Heroes of the Desk: Repercussions
is a continuation of the world and questions set in motion by Heroes of the Desk, in which 3D-printed Heroes of the Storm characters come to life in a style similar to Indian In The Cupboard. Spoilers for the first work are unmarked.
Tropes in Heroes of the Desk: Repercussions
- Air Quotes: Raynor's reaction to something even weirder than plastic figures coming to life ("supernatural").
- Alien Geometries: The apparent result of an AURORA event.
- And That's Terrible: Valla's reaction to scientists disassembling one of her crossbows.
- Anti-Hero: Valla has drifted into this category. The Mind Rape thing certainly helped her along.
- Aroused by Their Voice: It's noted Valla can do this when she wants something, so much that it doesn't matter what your professed orientation is.note She later exploits this to get past two low-level guards, distracting them long enough to knock them both out.
- Artifact Title: The Heroes characters were originally only 14" (35.5cm) in height, fit to sit on a (larger) desk. Since the conclusion of Heroes of the Desk, they've all become the size of normal humans (or bigger than them in the case of Diablo), making the title somewhat of a Nonindicative Name.
- Artificial Limbs: Sylvanas' arm gives her grief in Heroes of the Desk; AEON's technology fixes it.
- Ascended Fridge Horror: It was left somewhat ambiguous whether Steadfast Samurai actually hit BlizzCon 2015 and not just a parking lot full of cars. It turns out they did. See Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Kerrigan threatens as much if Zagara does not obey her.
- The Atoner: Benedict Pious is called such for wanting to make up for the actions of SPEAR/WET.
- Badass Boast: Played for Laughs because, again, when you are 14" tall, talking tough to someone of ordinary human size doesn't end in your favor. Kael'thas' fireball is about the size of a grapefruit and gets put out by a fire extinguisher.
- Beam Spam: This is what you get when Bose-Einstein condensate coolers are added to plasma cannons.
- Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Jaina's diplomatic skill means she is spending most of her time being an Ambadassador or buried in paperwork rather than super-heroing.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Sylvanas tells Jaina "Why don't you chill out for a bit?"
- Bottomless Magazines: Played straight for any weapon the Heroes were created with (like Raynor's rifle or Valla's crossbows). Averted for In-Universe real-life weapons like the MR-7 and MR-8 railguns used by SPEAR/AEON even if a Hero is firing them—they only hold five shots and this comes up in the story several times.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Li-Ming shows shades of this in her day-to-day work in the outside world as an entertainer. It gets so bad another celebrity implied to have had similar problems in youth is assigned as a mentor to keep her on the right track.
- Breather Chapter: Collatoral damage! Death! Destruction! Magic! And Heroes arguing over thermostat temperatures in their shared living space.
- The Bus Came Back: Valla returns just at the right time.
- Button Mashing: Have someone with limited understanding of a complex machine remotely direct another person with no knowledge of the machine whatsoever in an attempt to sabotage it. This inevitably ensues.
- Character Alignment: In-Universe, the existing Heroes warn that their compatriots fall into various types of "alignments," that is, if the goal is to create more Heroes then be wary of some that may be more difficult to acclimate to this world than others.
- Character Development: Sylvanas started out as her Jerkass (but not evil), brooding self from the game. Constant exposure to people like Jaina and Raynor seems to have rubbed off on her.
- Chekhov's Gun: All the way back in Heroes of the Desk, Valla uses her crossbows as grappling guns since they can shoot arrows with expanding heads. She finds an interesting alternate use for them while hunting for a certain person who wronged her. There's also a dual case of Chekhov's Battleship later in the story.
- Children Are Innocent: Why Li-Li's first run as an Advancement Ambassador is dealing with kids. Not that this helps with their very opinionated parents around.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Followed by (an implied) Bloodier and Gorier death; a(n anti-)Hero gets revenge.
- Continuity Nod: Tychus complains Jimmy "ripped open the space-time continuum".
- Crushing Handshake: Played with—the character cracks a staff rather than crushing a hand.
- Defictionalization: In-Universe, that's what happened to the Heroes of the Storm characters—their plastic models became very real. This later becomes an issue when a character who hasn't really had much written about them story-wise begins suffering psychological problems—how do you work with a half-blank slate?
- Deadpan Snarker: The Prime Minister of Australia takes a shot at people who somehow think Australia should be punished because they couldn't find a hidden base operated by an organization wielding magic/advanced technology.
- Death Is Cheap: Exploited multiple times. The Heroes figure since they can't die, they might as well take on dangerous tasks that would cause hesitation among mortals.
- Defcon 5: Averting this is the reason Dr. Parker wants someone to "get me POTUS so nuclear missiles don't start flying!"
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Implied to be part of Sonya and Johanna's day jobs.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Tychus, except this time it's not just the looks but also the sheer damage output that has his attention.
- Divide and Conquer: It's made explicit that there are divisions within SPEAR as its personnel react to its decision to destroy the Anaheim Convention Center.
- Explosive Overclocking: Averting this is the reason Raynor accompanies Gazlowe to an Advancement Ambadassador event—nobody trusts the goblin tinker around outsider technology!
- Failed a Spot Check: For anyone asking about the 3D printing of Heroes, there's a giant board with glowing letters that says which Hero was made most recently...
- Feel No Pain: Sylvanas' undead state means she feels nothing. At all. So if she gets covered in snow, she won't notice any feelings of cold. It then melts everywhere. She knows this is annoying, even if it doesn't bother her it bugs the crap out of everyone else! Someone get a mop!
- Fun with Acronyms: Almost a Signature Style at this point. The combination of 3D printing and the chest has been named "Hero Origination Technology" (even though it's technically a Functional Supernatural Phenomena). An organization wanting to atone for SPEAR/WET is called...DRI (Direct Repercussion Investigators). SPEAR eventually morphs into the Advanced Experimental Operations Nexus (AEON). WET gets replaced by SHARD (Supernatural Helpers And Recovery Division). Wormhole problems are dubbed Alternate Universe Oscillating Rotational Activities (AURORA).
- Gadgeteer Genius: Implied with Gazlowe as he'd "just create something" to keep his beer chilled for 3 hours in a warm room.
- Gaia's Vengeance: Of the "Gaia's Avenger" subtype—this is Lunara's day job. She does it a little too well at first. Tyrande and Malfurion end up being more reasonable about it.
- Gatling Good: Tychus retains his signature minigun. The J117 power armors are meant to carry a similar, larger weapon if need be as well.
- Going Critical: Averted. However, due to the existence of this trope, people freak out anyway after a US supercarrier ends up grounded in San Diego Bay. Played straight, however, when an attacker bypasses every defense aboard an AEON ship. When you're 4-dimensional, you can reach inside a powerplant and rearrange to your heart's content...
- Go Out with a Smile: Downplayed—the character in question is likely not dead but is pulled into a place with More than Three Dimensions. As this happens, they finally reach a state of inner peace reflected on their face.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Redemption Equals Death, this tends to happen. Protect the command ship at all costs!
- Hidden Depths: Sylvanas again, making deep-sounding remarks that don't befit her usual Deadpan Snarker image.
- Hiroshima as a Unit of Measure: Well, more like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, but death counts from other previous attacks are used to estimate how many people died when the Anaheim Convention Center was destroyed.
- Hollywood Encryption: Nova compares Real Life technology to this, laughing at 4096-bit keys as something her equipment could break through in "seconds, maybe a minute." Since her equipment is from the 2500s, it makes sense.
- Hopeless Suitor: Implied with Jaina's reaction to another Hero's creation (thus would likely be Kael'thas).
- Hypocrite: Pious knows full well keeping secrets had something to do with SPEAR and WET turning nasty, then proceeds to keep secrets from DRI by getting advice from Heroes without telling the rest of the organization. Tyrande validates his choice—she doesn't trust DRI either, especially not after open bouts of Schadenfreude on their part.
- In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face: Averted for J117 power armor (just like the namesake), except in one specific case: Valla's eyes glow so brightly with hate that they can be seen through the faceplate.
- It Amused Me: Sylvanas deliberately wears (slightly less) flattering clothing matching her skin tone, then laughs at people who think she's naked.
- Karma Houdini: Played with and justified. In the former case, members of WET who killed innocent people are given pardons for all violations of AEON/SPEAR policies...posthumoously (they had been sentenced to death or life imprisonment anyway—see Trading Bars for Stripes). Notably, they are not forgiven for the umpteen zillion outsider laws they broke by some dictat of AEON. The United States accepts a settlement from AEON promising to care for all who lost someone "for life" in a variation of the usual trope. The justified incident is far smaller in scale as nobody will be punished within AEON for letting Valla steal a StingRay as it turned out for the better.
- Lampshade Hanging: Dr. James-Johnson Arbat, a former film student, is asked if he wants to turn his "special effects" (whose scientific valdity can often be counted on one hand with missing fingers) into reality courtesy Functional Supernatural Phenomena. Nova complains that she didn't even get her own game, but this reality is acting just like a videogame. Kerrigan's combo in Heroes of the Storm is known to be more difficult to land—after she dies to friendly non-Heroic fire for the third time she remarks that someone must be having difficulty with it.
- LEGO Genetics: Kerrigan, just like in StarCraft itself. She tries to fix the age-old problem of horses being unable to recover from broken legs. It...doesn't work as expected. Lampshaded by a "prominent geneticist" who chastises Kerrigan for tinkering with things she doesn't fully understand.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Sylvanas.
- Made of Indestructium: The magic chest survives everything, completely undamaged.
- Manipulative Bastard: Tyrande accuses one of the humans she works with of engaging in a downplayed version of this behavior.
- Marathon Boss: Anub'arak references being one since "It took twenty-five of them to kill me."
- Meaningful Name: DRI exists to clean up WET's mess. The warlike SPEAR gives way to the more scientifically-oriented AEON. Hammerstorm does not have a secondary armament because its main guns can fire so quickly.
- The Medic: Lt. Morales. Comes in handy later when two people nearly suffer asphyxiation. Brightwing also qualifies, showing up to use her powers on patients in a burn ward as part of engagement between the Heroes and the outside world.
- Mind Rape: One Hero still suffers from the leftovers while other actually uses a mild version of this as an attack.
- Mis-blamed: Subverted In-Universe by the outside world, as they don't go after the Heroes as is often the case—they go after SPEAR (who caused the mess by over-reacting).
- Monumental Damage: Three times, the 0-23-8 smashes something. Three times, it's something most readers can recognize.
- Mundane Utility: Diablo's fire-starting abilities are useful for forestry management (that is, controlled burns).
- Murderous Thighs: Downplayed; Valla merely chokes a person (nearly to the pint of brain damage), but the technique's the same. She knocks out a guard with this technique as well.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The two younger scientist-ish people start to regret aiding DRI after an AURORA occurs.
- Nanomachines: Morales' healing kit. Works on injuries, genetic problems, burns, you name it (as it did in StarCraft proper).
- Negative Space Wedgie: The AURORA seems to be something like this; it's related to wormholes. It eventually gets closed.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Spoken word-for-word after Desert Contingency—worker-grade power armor tears Hammerstorm apart to remove any dead bodies.
- Not a Morning Person: Sylvanas, at least compared to the overly-cheery (in her opinion) Raynor.
- Our Wormholes Are Different: SPEAR used to work with wormhole tech, but after an unspecified incident they stopped. However it's strongly implied to be happening again, despite all precautions taken.
- Police Code for Everything: Not police, but AEON has codes related to attacks by 4-dimensional beings. The Heroes are just as confused as any ordinary person would be by all the numbers. Members of SHARD, however, comment that at least it's not worse, citing two other similar codes.
- Put on a Bus: Valla disappears after knocking out her therapist.
- Rage Breaking Point: Valla, twice. First her team loses some matches, but then she goes off on two people who are simply making presentations. By the time she boils over for a third time, George Sulu ends up dead.
- Reassigned to Antarctica/Kicked Upstairs: Benedict Pious' placement at Atlantis qualifies as a mix of both; he's far away from SPEAR's power center but received a command post, being put in charge of the base.
- Red Pill, Blue Pill: The Player chooses the blue pill, expressing that they just want to be normal; living in a world of Heroes and FSPs would be the exact opposite.note Heroes in custody of the Direct Repercussion Investigators are also offered this choice.
- Running Gag: Jaina dies, again.
- Schadenfreude: DRI is a little too enthusiastic about AEON's scientific mess that they helped cause, espcially considering it created a Negative Space Wedgie of some kind. Kael'thas doesn't see a problem with this.
- Serious Business: Played for Laughs In-Universe as the Heroes play their own game. Played for Drama with Valla's reaction to the game since to her it actually IS Serious Business in an unhealthy way.
- Sequel: Obviously.
- Shout-Out: There are a ton listed on the original work page that won't be repeated here.
- Chapter 2 is called "Why So Serious?"
- A lab technician has a Rey mug, while Chapter 10 is called "The Rage Awakens." Taken further when a "StingRay" sees some slight vandalism to "StingREy" by a "D. Ridley" completely with lightsaber-ish art underneath. Li-Ming is told "don't get cocky."
- A scientist named Anna says the Memory-Wiping Crew will "leave the fun." A later chapter is called "Can't Hold It Back Anymore" (referencing the inability of the protagonists to conceal certain events from the public).
- The Direct Repercussion Investigators need "monsters of their own."
- Devices used to create space-warp transit technology portals (wormholes) are called Field Lattice Generators.
- George Sulu is held in Cell A-113.
- Some protestors don't like supers, while others ask who will watch the watchers?
- The Boy Who Reversed Himself by William Sleator appears as a favorite book of one of the characters. Later, the same "flipped over in another dimension" effect appears as a result of meddling by the 0-23-8.
- A child compares the healing powers of a visiting Hero to The Empire Strikes Back and its bacta tank.
- Someone named Kyle Wren boasts about his eight pack in the lunchroom.
- A chapter dealing with the impact of Alien Geometries has several related to BioShock; a doctor named Ryan, a patient called Booker DeWitt, and a technician who goes by Elizabeth Comstock.
- The leaders of the Hero teams must be able to command loyalty through experience. Nova plays Mass Effect herself, as a Cold Sniper Renegade.
- Illidan himself gives off a modified version of his famous line—"We are not prepared!"
- Shown Their Work: Saint-Denis and Versailles are close enough to the (destroyed) Eiffel Tower that an inaccurate FTL-drive might have just put you there.
- Signature Scent: Sylvanas finally loses hers thanks to AEON.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: Sylvanas again (complete with Letting Her Hair Down). Inverted with Raynor—he takes off his signature "Hero garb" (Powered Armor) all the time with no meaning behind it besides getting into something more comfortable.
- Squee: The reaction of children to Brightwing and Sylvanas.
- Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Played with. Many of the Heroes do have occupations that aren't just AEON work. For example, Jaina is a diplomat, Li-Li is a teacher, and Diablo does demolition, so their work does cater to their talents while being fairly "normal" even if their occupations are not on that page's list of "stock" jobs.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Sylvanas and Tyrande. So much that it becomes part of the former's non-Heroic occupation.
- Suicide Mission: Implied for a command ship escort dealing with the 0-23-8 as part of Redemption Equals Death for its crew.
- Super Registration Act: Invoked almost by name (A "Supernatural Registration Act") as a first step reaction to SPEAR's bombardment and subsequent reveal of Functional Supernatural Phenomena.
- Take Our Word for It: Again, religions are presented pretty broadly. No faiths are mentioned directly—only their reactions to the end of the Masquerade. Hint: They don't like it. Valla's rather violent fantasies regarding how she would like to kill George Sulu are also not detailed, but they disturb everyone who hears them. Ultimately subverted for Valla's anger issues—she nearly chokes two people. Taken even further when she murders George Sulu in ways that required counseling for people who cleaned up after her and reduced him to remains that would "fit in a tissue box."
- Take That!: A minor one—there was an article on a gaming website that claimed Zeratul was a "new" character created for Heroes of the Storm (
obviously blatantly false). The narration snarks that Zeratul "had extensive backstory previously." - Talking Your Way Out: Benedict Pious apparently has a knack for this, convincing all four Heroes (Kael'thas, Tyrande, Leoric, and Thrall) to back him in a single speech. He's done this before, surviving in WET as a "comparative pacifist."
- Technicolor Eyes: Happens to one Hero, from Creepy Blue Eyes (this universe's form of Mind-Control Eyes) to Red Eyes, Take Warning and finally normal coloration.
- The Bus Came Back: Twice in very spoileriffic fashion. First Valla, then an "addition to the art team" at Blizzard Entertainment is heavily implied to be the Player character who was written out of the story previously.
- There Are No Police: After SPEAR destroys the Anaheim Convention Center, the United States cites Title 18 of the US Code as its law enforcement gets involved, but quickly realizes since SPEAR was international in scope that other countries want to have a say too. On a
sadder note it's explicitly said that a memorial service has been held due to SPEAR's orbital bombardment. - There Is No Kill Like Overkill: What WET did to the Anaheim Convention Center. Nova even discusses how unnecessary this was since the target (a stolen ship) could have been easily hit without causing collatoral damage. The death of a Dragon is done like this, as what was left "would...fit in a tissue box."
- This Is Reality: Reaction to Johanna easily taking down terrorists—people are actually more afraid because unlike in the movies, nobody has any control over these "supers" as pointed out by Pompous Political Pundits on both sides of the American spectrum. When you get Enemy Mine between Fox News and MSNBC, something's seriously screwy.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: Most members of WET have been imprisoned for their crimes in Heroes of the Desk. Some are given an offer to either rot as a villain or die for a posthumous pardon.
- Tranquil Fury: Valla's default state. Since she's always angry, you really don't want to push her, as evidenced by the Heroes of the Storm-related outburst catalogued by Grimes. She has another one later.
- Unfazed Everyman: The aversion continues—people have different reactions to the fictional suddenly coming to life, and the end of the Masquerade.
- Unorthodox Reload: More like incredibly fast reload, but when The Cavalry arrives wielding TWO MR-8 railguns and is able to keep up constant fire while seamlessly reloading both (five-round magazine) this trope must be in effect.
- Waving Signs Around: Combined with a Take That! at people whose signs contain so much text as to be unreadable from a distance (thus defeating the point), the arrival of Advancement Ambassadors draws crowds.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: It's not wrong per se to want information about the people who Mind Raped you. Choking people to get that information is questionable, however. Kael'thas thinks SPEAR might fall into this category after hearing what they did.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To The Empire Strikes Back sequence where snowspeeders are searching for Han and Luke. Except IN A DESERT!
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Raynor and Jaina's reaction to scientists wanting to create Illidan using 3D printing and the chest. Still better than Stiches, though.
