miraculous artifacts, and are occasionally used as such.
• Power-Up: Nobunaga was defeated in a shooting competition by Billy the Kid after he received one. She got her own later to even the odds.
• Pungeon Master: Vlad enjoys making puns while participating in a knitting session with Naomi and Medea. There is also an unnamed employee who makes situational puns in crowded places.
  Vlad: [pricks a pincushion with a needle] That's not the first time I've done that to an Ottoman.
• Real Men Wear Pink: As per canon, EMIYA enjoys cooking and cleaning for everyone. In addition, Vlad the Impaler happens to enjoy knitting with Medea and Naomi.
  • Leonidas developed an interest in woodcarving and making furniture.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Andersen, in usual fashion, performs his hobby of Deconstruction, tearing apart Edmond Dantes' jerkass behavior with his scathing critique.
  Andersen: No one appreciates you pecking at our refined balance simply for your entertainment. Do you really find it so disgusting that a sanctum of optimism and happiness can be forged in the darkest of hours? You claim we hide behind something we're proud of creating, yet you're the one hiding behind a theme of your own legend as an excuse to refute adaptation. To refuse trying and risking when presented a golden opportunity... It is very apparent that you're clinging desperately to the most common theme that defined your story like an infant to its mother's bosom. Vengeance is the milk of your sustenance and you, yourself, refuse to mature past it.You may have escaped that hellish prison, Dantes, but you are still a prisoner... Though your class is unique, you are currently but another boring tale of blind vengeance, insanity, and angst. How droll.
• Robot Buddy: R1-N4, or Rena, is a prototype robot who Serenity befriended. They are inseparable due to Rena carrying the only antidote for Serenity's poison body.
• Ship Tease: Several, such as Mordred and Jekyll, Gabrielle and Serenity, Tyler and Serenity, and Dantes and Nightingale and/or Jeanne Alter. Due to the author's purposeful, ambiguous writing, teased relationships may or may not turn out to be true. Sasaki and Martha turned out to be very close friends instead of having a secret relationship as well as da Vinci and Roman, although Roman does regret they never took it to that point.
• Shout-Out: There are multiple.
  • The robots in Chaldea are nearly identical to the Fallout Mister Handys. There's even one named Codsworth.
  • Some servants and employees wear shirts with various video games depicted. They're like mini-shout-outs.
  • In Fragment 13, there's a food fight. Tyler yells a Call of Duty inspired warning to everyone when Beowulf hurls a watermelon at the ceiling fans like a tactical nuke.
  • In Fragment 38, Nobunaga's chibi Nobus fall overboard and wind up re-enacting the infamous "Don't let go" scene from Titanic.
  • In Fragment 70, Yedda, the child personality of Hundred Face Hassan, calls King Hassan Grandpa Hassan. He overlooks the offense, but it's a tip of the hat to the Eirri Gramps comics.
  • Also in Fragment 70, Angra Mainyu initiates the coordinated strike by yelling "Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker!" Though not confirmed, it heavily infers Bruce Willis' famous catch phrase in the "Die Hard" movies.
• Sibling Rivalry:
  • It's more one-sided with the case of Arjuna and Karna.
  • The Goddess sisters Ishtar and Ereshkigal on the other hand are constantly bickering.
• Split-Personality Takeover: On two different occasions Hyde has taken over Jekyll's body, much to the latter's consternation the second time. The other most prominent showcase would be Void Shiki, with her cameos as "Ghost Shiki" starting after Redemption of Sin.
• Squishy Wizard: The caster servants try to stop being this by training with Beowulf. Waver and Mozart perform as well as expected. Xuanzang is the only one that subverts this.
• Supreme Chef: EMIYA as per canon (Jeanne stamps a Rank on them like a Servant's Noble Phantasm, calling them EX-Rank), as well as Tamamo (who declared herself his apprentice in hopes of making her skills even better for Hakuno). More surprisingly, Blackbeard also makes an amazing curry.
• Take That!: One directed towards the game's gacha. Every time the Chaldea personnel tries to use the system to get more servants, there will be a couple of times where they get absolute garbage such as Black Keys or even a couple of bowls of tofu.
• This Is Unforgivable!: The Knights of the Round Table are unanimously horrified, disgusted, and enraged by the crimes of the Lion King and her Knights. Gawain in particular is so enraged by Sir Gawain that he acts more like a Berserker than a Saber in their first fight at the gates of the Holy City.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Many characters that were antagonistic in their original appearances (i.e. Medea, EMIYA, and Paracelsus) are far kinder and even seem to regret their past actions. It helps that everyone's working together and thus have little reason to antagonize each other.
• Villainous Breakdown: Flauros falls to pieces as its plan unravels in Equilibrium, screaming hate at Solomon and even the rest of the Pillars for failing on their original goal of extermination, though it's its hate of Chaldea that disturbs it to the point it cannot keep a coherent train of thought.
• Visual Novel: The tumblr is updating the story into Visual Novel format.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Okita and Nobunaga are the most common example. Tesla and Edison tend to bicker like children, much to Helena's consternation.
• Watching Troy Burn: In Redemption from Sin, Chaldean reinforcements arrive but Uruk is already under heavy attack from the lahmus. Carnage and destruction are rampant.
• Weak, but Skilled: Fou after expending its power to ressurect Mashu. It still has its sentience, experience, and its Authority over beasts, but it's essentially a normal Phantasmal Beast with none of its abilities as a Numbered Beast, and can feel pain now.
• Wham Episode:
  • Lost Shard 29. The plan to take Chaldea is still on track, the Alien God is preparing to strike, and its main servant is Kotomine. He and Vitch also have a spy within Chaldea feeding them information on the Servants there, and are prepared to invade once the other servants return to the Throne.
  • Fragment 100. BB managed to instigate a summon of Melt, and initiated a deal with Chaldea where should they help her "solve a mystery" involving a mysterious medical file and an unknown group BB wishes Chaldea to hire as staff, she'll give her full cooperation. Chaldea and Vigil are extremely interested in said cooperation, as BB can plug certain space-time weak points around Chaldea, besides being a literal AI from the far future. Further, BB is aware of the Alien God's plans, and is willing to defend Chaldea from it so long as she gets what she wants.
  • Fragment 106 confirms that the Lostbelts will happen at some point, with Void Shiki getting visions of the struggles to come. What's more, Team A's coffins are opened to reveal they are empty, creating friction between Chaldea and the Magus Association representatives.
  • Fragment 113 reveals what BB requested: Hakuno Kishinami and his sister Hana (AKA the female Hakuno/Hakunon, to be cured of their diseases and hired on as Chaldea staff. Unfortunately neither twin has Leyshift potential, so they won't be joining on as Masters as BB had hoped.
  • Fragment 114 sees Archimedes join Chaldea as another exception to the fic's "summonable in-game only" rule. To a lesser extent, Voyager also makes an early appearance as Chaldea's first Foreigner, and D'eon narration reveals that the Throne doesn't provide any information about that class.
• Wimp Fight: Caster Tamamo versus Berserker Tamamo. They pull at each other's hair and clothes, but make little effort to injure.
• What You Are in the Dark: A brief conversation with Hyde unbalances an already worried Arjuna into accidentally unleashing an Enemy Within that very nearly kills his Master Anishka.
• What Does She See in Him?: Helena Blavatsky wonders exactly what Medb found so attractive about the Berserker Cu she summoned in America.
• You Have Failed Me: After the revelation that Roman is Solomon, a quietly furious Goetia, already pissed at Flauros' extremely poor performance against Chaldea employees, orders the other Pillars to cut the energy used for its revival.

---